I have a couple good friends that I frequently join up with to play Twisted Treeline. It’s not a perfect experience by any means, but it allows us to play a draft mode together and the games are relatively short. The best part about TT is definitely game length, but the map leaves an awful lot to be desired in terms of balance.

The time issue actually carries over to Summoner’s Rift for me. I rarely queue for 5v5 unless I know I have an hour to spend and even 3s can take 40 minutes if the game goes long. That’s a pretty long chunk of time to commit to a game, especially if it ends up being a loss. I’m sure we’ve all had games that are going so poorly that there’s no hope of victory but teammates hang on and refuse to surrender. Those types of games make me long for a quicker experience.

DotA had an “easy mode” toggle that could be used with each gametype, granting bonus gold per second and I believe extra gold for towers. It increased the pace of the game by allowing players to passively reach a level of farm more quickly, similar to the way Twisted Treeline generates per-second gold faster than Summoner’s Rift. I actually think it would be cool to have an “easy mode” playlist in League of Legends, a mode in which the XP and gold rewards were tuned so that 30 minutes looked like 70 minutes does now.

That mode wouldn’t work very well on Twisted Treeline. The 3v3 map just snowballs out of hand far too quickly. Games would likely be decided by the first fight (and in some cases, they still are). For Summoner’s Rift, though, I think it would give casual players more opportunity to fire up a game while the baby’s napping, in between classes, or just before heading to bed. Speaking of which…

Riot recently announced that summoners will soon be able to play co-op games against computer controlled champions for IP. It sounds like a cool system, at least for getting back into the mix if you’ve been away for a while or want to test a new champion. More interesting to me, though, is the screenshot that’s in the current client for the service.

As you can see above, the picture shows what appears to be an updated client with some new features. For starters, there is a ‘Game Mode’ field. This could mean very good things for players who, like myself, enjoy a little variety. I would love to see all-random deathmatch implemented, and it would be interested to have an All Random All Mid option as well. The bad news is that the field is blank other than ‘Classic.’ Granted, Riot probably doesn’t want to leak anything, but that could also be an indication of just how far off these new game modes might be.

It’s hard to see much else. The new format is much more conducive to multiple maps in a list format, instead of the current grid button system the client uses to select game types. Any guesses as to how far away this client is? I’ll say six months.

It’s one of the shortest lines in this week’s patch notes, but one of the sweetest. I actually reread this three times late last night when I was browsing the notes – “You can now request a trade with other players at the end of Draft Mode.” Say hello to the best feature since Season One launched. this is a big deal, especially for premade teams. You no longer have to have your Morgana/Amumu/Vlad player create the game.

This could also help a lot of solo queue players, depending on the community reaction. In DotA, swap was huge, and players were pretty cool about trading if they didn’t want to play a given champion but had the coveted first pick. Other players don’t like having first pick, and might use trade to barter a later pick slot with other players.

I’m more excited about this than I am about anything else in this game right now.

When Twisted Treeline first released I was thrilled. I loved the smaller map size, the emphasis on fighting and ganking, and the importance of map control. I thought it would be a great map to learn with the two friends with whom I play most often and a good way to get comfortable with a faster paced game.

Some of those things came true, but as people have started to figure out the map I’ve seen the same teams over and over again. It’s always some combination of Shen/Mundo/Jax/Poppy/Mordekaiser with the occasional Warwick/Shaco/Singed thrown in for a little variety. Mostly, though, it’s the first five, and I’m tired of it. The great part about this game is the variety, which that map limits in a big way. It’s not that three-tank teams can’t be beat, just that they require you to play near perfectly for the beginning of the game. If they get up in any way, or even if they keep pace with you, you’re going to have a very hard time beating them.

People have been asking for fixes to the problem – map specific items, global buffs or debuffs to reduce the effectiveness of three-tank teams – but I think the solution is much more simple. We need draft mode. If each team can ban two heroes and no one can pick the same toon it makes the game much more interesting. You can bet most people would ban Jax/Mundo right off the bat, likely followed by Poppy/Shen or maybe Udyr if the other team has a good Udyr player. Whatever the case, I really miss draft mode from DotA and I love the fact that it gives players the opportunity to filter out some of the more overpowered characters that haven’t received their respective nerfs/remakes.

Riot’s said multiple times that draft mode is in the works but there’s still no ETA. As with the Flash remake, I’m hoping it’s sooner rather than later.