Boards›Maps & Modes

Dominion and Champion Points

Reckless Genius·5/7/2015, 4:57:34 PM·6 votes·1,700 views

Hello everyone, this is my first post on these forums in a few years (if ever, I can't recall.)

I'd like to open by adding some credibility to my post by mentioning my experience in Dominion. Since the mode released, it's all I've played it exclusively, forgoing the lane-pushing and getting right into the meat of battle, forcing myself to learn the completely different skillset and complex set of strategies and nuances that are required of the fast-paced mode. I'm quickly approaching 5,000 games played in this mode and have somehow managed to maintain a win rate of approximately 50% exclusively queuing solo, surrounded by bots and players who primarily use the mode to practice champions for Summoner's Rift or to "mess around because they're high" and run builds like AP Ashe and AD Leblanc with their premade team of friends. None of this is bragging, I just wanted to preface what I'm about to say with some mention of having a ton of experience so that I'm not written off as someone who messed around in a different mode and had a bad game, and thus has a complaint.

All of that aside, let me get to the point. For a long time, Dominion has been frustrating. I very much appreciate the small tweaks made to champions specifically for this mode, so I know that it's not totally ignored by the development team. I also understand that it takes a serious back seat to the competitive e-sports scene that's making this moba mucho bank by focusing on the lane-pushing and slower pace of battles of Summoner's Rift. I'm not entirely unreasonable here, and I know that Summoner's Rift, as a mode, is always going to be the focus. I get that my preferred mode of play is in the grand minority, and that I'm going to suffer through long queues, the most toxic of the toxic of players, and bots and rampant AFKing that go on under the radar because "Dominion isn't a real mode" like so many players have said to me. I had made peace with all of it, until today.

I was very excited for the "Champion Point Eligibility" program. I was looking forward to tracking stats, getting rewards, and possibly some skins for champions that I consistently played. I had always hoped that there would be something implemented to show my skill with certain champions, as there is no elo reward or acknowledgement or ranking in Dominion. After about 2500 Dominion wins and 2500 Dominion losses, I had always hoped that there would be a way to proudly display my finesse and skill in that mode amongst players who were just dropping in to say hi. Imagine my shock when I logged in today and realized that Dominion is not a mode that recognizes Champion Point Eligibility. For all of my understanding in recognizing that people look at Dominion as a permanent, small-scale "special mode" and all of the negativity and neglect that comes with that, I cannot understand Riot's decision to exclude the one thing that would have allowed me to set myself apart in a mode that I take pride in and enjoy.

Please Riot, I implore you to add the ability to earn Champion Points in Dominion.

9 Comments

Dr Easter5/8/2015, 12:53:54 AM4 votes

They should add it in release. Just not based on the Dominion score system since it's broken. But well, I saw a guy in EUW with 4,5k wins in Dominion and that made me think: "Dude has 4,5k wins... what does Riot give to him? Nothing, and that's what I'm going to get too for having this mode as my main". I hope I'll enjoy HotS... I honestly hope... because right now my fav mode and the only thing I play outside online races is on the hands of a terrible company... Yes for those of you that play SR Riot is great, but that's not true for some players, sorry to bring this truth to you.

0115D8CF5/7/2015, 10:01:53 PM2 votes

a few things:

  1. the mastery FAQ says "currently," so maybe one day other modes will get it (soonTM ?)
  2. the point system in Dominion is already bad, so if Riot adds champion mastery now, it will likely also be bad

I do want to see champion mastery come to my preferred mode like you do, but I don't have much faith in it being soon or well done

Reckless Genius5/8/2015, 4:08:45 PM2 votes

I quit League for a while to play Smite because Arena (which is their equivalent of Dominion,) is treated in the same way as their other game modes. The bonuses and masteries are all available and you can grow your favorite characters and proudly display your prowess and knowledge of those characters in every mode, and that's been a day one implementation in that game. The developers of Smite even recognize that mode as one of the least-popular, but still made it happen because people were passionate about it.

I'm not a developer, but I can't imagine that applying the same reward system to Dominion could possibly be disruptive or difficult to implement. Give us who have to deal with the AFKs, the experimental builds, and the bots something to look forward to when the landscape is so barren and bleak.

Reckless Genius5/8/2015, 10:09:32 PM2 votes

Not that I don't appreciate the random URF modes and special events that League gets, but I just don't understand how an established game mode isn't getting any love. It tells me as a consumer that my money isn't as valuable as the money of someone playing a more popular mode, and that's a bit insulting.