Buffs/Fixes for Syndra and Elo Boosting Punishments handed out

Posted on at 4:34 AM by Moobeat
What better way to start off a Friday morning than with a healthy dose of red posts?
Continue reading for two long red posts - one regarding Riot's plans to buff Syndra and the other concerns the punishments for "Elo boosting".

Remember those upcoming Syndra buffs/fixes Meddler mentioned the other day? Well, he's back and this time he's come prepared with a comprehensive list of what Riot is plans improve, fix, or buff on Syndra.
"Hey folks,

Just wanted to let you know about some useability/quality of life changes we're currently testing for Syndra and also gather some feedback to see if there's anything else we might have missed that would it would be appropriate to bundle with them. We didn't get Syndra's state quite right on launch, both in terms of simple power and in terms of spell timings, which in retrospect left her abilities both harder to use/more delayed than was appropriate and light on the actual pay off when executed correctly. In the last balance patch we buffed the damage, range and/or mana cost on her skills so now we're looking at tweaking the performance on her abilities themselves (this sort of stuff takes longer to do, hence the changes being split into two patches).

The key changes we're currently testing are:

1. Making her Force of Will more responsive by increasing the speed at which Syndra pulls Dark Spheres/Minions to her to throw and by removing the spell slot cooldown imposed during the grab (instead replacing it with a check that allows the throw to occur as soon as the Sphere/Minion's been pulled to her though not before).

2. Improving the timing on the Sphere hit detection from Scatter the Weak to allow more natural Q followed immediately by E plays. This can currently be done but can be a bit unreliable at moderate Q ranges from Syndra where intuitively you'd expect the combo to work.

3. Fixing the cooldown check on the ultimate so that it doesn't go on cooldown without casting, whether because the target died mid animation or because spellshields are being checked for at start of cast, not at point of missile impact.

4. We're testing a small range increase on her ultimate. This is something we're really cautious about, given the ult's damage can be very high
and higher ranges tested during development were extremely powerful. Given other aspects of her kit were somewhat different then however there's value in rechecking a longer range again to see if the previous problems observed still hold true or not.

In addition we've also got a number of bug fixes in the works that should also improve Syndra's play experience, in particular a case where enemies hit by both Scatter the Weak and a knocked back Dark Sphere sometimes only getting knocked back, rather than knocked back and stunned as intended.

As usual since these are changes in testing they're not set in stone and release timing's not confirmed yet, though we should be talking sooner rather than later."
Earlier, Yegg posted an announcement regarding a number of you have been very vocal about - Elo boosting. Elo boosting is when someone pays a more skilled player to log on their account and win ranked games to artficially increase their Elo, usually in an attempt to earn additional end of season rewards. Riot has taken action, issuing bans for several accounts ( both seller and buyer ) and even went so far as to publicly list several names of banned Elo boosters.
"We recently announced the Season 2 ranked rewards, and since then we’ve seen occurrences of highly skilled players logging into the accounts of other players and dominating games in order to qualify that account for additional rewards. Some streamers have even been openly advertising these services and engaging in this in front of thousands of viewers. This is unacceptable. We strongly believe that ranked rewards should be fairly earned by the recipients.

Not only is account sharing against the Terms of Use, and not only does it undermine the spirit of fair play, but it also affects many innocent players who find themselves battling a player whose true Elo is 1000 or more points above theirs.

Today we’ve issued the following punishments:

- Two week suspensions for the accounts of a few streamers that we’ve confirmed were engaging in this behavior: robertxlee, Only Jaximus, yangfushang, and dye44.

- Seven day suspensions for the accounts that received Elo boosts from these players. These accounts have lost all eligibility for Season 2 rewards and have had their ranked Elo reset to an appropriate level.

We’re also in the midst of an analysis that will identify other players who have clearly participated in Elo boosting over the past several months. Once the list is finalized we’ll be taking similar action against those accounts.

The integrity of ranked play is extremely important to us, and to that end we will continue monitoring for these behaviors going forward. Permanent bans will be issued to players who are found engaging in Elo boosting in the future.

For the vast majority of players who have competed fairly throughout Season 2, you have nothing to worry about. There are twelve days left to earn rewards before the season end date of October 23. Good luck and have fun!"

