League Of Legends Bringing Back URF Mode For 10-Year Anniversary
In honor of League of Legends' 10-year anniversary, Riot Games has decided to bring back URF mode.
The developer clarified that the mode would return as part of a one-time experiment. As noted in previous blog posts, the normal URF mode actually caused players to stop playing League of Legends. Like ARURF and Snow ARURF, the anniversary URF mode will offer a variation on the original concept as part of the team's continued efforts to solve the "binge-then-churn" problem experienced in the past.
"Some people binged on URF, and then suddenly stopped playing League," the devs revealed in an Ask Riot post back in 2017. "And the size of the dropoff indicates that it's not just people coming back for URF and then leaving afterwards. Despite spending a lot of time investigating the reasons, we aren't actually sure whether URF causes some sort of "hangover" effect."
Riot hopes that the latest version of URF will please the players who love the mode while offering a more refined experience overall. The new-and-improved URF will add bans during Champion Select, introduce balance adjustments across the board for League's 140+ champions, and include pacing elements that were added to Summoner's Rift after the mode's debut. Successful facets from ARURF will also feature, such as the Catapult of Champions.
Anticipating balance problems, Riot stated that they had "dramatically upgraded" their champion hotfix process. This means faster adjustments that draw on the tools and techniques they've developed over the years while supporting ARAM. "We know that the ability to pick champions puts extra emphasis on the balance of the mode, and we'll be watching to make sure we keep things in a reasonable state," assured the team.
Riot will rely on player feedback and data points during and after the limited-time run to determine whether the mode should remain shelved. They again stressed that URF's return to League of Legends is a one-time experiment; however, if the changes prove effective, the mode could eventually re-emerge from retirement.