[2019] Got questions about champions? AMA

Also. because Champion Popularity is usually a hot topic which may result in me posting images showing Champion Popularity, here’s a link to a blog Novaasterix and Nancymon did on Champ Popularity, and how to read out internal Breadth and Depth Charts.

https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2017/11/champ-popularity-mixing-math-art/

I will have a new Champion roadmap out tomorrow that will go into detail on upcoming VGUs and New Champions

It’s kind of a never ending cycle since as time goes on new champions look and feel better and better which causes older Champions to feel more and more dated

Overall in my eyes Aatrox wasn't the perfect rework but not a failure, actually overall a good one. Don't expect a revert.

Things that went well -Super fun and iconic new playstyle weaving sword attacks and dashes -More deep and sticky playstyle has created a larger and more sticky set of Aatrox mains (we see this in the data) -More clear counterplay for opponents

Things we would do better if we could go back in time -Keep more of the oldtrox gameplay fundamentals there (aa based etc). We made something new and fun but unfortunately a lot of old mains feel left out. -He ended up not having enough weaknesses at super high skill play, making him dominant in pro while not really being viable for normal players

I will be talking about Voli/Fiddle and 3 New Champs in details, but also a small little tidbit of 2 new champs we have in development for after Voli/Fiddle

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Currently Garen changes seem to be going well - we simplified and cleaned up the villain mechanics (which no one seems to miss).

We're having to nerf him some but he should still have the profile that we want - even though we're puling some early game damage he's still a lane bully (just not an unstoppable god)

Zoe, Akali & Pyke were some of my favorite Champions of all time to work on.

The origin of Pyke was really interesting, in that, at that time there was a high level goal for the entire gameplay initiative at Riot to make support a more appealing position. This was because when we introduced position select to the game it caused queue time to go up since so few people were selecting support. That's what led me to create the opportunity space for Pyke, which was to create a support Assassin. Assassins tend to be our most popular role, and Champions that tend to get a lot of kills tend to be extremely popular as well, so I thought, if we make a support that can kill people it would cause more people to play support. This actually worked out and Pyke has caused the support role to have a slightly higher queue rate then before he existed. So good guy Pyke has made queue times better for everyone.

Zoe was fun because I think we were really pushing the boundaries of our art style and themes with Zoe, which I think is good, because that can expand the overall IP, similar to what Jinx did for the IP years ago.

I loved working on Akali, because I just love Ninja themes, and Anime (yeah I'm a total weeb.) I'm also a mid lane Assassin Main, so it felt like I got to work on a Champion that was just for me, and I have played nothing but Akali since her release.

Can't speak for music as I can't remember the composers red name but the concept art was done by LoneWingy. She's now the Concept Art Lead on Champions Team right now. I love a lot of her work which include, ASol, Nami, EvelynnVGU, Qiyana, Kayle/MorganaVGU, GalioVGU and many more

Default we go to mana - it's generally good to have the long term attrition.

When we have something special like rage or in the few cases where we want a more spammy "action spell" champ (usually melee).

Gameplay hooks can come from a variety of spaces. Like RiotScruffy mentioned one way is from designer brainstorm meetings they hold pretty often. Sometimes they can come from product strategy, like Pyke's hook came from the opportunity space I created to make a support Assassin. Others can be derived from a thematic/visual pitch. Kai'Sas hook, for example, came from the idea that BravoRay came up with when he was doing concept exploration for the champion. He came into one DNA meeting with this awesome drawing of this "Void Diver" her called it and said that it was Kassadins daughter. The concept looks so bad ass, that the whole pod got excited about it which led to RiotJag coming up with the Ultimate which was basically her "diving into the void"

It really depends on the designer. August, for example, prefers to start with cool concept art, then derive a gameplay hook that he feels matches the character art. He's always like "Draw me a awesome character and I'll make you a fun kit"

Fingers crosses she is in a good place right now. She is still seeing some competitive play, while also having a healthy playrate in SoloQ. I know SoloQ winrate is low, but she is a hard champ to master, so that's to be expected

Not anytime soon, no

It does include the Non-traditonal Marksmen. It wasn't a typo, though 2 are really just mentions, kind of like how I mentioned we were working on a Assassin (Which later was Qiyana), but didnt go into detail on it. Just kind on mentioning the classes on the 2 Champions after Voli/Fiddle

The ones we ended up reverting, like Rengar, Zac, LeBlanc. Sure there are lessons we learned on almost every VGU or Rework we did, or places we think we could have improved, but for the most part we think all of the big VGU's put the Champions into better places then they were before the VGU, even if there was room for improvement

I usually come up with the Goals for the Champions. Anyone on the team can pitch ideas, but I am the one that puts them together into opportunity spaces and then into a larger Champion Roadmap. I share this with my entire leadership team though as well as our Stakeholders, get feedback, then refine it. After it has been refined I share it with the whole team.

