Today's red post collection includes an update on the events Riot will be hosting during PAX East 2018, a clairvoyance blog on Kai'Sa's development through playtests, details on MSI 2018, and more!
- Red Post Collection: Nautilus lore - what's most important to you?, Emote Sale, & More
- Champion & Skin Sale 3/30 - 4/2
- April Foods Event
Table of Contents
League at PAX East
"We’re back at PAX East this year with a mix of old favorites and all new ways to meet up and share your passion for League!
League of Legends Team Shop
League’s at its best with a squad of your buddies, so we’re letting you and your team show off in style with team role shirts. Assemble your team of five (one of each role) and head to the LoL Team Shop (Room #102A) to claim your shirts. And if you’re headed to PAX solo or in a small group, just find some other League players on the show floor and form a team—look for attendees sporting one of our brand new LoL role lanyards, and pick one up yourself from Rioters walking the floor!
#OwnYourRole
From now through the end of PAX, use #OwnYourRole to tell us why you love playing your favorite role. We’ll spotlight the best stories on League’s Twitter & Instagram Stories, where you can also follow along with the action during PAX itself. We’ll share team photos and awesome League cosplay from the show floor, and each day a community creator will give you a behind-the-scenes look at the event.
Community Creators
PAX is one of the best places to see all your favorite community creators in one place, and some of League’s brightest stars are making their way to this year’s event. Creator Meet & Greets will take place each day of PAX at approximately 3 PM and 4:45 PM, inside Room #102B. Expect to see Pokimane, Angelskimi, Lilypichu, Fuslie, Scarra, Nicki Taylor, and Rivington Bisland III. Creators will be announcing specifics on their social channels, so make sure to follow along for exact times!
Creator & Cospitality Lounge
Our ever-popular Cospitality Lounge is back to provide a home base for all members of PAX’s incredible cosplay community. As always, the lounge is open to any and all cosplayers (and handlers), regardless of inspiration, so whether you’re in need of repairs or simple relaxation just stop by Room #102B. We’re also using the lounge as a base to chat with all kinds of creators — stop by from 12-12:45pm any day of PAX and say hello if you’re a content creator!
League Panels
Finally, we’re be hosting two panels in the Main Theater. On Friday, LCS pros, coaches, and managers will dive into all the work that goes into keeping their competitive edge week in and week out. On Saturday, Riot designers will share their behind-the-scenes perspective on the Irelia Update and the long-term task of updating beloved League champions. You can also watch the panels online at www.twitch.tv/pax.
- Mastering the Competitive Mindset in League of Legends
- Friday, 4/6 @ 4 PM in Main Theater
- Rivington Bisland III, Shoutcaster - Riot Games | Galen "Moon" Holgate, Jungler - CGA | Matt "Akaadian" Higginbotham, Jungler - OPT | Romain Bigeard, General Manager - OPT | Robert Yip, Head Coach - FLY
- Better Buff Irelia: Modernizing League of Legends Champions
- Saturday, 4/7 @ 4:30 PM in Main Theater
- Gem Lim - Senior Concept Artist | John O'Bryan - Senior Narrative Writer | Sol Kim - Game Designer | Jason Hendrich - Animator | Mike Foster - Comms Dude
PAX East kicks off on Thursday, April 5, and we can’t wait to see you there or share the hype online!"
Kai'Sa Evolves in Player Labs
"Long before a champ hits PBE, players test them out and let us know what’s working and what’s not. This feedback shapes the champion’s development; here’s what that looked like for Kai’Sa, Daughter of the Void.
BLAUSTOISE: Hey all, Riot Blaustoise here. I’m the lead of gameplay insights and one of the researchers embedded on the Champions Team. Insights recently published the more quantitative methodologies we use to help assess the state of our champion roster, identify rework opportunities, and measure the impact of balance changes on champion popularity. Today, however, we’re going to focus on how Insights helps in the design and development of a champion. Specifically, we’ll be looking at Kai’Sa: The Daughter of the Void.
