Lets Talk About Twisted Treeline Removal and Riot Games As A Whole!

Lets talk about Twisted Treeline Removal and Riot Games as a whole.(Long & Indepth)

So quick reference to myself and my time playing this game. We're going to take a quick glimpse back in time!

• I've been playing the game since Patch V1.0.0.061 aka Udyr release. The game was recently out of closed beta and Twisted Treeline was released 4 patches before then, from what I'm reading on the wiki.
• Twisted Treeline was the first game mode I ever played, Shen was the first champ I ever played.
• It was a completely different game back then and Co-op Vs Ai wasn't implemented until Patch V1.0.0.111. You could play with and against bots in custom games, but not with other players on your team. So new players had 3 options. Summoners Rift, Twisted Treelines, or Custom games.
• Personally I wanted to learn how to play against other players but I didn't want to fight 5 enemy players. I wanted my own engagements with smaller groups of players so I could get a feel for the game, my champion(s), and the items.

Lets take a look at the modern day League as we know it and why Twisted Treelines was removed.

• As I'm writing it this is Patch V9.23, the removal of Twisted Treeline. Our current game modes are Summoners Rift, Aram, Rotating Game modes, Team Fight Tactics (I predict at some point, maybe this year or the next Team Fight Tactics will be a play alone game from Riot Games Launcher and off of LoLs client.)
• From what I have read from Riot Games, we can call them that now since they're actually developing other games (No I'm not going to count Cho'gath eats the World) Is that they are removing Twisted Treelines so they can focus development on the new titles they're pushing out. (Mind you I think they look good)
• Riot Games has been working on TFT and these other games they're coming out with starting sometime early in the year. Riot Games wants to have a foothold in every single gaming genre in the industry. TFT was created as a direct competition to Dota2 Auto Chess, they are also putting it on mobile. In the parenthesis I will list what these games are aimed at competing with.

Their upcoming games include

Shooter Project A (Overwatch) Card game Legends of Runeterra (Hearthstone) Mobile League of Legends: Wild Rift (putting their MOBA in that market as well) Fighter Project L (Too many fighters to list) Top Down Dungeon Crawler Project F (Diablo and a few others) Cinima (I know right) Arcane, an animated series. League of Legends Origins, Feature length Documentary on the games development. Potentially others that I may be missing or have not been teased yet.

So Riot games has a lot on their plate with all their upcoming games and movies they want to release. They're preparing to combat EA and Activision Blizzard. However, not only that, they're so confident they're teasing these games while they're in the early phases of development. Riot NEEDS to focus a lot of attention on these games, especially when they're basically calling these other companies out. Those companies will make plans on their own current games and for new ones in order to combat that competition. Riot Games has to prioritize these new games to make sure they don't fall on their face here. But what does this have to do with Twisted Treeline.

Riot confirmed removal of Twisted Treeline's to support other games.

Now, Riot has to balance every item and every champ for 5s, but they have to do the same for 3s when it comes out. Riot confirmed to move teams over to other games instead of supporting 3's. It wasn't because there wasn't enough player base, just that their staff could be better off elsewhere. However that means that Riot had to sacrifice their players happiness for their companies success. Riot could have hired more staff to keep it going but did not. So I'm going to talk about some benefit to having 3s as a continued gamemode and why I think riot should hire more staff for it, or to atleast let it be there with minimal item optimization.

Why Twisted Treelines Should Be Brought Back

1. Allow new players to play against fewer enemies. This allows players to learn their solo lane match ups and how to farm better in those lanes.

2. Learn the importance of the minimap. Getting ganked in 3s is usually a death so it helps players understand the importance of pings and checking the minimap, if the player backed and how long until they come back from dying.

3. Less stress in 3s than in 5s. Maybe it's different for some people but it does not feel so bad losing a 3 as it does a 5. Same thing with their respective ranked.

4. New champions can be played on 3s more likely than in 5s because you are against 4 other people for Summoners Rift and 2 other people for TT.

5. The game mode is a faster pace experience for League, 5s are more farming and poke in lane where as TT is a small map with a lot of ganks, teamfighting and tower pressure. Of course you see this in 5s as well but I think it is more so in 3s.

6. Allows Stat Stick champs to shine. Riot games is trying to phase out almost every Stat Stick in the game. Here was their last place to survive and it is now removed.

7. Allowed another options for friends to play together and friends to be made. I've made more friends plays 3s over the years than I ever did in 5s. I've always been more likely to Duo/Trio up in 3s than get a duo in 5s. And I main support and we all knows ADCs love a duo for bot lane on 5s. When I only have 2 friends that I'm playing with we were much more likely to que for 3s ranked than for 5s Flex. Flex feels like Normal+ where as 3s still feels like a competitive gamemode IMO.

8. TT Spawned the funneling comps and shows how to deal with them. While it's not fun when Taric Yi Funnels are on 5s, they are more fun on 3s. It gives a completely different mindset on 3s and a completely different way that you have to go about that game. On 5s you have to catch them out solo but in 3s you need to push your lane harder with your jungle there and try and get the first tower and than invade jungle to shut them down and farm them early. It then becomes a slug fest of 3s and will tell you if your team is going to win or lose early on so you can move on quicker or take that fast pace win.

9. Different Strategies. Sub point of 8. but Things can be played completely differently on 3s than on 5s. You can go to lanes and farm or funnel or squad up and become a gank squad early. You can make troll picks work and it makes for a better total experience IMO.

10. It's something other than 5s and ARAM, this is where I think the best 1v1 action is for playing against your friends. 5s can get repetitive after awhile and if you slog all day playing them it can really put you down in the dumps if your on a bad loss spree. 3s breaks that up and can lift your spirits after a few wins to go back into 5s. ARAM is alright but it has always felt like your throwing your abilities at people until it sticks, but still feels repetitive. Much more different than the feel of old ARAMs on custom games with no relics and shield and heals not nerfed, or champs having their damage nerfed or damage taken increased on current ARAMs.

10a. When my friends and I 1v1 it is always on 3s. There is no camera advantage, one bush to fight over, one other lane that can have minions push to kill towers instead of 2. You can still back unlike ARAM customs. More starting gold to make it a little more interesting in starting builds. It just feels like a much better experience than fighting 1v1 on 5s and ARAM.

We now have two champions without homes. I know they changed Maokai's lore with the rework, but he will always be the spawn of "Reckless Mages", slaughtering 6 champions when he was animated somehow in the middle of a Twisted Treelines match.

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT!

"Summoners, I Do Your Bidding... For Now. Do you want to see Twisted? Reckless Riot Mages. Begone Vile Magics! We Shall Punish Your Imprudence! They Will Know Our Remorse and We Will End This Misuse Of Magic! I Once Had Peace, And They Shall Torment Me No Longer! I Would End Riots Burden, But It Always Returns. This Power... I Cannot Control! Torment Us No Longer! Return Us To The Forest! http://lolsound.zeusafk.net/

If you, like myself, want to see Twisted Treelines come back at some point, Make some noise here. Let your voices be heard. This is the only way we can make any kind of change in the game. If enough of us say something about it and Riot sees their community care about the 2nd game mode put into the game, they will think about it again and one day in the future we may see Twisted Treeline return to us! Put in your experiences with the gamemode and your opinions on it. And send a link to your friends aswell, so they can voice their opinions too!

I wish you all the best, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!