Hey, Safelocked here on behalf of the League team.
So, let's recap.
What's happened in League since the last update?
A few keynotes.
Season Start’s kick-off,
the Fiddlesticks and Volibear updates,
the shy Lillia, and now, Yone's grand return during the Spirit Blossom Event.
Now, we definitely know which champions you'd date.
We’ve also nearly finished releasing all the skins we promised for underserved
champions earlier this year, with just three left for Nautilus,
Ornn,
and Skarner.
League still has more in store, like the gun-slinging marksman Samira,
whose kit revolves around combo-ing with style.
and she'll be coming out in the PsyOps event next patch.
Today, we're going to talk a little bit more about our gameplay plans for Preseason,
which is about updating League’s item system.
And after that, we'll spend some time covering some of the recent work done
towards curbing game-ruining behavior.
But before we jump into it, we just want to thank all of you for participating
in the COVID-19 Charity Fundraiser.
Players all over the world came together and raised over 2.0 million
dollars for global pandemic relief.
From all of us at Riot, thank you, thank you, thank you
for helping make a difference in our communities worldwide.
Now let’s get into our gameplay plans for Preseason.
If you haven't heard, we’re working on a complete overhaul to items in League of Legends.
We’ve improved items in chunks over the years but we've never really had the
opportunity to take the time and do a full pass on the whole system at once.
So going into the second decade of League, we want to make sure we're
improving the foundations the game is built on
and just modernizing them over time so they continue to feel high-quality.
As a part of the update, we’re also going to create a whole brand new shop interface
that's easier to use and smarter about the recommendations it makes.
The biggest change we're making is the introduction of a new type of item
called Mythics.
Mythic Items are the cornerstone in your builds, with big effects that
define your playstyle from game to game.
Each Mythic also grants unique bonus stats to your other completed items
so they shape your build even after their initial purchase.
You can only wield one mythic item at a time, so you’ll have to make careful
strategic choices when deciding which one to build each game.
So let's look at the marksman Mythics.
Do you need to survive an assassin's burst or keep yourself alive when taking enemy fire?
Then Crimson Shieldbow will give you the sustain and defense you need.
Or maybe you can trust your team to keep you alive, and instead go all-in
on raw DPS with the new Behemoth Slayer.
For the games where you need mobility to dodge incoming threats and
reposition to make big plays, Galeforce’s dash might be the tool you need.
Beyond Mythics, we're also assessing all 200 items in the current shop
to ensure that they have a clear purpose, healthy gameplay, and are satisfying to use.
For a lot of League’s items, they already hit this bar.
So you can expect some classic items, like Rabadon’s Deathcap
to remain nearly unchanged.
For items that are falling a bit short, though, we’ll keep their core identity intact
but update their design to meet the new standard.
For example, Sterak’s Gage will be about burst defense still
but tied more clearly to teamfight strength.
And in some cases, some items offered effects that were too far off the mark to salvage,
overlapped too heavily with other options,
or whose intended purposes can be better served in other ways.
And so we'll be saying goodbye to a portion of the shop.
but you can rest assured that those open spots will be put to good use.
We'll be creating new items to fill gaps in the current system.
Among other things, that means that, yes, we're finally going to be marking
items that are specifically designed for AP bruiser champions
like the Cursed Demonhelm.
All-in-all, you can expect about a third of the items to remain nearly the same
a third to be similar but improved
and a third to be replaced with these new additions.
For those of you whose eyes glaze over every time you open the shop
this is the update for you.
We’re going to completely revamp both the “Recommended” and “All Items” shop pages.
We redesigned the Recommended items page for players who want a more
streamlined shop experience.
They want to choose between, say, Frozen Heart, Thornmail, or Randuin's
based off the game state, but don't enjoy sifting through the shop to find those options.
Recommended Items will surface sets of item choices that adapt as the game progresses
and evolve patch-by-patch based on how the best players are building each champion.
The All Items page is still for players who want quick access to as much of the
shop as possible, and rely on muscle memory to purchase items quickly.
Things won't move around game-to-game or champ-to-champ
but we'll highlight current popular items to make them easier to spot.
You can expect to see all of these updates on PBE soon for an extended testing period
and be on the lookout for an article with more details soon.
Intentional game-ruining behavior has been a hot topic in the community recently
and honestly, this is just something we need to address more.
In May, we committed to a large, long-term effort to tackle issues
like Champion Select griefing, inting, and AFKs.
And so towards the first point
the first change we tested was Champion Select reporting and muting.
We wanted to give players a real way to respond to game-ruining behavior
before loading into the game.
Pretty quickly, we found that many reports were coming from players whose
teammates banned the champion they were hovering, so we added a “confirm ban” prompt.
You'll still be able to go through with the ban if you want.
Sometimes if you just really don't want to see a certain champion, that's what your ban is for.
But the prompt makes sure you know it's a champ your teammate wants to play
so you don't ban them by accident.
We'll also hook Champ Select reports into our overall report management
and post-game penalty system.
And so in the future, we'll work to expand that system to let us take action
on Champ Select reports inside Champ Select.
With that, we shifted our focus recently to address in-game behaviors
like inting and AFKing.
Our automatic detection systems are now identifying these behaviors at almost
twice the rate as before, and we're working on more improvements
to catch subtler cases that are still slipping through the cracks.
In addition to better detection methods, we’re also exploring ways to sharpen
the penalty system.
And this may include things like stricter queue lockout times and Ranked LP penalties.
Finally, we know it’s impossible to stop this behavior entirely, which is
why we’re looking into ways to at least make it less painful when it does happen.
This includes improvements to the early surrender vote so you don’t get stuck in a 4v5
and LP mitigation in Ranked so you don’t drop so hard for someone else's griefing.
We know there’s still more work to do, but just wanted to share the progress so far
and we'll keep working to make real improvements in this space.
While we’ve focused on League today, there’s also a lot going on in the League overall universe.
For starters, we’re just a few short weeks away from the start of our historic
10th World Championship, which is happening in China this year.
The esports team has been working hard to plan another amazing experience for you all,
and while you’ve already begun to see some of the content,
we have a few more surprises in store.
The latest set for Teamfight Tactics launches with patch 10.19.
In it, TFT: Fates features a mythical fantasy world filled with all new champions,
origins, classes, Little Legends, and Arenas.
Our friends on Legends of Runeterra recently released their latest expansion
Call of the Mountain, which adds Targon as a region along with 7 new champions.
Be on the lookout for more news later this year from the upcoming Riot Forge game
Ruined King: A League of Legends Story.
Finally, it’s an exciting time for our friends on Wild Rift, so be on the lookout
for more news from them.
We hope you and your loved ones are staying safe.
From all of us at Riot, thanks for playing and take care.