Red Post Collection: September 17th Patch Update, Champion Insights: Kindred, October Sales Schedule, & more

Posted on at 7:09 AM by Moobeat
This morning's red post collection includes a look at the September 17th patch update to fix bugs for Corki, Riven, and Tristana, a champion insights article on Kindred, the October champion & skins sale schedule, Utora discussing Kindred's voiceover, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

Table of Contents

September 17th Patch Update

The official 5.18 patch notes have been updated to reflect the September 17th patch update that included bug fixes for Corki's Valkyrie, Riven's Q, and Tristana's E!
  • FEEL THE BURN - Fixed a bug where Corki's W - Valkyrie was dealing damage too frequently 
  • ACTUALLY BROKEN WINGS - Fixed a bug where Riven's Q - Broken Wings cooldown was improperly reset at the end if certain actions occurred in between casts 
  • WHERE'S THE KABOOM? - Tristana's E - Explosive Charge no longer fizzles if detonated at 4 stacks by W - Rocket Jump. There's supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom."

Champion Insights: Kindred, the Eternal Hunters 

Next up we have a champion insights article on Kindred, which gives into the gameplay, narrative, and visual inspirations for our next champion!
"The guys and gals in champion ideation start off with a simple enough goal: create something that League hasn’t seen before within the parameters of a pre-existing role. In Kindred’s case, they were tasked with making a new marksman-style damage dealer who could go toe-to-toe in the jungle. Here’s how they went from blank page to the twin prowling specters of death about to stalk the Fields of Justice. 
Game design notes 
by Jordan Anton aka RiotWrekz 
Designing a marksman who could head into the jungle came with a bunch of unique challenges, but notbecause it was a completely new concept. Truth is, we’d seen players crowbar other ranged champs into the jungle before, and by paying attention to where they struggled, we ended up with a pretty good idea of what Kindred needed in order to succeed. 
Macgyvering Jungle Marksmen 
The ranged champs we’ve seen appear in the jungle - most recently Twisted Fate and Twitch - have been really gimmicky, and either dominate a game or do absolutely nothing. Their early ganks are often devastating (not many can survive invisible red buff ganks or TF’s guaranteed stun), but they’re pretty much useless if they fall behind, and absolutely need kill or assist money to keep up. What’s more, anyone familiar with either of their super predictable jungle paths will know where they need to be to kill or maim them, and because they were designed for life in lane, there’s very little they can do against strong counter-junglers like Lee Sin or Rek’Sai. These were all issues we had in mind when we started working on Kindred, and issues we hoped to address while creating the champ. 
Enter Kindred 
First off, we knew that we wanted Kindred to offer their team reasonable ganks - attacks that, if timed and coordinated well, could result in a kill, but weren’t guaranteed successes. By reducing the power of their ganks - specifically compared to Twitch or Twisted Fate - we were able to add power to areas where they both struggle. We made Kindred less reliant on money, so while they obviously benefit from items as the game progresses, they aren’t anything like as useless as the Plague Rat when he falls the wrong side of the feast/famine divide. Mark of the Kindred, for example, is a really snazzy ability, not just from the bonuses it gives Kindred, but because it adds a psychological element to a game of League that’slargely indifferent to Kindred’s strength. Whether you’ve been marked by a Kindred that’s racked up a 10/0 or a 0/10 score, you’re going to playdifferently. Maybe you’re about to get ganked, or maybe Kindred just wanted to apply a smidge of suggested pressure - you don’t know, and, unless you’ve warded supremely well, you won’t know until they appear somewhere on the map. 
Speaking of ganks, while Kindred’s aren’t as brutal as Twitch’s or TF’s, they’re still plenty powerful, and will often relieve pressure even if they don’t secure a kill. The percent max health burst damage from a fully triggered Mounting Dread means Kindred’s ganks sting even against tanks, and the W/Q combo helps Kindred stick to their target as they make their escape. Kindred definitely lacks the hard crowd control that a lot of junglers bring to a fight, but the extra damage they bring in lieu of the cc means they thrive especially when they gank lanes that do have the means to keep their target from fleeing. So while junglers like Sejuani and Rek’Sai bring the knock-ups and slows the gank needs, but often lack the damage to kill the target, Kindred offers the inverse to that. 

