League of legends dodge: Changelog — League of Legends DODGING

Queue dodging | League of Legends Wiki

Queue Dodging is the act of leaving the champion select screen by interrupting the connection with the server. Doing this will cancel the match. The act can be caused intentionally or by the result of a technical mishap such as server shutdown or computer crash. Dodging is generally disliked due to the disruption it causes to matchmaking integrity. A player will be penalized according to how often they have dodged recently.

Contents

• 1 Methods
• 2 Penalties
  • 2.1 Time penalties
  • 2.2 Other penalties
    • 2.2.1 Normal game penalties
    • 2.2.2 ARAM game penalties
    • 2.2.3 Ranked solo/duo & flex queue game penalties
• 3 Ready Check Failure
• 4 Reasons
  • 4.1 Intentional
  • 4.2 Unintentional

Methods

The quickest and most common method to queue dodge is to close the client before champion select is over. The player can also fail to lock in a pick before the timer runs out, which will also cancel champion select.

Penalties

Penalties for queue dodging vary according to the game type, although certain aspects are shared. See the Leaver Buster page for additional details. If two or more people dodge simultaneously (e.g.: not picking a champion and letting the timer run out), they will all receive a dodge penalty. Dodge penalty tiers stack among queues (e.g.: if you dodge once in a normal game, then proceed to dodge in a ranked game, then your dodge penalty tier will be that of 2 games), and you will be punished according to the queue you dodged last.

Time penalties

All queues dodges give time penalties that prevent matchmaking immediately afterward. These are increased for subsequent queue dodges within a 24-hour window. This time penalty is shared among the various queues. Dodge penalty tiers will automatically decrease by one tier every 12 hours.

Time Penalty Tiers

Queue type	First dodge	Second dodge	Every dodge after
Normal	6 minutes	30 minutes	720 minutes
Ranked	6 minutes -3 LP	30 minutes -10 LP	720 minutes -10 LP
ARAM	15 minutes	30 minutes	720 minutes
Co-Op vs. AI	6 minutes	30 minutes	720 minutes
Featured Game Mode	6 minutes	30 minutes	720 minutes

Other penalties

Besides time penalties that prevent you from queuing again immediately, there are also other penalties to be suffered. These penalties depend on the queue type dodged.

Normal game penalties

• A time penalty is to be suffered (see above).

ARAM game penalties

• Only a time penalty is to be suffered (see above)
• If rerolls were used during the select, they will be lost.
  • If someone else dodges, your spent rerolls will be refunded.

Ranked solo/duo & flex queue game penalties

• A time penalty for the player (see above).
• A League Points penalty is applied to the player who dodges, -3 points for the first time and -10 for the second time before the timer reset. This penalty cannot make a player drop ranks but will stack in negative numbers. This is capped at -100 LP.
• In a Qualifier Series the penalty is 10 League Points and it will count as 1 loss, this will end your series if you were 1 loss away from losing it. 
• You will not lose MMR for queue dodging.

Ready Check Failure

When a matchmaking system finds suitable opponents, all participating players will be subject to a «Ready Check» where they must confirm their availability. In order to prevent abuse, missing a Ready Check too many times results in a timed queue ban, as well as an LP loss in Ranked queues. The exact penalties are:

• Declining or missing the Ready Check too many times in a Ranked queue will result in a 6 minute ban from all queues and a loss of 3 LP.
• The penalty is increased to 10 LP for continuing to miss Ready Checks.
• Each subsequent miss increases the length of the timed queue ban and imposes a 10 LP penalty.

Ready Checks penalties from any queue affects the entire account. This means that penalties from normal queues will carry over to Ranked queues and may result in harsher penalties.

Reasons

Intentional

Queue dodging is known to be intentionally abused for a number of reasons where a player may be dissatisfied with the setup of the match. There are two key aspects to consider: Champion composition and Teammate conduct; both can go hand-in-hand.

