Tag: normal draft mode

Current Affairs: Normal Draft to remain active

Today’s maintenance was supposed to remove Normal Draft mode from the list of available queue types, along with re-enabling ranked game modes. I was pleasantly surprised when I logged in and found that Normal Draft was still enabled.

Later in the day, Tamat followed the surprise inclusion with this post:

We’ve heard your feedback, and as a part of our ongoing commitment to making League of Legends an even more fun and awesome experience for players of all preferences, we are officially introducing Draft Mode into Normal Games! Now you can play like the pros without any impact on your ranked rating!

I have to say, this is probably the best feature launch we’ve yet seen in League of Legends. Why? Because we didn’t expect it. It wasn’t overhyped (unless you count the rumors/occasional red posts saying it may have sort of might be almost is kinda getting worked on). Hell, we were even told we wouldn’t be keeping the feature.

And yet, here it is, and it’s pretty awesome. Good on you, Riot. Good on you.

Ranked queues get temporarily disabled

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.

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