Today's red post collection includes Meddler's quick gameplay thoughts for May 23rd, the May 22nd mid-patch update including a Zac Q nerf, an update on 2017-18 esports events and the announcement of a new Rift Rivals event in July, a look back at MSI 2017, and more!

Table of Contents

Quick Gameplay Thoughts: May 23

Meddler

"Morning all,

Usual Disclaimers

These posts will often contain talk about future work we're doing, or planning to do, that isn't yet guaranteed to ship. The nature of the work could change or, depending on what we discover, projects mentioned may get put delayed or even stopped.

If you'd like to see a Tweet whenever a new one of these posts goes up: https://twitter.com/RiotMeddler



More Icon Updates

Following on from last week's post we'll likely be updating at least another couple of champs moderately soon in addition to Ahri/Amumu. Nunu's likely, as is Mundo. Additionally if there are other champs you think particularly need an icon update do let us know, would love to get wider feedback on that.

We'll also be looking to update some older non champ icons as well, with Red/Blue/Baron buff likely starting points.

Some 7.11 Balance Context

Zyra - we'll be pulling the Zyra changes out of 7.11 now that they've had enough testing for us to get a good understanding about them. We think those changes (lower plant health early game, but more seeds) have the potential to make laning against Zyra feel fairer for her opponents. At the same time though lack of laning fairness isn't currently an issue we're trying to solve for Zyra and there's risk this has unintended power impacts. We might revisit the changelist at some point, won't be doing anything with it or Zyra right now however.

Syndra and Ahri - Both have nerfs being tested for 7.11. It's possible those don't make it in for 7.11 however. Expect them to be in 7.12 instead if so.

Zac - We hotfixed Zac yesteday, taking some damage out of his Q after our changes in 7.10 overbuffed him. We'll be looking at him in 7.11 as well. One change we're testing right now is having his E warning indicator appear slightly earlier (E+R combo reliability's looking too high now with the increased knockup duration on E when charged). Possible other changes get included as well, need to see where the hotfix puts him and how he does over the next few days. Scoreboard CS tracking cleanup

We'll be making it so small player summoned minions killed aren't counted in the scoreboard (tab screen). Goal there is to make comparison of different champions's farm more accurate, whereas at present laning against someone who's throwing out a lot of small minions can make that a misleading statistic. Minions that will be affected:

Regular Heimer turrets

Shaco boxes

Illaoi tentacles

Zyra plants

Yorick Ghouls and W

Malz voidlings

Runes and Masteries

We mentioned a couple of times that we were looking to do some work on both Runes and Masteries this year and that we'd be talking about that well in advance. That's still the plan and we should be getting some conversation going on that pretty soon, starting with our thoughts on what good pre-game systems like those for LoL should look like.

Riven and Renekton animation changes

In the last couple of patches we've had some behind the scenes changes to Riven and Renekton that were intended to address some bugs with them and make them queue spells consistently. Both sets of changes had some unintended impacts however that we'll be addressing as follows:

Renekton - Reverting all changes

Riven - Keeping changes that gave Q cancel consistent timing (as opposed to random within a small range) and allow E to be properly queued after Q/W (no timing changes). Fixing a bug where Q3 knockup got slightly longer (around 0.1s)."

Meddler

"Quote:

What's happening to Syndra? She has no nerfs documented on FF@20. Still figuring out details. Likely to include a W radius nerf to make that somewhat more dodgeable. Ult is also getting a lot of debate."

"Quote:

That'll probably put her back into E 2nd max play style. Have you considered shaving back E's AP ratio back to its original 0.4 value from the buffed 0.5 as well?

Is the ultimate debate about damage numbers, or mechanics?

edit; fixed E's ratio cause I'm dumb We've got a wide range of viewpoints internally on the ult, though most common points brought up are ability to get to 7 sphere ults reliably (Q duration impacting that) and effectiveness of the ult as a standalone threat."

Meddler

"Quote:

Hey Meddler, how do you think tank junglers are doing as a whole? I know Zac and Sej are seeing use now, but I'm not seeing a good chunk of the old cast (Voli, Naut, Mao, Mundo, etc) A bunch of tanks need a bit of help post midseason. We've got changes to some in the next patch (Mundo, Sion, Malph) and will likely work on more the patch after."

Meddler

"Quote:

What about Orianna? If you mean balance wise, then no changes currently planned.

If you mean icons wise then thanks for the call out."

Meddler

"Quote:

Hey Meddler is when is the updated subclass list happening Last I heard tomorrow. Will let you folks know if that changes."

