Red Post Collection: New Missile System in 5.12, Team Up Week Update - Level 4 unlocked, Narrative Discussion

Posted on at 12:47 PM by Moobeat
[6/22 Update - The last Pool Party points total is in and we've reached level 5 to unlock a party ip weekend!]

This afternoon's red post collection includes Riot MeyeA commenting the new missile system will tentatively be included in 5.12, an update on the community's Team Up week point total now that we've reached level four to unlock Pool Party minions during 5.12, oodles of discussion on the Team Up & Pool Party event, Jaredan with a few comments on what the narrative team has been up to, how champions interact in the world, and a promise that we'll see something in the next month, and more!
Continue reading for more information!




Table of Contents



New Missile System tentatively in 5.12

When asked if the new missile system / skillshot rewrite will be included in patch 5.12, MeyeA noted:
"No release blocking differences have been reported by PBE. If ever we realize a big problem before 5.12 however, we'll pull out, reevaluate, and plan accordingly. So the new missile system is planned for "special" release in 5.12. We'll elaborate on "special" and the new missile system in general in our patch notes. 
P.s. I am uncomfortably attracted to that pool party draven."
He continued to note "special" refers to turning the new system sometime after the patch rather than immediately. More information on the new missile system available on the PBE boards.


Team Up Week Update - June 21st - Level 4 Unlocked

[6/22 UPDATE] The final community point total, as of June 22nd is just over 45 million meaning we've unlocked a Party IP weekend from 6/26 through 6/28!

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Between June 15th and June 21st, the community is participating in TEAM UP WEEK! This week, each server is earning points by playing matchmade games with five player premade groups and sending gifts to other players to earn various Pool Party rewards for all participating players next week!

The current community point total, as of June 21st, we've surpassed 35 million points to unlock pool party themed minions for the duration of patch 5.12!

As seen on the PBE, the Pool Party Minions look like this:


As a reminder, here are the Pool Party Rewards the community is working towards and what we've achieved:
  • [ACHIEVED 6/17] At 5 million points, we'll unlock Team UP IP rewards, granting +100% bonus IP for playing with a five player premade group.
  • [ACHIEVED 6/19] At 15 million points, we'll earn a ton of sales including the champions, skins, tshirts, ARAM skin boosts, and more! These will start up on 6/26.
  • [ACHIEVED 6/20] At 25 million points, we'll unlock a Pool Party themed summoner icon & a free Mystery Champion for anyone who has connected to the Facebook Friend discovery feature
  • [ACHIEVED 6/21] At 35 million points, we'll have Pool Party themed minions enabled for the duration of patch 5.12
  • At 45 million points, we'll unlock a Party IP Weekend at the end of June
  • At 55 million points, everyone who contributed during Team Up Week will receive the upcoming Pool Party Mundo skin for free

Be sure to check the Team Up & Pool Party Hub for more information on the event and the upcoming rewards! That page will be updated each day at 9 AM PST with an updated point total!

As of 6/21, We have ONE more day left of points. The final total will be posted on Monday, June 22nd.
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In a reddit thread discussing Team Up week and projections for the end of the event, RiotBuboBubo also popped in to answer a few questions on the event now that we've reached the level 3 rewards:
"Impressive post! A couple of clarifications
I have all the champions but Teemo
If you have less than 10 eligible champions, you will get a mystery skin.
I have all the champions and all the skins
You get a sincere look of awe on my face ... and enough RP to treat yourself or a friend a mystery gift in the future!
Can I disconnect it afterwards?
Players have to be signed up at the time of rewards being granted (the 24 hours between 6/28 and 6/30). Please stay signed up until the you get your mystery champion (in case something goes wrong) and feel free to disconnect after if the feature isn't for you. But if you do keep the feature on, we promise to never post your information and will only use the feature explicitly as stated. 
Back to ARAM for me - next stop Pool Party Minions!"