A player may not feel confident playing with certain champion compositions selected by either their team or the opponents. This concern is less mitigatable in ARAM due to the nature of random champion selection. Some players may also desire to play an already selected champion, either due to experience, or more often with a newly released champion or skin that many would covet to try.

Dissent among teammates is perhaps the biggest cause of friction, especially among matchmade teammates. A player may not feel confident in playing with whom they perceive as trolling, unskilled, or confrontational teammates. There is much controversy over this subject, as this reason can be argued for justification, to which players believe that they should not be punished for avoiding further disfunction due to the misconduct of other players.

Unintentional

A player may desire to play the game, but there are some circumstances that would prevent them from commitment.

Technical problems such as computer crashes and server issues may be outside of the player’s control. The client may also malfunction into a state that prevents the player from continuing champ select—this type of issue in particular has been a long-standing concern.

Other arrangements such as social obligations or time constraints would force the player to abandon the game. A player may also leave for a more favorable game that arises during champ select.

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.

Queue dodging | League of Legends Wiki

Queue Dodging is the act of leaving the champion select screen by interrupting the connection with the server. Doing this will cancel the match. The act can be caused intentionally or by the result of a technical mishap such as server shutdown or computer crash. Dodging is generally disliked due to the disruption it causes to matchmaking integrity. A player will be penalized according to how often they have dodged recently.

Contents

• 1 Methods
• 2 Penalties
  • 2.1 Time penalties
  • 2.2 Other penalties
    • 2.2.1 Normal game penalties
    • 2.2.2 ARAM game penalties
    • 2.2.3 Ranked solo/duo & flex queue game penalties
• 3 Ready Check Failure
• 4 Reasons
  • 4.1 Intentional
  • 4.2 Unintentional

Methods

The quickest and most common method to queue dodge is to close the client before champion select is over. The player can also fail to lock in a pick before the timer runs out, which will also cancel champion select.

Penalties

Penalties for queue dodging vary according to the game type, although certain aspects are shared. See the Leaver Buster page for additional details. If two or more people dodge simultaneously (e.g.: not picking a champion and letting the timer run out), they will all receive a dodge penalty. Dodge penalty tiers stack among queues (e.g.: if you dodge once in a normal game, then proceed to dodge in a ranked game, then your dodge penalty tier will be that of 2 games), and you will be punished according to the queue you dodged last.

Time penalties

All queues dodges give time penalties that prevent matchmaking immediately afterward. These are increased for subsequent queue dodges within a 24-hour window. This time penalty is shared among the various queues. Dodge penalty tiers will automatically decrease by one tier every 12 hours.

Time Penalty Tiers

Queue type	First dodge	Second dodge	Every dodge after
Normal	6 minutes	30 minutes	720 minutes
Ranked	6 minutes -3 LP	30 minutes -10 LP	720 minutes -10 LP
ARAM	15 minutes	30 minutes	720 minutes
Co-Op vs. AI	6 minutes	30 minutes	720 minutes
Featured Game Mode	6 minutes	30 minutes	720 minutes

Other penalties

Besides time penalties that prevent you from queuing again immediately, there are also other penalties to be suffered. These penalties depend on the queue type dodged.

Normal game penalties

• A time penalty is to be suffered (see above).

ARAM game penalties

• Only a time penalty is to be suffered (see above)
• If rerolls were used during the select, they will be lost.
  • If someone else dodges, your spent rerolls will be refunded.

Ranked solo/duo & flex queue game penalties

• A time penalty for the player (see above).
• A League Points penalty is applied to the player who dodges, -3 points for the first time and -10 for the second time before the timer reset. This penalty cannot make a player drop ranks but will stack in negative numbers. This is capped at -100 LP.
• In a Qualifier Series the penalty is 10 League Points and it will count as 1 loss, this will end your series if you were 1 loss away from losing it. 
• You will not lose MMR for queue dodging.