88 comments

  1. But I want Janna..
    huehuehuehue

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  2. Aight finally they are *Fixing* syndra it was such a let down champ when i bought her while she was awsome at the gamescom

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    1. Syndra is so much fun to play. I can't wait until they implement these changes. :D

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    2. I dunno... I haven't had a problem with Syndra. My win rate with her is higher than almost any other champ. Of course, a buff and range increase will only mean ALL THE WINS ALL THE TIMES!

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    3. Syndra has the longest Ranged stun that isn't an ASH arrow, while it takes skills to perform, I believe once they fix this part of her kit you will be able to set up long range stuns on multiple enemies, which will do wonders for a poke comp or a pull comp.

      ~LazReal~

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    4. no one cares if you sign your name, you're a nobody.

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  3. ВСЕМ ПОХУУУЙ

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  4. correct that; she is violet in game, dark in the art splash.

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  5. SNAP! it was obviously it was gonna happen though (suspensions for the elo boosters)
    for once, well done Riot!

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  6. That CD thing on ultimate is really annoying. Some teammate trololols with some unexpected überskill and you are out of cooldown without it even starting to do anything.
    But I suppose the biggest change might be the actual possibility to stun targets in melee range (hopefully).

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  7. Will not change the fact that every current top AP still outclasses her heavily (Karthus, Zyra, Ahri, Gragas...) and she is nothing but a clunky Brand with less AOE dmg.

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    1. Syndra and Brand have almost no similarities. You need to know what you're talking about before making stupid comparisons.

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    2. He meant, in spell design, they're pretty similar. Their stun CC takes a combo of 2 spells. Brand's W and Syndra's Q have a small delay before dealing AoE damage. Their ultimates chunk down tons of HP, except for Syndra it's single target while Brand is AoE.

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    3. Brand is closer to anivia, where all he needs is to turn in fast instant spell before his missile connects. Also his ultimate is not set up, it is used to damage crowds just as soon as they are crowded.

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  8. Well, maybe she will not be Shit Tier anymore after this. I hope they then have the time to improve Kha Zix since he seems pretty weak too.

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    1. Kha Zix isn't that weak, he's just an assassin champ in a meta where they aren't heavily favored.

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    2. ^ Yeah... maybe evolving his spikes and going for a bruiser/tanky built might be worth trying.

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    3. ^ Yeah, he isn't that weak. He's just an assassin that can't assassinate, unlike say Talon, Diana, Akali, Fizz, oh and pretty much every other assassin. Which means that according to the community, that's "balaaaaaaanced" and working as intended.

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    4. If you can't assassinate with kha'zix, you're doing it wrong.

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    5. ^ if you get assassinated by kha'zix, you're doing it wrong.


      Fixed. Stick to your minions or teammates and his dmg is a joke and his awful survivability makes sure everyone and his mom can just squash him like a bug.

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    6. I didn't have a problem at playing kha zix top , for me i counter olaf with khazix , i even beated an early game fed olaf (he got 3 kills from fail jungle gank) , and i still could win my lane against him without jungler help.

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    7. kha'zix is an amazing top because of his passive you can easily do way more starting damage than any top champions especially if you take taste their fear off the bat as far as i'm concerned kha'zix right now is fine other than need a fix for the animation:range on his missles its really misleading.

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  9. Can someone confirm robertxlee really did this?

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    1. Riot can and did lol

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    2. Yes he did and openly said so on his own Stream and sometimes on the Streams on his friends, like Zekent e.g.

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    3. If I remember it right, he said he would take about 20$ for 100 elo, but my memory is bad, so don't sue me.
      But yes, he did that.

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  10. Not cool dude.

    I love watching YangFuShang, he's the best and most fun streamer to watch. This so so sucks :(

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    1. Have you ever heard of TheOddOne?

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    2. Yes, and you're retarded, I personally don't like TSM but one is a professional player and the other is a regular streamer

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  11. i love victorious janna but too bad i havent played ranked yet.. T_T i want the skin so badly.... T_T

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    1. Don't give up. If you play alot (and are on that level of play) you can get to 1500.
      Play really careful the first ten games to try and get to 1300+ after those placement matches, then you should be fine.

      You have to be nice to your teammates because otherwise you will definitely lose. Also, don't play good Champions, but instead Champions that you are comfortable with.
      Just in case, train playing Support in Bot games or Normal Drafts abit, the other roles as well. That can assure that you can play all the roles if you get forced on them. Also, don't underestimate a Support's influence on the game. He is the one who has to make sure the AD Carry either doesn't totally lose if he's bad or making him carry hard if he's good.

