Fewer fancy hats but even more rapid fire

Riot·Mar 26, 2015·3 votes·76,149 views

How about that new old Ultra Rapid Fire? As tantalizing as the prospect of elevating League of Legends to the pinnacle of high-society competition might be, there isn’t a world in which we could have passed up a chance to bring back a favorite game mode.

April Fools’ Day is a celebration of League’s amazing community, whether we’re poking fun at the 3D fad from a few years back, or releasing a trollish browser game that hit all of our nostalgia buttons like punching in a cheat code.

So the highfalutin gig is up. URF has returned to celebrate the community alongside skins, icons, and bundles. Plus, you can commemorate the event with merch in real life! Check out the Urf figure and Ultra Rapid Fire hoodie on the merch site for more.

We’ve added a few new bells and whistles (in some cases, literal bells and/or whistles) to the classic Ultra Rapid Fire mode, and everyone can earn the Thinking Manatee Icon by finishing one game of URF mode before the end of the event.

Check out the patch notes for more on the mode, the manatees, and the merch, then enjoy Ultra Rapid Fire until April 13 at 2 AM PDT. If you missed any of the joke as it played out, catch the reveal of New Ultra Rapid Fire here, the subsequent server surge here, and the local broadcast of the URFitational over yonder.

299 Comments

TonnenApr 2, 201591 votes

Ultra Rapid Fridays?

Every friday Riot can just give release URF mode. This could be good because every week friends can get together and break their fingers on the keyboard, While also not over doing the game mode.

Pancake NippleApr 2, 20159 votes

The maintenance that this would require would be so gross for Riot.

s33sApr 3, 201511 votes

Not at all. Just disable the game-mode like any other game feature until Friday.

JoshuaMalachiApr 4, 20152 votes

Not at all, The importance of balance isn't nearly as important as isn't not a format designed with elo, competition and e-sports in mind.

LegendaryOutcastApr 5, 20159 votes

The importance of playing a game is having fun, 90% of the time League is all competition and only fun when you are winning, unless you are playing with people you know. URF and ARAM are fun regardless of who is winning.

Bröther BraumApr 2, 201584 votes

they should replace dominion with urf who all agrees?

Icathian CreedApr 2, 201523 votes

Whats dominion again? (level 30 and only played one game two years ago)

BustNuttingtonIVApr 2, 201518 votes

Its that map people play hide and seek on item 2043

ZGM DazzlingApr 2, 201572 votes

Is dominion another game mode on the hide and seek map?

PentaWattApr 2, 201543 votes

Quick Opinion Riot should NOT make Urf an official gamemode Why? If urf is an official gamemode what's the point? There's nothing special about it anymore. It's like having Christmas all year you're not getting presents every day. There's nothing special about Urf/April fools day. Whether you like it or not Riot should not have Urf be permanent. Thank you for listening to my opinions. Now if you excuse me I'm going to play jukes for days Leblanc .

NikmApr 2, 201513 votes

ARAM used to be an unofficial gamemode. people loved it, but it used to be custom game only. Eventually, ARAM got to become a real and fun gamemode. Now, whenever my friends and I tilt too hard in summoner's rift, we go play ARAM to chill. If Urf was available, then holy crap I would be on that a lot more than ARAM. ARAM did not stop feeling special for me, and URF will definitely keep its cool like ARAM did. It isn't about whether or not the gamemode feels special, its about how much the playerbase wants it to become a gamemode because it is ultra rapid fun. Idk why you would just want it once a year. I want it constantly.

Drizzt StrifeApr 3, 20158 votes

ARAM was created by the community, actually. It was only in custom games, and everyone had to random select a champion and go mid on Summoner's Rift. Riot then used the "tutorial" map layout for ARAM, and eventually made Queues for it. I think URF should stay- sure it'll get boring, but it'll be something I'd like to jump in after tilting in solo queue, or just to change up the pace.

InsaneSamuraiApr 2, 20156 votes

Yeah cause going back to everyone raging and trolling every game is sure going to be great.......

Zero IchimonjiApr 2, 201532 votes

So glad it'll be around for a week and a half. Wish it was permanent, but this is still great!

WORSTTHRESHEUWESApr 2, 201551 votes

making urf permanent is a good idea considering it has to be the best game mode ever.... but, it would take away the whole annual, April Fool's vibe from it.

Who am i kidding? Please rito!

VentusDragoonApr 2, 201518 votes

Also the fact that it would literally destroy every single other queue in the game.

UnknownMartianApr 2, 201550 votes

Maybe for the first few weeks. People would want to get back to normals to practice for ranked. URF would just be a stress reliever or mechanics practice.

Schmoney ManApr 2, 201529 votes

Ranked URF. Problem solved.

country gnomesApr 2, 201510 votes

"Ranked URF ten outta ten best game"- IGN

Bible CampApr 2, 201511 votes

That's a real nice game son, real nice game.

Killer X 12Apr 2, 201510 votes

It'd be like ARAMs, but better.

Prancing HippoApr 2, 201544 votes

you kids don't understand that it would become boring and outplayed in a month.

