New Particles in Soraka CS, Hippalus on Runes & Rune Pages, and the return of Featured Games

Continue reading to see some red posts tackling the unannounced new particles seen in the Soraka champion spotlight, the answers an eCommerce question about promotions involving Runes and Rune Pages, and a bit about the return of featured spectating.
Phreak took a little time to talk about some of the mysterious new particles in the recent Soraka champion spotlight - including the new red buff and blue buff particles seen in the picture above and the smokey effect surrounding both Katarina and Soraka in the picture at the very top of the post. He said:

"We have some work-in-progress particles in the spotlight.

The "smoke aura" I think is a Health Potion (I'm unsure). Red/Blue/Baron buffs are getting updated so that they don't overlap and you can more easily recognize who has what buff.

I don't know if or when any of these updates go live, but FYI."

It's nice to have some acknowledgement. The last time we saw something like this was when we caught a glimpse of the updated Baron Buff particles way back in the Zyra Champion Spotlight and I don't believe Riot ever actually informed us what the plan was for that.
Hippalus jumped on to the forums to deal with another player voted eCommerce question, this time fielding a question asking if we will see more rune/rune page deals and/or permanent reductions. He responded with:

"Unfortunately I don't expect to be able to focus on runes until 2013. It is complex from a design standpoint (the tier structure, the different rune types, the impact on game balance, the rune combiner). It also plays a role in how players customize their strategies and how those strategies evolve over time, all of which impact areas other than eCommerce. I have seen some good suggestions for how to improve runes on various threads, but it will take a focused effort to gather input from many different types of players and Rioters, synthesize it all, and decide on a plan that is better for all involved. Many potential solutions will also require programming changes to the store, client or the game itself, which multiplies the complexity given that there is a lot of competition for those development resources.

Rune pages are comparatively easy. Players feel strongly that they cost too much (#1 complaint in a recent player survey), and therefore offering better deals makes sense even if it costs Riot money over time. The bundle promotion was our first solution. There are other fairly simple things we can do that will help those who missed the chance to buy the bundle, and I probably won't wait until 2013 to pull the trigger on those."

TLDR: Nothing on deck for runes this year and we just had a rune page sale.

Lastly, Yegg brought the good news that the Spectate Featured Games feature should be fully restored in the Late September Patch.

"Featured games are slated to come back with the late September patch that's happening tonight. We're also enabling the ability to spectate a game that a friend is already watching through right clicking their name in your buddy list.

Sorry about the long absence, they should be back soon though!"