So, good ol' CertainlyT led the team that designed Zoe.

Electro522·11/4/2017, 12:05:04 AM·16 votes·26,683 views

I guess someone should say to not let his past creations cloud your judgement on her.

And if you happen to not like her, then don't go witch hunting CertainlyT, calling for him to be fired, raging at him for what he has done, etc. etc.

And yes, I know it's pretty pointless to do this since there will inevitably be people who will still......do this. Even now, people are looking at her with a cautious eye, since CertainlyT's name is on the board.

But guess what? CertainlyT led the team that redesigned Warwick....and people are praising that rework as one of the best League has seen to date. and despite what you may think of Yasuo, Thresh, Darius, Kalista, Morde, or Zed (which, he really only helped on, not really designed himself), you cannot deny that his champs have been extremely impactful on the game, and League would honestly be nothing like it is today without his input.

So, give him a God damned chance, and wait to see what Zoe can really do.

37 Comments

RiotReav311/5/2017, 3:43:15 PM19 votes

I want to demystify something here as posts like this can be kind of disheartening to the team that works on a champ. The designer on a champ does not lead the team that works on a champ. The designer just designs the gameplay mechanics for a champion. There is a huge team that works on all aspects of the Champion and while they all pitch ideas and influence each other the designer is only responsible for the kit at the end of the day.

Often time we say that a designer is leading the design on a champ but not leading the team making the champ. This is because the entire Champions design team gives feedback and helps on all our Champion kits but one designer is the main designer that makes the final call and “leads” the kit design. The E are also lead artists responsible for a champions art and lead writers responsible for there lore.

Waffletimewarp11/4/2017, 2:58:09 PM7 votes

There's a difference between CTs reworks and original champs.

The reworks have a rigid framework for him to stick to, lest he churn out a piece of garbage like Mordekaiser.

The new champs do not have these restrictions, allowing CT to run free creatively. This creates a champion that is incredibly imaginitive and fun to play. And a chore to play against. This is not a good thing as his previous creations of Zyra, Darius and the like becoming oppressive pains in the rear can attest.

Warwick was a success compared to Morde because I'm willing to bet there was someone meeting every one of his super cool ideas with a "no, that would counter what Warwick is at his core".

SEKAI11/5/2017, 6:07:10 PM5 votes
  1. CT is liked by the majority. You, others with similar preference as you, really need to stop using that 'whatever it's scientifically called where you use a narrative that's entirely opposite to the reality just because it sounds better by being the oppressed minority of sort' already. It's like when you promote a politician under the pretense that they're a misunderstood messiah that everyone hates... when they in fact are endorsed by the majority; annoying.
  2. So all of their creations have been absolute disasters, and it's not like 1 or 2 but like 6-7 of them, and 1 thing from them that's actually good means that redeems them?
  3. Considering WW had a very rigid base design that limits what a reworker could do with him without change him entirely. So the fact the only design from CT that has the least input from them is the only one well-received by all people including the gameplay critics, don't you think that's a problem?
  4. All of his mess was moped up by someone else, through cycles of nerfs and reworks by OTHER Rioters that actually make those champs bearable or even good, but I guess it's all CT's effort. This is what I would personally call the "Skyrim situation", where Bethesda barely made a mediocre and empty game just with the Elder Scrolls name on it, and it was so boring and void of actual content the gamers practically had to make their own Skyrim; but then Bethesda took all the credit anyway, despite the base game is legitimately no different than any other unfinished alpha-staged early access game, and full of bugs that 2 modders could fix (all fucking thousands of them, because Bethesda don't do no beta testing) but Bethesda couldn't over like 5 iterations of the same fucking game.
  5. "have been extremely impactful on the game". That's the same kind of "extremely impactful" as the reasoning behind why the league of blackcleavers even became a thing. Just because they have the irrational creativity and same little amount of care to anything and anybody else outside of themselves and make big and stupid decisions, it doesn't mean they're suddenly great by whatever virtue the term "impactful" entails. This guy while not the one who invented but they are responsible for directly popularising BOTH mobility creeping and utility creeping, that's singlehandedly creating 2 of the game's 4 major problems (the other being ranged and melee imbalance, and the last one being bot-lane ADC+Supp centric meta/balancing); yeah sure the game would "be nothing like it is today without his input", and you know what, I'd rather that.

