Why I Think 'Team Builder' Should Come Back

kochokoi·2/2/2016, 1:01:01 AM·9 votes·860 views

i will start this off by prefacing with the fact that i rather enjoy the new dynamic queue. i think it's very visually appealing, albeit a little slow sometimes, and i quite like the intended pick and new ban phase (so it's not all up to one person). though, i think that team builder and dynamic queue are both great but serve very different purposes and should both be in the game to cater to different kinds of games and playstyles. dynamic is a great update to draft, but quite frankly i think it's just that: an update to draft. it works great for normal draft queue and ranked queues, but it is in no way a replacement for team builder as they are vastly different, and i'd like to talk about why i feel this way. (please feel free to let me know your thoughts as well!)

  • in the new dynamic queue, you are never guaranteed your role. if you're trying to practice a particular champion, you have to hope and wish on lucky stars that you actually get the role you're trying to play, especially if it's popular like mid or top (and if we're being honest the fill role is just support and jungle a good 90% of the time, and about 75% of the time i end up getting my secondary pick anyway). this makes it very frustrating for people to actually play who and what they want to, as they are never guaranteed anything and often have to compromise and change ideas once they get into a lobby. this was my favourite thing about team builder by far and probably my biggest complaint about dynamic. basically, in the new dynamic queue, if you main one particular role or champion and you don't get your primary pick, you're shit out of luck. if you want to practice something specific and don't get it, you're shit out of luck.
  • in team builder, when you joined a lobby, you knew what you were getting into. if you have a group of friends together and you're trying out off-meta champions in strange roles with odd builds for the sake of cheesing and having fun, anyone who joined into that lobby would see the roles/champs you all have selected and could chose to stay with you or move on to a new lobby if they're in the mood for something more serious. in dynamic queue, you have no idea what other people might potentially be planning on doing this game, and this can make it difficult for you to play the game how you'd like. for example, i recently played a game where two people went top lane and left the adc alone on bottom without any kind of communication prior to let the team know what they were going to do and it ended up going very poorly for all of us.
  • dynamic queue is slow. i've read that this is being addressed, but it's still an issue. sometimes you just want to throw together a team and jump into the game and not care about the banning phase or pick order.
  • now today with the release of jhin we see another problem. people in lobbies are constantly banning him, or if it so happens that the six banners don't mark him off, the first pick will snag him. i've seen people asking politely for others to not ban jhin as they have him listed as their intended pick, and then people immediately banning him rather spitefully and making jokes about it to further drive the point. this is causing a lot of frustration between players and causing tension already in lobbies before the game even starts, which does not get matches off to a good start and is hurting the game and experience of playing, making playing all around unenjoyable at the moment. people aren't even letting others play a brand new champion on their release day just because they can. (the only alternative is playing blind pick, in which case good luck and you better hope you have fast reflexes to lock him in first)

3 Comments

Trendition2/2/2016, 5:22:11 AM2 votes

I agree with you 100%. I have gotten into many lobbies where I will show my pick intent as Jhin then ill ask for no ban on him. but 7 out of 8 times someone on my own team will ban him!

Smoke and Steel2/2/2016, 5:29:22 AM2 votes

In the words of Ezreal : "Agreed!"

What's the point of buying a new champion if you can't play him until well after their release? Team Builder may have been slow, but it allowed a freedom that the new champion select has robbed us of. The new champ select is honestly a blessing for ranked, and it does its job there very well, but when i'm in a casual mood and want to try something different from my pool of champions, team builder provided me with a way to make sure i'd get that role. And like you mentioned, people knew what they were getting into. I didn't have to feel bad for trolling with an off-meta pick because they chose willingly to play with me. Team builder had its flaws, but it was honestly the most freeing experience I've ever had in league, and its retirement is truly a loss.