I've held off creating this thread for too long... The Day Riot invited me to Playtest Mordekaiser
Disclaimer: I am under NDA, a Non Disclosure Agreement, which means I won't be able to talk about the stuff I've seen during my visit at Riot Games, or rather the details of all the projects they're working on. Not that I'd ever want to, this knowledge is a blessing and a curse, I'm super excited about Morde but can't talk about him and most of the stuff that's coming this year won't be a surprise for me, which is somewhat upsetting. Besides, Riot's working very hard to keep all of us on the edge of our seats with amazing stuff down the line so you better get hyped for what's coming'
Anyhow!
Hey, I'm Malicious Metal, local obsessive Mordekaiser Enthusiast!
Some may know me from the plethora of threads I've written on these boards after the calamity that was Juggernaut Patch Mordekaiser, pumping out nigh-daily threads on the many aspects of Mordekaiser, be it lore, narrative, visuals or gameplay. Others might know me from occasionally lurking on reddit and chiming in whenever Mord's mentioned but who I am doesn't really matter anyway.
Or well, it seemed like it did for Riot as they were so kind as to offer me the opportunity to visit them in Los Angeles at their HQ and playtest Mordekaiser's impending rework.
And oh boy you can imagine how excited I was! I wasn't some well-known streamer like IreliaCarriesU or Professor Akali, I'm just some random player who enjoys Mordekaiser a lot.
But here I am, Reav3 having reached out to me after years of just writing discussion pieces on the many layers of Mordekaiser. Anyhow, I'm digressing and still very much processing how crazy that experience was for me but I really wanted to write this thread to once again thank all the Rioters involved in making this semester break truly unforgettable for me!
The very day of Mordekaiser being revealed in the Champion Roadmap I instantly hopped over to Reddit to quite bluntly tell Reav3 that I quote on quote "fucking love you" since I was crossing my fingers so hard to have Mordekaiser be mentioned on the roadmap. Even the smallest hint could have been enough for me and Reav3 and I had been in contact for several months at that point as he had already asked me if I would be interested in playtesting Mordekaiser if they had something workable at HQ.
And lo and behold, after a quick back and forth we already got to the topic of when I'd have time to fly over to LA and get this gig underway. Ah yes, a whole FIFTEEN hours of flying to get from this lil' place in central Europe all the way over the atlantic to America's West coast.
It was my very first long distance flight and for nothing lesser than not just getting to meet all those people responsible for a lot of fond memories with the friends I've made playing this game, as well as all the salt but to give my very own input on my favorite champion!
Now I'm going to save you the details of such a journey, but I'll tell you it's everything but exciting and actually quite tiresome!
https://i.redd.it/gnps4o5046f21.jpg Arriving in the evening and collapsing in my room the same day, I wake up at five in the morning...a whole FIVE hours before the actual gig would start! Killing those dreadful hours with the awfully sugary breakfast buffet of the Ambrose hotel, I decided to walk all the way to Riot Games, trying to calm my growing anticipation....
And after getting through security and arriving at the Lobby I already saw the first sign of what would be one of the best days of my life as I was greeted by none other than Mordekaiser's splash art hanging in the entrance hall! https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzAPRmzWkAAxOhk.jpg
(I'd like to apologize for this not really being all that coherent since it's hard to describe how awesome this experience was, but moving on!)
First on a jam-packed Schedule was meeting Nathan Blau(stoise) The guy who was responsible for most of the planning surrounding the playtest and the coolest Yasuo player there is, Nathan instantly made it quite clear that however big this gig was to me, it'd be more than a a strictly professional matter.
Grabbing some coffee we already got into some smalltalk as he basically mentally prepared me for what was to come, showing me around the very impressive Riot campus before we met up with the man himself, the guy whose presence is dreaded on any champion main subreddit for he shall bring great teasing in the times of reworks,Ryan Reav3 Mireles.
It was so awesome meeting him in person after having pestered talked with him so much about Mordekaiser's rework and all, and after a very brief introduction and some good ol' metal memes, I was lead into a meeting room where Ryan finally revealed the main attraction to me.
And boy, the moment I laid my eyes on the reimagined Mordekaiser I knew they had done it... Showing off a little clip of the new Mordekaiser strutting around Summoner's Rift with [removed by moderation] Blasting as the Background track all of my doubts I ever had were blown away as my favorite champion, reforged and in newfound glory, was shown to me with good ol' 80's HEAVY METAL driving home the message that they really had captured the essence of Mordekaiser!
Now from this point onwards I can't really go into much detail but know this: The Mordekaiser rework is everything I ever wanted from a rework, if not more! He truly lives up to my personal expectations and Riot went out of their way to truly deliver on his themes! He's HEAVY and METAL! But moving on!