Mixing the meta 
Kindred’s introduction brings the possibility of fancy new team comps built around a second jungling marksman. With two marksmen, the rest of the team might look for peel-heavy champions who can keep enemy assassins and fighters at bay, or pick up items like Black Cleaver to help both marksmen deal decent damage. Maybe they’ll focus instead on tanky frontline characters who pack a decent amount of magic damage - champs like Malphite or Amumu - to mix up their team’s damage output. The point is that a ranged marksmen jungler hasn’t really been reliably seen before, and we’re super excited to see the kinds of teams you guys build around one. 
Finally, I can’t talk about Kindred without mentioning their ultimate. Lamb’s Respite is another ability that is effective regardless of Kindred’s level of success in the game, and again encourages teams to think outside the box in regards to their composition. Its death-defying zone gives sustained damage comps resistance to burst, which reinforces double AD comps and specifically rewards teams which pack in multiple marksmen. But even if Kindred’s taken into a more traditional team comp, they should still be able to offer their team plenty of unique tools along with those coveted ranged attacks. 
Narrative notes 
by Matt Dunn aka FauxSchizzle

We had a hook for the kit pretty early in ideation: a jungle marksman with the ability to “mark” enemy players for death and reap rewards for each successful kill or assist on that target. This led the team to explore several ways of expressing the champion’s growing power, and we landed on a relationship between two equals. This is where Kindred took shape. 
It was ultimately one of Chris’ sketches - a glowing ethereal lamb firing a shadowy wolf from its bow - that piqued our interest. In fact, it haunted us. There was something darkly whimsical about this duo, so we decided to dig deeper. This is typically when the Narrative writers dream up a few story sketches to figure out who the champ is within Runeterra, what their powers look like, and how they behave. The first lines I wrote for this concept were a variation on their “choose me” line, with Wolf saying “Tell me again, little Lamb, which things are mine to take?” and Lamb replying bluntly, “All things, dear Wolf.” 
Based on lots of discussions in the room, we realized that Kindred could be Runeterra’s first mythological representation of life and death. We dreamt up scenarios from ancient barrows featuring rough engravings of the Kindred masks to mark the sites as places of the dead, to a Mardi Gras meets Groundhog Day-style celebration in Bilgewater. Kindred’s stories were designed to build up the mythological foundation of Runeterra; the stuff of fables and nursery rhymes that children sang, blissfully unaware of the works’ dark origins. 
These two animals: the stalwart Lamb with her ornate bow, and the shadowy Wolf with his tongue lolling out of his mouth, felt both quirky and ominous. I started researching the anthropomorphism of death throughout numerous cultures and found that many of humanity’s first known myths were centered around gravesites. The team agreed that Kindred was a unique grim reaper, spoken about in whispered tones by those who narrowly avoided death, and seen by all in life’s last moments. To help clarify what made the characters distinct, we took a look at what a Lamb’s death looks like in comparison to a Wolf’s. To accept Lamb is to rejoice in life and depart in serenity. To run from Wolf means a violent and terrifying end. 
The masks proved pivotal to the champ. By having Lamb wear Wolf’s mask - and vice versa - we tapped into a yin-yang dynamic, which helped us crack their personalities. We gave in spades to one what the other lacked. In this case, Lamb knew much about the world, but felt very little, whereas Wolf felt everything, but lacked in the knowledge department. We loved the idea that these two never fought over kills, or were ever at odds, because, in the end, the Lamb and the Wolf are two parts of one whole. 
Art notes 
by Edmundo Sanchez aka Mundo and Chris Campbell aka Skeeziks 
After identifying the type of champion we wanted to make (in this case, a dual character jungling marksman), we entered open ideation, and started noodling on what these characters would actually look like. But, turns out dual characters are hard. We tried out a couple of ideas, but they trod on existing champions a little too hard and failed to get much support internally. Other ideas came and went until we found ourselves spinning our wheels two weeks into our four week ideation window. Chris, looking for a change of environment, headed out to a coffee shop for a while to continue sketching. A few hours later, he turned back up, and opened up his sketchbook to show us this: 
Something clicked with the concept instantly. These characters - the fierce wolf and the gentle lamb - neatly juxtaposed with each other while still functioning and appearing as a single entity. Meanwhile, Jordan and Matt had made decent headway on a death theme, which was an easy fit with the characters: Wolf represented death, and Lamb, at least initially, represented life. And though it was never defined as the goal of 2015’s champions, Bard and Tahm Kench both had plenty of folkloric qualities about them that complemented Kindred’s burgeoning theme and look. Progress, at least internally! Then we brought the concept to stakeholders, and though they were super supportive, we ran into some tough feedback from other Rioters. 

