NRG’s unlikely return

Noone, and I mean absolutely noone, expected this newly formed squad to make it to the year’s biggest League of Legends event on their very first split back. NRG as an org was briefly participating in the NA LCS back in 2015-2016. After disappointing placements, the team disbanded, and their slot was re-sold.

Fast forward to April 2023, NRG purchased Counter Logic Gaming’s LCS slot and made their debut at LCS Summer. The roster consisted of:

• Dhokla (Top)
• Contractz (Jungle)
• Palafox (Mid)
• FBI (Bot)
• IgNar (Supp)
• Apollo (Sub/Bot)

The team started slow, finishing Summer season at 5th place with a 9-9 score. Not impressive, but it was enough to put NRG on the upper bracket in the LCS Championship (playoffs equivalent to other regions). Here is where they shone; the ‘newcomers’ convincingly upset Team Liquid and Golden Guardians respectively, both with a 3-1 score.

These results were enough to guarantee them top 3 in the Championship, and along with that a spot at Worlds 2023 under new format. This was made possible because Worlds 2023 will have a much smaller Play-ins, thus more teams were invited from Regionals.

Still, credit where credit’s due, NRG took down 2 big names full of veterans on their first Split together. They totally earned their spot, and who knows, maybe they’ll end up winning the entire Championship. There are still more games to go.

On that note, Cloud9 has also qualified to Worlds using the same route.

JDG is on a hot streak

Already the top Chinese League of Legends team in 2022, JD Gaming decided to further bolster their lineup after a 3-4th placement at Worlds 2022 with Ruler and Knight, the best Korean ADC and Chinese midlaner respectively.

The results were instantaneous. While JDG did win both Summer and Spring playoffs in 2022 with their previous lineups, they struggled against Top Esports, always behind on gold due to mechanical skills, but came out on top both times due to superior teamfight capabilities.

This JD Gaming iteration however is a beast in the lanes as well. They crushed their way through the Spring season into MSI, where they bested Bilibili Gaming again to become the Mid-season Invitational 2023 champions.

BLG did manage to get one back over JD Gaming in the Summer season and finished 1st in the groups at 15-1, with JDG a close 2nd at 14-2. However, LNG showed up in the playoffs and proceeded to give everyone a run for their money. BLG was pushed to 3rd place and LNG even almost defeated JDG twice in 5-game thrillers.

With this victory, JD Gaming secured themselves and BLG the first tickets to Worlds 2023

SYSTEM CHANGES

PVE LOOT ORBS

• Lowered the average number of items given at Raptors and distributed the items to Krugs and Wolves. On average, expect to see 1 more of your components at Krugs or Wolves instead of at Raptors.

REGION PORTALS

• REMOVED: Lavender Sea has been removed
• NEW: The Hall Of The Nine has been added
• The Hall Of The Nine: At the start of each stage, everyone gets the same loot from a highly varied pool. In Hyper Roll, loot comes every other stage.
• Petricite Forest has been renamed Ehrenmount.