As for if gaining points today will still qualify you for the Pool Party icon (which you must contribute points to receive), Riot BuboBubo confirmed:
"Confirmed! Contribute 1 or more points today and you still get the rewards"

As for if players will need to purchase the Pool Party Icon through the store or otherwise redeem it, Riot BuboBubo noted:
"^ It will be credited directly to players who contributed at least one point (unless you are excluded based on the negative player criteria)"

When asked what players are to do if they receive a champion they've never wanted through this free Mystery champion reward and want it removed from their account, RiotBuboBubo noted:
"You can contact support and they will remove it for you"

As for if getting the mystery champion will require you to have participated in the event or if you get it for simply linking to the FB friend discovery feature, MattEnth noted:
"No. The Mystery Champion does NOT require you to have participated in the event. Just that you've connected to Facebook during the rewards period."
He continued, confirming you only need to sign up not add friends or anything else:
"You don't actually need to make a friend in order to get the mystery gift. You simply need to connect."
For those only interested in the mystery champion, he also commented you only need to stay connected until July 1st:
"Stay connected until July 1st. 
To give a bit more detail here... We have a giant list of all LoL players that have connected to Facebook (but none of their Facebook information - we don't store any of that). Sometime on June 30th, we will take a snapshot of the list. If you're on that list, you should get a reward.."

As we near the end of the first worldwide the event like this, Riot BuboBubo commented:
"Overall, this has been a huge learning experience for us. The parts we really like and want to do more of are giving the community a reason to come together and earn cool rewards. There is also a long list of things we want to do better next time around. Giving players more direct feedback on how their contributions are adding up and how the overall pace is moving are definitely on the list."
BuboBubo continued, commenting on the projected points for the end of the event:
"Playtime went up on Saturday but gifting upgrades peak when they launch and slow from there. I and a few others here will be hitting the chat rooms today to rally some premade 5s and we hope to see you there! 
(Also - Pool Party Minions Hype!) 
*Edit: From the numbers this morning, it looks like it will be an extremely close finish for Party IP weekend (+/- 1 million points) because Sunday (which is practically Monday in SEA, OCE and KR) typically has a little less playtime than Saturday. If participation stays up we should just make it over the finish line but if community participation drops we could come up short. LFG - lets do this!"

 As it doesn't look like the community will hit the free Pool Party Mundo level, Riot Bubo Bubo replied to comments that Riot should just give it away anyway despite the community not earning enough points:
"If we gave the unearned rewards anyway it would harm every stretch goal we set for players in the future. The long term damage to trust isn't worth avoiding the short term frustration."
He continued:
"Repeating this because I really really mean it... 
We have a ton of room for improvement but its also been great hearing from players that enjoyed this round. I personally can't wait for the pool party minions to hit the rift!"

Hippalus also popped in on reddit to comment on how the different point levels were decided:
"You're partly right. We do know how much people normally play and gift and we set up the event to give a couple rewards just for doing that, and bigger rewards if players increased their playing and/or gifting. We had to guess at how players would respond and we set it up so that greater effort would yield greater rewards, including a couple of stretch goals that were tough to reach. 
The goals of the event are to 1) get the community to pull together to earn rewards, 2) increase playing with friends, 3) increase gifting, and 4) learn the pros and cons of these types of events to help decide if we want to do more of them and, if so, what are the most important things to improve next time."


Mirross on the idea of Champion Mastery Grade on Match History

In a reddit thread about the idea of adding Champion Mastery grades to match history, Riot Mirross commented that if they were to ever add this it would likely only be visible to you and not others:
"If we do this it will likely be so only you can see it. It's feedback that we want players to have access to, without worrying about trying new champs or builds or positions without worrying about it. 
We don't explain the exact metrics around it because we don't want people to optimize for it at the expense of your game. For example, we don't want to encourage people to drag out a game while trying to maximize their grade, or have an ADC off padding their CS when their team really needs them. (Like this never happens...)"


