It seems I was one of the earlier accounts to be refunded the IP cost of dodge runes. For me, the total came out to a whopping 14,000+ IP. I’m honestly not sure how I was refunded that amount of IP. When I added things up, the total cost was just over 7k, so I’m not exactly sure where the extra 7k came from.

I will say, I’m pretty pumped to have over 15k floating around again. I haven’t been playing League quite as often lately, so having a little buffer for the next few champion releases could be really handy.

I think it’s strange that Riot is still letting us purchase dodge runes. I understand that they don’t want to totally screw Jax players with the refunds, but why do them now? It’s a little odd. In any case, I’m glad to get a nice fat IP boost before the holidays. Have you received your refund yet?

If you spent some time on the forums today you might have noticed a higher than average amount of unrest about Riot’s development cycle. Among the many lessons the internet has taught is the fact that the internet and its denizens do not forget a date, a time frame, or anything that sounds vaguely like a promise. It’s the reason developers are unwilling to lay down release dates that aren’t absolutely set in stone.

One of the more prominent threads today asked for a timeline on achievements, a feature that has had a tab in the PvP.net client for quite a while but hasn’t received a whole lot of airtime. Phreak stepped in today to quell any hopes that we might see achievements soon, pointing out that balance changes and features like the Tribunal are higher on the totem pole. The thread quickly filled with complaints that even those features high up on Riot’s to-do list haven’t been done, that is until Riot did something I never saw coming: Riot released the Tribunal.

Technically, the company is calling it a pre-release as it will only be accessible to summoners that have achieved level 30. I use the future tense because shortly after the official pre-release it seems interest in the feature rocked the Riot servers and brought the website crashing down. So now we sit, patiently waiting out a 4-hour maintenance window to see what this new feature, which was first announced in January, is all about.

It seems like a strange confluence of events that Tribunal would release on one of the most active forum complaining days I’ve seen in months. I’m not saying Riot made the release based on the griping, but rather that Riot’s timing is either perfect or perfectly awful.

If Tribunal works, if summoners really get behind the idea of doling out justice to the grouchy bastards that ruin so many games, the system could be a real boon for the community. I think it could definitely lift spirits enough to carry people into Season Two at the least, about which we’ll hopefully get some news over the next couple weeks. There’s also a solid chance that it will generally improve behavior in game, which I think everyone would welcome.

Tribunal could be a flop, though. I know a lot of people who have been waiting a long time for the League’s gameplay to evolve, something that hasn’t happened in quite some time, at least not for veterans of the game and genre. While Battle Training and Co-op vs. AI are certainly gameplay features, the first has no value to seasoned summoners and I would consider the second situational at best. If Tribunal doesn’t capture our collective attention, I can already hear the gnashing of teeth about the informal priority list Phreak served up today. As I mentioned earlier, the internet doesn’t forget, and they certainly won’t forget this one, even if Phreak was just giving an example.

One of the most visited topics on the official LoL forums is the relationship between champion IP pricing and Riot’s apparently insatiable moneygrabbing. It’s not a discussion I’ve ever been able to understand. People are complaining that a completely free game occasionally encourages you to spend a couple bucks to support development…errrrr….what? I actually made a post to that effect in one particularly long thread and got downvoted and flamed so fast you’d think I recommended making burgers out of babies.

But I digress. The real point here is that Riot is responding to community demand by promising that the next champion to release will release for a price lower than the 6300 IP the majority of new champions cost.

Here’s Moneypenny on the forums:

We are aware that we have had a number of higher IP priced champions of late. However, Renekton was an amazing Champion, and we’re confident that he will be worth your IP or RP. We plan to release the next champion at a lower IP price in order to be able to offer a variety of prices for you all. We hope you enjoy Renekton and we look forward to bringing you a lower IP priced champion in the next patch.

~Moneypenny

Update:
Summoners, our next champion is going to be very exciting and fun to play, but we want to ensure we have a mix of IP prices and so we have decided that she will be released at 3150 IP.

So there you have it – the next champion will cost 3150 and it’s a girl, no less.

When the Garen patch leaked, so did a whole slew of skins, only some of which were available when Garen went live. According to an official post on the announcement forums, the missing skins will be available soon.

Yes, we’ll finally get a chance to play as Scuba Gragas, Bird of Prey Anivia (worst name ever), and Tribal Ryze. I really like all three skins, so it looks like I’ll be plunking down the cash for a fresh flight of Riot Points. I’m glad to see a non-ice-themed Anivia skin. It could make me play her a bit more often. Scuba Gragas is pretty amazing as well, and though I don’t play Ryze much, I’m a big fan of that skin.

Now, if Riot would just give me an IP option for buying skins (I don’t care if they cost 50,000 IP) I could finally spend the IP I have sitting around.

I love Kennen, I really do, but in my winlust I may have overplayed him. It was an admittedly excellent run. I won eleven games in a row and seeing that little ninja’s glowing eyes next to a full list of green “Victory” snapshots was pretty fantastic. The thing I love most about LoL isn’t finding one champ to suit me, though, it’s the variety in the champion list, so I figure it’s time I branch out once more.

It’s been a bit of a rough go so far. I’ve played as Trist, Taric, Mundo, Ashe, Alistar, Shen, Amumu, Shaco, and Corki and only won about half of those I’ve played. Part of the problem has been comp. I was so focused on playing toons I hadn’t touched in a while that I let team comp go out the window. In one 5-man last night we didn’t have any AOE mage love. None. There’s not a doubt in my mind that we would have won had I played Kennen or Annie or Fiddle but instead we were handed a pretty tough loss to a team we outskilled.

On a high note, I’ve finally unlocked every toon in the game except Eve (who I will never unlock and never play, but that’s another post entirely). I was sitting on 7400 IP after my Kennen purchase and subsequent winning spree, and I still had Tryndamere, Cho’Gath, Kayle, and Janna to purchase.

Things are looking good for a couple games this evening, so hopefully I can rectify my losing situation. A buddy is looking to pick up Fiddlesticks so it would be great to support him with Malphite or Alistar. Of course I’ve never played Janna so I might give her a shot as well.