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Riot Games‘ League of Legends MMO, the team has decided to “reset the direction” of the project and will be “‘going dark’ for a long time – likely several years”.Riot Games has been working on a League of Legends MMO set within the Runeterra universe for some time now. It was officially announced back in 2020, with a recruiting webpage shared in February 2021.

XG have announced a new single called ‘Undefeated’ for Valorant VCT Pacific 2024.XG’s new song ‘Undefeated’ has been described in a press release as a song with “a heavy bassline, minimalistic drum composition and dreamy synthesizers” with a message of “fearlessly seizing victory at all times”.XG will release ‘Undefeated’ on April 12 globally through streaming platforms, with a music video set to be released on the same day through the official VCT Pacific YouTube channel.XG & VALORANTCollaboration Single ‘UNDEFEATED’(VCT PACIFIC 2024) @vctpacific @VALORANT2024.04.12 FRI Streaming/Download 12AM within each timezoneMusic VideoET 5AMJST/KST 6PM

Larian Studios has hit out at a number of companies laying-off development staff to maximise profits for shareholders.2024 has started with a number of studios cutting huge swathes of employees. Microsoft laid off 1,900 staff shortly after its acquisition of Activision Blizzard was approved, Riot Games laid off over 500 members of staff, and today (February 19) it was confirmed that Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM has cut a quarter of its staff.Elsewhere, the Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch claimed it wasn’t making a profit after another massive round of layoffs, while Embracer Group admitted that its “overruling principle is to always maximise shareholder value in any given situation” after cutting 1,400 jobs over the past 12 months.Last week, Baldur’s Gate 3 picked up a number of trophies at the DICE Awards including Outstanding Achievement In Story, RPG Of The Year, Outstanding Achievement In Game Direction, and Game of the Year.

League Of Legends developer Riot Games has laid off 530 staff members and shut down all development on spin-off games.Yesterday, Riot Games announced in a blog post that it is laying off 530 roles globally (11% of overall staffers). Alongside this announcement, the developer has stated that it is stopping all active development on new spin-off games of League Of Legends after the release of Bandle Tale: A League Of Legends Story.“We’re ending new game development under Riot Forge after the upcoming release of Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story. Forge was an experiment to see what would happen when Rioters partnered with their favourite indie devs and let them loose on Runeterra with their unique viewpoints, styles and expertise,” the blog post read.“Across six titles spanning different game genres, regions, and characters, it’s been inspiring to see what these devs created in partnership with the Forge team.

Riot Games has confirmed a new weapon will be coming to Valorant as part of a new update.The Outlaw is a high impact, double-barrelled sniper rifle that will cost players 2400 credits. It can fire two shots before a lengthy reload, but players can shoot both of those shots without needing to descope.According to various players who’ve been able to try out The Outlaw in early access, the new sniper rifle has a very high wall penetration and is placed between The Marshall and The Operator in the pre-round item shop.“We felt there was a gap in the arsenal that could be filled between the Marshal and Operator in terms of power and price, and we wanted more options to support the sniper playstyle,” said Nick Smith, Game Designer II and Sal Garozzo, Game Design Architect via Forbes.

League of Legends World Championship anthem featuring NewJeans.According to a press release, ‘Gods’ marks the first time a K-pop act has sung the League of Legends World Championship anthem. The song also marks the 10th anniversary of anthems for the annual esports tournament.“The 2023 Worlds music video follows the story of Korean pro player Kim ‘Deft’ Hyuk-kyu, from his discovery of League of Legends in high school, to his run at Worlds 2022 alongside his team that overcame all odds to become World Champions,” the press release reads.‘Gods’ performed by NewJeans, and was written by Riot Games’ principal composer Sebastien Najand along with Mako’s Alex Seaver.

