The League of Legends community has been absolutely tearing Riot apart over the newest Ultra Rapid Fire game mode, Snow Battle ARURF, and yesterday, Riot responded to the hate.
Riot has been avoiding bringing traditional URF back for one big reason—it apparently makes people stop playing League. And no, we don’t mean while the event is going on, and we don’t mean temporarily after the event stops. When URF comes out, an unusually large number of players quit permanently, at about double the usual rate.
“Every time we ran regular URF, we’d see a huge spike of games being played,” League design director Greg Street said. “And then the numbers actually dropped back down to a level that’s lower than it was just before we ran URF.”
Street went on to explain that this phenomenon could possibly be explained by a “hangover effect,” in which players binge out on URF and then teeter off of League because regular games suddenly feel much slower. After all, with no mana costs, ridiculously lower cooldowns, and more damage, URF feels like playing the game with cheats on. ARURF, although champion selection is randomized, is essentially the same thing.
Apparently, the only reason Riot has even tried bringing URF back in various different modes and events is because of community outcry, but even events like Snow Battle ARURF cause the same hangover effect that regular URF does, causing players to quit for very long periods of time—or permanently. Of course, that effect isn’t quite as extreme with ARURF, but it still happens.
Riot is determined to keep experimenting with various URF iterations until they find one that won’t ruin the game for the players, even if the players don’t realize it’s happening. So, if you’re one of the players not enjoying Snow Battle ARURF, buckle in, because it won’t be the last.