FoxyTofuApr 2, 201528 votes

wow i cant stand when 20 year olds and up think they can just talk down to everyone by calling us kids and making us look idiotic,you sir are the definition of toxic Twitch

DanakunApr 2, 201539 votes

He merely stated the obvious. He's not even close to the definition of toxic. The fact that you took it as a personal insult is why people start fights on League in the first place. And honestly, i agree with him. The game mode itself is a broken system of "who can i troll the most with?" There's literally 80+ champions that would never get played again and it takes the entire concept of teamwork and strategy from the game and turns it into a button mashing contest.

TrufflePiggApr 2, 201524 votes

Just turned 35:( keep urf around for us old kids who suck at regular sr

ProfMunchKinApr 2, 20152 votes

Riot would have to justify server costs. Not to mention keeping the thing balanced like normals, therefore, lots of manpower and time. So in the end it would cost them lots of money.

RiickrollApr 2, 201530 votes

Bullshit. They don't even do that with Twisted Treeline.

QuadFormApr 2, 201514 votes

They posted something about why they wouldn't make it permanent. It said that even though URF was more successful than their other game modes, popularity fell just like all other modes did. And from their standpoint it doesn't make economic sense to keep the servers up for such a fast paced game mode.

kemandelApr 2, 201528 votes

BRING BACK URF!!!!

kemandelApr 2, 201521 votes

oh wait....

aloneangel34Apr 2, 201524 votes

Could we get Doom-URF mode? I wanna fight these Doom bots in the URF mode. Ziggs Ezreal Amumu Lux MonkeyKing No idea how hard would it be to defeat them lol.

UnknownMartianApr 2, 2015300 votes

We just got URF back. Take a moment to thank them instead of just asking for more.

Mäster YíApr 2, 201516 votes

^^^^

bacon lord777Apr 2, 201510 votes

i kinda don't want to see that mostly because of malz spamming pools all over the map.

FreezeFlare24Apr 7, 20153 votes

Thank you Riot!

g3ntlemenApr 2, 201520 votes

URF should stay as a custom-only gamemode so it won't kill the other queues.

SmelpApr 2, 201512 votes

I don't understand why they would get rid of this game mode. It has brought people into and back onto league, taking it away would just undo all they have done. Granted I'm just a child, but even bringing it back yearly what's the point; if you could just keep it permanent

BustNuttingtonIVApr 2, 201517 votes

They would only have it up for a short amount of time for a few reasons:

Drumming up hype about a mode only around for a short amount of time makes more people want to play it (and buy any associated physical and digital merch)
It can be a bit resource consuming, dedicating servers to a gamemode that isn't intended to receive constant attention (remember they still have to update league itself)
On the same thread, if they kept it around it would have to go through a ton more editing and revising to ensure everything is fair and balanced (cough nidalee) and to avoid power creep, as a temporary thing "for fun" things like power creep don't matter, and a few busted picks can just be banned out, that wouldn't fly in a permanent mode.
A gamemode like URF promotes playstyles not intended for and not functional for the base game, meaning if someone gets back into league only for URF, they would have more trouble adjusting back to regular league the longer URF was out. So by keeping URFs appearance short it piques interest without establishing behavior that would cause a player to do poorly (and thus quit) once they went away from URF.

On that note though, It would be awesome to keep it around, but URF would evolve into something less than fun if it was put through the wringer as a permanent gamemode.

So enjoy it for now! Bash some heads and hope it will be back next year.

Unicorn Pet PetApr 2, 20159 votes

I love URF, but most of the time it just feels like the whole game is determined in champ select, and having to balance URF would really take away from balancing the actual game. If they were to leave the game as is, people would just continue playing whatever's OP and those who don't would quickly leave. After them those who do play whatever's OP would leave out of boredom of playing/playing against the same champions every game. It's just a gimmicky game mode, and certainly not suited to be permanent.

checkforfleaApr 2, 201511 votes

It felt like Call of Duty with its fast pace combat. I actually didn't like it.

Captain AlphariApr 2, 201563 votes

plays URF says it feels too fast, like CoD says he doesn't like URF

whatfuck.jpg

GodotºApr 2, 20157 votes

RAISE YOUR SPATULAS!

RAISE YOUR WHAAAAAAAAAT?

Mr FrankApr 2, 20154 votes

Dongers! Heimerdinger

WigglydigitApr 2, 20157 votes

I like a nice yearly URFing. URF until you can URF no more! URF LIKE YOUR LIVES DEPENDED ON IT!

GeimeoApr 2, 20156 votes

Yeah, glad they didn't keep nurf, urf is way better. Thank you rito!

Northstars0422Apr 2, 20154 votes

NURF was just a troll thing they were making up to mask the coming of URF

Mr FrankApr 2, 20153 votes

I was looking forward to seeing Mundo on NURF. Unkillable!

Daddy MaliceApr 2, 20154 votes

IT would've been funny if they put NURF up for like a day or two just to scare everyone even more. and if you actually played a game you got an awesome prize lol.

Bubblegum CrashApr 2, 20156 votes

My thoughts on URF is that it should only be played as a custom game when its not in season. This way you can still practice with a champion with no limits on to get a feel for them and you can play a mode that tests how well you can crush your friends when they say "My champion is better than yours".

PHLeEdApr 2, 20154 votes

The thing I find incredible is people are constantly whining about how broken some champs in urf are. However, the point of the game is everyone is OP (full ap jax anyone?) so the point is to be able to enjoy playing your favorite champions in their incredibly broken state. I still havent found a champ that doesn't do really well. And honestly, if you're whining about how champs are stupid, just play them. that's the fun part.