LARGE CHANGES

TRAITS

• Bastion Armor & MR: 20/50/100/240 ⇒ 25/55/100/240
• Noxus Stat Increase Per Stack: 10% ⇒ 5%
• Noxus Maximum Stat Increase: 70% ⇒ 35%
• 3 Noxus Stats: 160 HP/16% AP and AD ⇒ 170 HP/17% AP and AD
• 6 Noxus Stats: 300 HP/30% AP and AD ⇒ 340 HP/34% AP and AD
• 9 Noxus Stats: 500 HP/50% AP and AD ⇒ 600 HP/60% AP and AD
• Rogue Bleed Health percentage: 40% ⇒ 50%
• Rogue jump logic adjusted to more consistently move to the correct target
• Piltover: You will now gain both T-Hex Power and loot when you win! The T-Hex’s power has been brought down significantly to compensate. At lower loss streaks, the majority of the trait’s power will be in the loot. At higher loss streaks, the T-Hex’s power will be increased more so!
• Piltover: The T-Hex can no longer be sold for loot
• Piltover: The T-Hex no longer starts with 1 Charge
• Piltover loot tables have been adjusted
• T-Hex Base Armor & MR: 15 ⇒ 25
• T-Hex Armor & MR per Power: 2 ⇒ 1
• T-Hex Health per Power: 65 ⇒ 45
• T-Hex now has new power breakpoints!
• T-Hex 20 Power: 2-star and Hextech Breath unlocked
• T-Hex 40 Power: 3-star
• T-Hex 80 Power: 4-star
• T-Hex star levels are purely visual indicators so you can estimate the T-Hex’s strength. Stats are based on the T-Hex’s current Power.
• T-Hex Charges item now displays estimated loot value on victory
• T-Hex Progress item no longer displays estimated loot value when the T-Hex is sold because the T-Hex can no longer be sold
• Piltover (6) average loot value has been increased
• Slayer Amp Threshold: 60% ⇒ 66%
• Technogenius Goldinator Execute Threshold: 10% ⇒ 12%
• Void Rift Herald starting Mana buff: 60/120 ⇒ 80/120
• Void Rift Herald Base Health: 950 ⇒ 1050
• Void Rift Herald Stage 3 Health Multiplier: 0.85x ⇒ 0.8x
• Void Rift Herald Stage 5 Health Multiplier: 1.15x ⇒ 1.2x
• Void Rift Herald Stage 6+ Health Multiplier: 1.25x ⇒ 1.3x
• Void Baron Base Health: 1100 ⇒ 1250
• Void Baron Stage 4 Health Multiplier: 0.85x ⇒ 0.9x
• Void Baron Stage 6 Health Multiplier: 1x ⇒ 1.15x
• Zaun: Your first Zaun mod will always be an offensive mod (Robotic Arm, Virulent Bioware) or a hybrid mod (Adaptive Implant, Shimmer Injector). Your second mod will always be a hybrid mod or a defensive mod (Unstable Chemtank, Hextech Exoskeleton). You can’t get double hybrid mods. Your third mod will always be the remaining category.
• Zaun mods can now be removed by benching the modded unit.

UNITS: TIER 1

• Cassiopeia Twin Fang cast time reduced
• If Cassiopeia’s target dies as Twin Fangs is about to fire, she will retarget to the nearest enemy
• Kayle AD: 25 ⇒ 30
• Malzahar Bugfix: Malzahar will now consistently pick the best angle to cast
• Malzahar can now only hit up to 2 units with Call of the Void, down from 3 units
• Malzahar Call of the Void Damage: 200/300/450 ⇒ 185/280/420
• Samira Flair cast time reduced
• Samira Flair is now targeted and can no longer be blocked by other units
• Poppy Steadfast Hammer Shield: 290/310/330/350 ⇒ 310/330/350/350

UNITS: TIER 2

• Galio Shield of Durand Damage Reduction: 20/20/25% ⇒ 20/20/30%
• Kassadin Force Pulse Damage: 150/225/325 ⇒ 135/200/300
• Sett Facebreaker Damage: 200/300/465 ⇒ 180/270/420
• Soraka Astral Infusion Empowered Heal: 40% ⇒ 33%
• Soraka Astral Infusion Damage: 115/170/265 ⇒ 125/185/290
• Swain max Mana buff: 40/80 ⇒ 30/70
• Swain Demonflare Bonus Health: 450/475/500 ⇒ 450/500/550
• Swain Demonflare Damage Per Tick: 25/40/60 ⇒ 35/50/75
• Taliyah starting Mana nerf: 20/60 ⇒ 0/60
• Teemo Noxious Trap Damage: 200/300/465/500 ⇒ 230/350/535/535
• Teemo Multicasted Noxious Trap mushrooms now prefer to bounce to targets behind the original target.

UNITS: TIER 3

• Akshan Attack Damage: 65 ⇒ 60
• Garen Judgement Damage Per Tick: 72/75/80% ⇒ 75/75/85%
• Jayce’s Acceleration Blast nows tracks its target
• If Jayce’s target dies while he’s beginning his cast of Acceleration Blast, he will retarget to the nearest enemy
• Rek’Sai Furious Bite AD ratio: 300/300/315% ⇒ 315/315/315%
• Rek’Sai will now always heal if she dives or if her target dies.
• Rek’Sai now takes damage amp and critical strikes (if applicable) when deciding whether she will dive through her target.

