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Some of us still Love Dominion

CactiRed·2/10/2016, 8:21:42 PM·215 votes·29,108 views

Retiring Dominion

O Riot why? Yes there are valid reasons for closing it but some people still love it. I agree that I rarely play dominion due to que sizes (like most people). But permanently removing it just feels like the easy way out. I could understand if it was being taken down for a eventual rework, but permanently?

If it was eventually re-worked,people would at least play it for a while due to its "newness". It had its strengths, It (assuming the ques were favorable) was good for those short games to try out champions currently free. Having shorter gamemodes its important,I often cant play LOL as I have to leave myself 50 minutes yet Dominion rarely lasted more than 30 minutes. At the end of the day It made lol more varied, more interesting. Please don't permanently destroy a small, well loved by some and potentially greater part of the great game you have made.

There will always be some people who remember dominion fondly, and I can proudly say I will be one of them.

If you agree with me,or disagree please leave a comment bellow

220 Comments

1000angrybees2/10/2016, 8:48:18 PM77 votes

It's funny, because many people WANT to play dominion but DON'T simply because Riot won't bother with any upkeep. The irony here is delicious, but oh so bittersweet.

RiotL4T3NCY2/10/2016, 9:55:16 PM67 votes

Couldn't agree more that LoL needs some better options for "shorter game modes". We do what we can with Featured Game Modes when they release.

I want to address the "chicken & egg" analogy for Dominion support here as well. The large majority of players immediately bounced from the mode even when it was first released, preferring Summoner's Rift gameplay instead. The "capture & hold" style of gameplay didn't translate well into a MOBA and players voted strongly with their time: they spent it in SR instead.

We certainly could have spent the time & resources to design out the problems and mitigate floors in Dominion, but we recognised an already better experience existed in SR. It had more strategic choice, clearer game-state and a wider variety of satisfying roles. The team chose to double-down on SR instead of splitting between both SR and Dominion. At that point we should have clearly communicated this to you guys, which we didn't. That sucked and it's our bad.

Dominion's map shape + capture & hold gameplay was going to have diminishing returns for design time spent on it: and players still just wanted to play SR. I believe League is in a better place today for the time and effort we spent doubling down on SR, rather than splitting focus on Dominion.

OurLestrade2/10/2016, 8:24:22 PM11 votes

I still think they just needed to make the LCS dudes do some stuff on it rather than using the same map every year, just to shake things up. It would do wonders for the map, AND put a spin on the pro play people.

Sasogwa2/10/2016, 8:35:00 PM11 votes

I would like to get ask any red : What does it cost to let dominion how it is? Why would you remove something people are fine with? We don't care if you don't update it or care about it, as long as people do not mind if you don't change anything. I would REALLY like to know. Why?

Torenia2/11/2016, 1:14:48 AM11 votes

I cannot believe this is happening. I had felt good when Riot said they had no plans of removing Dominion because of the small but strong community it had.

I played League since Maokai's release years ago. The game as nice as I continued to play but the long matches were unattractive for me as was the speed of the game. When I saw Dominion was coming out I had very high hopes and wasn't disappointed. I sincerely enjoyed the pace of the game and how quick to action everything was. Even now, I been playing again a lot (check match history) and remembering how much I loved it. Then, I heard from a friend this news and hoped it was wrong...

I knew Dominion always was on the backburner as far as Riot was concerned but the very least it wasn't removed made me feel better. Yes, they rarely wanted to put any hype into it as to avoid taking people from SR away. I was already saddened when they removed the Dominion section of the board thus making it even harder to communicate with others. I made various friends from Dominion nonetheless and even got to play with a Riot member for my 1000th win (Davin, fellow Thresh lover) and hoped to for 2000th win again or even 1500th win which is very near.

In the end, the small community is pushed aside... with all the hours and $ (to support, though I guess it was pretty much just for SR and other things not related to Dominion) into it. While the icon is a nice touch, it really is just a tombstone for players like me who primarily played Dominion with the odd ARAM thrown in. Now, this is will be gone. To be honest, part of me doesn't want to even go on League at all for the sadness that this brings and to remember. Sure, I can go on for a last hurrah but what is the point? There is always Heroes of the Storm for the speed but I really enjoyed Dominion more and the transparency that Riot gives as well as the speed it does updates even if Dominion was, again, on the backburner. And no, there were no long queues. Waiting 1-7 min isn't considered a long queue to me.

It is a very sad day... I really don't want to stop playing League but for the small community that loved Dominion where else is there for us to go? I suppose it doesn't matter, the money lost for maintaining Dominion doesn't really make up for how much that small community spent.