Ready Check Failure

When a matchmaking system finds suitable opponents, all participating players will be subject to a «Ready Check» where they must confirm their availability. In order to prevent abuse, missing a Ready Check too many times results in a timed queue ban, as well as an LP loss in Ranked queues. The exact penalties are:

• Declining or missing the Ready Check too many times in a Ranked queue will result in a 6 minute ban from all queues and a loss of 3 LP.
• The penalty is increased to 10 LP for continuing to miss Ready Checks.
• Each subsequent miss increases the length of the timed queue ban and imposes a 10 LP penalty.

Ready Checks penalties from any queue affects the entire account. This means that penalties from normal queues will carry over to Ranked queues and may result in harsher penalties.

Reasons

Intentional

Queue dodging is known to be intentionally abused for a number of reasons where a player may be dissatisfied with the setup of the match. There are two key aspects to consider: Champion composition and Teammate conduct; both can go hand-in-hand.

A player may not feel confident playing with certain champion compositions selected by either their team or the opponents. This concern is less mitigatable in ARAM due to the nature of random champion selection. Some players may also desire to play an already selected champion, either due to experience, or more often with a newly released champion or skin that many would covet to try.

Dissent among teammates is perhaps the biggest cause of friction, especially among matchmade teammates. A player may not feel confident in playing with whom they perceive as trolling, unskilled, or confrontational teammates. There is much controversy over this subject, as this reason can be argued for justification, to which players believe that they should not be punished for avoiding further disfunction due to the misconduct of other players.

Unintentional

A player may desire to play the game, but there are some circumstances that would prevent them from commitment.

Technical problems such as computer crashes and server issues may be outside of the player’s control. The client may also malfunction into a state that prevents the player from continuing champ select—this type of issue in particular has been a long-standing concern.

Other arrangements such as social obligations or time constraints would force the player to abandon the game. A player may also leave for a more favorable game that arises during champ select.

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.

how League of Legends is balanced — Gamedev at DTF

Greg Street on how to make the game accessible to all users.

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At GDC 2017, Greg «Ghostcrawler» Street from Riot Games spoke about the work of the team responsible for League of Legends game design. He explained how the company collects data, responds to fan requests, and tries not to go crazy balancing a game with over a hundred heroes.

We summarized the talk. nine0003

There are seven leagues in League of Legends: from bronze to challenger. A typical example of a player from the latter is Bae Seong-ung, who plays under the nickname Bengi. He was a three-time World Champion with the Korean team SKT and obviously plays very well in League of Legends.

The problem arises: how to make the game equally interesting for people whose skill level differs not by ten or twenty percent, but by a thousand.

In League of Legends, players control champions like Leona in the image above. There are 144 of them in total, and new ones are constantly appearing. nine0003

Why balance matters

Street perceives the balance as a kind of «contract» that the developers enter into with the player. Users receive benefits in exchange for money or time. If a person has upgraded a warlock in World of Warcraft for ten years, he should be sure that he will be able to play for him regardless of changes in the game balance.

League of Legends is a PvP game where player skill is very important. According to Street, people play LoL partly to show off their skills. So, the balance should not preclude the need to play well. nine0003

When the game is poorly balanced, it is easy to decide the outcome of the match — take the best character, items and win. Users get bored quickly and quit the game.

Balance encourages involvement: when a person gets bored of a champion, he can choose another. And if they are approximately equal in strength, he will not be bored.

In addition, Riot cares about the trust of the players. If the game is not balanced, it means that its creators do not care about the users. Unfortunately, this is a rather complicated process. nine0003

Balance for different skill levels

Professional League of Legends players can do things that regular users can’t. Therefore, the balance in eSports means something completely different.

The level of gaming skill can be broken down into many categories: making the right decisions, communicating with the team, speed of reflexes, and so on. In addition, individual game techniques are more difficult to perform.
Developers often compensate for the increased power of a hero ability by making it harder to use.
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The picture above shows a typical skill shot. Instead of just clicking on the enemy with the mouse and guaranteed to hit him, the player needs to aim, predict where the opponent will go, and so on.

However, the matter is not limited to skill shots. Anything that involves performing multiple actions at the same time (or frequently using abilities) is much easier for professional players.

