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The Removal of Teambuilder and its overall impact on the Community

Best Foxx NA·2/15/2016, 2:08:45 AM·9 votes·849 views

To any who read this, what I write here is my opinion and in no way is meant to represent any entity other than my person.

As many in the community know, the recent patches which make up the opening salvo of changes for Season 6 saw within them the end of Teambuilder, a game mode intended to allow people to play what they wanted. This game mode, while flawed in some ways (namely the longest wait times for a Support player), was one of the few things I (as a player since the end of Season 4 up through the opening of Season 6) could say that Riot Games did right by the players. The introduction of the Champion Mastery system with Teambuilder allowed those who took the time to really learn their champions to show it off in a way other than by entering ranked. It was probably the closest to a Golden Age that League of Legends probably got.

The recent changes, namely the deleting of Teambuilder, was probably the biggest "two steps back" Riot Games has taken in a long, long time. The reason so many loved Teambuilder was it was a way to securely "play what you want" and learn your champions in a safe environment (often with friends) without having to deal with players who trolled the Blind Pick and Normal Draft game modes. It gave many a reason to get on and play a few games of League, even if it took some time to finally get on the Rift and throw down a match. But the experience made up for the wait time. In recent days, I have found it hard to duo queue with my friends since we can never truly lock in what we want (and the system as it seems has been designed to prevent this) and it makes it hard to play with friends. Playing a Normal Draft (which is now the norm) begins to feel like playing Solo Queue and can get just as stressful as Solo Queue. I feel as though Riot Games is trying to force its Normals Players into the Ranked system, and this to me is a huge reason why I have been so heavily deterred from even opening my client, even if it's just to get the latest patch. The game is so anti-fun now. It's tearing apart friendships. It's killing League of Legends. It has forced those who have tried to avoid the trolls to now play with them, and the recent changes punish those who dodge to avoid the trolls, giving said trolls too much power and allowing their toxicity to ruin the experience of League of Legends for everyone.

Riot, I implore you to heavily reconsider re-instating the Teambuilder Queue back into the list. Without it, I don't think I myself, or any others, will have a reason to play this game we all used to love, and (for some) still do. The future of League of Legends is on the table. BRING. BACK. TEAMBUILDER.

  • ShadowEagle0117 Level 30 Server: NA

19 Comments

Sohleks2/15/2016, 4:52:15 AM3 votes

This is an important discussion.

My experience with the removal of teambuilder-

  • teambuilder gone (duh) (was never a huge fan of it though due to poor matchmaking and what used to be the longest and unpredictable queues)
  • new normal draft queue times are insufferable. Far more intolerable than teambuilder ever was. That is .. shocking. How do you make it worse??? For my main I literally cannot get games in reasonable time frame as any role (the mmr is very high) Normal draft basically gone.
  • Blind pick is left. The loss of teambuilder and a reasonable normal draft queues has increased role call competition disgustingly affecting even this experience. This is only noticeable when smurfing though.

Basically lose lose everywhere.

I can't believe it but I'd like teambuilder back. At the very least to funnel away the one tricks in regular queues or if I'm in that mood too

Actually, what I really want is just pick order draft to reign supreme again. As a flex player this is the best experience. The current systems are designed to fix the symptoms and not the problem (unrealistically non-adaptable players). You can't get around this problem. It just remanifests as absurd queues or poor matchmaking.

Don't get me started on ranked, ranked teams and dynamic queues.

Shuriman Curator2/15/2016, 4:23:47 AM2 votes

I agree with you that taking away team builder was a step back and I too miss that game mode. Hell I used to play old Shen mid consistently for a challenge, and got really good with him too.(being exposed to different champs was a plus)

Not to mention, I came across nicer people in team builder than normal draft niw i come across flamers, trolls etc I rarely encounted issues in team builder.

MXXXXXL2/16/2016, 6:26:38 PM2 votes

I agree, Team Builder was the best. So i made this:

https://www.change.org/p/riot-games-bring-team-builder-back-to-league-of-legends

Lol.

Wickedfates2/16/2016, 2:28:28 PM1 votes

i dislike being trolled or being called a troll when im just trying to casually play a game for fun.... i can't play an "off meta" pick now without being called a troll, having my champ banned, or having players on my own team bm me during the game....

i miss teambuilder

ChoNuff2/22/2016, 3:57:24 AM1 votes

The OP has it right. I have stopped playing league of legends due to the removal of teambuilder. Only tie I have to game now is occasionally checking the forums to see if they have brought teambuilder queue back. There have been a lot of threads from people on the forums on this issue. I have found only one thread from riot which was made in one of the earlier, larger threads on the topic of removing teambuilder. Nothing else. I think it is a shame they have removed teambuilder and a bigger shame they have not justified its removal or communicated at all about players' frustrations on this issue.

Best Valor NA2/22/2016, 4:04:59 AM1 votes

But, teambuilder has nothing to do with LCS! Why would Riot ever do anything that doesn't help the LCS/Pro Play?