League of Legends to reward ‘friendly’ players with bonus Influence Points

League of Legends is taking steps against hostility in its community by encouraging players to work together.

For the next two weeks, League players will be given the chance to earn bonus Influence Points, one of the MOBA’s in-game currencies, for entering games with pre-made parties of friends both new and old.

The amount of IP earned depends on the size of the party; the IP multipliers start at four times for a party of two and progress up to 16 times for the full team of five. Lone players will be exempt from any bonus IP.

Certain queues will also earn more IP – one example given by Riot is that Summoner’s Rift queues will award more IP than Twisted Treeline or Howling Abyss queues.

These Party Rewards will be supplemented by rare ‘massive’ IP prizes for lucky players.

Unlike League’s other in-game currency Riot Points, which can be purchased with real-money transactions, Influence Points can only be earned by investing playtime into the game.

IP can subsequently be used to unlock new champions and runes, while RP is reserved primarily for aesthetic additions such as skins.

Though the setup remains a two-week trial for now, Riot hints that the feature could become a permanent fixture dependent on the data it receives during this initial run.