Dear Riot, I haven't had this much fun in a long time...[UNPOPULAR OPINION]
The past couple months have been rough. As someone who enjoys Kog'Maws style of play, I haven't been "allowed" to have fun due to the meta that by nature hard counters him. The Rift itself is fairly stale right now with Lucian/Blue Ezreal practically guaranteed in every game. I am so sick of seeing Zed and Yasuo everywhere and my list of grievances go on.
ARAM isn't much better for me, facing comps such as Brand/Xerath/Karma/Vel'Koz makes me want to pull my hair out, and playing as that team isn't much fun because I know I am just winning by virtue of objectively superior team comp.
I don't find rotating modes such as Hexakill fun at all, URF to me is the definition of anti-fun. I literally get upset playing it because people only care about winning at the expense of everyone else. Sure, The Rift gets BS when you get behind, but nothing you do on the Rift can compare to URF Shenanigans of Eve, Zed and Shaco.
But this weekend, Riot brought Dominion back, aka "lol dominions shit" or "whats a dominion?". I was sad Riot removed it, because I only ever knew how fun it was when they announced it was leaving. Ever since it left, I really wanted to play more of it because of how fun it was.
Now this is where my unpopular opinion starts. I think Dominion is more balanced, more exciting, and more fair than ARAM, the Holy URF and The Rift combined.
I got to try so many champions and experiment with builds or familiarize myself with a champion. Oh hey, I'd like to try AP Akali for once. Load myself into a game, and immediately get into the action. There is no lane phase, it just gets STRAIGHT INTO THE ACTION. Even on ARAM, there is still a "lane phase" at the start, but not here.
Dominion is so intense, I literally could not stop playing. Why? Because you literally cannot zone out. Dominion is NEVER over until it is. Often times on the Rift, at 10-15 minutes in you just say "gg, ff@20" because, well, something happened and Leblanc is 11-0. It happens. But not in Dominion. I have had games where I get utterly steamrolled and the enemy has a champ that is literally 35/8, followed up by an adc that isn't too far behind, but guess what, they STILL lost in the end because no matter how far behind you are, if you work together, anything is possible. You can never get "comfortable" in Dominion, you can always lose your edge and fall behind.
What sealed the deal for dominion with me was a game where we got roflstomped SUPER HARD. The score was 350-50, we got slaughtered and our team called GG /ff. I was being a stubborn bronze and REFUSED to cave in. These people clearly did not play Dominion, and were unfamiliar with the concept that "Dominion is never over until it is". I tried to be positive in chat, and decided to shotcall. Stop contesting the altars, and hold the majority of the bases. We had so many close calls, and we almost lost again, but in the end, we won with a score of 0-5. 5 measly points, that is a split hair of a score to win by against overwhelming odds. That is nearly impossible to pull off in the Rift unless the enemy drags the game on and let death timers work against you.
Speaking of which, DEATH TIMERS. Part of the reason why Dominion is so much FUN is because there AREN'T obscene death timers. You die, and almost immediately you are back into the fray. No more gray screens, just nonstop bloodshed.
A lot of people don't give Dominion a chance, but if you take the time to learn how to play it, it is very easy to succeed in!
TL;DR : Dominion is fast, it's fun, snowballing is non existent due to insanely short death timers and super high gold generation, Dominion is a mode you can ALWAYS come back from if you work together and want to make it happen, being fed means absolutely nothing, and anything can happen. There is no lane phase/farming, only action. Non stop skirmishes, fights and tactical repositioning/retreats.
And Singed is Viable.