I was amazed, and I made my evident excitement known as soon enough I'd find myself claiming Reav3's desk for my own, sadly only for the moment, as Nathan and I got some one v ones underway for me to get a feel of the new Mordekaiser. All of which I obviously crushed, duh!
During this time more and more Rioters associated with the rework would come up to me to greet me and I couldn't even start pinning names to faces, but being surrounded by so many people that valued my feedback on what they were creating was such an amazing experience! It was truly the greatest honor and privilege a random champion enthusiast like me could ever get to experience!
I even got to meet Bioluminescence and CertainlyT in person! And I'm sorry that I couldn't do more than just awkwardly exchange greetings and some kind words with them since the Morde team deserved my undivided attention!
After being shown around various desks to see what they were working on it was time for probably my favorite event of the day, which was getting together with the entire day at Lunch at the Riot cafeteria! Having so many awesome people assembled at the same table, just gushing over the Mordekaiser project and just whatever came to mind related to League of Legends and Metal was such great fun! And I didn't even get to finish my Lunch since I was too busy just enjoying myself with those guys, I definitely was worth missing out on a pretty tasty burger, sacrificing that for just some of the most enjoyable banter I had in a while!
Luckily I was able to capture a minuscule shred of this awesomeness through a selfie with the team. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzAPRmyWwAA6O4s.jpg
Bringing a lil' gift from home, that being the usual Swiss Chocolate box for the entire team and, well..something I got from another friend who had visited Riot in the past, we wrapped things up since a LOT of play testing had to be done! https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/299493047899521024/543257830426411008/image2.jpg
What followed was Reav3 showing me around the office and granting me some valuable sneak peeks into what they had in store for us in the near future and allowing me to be there for one of the Team's meetings, as well as showing me some of the VGU'ing processes, which were certainly very inspiring!
Getting some games in with the playtest team was a blast, seeing how the team tests new champions before they even make it to the live servers was really cool and getting to play the new Mordekaiser against very capable and honestly so goddamn friendly players was great fun.
Sadly all good things must come to an end and the day ended with Ryan, Nathan and I having a little Feedback session regarding everything I had seen that day, giving them all of my insight on the new Mordekaiser, suggestions and all! Getting one last picture to remember this day by and getting a hug from both of 'em to see my on my way I concluded what was probably one of the best days I had recently!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzAPRm1WwAABR-U.jpg
This was truly one hell of an experience and I'm just so grateful for them allowing me to be a part of Mordekaiser's rework. I truly felt like they value us, the players so much, even though they don't always show them by nerfing Yasuo into oblivion!
Truly, truly happy to have had this chance!
Special thanks to And I'm so, so, so sorry if I mix up anyone, I'm terrible at remembering names!
Nathan Blaustoise Blau Thanks for showing me around dude, definitely enjoyed hanging out with you for my required daily caffeine intake, glad to have met you!
Sarah Michelle/Riot Zephyr Thanks for helping me with all the logistics of my trip, I would have probably ended up somewhere in the Amazon Rainforest if it weren't for you.
Matthew "FauxSchizzle" Dunn I greatly enjoyed just talking about Mordekaiser's new character, personality and lore, you definitely nailed him and the discussions we had were very inspiring!
Justing "Xenogenic" Hanson My man, you outdid yourself with Mordekaiser's kit, you rock!
Jonathan "Endlesspillows" Fuller I almost feared Morde would have a million dashes based on your previous work, thanks for proving me wrong! XD
Sunny "Kindlejack" Koda That OG PentaKill shirt man, just wow!
Neal Wojahn Man, it was so cool meeting you, thanks for personally bidding me farewell and asking for a goddamn selfie, that was such an awesome gesture! https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/310520636487368705/545670255750676500/neal.PNG
And of course
#Thank you Ryan "Reav3" Mireles I can't quite thank you enough for this literal once in a lifetime opportunity (Morde won't be Ryze I hope, just ONE VGU) to be part of Mordekaiser's rework and what's even more amazing, meet you guys over there at RiotHQ, it was truly, truly an awesome day for me and I'm so happy to have had this chance. You're just the best. Thank you.
Another big Thank you to anyone I might have missed here, and I'm sorry for doing so. League of Legends has been something very dear to me for a long while and I feel so blessed for having been able to experience all of this, even though this shitty, barely coherent threat can't quite portray how absolutely amazing it was.
And also, a big thank you to all of you who supported me in the past. I know I can come off as a bit too enthusiastic about Mordekaiser, but thanks for giving me a platform to champion my...champion's cause!
#Thank all of you
Sincerely, **Malicious Metal **
Also here's a playlist for reworked Mordekaiser to kill time until his reveal! https://open.spotify.com/user/cezfbr4h8ypo5bkjd28lgw075/playlist/4GcHxTLyqfjIsvKDgAnBAX?si=wwtAmHM8T4G0UtVw24641g