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  12. "These accounts have lost all eligibility for Season 2 rewards and have had their ranked Elo reset to an appropriate level."

    Gee I wonder what their appropriate level would be.

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    1. The level they were before the elo boost started taking place? Seems like the simple answer.

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  13. 17th!!! OMG im 17th commenter..this is soo awesome..love it! :))

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    1. Coooool, I'm the 43th commenter, commenting on the 17ths comment!!!

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  14. I just wanna say... Trying to get gold b4 the season ends really sucks. Especially playing ranked for the first time with people that don't understand the concept of a support or the general meta, playing with people that will be forever <1200 elo, playing with people that are extremely toxic to the team environmental, getting teammates that refuse to cooperate in picks and bans by simply stating what role the would like to play, getting teammates that can't play more than one role, and the list goes on.

    Makes me wanna jump off a building!

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  15. Riot has used their own mathematical formula for the ELO system, to make it more acceptable to their standards. It is not the same system used in CHESS.

    However, if you are referring to the ELO system as a whole, what other systems do you recommend? Some people are saying k/d based systems, which would actually make things worse because no one would play tanks/supports/junglers, therefore causing teams to lose harshly. Because consider this, usually the ones who care exclusively about ELO are the ones that QQ, rage, and never learn and leave their ELO range. These same players are now playing exclusively carries regardless of other players because they want more ELO/less ELO loss. Now the team is more likely to win based on the player make-up and how well they can work in a team...OHSHITWAITTHATSALREADYHAPPENING!!!!

    If you can think of any other argument I'd be glad to try to crush them for you.

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  16. they are so going to over buff her just like rengar lol.... She is already one of the best duelist champions in game with that ult and range.

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    1. syndra was horrible at release. and yet she still has the lowest win ratio in teh game

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  17. "have had their ranked Elo reset to an appropriate level."

    So apparently their ELO isn't as automated as they say it is, after some major bugs of whole games dropping out (This was months ago, where whole teams would disconnect, games cease to exist, etc) and reporting it to get ELO returned I was given the message of 'ELO can never be tampered with as the system is full automated' which apparently is just not the case.

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    1. Probably just deleted the games that look like they have been boosted.

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  18. They need to hand out harsher punishment to the people that actually do the boosting. 2 weeks is so light...

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    1. But remember that thisn is like Riot's first strike against people. Its a warning to a lot of them. And a lot of them are not bad people at all, if asked to stop I believe they probably would have done so. Jaximus plays with the President of Riot frequently, for example, he isnt a bad guy. If anyone continues now though I will expect Riot to crack the whip then.
      These are the warnings

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  19. So much hate for Syndra from the community. D:

    Here's what I think: those who say she sucks probably only tried her once in a random blind game, lost, then never tried her again.

    She needs tuning, yes, but she also needs a lot of practice to play well as.

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    1. Its not hate, its just people who know what the fuck they are talking about. If you would have ever played any current top tier AP and then tried her you would instantly know how bad she is.
      Also she is not really that hard to master, thats only an excuse from people who suck.

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  20. what if you just have a massive winning streak like i did (13 wins in a row). why ban the people who actully got better. this new elo boosting thing sounds unfair to me personally as when i go on another winning streak i might get banned. (that winning streak happened about a month ago.)

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    1. They wont ban you for that, obviously

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  21. OMFG to hell with syndra. She have good if not great damage, great range, great AoE, really nice slow and she's skill floor is just a little too high. I hardly ever use smart casting but it is just a must a least on her W. So many times i saw ppl using Q.... wait .... W... wait.. drag that thing around him for a while ... Throw.. not far enough even though they dont use smart cast... then they go and start complaining how bad , slow and unresponsive she is. GTFO and L2P.
    The only problem i had with her was her stun which seemed so unconvenient to me that i found it almost useless but you know what? I know it was bad for me because i sucked at using it and not because it's bad, ppl are way too used to point and click "skill" champs in lol nowdays.

    If anyone should have his/her "responsiveness" reworked/improved it's probably Sejuani, not Syndra.

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    1. ^ mad because he sucks so much that he even got killed by a syndra

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  22. A lot of people went to elojob.com and thats how they get their Season 3 rewards.

    RIOT talked about it on the forum

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