Hey all, I wanted to say that we really appreciate the discussion around Firelight Ekko's lack of SFX. We completely agree that SFX are a standard and expected part of an Epic (1350) skin, and leaving them out was an unfortunate mistake on our part due to a miscommunication internally. While we do everything we can to avoid delaying content, we're going to hold off from shipping this skin for a few patches to work on adding new SFX. This also means the skin will come off of PBE for now.

We are also going to take advantage of the extra time to address some of the other feedback we’ve seen on PBE including a unique homeguard. Homeguard animations are a feature that we have included on a very limited set of Epic skins when we feel it meaningfully helps sell the fantasy in a way that we couldn't otherwise. I want to reinforce that this level of scope is not something we can add during a regular PBE cycle or to every Epic skin due to time constraints, but we're also in an unusual situatio...

Not_Maple

im hoping that each skin is basically a legendary with new vo, vfx, and emotes for each one. it would be extremely disappointing if it were basically legendary with 2 chromas you can choose in champ select.

Hoping that more folks have gotten to see her features now that she's on PBE but since we've seen a lot of comparisons to bundles and variants I wanted to jump in and confirm some features. These are comparisons between forms and not base champion vs. skin for reference: Each form will have some overlapping VO and some unique, matching up with where Seraphine is at in her journey. They each have different VFX, dances, and other animations. They each have a separate animated splash (these are more different than a variant or prestige splash typically is). They each have new SFX, as well as a dynamic music system that reacts to how many allies you're nearby (each form uses a different track).

Hephaestus20

/u/RiotKatana I rarely comment on these criticism threads and I am not one to shy away from spending money on League content, but I just want to voice a few specific points that are stopping me personally from buying this skin:

TL;DR: 1. Forcing the user to buy the bundle instead of a more flexibile pricing model 2. Marketing the skin as Ultimate, as opposed to just Quest 3. The base model does not look very good, so having the only other option being the Ultimate skin feels terrible from a player perspective 4. People already don't like her kit/the announcement, so some of the hate is probably spilling over

1. Forcing the user to buy the entire bundle, as opposed to a pricing model similar to Star Guardian/Pajama Guardian or Cosmic/Dark Star Lux. I can justify spending $10-15 for one of these skins based on the splash arts I have seen so far, but $25 for 2 others that I probably won't use (as you said, people generally just stay with the form they like anyway)? That has to be a very exceptional skin, and right now I am not seeing how that translates in this concept where I can only change the skin in champ select. Especially after the release of some great work on skins like Spirit Blossom Thresh, Spirit Blossom Ahri, and Storm Dragon Lee Sin.

2. Marketing it as an ultimate skin sets the user up for disappointment, especially since the bar is now Elementalist Lux for that tier of skin. While I completely respect why you cannot make that level of skin from a technical/game health perspective, it also should be recognized that Riot has set the bar high for Ultimate skins. I think if this was just branded as a Quest skin, instead of an Ultimate skin AND Quest skin, the backlash would be harsh still (grinding to unlock a skin I already paid for doesn't sit well with me personally), but less severe.

3. I, like a lot of people here, dislike the base model of Sera (for me the colors are too bright on her outfit, wish it was more subtle/Piltover-style with her hair being the big color pop, more similar to her final form in KDA). As someone who plays supportive mids, I still want to play the champ and would be willing to pay $10 for the release skin if it corrected some of the color scheme problems I had (Especially if the color just changes on her abilities from the light blue-->pink in the skin line), but $25 is just too much for a champ I have never even played(see point 1).

4. People are already mad at the kit of the champion for her "similarities" to Sona and the amount of hype/effort that went into marketing Sera for what is admittedly an underwhelming release announcement and pretty generic character (although I am in the camp that she will play much differently than Sona). I am pretty sure that if people were super hyped to play Sera and you announced this plan, the feedback would be less severe.

This is obviously just my opinion from what I have seen so far and I am totally willing to admit fault if the skins blow us away on the PBE. Just thought I would offer some constructive criticism since a lot of these threads can devolve into "RIOT BAD" without articulating why. I think this is more of a marketing/branding failure than anything else and I appreciate you engaging with the community on this!

I really appreciate how thoughtful this comment is, I'm definitely seeing some recurring themes you've captured really well here that we're thinking a lot about. The biggest thing that stands out to me in this list (and most of these threads) is the comparison to a bundle. Internally through development, it has felt like a lot more than a bundle to us but of course that doesn't matter nearly as much as how players actually feel about it.