Meddler

"Quote:

any plans on addressing tanks with decent ap ratios abusing triple doran rings? I don't mind them being buffed elsewhere but that allows them to easily circumvent sustain issues. Naut already got his manacosts nerfed recently because he could do that, but you should address the root issue (stacking rings or the unnecessarily high ratios that are never going to incentivize an ap build) We've been looking at it, feeling so far is that it's not a problem with Doran's Ring though. Intent is that those can be stacked for early power and there are only two tanks we're seeing stacking DRings that could be concerns, Nautilus and Galio. Galio likely just needs nerfs in general, regardless of build. With Naut the stacking seems ok so far, given he's delaying getting tankier and lacks a fallback pattern anyway so if not casting to push/wave clear doesn't function so well."

Meddler

"Quote:

Hey Meddler,

Is it too early to give any details about the upcoming LB adjustments?

Cheers Will let you know when we've got something concrete, we don't have details ourselves yet though."

Meddler

"Quote:

Hi Meddler, do you have some context on the PBE changes to Caitlyn's Base AS/Attack Delay nerf?

You mentioned that we'd be getting the Runaan interaction nerf, but this nerf went unmentioned and seems quite impactful as well, particular if shipped at the same time. Conclusion was that the Hurricane change alone wouldn't be enough to bring Caitlyn in line, in particular her late game sustained damage being too high for a champion with that much safety and utility.

Numbers on the PBE are more extreme than what we're likely to ship however. We'll likely be going with 0.543 base AS and 15% bonus AS at level 1, rather than the 0.521 and 10% previously in testing."

May 22nd Mid-Patch Update

" 5/22/2017

No mincing words: Zac's 7.10 changes over-buffed him. With its new max health scaling, Stretching Strikes is dealing too much damage, so we're going harder on our initial base damage nerfs.

Zac

STRETCHING STRIKES BASE DAMAGE - 40/60/80/100/120 ⇒ 30/40/50/60/70"

Reav3 on Champion Updates





Reav3

"I plan on doing a "Champions" update at some point after Urgot is out. Will be going over Retros on Champions and VGUs released the first half(ish) of the year as well as talking about plans for the next couple VGUs."

"No, it will focus primarily on VGUs and new Champions with a little bit about roster. Meddler usually does a pretty good job at covering the small updates in his daily posts."

Reav3

"Quote:

A rioter said that Morde and Nunu are the highest priority on the VGU's list. First of all I did not say that. I posted a rather large list of potential "Tier 1" VGUs. I also stated that just because a champion is "Tier 1" doesn't mean they will be the next champions worked on.

Urgot for, for example, was higher priority then Galio or Warwick but we never has anything we felt was going to be amazing for him until recently.

Nunu and Morde are definitely high priority but so are many other champions."

Reav3

"Quote:

Out of curiosity, has that list changed? Most notably, Rammus was a Tier 1 but he just recently got a Shyvana-rework. Would you say that knocks him down to Tier 2?

And how many more VGU's will there be this year after Evelynn? Small updates like that don't generally change our priorities. Swain got a small update but has remained a Tier 1 candidate."

"The list is mostly the same, yes.

I generally don't talk about release dates as they are very prone to change."

Reav3

"Quote:

Can you give us even a little tease on Urgot's lore direction? It's brutal."

2017-18 esports events update and Rift Rivals

"TL;DR: We’re making some immediate changes to the upcoming 2017-18 calendar, including introducing a new regional clash called Rift Rivals in July.

Within this post, we’ll be introducing some changes for the 2017 off-season and 2018 season as well as sharing some insight on how we balance international and regional competition.

We want to create great entertainment for fans worldwide as well as a stable ecosystem that’ll be around for the long term, and there’s a couple of important ways we try to achieve that. We try to strike a balance between regional play, which supports a healthy local ecosystem, and international play which creates exciting focal points for the season. With that in mind, there’s a few changes we’re going to be introducing for this year.

Introducing Rift Rivals

The biggest change we’re excited to introduce is a brand new events series coming up in July - Rift Rivals. Held in multiple locations across the world during July 3-9, Rift Rivals will pit regional rivals against each other in mid-split grudge matches for glory and bragging rights.

Click here for a sneak peek of this event.

League of Legends no longer a part of IEM

Another change is that League of Legends will no longer be a part of the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM series) for 2017-18. While we remember and cherish epic moments from the past, we believe that withdrawing for the upcoming season is the right way to go.

We know that these changes shake up the international calendar, and while we’re excited to introduce a new brand with Rift Rivals, we also wanted to give some insight into how we’re thinking long-term around domestic and international events. Read on for more info.

How do we set international schedules/calendars?

As we talked about above, when we look at a rebooted 2017-18 calendar and beyond, it’s our goal to balance regional play with consistently high-quality international events that pit top teams from different regions. Regional play creates meaningful connections between fans and pros/teams and promotes positive things like deeper team investment and larger pro salaries - critical for a league that will last beyond the short term. International events are exciting displays of the highest level of play from the best teams in the world. Looking at 2018 and beyond, we believe we could improve the way we structure our seasons around regional and international events, so we're taking a few steps to address that - some immediate, and some in the longer term.