UNITS: TIER 4

• Azir Arise! Damage: 95/140/500 ⇒ 100/150/550
• Kai’Sa Mana: 40/140 ⇒ 30/125
• Urgot lockout time between Disdain passive procs have been reduced
• Urgot max Mana nerf: 30/90 ⇒ 40/100
• Urgot Disdain AD ratio: 275% ⇒ 250%
• Urgot Disdain Damage: 50/75/500 ⇒ 40/60/500
• Gwen now prefers to hit multiple targets with Snip Snip! when possible.

UNITS: TIER 5

• Ahri Essence Thief steal Damage: 115/170/1000 ⇒ 100/150/1000
• Bandle City Ryze starting Mana nerf: 50/75 ⇒ 30/75
• Bandle City Ryze cast time: 2.5s ⇒ 2s
• Bandle City Ryze Bench selection: Random Unit ⇒ Most expensive Unit
• Bandle City Ryze Mana for Summoned Unit: 25/40/200 ⇒ 25/70/200
• Demacia Ryze Shield: 720/1080/9999 ⇒ 600/900/9999
• Demacia Ryze Damage: 250/375/999 ⇒ 300/450/999
• Freljord Ryze Portal Duration (Cast time and Stun duration): 3s ⇒ 2s
• Freljord Ryze Damage: 300/450/2000 ⇒ 300/450/3500
• Freljord Ryze at 3-stars now summons a much larger storm
• Ionia Ryze Cast Time: 3.5s ⇒ 2s
• Ionia Ryze Attack Speed: 50/60/300% ⇒ 30/40/300%
• Ionia Ryze now deals 175/275/3500 magic damage when Stunning enemies
• Noxus Ryze Cast Time: 2.5s ⇒ 2s
• Piltover Ryze Cast Time: 2.5s ⇒ 2s
• Piltover Ryze Damage: 250/375/1999 ⇒ 275/425/3000
• Piltover Ryze Area Shared Damage: 12/15/500% ⇒ 15/20/500%
• Shadow Isles Ryze Cast Time: 2.5s ⇒ 2s
• Shadow Isles Ryze Health on return from death: 40/60/100% ⇒ 40/80/300%
• Shadow Isles Ryze Cast Target: Strongest Ally ⇒ Lowest Health % Ally
• Shadow Isles Ryze marked units will revive even if Ryze has previously died
• Shurima Ryze Cast Time: 2.5s ⇒ 2s
• Shurima Ryze Damage: 150/225/2000 ⇒ 175/275/2500
• Targon Ryze Cast Time: 6s ⇒ 4s
• Targon Ryze Target % max Health Damage: 15/20/100% ⇒ 18/25/100%
• Zaun Ryze base Portal Count: 3/6/25 ⇒ 5/8/25
• Zaun Ryze Damage Per Portal: 155/230/2006 ⇒ 110/200/2006
• Zaun Ryze Gold Per Bonus Portal Past 50g: 15g ⇒ 20g
• Sion Reanimation Health Decay: 12/8/0% ⇒ 15/10/0%

LEGEND AUGMENTS

• Lee Sin On a Roll has been replaced with Bronze Ticket.
• Pumping Up III Base attack speed 10% ⇒ 12%
• It Pays To Learn II XP & Gold 18 ⇒ 16
• It Pays To Learn III XP & Gold 24 ⇒ 20
• Seeing Double I Gold 1 ⇒ 2
• Seeing Double II Gold 8 ⇒ 10
• Seeing Double III Gold 3 ⇒ 4
• Small Forge Gold 6 ⇒ 4
• Medium Forge Gold 10 ⇒ 7