"Bard and Tahm Kench both had plenty of folkloric qualities about them that complemented Kindred’s burgeoning theme and look. "
“You guys are going to put a fucking lamb in the game?” 
When we challenge ourselves with things that are new, that often unsettles people. And that’s a good thing. We ran into a ton of feedback as we started expanding our feedback sessions. Lamb and Wolf were super polarizing champions, and we had to fight tooth and nail throughout the process to get them pushed through. Though we were comfortable with the champion being contentious, we still wanted to refine and focus on the characters of Lamb and Wolf. We refocused them so both represented death, then gave them masks - masks of each other, actually - to highlight the duality of the two characters. Lamb wasn’t all good and noble, and Wolf wasn’t purely brutal, but they had aspects of each other that turned them from black and white characters to various shades of gray. We started treating them as yin and yang - two halves of a complete whole that couldn’t exist without each other. Next we turned to their animations, and again deliberately countered how people would expect Kindred to move. Lamb, instead of skipping around, became stoic in its movement, while Wolf became the more playful of the two. 
Ultimately, we wanted Kindred to become a cultural archetype for League - creatures that truly embody the world of Runeterra and highlight how unique the world is. And here’s the kicker: we don’t even see Kindred as physical characters in the world. So far as anyone in Valoran knows, Kindred is just a fairytale, a way for some Runeterran cultures to rationalize or personify the mystery of life and death. As for whether they're actually real? Well, that's for the dead to know. 
We’ll be back in a few days with more Kindred information!"

For more on Kindred, check out these links:

October sales schedule

We also have a list of the champs & skins that'll be going on sale throughout October!

"Check out all the champs and skins on sale this October. Like previous sales schedules, we’re not posting the exact dates for each champ and skin, but they’ll all be on sale sometime next month, so keep an eye out. 

Utora on Kindred Voiceover

With Kindred out on the PBE and players getting to know our new duo,  Riot Utora popped on reddit to share a bit more about Kindred's voiceover:
"The amount of love and appreciation for Kindred's VO is really overwhelming guys. Thank you! Working on Kindred's sfx and VO was an absolute blast. Figuring out how dual voices were going to work in League was such a rewarding challenge.

I thought I'd take some time and provide you guys with some behind the scenes and fun trivia around their VO process.

From the very beginning we wanted both actors in the recording room together to so they could play off each other's reads. We ended up trying both - together and individually. Having them be together turned out to be highly successful. It is amazing how both actors changed the way they read their lines when they had someone to bounce ideas and emotions off of in the studio. It is very easy to hear the difference between their solo reads and the reads they did together.

The final result of this VO is largely due to our current VO process and feedback cycles at Riot. We just don't pick an actor and then write a bunch of lines for them to read and call it a day. We have multiple phases of VO development: auditions, exploratory (sometimes multiple exploratory), and then final. At each stage we have the opportunity to throw lines in game, try out different vocal processing chains, see what works - see what doesn't and come up with a list of changes and tweaks we want to bring to the actors for the next session. This process was so crucial for Kindred. There was a point where Lamb sounded almost identical to Janna and Wolf sounded like this immature non-threatening little kid. It was...weird.

Lines come in three varieties: Lamb solo, Wolf solo, and Lamb/Wolf together. For most VO triggers (Move lines, Attack lines, etc etc) you will hear these types of lines play in the sequence of: Lamb/Wolf, Lamb Solo, Wolf Solo . Each sequence for each trigger is independent of each other meaning, depending on what you're doing you might hear two Wolf solo lines in a row, or hear Lamb/Wolf together followed by a Wolf line, Followed by another Lamb/Wolf line. This was done intentionally to never favor one voice over the other and increase the total possible combinations of lines in the game.