At least artistically speaking, CT has been getting better with conceptual designs. I used to call him creatively utterly bankrupt because all they've designed so far seems to come directly from the very bottom of DeviantArt, like something a fresh artist in their 14s would draw in their spare time after finishing this week's Dragon Ball Z or Naruto episode; we've all had that phase, but it's still pitiful to come from a professional designer. Absolutely uninspired, we're talking about designing an entire line-up of Kayn's, where unlike Kayn who is actually conscious enough to self-parodies his own edginess, all of the previous CT's design took every bit of that edginess utterly and overly seriously. But at least they've gotten somewhat better now with the design of the new WW and Zoe, CONCEPTUALLY.

Then again, this guy's design capability is still very much both utterly robotic and childlike (in a bad way) as a whole, regarding gameplay elements, which is the big problem. If you actually bothered to analyse CT's original work, all of them are meta as fuck, with no sense of character individuality at all, hardly something creative which for some reason is what the community crown the dude with.

I've never had much higher aversion and doubt towards any Riot designers than this guy over my 6 or so years at League, and that's saying something considering how many horrible mistakes and designs League has had over its life time.

Maybe CT has really improved, but they will seriously do a lot more to redeem from their absolute plane crushes in the past. I will be cautiously watching.

RainXBlade11/4/2017, 2:08:52 AM5 votes

If CertainlyT makes a champion, it's designed to piss you off, whether the champion he made is meta/strong or not.

Quepha11/5/2017, 4:35:40 PM5 votes

[{quoted}](name=Paleo Electro,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=0YG5nK1Q,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-11-04T00:05:04.106+0000)

you cannot deny that his champs have been extremely impactful on the game

in a bad way.

Warlord Dienekes11/4/2017, 12:13:35 AM3 votes

Your arguments are a bit odd, since I’m not sure I even prefer the game now as opposed to how it was when I joined. So putting that on CertainlyT may not help your argument.

In any case, we should at least wait to see how the champion actually plays. Yes her video made her look like the single most annoying champion to play against. But the video is designed to showcase her as powerful.

If she is as annoying as she looks. Then we can get our pitchforks.

IxtaliKing11/5/2017, 7:52:25 PM2 votes

I think the problem with CertainlyT's champs is that there's just not enough like them in the game. In an ideal world, all champs would have the depth of champs like Yasuo, Thresh and Zed.

ULTRAF0RCE11/4/2017, 11:49:30 PM2 votes

You should post his in gameplay, this is not related to the story, art style, animations, or sounds used for the new champion(Zoe).

lnsaneeez11/28/2017, 3:09:00 PM2 votes

Champs like Yasuo or Zed should not exist. /thread

lil koda12/10/2017, 2:28:19 PM1 votes

Zoe Champion Ban Rate Ranking 1st (101.17%)

XXXMURASAME4/10/2018, 5:52:21 PM1 votes

[deleted]

Ýisus8/26/2018, 10:12:06 AM1 votes

We gave him a chance ... she is the most cancerous champion built. Zoe's W outruns Udyr's E + Ghost at the same time .... Was that his creation? A champion that has insane damage / mobility / dashes / stuns (sleep) .....

This guy should never be allowed to develop anything again ... 11

Gold Grenade1/18/2019, 11:32:49 PM1 votes

CertainlyT's designs fail to follow the existing mechanics of the game and continually break and ruin it. Fire him and rework everything he has touched.

ModJikker1/19/2019, 12:25:47 AM1 votes

I spy a necro'd thread. Let's not bump old threads since that violates the Universal Rules. I'll lock this down now.

[poppy-wink]