AUGMENTS

• On a Roll now additionally grants 2 gold.
• Risky Moves Gold: 35 ⇒ 30
• Medium-End Shopping has been disabled
• A Cut Above Gold drop chance: 40% ⇒ 33%
• Built Different II Health: 180/240/300/360 ⇒ 200/275/350/425
• Dedication Units of a trait required: 5 ⇒ 4
• Multicaster Heart removed
• Parting Gifts now always prefers to pass completed items instead of components.
• Perfected Repetition also stacks on Multicaster’s repeated casts
• Perfected Repetition AP Per Stack: 10 ⇒ 5
• Perfected Repetition Maximum AP: 60 ⇒ 70
• Ravenous Hunter stacking bonuses cap: 50 ⇒ 40
• The Boss Sit Up Health Threshold: 40% ⇒ 60%
• The Boss Health Restored Per Situp: 15% ⇒ 10%
• The Boss % AS and AP Per Situp (max 4): 35% ⇒ 40%
• Three’s Company now only counts unique champions
• Two Healthy now only counts unique champions
• Two Healthy Health: 111 ⇒ 100
• Spectral Supplies temporarily Disabled
• Stable Evolution bonus Health: 70 ⇒ 60
• Stable Evolution Bonus AD and AP: 7% ⇒ 6%
• Noxus Crown Grants an Infinity Edge ⇒ Grants a Sparring Gloves
• Shadow Isles Grants a Statikk Shiv ⇒ Grants a Tear of the Goddess
• Challenger Crown Grants a Rapid FireCannon ⇒ Grants a Hand of Justice
• Demacia Crown Grants a Gargoyle’s Stoneplate ⇒ Grants a Guinsoo’s Rageblade
• Shurima Crown Grants a Bloodthirster ⇒ Grants a Protector’s Vow
• Slayer Crown Grants a Bloodthirster ⇒ Grants a Titan’s Resolve
• Juggernaut Crown Grants a Titan’s Resolve ⇒ Grants a Bloodthirster
• Piltover Crown Grants a Zeke’s Herald ⇒ Grants a Giant Slayer.

ITEMS

• Locket of the Iron Solari Shield: 250/300/350/400 ⇒ 275/325/375/425
• Morellonomicon now applies on any damage from Abilities instead of only magic or true damage from Abilities

ORNN (FORGE) AND SHIMMERSCALE ITEMS

• Determined Investor (Shimmerscale) Gold Granted: 10 ⇒ 5
• Diamond Hands (Shimmerscale) Health: 400 ⇒ 300
• Mogul’s Mail (Shimmerscale) Base Health Per Stack (max 40 stacks): 8 ⇒ 6
• Goldmancer’s Staff (Shimmerscale) AP: 20% ⇒ 25%
• Draven’s Axe (Shimmerscale) AD: 10% ⇒ 15%
• Needlessly Big Gem (Shimmerscale) Health: 500 ⇒ 600
• Sniper’s Focus Damage Amp: 8% ⇒ 10% per hex
• Deathfire Grasp Damage Buff Duration: 8 ⇒ 10 seconds
• Deathfire Grasp Bonus Damage to Marked Target: 50% ⇒ 35%
• Eternal Winter Health: 300 ⇒ 200
• Hullbreaker Armor & MR: 30 ⇒ 40

SMALL CHANGES

UNITS

• Aphelios Chakram AD ratio: 8/8/40% ⇒ 8/8/30%
• Gwen Snip Snip! Mist Duration: 3/3/6 ⇒ 3/3/5
• Gwen Snip Snip! Damage: 100/150/500 ⇒ 100/150/400
• Kai’Sa Icathian Monsoon Damage: 75/111/300 ⇒ 75/111/240
• Lux Torrent of Light Damage: 735/1100/3333 ⇒ 735/1100/2750
• Lux Torrent of Light Shred: 15/15/50 ⇒ 15/15/40
• Shen Ki Barrier Ally Shield: 275/350/1800 ⇒ 275/350/2000
• Shen Ki Barrier Damage: 240/360/2000 ⇒ 240/360/2500