I think Skarner needs a full VGU at some point, as I dont think a small rework is enough to get his kit to where it needs to be. He also needs a lot of work on the visual/theme side as well

Overall we feel it's important to keep the game feeling modern and fresh since we believe that LoL has the ability to last a very long time. This means that we feel it's good for the long term to update things that are old and dated in our game like old Morde and breath fresh life into them. We feel this is important enough to do, even it it does cause change aversion among some of the mains of a Champion. It's also something that the community asks for and wants as player demand for VGUs is always very high when we survey players.

Aatrox though is a case where we felt we strayed too far from his previous game play identity. While he was pretty successful from a engagement perspective, we decided not to push Champions that far from there identity in future reworks.

So far we are optimistic about them but it hasn't been long enough to fully evaluate.

when will you LET ME MAKE A VAMPIRE ALREADY!!!

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whew. Looks like the upcoming one is safe.

Inspiration can come from a variety of places, and I personally think that having it come from multiple places leads to a more diverse and exciting release schedule. Every Champion starts with a opportunity space that I create as the Product Lead for Champions Team.

For example the opportunity space for Zoe was to create a high mechanics mid lane with a cute/adorable thematic. As I felt this was something missing from League, with all our high mechanics mid laners champions being edge lords/dark themes. This opportunity space then goes to a "Core Pod" consisting of a Kit designer, concept artist, and narrative writer. They all then brainstorm ideas that fit the opportunity space. They all kind of inspire each other and that's how the Champion eventually forms

I really just want artists to tell me what to do TBH.

I think release Syndra might have been under 30% (it's either her or Yuumi with the lowest release winrate). Syndra was due to a combination of being undertuned, hard to play, and buggy in ways that prevented her from combo'ing her spells. Yuumi on the other hand was likely due to being entirely dependent on her allies needing to know what she was trying to do.

There was a patch where Karthus literally could not be killed due to a bug. Even while being invincible his winrate only hit 80-85% or so.

;)

Ask me again tomorrow

Yes, I love playing her to much to stop

When you find "the mechanic" and the whole champion falls into place and everyone starts getting hyped to play it. This was stuff like Ekko R, Jhin passive, and Jinx passive for me.

I remember a Jinx playtest where Squad5 had just helped me get in her current passive after like 5 failed other passives. She killed a Xerath, went so fast that she lost control of her character, ran into a tower and died. It was perfect!

i'm sad

I think Jhin comes off as exceptional because of how well his "non-gameplay" side came through. The VFX/SFX/Anims/VO fit him soooo well and make you feel like you're in the head of the virtuoso murder man.

Jhin came from a basic concept of "The perfect sniper." The idea was that he was a guy who was such a good shot that he would think up creative ways to shoot things to keep himself entertained. We also knew we wanted him to be mysterious/off-putting/weird. Pretty sure almost all concepts of him from day 1 had him in some kind of mask, bandanna, or robotic covering. He eventually started to transform into "the crazy art guy" when we locked his 4th shot mechanic. We knew we wanted to make a sniper, and we knew his 4th shot would be his strongest, but what competent sniper saves the best shot for last? Narrative came up with the idea that he was OCD about the number 4 and was wanted to make every kill artistically perfect (Which mean waiting for the 4th shot). We then added 4's to the rest of his kit (Q bounces 4 times, R has 4 shots) to make people feel like they're constantly counting throughout the game.

