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Riot is removing your Ranked practice mode

Deep Terror Nami·11/8/2016, 9:01:07 PM·189 votes·4,570 views

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/competitive/how-rank-2017-season

Normal Draft will be retired at the start of preseason for all regions except North America, Europe West, and Brazil.

Ok, it's not affecting us in NA...

In an ideal world, we’d like to retire normal draft in all regions.

...yet.

Riot, Blind Pick is toxic. It promotes toxicity within the team right off the bat by rewarding autolocking, and doesn't provide an appropriate environment for preparing for Ranked play because it allows for mirror matches and (obviously) does not provide the same pick/ban phase. Normal Draft is an absolute necessity whether the player pool is small or not.

Our goal is to offer the fewest number of queues that give unique experiences

This isn't Dominion, where only a handful of players used it and it was just a "fun" mode. It is a very good thing that the mode is identical to Ranked play. I'm never going to play Blind Pick again, even if I have to practice first time champions in Ranked.

I'm upset and I'm in NA where it won't [yet] be removed. I can't imagine how the millions of players you're actively screwing over are taking it.

54 Comments

Captatrix11/9/2016, 5:22:43 AM8 votes

Well, haha, guess I'll finally become the guy that tries Yasuo for the first time in someone's promos :D

Colgate Gator11/9/2016, 2:42:49 AM7 votes

I have been having a blast playing with Draft mode, and I seriously hate Blind pick with a passion.

Please don't do this, damn it.

Autrah Fang11/9/2016, 2:02:02 AM6 votes

there's a reason i don't play blind pick. i absolutely despise getting my desired role only 5% of the time, and getting support or jungle the other 95% (either due to not calling it fast enough or someone claiming to have called it before i even loaded into the lobby). then there's the fact that there are no bans, no counterpicking, and mirror matchups. now, the mirror isn't as much of a problem (just gotta play better than my enemy right?), but there are some champions that i hate playing against and they are played every game if not banned (or at least feels like it).

draft is the only way i can have fun after team builder was removed. i don't want to lose that too...

Cocho11/8/2016, 9:19:06 PM5 votes

I can see why they would remove it for smaller regions. Queue times can be hell. We're just lucky we aren't in that region

ninjaroxas11/9/2016, 1:02:56 PM5 votes

Draft is toxic. It promotes toxicity with the team right off the bat with people getting upset they didnt get the role they wanted which can cause them to A) dodge or B) troll or the champion they wanted to play gets banned which can also cause the above. In some case's your own team will ban a champion you hover because they don't want you playing it. Its also harder to play off meta for the same reason above. I really don't care if they take draft away or not because i dont play it, i think they should just keep both but if your reason for keeping it is because blind is toxic you need a better one

LostFr0st11/8/2016, 9:11:33 PM4 votes

They should remove both blind and draft and make a mode that's in the middle then. Position-select with bans at the start then all blind-pick. Lower champ-select time, still have bans, and nobody would have to spam their role in chat.

ltmetal11/9/2016, 8:36:09 AM3 votes

If they do remove normal draft, I will only use custom games to practice. The toxicity and game health costs for setting foot into a blind pick are way too high.

Only Play Darius11/8/2016, 9:30:01 PM3 votes

Without normal draft there to give me the opportunity to play against gold+ players I would have never made it to Gold. Ranked is good and all but it's hard to learn from your mistakes when you are placed strictly against people only a couple of divisions above you. If League is as large as Riot tells us it is then there should be no reason they would have to consolidate the queues

Jorencice11/8/2016, 9:38:11 PM3 votes

Ive played literally 1000s of blind pick games and it really isnt that bad.

I just pick which champion i want to play and play it.

Means ive supported and jungled almost every champion in the game. And i rarely ever get flamed even while playing stuff like tryn support

CorruptedScythe11/9/2016, 7:57:42 AM3 votes

Delete normal both normal queues and replace with teambuilder. Easy peasy.

He4rtkiller11/9/2016, 12:23:32 PM2 votes

I play Normal draft more then anything else in this game. High queue times are annoying sometimes but I would almost always chose higher queue time with option to select position i want to play before low queue time and to have to fight for the position i want or to get stuck with something i do not enjoy playing or even worse to get people trolling because they didn't get what they wanted. Normal draft needs to stay! Make it work RIot! Better remove blind and keep draft!

Decrit11/9/2016, 7:14:04 AM2 votes

What they meant to say is that they would like to not have 2 different normal queques. This is a good strategy overall.

Obviously cropping out a queque is not the way to go except on poorly populated areas where it is a more extreme but necessary measure, so the "ideal world" they have in mind is one where there is a single non-ranked q that combines the good of draft and blind normal pick.. This is a good thing because it omogenized player experience across the globe, and a bad idea because it does not allow a player to be flexible on how they want to play.

It does not mean the "ideal world" is a "practical world" either - it is probably just an idea that they have to chase but that is unreachable, but it is worth to have to they have something to strive on.