AUGMENTS

• Blinding Speed also grants a Magnetic Remover
• Impenetrable Bulwark also grants a Magnetic Remover
• Overwhelming Force also grants a Magnetic Remover
• Unleashed Arcana also grants a Magnetic Remover

GAME MODES

HYPER ROLL

• Frequent Flier rerolls needed for reduced cost rolls: 10 rerolls >> 15 rerolls
• Return on Investment rerolls for Tactician’s Crown: 22 rerolls >> 28 rerolls

BUG FIXES

• Burnt out: Due to a critical bug we’ve temporarily disabled the Mana Burn Augment
• Buried Treasures no longer states that it grants 0 gold in its tooltip
• Ghosts of the Void: Void now works correctly on ghost armies.
• Critical Strike Chance tooltip now clarifies that excess strike chance is converted to bonus critical damage
• Warlord’s Palace’s tooltip now correctly displays the reroll cost as 1 gold
• Fixed a bug where you could be offered multiple hero Augments.
• Fixed a bug where Freljord Ryze could Chill and Stun CC-immune targets.
• Ahri no longer targets the farthest unit on the board with Essence Theft when her current target dies
• The Risky Move Augment’s player damage now happens instantly instead of after a minor delay
• Tossed cutlery: Fixed a bug where the component offered by Salvage Bin could be a Spatula.
• Items and consumables can no longer be used on the champion in the God Willow’s Grove during combat
• Fixed a bug where Noxkraya would grant double the item bonuses to units on away boards.
• Not the final spark: Fixed a bug where placing a mana item on Lux while she was casting could reset her cast.
• Darkin can no longer fail to grant its buff to an ally if the ally dies while the blade is traveling
• Frequent flicker: Frequent Flier no longer causes the shop roll cost to flicker.
• Too blessed: Units will no longer proc the Stellacorn’s Blessing Augment’s effect if they attempt to heal while at full Health
• Where does a soul go? The Thresh’s Sanctum region portal will now grant its loot orbs to the correct location whether the player is home or away (top left corner of the board)
• The Glasc Industries region portal will no longer spawn an away player’s coins on their home board
• Where the Forge? The What the Forge augment no longer grants its Ornn Items to a player’s home board if they’re fighting on another player’s board
• Fixed how neighboring players to the Tournament of Souls Arena would see spillover VFX when the Tournament of Souls arena transformed

Related: TFT set 9 Legend has made reaching level 10 ‘extremely boring’

Before the launch of TFT set 9, there was an incident where Teamfight Tactics could not be accessed for 2 days on League of Legends’ PBE client due to crash issues. Instead of overworking TFT devs, Mort decided to disable TFT for a day while they worked on the issues.

Hardly a controversial decision. However as the PBE was for TFT’s latest set Runeterra Reforged, there were many understandably frustrated players, and some of them decided to take it out on the public head honcho Mortdog himself. Comments included: ‘I want to kill your entire family in front of you and make you watch’ among others. This prompted a series of tweets response from Mort.

For years Mortdog had been by far the most front-facing developer at Riot Games, if not in the gaming industry itself. He runs a popular Twitch channel as well where he plays TFT at Challenger levels and answers questions as well as interacts with the community. Mort has always been very open about design decisions and given useful insights into the thought process behind balance decisions on TFT. None of this was part of his job.

While Mort certainly benefits from being the face of TFT, most of the time it isn’t worth it for him while TFT player base has benefitted so much. We have truthfully been spoiled, and facing the reckoning that the clear, direct and honest communication might just be gone due to the behavior of some of our worst.

To clarify, Mort has said that most of the community and interactions have been nice and supportive:

Don’t get me wrong, the PERCENTAGE of these is actually quite low. I’d say 70% of comments were very kind and positive, and 20-25% of comments were constructive criticism which is great. But if even 5% of comments are toxic and you read 1000, that’s still 50 horrible things

At the end of the day, these horrible 5% needs to be reminded that TFT is just a game, and getting so triggered over a video game that they opt to attack and blame a good dev for it is a horrid overreaction. Not that there are any case scenarios where death threats are justified. Chill.

