ARAM State: Successes and Failures
The ARAM Queue is awful - not that its slow, but that players are constantly declining ready check and dodging in champ select, often at the last second. It is common for me to join at least 3 different champion selects before actually loading into a game. I have played over 2k games of ARAM since it first came out, and this issue seems to be getting progressively worse. Instead of playing ARAM for what it is, a lax game mode where you probably don't get a champ you'd play competitively, people are only queueing into game when they get one of the small pool of champs they deem fun.
(Unpopular Opinion) Despite all this, I applaud the removal of the ban system. ARAM is traditionally a game mode where players have less control of the game than they are used to (because you cannot buy or heal when you want, because instead of 1 to 3 uncontrollable players (allies and enemies) in your lane you have 9, because there is a high chance that you would never play the champion you roll in a competitive game). The amount of control and influence players have in a game is largely tossed up to rng, which I believe is the identity of ARAM. However, the caveat of a mode like this is the danger of the random factors feeling like they have a larger influence on the game than the players could have. For many who heavily favor playing a select style with a specific group of champions rather than varied styles, bans are the answer to this problem. However, I feel that this presents too much control to the player and heavily wears away at the features that so blatantly define ARAM. This balance of control and influence players feel in the mode definitely needs to be revisited in other ways if this mode is to cater to a larger audience (but maybe it doesn't have to?).
I enjoy ARAM because unlike ranked, it isn't about showcasing a players best performance on their best champions but about giving players opportunities to try new champions and learn to play differently. In the past I often was locked in with champions I didn't excel at, but over time I learned to play them and actually enjoyed the game more because of it. The mode definitely allows players to enjoy champions in a way that isn't purely competitive.
I love that RIOT is finally putting work into making ARAM more enjoyable. Thank you, and I hope RIOT continues to improve it and bring us more exciting features.
