Personal feeling on ascension

First, thank you Riot for continually pushing new game modes for non-competitive players. That being said let's talk about what I (personally) feel works and doesn't work so far in ascension.

What works Reusing crystal scar map effectively

As an amateur game designer, I appreciate when games reuse old assets but make them feel new. The map feels fresh, and by reusing crystal scar, you are able to bridge for newer players since they already know where they can flash, where to escape, etc. The visuals are fantastic, and using sand as a fog of war makes the game just feel different.

Ascendent works well

The core gameplay of competing to take down the ascendant is great. It provides several choices, and the ascendant himself is a big enough threat.

The teleporting to platforms

This speeds up the gameplay and is well designed with the re-imagining of the crystal scar map. Since the primary objective is centrally located, teleporting to one platform vs. another does not provide an advantage in and of itself, but you have to make choices depending on which relics are up and where enemies are

What doesn't work

There is no way to quickly end a shut out

I played my first shut-out game today: enemy team could not get any ground, and we took the ascended every time. This is fine, and it happens every now and then. Unlike other modes though, we simply had to wait for relics and the ascendant to appear. And the last 5 min were boring. To reiterate, games become shut-outs and that is fine, but all other game modes will speed up the game exponentially when that happens. In crystal scar, 5-capping accrues points 5x faster that 3-2 capping. In classic games, after acing enough times, you can push the base almost unopposed. At this moment I can't think of a design solution, but the problem became obvious after that match.

Don't alert players to which platform the enemy is teleporting

I can understand the design choice for this, but the execution results in a few problems. First, just like above, when you are winning, it is easier to just camp the teleport spots (which is no fun). Other than that, it does not affect my choices. Maybe in higher level play you anticipate where enemies are, but in this mode my attention focused on the relics, number of enemy champs alive, and whether the ascendant was up or not. I only paid attention to where the enemy players teleported when it was a shut-out (as above)

There is not enough cycling of who gets to ascend

Personally, I would prefer is the ascendant was not the person who last hit the guy, but rather chose among people that were attacking. What happens is the AD carry usually ascends. Then they get more kills and thus better gear, then they snowball and are almost the sole recipient of the ascension. I'm sure it is fun if you are ascending, but then you have 4 other people who miss out on the fun (and ascending IS fun).

I hope the feedback is taken into consideration, thanks.