League of Legends Ocean Week to sink artificial reef
An Ocean-themed week of League of Legends gaming in Australia and New Zealand culminates in a champion-shaped artificial reef sunk to the bottom of the sea.
League of Legends developer Riot is celebrating Australia Day and New Zealand's Waitangi Day with a special Ocean Week promotion for players on Oceanic servers. From the week commencing January 23, up to and including January 30, players will be able to play the game to unlock what Riot is calling a 'raft of rewards', while playing with special Ocean Week characters.
And if players can collectively accrue enough points during the event, a statue of one of the game's characters will be inscribed with the Summoner Name of every contributing player and sunk off the coast of Australia (location yet to be confirmed) to become a reef home for ocean life. The character in question --either Fizz, Nami or Nautilus -- will be voted on by the players.
To unlock the reef voting process, players will have to collectively accrue 275,000 points, which can be won by winning a PvP game of Blind Pick, Team Builder or Twisted Treeline with one of the 12 free-to-use Ocean Week champions. One win contributes one point to the overall total.
Other rewards include an additional eight champions on Ocean Week free rotation if the total hits 30,000 points, a four-win IP in-game currency boost for everyone who has contributed at least one point by the 90,000 mark, four aquatic character skins (Scuba Gragas, Sailor Gangplank, Frozen Shen and Angler Jax) at 130,000 points, and double the chance of winning a legendary skin when purchasing a mystery gift once the tally reaches 175,000 points.
Finally, from the beginning of Ocean Week until February 8, one champion and skin will go on sale every day for 48 hours at a 30 percent discount. There's even something for non-Oceanic players: For the duration of the week, server transfers from North American servers to Oceanic servers will be free.
"We wanted to make something cool that players could contribute towards," said Mirko Gozzo, Country Manager for Riot Games Oceania. "We've been working with a marine biologist and an artificial reef company to make sure we create something that is good for the environment and means something to players."
To find out more -- including which characters will be on free rotation -- hit up the League of Legends Ocean Week web page.