Lethal League Blaze News

We're back with the latest on Lethal League Blaze! Just a little back, on the edge of last year, we released the Lethal League Blaze Soundtrack here on Steam.



To quote the page:
"The Lethal League Blaze Soundtrack is an off-the-wall collection of bombtracks from artists all over the world.

Adoring the backside of this digital album are the likes of Hideki Naganuma and Frank Klepacki, the Russian experimentalist Pixelord, Ordinary Days' Klaus Veen and Bignic with his hard-hitting signature electro style. Joined by zeroSCAR, Grillo, chip-hop scientist Doctor Lazer and D Fast, hailing from Helsinki. And last, but not least, B. Bravo, Lean Rock and The Sleepers RecordZ bringing in the much needed b-boy breaks."

The OST also includes environment concept art boards with 11 pieces of high res character art thrown in just for the heck of it (even though we have 10 characters in the game...).



Really, give it a check. The profits are split so it's a good way to support all the artists in one big swoop. And have a listen to their other work while you're at it!




So for the upcoming Content Bombardment, ranks are going to be proper Divisions. Eight of them, the highest one being 1st Division. Every division has three Stars to more specifically show where you are placed. After each Ranked match you'll be able to see your progress to the next division in the result screen.



The improvements for Ranked play have been a long time coming. As such we feel it's good to give them a test run. Everyone is free to give it a try by joining the public beta.

Here's how to join the beta:
Right-click the game in your library and select properties. Then go to the Betas tab and select the public Beta from the drop-down menu. Please remember to switch back to opt-out afterwards because you can't play online with the other players while you're still in the Beta!

Tell us about any issues in the Team Reptile Discord in the #public-beta channel!




This Saturday (that's tomorrow!) the first tournament of the year is already happening. It's hosted by hyhy and it's open to any region.

For the start time and sign up link, check out - https://challonge.com/hyhyllb2

This new years tournament will feature prizes for top 4 including $20 pot bonus, Megabyte Punch keys and other misc games, in addition to glicko seeding based on previous tournament results - https://braacket.com/league/LethalLeagueBlaze/ranking

Remember, all entrants can get a 'hardcore' role in the Team Reptile Discord by showing you participated in an endorsed tournament!

Scheduled Events
Seeing as these tournaments keep coming, we'll be trying out scheduled events starting with FellowsTV's Lethal League Blaze Euro tournament on the 13th. Even if you're not entering, you'll be able to catch the stream and see some high level Blaze play and commentary. Be sure to subscribe to the Lethal League Blaze Steam community if you don't want to miss that!

More info on that FellowsTV's tournament can be found at https://twitter.com/FellowsTV




As the public beta becomes more stable, we can start to look at the date when all the freshness will drop along with the start of the 'clean slate' Ranked season very soon. Stay Tuned!

Finally, we're launching the full Lethal League Blaze OST on Steam! The soundtrack is something special to us, not only because of the wild variety of artists. Each of them has been picked based on their energy and how much of their personal style seeps through the tracks. Beyond ambience, showcasing wildstyle is an integral part of the vision of Lethal League.



The soundtrack will feature non-looping versions of the in-game tracks, some of which haven't been released anywhere ever. The DLC contains both FLAC and MP3. To match the music, it includes early concept art of the stages in the game and promotional art of all the characters. The gains from the OST will be split amongst the composers and Team Reptile, so if you want to support the cause, look no further.

The Lethal League OST will be available next Monday on the 17th of December!




For the Europeans: Just the day before the OST release, on the 16th, you can enter FellowsTV's Lethal League Blaze Singles tournament. It's an online tourney limited to Europe with a variety of other games being hosted as well (never heard of them).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RHSskUv14E

For all the rules and sign-up, visit smash.gg/FTVOC

Looking to start up your own online or offline tournament? Maybe give the Americans some love this time? Hit us up on Discord (at the bottom) and we might be able to help you out!




Next year will see the release of Lethal League Blaze on Xbox, Playstation and Switch, but that doesn't mean things are standing still on the PC side. New characters and outfits are being worked on all the time and you can expect info on those free additions, and more, next week.

Here's an early tease on that, called JUMPER CABLER



If you're feeling you need to chatter about all this, head on over to the official Team Reptile Discord!