Kindred's passive has a silly number of lines associated with it. Easily the most VO lines for a single spell in League. There are lines for:

Marking an enemy champion (plays only for the enemy who was marked when the icon appears above their head)

Marking an enemy champion (plays only for Kindred )

Collecting her bounty (special lines that play when you collect your bounty )

When your marked jungle camp is stolen (plays only for the enemy who has taken your jungle camp)

When you kill jungle creep (plays when Kindred kills jungle monsters)

Hmmm, I think that's all the stuff I can think of for now that would be interesting to read. If I think of anything else I'll be sure to update the thread!"

Should you fancy another listen, here's Kindred's VO from the PBE:

In response to summoner expressing their love of Bard's meeps voice, Utora also mentioned:
"I love the Meep voices too! Fun fact - they are actually voiced by me. Notice anything familiar about my Summoner Name?"

Shockblade Zed Chroma Pack not cancelled

During the 5.13 PBE cycle, a chroma pack of three Shockblade Zed recolors was added to the PBE then pulled near the end of the cycle and never released on live.

Riot Lovestrut noted on twitter that these aren't cancelled and are still planned for future release:
[1] "Yes, they were pulled off due to a big VFX bug, then we also didn't want to release it so close to PROJECT: Zed. "
[2] "That being said, they're not cancelled! You can expect them sometime in the future. :]"

Lyte Ask.FM Roundup

We also have more discussion from Lyte's, including discussion on the future Team Builder draft feature:
[Link]Couple questions about Team Builder Draft: 1) Will it be an offense if you queue up for one role/lane and then force yourself into another? 2) Will it be just lane position or will it be role as well? 3) Will it use the same leagues as normal Ranked? Or perhaps be a replacement for it?‎

1) Yes, it'll be reportable and punishable if you queue up for 1 position, and then force yourself onto another.

2) Players will just have to choose 2 positions (such as Top/Mid) to enter Team Builder Draft, and we're introducing the "Fill" position.

3) We're planning to replace the Ranked experience with this new one, if all goes well in testing. Yes, the new Ranked experience will still use Leagues.

[Link] when you release the ranked team builder, will it be across all regions?‎


[Link] With all the work going into the machine learning punishment system, is it possible the tribunal might not come back?

The Tribunal voting system is definitely coming back. In the new system, players will be able to vote on positive, negative and neutral cases, and will even help the machine learn about topics such as sarcasm and passive aggression. When players identify a positive player in the new Tribunal, both they and the positive player will receive a small in-game bonus as well.

The machine learning system complements the Tribunal voting really well, and we'll talk more about how these two systems interact in the future

Wanted: More Players with Great Stories

Riot Jerkee, a member of the publishing team at Riot, has reached out to reddit to find players who have interesting stories, similar to those in the recent LIVE/PLAY video!
"** [SERIOUS] posts only please! **
Ohai. I’m RiotJerkee, and I’m part of the Publishing team over here at Riot.

Recently with Live/Play , we saw five players from five very different corners of the world. We want to continue to share compelling things currently happening in the community, but we need your help.

Beyond friendships and relationships formed through League, we want to hear about people and events that really inspire us, give us chills, or make us laugh. Beyond that, it’s even better if something’s happening in the 
coming months. We’re all for campfire stories, but it’s even better if we can capture the story as it happens!

Just some thought starters:
  • Playing League from an unsupported territory or under weird, or amazing circumstances?
  • Turning League-passion into a career or at least some side cash?
  • Using League as a tool for education or advocacy?
  • We’re very open to submissions outside of North America and Europe.

Even if you aren’t the protagonist, go ahead and tell us your favorite story at [email here]

שנה טובה"
Think you have or know someone with a great LoL story? Post on the reddit thread and let 'em know!

