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I worked in live TV for three years before starting at Riot there are many similarities in our production workflow and what traditional live tv does. Many of the technical positions are 1-for-1 on our show and on other shows.
I'd say our main difference at the LCS is that we prioritize having a calm control room. Our executive producer u/RumbleStew made it a focus to build an inclusive environment where anyone can pitch stories and segments regardless of seniority or role.
Its unacceptable to lash out at others in our control room. In my work before Riot, I've been screamed at by producers and directors and team leads for any reason, but that type of behavior is not condoned here.
Yu I’m famous now!!! Appreciate the shout u/the_may0r. We’re lucky to work with a great group of people who really love our sport and enjoy our work. Makes for a great atmosphere.
Is there a way you guys could look at how Cinderhulk interacts with Amumu's Bandage Toss? The item makes me a sad Amumu cuz both in the ganks and when clearing the jungle Cinderhulk just goes off in thin air and while I would normally say that it only makes Amumu's tears stronger, it's still a sad time.
the triggering cc spell also does the damage (unfortunately for amumu that still means you need to hit the unit u want to damage)
Clash starts today! 
FYI for EU players
Are you legit looking at reddit between segments? Lol
Yeah why not?
Why does Ender wear a bomber jacket on literally every single broadcast lmao
Why does Yamato wear a suit every single broadcast? Making me look bad...
Hi friend,i miss Eambo.
I miss them too :(
Is the lag connected directly to clash? Otherwise its an odd circumstance, since they always work otherwise.
The issues are not directly tied to Clash. That said, it's important that we considered the additional impact Clash would have had on everyone's experience if we had launched without total confidence we had fixed the problem.
What is it that causes these issues on the EU servers and not on the NA?
I'm not a network engineer so I cannot speak directly to the specifics, but different load patterns and traffic dependency management services can cause issues in some areas and not others.
Question for u/CloakOfTheBat: what’s your favorite type of contract to work on and why is it commercial coventure agreements with your pal Kushnood?
Hi /u/dzareth, thanks for the great reply to this question! Your position was one of two that attracted my interest when looking at /u/The_Cactopus list.
Checking riotgames.com I see the position of Analyst, Strategic Advisory is based in HONG KONG, CHINA. Is there a particular reason behind that?
Do you have team members in LA or other locations? If yes, could you provide the link to it, please?
Location is not an issue for me, just interested in the reasons behind the choice. Seems like a great fit for me, so I will be applying soon - just need to update my Resume :)
Thanks!
Yes! We have many people in LA! I think it looks like Hong Kong office is looking for people too!
I have a sincere question.
When you guys release a champion do you guys purposely design it like broken or slightly OP? Or you believe it's just beacuse players don't know how to counterplay?
almost always OP. players take a long time to learn how to play champs. Yuumi started at 29% winrate day 1, and that was at a tuning that we were certain was actually super op (we est 56+% winrate resting if we just let her coast without changes). Course 29% is still too low for her to be a reasonable pick so we have to buff her (and then spent the next year nerfing her as players got better)
Its not fair to anyone playing if theres a 29% winrate champ in the game, even if that champ is actually long term at a reasonable power level
this is further confounded by the fact that higher elo players also just play the game more and learn these new champs faster. LS was telling me about how he "only" had like 70 games on sett the patch he was released, and i'm just thinking "yeah the average sett player is probably on like, game 2 - and it'll take them 6 months before they have the same amount of experience learning the champ as you do right now"
Hey everyone, we have a more visible update coming out in more formal channels, but I wanted to jump in here and provide as much context as I can surrounding the decision. It was definitely a tough one to make, but I think ultimately the right one.
Given the game start and network issues that EUW and EUN were seeing over the past two days, there was a significant amount of risk tied to launching Clash on top of that. When it came down to it, we didnt have a hard confidence value that we could hang our hats on that the issues with the servers would be fixed by launch.
In order to protect the experience for both the players who had signed up for Clash and those that wanted to play in other League queues we decided to make the hard decision to postpone to next weekend instead of adding a significantly larger load to an unsolved problem.
I know this isn't the best news late on a Friday, but we hope it results in a more positive experience when it's live.
...!RemindMe 15 years
Ah I didn't take that long :P
If you ever look at code you wrote six months ago and don't cringe at some part of it, you've stopped learning.
Nah, the code I write now is perfect. The guy I was 6 months ago was an idiot and the guy I will be in 6 months is a bit of an arsehole
Hey is actually someone working on the client?
Yes. There are. Joe talked about this in Riot Pls: https://youtu.be/ADUMS8oZQkE
Are there 'machine learning' departments at Riot or anything related to it ? Always interesting to hear how different companies make use of ML.
Yes, we have MLE types, Date Engineers, Data scientists.
Your shop is powered by ML, for example.
Hey is actually someone working on the client?
Yes!
u/dzareth With many in finance focusing heavily on returns and cash flows, while in league, I imagine the to be a much bigger emphasis on player engagement and satisfaction. For example, while making skins for unpopular Champions might be unprofitable, the decision to invest time and capital to develop for these champions is required to keep certain player bases happy.
