We wanted to show you guys and gals what we have lined up for next week!

Basically, it's the Thermo Booster C.E. Variant.



Plus the second yet-to-be-seen outfit of course.

Next to that, our house animator Nilsuke has been cooking up something of a guide for modifying the character models and putting them back in the game. So now you model modding mofos may make more mods maybe (meaning: memes).


Community News

This weekend two online tournaments are set to happen, namely The Coffee Cup #3 and The Numbah 1 Strikers King Pro Tournament! Check the pins in #lethalleagueblaze in the official discord (at the bottom) for all the info.

All the while, Candychain Championships is a local competition that has been making waves in Southern California with another tournament coming up next week. Stay up to date by following their twitter over here: https://twitter.com/CandyChainChamp


Official Channels
On Discord
On Twitter

The new character



Right, forget the small talk on this one. This brand new character expands the roster to 11, no charge! Toxic, alias The Queen, moves out of the darkness and has started poisoning the walls of Shine City with pieces oozing raw style.

Toxic sports a huge mechanical arm, loaded with spray cans, which she uses to compete and paint wherever she pleases. Toxic has a network of graffiti writers spread out over the city that give her the lowdown on all the happenings in the city.



Toxic's royal sass is powered by the VO talents of Tiana Camacho! http://twitter.com/tianacamachovo

The addition of Toxic is joined by two new hidden outfits to unlock for Nitro: Detective Nitro & Agent 9. See if you can find them! Now... Without further ado, here's the Content Bombardment Breakdown for v1.12:

Characters
-Added a new character: The Spray-cannon wielding Toxic, also known as The Queen
-Nitro gets two new special outfits: Detective Nitro & Agent 9
-Nitro's outfits now have unique chain colors

Gameplay
-Fixed a bug where you couldn't activate a special on a bunted ball below 10 speed
-Grid's special ending hitpause decreased from 24 frames to 21 frames and activation margins tweaked accordingly
-Grid's smash top hitbox vertical size increased
-Latch has a funky new backwards spike angle

Online
-Ranked Division progression improved


Community News

Need a good warm-up for the next FellowsTV Open Circuit?
This weekend has you covered with both a traditional tournament by Some Person and a *Toxic only* tournament by kirbbbb. Check the pinned messages in the #lethal-league-blaze channel in the official discord for details!

The fusion art competition saw 12 entries, but it seems the hashtag on twitter is still gaining new artwork beyond the submission deadline: https://twitter.com/hashtag/LLBFusionContest
Congrats to @n0isuli on winning a Megabyte Punch key with a topical Toxic-Latch fusion!



Official Channels
On Discord
On Twitter

Funky people.
Too long have we left you in anticipation.

I'm here to tell you that Her Royal Sassiness will grace the League with her presence next week. CAN YOU DIG IT?!





...You thought this was the update itself? We're just keeping you on your toes! But the next update containing Toxic WILL launch in the coming week. It will be bundled with the two new special outfits for Nitro and other character specific gameplay tweaks.

The first of those outfits is this one:



Furthermore, for Ranked mode, Division progression will be improved. Be aware that your placement might shift by a bit, but this will generally be a shift upwards in rank.



Look forward to it!


Community News

Lately, a whole lot has been brewing when it comes to community initiative. Here's a look at some of that spicy goodness:

There is still time to submit to the Speedyfists Marathon till Sunday, if you'd like to speedrun a Lethal League single player mode for charity in April: https://www.speedrun.com/Speedyfists_-_Spring_2019


The competitive scene ain't sleeping either. This weekend has two experimental tournament formats run by @DJMDuck#0500 and @сукаблядьгопник#6969. Follow their announcements on the official Discord server (link down below) for more on that!


Further out on the 17th of March, the next FellowsTV Open Circuit boasts European and North American brackets streamed and with commentary as usual! We've personally added $400 to the prize pool to get all the money-hungry-masters out into the open.

Check out the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmLU-u33riM

Official Channels
On Discord
On Twitter

Enter, the Queen AKA Toxic:

Shine City’s infamous graffiti queen. She sports a huge mechanical arm, loaded with spray cans, which she uses to compete and paint wherever she pleases. Toxic has a network of graffiti writers spread out over the city that give her the lowdown on all the happenings in Shine City.



Toxic's gameplay style revolves around placing down a 3D graffiti piece against the walls of the stage. Upon activating her special, she fires a glob of paint that spells out her name when it hits the side, top or bottom of the stage. If the ball touches the piece it will get hit and sent directly to your opponent.



Because Toxic shoots her graffiti while hitting the ball, it can act like a 1 - 2 hit if you aim the ball at it OR you don't and let it stay out as a trap for the ball to hit later.

She can also sit on the side of the wall and place a 3D graffiti piece on the spot if you have a full meter ready.



But you can worry about all these details later when she releases in the next update!


Community News

Avid Blaze player Jawdrop has banded together with many other players to create this WILDSTYLE of a video featuring 7 minutes of hardcore combos.

