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[INTRO] August "gypsylord" Browning, Champion Designer

RiotAD Yuumi·12/18/2015, 9:20:51 PM·1 votes·137,427 views

WHO AM I?

Hi I'm August or Gypsy, Short bio: I grew up in Alaska fighting bears and spent my college years at Dartmouth on the east coast studying economics. While there I played A TON of games, freshman and sophomore year was 1400 hours of competitive TF2 (scout, sniper, medic) and Junior and Senior year found me addicted to League of Legends. I applied to riot my senior winter after realizing finance wasn't for me and joined the champ team as a designer shortly after graduation in 2012.

WHAT AM I DOING AT RIOT?

My primary role here is making champions. Past projects (love affairs?) include Vi, Jinx, Gnar, and Ekko. I'm currently working on #5 who'll be coming out next (he's freaking awesome). Asides from direct mechanics design I've also been heavily involved in early concept ideation for the majority of the champs to have come out in 2014 and 2015 as well as a few that are still yet to be released. Also (when I have time) enjoy helping out other teams such as live gameplay or systems. I headed up the keystone masteries project for the recent preseason with Stashu and Squad5 and am one of the many people to have nerfed Lucian.

WHAT AM I GOING TO TALK ABOUT?

Firstly, feel free to ask me about any of the champs or projects I've worked on (including lore and theme stuff). It's no secret here that I'm my champs' biggest fanboi and as such I know A LOT about them. Also have quite a bit to say about general design philosophy and how we work on champion team. An awesome part about Riot is that all our designers work in different ways with different preferences. A champion made by me is going to be very different from one made by CertainlyT. Finally, I'm still one of the younger designers (24), so if your're wondering about what it's generally like to get out of college, find a job, and grow and learn in your profession, that's something I've been very close to for the last 3 years. I started out here pretty clueless (Vi was my first design pretty much ever) and still feel like there's so many ways I could improve and get better.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT?

Of course if there's anything else you want to ask about just shoot it my way. I'll answer most anything as long as I have the context to do so (please don't ask me why your game crashed yesterday, I can't help with that).

Note: Not going to have much time to answer stuff today (12/18) but ask anyways, I'll be hopping online Saturday to really get the conversation going.

283 Comments

willuwontu12/18/2015, 11:01:20 PM9 votes

Why did you guys change the end game screen, I can't tell if someone is still in lobby or who was afk now :(

WarWork12/22/2015, 11:20:29 PM8 votes

Let's play a game; I'll give you a concept, a place of origin and role and you make a champ and kit concept around it. Just wanna se how your mind works.

So umm Insects and Demacia and assassin

ModCaptainMårvelous12/19/2015, 2:43:35 AM5 votes

So why are three hit passives the best And did you personally make thunderlords? (Because it gave EVERYONE a three-hit passive)

FatedTitan12/18/2015, 9:32:15 PM4 votes

So you've designed Vi, Jinx, and Ekko. That means that the only orphan from the group you didn't design is Viktor, correct? Maybe there's another of the group that I'm missing. With that stated:

  1. Do you have ideas for the other orphans in the group from Zaun?

  2. Will they be champions at one point?

  3. Any hints on the new champ? Maybe a role?

  4. When you make a champion and he/she gets nerfed, does it hurt a little bit on the inside, especially if they are significantly weaker?

MasterSomething12/18/2015, 9:22:07 PM4 votes

Alright, because you are working on the next champ... Is it Ao Shin? Also, if a Penguin can waddle, does a Gnar jump?

Jimmy Neutron1/7/2016, 7:10:03 PM2 votes

Just a couple quick questions:

  1. Is "Jhin" gonna be more mechanically intense like Ekko/Azir or more straight forward like Jinx/Garen?
  2. Is "Jhin's" lore gonna be extensive and/or will he be used to expand apon/explain other champion's lore like Tahm and Aatrox?
  3. Does being a Riot Employee affect the way you view/play league? For example does knowing how the champs are made give you any advantages or made league more/less fun?

You've blessed us with some of my favorite champs such as Ekko, Vi and Gnar and now hopefully Jhin or whatever you decide to call him. Keep up the good work man/woman, whatever you are, you're doing a great job so far!

Koechophe12/18/2015, 9:31:52 PM2 votes

Hello! I have somewhat unrelated questions, so bear with me.

  1. You've designed a mid, a top, an adc and a jungler. Is your next one a support/are you ever going to do a support? I like the champs you design a lot, and I'm a support main (bard4life) so I'd love to see you design a support.

  2. Who's your favorite champion that you've designed?

  3. What's your workflow look like from day to day? What's involved in the process of making a champion?

Blackquill12/18/2015, 10:22:40 PM2 votes

-Throws all my money at you- There! Take it! Just take away the terrible curse of Gypsylords Decree on 10 champions every game! D:

Siachi12/19/2015, 11:18:50 PM2 votes

As the champion designer of Gnar, how do you feel about the state he's in. Does he meet your expectations (Competitively, game health, etc.)?

I'm a Gnar main, so if you have any interesting stories to tell about him, or if you just want to talk about him, I'd love to hear them! Maybe you have a piece of Gnar fan work that you really like?

(Also, favorite Gnar skin?) Gnar

Orisi12/20/2015, 5:39:53 AM1 votes

As a support main, I have to say your champs are some of the few that make me enjoy going out of my cherished role even when I suck with them. Design me a support and I'd probably have a new main.

For my question; Meddler and others have stated that this year has been something of a Year of the Myth with all the champion releases; Bard, Kindred, Tahm Kench, and to an extent, Illaoi all have very heavy myth elements in them.

As the first designer to release a champion next year, and given your involvement in champion iteration in general, from where things currently stand with the champions in the pipeline, if you had to give 2016 a title what would it be? You don't have to justify it, and we know things change design wise, but as of now what if any running theme would you say there is.

MistroTTC12/22/2015, 11:06:02 PM1 votes

What was the most unexpected playstyle/build to one of your champions you saw people use after their release?

Aiko Umesawa12/20/2015, 5:38:28 AM1 votes

Hm, is the next champion you are working on a void creature? May be like kog maws daddy? Or mabey a canceled/iceboxed champ?

i just want to know

MrSlowDie12/28/2015, 11:32:04 AM1 votes

question:

currently assassin is countering almost all high damage squishy champions, and is countered by tanks (hard CC, peels for days). Teamfight for assassin is basically jumps in to a squishy when there's no tank nears them. Can you make new type assassin that do the opposite? An assassin that capable of assassinating tanks but countered hard by squishy? An assassin that jumps in to a tank when there's no squishy?

I am okay with a simple yes/no. But reasons or even example kit are better

and if there's a rioter that will accept this radical idea, who is he/she??

Kobold12/20/2015, 1:06:17 AM1 votes

What are your thoughts on a champion that is combo based, where they utilize a system similar to fighting games or dynasty warriors for their attacks. For example if they were to auto attack a target their abilities change based on the number and type of attack done. Using the qwer style combos would be like the following, auto>q>q>q and auto>auto>q would be completely different effects.

Even the possibility of having a champion that has no auto attack but their Q is the basic would be interesting.