TL;DW: Mid-Year Check-In Dev Update

Hey everyone, Riot Brightmoon and Meddler here with another TL;DW of today’s Dev Update.

When we started the Dev Update series, we recognized we needed to deliver on a number of things for players like events, more consistent communication, cinematics, game modes, and more. The Soul Fighter event we just launched is one of our big efforts to get there. We certainly don’t expect it to address everything, but we hope it feels like a meaningful step in the right direction. We’re excited to see what you think of everything in this summer’s event, from the cinematic, to the in-client metagame, to our 2v2v2v2 mode, Arena.

Now let’s jump into the TL;DW, starting with some frequently asked questions about Arena.

Arena FAQ

• Before we make any decisions on whether Arena will return, we’ll listen to your feedback and gauge the mode’s popularity.
• If Arena does return, we want to implement features like custom lobbies and queueing with multiple friends.
• We’ll also be making Arena-specific balance changes, including a mixture of champion-specific changes and simple percentage adjustments, if we need to make a larger number of changes all at once.
• We answered more of your questions in an Arena FAQ dev blog that was just published today.
• If you’d like to meet the team behind Arena, watch our behind-the-scenes look at the mode’s development.

Quick Play, Blue Essence Emporium, and More

• We’re still working on Quick Play, which was put on hold to prioritize Soul Fighter, Arena, and the Ranked changes. But we’re planning to release it later this year.
• Star Guardian Seraphine and Orianna have been performing really well—they’ve been two of the most popular skins this year.
• We’re still working on Xayah and Rakan for later this year.

• The Blue Essence Emporium will return in patch 13.17 and we have plans to bring it back twice a year going forward.
• We’re also introducing mass disenchant to quickly disenchant unneeded champion shards.

• We’re aiming to ship ability icon updates for Graves, Janna, Jarvan, Nami, Orianna, and Varus in August. We’ll take on others after that.
• In the next Dev Update, we’ll talk more about how Arena’s been going and what we’re thinking about for the future of Arena and other modes.

• We’ll also have updates on Preseason, a visual and audio update for Jax, and you’ll have had a chance to meet our newest champion, Briar.

That’s all we have for this Dev Update. Let us know what you think and we’ll see you in the Arena!