There has been much hilarity surrounding the beloved lightning imbued sword. Statikk Shiv had been banned from pro play after a bug was introduced in Patch 13.10 that enabled it to damage friendly minions. That has led to many interesting pauses:

• KT Aiming purchasing it while banned
• DK ShowMaker purchasing it while not banned
• GEN Doran not purchasing it while not banned

Aiming bought the item and had to resell it for 900 gold because he forgot it was banned in their series vs GenG, getting his coach fined 2 million KRW and suspended for 3 weeks. DWG had to pause when the enemy team realizes ShowMaker bought the item and wasn’t sure it was allowed.

However, in Doran’s case, his Statikk Shiv was not working not because of a bug. It wasn’t proccing because he simply didn’t buy the item. Classic Doran moment!

GenG won the series anyways and further extend their impressive 7-0 streak in LCK Summer. Other Korean teams after seeing this: We lost to this guy??!

After a close and heartbreaking defeat at Worlds 2022, T1 decided not to change their roster for 2023 season. After all why fix what isn’t broken, the team did finish 2nd and only by a 2-3 score.

However 2023 has not got better for them. The team started the year with an impressive 17-1 score that landed them 1st place in LCK Spring, but fell to GenG eventually in the Playoffs Grand Finals. It was fortunate that MSI 2023 changed format and had 2 LCK teams instead of the usual 1. Nevertheless, T1 also did not have more success at the Mid-season, placing 3rd after consecutive defeats to Bilibili Gaming and eventual champions JD Gaming.

Fans were hoping the break between seasons would recuperate the team and improve their results. Straight off week 1, T1 again was defeated 1-2 by longtime nemesis GenG. They did not ban or pick Zeri and instead went for Draven as ADC. Peyz’s Zeri finished game 3 with a 11-1-3 score.

Flash forward to week 3, T1 faces KT Rolster (dubbed as Telecom war by fans). KT had been on the rise and is on really good form, but few would bet on a win, not to mention a clean 2-0 over T1. KT’s toplaner Kiin landed multiple 2-man ults on Gumayusi and Faker for some reason, and Aiming makes sure to finish the job with a phenomenal 21/1/13 total KDA in the series.

The loss saw T1 drop to 4th place in LCK Summer, and while they’re not in danger of not qualifying to Worlds 2023 yet, fans have cause for concern with their recent results. To be fair, T1 placed 2nd at Worlds, 2nd in LCK Spring, 3rd at MSI; those placements are really good and it’s hard to stay at the top with the insane level of competition at LCK and international events.

However, expectations are high for T1, and being fan favorites, everyone wants to see them in a Grand Finals. Their drafting has been questionable, and Oner and Zeus are simply not playing at their best for the last half a year. Hopefully the team could resolve whatever issues that are holding them back and. be back in time for Worlds 3 months from now.

LEAKS: New Soul Fighter skin will include these 10 champions

Surrender@20 is no stranger to long time League of Legends vets. The website had been providing news regarding League updates and changes from as far back as 2011 and been a quintessential source of info for millions of fans. Skin updates and leaks, PBE changes, datamined contents, … you guess it, the page had them all.

S@20 was run by community members, most notably Moo, Azn, Uli (of SkinSpotlight), woops, FrostyNinja among other contributors who have since moved on to other projects. The site’s funding model is a mix of both on-site advertising and user donations.

Since 2022 however, the main contributors Moo and Azn have expressed growing disinterest and burnout from League of Legends. No big drama behind it, sometimes you just move on from something that you enjoyed and motivation runs dry. Azn has since deleted his Twitter handle, and Moo has been inactive since last year. The 2 are owners of Surrender@20 domain, which is expected to expire next month.

A backup of the website had been made by the Archive team.

Many users had expressed initial concerns about where they’ll get their PBE, leaks and skin info from. Spideraxe from S@20 reassured the community that he would still post PBE updates on Twitter and Reddit, while you can check out skins from Uli’s SkinSpotlight youtube channel.

