URF! Ultra Rapid Fire mode needs to come back!

URF Login on April 1
URF Login on April 1

Riot introduced Ultra Rapid Fire mode into League of Legends on April 1 as an April fools joke. However, the community saw it as far less than a joke. The reasons that Riot gave for introducing URF included aboloshing “anti-fun”. I think they were on to something.

Here are the basics that were granted in Ultra Rapid Fire mode:

  1. Mana and Energy costs were removed (no need to manage that resource).
  2. Ranged champions attackspeed increased by 100%.
  3. Every champion begins the game with 80% cooldown reduction on abilities and spells.

This handy tool tip explains the gist of it:

The only way to play League anymore.
The only way to play League anymore.

There were some additional features I liked, movement speed was increased, so I didn’t have to buy boots every single game.

I played URF everyday since April 1st when it came out. I was very happy that (after the community begged and begged) Riot extended it for another week. But, alas, Riot ended it last night, April 13. I played one last game with ‘Vi’ which we won, and waved goodbye.

At the time I thought that everything would be fine. I’d go back to playing normal mode and it’d be just as fun as it was before. This morning I logged in and played a match with Vi on the Twisted Treeline map. It was very disappointing.

The movement speed was too slow, even with Boots of Speed. Waiting for cooldowns to proc was annoying. It took forever to build any items (even on Treeline). I was overwhelmed with a feeling of general frustration. The game had become less fun.

It used to be that I looked forward to playing League of Legends. However, when I think about playing League of Legends now I just feel extremely disappointed. I don’t really want to play anymore. It’s not that the game is bad, it’s a good game. But, after seeing how fun it could be it’s just not as interesting anymore.

Other people have noticed the same thing. The community is longing for URF to come back. Notice some of the response.

So with that said, I think I’m going to be taking a break from League of Legends. It’ll give me some time to finish some other games I’ve been needing to finish, like Tomb Raider 2013. Maybe I’ll come back later refreshed and find the game to be fun again. Maybe I’ll get fed up and program my own URF mode game. Or… maybe it is just time to say goodbye.