In this brand new Content Bombardment we're adding more ways to flex. New styles to pick from and a way to have friends watch you do your thing to be exact.

Style



Jet is the first of the newcomers to get her special outfits. You'll have to discover yourself where to get them in the game (no peeking at Steam guides!). Once you find them, you can unlock them for Sparks in the characters section of the Showcase menu. Lucky you, because the amount of Sparks you get per match are upped in this update. And of course, we're still cooking up the special outfits of the other newcomers!

Spectator



I'm sure we're all big fans of constant surveillance so you'll be happy to hear that you can now play the Police Drone and be a spectator of matches! Just host your own match and select the camera icon on a player to turn him or her into a spectator. Spectators are able to view the match without interfering, perfect for learning by example and to more easily stream tournaments.

1.09 Patch Notes
- Added 2 new outfits for Jet: Hydrodynamic and Astrodynamic
- Increased smoney making
- How to Play 2 is unlocked by default now
- Reduced the amount of matches to get Retro stages somewhat
- Custom menu music now also plays in Character Select
- Added an announcer voiceline for Character Select
- Spectator mode in hosted games
- Fixed player spawn positions when player numbers are not consecutive (like P0 + P2)

Official Discord

Look sharp!

We're baking some delicious bite-sized new stuff for you guys. So smell the freshness and don't burn yourself. These are coming up, so they're still hot!

We're going to be adding 2 new special outfits for one of the characters. Who might this be..?



For the hardcore, the ability to spectate matches will soon be possible.



Just host an online match and select the camera icon on the player you want to have as a spectator. You can have multiple players be spectators and even the host can choose to spectate.

New languages are going to be supported (namely Traditional and Simplified Chinese). The amount of matches required for the 'mythical' Retro stages to unlock has been brought down to some more reasonable levels and the Sparks you get per match are increased. Unlockable beats will be extended to play in the lobby as well.

This bombardment is arriving somewhere next week!

Shoving aside the new stuff, there will be another online Blaze tournament on the 24th. You can already sign up on https://tgtourneys.challonge.com/blaze1. More on that, soon enough!

Oh boy... we got big ol' bag of ones and zeros for you guys that I'm sure you fine virtual fellas will appreciate. I'll tell ya, I'm looking out over this digital prairie of electronic anti-gravity sports and, to be honest, it brings a tear to my left eye, though blinded in the great Shine City uprising some years ago. Hot damn, enough of that! Let's get right into it.

Ranked mode is seeing some additions. I especially like the option to quickly 'Continue' into a new match with either your last opponent or somebody else. The matchmaking has also been tweaked to look for more similar rank players. Bigger changes to the Ranked mode are planned for the next season, when the whole leaderboard will be reset to give everyone a chance again. For that, we're looking at around December for now, so be aware!

If you want to get at edge on the rest, know that we often do a public beta for upcoming changes. Join the official Discord server at discord.gg/reptilehideout and read the pins in the #betablaze channel. But remember to switch back once you're done, because you can't play with players who are not in the beta.

One last itty bitty thing. I sneakily added a match counter in the bottom of the main menu. These are your total matches played online AND offline.


Patch Notes 1.08

Online
- Matchmaking filters for Ranked are now more geared towards similar rank opponents
- No freeze anymore if a player disconnected just before match started
- Things don't go wrong anymore if host changes game mode while other player still in result screen
- Fixed players not seeing each other if joining a lobby at exactly the same time (causing desync at match start)
- Added a 'Continue' option after a Ranked match (you'll enter the lobby to find a new match)

Gameplay
- Fixed Nitro's grab guard on second special hit
- Added an option to do turn-around bunts in the air by holding up in the same way as the neutral swing
- Fixed CPU's refusing to hit the ball when they get certain powerups

General
- Fixed left shoulder button not working in online lobbies
- Added the total matches played statistic to the main menu


Then the 1.071 hotfix from last time didn't get notes, so here's a recap with the more interesting stuff:

- Fixed Straitjacket Alert not unlocking
- Latch now regains his double jump if he cancels his wall-swing with a special
- Added missing Baldi Konijn in the credits, a magnificent concept artist who designed the backgrounds for us. Check him out: https://www.artstation.com/baldi-konijn