Narrative Discussion

In a thread titled "What the hell is the lore team getting paid for", Jaredan stepped in to comment on  the frustrations - including what the narrative team has been up to, address the idea that "Lore team isn't doing anything", comment on a few format changes to bio/stories, and a promise that we'll soon be seeing the resolution of  the tech issues that have held up things significantly over the past few months:
"Sorry I haven't stuck my head in here until now. I always say it's been a hectic few weeks as we're a busy bunch of folks. And that's the part that can be confusing, and annoying, due to the expectations we have not met. Frankly, Saturday nights are currently the time I'm most able to sit down and put together a semi-cogent response on here. My apologies for that. 
To help with clarity, and for a common place to start from, I'll reiterate what I've said elsewhere on the board when it comes to a misunderstanding of what Narrative is.
At Riot we work from a matrixed concept of Disciplines and Product Teams. Disciplines are made up of people of a distinctive craft. Product Teams are made up of people from various disciplines (crafts) who work together to make something. This thing may be to make something for purely external means or to go to the players. Product team does not mean "thing to sell." It can be something that players pay for or not. It can be something made to go to players, or not. 
With that in mind, this is what Narrative is: We are a distinct discipline made up of people who are focused on the development of characters and stories through ideation and writing. We help ensure thematic cohesion on various products, develop archetypes and personalities, and we help solve creative problems using character, story, and world building. We also write stories because we pretty much love to. You haven't seen enough of them. Yet. There are numerous reasons for this that we are working to solve. In this case, "we" means Riot. 
We employ our craft on various Product Teams. For example, on League of Legends, we have Narrative Writers who work on Champion Team, Champion Update, Events, Promo and beyond. On Champion Team, the Narrative Writers spend a lot of time being part of the creative teamwork, in conjunction with a lot of other disciplines, in making new, exciting Champions that are thought out down to a molecular level when it comes to their identity. 
As you cited Ekko, I'll talk to him in particular. 
From a Narrative standpoint, FauxSchizzle was the principal Narrative writer working on the Ekko Champion team with a large number of people from different disciplines (Art, Game Design etc.). He helped with concepting the character's personality with the team, including writing story sketches (think of them as concept story, you'll likely be seeing an example of this pretty soon) that helped everyone get a clear picture of who the Champion is. 
Taking a Champion from ideation, through production, to release is a very taxing, involved job due to wanting to make the best Champion possible each and every time. That's the same for artists, designers and writers of various specializations.
Faux was also the principal writer on Seconds (Ekko's animation) and Chronobreak (his comic). On all of his work, from concepting to launch, Faux received support from various members of Narrative in the form of edits, feedback and writers room sessions. No matter what the team is, we support each other in our work, because that's what makes us Narrative and Rioters. 
Ekko was one of three champions that Faux has been working on.
The reason I'm outlining this is to clarify and dispute one assertion: Lore team isn't doing anything. 
Firstly, Narrative isn't a "lore team," as the above explanation may help clarify. What we have been doing is working on a variety of Product Teams that make a multitude of things for players. We are more than busy in doing so, hence we have been pushing very hard to hire more superb writers to join us. 
The short character intros are developed by Narrative as part of the work done for Champion Team, or Champion Update. 
They are Narrative's direct responsibility on those teams, and I will say that we have heard you and others very clearly on your displeasure with the shorter introductions to the Champion. The fact is, they have always been intended as a quick overview for folks who don't want to hit a wall of text in the client, particularly in a format that was very inflexible for us. The plan was to release short intros and then have longer stories on the website. 
Then, when initially trying to implement this, we discovered a technical issue made it impossible to do so. We didn't think it would take long to fix. 
We were wrong. 
Thankfully, it seems we have finally got a solution in place and you'll be seeing the fruits of that development within the next month when we'll be releasing some stuff (stuff = things I can't spoil) that will take advantage of the new tech capability. 
While we have been waiting to sort these issues out, it's given us the time to look at our content goals. Much of that desire to question our direction for the specific intros/bios/stories (as they have been in various iterations), has been due to the consternation expressed on these boards. We led an effort to try and drive on short stories to go along with those character intros. When we saw the vocal assertion that something like the old bio format would still be welcome even with those stories, we took another look at what we were doing. 
We anted something that gave the meat of certain details of the old bios, while still feeling current and not creating a sense of that Champion's life being static. 
Ant in Oz pitched a format that makes a lot of sense and it's currently going through fine tuning. To give you an idea though, it's the current introductory paragraph, followed by a background or bio section with some details and story hooks to stimulate understanding and conversation, followed by a quick story that shows the Champion being who they are. They are certainly more in-depth than the current intros and I'm confident of their quality. 
We've formed an impromptu team of Narrative folks doing some extra hours to start formalizing a process, discussing character pitches and then getting them written. We're prioritizing them based on the needs of Product Teams as well as how broken they are. For example, Singed is one that I've personally put an outline together for. I won't talk about the others due to spoilers. 
I understand the overall frustration completely. We're working on moving things in a much more satisfactory direction than has been the case in the last couple of years, but this will never be a case of Narrative deciding to do things on its own, we always work within Product Teams and the priorities are made by Riot as a whole and then within those teams. 
We take our specific responsibility very seriously though. As a discipline we need to do better, and I think folks we've brought on like FauxSchizzle are helping us do that. We try to put as much story as we can into everything we do as we are storytellers by trade and by passion. Story isn't the main product of every team we work on, however.
So while I understand that it is, at times, difficult to pick out Narrative's work from within things made by teams (if we're doing it right, you won't be able to for much of the time), please don't mistake that for us not doing anything. 
That simply is not true. 
I get a bit protective of Narrative as it's my day-to-day responsibility to ensure we are meeting the needs of Riot's many teams, so I have to rein in my urge to leap to their defense each time we are said to be doing nothing. I stop myself because though the details might not always be accurate, the overall sense of being let down, of not having enough prepared and in place after the reset blog announcement, is utterly valid.
The difference comes from perspective. I know precisely how hard the members of Narrative work. I know how many hours Faux and numerous others (including those not on Narrative) put in to make Ekko as a Champion, Seconds as an animation, and Chronobreak as a comic, the best they could be. It's no small effort. 
I know until the content that you desire is available to you, it's difficult to see what it is that we're actually doing. I hope this post at least gives you a little insight into how things are. 
Sorry for the long post, I hope I kept it at least mainly coherent, but I'm a bit knackered.
These posts bother me constantly and are in the back of my mind every day. It's not because of the sometimes unfortunate tone, it's because of the underlying truth. We need to not just tell you how we're trying to get better at putting things in your hand, we need to put them in your hand. 
I'm very excited for the next month or so."