Octavia11/9/2016, 5:51:46 PM2 votes

remove it, worthless queue

ZT Xperimentor11/9/2016, 6:55:38 AM2 votes

Meanwhile teambuilder was a great inbetween option that riot dropped like it was rabid rat.

Battlecast Sona11/9/2016, 5:47:40 AM2 votes

I just want to say because this is the only one I think really addresses it:

I queue Normal Draft because people are less toxic. I rarely play ranked due to my internet being spotty (I spike to 400~500 ping at least 5 times a game), but I prefer the more competitive environment because there's generally less flaming due to champion select. I even get away with really weird support picks because at the end of the day people just want to play...

Anyway, I've played since Season 1 and I haven't played Normal Blind since the day Draft came out (unless a group of friends invited me or something). My choice is always draft due to bans, picking phase, and the general increase in communication that comes from a longer picking phase.

Morkaskog11/9/2016, 6:28:38 PM1 votes

What the fuck? Riot. I don't want to play ranked. But I fucking not. And I mean not what so ever, have to play a game of fucking "who can type the word the fastest" just to maybe get my role. I don't care about the queue times, just give me the opportunity to just pick roles, and calmly play a game.

I was hoping for a fill-except option. I don't always need to pick my role, just not always support. Now what do I get? No option at all. Just type fast. Wtf...

EdNigma11/9/2016, 9:45:21 PM1 votes

Riot if you're reading this I never post about changes on the forums. This has, in many years, been the first topic I've cared enough to post on.

Blind pick is incredibly toxic. It's a reason I stopped playing a while back. Arguing over who typed mid first. Threatening to play a character in a role that dosent work if they don't get their pick. AFKing or feeding if they don't get their pick. Mirror match ups. No bans. I'm sure there are a other faults.

I thought riot created team builder to FIX the nasty blind pick mode but only left blind pick in as fan service. So people wouldn't complain about it being gone. When clearly team builder was the way to go for the better of the game. I'm amazed that we're trying to remove it now.

Please don't make blind pick the only option for normals. Please.

dunkeroni11/9/2016, 10:48:40 PM1 votes

Not to mention it's the only thing that sort of replaces Teambuilder

SikhRS11/10/2016, 1:57:13 AM1 votes

Are you high Rito? Normal draft isn't perfect, but it's WAY better than the instalocking toxic mess that is Blind.

LordBrasca11/10/2016, 2:18:04 AM1 votes

Yeah let's remove the most useful queue to keep the most toxic and useless one. Sure it's more casual but the idea of having to go through "mid or feed" or "i said top first you liar!!!" is making me sad. And where are we are supposed to test picks at that point? Where? I won't be able neither to pick the role nor the champ and if i'm unlucky i will be against a mirror making the whole experience completely useless since in ranked there aren't mirrors.

How it is possible that one of the most played game in the world has queue problems?

Stillname11/10/2016, 2:56:14 AM1 votes

I will say the same thing I told people last year when they changed soloq. STOP PLAYING.

It didn't apply to me last year because I never played soloq and had no interest in dynamicQ but if riot removes Normal Draft I will just stop playing.

They don't see 1000 thread on boards as a threat to the game they don't see 1000 threads on Reddit as a threat what they see is the number of people playing the game. If you don't like the direction then stop playing and they will be forced to respond.

Quinnova11/10/2016, 3:05:27 AM1 votes

we don't even have draft pick in OCE... :(

Shloonz11/10/2016, 5:14:49 AM1 votes

If they do it, i will have to play Mundo, Teemo Support, etc. in ranked then. no problem for me, i am already looking forward to the flames.

BTW, will it then be allowed to create a macro with the text "picking off-meta is not reportable" and "muted and reported cause of insult"?

Existential Bard11/10/2016, 7:13:30 AM1 votes

To be fair, riot is releasing a sandbox mode so we can just practice our mechanics a lot. From there you can then go to ranked.

Azarcón11/9/2016, 3:29:30 AM1 votes

who needs practice for ranked below diamond?

a special one11/10/2016, 11:15:58 PM1 votes

just instalock xd

Phyuq Yiu11/9/2016, 2:32:46 AM1 votes

I think we need both? Or just keep draft? I just want some casual environment. I dont play blind pick but maybe that is where I can take my off meta shit?

Velzard of Koz11/9/2016, 12:23:03 PM1 votes

I'm never going to play Blind Pick again, even if I have to practice first time champions in Ranked.

The irony is... Since I can't take DynaBoostQ FlexQ seriously... Those of us who don't take their rank in FlexQ seriously have a new, little bit dangerous, but still satisfying, playground with rank different than that of SoloQ :D First-time all you want, there's no other place to try now. That is, If one is part of second-world servers like EUNE.

Mimy11/8/2016, 9:26:56 PM1 votes

Sure make myself a casual support teemo.. Be forced into ranked..

Normally I keep it in draft normals.. But he'll if hats what riot wants..

I guess I can auto lock teemo in blinds aswell. Won't make much of a difference.

I get flamed either way.