I feel really bad for the 0.5% players that adored dominion... :(

Now this is still all based on generalizations of numbers. 0.5% Is a ridiculously low percentage. And normally I would heavily agree that it would mean that it would be a horribly low number of players. However when you see how many players (estimate) play this game. You can't just use that math of 0.5% as your end all be all answer for removing dominion.

Now I could have done my math 100% wrong. But let me just make sure I did it right on the calculator.

I needed to find a flat number as my estimate. So i googled, how many players play League of Legends, the answer was this: "27 million people, more than 27 million people play multiplayer online battle arena game League of Legends on a daily basis, developer Riot Games announced today. According to Riot, that number is more than double its last figure, announced in October 2012, of 12 million. Approximately 67 million players log time on a monthly basis."

We'll use the largest number given as the estimate, as it's our monthly basis. Which is around 67,000,000 players. (Maybe more or less).

Take the 0.5% of the players that play dominion on the calculator

67,000,000 x 0.5

Now it's a little harder to do it on the calculator because 0.5% just means 50%. So add another 0, so it looks like 0.05.

Instead it looks like this 67,000,000 x 0.05

The number came out as 3,500,000.

Now there's NO WAY that Riot would just remove a mode that more than 3 million players play monthly. So I had to lower it to one more zero.

67,000,000 x 0.005

And I got 335,000.

Now of course when you compare 335,000 to 67,000,000. There's no comparison. None. Zip.

But when you look at 335,000 as a whole? That's STILL a lot of people. Of course when you think about it, there are people that just only like playing dominion. They don't like ARAM and they don't like Summoner's Rift. What makes it worse Riot, is that the post you're giving the players that adore dominion, almost feels condescending.

"For players who’ve made the Crystal Scar their home over the last four years, we’ll be taking a snapshot of the queue today just before this post goes live. Then we’ll give out an exclusive, never-to-be-reproduced Summoner Icon to anyone with over 100 wins in matchmade Dominion games (not including Co-op vs AI). You can expect the icon to land in your account within two weeks of this announcement! We know this doesn’t ease the sting of losing the mode you’ve spent thousands of hours in. But if you want to stick around and join us on the Rift, we feel you deserve a way to show off your domination."

And then at the end Riot says this, "We’re retiring Dominion to focus on our vision for League moving forward: we’ll concentrate on the core League game while supporting alternative experiences which deliver consistent, competitive gameplay with healthy queues and appropriate matchmaking (ARAM and featured game modes are good examples of this)."

So Riot is removing a mode that at least 355,000 players play, without a mode to compensate for it... and the only thing they're going to have for it, is a summoner icon? Really?

What does Riot gain from removing it? Nothing. What do they lose from it staying on? Nothing.

Do you understand Riot, that by making this kind of decision, you're pretty much just cutting off less important limbs to our body so you can focus on the ones that hog all the attention? They're less important....but they're STILL parts of your body.

And the fact that you're pretty much saying (in a nice way mind you), "You don't play Summoner's Rift enough. So like... you know. You're not really important enough to keep dominion. But if you want to play the mode you weren't at all interested in playing...you can play that!"

~

Now I get that Riot is a big industry. I get that they're trying to make money. But what is the financial gain from removing dominion? Your reasoning for removing it is this, "In the absence of our attention, matchmaking and game quality in Dominion varies wildly based on daily engagement. Because of how matchmaking works, the longer someone looking to play Dominion waits in queue, the wider the pool of potential foes the matchmaker can pull from -- with such a small population, Dominion games can match up widely divergent skill levels after long enough queue times. Unhealthy queues that force players to endure long waits with fluctuating match quality ultimately creates an overall poor experience -- one we take responsibility for."

But the thing is Riot, the players that wanted to play Dominion were pretty much more than willing to wait the long queue times. They understand that not many players play on Dominion, so these unhealthy queues are just like, you know.... not unhealthy. But you're taking responsibility for something that you don't have to take responsibility for.

So what happens if you find that only 0.5% play Twisted Treeline? Are you going to remove that too?

Basically all I'm saying, is that Riot shouldn't be so willing to cut off even a small group of players without giving them something to compensate them for the loss. Not a new mode. Not an exclusive Dominion skin. Like maybe a "Dominating Ryze" or a "Dominating Draven" skin? No, the players only get a cheap looking summoner's icon and a "Good luck and thanks for a fish."

And the worst part about it, you're not even giving them the option of playing dominion with friends in custom matches. Like.... man. I don't understand it.

Maybe someone can explain this to me. Because I don't understand the point, the purpose, or the gain from pretty much giving the middle finger to a small player base that while playing an unpopular mode, still proved to be loyal to League of Legends for four years.