Do you remember the good old days of League of Legends Seasonal Rifts? I’ll tell you a secret: unfortunately, personally, I don’t. As a relatively new LoL player, I missed out on MOBA’s Winter Rift and Harrowing Rift and every year I cross my fingers and pray to Santa that they return triumphant.
And believe me when I tell you I’m not the only one. As soon as the spooky or snowy season arrives, players are quick to express their dissatisfaction with the lack of a themed glitch. This year, for example, just in time for Halloween, there was a Reddit post lamenting the absence of the Harrowing Rift, with many comments begging Riot to breathe new life into these temporary Rift skins.
Unfortunately, while we’ve got some new Halloween and winter-themed skins this year that break from the traditional Bewitching and Winter Wonderland lines, it still looks like we won’t be seeing the ice and snow-filled Summoner’s Rift. As eyes turn to the next year, this is why we need seasonal glitches in LoL.
League of Legends events suck
Yes, I did. sue me. At the moment, League of Legends events typically consist of a battle pass with unlockable items (as well as a prestige skin) and a new line of associated cosmetics. Sure, the different quest descriptions and icons give things a unique charm, but does anyone really care? Or do you just click on it to get experience, a chest or any other reward? Guilty, defendant.
Even the Spirit Blossom and Star Guardian formats are a bit dated, especially with the issues with the latter earlier this year. Innovative at first, Riot doesn’t seem to want to budge when they find something that works, which makes something special like Spirit Blossom retroactively seem a bit bland.
Conversely, many other games simply do more. Overwatch, for example, decorates Kings Row with holly branches, while World of Warcraft transforms Orgrimmar and Stormwind into snowy vacation paradises. Although League is not an FPS or MMORPG game, Riot has already managed to add some Christmas spirit to Rift and has decided not to do it again. It’s like taking candy from a baby and then setting it out of reach at the side of the crib.
Overwatch and WoW events don’t change every year. Of course, there are skins, but the events remain basically the same. Add a new mode here and there, maybe a new cosmetic item, but otherwise you know what to expect – that’s the beauty of this one. It’s the LTM that comes out every year, brings fun to the game, and then disappears. It’s not exactly a new ranked mode, and Riot treats it like it’s meant to be seamless and expansive, which is where it falls short.
A 2020 blog post proves it. When asked if this would bring winter back to the Rift, Riot responded: “Instead of doing a few small map updates every year, we’ve focused our efforts on creating a more immersive environment where players can live longer. time interval. So… will we bring snow back to the Rift? The answer is probably, but we don’t have any plans at this time.”
The beauty of the classic seasonal flaws lay in their simplicity. Put a red hat on the Baron and people will love it (I for one even get excited when he gets a helmet for the World Championships). Players smile at the little things: not all events have to be big. A simple frosted wear will do. It’s just adding lightness to the game.
The second factor that seems to have contributed to the absence of Christmas Rift is the introduction of the Elemental Rift system. “Before you ask, ‘Why can’t you just reuse the winter map you’ve already created?’, we’d like to remind you that the Rift is literally on fire. (And it grows flowers. And rocks. And… wind?),” writes product manager Jared “Karadwe” Noyce.
“But seriously, we have to do snowy versions of the four [now six] Breaks into the elements as well as snowy alcoves. It’s not a technical challenge, but the art will take some time and we don’t plan to do it this year. [2020]”.
Since it’s been two years and the system has been around for a long time, Riot has had plenty of time to develop something new and innovative. It doesn’t have to be particularly fancy, but there are a lot of fun things you could do with it if you really wanted to create something as “immersive” as Riot intends. Cloud Rift can kick up snow to create blizzards, Ocean Rift can turn a river into ice – lots of fun mechanics can be introduced to make the system interactive. But at the same time, I really think a new skin will probably do the trick.
After all, it is Christmas! It’s not that bad. At the moment, the events of League seem to lack a soul. While the Fright Night and Winterblessed skins added some excitement to the game’s seasonal content this year, they’re still just skins at the end of the day. I want something else
As someone who has never experienced the seasonal holiday in all its glory, I feel like I missed out on a truly immersive LoL experience. I thought Spirit Blossom was special, but given the community’s feedback on these fun holiday raids, I’d love to try them out; I’m sure many other new players will too.
Maybe Riot will listen to us and implement them next year, but sadly 2022 will end with another bout of frustration, but I think there’s Winterblessed Diana’s Pentakill animation.
Source : PC Gamesn
