Boards›[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous

Between Two Turrets - Come chat with Riot Afic! [COMPLETED]

RiotA Small Man·11/18/2015, 9:00:14 PM·11 votes·75,825 views


Welcome to the latest installment of Between Two Turrets, a Q&A series through which we connect you with various Rioters to chat about League, life, and anything in between. You can expect an installment every two weeks or so, with Rioters from all over jumping in to spend some time with you on the Boards.

This week, we've got we’ve got Playtest Team Lead Adam "Riot Afic" Cohen!

EDIT - Alright, heading back to work. Good chatting with you all!

Hey all!

My name is Adam ‘Riot Afic’ Cohen, and I'm lead on the Playtest Team. Previously, I'd also done some QA work on the AI update, Doom Bots, and various other gameplay related stuff. The Playtest team is a group of high ranking League players (ranging from mid Diamond to Challenger) who focus primarily on providing empirical, actionable feedback to designers and other teams. When I’m not actively playtesting new champions, items, or other changes, I do my best to make sure other development teams at Riot have a good understanding of what player perception will likely be around their changes.

I personally have been playing League since Beta and was able to reach D1 picking mostly support and AD. My favorite champions are Bard, Tristana, Kalista, and Gnar. When I’m not playing League, I’ll spend time playing through whatever game is my latest addiction (most recently that's been Don’t Starve).

I’ve been at Riot for 2 and half years now, and before then I briefly worked at Turbine and then Irrational Games for ~6 months working on Bioshock Infinite (look for me in the credits!). Seeing as how those are both east coast companies, you might be able to guess that I'm from the area. I grew up in Newton, MA (city just outside of Boston), and majored in physics at UMass Amherst. Since I'm from the Boston area, that also makes me a Boston sports fan. Turns out being a Patriots fan in California isn’t the best conversation starter… go figure.

Feel free to ask me any questions, but don’t be surprised or disappointed if I answer sarcastically or with some sort of awful, awful pun!

-Riot Afic

278 Comments

umpunct11/18/2015, 9:46:32 PM15 votes

Annie Why won't you duo with me? It'll be fun, I promise Trundle

OhWanderer11/18/2015, 9:17:11 PM6 votes

1 POPPY UPDATE :3 WHEN??

2 what about other marksmen like kalista? she seems kinda weak

3 what are your thoughts on maybe not penalizing an entire team in ranked play for a loss, so if your team is bad ( legitimately ) you would not get heavily impacted. instead you could base it off of other stats in the same way MMR is.

TouchMyNautyBits11/18/2015, 9:57:14 PM5 votes

What was your biggest "NOPE!" moment? Like "upon playtesting, we've realized that we absolutely cannot do this under any circumstance."

Captain Ishida11/18/2015, 10:04:13 PM4 votes

Hey Afic, I met you over a year ago at PAX Prime 2014, and talked to you about possibly applying for an internship or QA position in the future. You gave me your business card and I tried contacting you last month with no success. I was wondering if there was a better way to get in touch with you, to ask a few questions about being a QA? I was mainly wondering if you would personally recommend applying for an internship, or just for one of the QA positions.

Awkward Couch11/18/2015, 10:12:18 PM4 votes

I have a few questions and feel free not to respond as these are a little more on the light hearted side.

  1. What is your favorite bug that you have seen in LOL?

  2. What is your favorite off meta pick?

  3. What do you recommend to watch on Netflix (I just finished Sherlock and FMA)

  4. Is the player base going to get the tribunal back? Its been almost 2 years now.

  5. What is your opinion of Fall Out 4?

  6. What game do you think will win game of the year? The choices are Bloodborne, Fallout 4, Metal Gear Solid 5, Super Mario Maker, and Witcher 3, the link is here.

Thanks for reading my post and hopefully I get a response. XD

Kei14311/18/2015, 9:16:46 PM4 votes

Hi Riot Afic, I have a few questions regarding your team. Would appreciate if you can answer them (if you see fit)

  1. Would you be able to name your whole team and their ELOs ?

  2. Patch rundown mentions that pros have done play test before (ZionSpartan & Xpecial are a few to name), how often are pros invited to come on, who normally comes on?

  3. Scarra reviews that Graves (pre 18-Nov Hotfix), Lucian's ult and MF's ult have numbers that are waaaayyy over the top, and he can tell just by looking at the numbers without playing them. Are the play test teams able to identify the same issues and provide feedback to the live gameplay team?

