One of the biggest changes to the game in Season 12 is the introduction of objective bounties. This mechanic is not one that is well received by the player base, and developers are looking into solutions to potential issues.
Objective Bounties is a mechanic that activates when a team is sufficiently behind in gold, levels, and taking neutral objectives such as drakes. They are highlighted on the minimap for both teams. If a losing team takes an objective with an active bounty, every member of the team receives the objective bounty gold, split amongst the team. The same goes for champion bounties, as well, which is an older mechanic in the game.
This has received a lot of pushback from the League of Legends community, calling it a punishment for winning the game. And in some cases, it actually is.
Due to the current simplicity of the objectives bounty system, Riot intend to make certain changes that will, hopefully, allow this mechanic to do its job of bringing teams back into the game, while also making them work hard for it.
Some of the potential paths Riot Games may take when changing the bounty system are:
- Edge Cases - Taking into account just how much of the gold on the winning team is placed on the shoulders of one fed player,
- Team Comps - Scaling teams can be considered to be equal to strong early-game teams, even when they are behind in gold,
- Specific Champion Qualities - It's far easier to get a shutdown on a fed Ashe than a fed Ekko, for example,
- Clearer Visualization - Exactly when and why bounties activate.
With these thoughts in mind, Riot Games will try to balance out the bounty system, and remove the ways of abusing it, as we've seen recently with the top-lane Janna meta.