Many powerful champion abilities have a cast time — if the hero is attacked, they either do not trigger or lose their effect. On the professional stage, their activation will almost certainly be interrupted. nine0003

It’s not just about mechanical skills. Experienced players know the complex tactics, strengths and weaknesses of the characters, and reflexively adapt to them.

Pictured above is Garen. He is very strong in the lower leagues but weak in the higher leagues. His ability to spin in a whirlwind even became a meme «spin-to-win» («spin and win»). However, experienced players know how to dodge it, and it is ineffective against them.

Street cites a problem he encountered while working on Age of Empires 2.

One of the unit’s most powerful features is its ranged attack and high movement speed. Mounted archers in Age of Empires 2 had both. The rest of the units could not compare with them.

League of Legends also has
long-range and highly mobile characters such as Vayne and Lucian. Under the control of experienced players, they can deal a lot of damage with almost no loss of health.

Interestingly, most people play LoL alone, and their experience is very different from the impressions of professional players who play and train only in a team. They are so «played» that they seem to read each other’s thoughts. nine0003

Inexperienced players behave differently because they don’t know if they can rely on other team members.

Kog’Maw

The character in the picture above is a typical «glass cannon», deals a lot of damage but dies quickly. It is difficult for them to play single users, because the team may not protect them.

Experienced players are very well versed in the game economy. And economic advantage is the key to victory.

Gold in the game is given for killing and accumulates gradually over time. Players earn it and buy artifacts to become stronger. Of course, experienced players do it faster, but they also resort to another trick. All but one champion try not to get gold, and the remaining one finishes the goal, gets a lot of gold and an early advantage. nine0003

The best guilds in World of Warcraft do the same: during raids, they give the best loot to the main tank or key DPS.

This is very hard to take into account when creating a game, and even harder to balance.

AI is responsible for some abilities (for example, turrets). Their effectiveness doesn’t scale well with skill level. If you make them powerful enough for experienced players, then they will simply destroy people from the bronze league. On the other hand, if you leave the turrets at an average level, the pros will not use them. nine0003

The same applies to powerful abilities that last for a very short period of time.

The early stages of a match are very important. This is when experienced players get an advantage, which then accumulates out of control. Often this is compensated by the fact that players with an advantage can make mistakes, die and give the opponent more gold for a kill — but the pros play almost perfectly.

Similar problems exist in strategies like Starcraft, where a small economic advantage at the beginning of the match brings huge benefits towards the end of the game. nine0003

Do not forget about the hardware. Shortly before Street’s speech, Riot did a study and found out that the ratio of wins and losses correlates with the speed of the Internet in the country: in South Korea, the connection is very stable, compared to, for example, the United States.

There is a more unusual problem. Due to the high level of skill of experienced players, the number of their mistakes is reduced to a minimum, and sometimes to zero. Often the result of the match determines exactly which team will make a mistake first — sometimes it’s enough just to click in the wrong place. nine0003

Therefore, high-level players should have an additional «layer» of gameplay — strategies, choosing the right champions and combinations that also determine the result.

Mass audience balance

Players in any PvP game have different skill levels. This is true even for indie projects with a small user base.

And about a hundred million people play League of Legends. At the same time, the rules are the same for everyone, unlike, say, basketball, where the playing field for beginners is different from the field for professionals. nine0003

League of Legends users often act in cycles: play, then watch streams or broadcasts of championships, and then log back into the game. A NASCAR fan doesn’t drive a race car on the weekends — in this sport, the mass audience participates only as spectators. In LoL, they can play under the same conditions as professional players.

Moreover, they learn from the pros. And many understand that if they play well enough, they themselves will get into eSports.

How Riot balances League of Legends

First, Riot has its own «philosophy» of the game, and Street encourages all developers — both studios and individuals — to formulate a single vision for the product.

Key aspects of League of Legends game design:

• Mastery.
• Important decisions.
• Counters.
• Team game.

nine0105 Transparency.

• Evolution.

All game changes are checked against this list. Therefore, according to Street, the game is constantly evolving, and developers do not have to regularly cancel unsuccessful updates.

