Riot Pls video discusses client updates, Teamfight Tactics, and more

Riot has released their latest “Riot Pls” video, giving fans a bit of news on a number of different topics.

It has been nearly a year since the last installment in the series and a lot has happened in the months since. With the pro League of Legends summer season in full swing and a number of major projects on its hands, Riot had a lot to discuss.

Lead producer Joseph “New001” Tung started by noting that they are very happy with the current state of LoL’s meta. Many playstyles are powerful, allowing for flexible compositions and strategies. This also improves the League experience at the casual and competitive level, making the game more fun to both play and watch. That is precisely the position Riot wants League to be in and the plan is to keep that intact for as long as possible.

While the metagame is great, the game itself is not.

Riot finally acknowledged the rampant complaints about the client and detailed some of the plans to fix it. With reduced support for PCs running Windows XP going forward, Riot will be able to modernize the software which should bring “generally improved performance.” Though Tung apologized for how long it has taken Riot for address these issues, a precise explanation for why it took so long wasn’t as clear.

Another long overdue change is coming in the form of an updated death recap. The screen hadn’t been updated in years and has long given incorrect information, making it difficult to parse the exact reasons for each death. The new recap will supposedly give much more analytical information and is set to go live in patch 9.14.

One of the biggest topics discussed were the long-term plans for Teamfight Tactics. The Auto Chess-inspired game mode is being looked at as a potential permanent addition to League. Updates will be pushed quickly in beta with plans to prioritize a ranked queue.

Additionally, the new “Little Legends” product will be added through Teamfight Tactics. Little Legends are avatars that will represent the player, seemingly similar to how couriers function in Dota Auto Chess. A number of Little Legends were shown off, most notably Pengu.

Finally, no new information was given regarding Clash with Tung simply reiterating the rollout plans that were recently discussed on the developer blog.

The video closed with a short mention to League of Legends’ 10-Year Anniversary, which will arrive in October. No definitive plans were given but it was stated that there is “fun stuff planned to mark the occasion.”