Speaking of Morde, I just wanted to say thank you again for coming in and giving us great feedback on the VGU. As seen in the imgur link below Morde was one of our most successful VGUs of all time and I believe that part of that came success from your visit with the team.

https://imgur.com/a/sSfZqfq

She on the list but not super high. I think she could be really cool when her time comes, might throw her on the next "Choose a VGU" poll to gauge community interest, though I haven't finalized who will be on the next one yet

Zoe's hook is her super long range burst. The summoners spells are more of a unique input that make her feel very different to play then other Champions, which is also important, but isn't really a super unique output

I'm optimistic right now because his depth is higher then it has been in along time as seen in the link below. This means that's while his playrate is similar, people that are playing him are playing him more often, which could mean some are finding him more satisfying to play. This may drop back to historical numbers though, which we will monitor.

https://imgur.com/a/Dgycd4W

For sure. I'm not saying every Champ will need a VGU, I'm just saying that Champs sometimes get added to the list over the years

I don't think its required that every Assassin has the same points in the game where they are strong. Kat has been in a good place as a late-game scaling Assassin for awhile now.

Rammus, Olaf, Quinn, Cho'Gath, Shaco, Skarner

For sure

No, this is no longer handled by Champions Team. I think Splash team wants to start these back up again sometime, but I don't want to speak for that team

These type of abilities are hard to master and risk the "my teammate screwed me" downside, but they are very unique and add interest to all other 9 players when we do them right.

A key component to doing theses type of spells right is allowing allies to see them coming and react to them. So bard R is also dodgeable for allies - similarly kindred R has a clear timer that allies can learn and play around.

Shield and Shoulder start with the same letters. Just saying.

Keep digging, the truth is out there.

Kai'Sa is a bad comparison because ADCs have a lot of transferable skills, since they mostly rely on Orb walking and AAs, which once mastered easily transfer to other ADCs. This is why ADCs have much less winrate variance, with the exception of Kalista because her passive actually effects the AA core loop, which makes the skill not transfer well. Champions who rely on there abilties have much less transferable skills, so when a new player picks up Akali they can't rely super heavily on previous masteries.

Currently both Akali and Irelia have very healthy and strong playrate, and while they are hard to master many players genreally find them worth putting in time to learn, so I don't think it's that big of a problem. I think both of those Champions are strong once mastered right now, and giving them strong SOloQ winrates would make them absurdly strong in players hands that take the time to master them. I don't think it's bad for the game to have difficult to master Champions because some players love those types of Champs.

For example her is both Akali and Irelias breadth and depth right now

Irelia https://imgur.com/a/6jaopsl Akali https://imgur.com/a/yNT9XOd

Well it can't get a no-go from leadership, I show that to them to get there feedback and thoughts. When I said that I meant the Champions Team Leads, which I consult with to create the Champions Roadmap and Strategy. I don't think stakeholders have every given a no-go to a design, but we have gotten plenty of design feedback from Meddler, for example, that have caused us to change or alter a design, for the better imo.

Well currently Vlad's gameplay is pretty solid, which is what is currently keeping him of the list

Currently Kassadin doesn't even know his daughter is alive, so it wouldn't make sense for his VO to change right now

Fun fact: RiotScruffy was actually the designer on the Sion VGU

With Aatrox of survey data showed that players really liked his theme of demon blade wielder, but really disliked his gameplay. He was like is the bottom 3 lowest scores of all Champions for gameplay. I wanted to try something with Aatrox based on that data, which was basically the "Start over" with his theme, since the theme was so liked while the gameplay was so disliked. The idea was to basically take his visual theme, and create a fully new kit that really delivered on that visual theme.

In the end that was extremely successful as he had one of the largest jumps in playrate of any VGU we have done, if you look at is historical average playrate pre and post VGU. Unfortunately, this upset not only mains for the Champions but a lot of the community that didn't even play him and created a mistrust for future VGUs, where players were afraid there Champ would change as much as Aatrox did.

Since we know from data that a majority of players play a Champ for visual theme, we felt that even though his kit changed a lot that having the kit truly deliver on the demon with a giant sword theme would outweigh the negatives of changing his kit so much. We were wrong, which led to burned trust with the community. So even though he was successful from a engagement perspective, we don't think doing VGUs like that in the future are worth burning community trust.