Once the «philosophy» is thought out, one must adhere to it in everything. This will save game designers from constantly wanting to change elements of the game to test the consequences. Instead, they are looking for solutions to specific problems — for example, if the hero is too strong at a certain stage of the match. nine0003

Shared values ​​also influence the speed of a company’s development. No need to convene a board of directors — decisions, referring to the list, can be made by ordinary employees.

However, nothing is perfect, mistakes happen. We need a back-up plan to mitigate the negative consequences, KPIs (key performance indicators) and a clear understanding of what is being done and why. Why are the developers weakening the champion — so that it will be used 2% less often, or to make it easier for beginners to master it?

If KPIs are worked out, no one argues about whether the main goals of the game are being met. When creating a new champion, a game designer might say, “Her weakness: she dies too easily at the start of a match.” If the champion is too powerful, you can weaken his first active ability.

In practice, although at Riot they think about all the players, the developers correct the balance pointwise.

In the graph above, the white line shows how many and which players are typically affected by the change. And the red one shows which players are more sensitive to changes. If you increase the attack of the champion by 5 units, beginners will not notice this, but for the pros it can turn the game around. nine0003

There are also those who are at the junction of two curves: platinum and diamond leagues. Here the changes are noticed, and they affect a large number of players.

At the same time, Riot also monitors certain segments of the audience.
The developers take action if a champion dominates the Bronze League or is too strong in the hands of professionals.

PR is also important: it is necessary to explain to the audience why certain changes are made, which look strange out of context. nine0003

You also have to consider broadcast viewers. The company does not want to complicate the life of professional players, however, it is often guided by the entertainment of the game, changing the balance. For example, if the audience is interested in the endings of the matches, but they miss the first twenty minutes because they are too boring to watch. There are no problems with the balance, but something needs to be changed, since the cycle of games and views mentioned above is violated.

Balance is a complex matter, it cannot be given to one person at the end of the development cycle. You need a separate team, which is not always possible in indie studios. For the latter, Street advises relying more on user feedback, but it’s worth remembering that people will only suggest changes for their skill level, as they don’t care about the rest of the community. nine0003

Riot has a dedicated online balance team. She is responsible for the state of the game between patches — this is both the «first line of defense» and the «rapid response squad». The department is solving problems that cannot wait until the next patch or system solution. Usually, they have only three days to develop a fix — then it needs to be tested at different levels.

The online team is «covered» by a team of testers, consisting of very experienced players (some in the past — professional cybersportsmen). They
conduct a kind of beta test, give the first feedback and data on prepared patches. nine0003

Such a team of testers, according to Street, is very important, and he was able to convince all three of his employers — Ensemble Studios, Blizzard and Riot — of this. The fact is that game designers and quality assurance staff cannot play the game all day, so they get a distorted impression of it.

The developers understand that the changes somehow “break” the established order and make them deliberately so that the game does not “stagnate”. Usually the most serious balance changes occur before the start of the season or in its middle. The most important thing is to explain to the players the reasons for the changes, so that they understand that the developers are aware of the problems and are doing their best.
nine0003

Data

Riot collects huge amounts of user data — a separate team of analysts is working on this.

One of the most important indicators is the ratio of wins and losses. The developers strive to ensure that for each champion it is equal to 1:1 in all leagues. However, this indicator is not the only one, and, of course, does not fully reflect the situation.

Here, for example, is a graph of the ratio of wins and losses depending on the champion and the skill level of the player. Veigar is roughly up to the mark, and Twisted Fate is bad for Bronze players, but experienced players often win with it. nine0003

Aatrox’s asterisk means that although his win-loss ratio drops at higher skill levels, this data is not representative. Professional players take this champion too rarely, and detailed statistics cannot be collected.

