Why is there no Autumn or Winter Rift?

Just A Bee·5/24/2015, 3:23:59 PM·83 votes·3,597 views

Back in the old and gold days of League, there was a Winter Rift and an Autumn(Harrowing) rift. These were purely visual, besides the music change. It made the game have a sense of joy and wonder. It was cool to see the rift change with the seasons. I'm wondering why they did away with it? 2011 was the last year I remember having it. Maybe 2012? But it started in 2009. I remember playing in those days and it was pretty awesome to see the rift change colors and the music change to Christmastime or spooky for Halloween. Why did they get rid of it? I really wish it could be back. More than even heart of gold.

58 Comments

SEKAI5/24/2015, 4:03:03 PM15 votes

Making multiple versions of the same map is too tiring for them to do and it's pointless anyway......

Or so they think.

I guess they can make the argument saying that the Halloween map is now TT, the winter map is the HA, the autumn map is the Dom and the rest is SR.

But hey, it couldn't hurt to give us more variations of the same map right? Riot please.

EDIT: Heart of Gold, oh goodie. I want my FoN back as well.

Skunt5/24/2015, 6:43:27 PM12 votes

Riot too busy using MS Paint on skins and releasing them as chroma packs to charge money for.

Downfall5/24/2015, 6:55:08 PM8 votes

Clarity

A Miss Fortune5/25/2015, 1:56:41 PM3 votes

I think Riot could go an extremely long way if they added Map Skins to the game. I've seen posts about people wanting themed skins such as Piltover, Demacia, Bilgewater, etc or just stuff like Night Rift, or Winter Rift and Rainy Rift.

Personally I would be willing to pay a lot of money for stuff like this, It gets boring after like 1,000 games of seeing the same map over and over again with you playing ARAM here and there. It improves your mood for a change in scenery and I think it would just be awesome to have Map Skins for my favorite champions.

Of course I doubt it would effect gameplay, even if it did (as the rocks/walls/inhibitors are just pictures and not actually real.) I think it would be cool if before the game everyone could vote on a certain map skin they wanted to play in.

John Berserk5/24/2015, 11:46:41 PM3 votes

Im pretty certain they haven't done it the past few years is because, well multiple reasons im sure.

One being clarity One being lack of time/resources (they'd probably want to make it look nicer than it was previously) One being they wanted to update SR before making any new skins for it

Now that SR is updated, they've stated they are now able to make skins for it much more easily than before. I'm confident they'll bring back thematic winter or autumn skins for SR sooner rather than later, maybe even this year.

Solarious285/25/2015, 1:03:58 AM3 votes

I'd personally enjoy seeing cherry trees in the spring as well as the change to orange trees and beige grass as the Rift got closer to the end of the year. It'd also be pretty cool to see a day and night Rift. Wouldn't be awesome of Summoner's Rift did a morning, noon, even, night thing?

Lanayurian5/24/2015, 11:15:46 PM2 votes

Well they kinda did do a Winter Rift.... which they did like 2% of. Back in SnowDown 2014, they did put in a Santa hat on Baron, so you gotta give them that.

Stacona5/25/2015, 2:10:56 AM2 votes

bump for awesomeness

TwoD5/24/2015, 6:45:19 PM2 votes

man we need a sandy beach map for summer

TheRainInSpain5/25/2015, 12:01:49 AM1 votes

A combination of clarity to new members who somehow might confuse Summoners Who Got Retconned Out Rift with The Ranked Queue-less Scar.

And.

Because Riot has a very weird compulsion to make an entirely new game permanent game mode for major changes to the game such as they did for Dominion and 3v3.

Silents4295/24/2015, 5:27:56 PM1 votes

Time contraints, the effort required to rebalance the map, making it clarity focused like the current, as well as ensuring it is optimized well etc.

I am sure they would if it was easier, but look how long it took to make the new map, over a year.

Kürama5/24/2015, 8:03:49 PM1 votes

The big question is, why isn't there a Spring SR?

Prestige Eve5/25/2015, 3:13:13 AM1 votes

I'm not blaming you. I'm was just giving my opinion on the subject. :)

EDIT: It would make a lot more sense if a "Hero Brawler" was created as a sub-genre to MOBAS. Blizzard trying to make that a standalone genre when there already is a genre that perfectly describes their game just reeks of them trying to throw out buzz words and make the game sound more unique than it is.

Jalkan5/25/2015, 5:52:57 AM1 votes

In 2012 the original SR was updated and the winter and autumn maps had to be removed as well. Then in 2013 and 2014, the team that makes the maps was working on Twisted Treeline update, Howling Abyss, and finally the new new Summoner's Rift.

DwarvenGiant5/25/2015, 8:53:53 AM1 votes

There a few reason for why we haven't got the seasonal Rift versions for years now:

Summoner's Rift was updated twice: Once in 2012 and the latest one from 2014.

So map had three versions- The first (with the Manbaconian/Pink Goblin-ish shopkeeper -or however that's spelled), the one from 2012 with the yordle shopkeeper and updated textures and the major one from 2014. The seasonal Rifts were made before 2012, to match the first Rift only, so Riot didn't want to waste more time and update the textures to match the 2012 update. Now after Riot put so much effort in the updated Rift, they said that they can shift their focus to seasonal versions ("No promises!" though).

Sarutobi5/25/2015, 10:00:40 AM1 votes

Apparently the rework of SR was suppose to make it easier for them to customize the maps. Whether they plan to do it or not is another story. It's a shame. The way I see it because it wouldn't be cost effience for them it would be pointless to work on something like that. It's sad when the past SR could have it, but now it's difficult!

yukonl5/24/2015, 11:48:04 PM1 votes

If anyone was there back then, you gotta admit that the maps made it harder to see several particles and that white texture really put a strain on your eyes due to its brightness.