Here, Read My Book. AKA: New Gangplank, HUD Rework, Black Market Brawlers and Butcher's Bridge

(This is in fact a double post for any Reds that see it, but the first post was on the PBE boards, and I felt everyone deserves to see this post.)

Alright, so we're going to start with the new Gangplank kit. Riot... You've truly outdone yourself. Never did I ever think you'd make another Ryze. But, you proved me wrong, and I love/hate it.

We will start with the E, shall we? Powder Keg ( E ) Place a powder keg that can be attacked by Gangplank or his enemies at target location for 60 seconds.

If Gangplank destroys a keg, it explodes dealing the attack's damage as physical damage (ignores 60% armor) and slowing them by 40/50/60/70/80% for 2 seconds. Champions take 80/110/140/170/200 bonus physical damage from the explosion.

When a keg explodes, other kegs with overlapping blast zones chain explode (damage does not stack)

Kegs health decays every 2.0 seconds. (Decay rate increases at 7 and 13) Keg explosions apply Parrley's plunder effect.

Cost: No cost. Recharge: 18/17/16/15/14 sec, Max 2

Now you who are browsing but haven't played new GP yet, or don't have PBE access might be wondering, "Galactus, that is a truly amazing skill, why don't you like it?!" I will tell you.

For starters, it has no cost; usually this is fine and dandy in my book, because I am an avid Evelynn player, and that no cost W has saved my life more times than I like to admit. But for the punch that this thing brings in the early game, it's less than fair. This ability IGNORES 60% of ARMOR. You throw a bit or armor pen into your runes, and you're going to be doing true damage. See that tank barreling your way? Powder Keg. Not a problem. Late game, this is a monstrosity; early game, it's free poke (literally free) that is more than likely going to force your top-laner to go hold hands with your jungler for the next 10 minutes.

Now, there is counter-play potential to a keg, but you have to be inside the range to do so for melee champs, and that's what inhabits the top lane for the most part. So, what do you do to solve the problem? Farm under tower... right? No. Because he can still poke you under turret with them by shooting them with a Q. So, before you send this live and have more reports in the first day of top-laners rage quitting, than you have in the entirety of the game's life span. Please Riot, give this a cost, bring the damage down, make him a late game, super scaling hyper-carry, because we all know the only GP we will see is Crit-Plank, but for the love of god, do something to prevent new GP from immediately getting dumpstered by the balance team like they did with Ryze before his rework. (For the record, aside from this ridiculous E, I love the way the kit as a whole comes together, the upgrades for his ult make it worth using for more than just wave-clear, so bravo on that front.)

Moving on; I've seen so many negative posts about the HUD rework across the boards, but very few good ones. So, here's MY opinion on the new HUD.

Overall, I love it, I feel like the designers have gone above and beyond on this concept, and I personally hope so see a rendition come to live that doesn't stray too far away from what's in testing right now. The coloring is smooth and relaxing, it has an edginess to it, and the overall design doesn't feel clunky anymore. I do not think it's perfect just yet, but there's always room for improvement.

Something I feel like is a must for the new HUD to be successful is, the position of KDA, time, CS, and team score. This is needs to be reverted to the original positioning. Right now, on live, I feel like the HUD is horrendous and bulky, but I do feel like the aforementioned things are in a good spot, it's easy to see, the design is slim so it doesn't take up much space, and it doesn't feel cramped like the new HUD's positioning. With that change you could also give the mini-map a bit more breathing room, and it wouldn't be too much going on in one area.

Another thing I feel like really needs to be changed is how you view your player stats. (AP/AD/crit/etc.) DO NOT hide this by default. New players would be beyond stranded, and people who don't pay attention to LoL news, would feel like they're missing a huge joke. Make the visibility optional, yes. But DO NOT make this automatically invisible. Good positioning and transparency though, besides the default toggle, I really like what's been done here. Good job.

Something I keep seeing complaints about is the scoreboard. Uh... honestly I'm not sure why? I love the new scoreboard, everything is very sleek, and it just has a general feel of, "wow, this is something I can enjoy looking at." No complaints to be made here, so time to move on.

Another issue I'm seeing is the ESC screen? Once again, no issues from me here.

(BUG ISSUE, sometimes the chat log goes in and out of visibility, but you can still type. THIS IS A PBE-ONLY BUG AS OF RIGHT NOW)

Now that we've wrapped up on the HUD, let's move onto the Black Market Brawlers and Butcher's Bridge. There's a reason I have these two in a section together and it has to do with proper.... theme-ing? As well as scheduling. Alright, so we had URF back in April (everybody cheer now and comment about it needing to be permanent) and Hexakill made a not-so triumphant return... Actually, I'm going to stop and voice a quick opinion. Riot, I love you, and I thank you for featured game modes, but adding bans to a game mode that we experienced not too long ago, doesn't make it more exciting or new, it just makes it less annoying. Thank you for listening.

Now, back to the original point. I'm assuming that Butcher's Bridge is going to be a permanent thing as nothing has been said about it being removed, so bear with me here on this one. Instead of bringing out "Butcher's Bridge ARAM" what about bringing out, "Black Market Brawlers on Butcher's Bridge." This would be a permanent game mode, and the theme would be a ridiculously amazing fit. Not to mention the fact that it would bring a whole new aspect to the "All Mid" game-play, and give you something you can enjoy that's Bilgewater related. Just some food for thought.

Now obviously these are just opinions and ideas, but I sincerely hope that many Rioters, and League players alike, take the time out of their day to read this, because I feel like this is worthy of a read; and lets be honest, I spent a ton of time typing and I'd feel more than disappointed if this wasn't seen.

With that being said, I hope everyone has a wonderful day, and I hope to see you guys on the Rift!