And this is the ratio of wins and losses depending on the time of the game for the champion. For example, if a person takes Aurellion Sol, they will lose before they know how to control it. On the other hand, there is Volibear, which is easy to play after two or three matches. This is not the best quality for a champion, and Street promises that someday he will be remade. However, Aurelion Sol is also not perfect — its learning curve is too steep. nine0003

This is why it is so important to interpret the data correctly. If a person plays against the champion Lee Sin, most likely the opponent played three times as many matches for him — it takes so much to learn how to effectively manage him. Therefore, it is not Lee Sin who is too strong, but the player who took him is too experienced.

Which champions professional players choose also has an immediate impact on the game. Bronze and Silver people pick the same champs despite not being able to play them as effectively (which affects stats). nine0003

You need to understand what data to ignore. Riot does not use machine learning to balance League of Legends — instead, the company hires experienced people who can make decisions based on conflicting data.

For example, according to statistics, the champion Anivia has about 55% wins, but if the developers weaken her, this will cause bewilderment among the players. And they will be right, because she can be countered by many champions and tactics.

Is Anivia balanced? The data says no, but the intuition of the developers suggests that it is

Another problem arises: Riot does not release data to the public. This is done so that the company does not «dictate» the choice to the players. If they see the low performance of the champion, they will not take it.

What to change

Let’s say there is a problem with the balance. How to solve it? Is it a champion, an artifact, a synergy, or a dominant tactic?

Shortly before Riot’s performance, Poppy’s character was updated, and her win-loss ratio changed dramatically. It turned out that this was due to the Courage of the Colossus skill. It gives protection to a champion that casts a CC ability on an opponent, and Poppy has several of these skills. nine0003

It was necessary to change something, and discussions began within the team. What exactly is the problem: Poppy or Courage of the Colossus? The developers looked at the champion’s performance and it turned out that the peak of victories began even before Courage of the Colossus appeared. Therefore, the problem was both Poppy and this skill, so they weakened both of them.

Street is a strong supporter of game testing, and often plays LoL himself in order to understand how the game is perceived by ordinary users. However, he recommends that this not be abused, as it is very easy to start believing that one developer’s gaming experience is applicable to users. nine0003

At the same time, you need to listen to the players. Riot read the forums on their site, the Reddit sections dedicated to the game, the materials of journalists about it, and so on. It is not worth fulfilling all the requirements of the players, as well as completely ignoring them.

It is important to allow players who speak different languages ​​to have their say. Riot has regional offices: they report on issues or opinions that are common in a particular country.

The company runs beta tests, but Street says they’re good for catching bugs and understanding the overall user experience, not for balancing. Players usually don’t try very hard. If they have ten hours, they are more likely to play the regular version than the beta: there are fewer people on the beta servers, and matchmaking, accordingly, works worse. nine0003

The beta test performed well during evaluation of World of Warcraft PvE content, as many users practiced on it before adding new dungeons to the main version. Also, he is sure, it is not necessary to encourage people too much for participating in the beta test, especially financially.

Riot doesn’t always wait for players to speak up and often makes contact on their own. Players are invited into the studio to try out future updates, especially when it comes to radical changes to champions or game mechanics. The company has its own survey toolkit. nine0003

For example, shortly before Street’s performance, Riot decided to add random plants to the Summoner’s Rift map. As soon as the players learned about the plans of the company, they were outraged, but now polls show that the audience is satisfied with the mechanics.

Riot

works like this: changes are made first, and then the developers collect player impressions and new data. The cycle is repeated as needed.

Nidalee champion for example. She can throw a spear and turn into a panther, which increases her movement speed. She became the very “horse archer”, and something had to be changed. nine0003

The problem was not solved after the first attempt. After the second one too. Moreover, Nidalee is still not balanced.

Emotional factors

Sometimes the difficulties cannot be overcome by adjusting the abilities of the champions, and the whole system has to be changed. If that doesn’t help, developers can temporarily nerf «broken» champions so that no one plays them. This is the last resort: the creators of the game do not want to take heroes away from users, but they believe that critically unsuccessful elements should not be left in the game. nine0003

Azir is especially difficult to balance because he is capable of so much and has few weaknesses. It’s difficult to remake him, and Street thinks that the developers will have to take away a couple of his abilities.

