Hey everyone!
Joe here again on behalf of the League Dev Team.
Worlds is over, and preseason is in full swing.
In today's video we want to look back at the year
and talk about how League has changed,
what we learned,
and what we’re thinking about as we approach 2018.
But first, let’s talk about some big changes
that just hit live.
Runes Reforged is still brand new,
and we're just beginning to see where the meta-changing
builds you’re coming up with will take the game.
We're already seeing runes being used to invent
whole new builds and playstyles.
It’s truly awesome to see all the creativity and theorycrafting
you guys are applying to the new system.
As just one example, we've seen Annie players
taking Arcane Comet and Aery to build poke,
and others building full burst with Electrocute.
And we think there might be a really scary Annie build
using Predator that only a few of you have discovered.
At this point we feel pretty confident
that we've got a strong foundation
that we can build on going forward.
And of course, with the new system,
we can adjust, add, or even replace runes as we gain
more and more insight into how things are playing out.
Preseason also introduced the new leveling and rewards systems.
Incredibly, some of you guys are already approaching level 100
and engagement with the blue essence emporium has blown us away.
With mystery mini icons apparently being the most desirable items.
We're also listening closely to your feedback and making adjustments.
We've already changed the leveling curve,
so no matter how high your level gets,
you'll get more rewards on average
than you would've gotten out of the old system.
We’ve also added blue essence to the First Win of the Day,
so now it should be easier for you guys
to get the champs you want in those instances
where you’re just a little bit short.
It's still early days.
Keep sending us feedback on runes and rewards
and we'll keep working to get the game into shape
for the new season.
2016 was a tough year for our team.
The truth is, we didn’t do a good enough job
listening to you guys or addressing your concerns.
So at the start of this year,
we decided to make a concerted effort to listen more
and to deliver on longtime promises.
So let's talk about how 2017 went.
2017 was the year we finally replaced the legacy client,
which in turn enabled us to deliver things like Practice Tool,
the highlights viewer, missions, the skins collection,
Honor 2.0, and the new 10 ban system.
One of the most serious under-the-radar problems
we dealt with this year was time spent getting into game.
For a variety of reasons,
that time had crept up to a unacceptable length.
Thanks to a number of optimizations across
champ select and matchmaking,
time spent in champ select has gone down
by about 30% on average.
Queue times are also between two to three times faster
than they were during the 2016 season.
And as an added bonus,
you now get your primary role much more often than before.
Because you asked for it, this year we shipped
a lot more "quality-of-life" features.
Features like surrender at 15, ping muting,
skin portraits in the HUD, more champs in the free rotation
the “warded here” ping, a self-sorting scoreboard,
and position filtering in champ select.
We continued to try to push our bar on unique gameplay
and creative thematics with new additions to the Rift
like Xayah and Rakan, Kayn, Ornn, and most recently, Zoe.
We also brought some old champs into the modern age
with updates to Warwick, Galio, Urgot, and Evelynn.
We created new interactive events around skins,
like the "versus" event for Dawnbringer Riven and Nightbringer Yasuo.
And we invested more in making events feel special,
with themed missions and entirely new experiences
like the "Invasion" game mode for Star Guardian
and Project Overcharge.
A few patches ago we released emotes
and at least some of you are using them to express yourselves
instead of just BMing.
Last but not least we tried to keep pushing the envelope
on super creative, high quality skins
that we hoped really resonated with you guys.
When it comes to the meta,
we've gotta acknowledge that the first few patches of the year
had issues with ADCs feeling weak, and the last few
were dominated by Ardent Censer and hyper-carries.
That said, overall we were happy with the year as a whole.
2017 brought more champion diversity,
cool support quests and itemization, and the Rift Herald update
which finally made her into an objective worth taking.
We’ve been dropping hints for a while now
about our plans to build a competitive experience
for organized teams
that’s available to players of all skill levels.
Today, we’re ready to share some details.
This new mode, which we're currently calling Clash,
is a super high-stakes, competitive experience
for premade teams.
It's designed to run for just a few days at a time,
and for a limited number of times a year.
Our hope is that it feels like your own personal esports experience
where you can form lasting team bonds
and fight against others for rewards that matter,
no matter what your rank is.
Clash will feature new tools to capture the feeling
of being in a professional tournament.
You'll be able to scout out your opponents
so you can plan picks and bans before you play.
In champ select, you'll use the the same draft format the pros use.
We want the stakes to be high and all players
to be committed for the duration.
So entry will require a buy in using tickets,
which you’ll be able to earn or purchase.
Putting your essence or RP on the line
with a ticket means you'll have more at stake,
but you’ll also have access to better prizes.
We're still nailing down the details,
but we think the bigger risks and rewards
will make Clash one of the most exciting ways
to play League in 2018.
We know that smurfing can be a big problem
for a competitive mode like this.
Although we're not ready to reveal all the details,
we've got some cool new systems in the works
to protect against smurfs, so games will be fun
and competitive for teams of all skill levels.
The full experience won't launch until early next year,
but we’re already beta testing in select regions
and we’ll be back with a much deeper dive soon.
On a final note—we've heard your feedback
that Honor progression and rewards currently
feel too unpredictable, so we’re adding new checkpoints
between levels that give out guaranteed rewards.
Check out all the updates for yourself on PBE later this week.
We're really proud of how League grew in 2017,
and we’ve got so much more planned for 2018 that we can’t wait to share.
But none of this would mean anything
if it wasn't for you guys.
So from all of us on the League Team,
thank you so much for playing.
We'll see you on the Rift.