As you’ve surely noticed if you’ve logged in over the past couple days, ranked queues have been temporarily disabled and will remain that way until Riot brings the servers down at the end of the weekend.

To compensate, Riot put Normal Draft mode in the queue. Almost immediately, posts were up on the forums requesting that the feature become a mainstay. I certainly hope it does. I’ve wanted it pretty much since I started playing. Blind Pick leaves a lot to be desired, and the current Ranked queue options don’t really handle every situation. I would love to be able to play Draft Mode with people who aren’t level 30, with groups of 3-4, or with people way outside my ranked ELO.

Normal Draft also prepares people for the ranked experience. Players on their way up the summoner level ladder can learn what the ranked experience is like and have a chance to counter-pick opponents.

According to Morello, whether or not Normal Draft sticks around is an issue of resources, not community interest. After trolling one of the support threads (honestly, why are you still doing this, Riot?), he said the following:

I wish I could give you more info, but I don’t have any myself. If we end up turning it back off, the reasoning would only be something technical. We wouldn’t turn it off if we could sustain it technically, wouldn’t make sense.

So there is some hope for Normal Draft, even it seems remote.