Since the 2022 season, Riot Games has introduced a new system called the Target Reward System aimed at making matches more thrilling. In simple terms, when a team is at a significant disadvantage against their opponent, the Target Reward will be activated, providing that team with extra gold each time they take down a turret, Dragon, Baron, etc. This gives the losing team more opportunities to balance their gold and create comeback moments towards the end of the match.
The theory sounds good, but in practice, this system has encountered numerous issues, leading to unfair matches. First, Riot has not provided a specific notification regarding the amount of gold difference required for a team to activate the Target Reward. Additionally, this system will still activate if a team that was behind suddenly surpasses the opponent in gold, resulting in the team that just made a slight comeback almost securing victory.
A prime example is the match between EG and CLG during the 2022 LCS Summer Split, where EG activated the Target Reward even though the gold difference between the two teams was not significant. In fact, even when this team pulled ahead by over 3000 gold, the Target Reward still persisted and unjustly provided EG with an excessive amount of gold. According to player calculations, thanks to this system, EG managed to gain 4000-5000 gold effortlessly despite not being behind CLG.
According to the League of Legends community, there are too many matches exhibiting similar situations, both in professional tournaments and ranked games. As a result, the importance of winning the lane has significantly diminished, as one can simply fall slightly behind early in the game and then collect the Target Reward to gain a substantial economic advantage.
Therefore, on major League of Legends forums, players have continuously called for Riot to adjust the Target Reward System. While the purpose of this system is good, its execution is too difficult to accept. Riot could definitely consider removing the Target Reward as soon as a team surpasses the gold lead, for example.