When asked about the promise of seeing something new in a month, Jaredan continued:
"Yup, I'm putting myself in a predicament. But we're at a point where if I just say "soon." folks here are, understandably, really sick and tired of it. There's possibilities things may get moved, I'm not in control of that. But I want to say something of consequence and commit to the work we've been doing. 
I'll risk taking the kicking for it if people get some measure of what we're striving for."

He continued, replying to concern that Riot is failing to understand the community's complaints about the lore and why they are left feeling unhappy with the current direction:
"This is a recurring sentiment and a valid one that I'd like to address. From your perspective, I can completely see that you think we are not listening or unable to understand. 
We do understand. It is not that we can't understand why those who are vocal about this issue are upset. The problem is that we don't agree with some of the players in the way to answer those concerns. 
Of course, we don't like the fact that the decision has caused the unhappiness it has among some of the players. But we're making the decisions we are for the long term health of LoL as a game and as an IP. We want to make Runeterra a much more interesting place to visit than it was and is. 
We will make mistakes, and we most certainly have in the past year. We're trying to address concerns in a way that makes sense for players now and in the future. It's taking much longer than we'd like. 
The big problem is that without things to point at that shows what we're intending to replace, we're talking hypothetical versus real. The real being previous content.
The hypothetical being what we say we want to do. 
The real will always win, particularly in regard to something we are all so passionate about. 
Which is why we screwed up by not having those ducks in a row before making the announcement we did. It was an error built on other errors that became the lesser of a number of evils. 
Until we've taken the proper action to put new content in your hands, that is of a quality you feel is worth your engagement, that trust won't be repaired. 
I would simply ask not to confuse a lack of agreement with a lack of understanding. Because we don't do as you want, doesn't mean we don't understand the benefits and logic in what you say. 
We're hoping to show you we can do more. We haven't done that, but we are going to try."
Amidst the lore discussion and promises, Jaredan also commented on Ekko's relationship with Vi, and Jinx rafter being asked if they belong to the same group of "Lost children" of Zaun:
Quote:
Since Ekko was mentioned as running around with the lost kids of Zaun, I have a question. 
Jinx and Vi are obviously part of his group and his age, yet they're supposed to be in their 30s while Ekko looks like a teenager. How does that work?
Jinx ad Vi aren't in their 30s, but they're also not part of Ekko's group or age.

