Definitely Not Dominion: My Opinions

Like the title, this is all my opinion of the new Definitely Not Dominion Mode. You can take it with a grain of salt if you wish, but I want to say what I feel about it since its first weekend finished. To be quite frank, I don't like the map much at all; these are a few reasons why:

1. Too much Vision with a near-useless Ward. Right from the start of the match, you're able to see a huge percentage of the map from both sides, and only certain parts of the Jungle are hidden. The tidbit about the Ward is because there's already so much of the map visible that there's almost no point in having a pseudo-Farsight Alteration. Unfortunately, these points tie in with my second opinion.
2. Too much reliance on the middle point. From the get-go, it's a battle to capture the middle. Due to the map's design, the middle is extremely important; not just because it offers a free speed boost to the team capturing it, as well as being the best point of the map to head to any of the three Towers, but also because of the Vision differences between those that did and didn't capture it. Capturing it gives you the full Vision of the middle, while not doing so only grants Vision of the small diameter of the point itself. Because of this, this mechanic gives Hidden Power to the capturing team as they now vastly more awareness of the best point of divergence of the map. Having this Vision, you can see opponents heading to your Relic and can stop them (especially since it's so close to your Fountain); not having the Vision, you won't be able to see them coming until they appear at the Relic...in which by the time you arrive they'll already have taken it and left. You can't even Teleport, even though it's justified due to the map's size, so you're normally out of luck there. Which brings me to my next point.
3. Too many resources, causing your units to be spread thin and made vulnerable. In this Mode, we have 3 Towers, a middle point offering speed to the capturing team, and 2 Relics that spawn Ultra Minions to the one that takes their respective one. With the size of the map already making Teamfighting quickly inevitable, you're left with the choice to either stay and help your team or to capture objectives and chip at their Nexus' remaining Health. Due to this, Melee Powerhouses like Darius, Nasus, and Xin Zhao have a huge advantage. These types of Champs have a strong Early Game and put huge pressure on the opponent's team, causing them to use their resources to fight instead of capture objectives; meanwhile, the team not pressured can capture the objectives and put them in the lead. In Solo Queue this is very bad, because this kind of thing quickly causes discord in teams...and when the opponents are still leading strong thanks to their Juggernaut Carry, causing even more discord, it leads to your team falling apart and quickly ending the game in the opponent's favor. Which leads me into my final point. 4/5) Premade teams have a huge advantage over Solo Queued teams. First, no one really knows how to play the map effectively because it's so new. Second, premade teams are already more likely to win because their teammates are more likely to get along. Tying these points in with my three points above, this makes it easy to cause Solo players to become toxic and cause discord with their teammates. Another part of this, being point 5, is that any team that can communicate with their team inevitably wins over any team without communication. Solo players don't use Curse or Skype with their teammates, but Premades can and normally do; on a map that relies so much on teamwork and split-decision making, being able to reliably communicate with your team over Skype causes you to be able to make those decisions much easier and therefore wins you games much more often. I hope these made sense to you all, and I hope Riot will at least continue working on the Mode (though I'd love if at least one of them shared their thoughts on my words). I know it's new, and I'm not angry about its condition because of how new it is, but it's a Mode that really needs to get improved upon. Thanks for reading, everyone, and I'll see you all on the Howling Abyss next weekend for Legend of the Poro King!