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Why Nexus Blitz was killed unfairly by Riot (And why it should be brought back for another test)

EndlessDusk0·4/7/2019, 3:59:16 AM·83 votes·18,578 views

With the unfortunate cancellation of Nexus Blitz as a permanent mode, I'd like to explain why Riot is entirely in the wrong with their decision. This will be very wordy and poorly typed, however I'll summarize all of my points at the end. Also, I'm going to be quoting a lot of sources and not providing links, if demand is high enough, I will compile everywhere I've gotten info from (however most of my sources are from forums and such which would be a pain to link to.)

To begin with, they killed it simply because "Player count dropped" during the last two weeks of NB being up. Obviously with the end of an event the player count of a spin-off mode will drop. However, I've read around the forums and the league reddit and I've found that people were burnt-out, had to played ranked, annoyed at the balance of the mode, or that they'd only played it for the event to begin with. Obviously the event would inflate player count and the event missions were VERY repetitive and relied heavily on RNG, which a good amount of people have cited as why they stopped playing the mode. The minigames and their prizes were also a nuisance, some would guarantee a victory or a loss for a team. It'd ruin a game or even someone's day to lose a match because they win every mini game only to get blessing of blitzcrank and battle sled while the other team wins a minigame that heavily favored them that rewards them with battle catapult. These things and the mode being poorly balanced as it was a work in progress probably did lead to a large drop in player count near the end of its 6 week run.

My issue was that the mode was said to be a WORK IN PROGRESS which is why I stopped playing it near the end of its life. Nexus was very poorly balanced, some champions were broken, some rewards were useless or game ending, minigames were unfair and unpredictable, but Nexus was a work in progress. I played the mode, enjoyed my time, but found myself annoyed when the other team would always be champions I knew would end up broken once on fire and the first reward they get from a minigame was the battle catapult. Obviously I wanted to play more but I knew that it was unbalanced and I'd likely have a bad game since the mode was a WORK IN PROGRESS. So I stopped playing it, like many other people did, because we were told that it would come back, likely after being fixed. But they didn't fix it. They waited 3 months to announce that data they likely had for 2-3 months was enough information to not release it as a permanent mode. They didn't ask any of us "why did you stop playing near the end?" or "did you enjoy the mode?" They just killed it off.

Why is it such an issue to decide with that data that Nexus should be killed?

  • They never asked us. How hard is it to make a poll? Send out an email asking what we liked or didn't? Is it difficult to talk to the people who spend money on your game? Any league fan site such as the reddit or the forum had top threads that day about how upset people were about Nexus being snuffed out. I know it's common for people to be upset about changes made, but for the news to take 3 months of absolute silence and for it to be influenced solely by the number of people playing a work in progress at the end of the cycle is just upsetting. Just ask your community what they want. I'd rather live in a world in which Nexus was killed off since 90% of league players hated it.

  • Not every mode will appeal to everyone. Would you guess that a mode that's different from the base game would have less players than the base mode? The idea of an alternate mode is to ensnare people who would otherwise not play your game and keep them spending money on your game that they would otherwise ignore. Nexus was very different from other modes, and obviously people that only wanted the Winter tokens or whatever would play matches that were faster. Did Nexus retain newer players better than other modes have in the past? Did older players leave quicker than others? How long did ranked players stick around? A mode that doesn't appeal to ranked players and the more serious gaming crowd is a better thing to release than something that only the ranked and long time players enjoy since you're widening your audience. (Edit) Keep in mode some people exclusively play ARAM, URF, and other modes simply because they enjoy the game but don't enjoy the regular modes.

  • The trend of trying to find the goose that laid the golden egg is damaging. Cancelling a mode because of it's low player retention is sad. Side stepping any community involvement in the decision is pathetic. Riot clearly just wants to release a mode that's on par with Fortnite and the mass appeal it has. Expecting the mode to grow when it's undoubtedly broken and unfinished is asinine and the exact same thing that indie devs do on steam before cutting and running with the money. Show some merit and let people test the full version before you decide it isn't a worthy investment.

Tldr;/Summary: Riot releases a buggy, broken test mode with repetitive missions and RNG heavy gameplay that they promised would be worked on. Riot realizes the mode isn't the second coming of our lord and savior Fortnite Christ so they wait 3 months before executing the mode citing "you didn't love it enough."

61 Comments

Mathgodpi4/7/2019, 4:01:44 AM17 votes

It was my favorite mode aside from URF/ARURF. Hopefully it's brought back.

Tobykachu4/7/2019, 4:34:21 AM15 votes

I guess it suffered from ARAM syndrome, where it was so much more enjoyable/popular than the main game that they didn't want to bring in permanently. Oh well, RIP the player base I guess.