Firstly, Zaun isn't a small place. It's got many different types of streets and neighborhoods—and places that you don't want to be caught dead in. Mainly because you'd be dead in them. I've always found that an odd expression. Anyway...
To give you some idea on our thinking, as I've seen this topic brought up a number of times, there's a danger that we have to think about with characters regarding making the world feel small: If Ekko is from the streets of Zaun, does that automatically mean he is close to Vi? If so, it makes it feel like Zaun has one neighborhood. It makes Zaun feel small. Instinctively, having Champions all know each other and have direct ties with each other seems like a great thing because then you constantly have bigger stories. The problem being, if they're constantly bigger stories they're actually not that big.

It's the Syndrome of The Incredibles, ermm, syndrome. If everyone is special, no one is.

Of course, some Champions are very strongly tied to each other—Garen and Lux never seeing each other would be crazy. However, we are very careful with those relationships because as soon as you start making everyone know each other, the world becomes incredibly small.

Let me use the example of a movie. I don't mean to throw shade here (OK, there's an expression I can't pull off), but one of the things that bugged me about Amazing Spider-Man 2 (one of the things) was that by the end of the film, its entire universe of story, all of the main character's conflicts, were born from one source and from one place. You could tell every conflict from one office building because that's where Peter Parker got his powers, where his (spoilers) deceased girlfriend worked, where his childhood friend turned nemesis was centered, and where all of his rogues gallery got their powers from. It made Spider-Man's world atomically small.

We want Champions to interact because they are ideally suited for conflict with each other. They are given the time and space to develop their own stories and motivations, and then when they cross paths, those conflicts should highlight their similarities and differences very clearly.

Those times should feel really special. If every story we tell contains a lot of Champions because they are all so inextricably linked it would be crazy not to, then the grandeur of those stories is diminished in the blink of an eye.

Having a lot of Champions who know each other to begin with makes the world smaller. It also takes away the opportunity to tell the stories of them meeting in a way that feels special.

That doesn't mean we don't want them to interact. In some ways, Kat and Garen makes no sense at all. And those reaons are why, in my opinion, it makes them perfect for each other. Their Romeo and Juliet element (without all of the naive kids who haven't a clue what they're doing stuff), adds huge stakes to any relationship they have. Those stakes can spiral out to their friends, family and their entire countries. It's a relationship that could provide a new perspective for Demacia and Noxus on each other, or it could spark the end of all things.

Those are the kinds of conflicts we want to focus on.

Just because Champions, such as Ekko, Jinx and Vi, aren't living in each other's pockets, doesn't mean they'll never cross paths. In fact, Vi's past and how that would effect her view of Ekko, and vice versa, is hugely fertile ground that I'd love to get into. But we want to do it because of character motivation and the opportunity for story. It's all there without them having to have run around together.

We can have those conflicts because of who each Champion is without putting them all together and making the world feel smaller at the same time.

We can have our cake and eat it.

Great, now I'm hungry.