K-pop group NewJeans will be releasing a song for this year’s League Of Legends World Championship.The single, titled ‘Gods’, will be released on October 4 at 6AM BST / 2PM KST. It will also launch with an animated music video from Riot Games, and NewJeans have described the song as “a new experience for all of us”.“It was fun to try a new genre and sound,” shared the group.

League Of Legends player repurposed a Nintendo Wiimote to play the game as the champion Yasuo, a swordsman that wields a steel blade and the wind as his abilities.Via Dexerto, Reddit user usr-Machintosh-HD posted a clip of themselves playing in a match in the online game with the Wiimote as their only controller. Pressing on the different directions on the D-pad triggered the champion’s attacks and the sensor inside the controller worked perfectly to move the cursor across the screen.

Valorant Champions tournament in Los Angeles, X CEO Elon Musk was booed and told to “bring back Twitter” in chants from the crowd.As the professional teams Evil Geniuses and Paper Rex competed against each other, Musk was apparently shown on the main video screen in the event.This then incurred the aggravation of the attendees who started booing so loudly that it distracted the commentators from the game. Check it out below:Elon Musk getting booed at VALORANT Champs and the crowd starts chanting "bring back Twitter" lmao pic.twitter.com/lDoWse78YV— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) August 26, 2023“Where’s that coming from? That can’t be from in here, surely,” said one of the broadcasters.

Project L will be playable at EVO 2023, in Las Vegas, Nevada, offering players the opportunity to go hands on with the League of Legends based fighter.Four characters are available at the event – Darius, Ekko, Ahri and a yet-to-be-announced addition. Also, a Riot Games developer diary with commentary from game director Shaun Rivera and its executive producer Tom Cannon shed a little more light on what fans will look forward to at EVO 2023, which will be held from August 4 to August 6.“From the start of this project, we felt that if we’re going to make a fighting game, we needed to bring something new to the genre,” said Cannon.

Riot Games has announced that Nicolo Laurent will step down as CEO later this year, with the current global president A. Dylan Jadeja set to succeed.In a new letter shared yesterday (May 11), Riot Games said, “We’re proud to announce that our current global president, A.

Convergence: A League of Legends Story has been confirmed, with the time-bending platformer set to launch later this month.Following its announcement in 2021, Convergence will launch on May 23 for Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox and PlayStation platforms.As for what it’s about, the game will follow League Of Legends champion Ekko through the city of Zaun, which was the setting of Netflix’s 2021 animation Arcane.The game will be a platformer with an emphasis on parkour and Ekko’s signature ability — just like in League Of Legends, the hero is equipped with a device that allows him to manipulate time.“Developed by Double Stallion Games, Convergence: A League Of Legends Story is a 2D action platformer with an incredible art style that focuses on tight dynamic combat and unique exploration opportunities afforded by Ekko’s ability to travel in space and time,” reads the game’s Steam page.In the latest trailer for Convergence, Ekko is shown time-travelling to meet a younger version of himself in an attempt to save Zaun from a “devastating future”. Besides Ekko, League Of Legends fans will be able to spot a number of returning characters from the game — including Jinx, Warwick, and Camille.Check it out below.Convergence will arrive just over a month after The Mageseeker: A League Of Legends Story, which was published by Riot Forge last month (April 18).Like Convergence, The Mageseeker is a League spin-off — though instead of following Ekko, it stars Demacian mage Sylas as he leads a rebellion against the kingdom.

Riot Games has marked the occasion with a fake set of “patch notes” for its PC shooter Valorant.In the “patch notes”, Riot Games outlines a Valorant update that would transform the shooter into a hellscape for many of its fans.The fictional update would see Gekko’s “bestie” Wingman gain the ability to pick up and wield guns, while Breeze would become Valorant‘s only playable map.According to the patch, shots fired from each spawn will now shoot directly into the enemy spawn because “map control is mid anyway,” and a “Suss Teammate Mode” would drop players into a version of solo queue with their scoreboard and communications disabled.The fictional Valorant would also bring some good news for Brimstone fans, as the agent’s beard would give a rapid-fire bonus to any agents within his vicinity.Luckily, the update isn’t real — though in the real world, Valorant has had a very busy few weeks.Episode 6 Act 2 of Valorant kicked off in early March and introduced a new agent called Gekko.