Why two splits? Why not kill Split 1?

It’s worth saying that no system is set in stone, and that we’ve investigated radical changes (like adjusting the structure and length of regional splits). With that said, we see some clear benefits in having a league system with the current amount of regional play.

There are 13 regional pro leagues, over 100 teams, and hundreds of pros worldwide. A regional league system allows for stable, consistent participation for a large number of teams and pros globally - key to building local fandom and sustaining financially stable careers for pros. Tournament systems, on the other hand, reward a much smaller number of top teams and pros at the most successful and competitive end of the scale. Making drastic moves in either direction could imbalance the current ecosystem, driving down salaries down for pros and sponsorship value for teams.

With so many teams worldwide, not every team can compete in meaningful international competition without making those tournaments unreasonably large. Let’s assume any international tournament would likely only feature the top 2-3 teams in a region without being unwieldy. If these replace the spring split, the bottom 6-7 teams in most regions would be playing for a total of 9-10 weeks over the year (just the summer split). With such limited play time, sponsorship values for those teams will drop, and teams outside of the top 2-3 likely will not be able to maintain pro salaries over the full year. This essentially risks nearly 80% of our global teams and pro player careers for increased spotlight on the top 20%.

Why not shorten the splits and add more international play?

It’s something we’re considering, but not for 2018. The sport is growing, but is still in a relatively early and fragile state worldwide: pro player salaries are still stabilizing, organizations are still finding their footing financially, and local teams are still building their local fanbases. Consistent regional play creates a strong economic base for all teams - and by extension, pro players. We think that major structural changes to reduce regional play could be destructive at a time when leagues are finally getting some financial stability.

We’re not opposed to the idea of shortening splits to make more room for more international play in the future. It’s our expectation that in the near future, leagues will have stabilized to the point where that kind of system makes sense. We just want to make sure that if and when we make those kind of changes, it doesn’t come at a significant cost to many pros’ and teams’ livelihood.

Why not add more international play on top of the current amount of regional play?

Our season is already long, and we want to make sure that pros avoid burnout by having a sufficiently long off-season. Elite teams are practicing or competing in as many as 42 weeks over the year, sacrificing even weekends to be the best, and with very little time off to relax, take a vacation or do anything other than train for long hours at high pressure. Creating an uninterrupted offseason for pros in 2017 was one of the factors behind our decision to withdraw from the IEM series.

Additionally, the off-season is an important time for teams to evaluate potential roster changes and for players to consider their career options. We don’t want to make the off-season more stressful for pros by making the period they have to make roster changes significantly shorter.

Thanks for hanging in there with us till the end! Let us know if you have any questions - we’ll be sticking around to answer them."

Get ready for Rift Rivals

"How will your region stack up against its fiercest adversaries? It’s time to settle the score at our brand new cross-regional event: Rift Rivals.

What is Rift Rivals?

Rift Rivals will be held across the world during July 3-9. The event will pit regional rivals against each other in grudge matches for glory and bragging rights.

Five tournaments will pit teams from all 13 regions with their closest rivals and re-open old wounds as they face their nemesis on the Rift. Each tournament will vary in numbers of invited teams, venues, and format - but every event will pair one region against each other, so you won’t see any games between teams from the same region (no Telecom Wars or the Battle of European mascots).

Teams were selected for Rift Rivals based on the most recently completed split (Spring or Split 1) rankings and will be seeded accordingly for the start of the event. For example, Europe’s G2 Esports will be seeded as EU #1 at the start of Rift Rivals: NA vs. EU. Read on for more details about format at each of the tournaments.

What are the rivalries? Formats?

North America vs. Europe

City: Berlin, Germany

Venue: EU LCS Studio

Dates: July 6-8

Teams:

North America (NA LCS)

TSM

Cloud9

Phoenix1 Europe (EU LCS)

G2 Esports

Unicorns of Love

Fnatic

Latin America North vs. Brazil vs. Latin America South

City: Santiago, Chile

Venue: CLS Studio

Dates: July 5-8

Teams:

Latin America North (LLN)

Lyon Gaming

Just Toys Havoks

Brazil (CBLOL)

Keyd Stars

RED Canids

Latin America South (CLS)

Isurus Gaming

Furious Gaming

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) vs. Turkey

City: Moscow, Russian Federation

Venue: LCL Studio

Dates: July 6-9

Teams:

CIS (LCL)

Virtus.pro

Vaevictis Esports

M19

Vega Squadron

Turkey (TCL)

SuperMassive eSports

Oyunfor.CREW

1907 Fenerbahçe Espor

Team AURORA

Southeast Asia vs. Oceania vs. Japan

City: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Dates: July 3-6

Teams:

Southeast Asia (GPL)

GIGABYTE Marines

Ascension Gaming

Mineski

Oceania (OPL)

Dire Wolves

Legacy

Sin Gaming

Japan (LJL)

Detonation Gaming

Rampage

Unsold Stuff Gaming

Korea vs. LMS vs. China

City: Kaohsiung

Venue: Kaohsiung Exhibition Center

Dates: July 6-9

Teams:

Korea (LCK)

SK Telecom T1

Samsung Galaxy

KT Rolster

MVP

LMS (LMS)

Flash Wolves

ahq e-Sports Club

J Team

Machi

China (LPL)

Team WE

Royal Never Give Up

Edward Gaming

OMG

How do I watch?

