Riot’s April Fools’ joke wasn’t quite the prank everyone expected it to be. In fact, Riot launched Ultra Rapid Fire mode to League of Legends as an event for the mischievous day, but the result was rather unpredictable. The LoL community simply fell in love with the mode. Ultra Rapid Fire essentially makes Summoner’s Rift a lot more dynamic by boosting attack speed, eliminating mana costs and significantly reducing cooldowns on activated abilities. This resulted in a rather unbalanced but extremely fun game mode, similar in many ways to the now constant ARAM mode.
Unfortunately, Riot isn’t planning on leaving URF online in League of Legends for long. It’s unclear when the mode will be removed (it’s still currently live), but it’s bound to happen eventually. Many of the League of Legends players don’t want to see it go however, and have been exceedingly vocal on the game’s general forums, as well on its Facebook page and dedicated Reddit channel. Browsing the internet this morning, I’ve stumbled upon a new website that has one singular purpose – keeping Ultra Rapid Fire on in League of Legends. UltraRapidFire is nothing more than a petition website, where all fans of the mode can sign a petition with the hopes that Riot will make the game mode available permanently.
There have been voices against keeping URF in League of Legends too however. Most players that are against the mode argue that URF will eventually go to the detriment of competitive play, teaching players a hectic, careless style of playing instead of the calculated team effort required in a regular Summoner’s Rift game. I don’t feel this is the case however. I have no trouble focusing on a competitive ranked game when I want to, but I also feel like taking the edge off at times, and URF really serves that purpose well. Of course, it’s extremely unbalanced – hence the removal of Sona or Kassadin from the champion roster. There are still extremely powerful champions on the game-mode, most notably perhaps Hecarim (aka the Heca-ROFL-Copter). Despite being unbalanced, it’s still a great mode to have some cheap laughs and several minutes of enjoyment, so I see no reason why Riot shouldn’t keep Ultra Rapid Fire mode active in League of Legends.
If anything, the mode does a great job at teaching players to aim skill-shots and react faster. It’s great for practicing Blitzcrank hooks or Lee Sin combos, that much is certain. And, after all, the majority of the active League of Legends community wants it to stay. If you want to support the petition, make sure to hop on to UltraRapidFire.com and sign the online petition here. Don’t worry, no scams or ads are involved, it’s a fairly simple an basic website with a Disqus plug-in and a clear and precise goal.
How do you feel about URF in League of Legends? Do you want to see it stay or would you rather have it offline?