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Honest Feedback for the Pool Party Event: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

FirexSaber·6/22/2015, 2:55:01 PM·51 votes·9,767 views

Now that the pool party event is over I figure maybe we could talk feedback with Riot. I see a lot of the negative feedback out there already, but I think it would also be good to point out what was good about the event and what would continue to work for the future. This is my opinion obvious, so feel free to agree/disagree/post memes/whatever in the comments below.

The Good

Tiered Rewards- I like the reward system here. I think it was a good choice having little pay-offs while working toward a larger goal. The rewards themselves were also pretty good and things that we'd want to work for. (POOL PARTY MINIONS!!!!)

Community-Wide Points- I found it pretty fun for the entire community to be working toward something. Having the common goal/ event felt rather unifying, which is good in a PvP environment in my opinion.

POOL PARTY MINIONS- Yeah, I really like these. I hope minion skins start being released mire often. (Like Snow down minions, those would be great. Imagine casters throwing snowballs)

The Bad

Five Man Pre-mades I understand that the point of this event was to get people playing in groups, but having it have to be a five man almost discouraged it in some ways. For instance, sometimes we could only get four people and it made us hesitant. What was the point? What if we fought a five-man and won? Would we end up costing the community points? Maybe we should just wait around to see if a 5th person shows up. (Downtime= less games played!) What I would suggest is giving points for groups of three plus with maybe a super bonus to five mans, even if that means upping the points that are needed to go up tiers.

**Points On Wins- **It was a little extra demoralizing to lose now, since it cost the community points. (5 mans aren't always against 5 mans, I find). I would suggest what I suggested above: Giving out points for losses, but giving a bonus for wins. That way everyone feels like they're contributing.

The Ugly

The Points Tracker- If it could be updated more than once a day, that would be good. It was a little bit frustrating to not be able to see how we were doing more often.

This is what I think anyway. Leave some more constructive criticism below!

73 Comments

Riotmoonstones6/22/2015, 8:52:47 PM33 votes

Hiya FirexSaber (and everyone else who is taking the time to leave feedback),

First off, thanks for taking a bit of time to discuss what you did and didn't like about the event! It certainly helps us learn what works well, and what may not work well, so we can make the next events better than ever!

I encourage you to always speak your mind and leave feedback, whether it's positive or negative, because both instances help improve the bits and pieces that make up League of Legends as a whole. :]

Of course, feel free to continue discussion around this, just wanted to pop in and say hello!

DrCyanide6/22/2015, 3:18:29 PM24 votes

I'd like to add some things:

#The Good

  • People learned about the public chat rooms. - The community really pulled together to try and get as far as they could.
  • Stretch Goals - We likely didn't get Mundo, but as the week went by it was cool to see how close we got. I feel like if things had been better organized we could have done it.

#The Bad

  • Some rewards didn't feel like they shouldn't have been rewards. - Mostly the Pool Party Minions. Does the preview picture look awesome? Of course! But shouldn't they have been here for the party?
  • No individual progress available - I would like to know how many points I earned to compare with my friends, encouraging them to do better.

#The Ugly

  • It didn't feel like an event unless you clicked outside of the client. - If you ignored the news articles posted in the client, what hint did you have that anything special was going on? There was none. Honestly, more people will probably learn about the event once 5.12 goes live and they see minions all dressed up. Ironically, the event will be over by then.
AbodyHUN6666/22/2015, 5:31:20 PM18 votes

What I loved:

  • Using public chat rooms to talk with people
  • Queuing up with random people and seeing that the matchmaking system really matters (so many stomp games)
  • Having fun dominion games and playing for the fun instead of winning because of the #formundo
  • The whole feeling of the event and the fight for getting those rewards

What I didn't like:

  • After some time gathering people from chatrooms didn't feel any different from soloQ and it made requiring premades to be a useless point gating
  • Speaking of premades, there should have been points rewarded for less people in the group too, qeuing up as 3 or 4 felt pointless
  • Some people took the #formundo thing way too seriously, sometimes even flaming for wasting 2 precious minutes or forcing it on others who just wanted a normal dominion game
  • The timing. Stream sale, E3, Father's day (even if we don't have it in my country) and for the love of god, many people still have exams. And guess who are the ones trying not to fail their last chances? College students who play LOL instead of studying.