I suppose I will have to consider if League just becomes, just like ARAM, that odd match I may play. I will certainly miss everyone I met in that game. I will definitely miss the game style itself. I know players will make fun of us for caring but if they can imagine their SR being taken away maybe they'd understand. Nothing short of a miracle can save this but I really have my doubts as far as money is concerned when comparing to SR. But I will try anyway... Please don't remove my Dominion... ---Sincerely, a Dominion player since launch, Torenia.

Edit: I wouldn't mind a rework really if the pace was kept...

TerraRising2/11/2016, 1:41:00 AM8 votes

While you may love Dominion, Riot's made it crystal clear that they have no love for you.

Thuban2/10/2016, 8:58:00 PM8 votes

"We might have been able to break out of that downward spiral with more dedicated resources"

Horseshit, they have plenty of resources. Nothing but a PR excuse to make it seem they can't do anything.

Alas, it's a damn fun mode, pity to see it go away. Now if Featured Game Modes would come around more often than once a year, we could all forget this ever happened.

All the more reason to play Smite.

Minarde2/10/2016, 9:12:02 PM7 votes

Despite being utterly abandoned by its developers immediately after launch, Dominion continued to chug along. It was inspiring as a symbol that SR's basic game flow wasn't the only way to enjoy League. Even as Riot kept "forgetting" about the map, even as Dom kept being overlooked while Riot was handing toys to SR, Dominion kept going. Now on the cusp of adding Hextech Crafting, Riot decides to outright delete the map rather than figure out drop rates.

Overall, Dominion had great charm that was unfortunately overshadowed by Riot's neglect.

Gnart Even Close2/10/2016, 9:05:00 PM5 votes

Dominion is awesome! The only things I want are more people playing it (shorter queue times), the new champ select, and an updated map. All of the mechanics in it are really cool. They have absolutely no reason to remove it other than the fact that their neglect of it has left it much less played than Summoner's Rift. Riot needs to change that, and I know that once they do, more people will play it. ARAM is pretty successful because it actually has a decent amount of support. If Dominion gets it, people will play it. Once people play it, the queue times will be better. Once that happens, more people play, etc, etc. I don't really care about the BS Riot was giving about not fracturing player bases. In NA at least, there are more than enough people playing to keep all the modes relevant as long as there is some support.

Akesgeroth2/11/2016, 1:58:57 PM4 votes

But Dominion isn't used for eSports so they don't care.

FatTaco2/10/2016, 11:52:41 PM3 votes

Fuck this company. Every 2 weeks in this season there's more shit news. Kind of bored of not being excited for any patches. I was a big supporter of Season 6 SR and now 3 official patches in and it's not fun. I think I'm pretty much done with this game now. I only come back when they change my favourite champions (e.g. Ryze) to see if I can find fun in them still. I don't even like the meta or the pro play anymore, I honestly play 2 roles and only use about 5 champions all together. If I can have fun with a character I keep signing in but now each month more champions are being changed in ways that are just boring to me and now you're killing the small percentage of Dominion fans just really sticks out with how much you could give a damn about your loyal community. People say this game will die soon if Riot keeps the way they are going, I never believed it but now it's really coming clear. The loyal fans will fall off, move on and it won't be hip anymore because the loyal fans are the ones keeping this game popular and bring in new players (especially streamers/YouTubers). I used to buy Riot Points to support the company more than my own selfish reasons and now I honestly don't want to spend another penny. Sad day. item 3070 Skarner

LIfetrocity2/11/2016, 3:11:14 AM3 votes

I had 98 wins earlier today when this announcements went live...

Rioters, might there possibly be an exception here for those who are in the 95-99 range since this whole thing was a complete surprise?

Zange Utahime2/11/2016, 1:36:15 PM3 votes

Like, cmon, Dominion isnt a thing i play daily... but when i feel like shit, play like shit and act like shit - all i want is some fun RIGHT THERE. I dont even need changes, i think it's okay as it is... im afraid re-work would change everything and ruin it :S So just please... for once like a freaking normal company - and listen. LISTENFFS.

Oberic2/10/2016, 10:50:46 PM3 votes

Surge and Promote were redesigned for the release of Dominion. When they fell out of favor on SR, they were removed from both maps. This did major damage to Dominion and I believe just putting Promote and Surge back into Dominion would do wonders for it.

It wouldn't take much to salvage Dominion and not need to remove it. Get rid of either blind pick or draft for Dominion (to consolidate queues), and maybe put in ranked like you said you would so many years ago.

One good front page post and Dominion would have a real playerbase.