How has working at Riot changed your perspective on how projects like this should be evaluated, and how do you balance both sides?
I think it's been a constant challenge to think about getting that balance right.
To let you in on a secret of how I have changed my thinking is that I remembered that we are a "player focussed" game company and not a "champion focused" game company. Our champions are great. I love our IP. Don't tell anyone though, but they are not real. And they are certainly not our audience or players. So, given that I stopped thinking about giving "champions" skins, I think about us giving players skins. And while I wish every player could have everything they wanted, there are only so many developer hours. The lowest play-rate champions have very, very few "I only play this champion" mains. Most players play a few champs. So most players have something for themselves even if they wish they had one for their champion. The second insight is that we are going to lose economic profit on those weaker champions, but it is the only way we can show those players we care about them. We take th...
Read moreThank you very much for your answer, I would totally understand if you didn't/couldn't answer them. I'm planning to start an MBA soon (tm) and the gaming industry seems very fascinating to me, so I would like to know more about the perspective of some of the professionals in it. Again, thank you very much. Also, your games are pretty cool. Keep being awesome
Hey! Good luck with the degree! I enjoyed mine a lot even if I enjoy memeing about MBAs! My advice: Take every technical class you can and care about your grades. Futures and Options? Hell yes!
Thanks, but I understand if they don't want to answer anything besides Q5.
Q1 and Q2 involve commenting on industry practices by rival companies (and potentially Riot in the future).
Q3 and Q4 are about what could be considered as business private information.
Oh well, at least we tried
Edit: we got an answer!!
Haha. Yeah. Sorry I didn't see it during the time. I got through a bunch.
what prompted that dd change????
Item has significant overlap with BT, and generally is stat-ed in a way that makes it too squishy for most fighters/bruisers to reasonably consider in all but extremely snowballed games (which botrk is moving into with it's melee mod). Believe moving it to a more hybridized offensive/defensive profile serves the item system better. Resists also synergize with lifesteal and the raw health items fighters tend to build.
its not shipping 10.5, we'll be tuning it further since right now its almost certainly too pushed for testing
u/dzareth, hope you're the right person to ask this and the questions aren't too invasive
- What is your stance on the dynamic pricing some mobile games are using?
- Ideally, do you believe microtransactions should be kept for FtP games only or should it be used (as it is right now) in AAA games?
- Did the skins randomly dropped by chests affect LoL's revenue? Was it a "short term loss with middle/long term gain" situation or did it have a negative effect on revenue and Riot is taking the financial hit for player retention?
- What do you think would be better for the LoL franchise/brand?
- LoL 2 after the end of LoL's lifecycle; or,
- Extending LoL's lifecycle indefinitely with regular updates;
- What sort of academic background do you need for this job? Do you think it is the driving factor behind the way you do your daily functions or it is "IRL experience" or a mix o...
Hey! Thanks for asking. These are solid questions. These are exactly the type of things we discuss at work.
1) Dynamic pricing. From a microeconomics perspective it is certainly very efficient at getting at the "willingness to pay" of the individual players, and given some of these games have a limited lifespan without these revenue models their financial viability might be significantly challenged. However, these models also over time can undermine players sense of trust and fairness. "Why did I pay x for that when that player paid x/2?" On League we discuss about our goals for players to be happy about their experience with monetization before, during and after, and without creating issues for people who don't or can't monetize. Monetization has to suit the product that you are developing, I personally think that predatory monetization practices can be very effective at driving money in the short term, but not the long term. I am personally attracted to the long term per...
Read moreThank you very much for your answer, I would totally understand if you didn't/couldn't answer them. I'm planning to start an MBA soon (tm) and the gaming industry seems very fascinating to me, so I would like to know more about the perspective of some of the professionals in it. Again, thank you very much. Also, your games are pretty cool. Keep being awesome
God bless, and good luck with your MBA!
u/dzareth, hope you're the right person to ask this and the questions aren't too invasive
- What is your stance on the dynamic pricing some mobile games are using?
- Ideally, do you believe microtransactions should be kept for FtP games only or should it be used (as it is right now) in AAA games?
- Did the skins randomly dropped by chests affect LoL's revenue? Was it a "short term loss with middle/long term gain" situation or did it have a negative effect on revenue and Riot is taking the financial hit for player retention?
- What do you think would be better for the LoL franchise/brand?
- LoL 2 after the end of LoL's lifecycle; or,
- Extending LoL's lifecycle indefinitely with regular updates;
- What sort of academic background do you need for this job? Do you think it is the driving factor behind the way you do your daily functions or it is "IRL experience" or a mix o...
I’m texting u/dzareth rn telling him to get back on because these are actually cool questions.
While I’m here, on 2) I think it depends on longevity of support—premium-priced games that turn into long-supported games may very well merit some sort of ongoing monetization. These can be ethically done, if you’re smart. The decision to go FTP or “premium” priced should mostly be determined by how niche you think your game is. Niche market games should probably charge an entry fee, at least in today’s market
On 4) I personally think LoL 2 should never happen. Ongoing support and “Ship of Theseus” style replacement of the parts seems more player focused. That said, definitely bookmark this post so you can come back and call me a liar if we release League 2 ten years from now