New Summoners' Rift - I cannot stand it...

So I hopped into Teambuilder as I quite often do and found that it's on the new Beta map. I've not been looking forward to the changes, but I approached it open-mindedly. My initial thoughts were sadly correct.

At the beginning, I was stuck on the pedestal by a forcefield for 10 seconds, and this was after I'd bought my items and ward trinket. That's the first problem: some of us know what to buy and want to get into the field to go scouting, check bushes and lanes, guard jungle buffs etc. Sure, the opposition presumably have the same restriction, but it's unnecessary. Let people move when they're ready to, don't impinge upon them.

I arrived in botlane tri-bush, barely able to tell what was a wall and what was passable terrain. Furthermore it was incredibly difficult to discern where I had vision and where I didn't. Thanks to the new graphics on this map, there is next to no contrast between textures and brightness. No longer is it possible to tell at a glance where one can and cannot see or travel. The goal according to the devs is to make the combat easier to focus upon and to have the map as something of lesser visual importance (in terms of a distraction to gameplay, and yes I am paraphrasing from memory here, so please bear that in mind before commenting on what I've said). It's a complete failure to my mind, because now I have to actually concentrate upon the poor washed-out quality of the map, terrain and fog-of-war, rather than being able to tell at an instantaneous glance whether I have vision or not, whether I can walk across terrain or not. Furthermore, the bushes are virtually indistinguishable from the lane, and I was caught out once or twice rather than being able to simply avoid an area that previously I would have known I could not see into.

Over the course of the game, I found the new map icons very obtrusive to seeing what was going on in lanes at a glance, and yet again had to focus should I wish to keep an eye on my allies. Again it detracted from gameplay, because the focus (as correctly stated by the devs originally) should be on what one is actually doing themselves first and foremost. The new icons were an annoyance when they first appeared on the original Rift, on the new one they're a pain in the proverbial donkey...

Whilst the visual theme may have been intended to make things better, I can clearly state that from my perspective it is an abject failure. The gaming experience as a result is far less rewarding and more like work with the degree of visual concentration now required to discern what is occurring. On a completely preferential note, the updated minions, towers, jungle camps, and turrets / inhibitors / nexuses (nexi? the plural of "nexus" should be "nexi"... ) look atrociously bland, and even retro. If I wanted to play an early-90's graphically inept game, I'd go find one, rather than being dismayed at the abysmal attempt to 'improve' Summoners' Rift.

I have a couple of requests to make:

1. If, like me, you dislike this update, please give reasons as to why when you comment.
2. If, unlike me, you like the new map's appearance, don't flame, just comment constructively with your whys.
3. Riot - you will probably continue to push this update through into full version, and I doubt that can be stopped. But please consider adding a graphical option for players on client-side as to which version of Summoners' Rift they would like to play on for appearances' sake. I'm no coder, but I'm sure that it's feasible. That way you'd be able to satisfy nearly everyones' preferences at once.