The end of an era

Essentially not much will change, many people have not actually felt a difference since Surrender@20 went inactive last year. The vacuum left behind by them was quickly filled by other passionate LoL community members. But Surrender@20 had been an integral part of League of Legends for so long, and undoubtedly part of many players’ childhood and experience with the game.

Big thank you to all the contributors who maintained the site over the years, and thanks Surrender@20 for the decade long dedication. You will be missed!

LEAKS: 10 new Soul Fighter skins to be released

During her first year of release, Zeri was changed 11 times between Patch 12.2 and 13.2

For comparison here are the top 5 champions who got the most adjustments:

Reddit users seem to share the sentiment that the balance team is not fully at fault here, it’s Riot’s champion design team. They have been churning out champions with broken mechanics that are balance nightmares and require multiple reworks. The balance team is really working overtime at this point.

Zeri’s passive allows her to gain damage just by moving and spamming Q, which you’d want to all the time anyways. She can sidestep skillshots and avoid harassment while charging up for a counterattack, making her trades super efficient, and her kit scales AoE and single target damage to ridiculous levels, and fits the current itemization in League to a T.

It’s understandable why Riot’s design team would try to make overpowered champions with busted mechanics – it’s fun and incentivizes players to try them out. But the fun expires after a few weeks when you start seeing the same broken champions every game, and having to play against ‘fun’ broken champions is very very unfun.

There is no easy solution. Riot recently reworked Yuumi and it did absolutely nothing – the champions was picked or banned in 98% of LCK games! Removing a champion’s distinctive mechanics makes them, well, not distinctive. Bland. Nerfing it too much without addressing its unbalanced mechanics makes the champion shit in pub, but still broken in pro play.

Eventually they will hit a good balance point with Zeri, but at this point it feels like the player base is being fed something bad from Riot and has to suffer slowly until it is out of our system and the stomachache is gone!

LEAKS: 10 new champions to receive Soul Fighter skins

Due to a bug, Statikk Shiv was banned by Riot Korea in tournament games, and KT Rolster as well as other teams were notified twice about this. KT’s ADC Aiming however made the purchase during the first round of LCK Summer between KT and GenG and was later made to sell the item for 900 gold.

During the pause to settle the dispute however, KT’s head coach Hirai got into a heated exchange with the referee. He allegedly insulted them with undisclosed ‘inappropriate words’ and was thereby issued a warning. He later apologized to the referee in question. Taking that into consideration, Riot decided to fine Hirai 2,000,000 KRW and suspend him for 2 weeks as punishment.

Riot has always been intolerant of this kind of outburst and behavior and hopes to make examples of such incidents. It was quite an expensive Statikk Shiv!

To be fair, Riot KR should have disabled the item in-game in the first place. Pro players rely a lot on muscle memories and sometimes just buy an item out of habit, not keeping in mind that it’s banned.

Meanwhile EDG replaces ADC Leave with Uzi after prostitution scandal

It has not been a good year for former Worlds champion EDward Gaming. After placing 5-8th at Worlds 2022, the team parted ways with their star ADC Viper and promoted Hu ‘Leave’ Hong-Chao from their academy roster. The team fared decently during LPL Spring group stage placing 2nd, but ended up losing to Bilibili Gaming 2-3 in the playoffs and with it a spot at MSI 2023.

EDG did not manage to shake off the bad form after spring break and are currently 1-2 in series in Summer split. As such, a roster change is due. EDG promoted another academy ADC to the main roster, Kang ‘Thesnake’ Guang, on June 8th. Ex-Bilibili ADC Uzi was also rumored to be a potential replacement.

Leave recently got into a prostitution scandal after his girlfriend (now ex) exposed him of paying for sex while they were still in a relationship. It’s debatable whether prostitution or paying for it is wrong, however soliciting prostitutes is illegal in China and Leave may have to go to jail if guilty.

Additionally it was also alleged that Leave had been using alternate accounts to flame his jungler and EDG teammate JieJie in pubs. These allegations, if true, would be despicable both morally and professionally.

Getting flamed even after winning Worlds, such is Jungler life 🙁

Meanwhile Riot staffer was caught using AI to respond to support tickets.