Pictured: Instead of finding out how their precious LCS players can learn to play Jayce, Riot Games has decided that just simply buffing all his stats should solve the problem. Image via Riot Games.
Every region and league have their horrible champion picks that just never seem to pay off. For some, it costs them their World Championship runs, while for others it simply just gets a little sad as they keep trotting the same choices out.
Riot Games has revealed a solution to the continuing regional struggles, with the announcement of the Regional Buffing Schedule. Set to provide buffs for specific regions in regards to their worst champion picks, the League of Legends game developers have said they’re “quietly confident” this bold new strategy is going to “change the face of professional League forever”.
First up on the list of regional champion buffs is the LCS. The North American competition is set to see major tweaks to their version of Jayce, mainly a passive Guardian Angel-like ability that Riot believes will “stop these damn monkeys dying in sideline pushes”.
A current LCS player who has asked to remain nameless for the piece spoke about the upcoming new buffs.
“I’ve certainly seen – and definitely not been involved in – some tiebreaker games at Worlds that were literally lost by a top lane Jayce pick, so this is good news,” the recently bearded, but unnamed player said.
“I think everyone here in the LCS is looking forward to being able to play Jayce in scrims and pop-off, and then not massively feeding when we lock it in on stage. To say we’re all excited is an understatement.
“Maybe if we’re lucky Riot can have a look at how a Lucian gets caught in the mid lane by a Viktor without dashing as well, but for now Jayce buffs are enough.”
Although North America is the first up for regional buffs, Riot has also confirmed other regions will join them in the queue.
China’s Ryze – which currently boasts a strong 29.7 percent win rate in the LPL – will be next off the mark a month after the LCS buffs, while Europe’s Sion, which has recorded a 34.8 percent win rate in the LEC this year, will be buffed two weeks after that.
Other regions have been penned in for later in the year, though no firm dates have yet been confirmed by Riot. Fireball Esports can reveal initial planning for the buffs of Sylas and Irelia for Korea will coincide with the release of the World Championship patch.
A league scriptwriter within Riot confirmed with this publication that Korea would be receiving two champion buffs instead of one because “it means we don’t have any problems with our redemption storyline this year”.
Vietnam’s buff has been confirmed to apply to jungle warrior Lee Sin, and is set to be launched right before their Worlds representative team plays a western hopeful in the tournament’s group stage. Zoe will be buffed for LMS as soon as the Play-In stage is complete.
Clip: In perhaps one of the greatest showings of NA Jayce in history, Hauntzer recorded a massive 0/4/2 to boost Misfits into their first Worlds quarter finals. Source: Onivia.
Finally, Oceania is set to have a major buff to late-game marksman Sivir, who has recorded just two wins in eleven games thus far in 2019, and Fireball has confirmed these will take place just as soon as Worlds is over. A source within Riot suggested the buff may come right before All-Stars so the world can see “another one of those heart-warming Pabu stories from 2018”.
It has also been confirmed that the Latin South America competition and server had been completely forgotten by Riot in their planning, though a representative from the company reached out to Fireball after the discovery had been made.
“We love our Latin-South American leagues and servers, and we’re doing everything in power to figure out how we can actually implement new features into their games,” the representative said. “Off the record, we lost access to it years ago and figured no one would really notice.”
The initial Jayce changes for North America are expected to appear on the PBE during the next patch cycle. China’s will be launched on the testing realm two weeks after that.
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