League Events - What's Changed?

The ongoing Star Guardian event spans multiple Runeterra games, introduced a ton of new skins, and has expanded the Star Guardian universe. However, the event is another example of how drastically League events have changed over the years.

Star Guardian PVE

With the release of the second set of Star Guardian skins in 2017, the PVE mode 'Invasion' was available to play. Taking place in Valorant City, teams of 5 played as the Star Guardians to defend the city from waves of invading creatures:

Invasion took place on a brand new map and had a variety of different objectives, ranging from defeating all enemies to defending a specific zone. The final round featured a Rift-Herald inspired boss, and your team earned a rank depending on how well you performed.

There were two difficulty settings (Invasion and Onslaught) and missions to complete, including defeating the game without specific champions or earning an S rank as a team. Completing these missions rewarded tokens, which could be exchanged for champion shards or an exclusive Star Guardian ward skin.

This was a fantastic PVE event that allowed you to play League in a completely different style. Being able to defend Valorant City with the Star Guardian skins felt epic, and the game mode had replayability with the missions and ranking. However, it became a little repetative due to the limited types of objectives from round to round.

Odyssey PVE

In September 2018, Riot expanded upon Invasion to release the 'Odyssey: Extraction' game mode alongside the release of the Odyssey skin line. Just like Invasion, a team of 5 Odyssey members defeated waves on enemies before taking on the final boss Kayn:

This time, there were a ton more enemy types and ways you could play your champion. Finishing Extraction rounds earned you champion Augments, which buffed your champion in fantastic ways:

• Sona could cast Crescendo in 8 directions around her
• Tornadoes could return to Yasuo and deal bonus damage
• Jinx's passive could be procced whenever her or an ally casts an ultimate
• Ziggs' Bouncing Bombs could leave behind Hexplosive Minefields on every bounce

Augments made champions ridiculously strong, and were essential for beating the hardest of the 5 difficulty levels. The rewards were even greater than Invasion too, offering emotes, summoner icons, and even an exclusive Odyssey Ziggs skin for beating a hard game mode with a limited number of Augments.

Extraction was arguably the best PVE event mode, as the Augments were absolutely wild and a ton of fun to play with. Beating the hardest difficulties required a ton of grinding, but the rewards and satisfaction made it well worth the grind. Unfortunately, this would be the last PVE mode League would have for a while.

From PVE to Narrative

Over the next few years, events would shift from PVE game modes to narrative-based events. This began with the Spirit Blossom event as players bonded with various champions in the spirit realm, and continued with stopping Viego in the Sentinels of Light event. Modern events typically have a Prestige Skin released alongside it, and a Event Pass with a lot of potential rewards.

Riot have stated this shift away from PVE modes to story-based events was due to how many resources it took to develop PVE game modes, which were only used for the event. This is a great shame, as the PVE modes made the events feel incredibly special and memorable in a way that hasn't been captured in an event since.