Checketh it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM3oRbV1caY&t=21

I for one can't wait to see some full potential Toxic tricks in a combo video. Feel free to send us your own compilations and we might highlight it!


Official Channels
On Discord
On Twitter

Dropping shit like a pigeon.



Grid

Grid gets two JUMPER CABLER outfits and an extra move in this update. For his new special move you have to get a full meter, crouch and then press jump to activate 'Electrostatic Charge'. It gives you a full charge hit the next time you hit the ball.


Ranked

The Ranked mode is completely changed into a division system. With this, a new season starts and ranks will be reset. But before we do, let's go over the top ranking players of season 1. On the leaderboards Twitch-DizzyyHM sits on the #1 spot and they worked for it, no doubt about it. However, since we're honoring single competitors on this list and this is a shared account we considered it only fair to the others to reduce DizzyyHM's rank somewhat.

Top Rankings Lethal League Blaze Season 1:

• #1 Sivil
  
• #2 Daioutzu
  
• #3 Monk/Honkey/Banana
  
• #4 Hang Boy
  
• #5 mylokolya
  
• #6 Prometheus
  
• #7 Zaxer2
  
• #8 88mpharu
  
• #9 Metrekec
  
• #10 Twitch-DizzyyHM
  
• #11 meller roll soul
  
• #12 b3b3
  
• #13 Hyperfresh
  
• #14 coffeeground
  
• #15 CandyMaster145
  
• #16 Tixl
  
• #17 Adnarel
  
• #18 Battler
  
• #19 Bitnix
  
• #20 THE GIANT RAT

Gratz to all these players! The new system won't feature a leaderboard in the same way, making way for the Divisions. Divisions go from the 8th Division all the way up to the 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. Winning will make the bar go up, losing will make it go down. Even if you're at the bottom of the bar you're allowed to lose 2 times more before you will get demoted. Once you've played Ranked once, your current rank will be visible in the main menu.




Community News

With Ranked season 1 coming to an end, 'Some Person' is sending it off with a tournament called "How far will your rank get you?".

It takes place on January 27, 2019 at 10:00 PM EET and will use season 1 ranks for seeding: https://challonge.com/Llbrank

Prove yourself or show everyone that ranks aren't everything and get a hardcore role on the official discord!

And if you need some original Lethal League action as well, Bitcoin keeps hosting the Underground Dojo Weekly, with the 23rd iteration happening January 26, 2019 at 2:00 PM CST: https://challonge.com/LLUweek23

Also a playlist of the second FellowsTV Open Circuit matches with commentary from Bipmap and Monk is online, check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHlz8bSIrsM&list=PLM3kRE-69XRtbOHTDF_ljzyLIBHybObzj


Tech & tweaks

Some new advanced techs are introduced in this update:

• Sliding grabs
  
• Pivots, allowing you to more quickly turn around
  
• Early release charge hits, allowing full charge hits even if you release 4 frames earlier

You can crouch and press the opposite direction within 4 frames (including simultaneously) to cancel the crouch and execute a pivot. They won't be necessary all the time, but they can come in handy in critical moments. Gameplay has seen a lot of tweaks in general, take a look down here to see all the changes in this Content Bombardment!


List of changes:

Outfits

• Added 2 new special outfits for Grid to unlock

Ranked

• Introduced Divisions with unique badges
  
• New Ranked formula
  
• Result screen now shows the progress to the next Division
  
• Added player profile showing the current Division and other info in the main menu

Gameplay

• Added a new crouch special for Grid: Electrostatic Charge
  
• Nitro can now use his special to 'Meet in the Middle' by holding backwards (or upwards, for his spike)
  
• Added grab from crouch (you can also slide into it now)
  
• Added the pivot, which allows you to more quickly turn around by cancelling crouch within the first 4 frames
  
• Grab is no longer denied on Jet's re-bubble hitpause
  
• The minimum duration for parry is increased from 16 frames to 24 frames, which is also the time it takes to stop parrying
  
• The parry ending effect is shortened to more clearly indicate the end of a parry
  
• Dice's special startup is changed from 15 frames to 23 frames and can't be activated in the last 8 frames of hitpause
  
• Charge duration has been reduced for almost all characters (about 3 to 5 frames)
  
• Cancelling the charge within 4 frames of the max charge duration still gives a full charge hit now
  
• Static damage on counter grab was apparently broken, reintroduced as 45% damage
  
• Grab deny hits now have a maximum damage of 70%
  
• Minimum general damage is increased from 20% to 25%, we'll see how this goes
  
• K.O. velocity is decreased from 150 to 120
  
• Max movement speed for all characters is increased by 0.4 on ground and in air
  
• Parry extension is changed from a 30% decrease in duration to 22%.

Fixes

• Fixed grabdeny not working until the very end of hitpause if you parry before it
  
• Fixed Latch wall swings resetting diminishing returns without hitting the ball
  
• Fixed Raptor not being able to grab from wallslide
  
• Fixed instant turn bunts not working during movement animations

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!