Anyway, I hope that makes sense."
He continued:
"Quote
The world of the elite and powerful is small - and that's what most of the champs in LoL are - elite and powerful figures. The Demacian roster of champs is basically the court elite - they should be constantly interacting. Interactions, even non-direct, used to be done nicely - I thought Rengar's presence in Gnar's story was really nice. Of course not everyone needs to be incredibly interactive with other champs, but you've pushed the pendulum so far in the other direction that the world feels bad. You go out of your way to avoid any interaction at all to the point of emphasizing the generic. This push to isolate characters hurts their stories, it doesn't help them. I don't care if Bard exists or not. Why should I? You have given me no way to connect directly with him because the lore/video is so ~mysterious~ for the sake of being mysterious. You have given me no way to connect indirectly with him because the lore/video contains absolutely nothing linking him to Runeterra. None of this has to be so blatant as having characters directly interact but the presence of other characters in the world has to be acknowledged for Runeterra to actually feel like a world instead of an anthology. We don't want lore to be an anthology, we want a world. We don't get lore with any kind of regularity to wait for you to feel like ~the time is right~ for an Ekko-Jinx interaction. That would probably take years. There is no reason for us to think that you would ever follow through on such an approach.
I agree with you completely on your assessment of Demacian champions. That's exactly how those relationships are built. We will have some Champions who interact with each other regularly in a situation that is personal to them. It's the same with the Du Couteaus. It's just we won't have that for all of our Champions from the moment they exist. For some, their relationships with other champions will grow and they will interact when it makes for the best stories. 
Also, we will broaden our supporting cast of non-Champion characters to develop relationships with. 
Rengar's involvement with Gnar occurred because it made sense (writing first person on Gnar is tricky as hell, plus Rengar's self-important view of his prowess makes a good foil for the little/monstrously huge fella). We'll have those interactions when we feel it's the strongest option. 
We don't create those interactions in the belief that they inherently make the character we are introducing stronger. They actually distract from the character more often than not, but this is all through the lens of the Champion's launch. 
Until we give content that shows that these Champions do interact, I see how wanting to have them do so when you first see them is very powerful. Frankly, I agree that some players are worried that if it doesn't happen there, it won't happen at all. 
For example, Batman didn't need Superman to be the character he is. Batman and Superman stories can be really cool because of who they are as individual characters.
Right now, much of the content we have been providing is the opening chapter of one character's personal story. Having other Champions can, at times, detract from getting a good handle on who that character is. 
You state that we have avoided some of those interactions to drive towards the generic. In fact we do that to drive towards the individual character. The strength of that character will decide if that experience is good enough. If the character is not strong enough, putting him or her next to a stronger character won't solve that problem at all. 
Again that is all in the specific arena of the initial launch of a character. 
We absolutely need to show the differences and strengths of the characters by having them bounce off each other. We haven't done enough of that yet to show how special that needs to be to have a truly vibrant world. That we have close-knit characters in certain places and situations because it strengthens that part of our world, but also Champions that affect their immediate vicinity in ways unique to them. 
It's our responsibility to deliver on that promise and we haven't done a good enough job yet."
He continued:
Quote: 
Batman and Superman were their own characters before they met up. They had history and stories built around them. What story is there for Bard? Ekko? Nothing. They are just blank slates. There is a reason X-Men, Justice League, Avengers work. It's because they interact. You get to see the growth and hidden aspects of characters.
That is my point. We need to make those stories for our Batmen and Supermen before they meet up. We haven't done that enough yet. Champion launches are not meant to do all of that heavy lifting, but it still needs doing. We often just don't want to start in The Avengers. We want to start with Iron Man. 
Both things need to be done, but those interactions are not necessarily best achieved when you first meet a character. Young Bruce Wayne looking up from his dead parents in Crime Alley to see Superman floating overhead isn't the best way to focus on Batman. 
You're right, we need that wealth of story, both individual and ensemble. I'm just saying that the ensemble is often a bad place to start for our Champions because we want to build to those interactions and focus on the individual character at their beginning."
Jaredan also commented on the recent The River King teaser, noting that the gambler who struck a deal with the river king is not Twisted Fate:
"Quote:
What if the person River King made a deal with was Twisted Fate? Also, what if the woman River King killed was Evelynn!? Then she was revived in the Shadow Isles afterwards. Anyone's thoughts?
T.F. is too much of a roamer and a hustler to have found time to settle down. He's been busy with matters of the purse rather than the heart."

