The Reason For The Season: Urf Day

Everyone, in two weeks time, the most important holiday in League history is approaching. I'm not talking about Snowdown, or Harrowing, no. I speak of Urf Day.

Urf Day is the April Fool's day analog of League, but the thing that I've noticed with a lot of new players is that lots of people don't know what Urf Day is about! Urf Day is about Ultra Rapid Fire mode, right? Of course not, you sit down, Hecarim. So I'm going to tell you all a wonderful story. It is a story of love, loss, and spatulas. This is the story of Urf Day.

Now back in the Ye Olde Year of 2010, Riot unveiled their newest champion, Urf the Manatee, complete with lore and moveset.

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100330032759/leagueoflegends/images/c/ce/Urf_OriginalSkin.jpg

Urf was a big admirer of Jax, a champion we're all familiar with, and wanted to join the League with his idol. Armed with minigun and spatula alike, Urf would join the game.

But tragedy struck. On 4/1/2010, Urf was horribly murdered on his way to the Rift, eaten by Warwick. The new champion was dead, and was never released. However, the Urf Warwick skin, depicting Warwick wearing Urf's...skin, was made for sale for 5000 RP. Which sounds like a lot, but look. Urf. However, for the first week of availability, it was on a 99% discount, thanks to the generous spirit of Urf. The proceeds from the skin were donated to the real life Save The Manatees club.

Now, you'd think that would be the end of the reason for Urf Day, but no. I'm still talking here. In 2011, Riot unveiled a new champion, Lee Sin, the Blind Monk. Astute observers who watched the original trailer for League might have noticed that Lee Sin was not entirely new. In fact, he was planned to be among the original 40 characters, but was cut. So...this close to April Fool's Day...were we getting Urf'd again? To add to the confusion, Urf seemed to...appear in random locations in the upcoming champ's preview screens. For about two weeks, the entire community sat with bated breath, wondering if we would get Urf, Lee Sin, or neither. When the dust cleared, we had Lee Sin, but Urf seemed left out...until Urfrider Corki was released and we all felt better. Urf also appeared on the Halloween Themed Summoner's Rift map, where he popped out of a grave as a ghost and waved if you walked near him. Unless you were Warwick, in which case he hit you for 1 damage (Which broke Banshee's Veil!).

2012 saw another Urf skin in the form of Fisherman Fizz, and even an Urf Day contest on the forums where people could submit their favorite Urf based works. (I entered that one with a bad play!)

2013 gave us the Arcade Game, Cho'Gath Eats The World, and Battle Bunny Riven, but neither of these things were Urf related so let's move on.

2014 is likely the year to be remembered most, with the introduction of Ultra Rapid Fire mode, a gametype where everyone hits a lot of buttons and a lot of abilities come out and it slows down your shitty laptop.

2015 marked the return of U.R.F. Mode, as well as an Urf themed skin for Nami, in which she summons Urfs on her joke animation.

Now we approach 2016, and the question looms over our heads. Will we see Urf this year? Well, yes, there's an Urf Tahm Kench skin coming out, but back in my day, we didn't have any fancy S@20's or dataminers!

This year, I invite you to enjoy your new skins and whatever festivities are planned, but remember that this marks the 6th anniversary of the tragic death of a manatee hero. Please, Urf responsibly, and hold your spatula high in honor of a fallen friend.

https://sp.yimg.com/xj/th?id=OIP.Mecda8c29b4c59c32f2da2b605c53545co0&pid=15.1&P=0&w=300&h=300

(Urf shows up a few other places in the game, but I don't want to spoil all of them in case people want to look, or whatever. Also I'm tired of typing. For further reading, the LoLwiki has a good article on Urf Day: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Urf_Day)