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Ranked is about to determine Lore. Why Riot? Just... Why?

DrCyanide·9/19/2018, 8:03:16 PM·4 votes·7,055 views
/dev diary: New Tiers & Placements in Ranked 2019 - Nexus

We've had discussions before - which faction is the best? Whether it's Demacia vs Noxus, or Bilgewater vs Shadow Isles, or "anything except Shurima", people love to root for their favorite factions.

Riot is threatening to dismantle that, replacing it with a cast system.

Skip to 2:45 in the video and you can see what they're up to so far.

You like Bilgewater? Tough luck, Bilgewater is now Ranked worse than Bronze. Your faction sucks, and you can't even argue otherwise because the game itself is going to tell you Bilgewater is at the bottom of the barrel.

https://i.imgur.com/suK4mgf.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Kny5VrE.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/sEgTw2l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/q7kCKdJ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/37fTdnl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ua5gFEq.jpg

This will influence how people view the factions, which is why I think this is a terrible idea that needs to be talked about now, not when 2019 is already upon us.

41 Comments

Quiet Dude9/19/2018, 8:26:55 PM9 votes

I think its just design aesthetic guys. Calm the heck down. Dont have an existential lore crisis cause they designed the ranked tiers after LoL factions.

Umbral Regent9/19/2018, 8:47:26 PM5 votes

Honestly, I kinda like the idea of using the Runeterran factions to better stylize the Ranked Tiers. From the looks of it, the designs chosen seem pretty arbitrary. From the left-to-right thing, all I can make out is that Iron is Bilgewater inspired, while Platinum looks kinda Demacian.

And I wouldn't take it as them deciding "okay well, let's arbitrarily canonize Bilgewater as absolute shit tier Plastic VI" or anything like that - though doubtless, some folks would take it that way - but more like providing the Tiers with a more lore-related flair that makes even being at the lowest skill bracket possible (Iron) feel awesome, because look at how awesome this Bilgewater crest is.

The current medals we have do look pretty nice, but honestly, they're also pretty generic. Giving them a more unique, more League kind of feel would definitely be a positive.

And of course, this ultimately comes to the question of; "well what if my favorite faction is placed as a lower rank than I climb to?"

To which my answer is; does that really hurt your opinion of your favorite faction? Because surely, we can all live with Bilgewater being the crest for Iron Tier, or Shurima being Gold instead of Challenger, etc. etc.

Pale Mask9/19/2018, 8:22:58 PM3 votes

You're misunderstanding this. They did the same thing with level borders and the rune system.

It's just aesthetics, not story-related.

mrmeddyman9/20/2018, 6:30:58 PM2 votes

Ranked is about to determine Lore

Chill out it's just an aesthetic! They aren't telling stories through ranked and if the bronze emblem is based on Bilgwater and the Challenger is based on Targon doesn't mean Bilgewater is worse than Targon. That's called a false equivalency. It just means one emblem uses Bilgewater design philosophy and one uses Targons they're juist trying to get rid of them more generic medals and make League more unified as a universe

Ebonmaw Dragon9/19/2018, 8:13:12 PM2 votes

... WAIT WHAT??

... ... WHY?

Tesla Effect9/20/2018, 1:47:47 AM2 votes

Them using this wont hurt the lore thats expanded outside of the MOBA game.

Camille Ferrøs9/20/2018, 12:18:15 AM2 votes

Wwwwhat ?!

Hexs Fortune9/20/2018, 9:17:46 AM2 votes

This is the sort of thing I can see the Devs unintendedly overlooking, as they approach the game without the bias of rank shaming and it's negative associations

It'd be a shame for ranked identification to bleed over to the way the playerbase views the factions at large.

We'll have to wait and see. I can understand why Riot would associate Iron Tier with the Ship Wrights of Bilgewater, but it'd be unfortunate if people started regarding "Bilgewater tier" as being the new wood 5

Fasmodey9/19/2018, 8:27:52 PM2 votes

Dont tell me Bilgewater isn't the weakest region in combat.

Hexs Fortune12/2/2018, 2:16:26 AM1 votes

Did they remove the references? I think it's a good move. Associating rank with lore factions would subtly create unnecessary bias overtime

Mordepool9/19/2018, 8:22:50 PM1 votes

Bs

SugeMinPikk9/19/2018, 8:50:55 PM1 votes

>LoL lore LOL

Dirgo9/20/2018, 2:28:09 AM1 votes

The game is called "League of Legends". This used to be a real thing in the world and lore was built around it, with champions joining the League of Legends, offering their service to summoners (the players) in order to get X, lore reason here. Now in the world the League of Legends doesn't exist anymore. This is nothing.

RyzeTheSmurfMage9/20/2018, 5:56:03 AM1 votes

Idc for me Shurima will always be the best (Noxus comes second)

TheSnowyLeopard9/20/2018, 5:34:06 PM1 votes

This isnt even designed around factions dude, its just a sword and shield. When I saw Iron I saw a sword and shield and that was it, not bilgewater lol

Pika Fox9/20/2018, 5:38:46 PM1 votes

As long as noxus is trash tier, its all good.

Rune Ocarina12/1/2018, 9:07:13 PM1 votes

It'd be nice if they designed emblems for all factions for every rank and then let players choose the faction they wanna sport. I'd go Ionia all day and would actually try ranked if that was the case.

Alzon9/19/2018, 8:06:57 PM1 votes

But what if players of Bilgewater champs want to be at the bottom of the barrel? Everyone has their kink. For some, it’s barrels and oranges.