Change the fist that indicates Riot replies to red
The new fist that displays beside threads is a nice icon that blends in well with the background. However, it's distinctively lacking a key feature.
It isn't RED.
What word is synonymous with "rioter"?
Red.
What is the actual color of the Riot logo?
Red.
Ergo, what does the community associate with Red?
Riot.
While the fist on the logo itself may not be red (I honestly forget the fist is there/is only white) it is a deep symbol that is linked with the association of a "Rioter" a Riot employee. In fact, it is so drastically different from the old logo that previously dotted the thread lists that it is not immediately recognizable. Of course a simple mouseover will display that it is, indeed, the Riot symbol. But few people associate the fist with Riot, it was always the color, the "Red" response, the Red became such important a synonym that it became capitalized and sometimes replaced the original word in some minds.
While people know and understand that the fist is part of the Riot logo, it is not the iconic attribute of the logo itself. It is such that the primary identification of the Riot logo is the bold red letters of the 'RIOT' in all-capital letters; the fist is only visible upon inspection as opposed to a quick glance. Therefore, it is only logical to claim that the letters are the primary design in the logo. It can be argued even more so that the primary observance of the majority of the community using the official forums, that a small red icon; the small Riot symbol saw not the words, because the symbol was so small, but the color red as the symbol of Riot.
Thus, I highly implore you, Riot, you Reds, to put some aspect of Red onto the new Riot icon for the forums. It is definitively the strongest indication of Riot in terms of a raw symbol.
tl;dr put a red outline on the fist for the new Riot response indication icon