Riot Games after nine years with the company, though has said the League Of Legends massively multiplayer online (MMO) game he was executive producer for will be in “good hands”.Street announced his departure last night (March 7), claiming “personal and professional considerations” and a number of “devastating personal losses” led to his decision to step down.Continuing, Street touched on how stepping down will affect the development of an MMO set within the League Of Legends universe, which remains in the works at Riot but is yet to be revealed.A combo of personal and professional considerations led me to down this path. We experienced some devastating personal losses last year and I want to be closer to my surviving family.— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) March 7, 2023“I said from the beginning that building a League Of Legends MMO worthy of you all was going to be a long journey,” said Street.

Riot Games has revealed the abilities of Milio, the next champion to be added to League Of Legends.Champions are playable characters in League Of Legends that use five abilities to battle their opponents on the game’s map. Milio is the latest champion to be added following K’Sante, and today (March 6) his abilities have been announced.An enchanter designed to fit the support role – which is for champions who help another teammate in the game’s bottom lane of the map – Milio will use a “cute, anthropomorphic fire” to heal and empower his allies.

Riot Games has announced The Mageseeker: A League Of Legends Story, which will follow League‘s own Sylas as he raises an army to overthrow the kingdom of Demacia.Set to launch in spring 2023, The Mageseeker is a 2D action role-playing game (RPG) developed by Digital Sun, the studio behind Moonlighter.The Mageseeker is set in the kingdom of Demacia, where magic is outlawed outside of its ruling class. The game will follow Sylas, a champion from League Of Legends who leads an army of rogue mages to rebel against Demacian nobility.While a trailer released today (February 15) doesn’t show too much of Sylas’ abilities, in League Of Legends he is able to channel magic through his broken shackles and can steal the magical abilities of other mages.Publisher Riot Forge has shared that the game will tell a story of “power, identity, and justice,” and added that it will be available on both PC and console.Outside of The Mageseeker, Riot Forge also shared release windows for another two upcoming games – Convergence and Song Of Nunu.

League Of Legends developer Riot Games has revealed the abilities of K’Sante, the game’s upcoming champion that will launch with a skin co-designed by Lil Nas X.Designed to be played in top lane, K’Sante is a tank that packs plenty of crowd control (CC) and excels at duelling individual opponents.“A mighty guardian wielding weapons forged from an apex predator he once slayed, K’Sante is a hero of his people, dominating fights with keen judgment and defiant fire,” explains Riot. “His weapons may appear defensive at first, but given the right moment, he can transform them into lethal blades, taking down giant foes others dare not approach.”As for his abilities, Riot says that K’Sante is “a top, tank champion, [who focuses] on saving allies from harm, before picking out the monstrous threat on the enemy team.”K’Sante’s abilities can be read below:Being in All Out means K’Sante loses a percentage of his maximum health, bonus armour and magic resist, but in return the champion gains attack damage, omnivamp, and all of his abilities are imbued with further powers.In All Out, K’Sante’s passive instead deals physical damage and extra maximum health-based true damage, while the cooldown for his Q is reduced but no longer slows.

League of Legends champion Orianna has been disabled from this year’s League of Legends World Championships “until further notice” due to a serious bug.The champion has been banned from this year’s championships after a bug was spotted during the October 9 matchup between Rogue and GAM Esports in Group C. The LEC team’s midlaner Emil Larsson played Orianna for her first (and likely last) appearance at this year’s event, after her ult appeared to be bugged during the match.The bug, which can be seen below, in which Larsson’s opponent loses a significant chunk of his health, seemingly to nothing.