We'll keep watching through PBE and see how everyone is feeling as more folks get to see and play as the champion and with the skin.

bloodwolftico

Thanks for clarifying! A bit of feedback:

• As far as Quest Skins go, and this being the first, I actually don't mind unlocking contenting this way, if it was just a regular skin (or even Legendary). But the fact this was supposed to be Ultimate make me feel kinda weird as a player, as past Ultimate skins have been "purchase once, get everything" kind of a deal. I can deal w this though, its not a big deal for me, just feels a bit out of place for the skin tier.

• Expectations on Ultimate: as I mentioned on another thread, to me an Ultimate means I can do something cool in game, either passively (see Ezreal transform) or actively (pick a song in DJ Sona, pick a transformation in Lux). This is in addition to all the new cool things a Legendary would have (new voice over, new textures, new colors, new theme, new sounds, new VFX, etc).

• GGMF: I wasn't as upset as other people when this came out, but I was a bit disappointed cause besides having new textures, VFX and swapping forms, the voice over was done just once, and all 4 forms felt pretty much like 1 skin 4 chromas. The difference between Lux and MF skins, to me, was that I was expecting new voices for each form, as a way to get a similar theme but a different take past just colors. This didn't happen.

• Seraphine's Release Skin: TBH I haven't seen it in game or know the details of what it has to offer (waiting on someone w PBE access to share). But yes, the skin split also feels weird to me, as a player, but I will give it time and see what comes w these new skins.

• Future Releases: so now I understand the tech limitations on new overloaded assets like Elementalist Lux. It is understandable, if you guys can't release similar projects of this scope in the future, that's fine. I would like LoL to have more capabilities in this manner, so more elaborate Ultimate skins could be released, but I understand this limitation falls outside the hands of the skin-design team.

These are great notes, especially the expectations on Ultimates - I totally get that this doesn't deliver the same fantasy as in game swaps. I am hoping that once seen and played on PBE players will feel like we've packed in a lot of value by keeping the swap out of game but it's super valid and we're definitely keeping an eye on this feeling.

We're excited about the stories we can tell using quest skins and will learn a lot from the first release and from feedback like this.

SadSecurity

GGMF feel into the ultimate category, she checked all the boxes yet you had mass flame some deserved and some not.

The problem is how those boxes were checked. Her animations resembled base skin way too much and different forms were basically chromas. Some people also criticized the theme, design and VO.

This thread has a lot of good thoughts, and wanted to chime in on this line of thinking a little bit. Since Elementalist Lux I agree that expectations around Ultimates understandably ballooned and we've been trying to find more sustainable ways (see the original posting for more context on that) to deliver the best possible fantasies on a champion. While not for everyone, we know Ultimates are really special and important to many players. I agree the initial reception to GGMF was rocky, because of those expectations and for a lot of the reasons you mentioned.

With Seraphine, we really wanted to deliver more features than MF could by separating her forms out and giving the team a lot more space to work in for each of them. This also felt like it could be a strong direction because we typically see players gravitate toward one form and not actually swap very much (of course that's not everyone and I totally get that swapping in game is a big value add too). As a result, Seraphine does...

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EUNE.

Are you seeing 'watch rewards are correctly set up for your account

Not sure. Where should it be?

It should look like this (bubble at the bottom) if you're on watch.lolesports.com on the Youtube or Twitch stream. If that is not showing up, it's possible a privacy add on or ad blocker could be the culprit. Those tend to stop services from tracking any information about you, which stops us from knowing when you are watching. https://imgur.com/a/3LZT7iJ

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I'll try disabling adblocker. Will 1 game of 2v2 count to it?

Hopefully that helps! 2v2s and 1v1s each count, so it ticks up pretty fast during those blocks. VODs also work so if you miss any credit you can run it back (even though that's not ideal).

TBH_Coron

The picture of the missions on the site says 'any global league' so I imagine it works for LAN people watching NA, or NA watching EU, etc.

Although it may only work for watching the regions listed in the article which are Brazil, Turkey, Latin Amer, EU, NA, Oceania, and Japan. This would mean no rewards for watching Korea or China which is real upsetting since i watch mostly NA and Korea.

While we do not have missions support in all leagues yet (which is what that part of the article is referring to), any pro level games on watch.lolesports.com like NA and KR can be used to earn rewards if you have the missions.

