Riot Games experienced some technical issues with League of Legends in summer 2022. Following the problems with the PvP tournament “Clash”, there are now issues with the LoL event “Star Guardian” 2022, which was for many “the event 2022”. On Friday, August 12, Riot had to prematurely terminate the free missions and is now compensating players. The reason appears to be an overwhelming influx of players. LoL is currently more relevant worldwide than WoW and Call of Duty.
What kind of event is this?
- The Star Guardian event was supposed to run from July 14 to August 15 in League of Legends.
- For some players, it was “the biggest event of the year”, as they could earn special skins of champs like Kai’Sa, Sona, Ekko, Nilah, or Fiddlesticks, though the skins were criticized in advance.
- Players could buy a pass with Riot Points (“RP”), the real-money currency, which unlocked certain missions. There were also missions for “Another Sky”, which could be completed without spending money.
- Those who wanted all the skins could get the “Megabundle” for 12,391 RP – that’s about €90.
Essentially, the “Star Guardian” event comes down to: “Give us money and earn special skins” – this is the direction that LoL events have developed in recent years, which a fan harshly criticized, and was subsequently offered a job by the director personally.
“Much more players and rewards than we expected”
What went wrong? Riot Games appears to be struggling to handle the influx to League of Legends. On August 7, RiotBrightmoon reported: The rewards are coming slower than expected. Players should stay patient. There are simply “too many players and too many rewards” – it is taking longer than expected (via twitter).
These problems have intensified in recent days: Players were not advancing in the story and were not receiving rewards.
Riot Games cancels event 3 days early – Paid missions continue
This is now Riot Games’ decision:
- On August 12, three days before the event’s end, Riot Games completely shut down the free missions. They stated that the reason was “some problems” (via twitter)
- Now they are simply granting players all the rewards from the free rewards, as long as they have an account in LoL. The entire “Another Sky” story will also be unlocked.
- The paid missions will be extended until August 24. The special shop will also remain open until then.
- Players should be patient; the rewards may not come immediately.
Much criticism of the technical side of LoL: “Client is messed up”
What is the reaction? Somehow, fans seem to be resigned at the moment. Recently, several events have failed due to technical difficulties. Especially the “Ruination” event from summer 2021 is still remembered bitterly by many players (via reddit).
Overall, there seems to be disappointment, especially among those players who made the effort to grind the event for rewards:
- One player says: “Another victory for those who do not grind.”
- Another says: “I will never buy a pass again.”
- A third: “Worst event of all time.”
Generally, the League of Legends client is viewed critically right now. Technically, there seems to be quite a bit wrong: events are not functioning, and there are repeated issues with rewards. Players are talking about the client being “messed up”.
The biggest Twitch streamer for LoL, Tyler1, called for the responsible teams to be fired at the end of July.
LoL is currently more relevant than WoW, Battlefield, and Call of Duty
Why is the influx to LoL so large? Several factors are contributing:
- Due to Covid, there has been a lack of major releases in gaming for a good year. Almost every game that people were looking forward to in 2022 has been delayed.
- There is also a weakness among the long-standing service games like Battlefield, Call of Duty, or WoW. These games have recently lost relevance. In contrast, League of Legends has gained relevance. Fortnite is still significantly larger than LoL, but is also shrinking.
- With the Netflix series “Arcane”, LoL has reached a new audience. The boom of streaming services such as Twitch and the rise of e-sports also bolster LoL. League of Legends is regularly the largest game in the world on Twitch.
The strength of LoL primarily comes from the weakness in the rest of the market. However, the League of Legends client seems unable to handle this strength.
We have extensively covered the rise of Riot Games on MeinMMO:
The studio behind League of Legends, Riot, is currently becoming the new Blizzard
