Behavior, bugs, and more in Ask Riot

Welcome to Ask Riot, where we focus on your questions and give you answers.

This week, we talk about rewarding good behavior, getting better at League, and crazy bugs.

Have a question (or two...hundred) yourself? Head over to Ask Riot and sign into your League account. Check out the Do’s, the Don'ts, and then ask us something. We’ll archive the answers once we’ve accumulated a few of them. One thing to note: Asking the same question over and over again won’t help your cause.

Ask Riot

We’re committed to reading every question but can’t guarantee we’ll answer them all.

“Okay, why not?”

Some questions may already be answered elsewhere or won’t be right for Ask Riot. For example, we won’t typically be launching new products or features here or talking about issues about which we’ve already gone into more depth elsewhere (but we can clarify individual points!). Even if your question isn’t the one being answered, we’re listening, and we’ll be sharing your questions with the Rioters who are working directly on the things you’re curious about.

---

What’s the craziest bug you’ve encountered in League of Legends?

Craziest bug, huh?

I like this question. Many aspects of QA (Quality Assurance), and the resulting bugs, never see the light of day. Most thankfully die well before the content in question leaves internal environments, some go to PBE, and then a few (unfortunately) go to live. Basically what I'm getting at though... we're hogging the good ones to ourselves.

Bugs can be pretty terrifying when we first encounter them, but many are also quite hysterical. Be it giant 30-foot Zyras planting miniature versions of herself, wacky animation bugs like Nidalee's human form running around with her cougar's animations (SHUDDER), a random spot on the map just allowing champions to jump off to their doom, or the classic Shaco being Windwalled entirely out of existence…we never quite know what to expect.

The bug I’d like to share with you today was a fun little one we encountered during Illaoi's development. It only occurred when we had two Illaois in the same game, after which certain variables would sometimes go a bit out of control.

You know, rather than explaining through text, just enjoy this lovely video of it!

– Ququroon, QA on Champion Update

---

Are you planning on rewarding good behavior in any way beyond Hextech Crafting?

Short answer: Yes!

Long answer:

Sportsmanship is a core value for Riot. At the highest level, we’d like all players to strive towards fair, respectful games of League. Are we talking about a future where 100% of games are perfectly sportsmanlike? No. Part of sports is learning how to cope with bad sports – and hopefully, learning how not to be one yourself. There will always be some level of heat in competition, e.g. losing a Baron 35 minutes into a game is an inherently stressful thing – it’s about tempering that flame into a constructive, competitive drive. There’s no perfect formula. That’s the thing about values: They’re unlikely to ever be perfectly achieved. We’ll try. We’ll falter. Occasionally we’ll tilt. So will you. And as long as we aren’t going totally off the deep end, it’s a great chance to learn.

That’s why talking more often about the ideals of sportsmanship, and highlighting the players who uphold them, could move us to a better standard in League. It’s important because we all know that we have more fun, and more importantly, play better when we can simply focus on the game at hand.

Around the world, there are local Riot initiatives highlighting sportsmanship. For example, the local office in Singapore and Malaysia runs the “Fight with Honor” program, randomly selecting from the most honorable players each month and recognizing them with RP gifts. Our local team in Brazil asked players to share their stories of sportsmanship and positive play and selected some of the best to make into comics starring those players. The Oceania team is working with high schools to craft League of Legends clubs to help teach sportsmanship on and off the Rift.

Going forward we’re very excited about creating more opportunities to recognize sportsmanship and positive play. One thing on our radar is the Honor system, which could use an update. You’ve given us a lot of feedback on how we can improve the system, from calling out skilled play, to recognizing players that are great sports, to saying “Hey, thanks for the game, let’s do that again sometime!” Through this system, we’d love to create more opportunities for badges and other rewards that call out positive contributions and sportsmanship. We see this as a great way to get you involved in helping to identify what it means to be an awesome community member and player. We have some work to do before it’s ready but we’re always listening to other ideas on how to make this a great way to celebrate sportsmanship!

– Riot Central Player Behavior Team

---

How do I get better at League?

Getting better at League is hard. It’s hard as hell. And it takes a lot of time. There’s no easy fix, and pretending like there is will only net you disappointment. As someone who’s played for 7 years and progressed from the depths of Bronze to the heights of Diamond I, I can’t offer you an easy “How To” - but I can offer you a state of mind that might help you with improvement.

     1. Failing is the first step in becoming good at something.

     This age-old phrase, though sometimes sounding like a platitude, has far more wisdom in it that most may realize. Yes, you’re bronze now, but you just started. Or even if you’re a long-time player, you’ve only just started taking improvement seriously. Whatever level of skill, when you’re trying a new champion for the first time (or playing against a Master-Tier Veigar for the first time), you’re very likely going to get crushed. Not only is that okay, it’s necessary. Just don’t give up. Which brings me to this next point:

     2. Commit yourself to the idea that everything is a learning experience.

     If I had 10 LP for every time I failed to first blood my lane opponent and got killed instead, I’d be Rank 1 by now. It’s easy to huff and puff and type ‘fiora no flash’ in all chat, but let’s be real here - these moments can teach us so much more if we frame them as learning experiences. Yes, maybe that enemy champion is OP. Yes, maybe your jungler is AFK. But what could you have done differently? There’s never truly nothing you could have done to improve a situation - it might take you sitting at your tower, maxing W on Gangplank vs Pantheon and praying for dear life - but taking each failure and each success as experiments to add to your vast database will make you a better player long-term.

     3. Take responsibility for putting your knowledge into practice.

     So, you’ve accepted your failures - and you might even be writing some of them down! But our last point of improvement is about holding yourself accountable for what you’ve learned. You know every time you try to all-in Swain Top you lose - so stop the cycle! Take a different approach, take a different summoner spell, take a different keystone - who cares! If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, then be vigilant and force yourself to make the shift in your play style that will net you the win. Yes, it might not be fun to play the long-game and farm it out, but sometimes that’s what you need to do - and the feeling you’ll have in the end for making the ‘right’ play is incredible.

Obviously, if you want to get better at League, you should play more League. If that’s the kind of advice you came here to listen to, then sure - spam LoL, find some guides you like, watch streams, whatever. But if you feel like you’re running in circles, maybe it’s time to take a look at yourself - and a look at the framework I’ve laid out above - and really start making the change you want to see in your own gameplay.

– Scarizard, Gameplay Communications (helping out my bro Calisker given his Bronze4Life skillset)