Riot Games removes the myths and misconceptions surrounding

Riot Games removes the myths and misconceptions surrounding its Game Analysis Team or GAT – As one of the largest MOBA games in the world, League of Legends has a reputation to uphold when it comes to its game design and quality. In such a large game, the introduction of new ideas can sometimes result in complex changes. To resolve these issues, especially for the in-game part, Riot Games brings in their Game Analysis Team, or GAT for short. The job of this team is to help designers and developers understand how their new content fits in with the rest of the League of Legends. It allows them to test their ideas inside the game as close to the games as possible.

Riot Games removes the myths and misconceptions surrounding its Game Analysis Team or GAT

Yesterday, Riot GalaxySmash posted an article on the League of Legends’s official website to talk about the role of GAT. Its aim was to also debunk some myths and misconceptions that people have about this role. Here are all the details.

League of Legends Game Analysis Team: Testing the game

Many people think that the Game Analysis Team tests the updates and features in the League only when it gets released in PBE. It is true that the GAT works to validate existing content. But, most of the time, this team is working on League of Legends’ content since its design phase, way before anything goes live. The GAT provides various recommendations from the perspective of a League player to the designers. It helps the designers and developers to work on the content prototype according to these inputs.

In the early design phase, the Game Analysis Team generates test cases to help them understand the risks and outputs of the content in ways the developers might not have anticipated before. Thus, it is a collaborative and iterative process that is done repeatedly until the content is shipped to the players.

Roles apart from playtesting

While it may seem that the Game Analysis Team only engages in playtesting (which is highly crucial), they also work around with data and sheets a lot. It is important to note this because playtesting has its limitations. There are only so many hours in a day to run playtests, and sometimes test cases conflict and can’t be done in the same game. In such cases, going back to the board to work with numbers is also a good choice. It is a tried and tested method that allows the GAT to learn more about the new changes in a more fundamental way.

For example, before a new champion is released, the GAT also has to study a lot of data spreadsheets about the champion. It gives them an idea about the stats and attributes of the champion and how it may fare against certain matchups. Then these theories are tested within the game by the GAT. Then they use spreadsheets to contextualize their findings for the designers and developers of Riot Games. It helps them to provide more qualitative feedback from playtesting and theory crafting.

The members carry a Master or above rank in the game

People may think that being a Master ranked player can increase your chances of becoming a part of the Game Analysis Team. But this notion is incorrect. The reason GAT has so many Masters and above ranked players is that their in-game skills are one of the requirements for the job. They have to play a lot of League of Legends to have a better understanding of metas, champion abilities and roles, items, and other in-game mechanics. They also have to be aware of the different types of playstyles and strategies that both ordinary players and esports athletes use in the game. Such in-depth knowledge helps them to provide more accurate responses to any new idea or content put forward by game designers. They can also provide insights as to how new changes can affect the current meta and state of the League for different types of players.

These three points put forward by Riot GalaxySmash can help clear most of the misconceptions regarding the Game Analysis Team for League of Legends. Stay tuned as we bring to you more latest news and updates from Riot Games and League of Legends.