TeamBuilder - What were they thinking?

Another day, another set of bad options for learning a champion.

You would think, in a game panned for it's integration of new players, that it would want to give the illusion of trying to make the learning curve reasonable. You'd think that people who live and die by their service model would not shy away from offering another option when it's built, working, and not counter-productive to other missions. But then again, you don't work at Riot.

The same minds that thought Blind Pick was something other than a complete train wreck saw fit last week to remove Team Builder. A game option that allowed players to not only choose their champion and lane in advance, it allowed their team to agree to that choice. A luxury that, in a highly toxic community, allowed everyone to at least say "hey, you knew this was the plan going in." Team Builder, in my time using it, did two things exceptionally well:

1. Allowed you a place to try the Free Rotation without question.

2. Was a place where everyone knew trial runs were the norm.

Most times I played, 2 to 3 people were trying something new - lane, champ, role. And it was fine. It wasn't ranked, it wasn't that serious, and because you were trying something new, often people took it more seriously than Normal, where the community believes the unwritten rule is "this is the option to take when you're under the influence." But the question that's causing every curious player is "Why remove it?" Has anyone every suffered from too many options? In business, the answer is yes. But that doesn't apply to this situation.

TeamBuilder had assets you can't replicate in other models. And if the theory is "well we don't like people getting what they want, when they want" Fine. But other than an XP-less bot game, which can't possibly replicate players, how do we learn a new champ? If we have no other avenue, why even have a free rotation offered once a player has 16 champs? To throw Normal games? The question on the table isn't about the merits of TB, or whether Normal is a suitable alternative. The question is: with it requiring no additional effort, a unique game experience, and a a crowd pleasing option with no negation for other players - what the hell were they thinking?

Choice matters, folks. You can't run away from it: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/malcolm-gladwell-on-spaghetti-sauce