Busty Demoness4/7/2019, 5:18:47 AM11 votes

The main problem with Nexus Blitz is that it wasn't really much faster than regular SR games while the RNG events made it even more random.

If they bring back Nexus Blitz, keep the hard limit, make the games more specific (such as ring and duel events coming only in the 3rd event), keep rewards consistent (such as blessing of Blitzcrank only as a reward for 3rd event) and clarify those things.

I think Riot could have made it a faster paced summoner's rift with a little fine tuning of events and then balanced SR to be slower. Although I suspect the real reason they discontinued it was due to their Asian market having no interest in it.

VoraciousX4/7/2019, 4:19:18 AM9 votes

Screw Nexus Blitz. I want Black Market Brawlers.

codebracker4/7/2019, 9:25:57 AM5 votes

Honestly I just liked blitz because of what it represented: A short gamemode that lasts 15 minutes like ARAM, but you actually got to pick the champions you enjoyed playing.

I loved it because it let me play a game of league even on the days when I didn't have the time for a full summoner's rift game.

I enjoyed nexus blitz and would like to see it as a permanent gamemode, not because I want to play it all the time, but just as an option, like ARAM.

Also I don't really care if it's blitz, I just want a gamemode that doesn't take as much time to play.

Jhins Girlfriend4/8/2019, 7:17:25 AM5 votes

Like, them saying "we'll bring it back for rotating game modes" is such a slap in the face, too. This game goes months at a time with NO RGM, at all. We'll see it for what, four weeks out of the year? It really, really makes me sad.

WhereIsMyBeefalo4/7/2019, 9:24:55 PM3 votes

What Riot is hiding, like always does, is the statistic of how many people play the game mode compared to ARAM and Twisted treeline. Because yeah, people gonna stop playing once they got the free stuff Riot gave and once the event finished a lot of players came back to normal game mode, not everyone liked Nexus Blitz mode we get it, but the thing is that some other people (how many is the question we dont know) LOVE it, and we wanto to play it every day.

Im an exclusive ARAM player, very rarely I play SR and when there is a new gameplay exchange between ARAM and the new content. I liked the other game modes, Ascension a little bit, One for all was ok, the Star Guardian event was by far my favorite ever, and the other ones are... meh. I like them but not enough to keep playing them every day, but Nexus Blitz was exctly my perfect sustitution for SR, lane phase, mini games, strategies, 20 or less minutes, not random...
I want to Nexus Blitz to become a permanent game mode, and im pretty sure a lot of people also want it.

Riot say: "Ideally the experimental mode that we make permanent will be able to draw people in over and over again, even after that first burst of novelty wears off and there isn’t an event going on", but really? Are you telling me Twisted treeline is "able to draw people in over and over again"? or ARAM is able to draw new people after all this years? Nah, thats a really weak excuse, SR is the primary game mode of league of legends, the other game modes survive thanks to a small number of base players that keep the game queues active and short. For example, URF was active for several weeks and the waiting queues did not exceed in most cases the 30s. Nexus Blitz deserves an opportunity to prove that he can maintain a number of base players just as ARAM does.

Chimpanzzi4/7/2019, 7:16:48 PM3 votes

Nexus Blitz was literally the sole thing that sparked my will to play League again. Before it came out last time, I was slowly losing my interest in the game because of negative experiences, including losing streaks and long stalemates. Then Nexus Blitz came out, providing fast-paced games, loaded with shenanigans. The best part was that I wouldn't have to commit into a 45-minute match in which there was no guarantee I would enjoy myself. Even if I wouldn't have fun, I would get to the next match in less than half an hour.

When I learned that Nexus Blitz was "cancelled", I got super disappointed. I genuinely miss Nexus Blitz a lot.

ObnoxiousZombi4/8/2019, 7:01:28 AM3 votes

Hopefully if Riot is listening any bit to their fan base, they'll know what they need to do, and maybe make the right choice. I can hardly play any other modes now that NB and URF is gone. Everything else just feels stale and boring in comparison.

GamesR4Fun4/8/2019, 7:45:12 AM3 votes

Riot's reasoning certainly seems bizarrely flawed. They said they had high player engagement for the first 4 weeks and then an exodus of players going back to other game modes in the last two weeks. Of course, there can be a variety of reasons for this, but Riot just assumes that the "novelty...eventually faded" and "The big reason people came back consistently was because.." of the missions. Yet, it's just as likely, as other commenters have noted, that people burned out from spamming the mode and, thus, switched back to other modes. If Nexus Blitz were allowed a longer period of testing, those players could have come back for more without the missions.