However, it is always worth remembering that the matter is not limited to balance. The creator of game mechanics cannot look at his work only through the prism of balance. For example, champions can be completely balanced, with the perfect win/loss ratio, but still not be liked by the players. nine0003

Here are three examples: Riven, Le Blanc and Yasuo. The latter is almost perfectly balanced in terms of the ratio of wins and losses, but the players still think that he is too strong. And some people even quit the game because of him.

It’s also worth remembering that players choose champions based on more than just their balance. For example, Jinx is a very popular and stylish champion. And it will remain popular regardless of its balance.

Street complains that balancing is hard. Players constantly blame his team, and this can create a depressing atmosphere in the studio because of this. At the same time, people work without a break: patches are released every two weeks, and it takes a lot of effort to prepare everyone. nine0003

To enable employees to switch, Riot gives employees side projects and transfers them to other teams. It is very important to praise employees for their work, because the players do nothing but criticize the balance.

The developer offers to summarize the lecture.

• Balance is important for engagement and play duration.
• It is worth understanding what factors and how they affect the balance at different levels of playing skill.

nine0105 We need a «philosophy»: changes should be made not only on the basis of data, but also in accordance with the goals originally set.

• Iterations, iterations, iterations. If you can’t balance something right away, you need to try again and again.
• There are always a lot of errors and problems with the balance, and this is normal.
• Need to build good relationships with the community.

Questions and answers

When making balance changes, how do you prevent negative player experiences?

Basically, this is a PR question, but we also directly interview those who will be affected by the changes. Focusing on the data, it’s easy to forget how change will feel. Take the same Nidalee: we nerfed her patch after patch, and the players did not like it, because she changed too fast.

In such cases, I recommend either fixing the problem quickly or stepping back from it for a while so that players can take a break from the constant shakes of the champion’s balance. Also, in our patch notes, we always try to give context to the changes. Like, it’s not us who hate Nidalee, it’s just that the changes we made solve such and such a problem. nine0003

Tell me more about how you explain the changes.

My position is this: you need to be as honest with the players as possible. They are smart and understand everything, so do not hang noodles on their ears. There is nothing wrong with admitting your mistakes. To say, yes, we screwed up with this champion, so now we will put him aside and will gradually balance.

How do you choose which champions to buff and which to nerf? And what do you do with unpopular champions? nine0246

We buff champions with low win-loss ratios first to keep them relevant. Of course, by doing this, we try not to harm the game. For example, we are currently working on Galio — his abilities are not particularly strong, so we are tempted to buff this champion.

But we don’t buff champions just because they aren’t played much. We have champion Urgot — a creepy dark creature. It will never be as popular as Jinx, and rightly so, let it be the choice of players who want something weird and different. nine0003

Players always categorize champions: these are the best, these are niche, and these are useless. Do you take this division into account when working on champions?

We don’t try to ensure that all champions are selected the same number of times. There are champions who are good at one thing: Shen is a good split-pusher, but if the player doesn’t like this strategy, or if it’s weak, he won’t pick him, and that’s fine.

We want the person who loves a particular champion to have the opportunity to show themselves. nine0003

You talked about developing your own philosophy and sticking to it. Could you give examples of how exactly you have implemented your philosophy in the minds of team members?

We talk a lot about the game design philosophy of our product. Our teams are quite autonomous, so when someone makes a mistake, we get together and discuss it.

In other words, managers are involved in the introduction of philosophy?

Quite right. Usually, when describing my work, I do not say that I am engaged in the balance of League of Legends. I rather create an ecosystem where good design decisions happen. I try to get people to solve problems in a certain way. nine0003

And in general, we just hire good people, then we explain our values ​​and give them the freedom to create.

Tell us more about the relationship between game views and balance changes.

We understand that all changes will affect the way professional players play. Therefore, we often inform them in advance about upcoming balance changes in order to get their opinion.

In addition, we try to explain the changes so that players understand what is happening on the screen. nine0003

In different countries, players may have different preferences in terms of champions — right down to their appearance. Do you take this into account in your work?