Insights and the Champions Team have a close partnership, and we couldn’t do this piece justice without bringing in a voice to represent their team. And who better to speak on the development of Kai’Sa than Riot Jag, the unquestionable King of Voidspotting himself.
JAG: Hey, I’m Jeevun Sidhu, aka “Riot Jag,” aka the Slumdog Camillionaire, aka the lead gameplay designer on Kai’Sa. As with every champion we work on, we leaned on Insights to get some early player perspectives on Kai’Sa and to help us answer questions that were more difficult to resolve internally.
WHAT’S IN A CHAMPION LAB?
BLAUSTOISE: Long before a champion sees the light ofquestionably balanced mirror matchesPBE, it’s first experienced by a handful of players who are invited to the Riot Campus (or other global offices). These players examine concept art, spam abilities in the development environments, and play full 5v5 games with new champions. Afterwards they fill out surveys, have 1-on-1 chats with researchers and designers, and typically finish with a group discussion on their experiences with our potential new additions to League.
JAG: Player labs are exciting because it’s the first time we get see a genuine reaction to a character. We have Rioters playtest champions hundreds of times before labs, and they have all sorts of biases that make it impossible for them to be blank slates. A new player generally has a purer perspective and provides much-needed honesty when the pod really needs it. On top of that, player labs allow us to prove out the riskiest elements of the champion we’re developing—labs let us see if we can make it work or if we should try a new direction.
In Kai’Sa’s case, we wanted to see if people would have interest in a more human-looking Void character, and if a super-aggressive ADC playstyle would resonate with players.
ROUND ONE: SOFT MARKSMEN ON A HARD CARRY
BLAUSTOISE: We often use the analogy of creating a delicious ice cream sundae to represent the different stages of champion labs. For Round 1 labs, we’re validating that we have a delicious set of initial ice cream flavors. Those flavors include the primary gameplay hook (why would you play this character?), their uniqueness (what new thing does this character bring to League?), and overall thematic direction & cohesion (does this character have an appealing fantasy and does that fantasy match with the gameplay?).
JAG: When we started out with Kai’Sa, the ultimate was always there, even from the first playtest. The fantasy of combining ADC-level DPS with the playmaking target access of an Assassin was super unique and exciting, so we wanted to prove out if people would instantly see the upside of a full damage carry able to position literally anywhere in a teamfight.
BLAUSTOISE: On the note of “aggressive marksman,” we encountered a major issue in our first round of player labs for Kai’Sa. While we specifically invited Marksmen players, it quickly became evident during the group discussion that almost all of the players prefered the more traditional stay-safe-and-deal-damage-from-afar Marksmen. Ashe, Caitlyn, Miss Fortune. More… “soft” Marksmen.
JAG: I tried to tell you this was an alpha test, not an open beta.
“VOID ADC” FIRST IMPRESSIONS
BLAUSTOISE: Still, we did get useful feedback for Kai’Sa’s thematic and visuals. Players were shown her early concept art before actually playing her, and we recorded their pre-game expectations for her gameplay as well as other aspects of her design.
We asked, “What are your initial impressions of Void ADC? Where in the League universe do you think she is from? What do you expect from her gameplay? From her character?”
Players said…
BLAUSTOISE: Not only did we invite players who were interested in the the more traditional, long-ranged Marksmen playstyle, but the “Void rifle” in Kai’Sa’s original concept was reading as a long-ranged sniper. We pivoted away from the sniper-esque weapon that formed from her suit to the energy-based “void guns” she has today.
On the flipside, player impressions reassured our direction with Kai’Sa’s Void armor, and one player even hinted at Kai’Sa having evolutions before they were even in her kit.
- “I really liked the alien-ish, bug-like armor look. To me, that armor is the champion, and I couldn’t really care what she looks like otherwise. If the armor is badass, I will be buying the champ in every chroma available.”
–I definitely didn’t misinterpret this as a market researcher and then constantly pressure the team to make chromas for her…
from
http://www.surrenderat20.net/2018/03/red-post-collection-league-at-pax-east.html
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