League Of Legends pre-season changes have been revealed, detailing the return of Chemtech Drake and a host of jungle changes – including the addition of pets.For this year’s pre-season, developer Riot Games has focused on making big changes to the jungle role.That includes the return of Chemtech Drake, an elemental Drake that was removed from League Of Legends in January after Riot acknowledged that it was “too frustrating to play with.”However, much of the unpopular Drake’s features – including the vision-obscuring fod – have been swapped for new abilities. Chemtech Drake’s buff will now grant tenacity and stronger heals and shields, while earning Chemtech Soul will give champions on your team bonus damage if they’re below a certain amount of health.Additionally, the Chemtech Drake’s environmental effects have been changed.

Riot Games and Lil Nas X have released ‘STAR WALKIN”, the anthem for this year’s League Of Legends World Championship.The music video for ‘STAR WALKIN” is available to watch on YouTube, while the track is also available on all streaming platforms.As part of Lil Nas X’s collaboration with Riot Games, the music video for ‘STAR WALKIN” is set in San Francisco – the host of this year’s League Of Legends Worlds Final – and shows the city transform as the tournament’s competitors walk through. Like Riot Games’ past Worlds music videos, there are plenty of Easter eggs hidden for League Of Legends fans to spot.You can listen to ‘STAR WALKIN” and watch the music video below:“Lil Nas X tapped into our vision and took it to the next level,” shared Carrie Dunn, global head of creative for Riot’s esports team.

Riot Games have released the patch notes for the latest patch to Valorant, which promises some alterations to the Pearl map, as well as some weapon updates and bug fixes.Patch 5.06 is bringing a handful of small changes to Pearl, which was first revealed this summer. Changes have been made in order to reduce complexity and to make it easier for both attackers and defenders to move through the underwater map’s areas.For instance, Riot Games has lowered the waist-high wall on the left side of B Main, so that it can no longer completely hide anyone, the raised platform in Mid Shops has been extended, and alterations have been made to Mid so that it no longer favours attackers while giving defenders more of an even playing field.Additionally, A Art has been altered, as the developers noted that both attackers and defenders were having difficulties moving effectively through the area, and so it has been simplified so that there are fewer areas to check.Riot Games has described the changes as “major”, and shared that they have been made in reaction to months’ worth of player feedback.

Riot Games has confirmed that it will be overhauling Valorant‘s Fracture map in order to address balance issues.Riot Games’ level and game designer Joe “Pearl Hogbash” Lansford took to Twitter on August 27 to explain the plans the team has for the Fracture overhaul, stating that certain areas of the map will be changed to help balance issues for both defending and attacking teams (via GamesRadar).“So, Fracture’s been out for a year now. We’re working on a couple of changes right now,” Lansford said.

Riot Games has revealed League Of Legends champion Udyr’s rework, showing a close-range brawler that can use different fighting stances to channel the power of demigods.Revealed today (August 9), Udyr’s playstyle remains largely the same: the Freljordian fighter still has no conventional ultimate ability, and instead can switch between four low-cooldown stances to enhance his auto-attacks, health and speed.However, all four of Udyr’s stances have been changed. Udyr’s new passive means that besides switching stances, every 30 seconds he can Awaken his active stance – which adds new effects to the ability.

Riot Games has shared the patch notes for version 12.14 of League of Legends. This patch is focused on toning down the power of enchanters and healing-focused champions, incentivising early-game drake fights, as well as bringing Gangplank back in line with the rest of the champion roster.Riot has acknowledged that Gangplank should not be both a lane bully and a late-game carry, so they are taking away his laning power in exchange for some small buffs to his late game.

Riot Games – the developer behind Valorant and League Of Legends – has shared that “nearly every game” that the company makes will be competitive with “some sort of esports component to it”.At the launch of Riot’s Project Stryker broadcast centre in Dublin, Needham spoke to NME about the company’s plans to incorporate esports into future Riot titles – including Project Lion, an upcoming fighting game.“If you look at Riot’s games, almost all of our games are competitive games, with varying levels of whether they’d be good sports or not,” said Needham. “We’ve talked about Lion publicly, obviously esports is a really core part of the fighting game community, so we’ll be investing there.”“But all the games that Riot produces, we really look at games that can span generations.

