[2020] The Champion Designer Everyone Loves To Hate

Originally posted by phroxz0n

CertainlyT was unironically one of the greatest holistic Designers (not just champ designer) that League has had. I know this is going to get memed because people will say "yeah he just taught people how to make broken stuff or how to balance worse", but I don't think he did those things. Designers here are definitely good enough to have their own opinion and be able to defend it. He definitely pushed the boundaries in a way that is not everyone's cup of tea, but that's part of what makes him great. He also knew how to make simple champions (think WW update).

It's unfortunate, because players will never get to see behind the scenes of how he contributed, but one of his best attributes was that he truly passionately cares about League. He was always up to date with all the new builds (often as soon as they were popping up in KR soloQ) and he knew all the little details about the game inside-out. In his spare time, he was always prototyping stuff locally on his computer to make League better, whether it was little champion updates, new champions, ways to make spell queueing better, investigations on how to put in latency protections for champion combos, making sure unpopular/weak champions were thought about, etc.

He was amazing at pushing designers to think outside the box, to challenge their assumptions about their own world view, to have a good design process, the values of elegance, intuitiveness, feel, how a player failing on a champion leads on a path to mastery, even the purpose of games and how people consume them. Outside of that, he was an amazing mentor and would help you work through your design problems for hours after work (not just straight up giving you the solution, but helping you work through the problem the way a teacher would; unsurprising given his teaching background), often until 2am (I'm pretty sure he didn't sleep). He did have strong opinions, but that's par for the course for many accomplished people in their field.

Even outside of League, his designs were elegant and powerful (eg. TFT item system). It always pains me when people bash on CertainlyT in this sub (though of course you can have your opinion), but I think he has unironically done so much good for League over the years (at least for ~3 years for when our tenure has overlapped, his entire life was basically dedicated to making League better from waking to sleeping) and for that I'm eternally thankful.

EDIT: He's not dead, he just doesn't work on League anymore, so we don't see him as often :D

Originally posted by phroxz0n

CertainlyT was unironically one of the greatest holistic Designers (not just champ designer) that League has had. I know this is going to get memed because people will say "yeah he just taught people how to make broken stuff or how to balance worse", but I don't think he did those things. Designers here are definitely good enough to have their own opinion and be able to defend it. He definitely pushed the boundaries in a way that is not everyone's cup of tea, but that's part of what makes him great. He also knew how to make simple champions (think WW update).

It's unfortunate, because players will never get to see behind the scenes of how he contributed, but one of his best attributes was that he truly passionately cares about League. He was always up to date with all the new builds (often as soon as they were popping up in KR soloQ) and he knew all the little details about the game inside-out. In his spare time, he was always prototyping stuff locally on his computer to make League better, whether it was little champion updates, new champions, ways to make spell queueing better, investigations on how to put in latency protections for champion combos, making sure unpopular/weak champions were thought about, etc.

He was amazing at pushing designers to think outside the box, to challenge their assumptions about their own world view, to have a good design process, the values of elegance, intuitiveness, feel, how a player failing on a champion leads on a path to mastery, even the purpose of games and how people consume them. Outside of that, he was an amazing mentor and would help you work through your design problems for hours after work (not just straight up giving you the solution, but helping you work through the problem the way a teacher would; unsurprising given his teaching background), often until 2am (I'm pretty sure he didn't sleep). He did have strong opinions, but that's par for the course for many accomplished people in their field.

Even outside of League, his designs were elegant and powerful (eg. TFT item system). It always pains me when people bash on CertainlyT in this sub (though of course you can have your opinion), but I think he has unironically done so much good for League over the years (at least for ~3 years for when our tenure has overlapped, his entire life was basically dedicated to making League better from waking to sleeping) and for that I'm eternally thankful.

EDIT: He's not dead, he just doesn't work on League anymore, so we don't see him as often :D

Originally posted by GreaterBelugaWhale

You really have no idea who certainlyT is do you? He’s by far the most acclaimed designer, creating unique actionable ideas without the August Browning touch of unbalancable, and by far the best champ designer at riot, Yasuo Zed Zoe Thresh Darius and many others are examples of top tier design and fantasy fulfillment beyond their years while maintaining peak balance.

Originally posted by bz6

/u/Reav3

Will CertainlyT ever come back boss?

Send him my regards either way, I love the way he approaches problems <3

This video and the interview with Travis were very good :D

Originally posted by bz6

You know what's funny? Even as an outsider I just feel he's jut so inspiring to work with. I am sure he improved everyone around him and I feel besides champions, he could've done some major damage in the item update this pre-season. I am also sad he left but hopefully he can return.

Much respect for you as well boss I think you're very good at your job.

/u/Reav3

Originally posted by bz6

Wow what interesting but dangerous idea. Love it, thanks for sharing. Like that level of problem solving is what LoL needs to go another 10 years. Obviously not every radical change is good, they can sometimes be change for the sake of change.

But You know what would spice up the jg again? Those smite buffs we had on camps. I feel they add much needed strategy back into the jungle and rewarded invading. I digress though.

What are the main goals for new champions coming to 2021. I love that the team is dedicated to releasing 6 a year. I think that's healthy. Really hoping you can change the cadence to release more monster champs. I know it's a tired topic but it would really bring back that fantasy aspect that League had. Tone down the anime feel. I know the art direction of LoL has changed but in the end I think a high level fantasy is what it should stay.

/u/Reav3