Zac E 5.18 Bug

Following a reddit thread on the matter, Pwyff tweeted out about a Zac E bug they are aiming to fix for 5.19:
[1] "DEAD THREAD SO LET'S TWITTER: Currently a bug where insta-casting Zac E causes him to jump forward rather than blooping on the spot. [1/2]" 
[2] "Team knows, is looking into it, prrrrrobably a 5.19 fix? Thanks for the reminders. [2/2]"

Kindlejack on inspirations for Bilgewater skins

Last up we have artist Kindlejack discussing inspirations for the recent Bilgewater skins - Ironside Malphite, Rogue Admiral Garen, Corsair Quinn, and Sea Hunter Aatrox. While he stresses "skin lore" is not canonKindlejack dives into alternate reality concepts that helped shape the skins:
"Well along with the rest of the skins team concept artists I helped come up with the idea for this rag-tag team of high-seas rogues and as always we gave it a lot of thought, so I'd be happy to answer any questions! When doing skin concepts we always try to flesh out our alternate-reality lore, whether it's a world where more champs ended up in Bildgewater or one in which they all attend school together, because it helps the designs feel cohesive and resonant.

"How this motley crew met up and formed an alliance"

I think the clue here is in the name of Garen's skin. "Rogue Admiral" suggests that at one time he was an admiral, perhaps of a Demacian fleet, and that he has since abandoned that post to pursue more selfish interests. He probably stole a ship and set sail for Bildgewater where he then decided it was a Slaughtership Captain's life for him - enough to earn some decent coin but not attract the attention of anyone who might recognise him as a deserter. From there he assembled a crew with a few star characters; a corsair with a knack for harpooning and a pet bird that serves as a lookout for sea serpents, a sea hunter familiar with the seas around Bildgewater that swims as a living lure for the monsters of the deep (like in Waterworld!) and the newest addition, a hulking automaton that can handle the serpent carcasses and defend the crew at sea and in port dealings.

"How this Garen runs his ship"

You can see from the splash that these are some bad ass operators at the top of their game. You better believe they have their own private Bidgewater wharf, secret island base and probably know of a much dingier and more dangerous tavern than the one you go to.

Garen is clearly in charge at port and on the sea, with his years of experience and rippling abs no one short-changes him and no one second-guesses him. He's in this for the money and the privacy that comes with running your own Slaughter ship (which he does better than most), but he looks out for his crew because he knows they are more valuable than just their raw talent. He probably explains to them that he's just 'protecting his investment' but I think in every alternate world Garen has a heart of gold.

Quinn is probably the closest thing to a first mate on the ship. I think Garen trusts her intelligence and they're likely seen splitting a bottle of rum and swapping stories. She keeps the crew working hard as either she or Valor always has an eye on them, and when the time comes to harpoon a serpent she is the one that both literally and figuratively pulls the trigger. Being a lookout she's also probably entrusted with recruiting any promising candidates for their operation.

Aatrox was conceived as a character similar to Queequeg from Moby-Dick; a merman native to the region who has a remarkable ability to go fin to fin with the gigantic serpents and bring them to the surface. Many ships have harpoons and captains but Aatrox is a rare prize for the ship as he can dive deep and coax out rare and exotic serpents of enormous value - a fact that he uses to his advantage to avoid mundane duties in favour of star gazing and scrimshaw. I'm sure Garen isn't happy about it, but Aatrox has proven his loyalty many times by venturing off the boat and into Bildgewater to save his comrades.

"Who built that Malphite?!"

Malphite is a welcome addition to the crew, providing the incredible raw power needed to haul larger serpents and dissuade would-be assailants. He is a magical automaton who hates swabbing decks and is suspected of keeping a pet wharf rat somewhere in his hull. I'd say Garen, seeing an empty spot in his crew, stockpiled gold for a year to commission the construction of this awesome strong-arm. As for who built him? It's true that a certain bildgerat has tinkered with similar mechanisms but considering it was Riot Earp that did the concept, and that Riot Earp also illustrates all of Zigg's game mode designs it might have been another yordle inventor?

I'm really glad you are interested in knowing more. Skins 'lore' is nothing official but for our team it's really important and we talk about it all the time. When players notice little things we put in or really feel the story elements we weave into the designs it makes our day!"

/ALL Chat | How to kill Teemo Pt. 2

/ALL Chat will return on October 2nd with a new episodes... until then enjoy this short clip of the crew killing Teemo! 
"We’re on break this week, but we won’t leave you empty-handed! ALL Chat returns with a new full length episode on October 2."
Need more Teemo killing action? Check out this episode!  

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