My thoughts on Definitely Not Dominion for League of Legends.

So as a long-time Dominion player I was heartbroken to find out that Dominion was being remove from the game. Thankfully Riot Games recently brought it back as Definitely Not Dominion, but they changed it to be more in line with the Featured Game Mode rotating queue.

Pros:

• Matches are faster, meaning that it takes less time to play a match than before.
• Death Timers are shorter, meaning that teams can get back into the action quicker.
• Updated map. The entirety of the map has received a much needed and long-time coming make-over, and it looks really good if you ask me.

Cons:

• Matches can feel too snowbally at times. From what I've experienced whoever wins the very first team fight around the middle objective generally goes on to win the game with no hope of losing unless they royally screw up.
• High burst+decent mobility=torture for the enemy team. With enough burst the losing team doesn't stand a chance of coming back and winning the game against teams that stick together and camp near the enemy base. * Because the mode feels so much more burst oriented than before, trying out different and unique champions in the mode is often a risk that doesn't pay off.
• Death timers are shorter-too short in fact. Players are only out for about 5-10 seconds at most before they're back in the action. Because of this it can be very difficult for the winning team to capitalize on their victories depending on the state of the game at the time.
• No more Quarry and Boneyard. Both areas can no longer be captured, and the bottom paths in-between them are now blocked off. With both being permanent held by one team, this means that there's only 3 capture points total: The Refinery, The Windmill and The Drill.
• Too much emphasis on the Storm Altar. The Storm Relics of old have been replaced by the Storm Relic, which grants a team-wide buff that deals % max HP true damage on any spell or attack along with transforming the Altar into a team-only speed shrine. This is what I meant when I said the first team fight winner usually wins, because along with the next point can allow total dominance of the winning team.
• There's too much free vision given in near the team bases. This can make it hard to set up ambushes or navigate carefully around the areas close to the Storm Relic.

Overall:

Though I like and appreciate the attempt that Riot did to try to bring back Dominion, it definitely does not feel like the Dominion of old. With fewer capture points and more emphasis on the Storm Relic and high burst damage comps, it can lead for a very unpleasant experience depending on how the game goes. Sad to say that I don't think that this will keep allot of long-time Dominion players interested from very long. If you ask me the old Dominion should be brought back to the way that it was before, if not as a permanent game mode like before then at the very least as a featured game mode.