Players Suggest Changes To Improve League Of Legends’ New Honor System

The complete overhaul of League of Legends’ honor system was a solid way to remind players that there’s nine other players in their games who just want to play a game, too. The rewards that players can earn through good behavior, such as Key Fragments, loading screen borders, and end-of-season rewards didn’t hurt either, but there’s still ways that the new format could be changed even further to improve the new system.

Fortunately, it appears as though Riot is open to fielding some of these suggestions. A thread was opened recently by a Rioter within the League boards to get some feedback from players on the system, and many people voiced their concerns and suggested changes, some of which were received quite well and were even things that Riot was already considering.

Some of these changes might soon be in the works, while others remain a distant hope, but here are several of the concerns and suggestions that players raised when it comes to improving the new honor system.

More Honor Choices

During the post-game screen, you’ll notice that the new honor system has a couple of specific options when it comes to honoring your one chosen teammate. “Stayed Cool,” “Great Shotcalling,” and “GG <3” are the new options, and while those cover a couple of the motivations that you’d have to honor someone, they don’t exactly encompass everything.

Some players have expressed concerns that carries will be the most likely recipients of honor since they have a very visible impact on the game with more popping off moments than a slow-and-steady tank or support, but honestly, they deserve it sometimes. Sometimes you do get carried, and that honor category is one of the ones that’s been most suggested. 

There hasn’t been an official response to that category being added yet, but Riot has stated that they’re looking into changing how many champs can be honored and what kinds of honors will be given out, so it’s possible that it could be included.

Progress Bar For Honor Level

One of the most often requested changes to the honor system in the short time that it’s been out has been to add a progress bar for the honor system so that players can know how close they are to leveling up. The levels in the honor system carry different rewards — or punishments if you’re a low enough level — and players want to know how much more they have to do before they hit their next level.

But that grinding mentality is exactly what Riot wants to avoid. Their stance is that this shouldn’t feel like a short-term reward grab, but rather a continuous growth throughout weeks, months, or perhaps even an entire season.

Despite being brought up almost every time an honor discussion is opened, it seems pretty clear in their answer about the suggestion that there won’t be a progress bar added to help track growth between levels.

Honoring Opponents

There are two sides to each League game, and while the old honor system allowed for players to grant an Honorable Opponent title to their opponents, that option is absent in the new system.

It perhaps didn’t happen as often as honoring your teammates, but being able to honor your opponents is one of those things that isn’t missed as much until it’s gone. Sometimes you’ve got an opposing laner who will be more than willing to type a “well played” after a close fight, or maybe they let you be while you were lagging and couldn’t move. Either way, their honorable behavior deserves noticing, but that can’t be done with the current honor format.

Returning the “Honorable Opponent” to the honor choices would allow players to be receive honor from more than just their team, level up faster, and have their actions recognized. Like the expansion of honor categories mentioned previously, this is also an addition that Rioters are looking at going forward with the honor system.

Premades Honoring Each Other

Loading into a game and seeing players with similar names or perhaps sitting through a very quite pre-game lobby where decisions are silently being made can be an easy indication that you might be playing with a premade. Premades can often result in higher levels of coordination, but as far as the new honor system is concerned, you can pretty safely bet that the premade will stick to honoring each other unless you do something truly impressive.

With levels and rewards being tied to the new system, some players were concerned that premades could use their cooperation to level each other up and hoard those Key Fragments. Thankfully, this doesn’t appear to be the case. The behind-the-scenes workings may not have been revealed, but Riot Simurgh said that they have implemented methods that keep this from happening.

“We have systems in place that will account for premades that spam honor each other,” Simurgh said. “They will not be able to abuse the Honor system to gain levels in this way.”

Offer Your Own Suggestions

As mentioned previously, if you’ve still got ideas as to how the League of Legends honor system could be improved, Riot still seems very much open to suggestions. 

Over on the League boards, Riot Simurgh is still checking in on the comments to see what players think should be changed and is taking the time to respond to several of them if the seem like viable ideas or questions. Simurgh will be checking in with the thread to view suggestions off and on, even over the holiday, and has replied to around 60 comments already to clarify previous answers and further explain the way the honor format works.

If you’ve got a change you’d like to see, check the boards to make sure it hasn’t been mentioned and drop a suggestion here. Communication has been pretty frequent in the brief time the honor system’s been out, so there’s likely going to be more news soon about what direction they’re headed.