Riot Games designer on League Of Legends has shared a preview of patch 12.14 before its release later this month.Patch 12.14 is currently set to release on July 27 next week, but lead designer Matt Leung-Harrison has shared a preview of the update today (July 20).“We’re going to be focusing on stability for the rest of the season (barring some crisis) to allow for players focusing on their ranked climbs and heading into Playoffs,” explained Leung-Harrison.Full patch preview. We're going to be focusing on stability for the rest of the season (barring some crisis) to allow for players focusing on their ranked climbs and heading into Playoffs.

League Of Legends champion, Nilah, has been nerfed less than 24 hours after her release, which is a new record for a Champion adjustment.  Nilah released on July 13 as part of the 12.13 patch for the game and was nerfed shortly afterwards, with her attributes taking a hit across the board. This comes off the heels of her win rate being over 52.60 per cent after one day, according to LoLalytics.

League Of Legends, developer Riot Games has outlined how the patch affected the game.In May, a durability update made every champion in League Of Legends less fragile. A month on, Riot Games has shared that it thinks the update went “relatively well” and revealed the effects it has had on the game.“Players from all regions are enjoying more opportunities for skill expression and we’re hearing feedback that combat is better paced and more understandable […] We believe that slower combat gives players more opportunities to demonstrate more strategic skills like positioning and cooldown management,” said Riot.The developer went on to say that it has seen a decrease in snowballing in games, which refers to matches where one side “snowballs” a minor early-game lead into an advantage that wins the game for them.“We think some degree of snowballing leads is good, after all players should be able to capitalize on their early game advantages to influence the outcome of a game.

League Of Legends players worked with developer Riot Games to create an artificial reef, shaped like champion Nautilus, to drop in Moreton Bay, Australia. Now, a local diver has shared a look at how that reef is faring seven years later.Taking to Reddit, user AussieEquiv shared a series of images, tracking Nautilus’ evolution from hunk of artificial reef to useful, important part of the ecological environment.“Hey all, You might remember some of my posts previously on the statue but for those new Players I’m a member of The URGQ SCUBA Dive Club who are the custodians of Curtin Artificial Reef.

Riot Games has shared patch notes for Valorant Episode 5 Act 1, which will bring in a new map called Pearl while taking existing map Split out of rotation.When Pearl launches, it will not appear in competitive queues for another two weeks. Instead, the map will be playable on a Pearl-only queue in that time, giving players a chance to learn its layout before having to play in it competitively.Pearl is an underwater city “directly inspired by Portuguese culture”, and will feature no unique mechanics “to keep things a little more straightforward”.In the meantime, Split has been “temporarily” removed from the map pool in both unrated and competitive queues.

Riot Games has released a new article discussing Valorant‘s map diversity and explaining how it has made improvements to tune it for competitive play.In the new game health article, a member of the competitive team on Valorant, Brian Chang, acknowledged players’ frustration with encountering the same map multiple games in a row, explaining that as a result, “we wanted to make sure that we could improve the diversity of maps played without compromising the health of matchmaking (by influencing things like queue times or match balance).”Chang said that when the game launched, map selection was “truly as random as it could be” and all maps had an identical chance – 25 per cent – of being chosen regardless of what the players played recently.However, according to new Riot stats, over the course of five games, 26 per cent of players saw the same map three times or more.Fast forward to 2022, Valorant now has seven maps, and feedback from North American players informed Riot Games around March of this year that 67 per cent felt like they were encountering the same map multiple times in a row.With patch 4.04, the developer implemented a more diverse map selection change, so instead of making it a random process, it opted to create a deterministic choice that selects the map that minimizes streaks.