What I'd like to see in further events like this:

  • A few IP based sales. Who wouldn't like 2 for 1 runepages as a reward?
  • More clarity in showing the points earned with updates maybe 2 or 3 times during the day
  • More advertising to it, maybe a login screen with the bar updating, or do the same in the client
  • Set us daily goals to reach with smaller rewards and individual goals with their rewards so everyone would want to contribute without being discouraged by the distance of the end goal
  • Make us move out of our confort zone, give us a goal to play a few game with our least played champion.

All in all I liked the event and how it brought the community together and I love Rito for the free champion, I already bought all the 450 and 1350 IP champs to maximize my profits. :D Oh and sorry for the wall of text.

Laughing Fish6/22/2015, 5:54:23 PM5 votes

feel free to agree/disagree/post memes/whatever in the comments below.

http://nativeappropriations.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/herman-cain-creepy-smile.gif

On a serious note, I completely agree wit this post. Especially about the Five Man Pre-mades.

TerraRising6/23/2015, 12:05:39 AM4 votes

#The Good

  • Rewards for reaching certain levels that feel worth the effort... even if we did have to link our Facebook accounts to the client...

The Bad

  • How much of the participating community feels for not reaching level 6 after so much work spreading the word on Reddit and other places.

#The Ugly

  • Just read on Twitter that, because mystery gifting was included in the event, that Level 6 was impossible to reach just by community play. I don't care for the reasons behind it, having a goal that requires players to buy and spend RP on other people just reeks of Riot hypocrisy, especially in light of why Lifetime RP rewards will never be a thing (we don't want players to feel like they have to spend money to get something.)
7ha7guy7776/22/2015, 3:16:25 PM4 votes

I wasn't a big fan of the fact that it didn't seem like my contribution really mattered. Best case scenario, most players couldn't even earn 1000 points without gifting everyone they see. That's a really small amount compared to the amount of points needed for any of the rewards.

BouncingJuggs6/22/2015, 3:21:46 PM3 votes

The bad

  • A 5 man premade is great way to form teams and communicate. However I found that there was less communication with games with finding random people to fill up for pre-made, and just trying to push as many games as possible, less communication seemed to make it faster I guess.

The Awesome (good)

  • So much Aram love <3

  • Rewards as a community XD

  • The event may have had less talking within team, but I found that enemy chat was increased, maybe because we were working towards a similar goal.

Improvements

  • A way to track individual points as well with maybe a Icon reward for 100 points and then an extreme one like 1000 points.

  • Updated points for community would be nice. Twice a day would be great.

  • Points for a loss would be great as well as a 5 man-premade (1 point)

  • Maybe a few facts about why 5 man-premade are better to play (like 5man-premades have a 70% win rate and communication is good, to get people to believe its important and not just something to do for a week once a year)

  • We used chat rooms to find people, after searching boards, maybe make chat rooms known to people in the initial public announcement.

Miss Wake n Bake6/23/2015, 3:46:22 AM3 votes

PURELY MY OPINION

The Good

  1. It was an event, kudos.

The Bad

  1. The 5 man requirement was just way too much, I think it should have been 3 or more people.

  2. The timing was just terrible and kinda seemed like an asshole thing to do. Not everyone is flowing with cash, many people have been saving up just for the steam sale, why would you think they'd drop that to spend 10 bucks on rp to GIVE to someone else. Thats just silly.

  3. Really....Mundo? I mean....the other skins were so much better. I dont even play zac but that one was better. I think there should have been like a pole to see which skin the COMMUNITY liked as a whole. Maybe that would have motivated more people to try to reach the goal. Because I know that I didn't care at all but still participated.

