What’s Next (Schedule for Next Arc)

This is a quick summary post that gives our tentative schedule for transitioning from Shon-Xan into the next arc. Dates are estimates; RL does sometimes intervene, though we’ll be working hard to get things rolling on time.

March 24 — Shon-Xan Ends at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time

At this point, I’ll close the Match Report Form and tally up the scores. In-universe, this represents the conclusion of the Shon-Xan dispute within the League of Legends.

Whichever faction has more points will win. The size of the lead will factor into how the story plays out.

March 25 — Next Arc’s Public Faction Selection Poll Closes

On March 25, I’ll close the public poll to decide which factions will face off next and announce the preliminary results.

March 25 — Winning Faction Poll and Interactive Lore Event

Summoners from the victorious faction will be given a chance to select an additional faction for the next arc through a private vote. There will also be an interactive lore event in which they will decide how to handle their victory. Their margin of victory (i.e. how many points they beat the other faction by) will influence what options are available to them.

March 25 — Intermission Begins

An Intermission period will begin while we rush to set up the new storyline. While we get things set up, people are encouraged to play Intermission Matches.

We will also be doing some balance experiments during this time. Right now, match-weighting and balancing is done on the basis of guesswork. We give each team a skill score, using the following point values:

• Diamond: 12
• Platinum: 8
• Gold: 5
• Silver: 3
• Bronze/Unranked: 1

This is really just guesswork, though. We don’t know, for instance, how big the gap between Silver and Gold “really” is relative to the gap between, say, Platinum and Diamond. To get a better grasp on that, we’re going to conduct some controlled experiments, in which, for example, we run 10 matches with

• Team A: Gold, Gold, Silver, Silver, Silver
• Team B: Silver, Silver, Silver, Silver, Silver

And see what Team A’s winrate is. If it’s 90%, then that suggests a large gap between these Tiers, for instance, which should be reflected with a large point difference. We will be soliciting volunteers for these tests from the Factions chat.

March 28 — Winning Faction Poll Closes

We will close the winning faction poll at this point and announce the final results.

March 30 — Shon-Xan Conclusion Published

We will publish the conclusion to the Shon-Xan storyline at this point.

March 31 — Intermission Ends, New Arc Begins

The new arc will launch on March 31.