Had it gone positively with the community we would be looking to do more things like that to Champions like ASol, for example, who also has extremely high theme score but very low gameplay scores

Yuumi ended up a familiar, but she didn't start that way. She just started with the goals of making a enchanter who remains attached to a ally more then 50% of the game. We also wanted to make a enchanter for our core enchanter audience since we didn't feel like we have made a Champion for those players since Nami. She ended up a familiar as the Discovery phase went on. RiotEarp while exploring different concept for the Champ had one image of a fat lazy Cat, which the whole pod loved, as the cats are generally thought of as lazy, which thematically fit perfectly for a Champ that never really walks themselves in game. This is what led to explore Yuumi and then narrative was excited about the idea of her being some witches familiar since she was a magic cat.

Me too, at least the last Champion he designed is his most ambitious one to date

Best designed Champ in LoL? Though probably controversial in this subreddit but to me it's probably Yasuo. He has had a solid winrate in all elos of SoloQ for along time, which is hard to accomplish for a non-ADC. He sees some competitive play without being pick/ban. He also really embodies the feeling of playing a Samurai and is the most played Champion in the game.

I think she is in a great place right now. I still play her whenever Akali is banned :P

There are so many! I don't think we could ever run out

We discuss that a lot actually. I hope we can fully realize that fantasy at some point in the future

I for sure want to VGU him at some point, there are just Champions that need it more right now. He is creeping up on the VGU priority list though

The Champion Design process begins with a opportunity space which I create as the product lead. This space is based on a overall Champion Roadmap which ensures we have different classes, themes, tones, genders and such. That opportunity space then goes to a "Core pod" consisting on a designer, narrative writer and concept artists and they start ideating against the opportunity spaces. For example, Zoe's opportunity space was to make a cute/adorable high mechanics mid laner, since it was a space we felt didn't exist in league

Well we have a lot of bird like champions (Xayah, Rakan, Azir, Quinn) but only one bird Champion (Anivia)

The Champion Design process begins with a opportunity space which I create as the product lead. This space is based on a overall Champion Roadmap which ensures we have different classes, themes, tones, genders and such. That opportunity space then goes to a "Core pod" consisting on a designer, narrative writer and concept artists and they start ideating against the opportunity spaces. For example, Zoe's opportunity space was to make a cute/adorable high mechanics mid laner, since it was a space we felt didn't exist in league

Neeko and Mordekaiser were 2 Champs that we were surprized by there popularity. Both were targeted at being "Niche" Champions but both ended up a lot more broadly appealing then we anticipated

Yuumi has a Gun, not a shield.

This is not true at all. There are many busted Champs with very low pickrates, for example, here is the historical playrate of Taliyah and Kayn. Kayn has never really been busted since his release, where as Taliyah was for awhile a extremely strong mid laner.

https://imgur.com/a/C5cVbRO

Or even Aatrox when we nerfed him to a point he was basically unplayable in SoloQ and competitive had a higher playrate then pre-VGU Aatrox which u can see here

https://imgur.com/a/TCWGAp3

Yeah I think making him more "Cute" would certainly make him more appealing which would help a lot in getting him played more. I also think some kind of evolving thing would work well for him

Sorry I don't work on skins team

I'm also a Zoe/Akali main :P

I don't think Irelia falls into that catergory. I think we preserved a lot of her precious gameplay pattern with her VGU. She is different, as all VGUs have some degree of change, but I think amount Irelia changed is typical for all VGUs, and even on that spectrum less them Champions like Morde/Sion. Aatrox is example where it felt like a 100% different Champ rather then a modified/updated version of the Champ

I don't think anything is ever ruled out, I would always welcome him back to Champions team if it made sense in the future

By who? Players in Surveys? Our internal KPIs? Playrate jump?

Sure, but some of the Champions I mentioned do have positive winrates once mastered

She didnt do the splashes, she did the concept art for the Champs. RiotOwleyKat did Eves splash (She also did Akali, Yuumi, Zoe & Irelias splash, to name a few) Atey did Qiyanas splash

Same, I'm hoping we can get her into a good spot one day (hell maybe she is there now) It took a long time to get Yasuo and Thresh into good balance spots but both were worth it in the end, since they are also really fun and resonate Champs

He didnt get kicked off the team. He was part of the core team that did early exploration into TFT, and then when it was greenlit for production he stayed with that team and worked on the item system and carousal. I still feel that was 100% the right decision as TFT has had a much larger impact the a individual Champion in LoL, even if he makes some of the best ones. He did so well at that, that LoL leadership felt it was better for him to go to RnD to explore new things for now

