The explosion of League of Legends exceeded everyone's expectations, and in some aspects, it began to push beyond the limits of what servers and technology could handle. The number of players swelled like a snowball, with peak concurrent users easily breaking the 200,000 mark and continuing to climb at an astonishing rate. Internet cafes were almost entirely dominated by "League," and related discussions and meme culture began to flourish across the internet.
However, accompanying this immense success, a happy problem quickly surfaced and became increasingly acute—too few heroes, not enough for the players.
The initial twenty heroes quickly became "insufficient" in the face of players' explosive enthusiasm and astonishing game time. In ranked games (though not officially released, players had spontaneously organized a ladder), the constant pick-or-ban of strong heroes led to solidified team compositions; in normal matches, it was always the same familiar faces. Players, especially deep-level players, began to crave new experiences, new strategies, and new "main heroes."
On official forums and major gaming communities, posts urging the release of new heroes sprang up like mushrooms:
"Please, release new heroes quickly! I'm practically sick of playing the twenty heroes!"
"It's been three months! Do you know how I've spent these three months? Every day it's Garen, Ashe, and Ryze!"
"The XX game next door releases two new characters a month; your speed is too slow!"
"Strongly demand a stealthy assassin! Release one that can create clones! Release one that can transform!"
These voices, like a tide, surged towards Riot Games.
At the core project meeting on Monday morning, the atmosphere differed from the pure excitement of previous weeks, carrying a new sense of urgency.
Qin Feng threw a stack of printed player feedback onto the conference table and got straight to the point: "Everyone has seen the situation. The game is popular, but our 'ammunition depot' is running dry. Twenty heroes cannot sustain a long-term, prosperous ecosystem. Players need freshness, and tactics need diversity."
His gaze swept over Lead Artist Chen Ran and her planning team, finally settling on the supervisor responsible for hero skill mechanism design, a young man named Wu Tong, whose hair was already thinning.
"Wu Tong, Chen Ran," Qin Feng's voice was unequivocal, "I need you to design and complete thirty new heroes within three months, bringing our total hero pool to fifty."
"Three... three months? Thirty?!" Wu Tong nearly jumped out of his chair, his eyes wide, instinctively scratching his already sparse hair. "President Qin! That's impossible! A hero, from concept, backstory, skill mechanism design, numerical balance, to original art, model, animations, effects, sound effects, voice acting... This is an extremely complex systems engineering project! Under normal circumstances, perfecting two a month is already the limit! Thirty? An average of one every three days? What we'd get would only be half-finished products, collections of bugs, and a balance disaster!"
Chen Ran also looked troubled: "President Qin, the workload for art resources is too immense. Even if we work overtime, thirty heroes' high-quality original art, models, and effects, in three months..."
The conference room was silent, everyone stunned by this insane goal. This was no longer a challenge; it was simply a fantasy.
Qin Feng looked at them, but there was no hint of joking on his face. He knew that in his previous life, League of Legends also updated heroes at an astonishing speed in its early stages, quickly establishing its vast hero system. This window of opportunity had to be seized.
"I know this is very difficult, almost perverse," Qin Feng said calmly, interrupting Wu Tong's impending torrent of complaints, "but players won't wait for our 'normal' development. Market enthusiasm is fleeting. We must build our moat with speed."
He walked to the whiteboard and began to outline solutions.
"First, modularization and pipeline operations." He wrote down keywords. "Wu Tong, your team no longer needs to conceive every hero from scratch. We can establish several core templates and mechanisms: for example, highly mobile assassins, sturdy tanks, ranged physical carries (ADCs), ranged magical carries (APCs), healing/shield supports, and engage/control supports. Innovate and combine within this framework."
"For example, we already have Ashe as a 'utility ADC' template. So, for the next ADC, could we design it to be a 'cannon' focused on extreme damage? Or a'skirmisher' with unique displacement mechanics?"
"Second, resource reuse and differentiation." He looked at Chen Ran. "From an art perspective, while ensuring each hero has a unique visual theme, can we reuse parts of the basic animation library, or general effect elements? For instance, many heroes' basic 'walk,' idle,' and 'attack' animations can be templated and then adjusted, saving significant animation production time. The key is to highlight the uniqueness of their iconic skills and special animations like recall."
"Third, parallel development and rapid iteration." Qin Feng tapped the whiteboard. "We will no longer adopt a serial model where one hero is fully completed before starting the next. Concept planning, skill design, original art, models, sound effects... multiple stages will progress in parallel. We'll form several hero development teams, with each team simultaneously responsible for different stages of 2-3 heroes. We'll use an agile model of 'develop - internal test - rapid modification.' Don't pursue perfection in the initial version; launch a 'usable' version first, then make subsequent balance adjustments and optimizations based on player feedback and data."
"Fourth, the 'Idea Bank'." Qin Feng pointed to his head. "I will provide a large number of preliminary hero concepts, nascent skill mechanisms, and backstory directions, saving you time on early brainstorming."
Wu Tong opened his mouth, wanting to continue complaining, but listening to Qin Feng's clear and even somewhat advanced development methodology, he found himself unable to refute. These methods could indeed theoretically greatly improve efficiency.
"But... balance..." Wu Tong's biggest concern was this. "Thirty new heroes flooding in will completely collapse the existing balance system! We simply don't have enough time for internal testing and numerical simulations!"
"So, we need to build a stronger internal testing team and quickly launch an 'experience server' for a small number of core players," Qin Feng replied. "Balance is a dynamic process; we cannot achieve perfection before launch. But as long as the core mechanics are interesting and the heroes have distinct characteristics, even if the initial strength is slightly imbalanced, we can adjust it through subsequent version updates. The key is to first give players something to play, something new to anticipate!"
Silence fell over the meeting room again, and everyone was digesting this crazy plan.
Wu Tong painfully rubbed his temples, muttering, "One hero every three days... concept design one day, skill values one day, internal test feedback and modification one day... This is practically a hellish drawing... Players will curse us to death..."
But he looked up, saw Qin Feng's firm and trusting gaze, and then looked at the worried but also ignited fighting spirit in the eyes of his team members. He took a deep breath, as if expending all his strength, and slammed his fist on the table:
"Damn it... Let's do it! President Qin, you're really pushing us to our limits! But... it sounds exciting!"
He forced a smile that was uglier than a cry, but the fire of challenging limits had already ignited in his eyes.
"But President Qin, it's a deal! Your 'Idea Bank' has to be sufficient! And, overtime pay, late-night snacks, Red Bull, must be sufficient!"
Qin Feng smiled: "No problem. From now on, the company will implement a '997' combat mode! Logistics support will keep up completely! In these three months, we will build a 'Hero Factory'!"
After the meeting, Riot Games seemed to have pressed a new accelerator button. The office lights burned through the night, whiteboards were covered with various hero skill sketches and data formulas, and the sound of keyboard clicks and designers' intense discussions intertwined.
Wu Tong's team began a furious brainstorming session, rapidly transforming Qin Feng's spoken ingenious ideas—such as "an assassin who can use a hook to displace through walls," "a mage who can copy enemy skills," "a warrior with two forms"—into detailed design documents.
Chen Ran's art team also began pipeline operations: concept artists sketched ideas, 3D modelers simultaneously built models, effects artists designed skill light effects in advance... A "hero mass production" movement, a race against time, was vigorously launched within the company that created an esports miracle. And all of this was to satisfy the ever-expanding Summoners Rift and the unceasing desires of billions of players within the Rift.