Below are the languages that the broadcast will be available in for each of the events. All of the Rift Rivals events will be available on Lolesports.

Latin America North vs. Brazil vs. Latin America South

Portuguese

Spanish

North America vs. Europe

English We’re working with European broadcast partners to get the EU vs. NA event in more languages, we’ll confirm the languages and how to tune-in on EU Lolesports closer to the event.

CIS vs. Turkey

Russian

Turkish Southeast Asia vs. Oceania vs. Japan

English

Japanese

Vietnamese

Thai

Indonesian

Korea vs. LMS vs. China

Traditional Chinese

Simplified Chinese

Korean

English

Vietnamese

Thai

Indonesian

Where can I learn more about Rift Rivals?

Stay tuned to Lolesports for more the information about the event including the full match schedule and ticket information."

MSI 2017: Winners, Moments and Memories, & The Penta

"Check out the top 5 plays from the Knockout Stage of the Mid-Season Invitational in this week's episode of The Penta."

"That wraps up the 2017 Mid-Season Invitational, with SK Telecom T1 claiming their second consecutive MSI trophy. Here's a look back at the winners, losers, and stats from the Playoffs."

League Client Update Q&A

Monday afternoon the League Client update team jumped on reddit to host a reddit Q&A on the League Client Update now that the AIR Client has officially been retired:

"It’s time again for another Q&A with the League client update team. We’re answering your questions about the future of the updated client! Join us now now the League subreddit.



《JOIN THE Q&A NOW》

Quick Hits- LoL College Championship & more

ManWolfAxeBoss

"First day not working on LoL (still at Riot). Bittersweet. ManWolf."

"The 8 best college League of Legends teams face off May 25 - 28 to see who will be crowned the best college team in North America.



Texas A&M (9-2)

Carnegie Mellon University (7-3)

University of Toronto (9-1)

Simon Fraser University (9-1)

Maryville University (9-2)

University of British Columbia (7-3)

University of Maryland (7-4)

Robert Morris University (8-4)

All matches will be broadcast live on http://watch.lolesports.com and you can grab tickets for the semifinals and finals in Los Angeles here: http://riot.com/2orP9jl"

Reminders

Last up, a few reminders on upcoming and ending soon promotions and sales!

MSI 2017 in-game content is now available, including new icons, the legacy Conqueror Karma and more! Conqueror Karma, returning legacy skins, and more available through May 24th.

YOUR SHOP is up on the client through June 6th!

A selection of seven rare summoner icons are available in shop through June 1st!

As mentioned in the 7.10 patch notes, Ascension is returning in the RGMQ from 5/19 - 5/23 and 5/26 - 5/30!

Continue reading for more information!is back with with his quick gameplay thoughts for May 23rd including discussion on upcoming champion ability icon updates, context on balance changes in 7.11, and more!When asked about the mentioned7.11 changes,He continued: also provided his thoughts on tank junglers and a few buffs currently on the PBE:When asked aboutOn when we will see the updated subclass list,On tanks abusing Doran's Ring,OnProviding some context onAttack Speed changes,A small mid-patch update went out on May 22nd with a nerf for's Q damage:When asked about the next champion update article and what's next,He added When asked about potential futureandVGU's, responded to correct a user's comment and explain lots of champions are high on the priority list:On how smaller scope updates play into things,He continued Withcompleted, LoLEsports has released an update on international play as well as announcing a new regional tournament With the announcement of the changes and new event, we also have a second article offering full details on RIFT RIVALS MSI 2017 has wrapped up and Korea'shave been crowned our champions after defeatingin the finals! Full article on winners can be found [ here ] and VODS are available [ here ].Re-experience 2017 MSI with Riot's MSI 2017: Moments and Memories A new Penta is also available, this time featuring plays from the Knockout stage of MSI 2017:Finally, LoL esports shared an article detailing the MSI Knockout Stage stats breakdown:Thehas been updated! Check out the new design and layout over at https://support.riotgames.com/ On May 22nd, Rioter tweeted that he is no longer working on LoL but he is still with Riot. 5/23/2017 - Older Macs unable to Launch League thread in Help & Support.