  4. How often does your team do play tests and do they have a specific agenda when play testing?

  5. How often do people do crazy, off-meta builds (e.g Gunblade+Guinsoo's Rageblade Victor or AD sona) in play test?

  6. Do you guys have a "sandbox mode" to test stuff with?

  7. Do play tests end up in like .. a stomp for the teams that have a pro in it? Or just who is on what team?

Thats it for now !!

Legendary Nick11/18/2015, 11:02:01 PM3 votes

Hey Afic! Its Legendary Nick from your friend's list! I was gonna creep on you there, but now i'm gonna creep on you here!

My question is: How is it working at Riot Games? I know somebody who recently got turned down, but is it a fun environment? Do you get to meet high ups like Marc Merril or Brandon Beck? I've been playing for years, and it has always sounded interesting working in the same office as Phreak and Riv.

EDIT: Can I join your ranked team (kick out xshepard or something, i'm master tier and much better)?

disgust11/18/2015, 11:45:42 PM3 votes

Heres a question: will Ao Shin ever be released? Did u guys get rid of the whole champion?

Kochsalz11/18/2015, 9:39:43 PM3 votes

What was the reason for the turret nerf? Games end way too quickly on this patch because you can push too easily. An ace almost always gets you an inhib and often a nexus turret due to their lack of Armor.

123Polyzer11/18/2015, 9:40:22 PM2 votes

Are there going to be any changes to the mastery "Warlord's Bloodlust" because it seems a little op on champions like Tryndamere and Yasuo early game.

Testicle Tots11/18/2015, 11:56:28 PM2 votes

When are u going to make Darius balanced?Darius [zombie-brand-facepalm]

Vaimiimciim11/19/2015, 12:51:54 AM2 votes

What happened to ashe's 100% crit to slow target?

King of Mongoose11/18/2015, 9:09:21 PM2 votes

How do you feel to have reached diamond 1 maining luggage?

crazyclay911/18/2015, 9:31:48 PM2 votes

What do you think of the new graves

Ashtana11/18/2015, 9:39:53 PM2 votes

Thoughts on Tristana currently?

demolista11/18/2015, 9:22:45 PM2 votes

So less of a game question and more of a career question. I am currently in a Master's program for statistics with the end goal being a career in the gaming industry. If I wanted to try to be a part of the play test team what kind of supplemental education should I try to find to make myself more desirable to an employer?

Swizzle11/18/2015, 9:16:57 PM2 votes

More serious question, how many hours of the day do you play video games considering you play test?

Killermonkey5911/19/2015, 1:03:12 AM1 votes

I have only been playing about 6 months. I truly enjoy the game as a whole. My biggest issue is the impact negative players and afk's make on the game play and my rank. I have been between Bronze 4-5 for a WHILE. Every time i get going good, negative players almost make me want to delete League. How are yall working to fix this issue?

Decrit11/18/2015, 9:50:11 PM1 votes

I know this gets asked a lot around, but you know it' s the most important question ever.

Embrassing and WTF moments in testing.

I can remember a time where Udyr could stretch all over the map, another where Shaco ult turned to be a projectile and could be destroyed by Yasuo' s Windwall, or Yasuo being able to ult off a jax jump. Or Azir, everything about Azir.

Also, how much stuff that you love was scrapped? How many items were thrown in the trash bin? Or, maybe, your team is more into pratical/balancing testing rather design testing?

Condemned2Carry11/18/2015, 9:52:45 PM1 votes

Why don't I have my Silver Border or Icon? I've emailed support already.

Mistress Pyro11/18/2015, 11:07:19 PM1 votes

I don't know if this was already asked or not. But any idea when Swain may be getting a new skin? It's been since May of 2012. He is one of my favorites and visually? He isn't that bad looking. Please, give me some sort of hint!!

Koos11/18/2015, 11:44:23 PM1 votes

Hi there, thanks for answering these questions! It's been very insightful so far. :)

I am going to be applying for the QA Playtest position soon, I'm just finishing up some Feedback documents in regards to the preseason before I apply though.

My question to you is mostly on the skill end. Like you, I have been playing League since Beta, but didn't have nearly as much time as I wish I could have to play ranked reliably. My rankings from season to season went: Season 1 - Silver Season 2 - Platinum Season 3 - Platinum Season 4 - Platinum Season 5 - Diamond

I was somewhat stagnant for a few seasons as I actually started a job doing QA for another game company. Since then, I have been apart of MANY playtests and have experience gathering feedback and documenting it. While I am not a high diamond player + regularly, would I still be someone who would be considered? Overall, I have well over 4500 games of League of Legends played as a whole and am very knowledgeable about the game.

Any thoughts at all are really appreciated. Thanks!