The Ugly

  1. Really, we win..a..discount? Come on

  2. The whole gifting thing literally just disgusted me. Seriously Riot. The gifting should have been 5 points and the teaming up should have been 20. From my understanding, people spending money on your game was more important than anything else. Which as I said, is disgusting. I understand your a company and your here to make money. But don't pretend to care when its quite obvious that you don't.

  3. Again, I can't even stress enough how that whole gifting thing was just sad. If the community hates each other, why the hell would they want to send a random stranger that was probably harassing them all game a skin? Sigh

Side Note:

As I said, this is just purely my opinion and how I feel about it. I just hope in the future Riot can do a real event for the community, instead of a week long cash grab. As crazy as this sounds Riot, giving things out to your community won't hurt you. It might actually make you guys feel good.

Strawberrycocoa6/23/2015, 3:40:29 PM3 votes

As I mentioned elsewhere, it really irritated me how the gameplay method of contributing towards the rewards (5 points and only if you win) was so much less contributive than the methods that involved spending real money (10 or 20 points per gift).

For the next event I want to be able to contribute points in a meaningful way without being required to open the wallet for the best possible point contribution.

I also don't think the dangling carrot of a free skin worked for me either since it was a skin that could be purchased by standard RP sales upon release. It made more sense to just wait and buy the skin instead of spending a bunch of money on gifts in the hopes that the skin prize tier is reached.

If a skin is going to be the top prize of the event, make it an EXCLUSIVE skin, and no NOT a "legacy vault to be brought back out at unspecified dates" skin. An exclusive event-only never coming back ever again skin would be a GREAT prize to award for an event promoting community teamwork like this.

Angry Monster6/22/2015, 11:12:14 PM3 votes

The Bad

only 2 prizes really matter for the long time players. Mundo and free skin. While everything matters for non max accounts.

Pool party minions are only for 1 patch. I rather they be for the rest of summer.

The way points work. If full premade vs full premade you still only get 5 points.

End of game screen glitching. This consistent problem can prevent 10 points. I had a friend that could not end of game gift at all, but could from the normal store.

How the event was pushed. How hard would a in client ! meg about event going been?

The good

Basic concept/ overall idea.

My wish Be nice if something at some point meant something only to long term accounts. I constantly see rewards for new and up or just newer accounts. The old guard sometimes get excluded and that is ok, but why are the new players never excluded? Yes i am getting a random skin, kool but players are getting a free champ still. Over half the unlocks mean nothing to me.

Wizzleboom6/23/2015, 3:02:07 AM2 votes

Making the skin goal basically unreachable was a real douche move. Why are you guys so cheap when it comes to giving anything away for free? You got people buying skins and champs all the time and you can't reward your players with ONE measly skin for a champ that basically doesnt fit in the meta at all.

Heartless.

Rueian6/22/2015, 4:33:44 PM2 votes

Not that the majority care but taking away rewards from those not in good standing just makes them feel bad, it wont motivate them to be better. The fact that they still have their account means they still can get better, why take away from them. If they get banned they lose the reward anyway.

Fit Paul6/22/2015, 6:05:42 PM2 votes

I would have liked to see points generated by using Pool Party skins during the event. This would have increased sales and showed your support of those who previously invested in the Pool Party Skins.

SteveKareha6/23/2015, 3:14:40 AM2 votes

The Good

  1. The Community working together for once. I will tell you this Riot, make more events like this, it makes the community nicer all together.
  2. ARAM and Dominion being played more.
  3. CHAT ROOMS ARE SO MUCH FUN. I MET A BUNCH OF GOOD AND FUNNY PEOPLE THERE!