Absolutely. Players are players, so if a champion is popular in one region, it will likely be popular in others as well. But of course there are regional differences. For example, Chinese players love powerful characters with big swords, and champions like Jinx are not that popular among them.

We understand this and try to make a variety of champions so that people from different cultures can find a hero to suit themselves. nine0003

But do player preferences in different regions influence your decisions?

One strategy here is champion skins. We can present images associated with a holiday or historical event celebrated in a particular part of the world.

How do you feel about fan communities that collect game data?

In general, we do not mind. I understand why they do this — we do not post data to the public. However, sometimes the data of the players is simply wrong, and we cannot explain why. You just have to say «That’s not true» and leave the players at a loss. nine0003

#gamedev #analysis #leagueoflegends #lol #long

League of Legends review. Living legend of the MOBA world! — Gambling

Congenial

Dota 2

Heroes of the Storm

Heroes of Newerth

Battlerite

Smite

Friends, it just so happened that our website has a lot of news about the League Legends, but there were no actual reviews of the game as such. The last time we substantively analyzed the project in a magazine was in 2013, and since then a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. And so I sat down and wrote this article! nine0003

In the material, I deliberately avoid any comparisons with Dota 2 , Heroes of the Storm and other representatives of the genre, so as not to hurt anyone’s feelings.

Alas, no matter what I write about League of Legends , it still won’t be enough. A lot of time has passed since the release of the game, and it is difficult to evaluate the entire path it has traveled. Therefore, I will simply tell you what League of Legends is and how it now works on the Russian server, in a simplified way and on the fingers — for those who are completely, completely unfamiliar with the game or have not entered it for several years. Well, if you are a seasoned veteran — I don’t know why you are reading this, let’s better roll up a match or two! nine0003

How Braum defended the poro…

If we’re talking about fan service, it’s impossible not to mention the images of the champions. Each character in the game has a unique appearance, it is extremely difficult to confuse the characters. But in addition to the standard appearance, each champion has skins that can be purchased with in-game currency. Take, for example, the Star Guardians line of looks, referring to the iconic Sailor Moon .»

This team includes the restless hooligan Jinx, but how can such a character protect the universe and starlight?!

And this is wonderfully played up in the image. In addition to the fact that Star Guardian Jinx is noticeably different in appearance from the classic version, she has changed skill animations and even voice acting. If she usually talks about how she loves to shoot from her cannons and blow up everything, then in the “defensive” role, the blue-haired impudent snickers about her righteous mission and blames all the pranks on the “will of the First Star”. nine0003

Launch trailer for the first Star Guardian team

This is how the developers managed to radically change Jinx without killing her own expressive self. And the same goes for a lot of skins for other champions! And the appearance of a whole line or an absolute image is often accompanied by new related products in the store, comics and even cartoons.

A little about permanent changes. This almost bald warrior and «Lucius Malfoy» are the same champion, but with a difference of several years. Swain was so old that the developers had to completely remake him to bring him back up to date. nine0003

More screenshots from League of Legends

I’ve tried to describe as simply as possible what the game is like right now. But in a couple of years, the above may become irrelevant, because League of Legends is constantly changing. Items in the store, characteristics of champions, their abilities and appearance, the map, forest monsters, currency, and everything else are processed without exception. And only the fact that almost all the changes that I encountered in five years of playing League of Legends led to the better allows me to give such a high rating to such a fickle game. nine0003

I hope this will continue.

Pleased

• different and completely unique characters;
• huge game variability;
• low entry threshold;
• poro!
• ongoing work on a project;
• this game is funny and not serious.

upset

• sometimes — community;
• you have to get used to each update; nine0106
• loot boxes have been around since before it was mainstream.

How we played

in what: Game of

on which: PC

How much: 602 hours

Achivka editors

“Existed Nightmares” 9000 9000 the thought that voice chat will be introduced into League of Legends, wait for this moment and understand that the devil is not as scary as he is painted.