I wonder, how many players must a mode consistently draw in for Riot to consider giving it permanence? What is the business cost associated with keeping the mode versus getting rid of it and having the portion of players who did enjoy the mode become less satisfied with the game or even leave it altogether? I ask because I'm uncertain, but it seems like performing some balancing for an additional mode or two shouldn't be that much trouble for a game company as successful as Riot. Is there a concern about queue times? In comparison, other games maintain significantly more than three modes without excessive queue times. If they can do it, then it seems like League ought to be able to do so, since it still seems to be one of the most popular PC games out there. So where is the harm in keeping the mode?

Could there be a different reason that Riot doesn't want to divulge? Maybe they think they can make more money by selling those passes and packages during limited time events. I understand the financial motivations of a company, so I would be willing to pay for permanent access to Nexus Blitz or ARURF or maybe a RGM that contained those modes along with others. Maybe that would be too unpopular to implement, but I think many would prefer that over waiting an indeterminate amount of time until the next RGM event, which could be many months away and then only last a brief period of time.

OKE CSDiabo4/8/2019, 9:46:13 AM3 votes

This was literally my favorite game mode ever! Better than URF/Arurf. I legit loved it and I miss it everyday... Literally I came back to league after a year because of Nexus Blitz and the other game modes haven't been able to fill that void. Please bring back Nexus Blitz :(

HazTekSnow4/8/2019, 1:53:42 AM2 votes

I think given enough time and fine tuning, NB could have become the next permanent game mode. Just like aram they could have balances specifically for it. I'd honestly prefer it over TT, I first played TT with the two friends who got me into the game but it's a mode only used to get "easy gold" from what I've seen nowadays. Take away Ranked from TT and give it to aram, let there be a ranking system that rewards you for understanding mechanics and general understanding of the game and almost any character.

Strawbabie4/8/2019, 3:59:31 AM2 votes

I agree. i really enjoyed the mode since it was quick and had smaller mini games within it

seer of truths4/8/2019, 9:40:51 PM2 votes

NB was my favourite thing to happen to the game, I haven't played as much since it left. Like 5 rounds on the high end.

I've been waiting for it to come back, playing it helped me learn new characters from different roles so stress free.

I started learning mid (normally a support main) because I got to try the champions in something that felt so low stress. Then I moved to casual, then to ranked.

I played more ranked because of NB then I ever did before.

I fun stress free game mode where you can pick your champions, yes please.

SettDownShutUp4/7/2019, 9:16:27 PM2 votes

It was released in the same month Smash Bros Ultimate came out. FORTNITE saw a drop in playrate when Smash Bros came out!

And of course there was a drop-in play rate at the end of the month! It was bloody Christmas! Everyone was getting new games and toys to play with.

Akali is SO HOT4/7/2019, 6:05:00 AM2 votes

Gib Nexus Blitz Rito

Makarakarn4/8/2019, 10:26:35 PM2 votes

For god's sake people, NB wasn't cancelled. That would imply it WAS 100% GOING TO BE PERMANENT. News flash, it wasn't. Riot TOLD US it wasn't 100% going to be permanent and that it's experimental. It's almost like it's in the title. EXPERIMENTAL GAME MODE. There will be more NB and more experimental gamemodes in the future.

qss04/7/2019, 2:56:37 PM2 votes

The map design was boring and lazy, it was a cheap rift. They could have done it better, just look how awesome are star guardian, project, butcher's bridge maps...

Tentacle Advisor4/8/2019, 5:16:29 PM2 votes

What's funny about this (and I don't mean in a "I'm glad they deleted" sort of way) is that this was almost the EXACT same reason Riot gave when they deleted The Crystal Scar "Dominion" map.

Riot basically said the same thing, back then. "Playerbase was too low, so we decided to delete Dominion."

And, surely enough, they received the same backlash as they are receiving now. You can't (and SHOULDN'T) remove a non-serious gamemode, simply because "not enough people are playing it". That's almost them saying that they wanted Nexus Blitz to be a competitive gamemode that was to be taken seriously, which as we all know, wasn't meant to be the case, upon creation.

"Fun" gamemodes are meant to be for the people who don't want to play the more serious "Ranked" version of the game, and would rather play a more lax version. Hence why there are so many ARAM-only players. They don't care to play Ranked, and they shouldn't be forced into doing so. Riot needs to understand that not everyone is just some 24/7 competitive person who only cares about some "trophy status".

KFCeytron4/7/2019, 5:32:35 AM1 votes

{quoted}

Riot releases a buggy, broken test mode with repetitive missions and RNG heavy gameplay that they promised would be worked on. Riot realizes the mode isn't the second coming of our lord and savior Fortnite Christ so they wait 3 months before executing the mode citing "you didn't love it enough."

Sounds like an accurate summary to me. It may have been a pretty foolish waste of resources, but how does that make its cancellation "unfair"? And why does that justify putting it back on the table - what does it even have to do with bringing it back?

Weensw4/9/2019, 1:05:30 AM1 votes

Is Nexus Blitz going to result in you guys buying skins?