The Bad

  1. The premades, It should have been from 2 people onwards, with more points racking up the bigger your group was.
  2. There was no individual progress, like how much did I contribute? Individual rewards would have been good too for motivating people.
  3. Making the highest contributions available only via RP gifting. Granted you're making someone else happy but I'd rather spend RP myself.
  4. The Time limit was not enough

The UGLY

  1. There was no feeling to the event overall, as many people said before Pool Party Minions already available would have been a good start, instead of a reward, maybe the next time make the minions available right away and replace that tier with a ward.
  2. People with the related skins should have earned more points.
  3. Discount rewards feel generally shitty, not everyone wants to spend RP on SELECT skins.
  4. IP bonuses are nice, but often feel underwhelming when you're the type of player who already has a hoard of IP. (Maybe if we had SOMETHING cough Chromas & Icons cough to spend it on it would have been better)

The Future

  1. More colorful events with ocurrences in-game
  2. More equal rewards for free players and people who buy RP.
  3. Throw in Chromas in events so it doesnt hurt your economy by giving out actual "Skins".
  4. PUT POOL PARTY MINIONS ON SALE LATER
Kinjishi6/23/2015, 3:40:37 AM2 votes
  1. The splash page when you login to LoL - should have been the Pool Party splash art (not Ekko).
  2. Points awarded for losing matches.
  3. It's been stated that Oceania had lower point goals and achieved their free skin. The goals were raised for NA. If this is true and you were testing with one region, then is it really ok to make it so other region(s) can't achieve the goal?
  4. One week wasn't long enough.
  5. It didn't feel as much like an event because there wasn't a game mode to accompany Pool Party and the event wasn't advertised very much (also point 1). - People have also mentioned lane minions during the event, which would tie into a game mode.
Loken Stoneheart6/23/2015, 7:20:21 AM2 votes

The 5 man groups killed it for me. All I really want to do is solo/duoqueue, and I can't do that with... well, anymore than 2 people.

Getting 5 people together, especially of the same skill level, is actually just impossible for me. I'm not friends with 4 other high plat / diamond players, let alone that would be online at the same time-- I don't know if you know this, but normals are kinda miserable when you drag your silver friend into a diamond match.

ABlueQuaker6/23/2015, 12:38:36 PM2 votes

How could you NOT have enough for 5-man teams? There were literally chat rooms filled with hundreds of people willing to premake with complete randoms for the sake of the event.

Krigjer6/23/2015, 2:53:37 PM2 votes

I never had enough friends online for a full 5-man group. I ended up pugging three people, sometimes even all four from the forums. In which case I wonder what the point was, because it certainly didn't encourage me to make friends. I don't care about these people, and you can bet I'll be removing them next time I log in.

Not to mention a lot of people didn't seem to realize the event was going on. I had to tell three people on my friend's list about it when I asked them to join my 5man.

Finally, I know they're a free to play game trying to make money, but it felt really greedy giving more points for gifting someone. A friend tried to get me to trade mystery skins with him for more points and I turned him down because I wasn't wasting my RP on a stretch goal we might not even reach. Which we didn't. So I'm glad I showed restraint.

Aerothal6/24/2015, 4:59:08 AM2 votes

i couldn't play this mode because of the 5-pre restriction

AMYS GRAVE6/26/2015, 5:21:23 PM1 votes

yeah the premade point earning means i was trying to pair up with random people for 5v5s and the matchmaking was a little rough. give points for premade 3s and or 4s as well and let the matchamaking fill the extras in. As much as we grief the system after this experience i have a newfound respect for it.

Lugg6/24/2015, 5:26:40 AM1 votes

Pool party event was complete garbage. I couldn't get a single 5 man the entire time. EPIC FAIL RIOT.

C9 Scott Free 6/26/2015, 4:27:13 AM1 votes

Also having to register to Facebook for the free skin because I couldn't figure out how to do it.

Icestar11866/22/2015, 9:48:58 PM1 votes

Requiring it to be a 5-man was the biggest problem. I rarely have 4 friends online and ready to play, so I honestly didn't bother to try.