I mean Stashu made small changes, the kinds of changes every Champion goes through when we they go into production, but most of the kit stayed intact, and the high level concept, which is very ambitious still remains

Sure, but it doesn't effect they way other players in the game play that much, it's mostly isolated to Zoe (which is what we call a unique input) Gameplay hooks are usually unique outputs, which mean they cause the other players in the game to play differently. For example, Yuumi's Q is very unique is that it follows your mouse, this feels very unique for Yuumi since no other Champion can do this, but playing with or against it doesn't feel to different then most skill shots. Yuumis Attach mechanic on the other hand makes the players in game playing with and against Yuumi think about the game different and play different, which makes it a unique output. Unique outputs are good because that is what causes gameplay variation from game to game, and keeps LoL from becoming boring, since u have to think about the game differently depending on which Champs are in the game. We generally want every Champion to have a unique input and output it gives game variety (due to the output) but also makes the Champion feel unique for the player playing them as well (due to the unique input)

Ill let them know! The next Champ coming out that LoneWingy did Concept art for is one of my personal favorites yet!

I think Poppy was the highest we have ever done in survey scores. Akali and Irelia were extremely high as well, as they were really resonate and loved at launch, most of the concerns came later once we had to nerf them a lot.

As far as playrate jumps Mordekaiser and Aatrox were the 2 highest jumps, but both of them had a lot of room to grow. Irelia and Akali are the 2 most popular VGUS we have ever done, both of which have had very high playates, despite the nerfs, since there launch. There jumps weren't as high because neither started from as low as a playrate as many other VGUs.

As a bonus here is the Urgot playrate jump, which was also very big

https://imgur.com/a/4BwJ6A1

I posted a comment in the top of this chat that explains how to read the chart. Each point on the graph is a patch, the thicker the bar the more recent the patch. X axis is total games the Champion gets played in a patch and Y axis is the amount of times the same Champion gets played by the same player

Yeah it looks like Sylas was overnerfed, we will msot likely look into some small buffs to him at some point soon

Sure

Urgot https://imgur.com/a/4BwJ6A1 Nunu/Swain https://imgur.com/a/zo5MTAQ

The Champ she is working on is not a ADC, I will talk about that Champ in the Roadmap tomorrow though

We define them by both, but it is much harder to create a unique output, which is why we generally build kits around that. The designers on Champions team generally don't find it difficult to come up with exciting and unique inputs. Its required for a champion to have one, but it's not essential to green lighting a champion

I think he has had a strong effect on most all the designers he has worked with on Champions Team

Malphite probably

You mean like bigger changes then the recent Ivern/Asol changes we did?

I will have a update on them in the Champion Roadmap tomorrow

Currently we don't have either in the works. I would love to do a Lee Sin VU someday, though I wouldn't touch his gameplay

It hasn't been released yet ;)

Not sure if Garen/Yuumi is healthy for the game long term but in general I think Champions that create unique and interesting strategies are good for the game. Wish we had more, tbh.

If her pro play presence remains very low we will likely have room for some small buffs. We will keep an eye on it

It wasn't. Zoe's theme was inpsired by the anime magical girl archetype. We saw how popular the Star Guardian skinline was with players, which made us realize how resonate the magical girl archetype was with our players. We didn't really have that archetype in the game as a Champion yet, so it was something we wanted to explore and we felt it worked really well with Zoe's opportunity space

Be sure to check out the Champ Roadmap tomorrow :P

Like the high level concept of Sylas is "Stealing Ultimate's" or for Yuumi it's "Permanent attachment"

Tomorrow in the Champions Roadmap

The aspect lets Zoe have control a lot of the time because it finds her entertaining when she is in control

A lot of time they are the same, but not always

One of the best designers I have been lucky enough to work with in my entire career in game development.

Sure but she isnt the only burst mage with a strong CC (Morgana/Syndra)

The next 2 VGUs will be Fiddle and Voli, the 2 that won the player choice vote

yasuo

Most juggernauts tend to be niche outside of Garen/Darius. Also Morde was historically pretty Niche

U will find out soon

Hmm, well Urgot's playrate was almost non-existent. Urgot was also a much older and outdated Champion than Aatrox.