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While our rewards missions are not yet live in all regions (like KR) - watching LCK games or other global matches will still grant rewards in live regions.

Fruitjunkie007

Pls they have to also include it on the mobile. Laying in bed and watching LCs is like seeing god xd

You can earn rewards for watching on mobile, either on watch.lolesports.com or in the League Friends App. Just be sure to log in!

Jinkuzu

So we progress the missions we got already by watching LCK or just general drop rewards for watching?

There will be some new missions rolling out over the next few weeks (the date varies a bit depending on region). Watching any pro game on watch.lolesports.com will progress those weekly missions.

Dancjz

Literally way better, why does riot not think about this things

Since this thread isn't super new, jumping onto your comment for better visibility ('scuse me, not cutting the line just trying to find my friends)

Thanks for raising this idea OP and u/boydlr! The team working on True Damage took a look and we agree that customizing the border color per champion is a real improvement. When working on a line of skins like this, we often use the same border for thematic matching, but with the color variation here it doesn't coordinate particularly for Akali and Qiyana.

Since we're later in the patch cycle than usual, we'll be making some border changes that will go live after they launch. Thanks for the feedback!

NaM_Question

This is an awesome way to support teams. Sadly only being able to support teams from your own region is too restricting. I don’t give a shit about the teams from my region (OCE) but support multiple teams in other regions which I’d gladly purchase a pass for. Definitely will not be purchasing this in its current state.

We definitely hear you on this one - something we are looking to expand on in the future as we learn from both Team Pass and Fan Pass. We know many players are fans of global leagues and teams (and we are too).

alexclow

This looks really cool, I've been waiting for more in game integration of pro play outside of worlds/MSI. I have a bunch of questions though

How much is the pass going to cost? Can we pick a LEC team if we live in NA and vice versa? Are we limited to one team? What skin is the chroma for?

To start, players in NA and EU can have one pass from LCS and one pass from LEC, each let you align with one team from that league. In the future we hope to expand further.

The chroma will be for Dragonslayer Braum, one of the most highly used skins in pro play. The passes will each be 980 RP with 50% rev shared to teams.

Rixoki

I suppose this is a great way for fans to support teams but i'm not sure it is not a unique enough reward for me to spend money on it. If I am going to support a team I would rather do it directly by buying merch/jersey for the team. I think there could be better in game items/chromas/rewards for buying this pass. I generally like the direction this is going in though. I will reserve full judgement until I can see in its entirety what you get from from the pass and how much it costs.

The passes will be 980 RP and include: 2 team icons with team tags and chat cheers that last for the duration of the split, a team emote, a team ward skin, a league Dragonslayer Braum chroma (one of the most highly used skins in pro play), 2 masterwork chests, Key fragments totaling 2 keys, and Blue Essence. Fan Pass is similar, with esports-themed content of the same varieties.

SNSDave

Thanks for the info! Can we assume the chroma will have their logo on his shield?

The chromas will be LCS and LEC themed for NA and EU, and Red Side vs. Blue Side in other regions.

RuNtoAether

I'm actually so down for this. Can I buy multiple? I want FNC and C9. Can I even select an NA team from EU? So many questions.

Yup! Players in NA and EU can select one team from LCS and one team from LEC. We hope to expand outside NA and EU moving forward.

TaxedQQ

I love these events giving fans an opportunity to help support their favorite teams. What I DO NOT love is that the emotes are ALWAYS temporary and are only usable during the tournament. You work hard for gold level team emotes over past seasons only to have them taken away after 1 week of being able to use them. Important to know I had no idea when purchasing team pass in the past.

As of a few events ago, team emotes are permanent! The only thing temporary in this pass are the team tags and chat cheers (like we've done for events in the past where it calls out your fandom in start of game chat) - which have 2 levels and last through the end of Summer Split once unlocked.

Thanks for the report, friend - we're working on this and should have a fix shortly. Sorry for the inconvenience, I'll update here when it's up and working.

SlainL9

I can't click "Lock in team pass" on the page after buying the pass and choosing my team. Tried on two different browsers but the button isn't working for me.

Sorry everyone, we're aware of this issue - working on a fix now! I'll update here when we have it working and you'll be able to select your team and get missions.

Luckily games don't start until tomorrow (part of the reason we're going live a day early) - so you won't miss out on any of the experience. Apologies for the inconvenience!

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