Riot Games has revealed more about the upcoming 12.10 update for League Of Legends, with focus on reducing the overall damage present in the game.Announced today (May 6), champion durability of the entire roster is being tweaked, with the following stats being increased across the board: Base health, health per level, armour per level and magic resist per level.Riot says that to properly balance these increases, some other changes will need to be made in 12.10, so nerfs to sustain and buffs to Baron, Turrets and mana regeneration will all take place as well.“We believe that there is currently too much damage in League Of Legends and [this] isn’t beneficial for letting players showcase their skill by giving them more opportunities for counterplay and to live out their high moments,” said Riot.The developer also assures it isn’t trying to “create a meta where there are no kills 15 minutes into the game,” with Riot saying pros of lower survivability include that a lot players enjoy high-kill games, and that it rewards good play with kills.Players should feel like their champions deal and take less damage, that burst champions need to commit more resources for quick kills, bigger counterplay opportunities should be seen, and teamfights should last longer.Riot says it still thinks champions should be burst killed, rewarding those that are “extremely ahead”, but that the team’s intent is to not “overnerf burst champions” overall.“We still think that League Of Legends is at its best with fast-paced, high intensity combat; but now that it’s gone too far in that direction we need to rein it back a bit,” explained Riot.“We don’t think any particular champions, items, or systems are out of line (even if they may have contributed to

Riot Games has shared a preview for League Of Legends patch 12.9, detailing some sizeable changes to Olaf and Taliyah as well as a nerf aimed at players taking Pyke to mid lane.Today (May 4), Matt Leung-Harrison – lead designer for game balance in League Of Legends – has detailed what players can expect from patch 12.9.Changelists are still subject to change. All of the champion adjustment lists are pretty lengthy, but some of the notable changes are listed here.

Riot Games has released patch 12.8 for League Of Legends, which gives champion Swain a sizeable rework to take him out of his current support role.Patch notes for 12.8 have confirmed that the biggest change in this update is Swain’s rework. The goal of this rework is to remove Swain from his current support role and return him to the game’s solo lanes, which is where he was originally intended to be played in.“Swain has certainly made a name for himself in bot lane since his last mini rework, but as the commander of the Noxian front lines, he should also be one to strike fear in his solo lane enemies’ hearts,” explained the patch notes.Swain will now receive more healing from his passive effect, and while the champion will no longer pull in enemies immobilised by allies, his E can now be re-activated to pull in all enemies hit, rather than just one.

Valorant patch, the character Jett will be receiving some major nerfs to address issues some players have been facing.With the introduction of patch 4.08, Jett’s dash (called Tailwind) will only work after a short delay once the ability key is pressed. Following that, Jett will activate a 12 second window where she is empowered to immediately dash on the next button press.

Valorant esports player Jay “Sinatraa” Won was suspended by Riot Games for “failing to fully cooperate” with an investigation into accusations of sexual assault.However, yesterday (April 12) Sinatraa took to social media to say he was “ready for a return to competitive play.”Sinatraa was a pro gamer and a member of Valorant team Sentinels when his ex-girlfriend Cleo Hernandez released a statement on Twitter detailing her relationship with him. In the lengthy post, Hernandez detailed multiple instances of alleged sexual assault, gaslighting, and mental and emotional abuse at the hands of Sinatraa alongside supporting evidence.Within days, Sinatraa was temporarily suspended by Sentinels with Riot Games later handing out a six-month ban due to his failure to fully cooperate with the investigation.Speaking about the decision Alex Francois, the Head of Competitive Operations for Valorant Esports said that while the investigation “did not come to a definitive conclusion”, the Competitive Operations team that was reviewing the case “had serious concerns with Sinatraa’s conduct during the course of the investigation.”The ban expired in September but since then, Sinatraa hasn’t taken part in any professional tournaments.However, yesterday (April 12) he took to Twitter to say “It’s been a year since I was forced to step back from competitive play.