He continued, noting there will be important non-champion characters in the lore:
"Quote
Yes thank you,the gambler in the video wasn't TF.The gambler & his wife,like the Zaunite thug in the Ekko video,were just random people.Valoran has more than just champions inhabiting it.
Speaking of which,Jaredan I hope you guys are working on creating some non-champ important characters for the lore.
I can confidently say that is true."

[EDIT: More responses from Jaredan on the narrative team]

In response to questions concerning the fear to communicate with the community, Jaredan noted:
"Quote:
Here's what my humble opinion is: you're afraid, because you have let this toxic resentment build up, and it is at critical mass after the retcon announcement. Unless you perform perfectly, you are certain your performance will be crucified. You know what? That is rightfully so.
Nope, not afraid. Just busy. Though we certainly don't want to infuriate our players at all. We're just in a predicament of our own making that's causing pain. I think we've all agreed on that. 
And coming on here to say we're working on things becomes just increasingly more frustrating to many players. 
You're right, we're not communicating here enough, partly because of time, partly because of having something new to say. We want to give you content to talk about rather than talk about the issues due to a lack of content. I know I've done that until many of you are sick to the back teeth. 
Most of that content has been related to the release or update of Champions. We have been talking when this content has been released and I've tried to follow up as much as I'm able. Riot leadership, not just Narrative, is currently discussing how to respond to the need for more story, beyond certain product releases. 
We're not holding back content because we are scared it isn't good enough. Are there things that Riot or Narrative has scrapped because it hasn't been good enough? Of course, every company or creative does that. 
The truth behind the current cadence is that Narrative is changing a lot, we're changing our structure and our staff to meet the future of Riot. However, as I've explained in other threads, Narrative isn't independent. We work on Product Teams that strive to make awesome things for players to enjoy. We're also working on what those priorities should be for League of Legends with leadership. You'll be seeing some of the fruits of that soon. 
And again I have to say soon, which can be very annoying, and I understand that.
I agree that we should be making more story products. We're currently working on a new bio format that you will see the beginnings of in the next month. That's not all we're working on, but I really can't get into that as it would spoil the work of a number of teams."
He continued:
"I'm sorry if I misrepresented things here. Let me clarify. 
Riot leadership absolutely thinks that story is important. This is one of the reasons that Narrative has been so aggressive in leveling up as a discipline. We've restructured, we're in the midst of a big push to hire more great people and so on. We're currently undergoing the kind of change that Art has done. We want you to look at characters and stories in the same way you can look at some of the old splash and then look at the new.
It's simply that the best ways to tell story are being researched and tested. What media, what teams etc. Those are the discussions, not whether or not we need story at Riot. 
The changes we have been undergoing are to create special things for players to engage with. We weren't built to do that as a Discipline or from a Product Team standpoint. The changes we are making are to allow for those things in the long term. There are growing pains, but we're getting there. 
And here's where me saying there will be something in a month is a problem and why I don't usually do it: The imagination of what that will mean (you're talking about us having rewritten all bios for the Champions, which just isn't feasible in that amount of time), to you as a player is unlikely to be matched by the release as you are going to expect a lot due to the time that has passed. 
That's understandable, but, as I said, much of that time has been spent in restructuring, growing and refocusing the Discipline (all while working very hard on things like Kalista, Bard, Ekko, a certain river dwelling fellow, and more. 
What you will see in a month is a response to feedback, including that on these boards, about how we introduce a champion to you in their bio/intro/[insert name of background here]. Ant in Oz might put something together on our thinking, if not, I'll be around to talk about it. Plus some other writing I can't talk about. But I think you'll like it. 
Think of it as a written format that's a platform to build from. A move towards some of the things we used to do that players on these boards like, in a way that we feel ups that quality we're striving for. 
Again, I hope that makes sense. Though I'm fully anticipating some chagrin, I hope people will also see what we're trying to do."

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