More Ranked Maps?
Anybody else think that Riot should implement other ranked game modes & maps like; ranked Dominion and maybe some Big Team Battle-type maps or even ranked 1v1/2v2?
4 Comments
ranked dominion would be awesome.
Ranked Dominion WOULD be popular. And that's the problem -- Riot does not want anything to compete with Summoner's Rift. Summoner's Rift is all that matters -- and while Riot hasn't publicly said so (they won't), the message is loud and clear. If Ranked Dominion was a thing, players queuing up for Ranked Dominion aren't queuing up for Ranked Summoner's Rift. Of course, some players could do both. But more importantly, some players would switch from Summoner's Rift to Dominion. This is bad (because Tencent says so -- so Riot listens. This is the price of "sellling out" -- if you want to call it that.)
If Ranked Dominion existed, the "diamond tier" players might start streaming their matches. If those players are streaming Ranked Dominion, they aren't streaming Ranked Summoner's Rift. This is bad (again, because Riot tacitly says so). If Ranked Dominion existed, players might expect some kind of end-of-season rewards (loading screen borders, ward skins, the "Victorious" skin, etc). If it was possible to get the Victorious skin without slogging through the misery that is Ranked Summoner's Rift, some players would opt to do Ranked Dominion (I'm one of them). That means they're not playing Ranked Summoner's Rift. That would be bad. For Riot, not the players.
If Ranked Dominion existed, Riot would actually have to, y'know, support Dominion. This means allocating resources (staff, additional physical infrastructure) to Ranked Dominion, when these resources could be utilized - instead - for Ranked Summoner's Rift. This means higher operating costs for Riot, an increase in the "cost of doing business". This is bad (again because Tencent said so, and Riot must obey). Overhead costs are lower when all the support is directed to one game mode: (Ranked) Summoner's Rift
If Ranked Dominion existed, it could be a threat to Ranked Summoner's Rift popularity. I don't expect Ranked Dominion would ever be more popular than Ranked Summoner's Rift. But imagine for a moment if it was. If the playerbase, the fandom, the money switched from Summoner's Rift to Dominion. That'd be calamitous for Riot's current business structure. Everything that Riot invested in Summoner's Rift evaporating? (Again, it's not a realistic problem, but it serves as just another unspoken excuse for Riot to not support Dominion). As an example, TeamBuilder. TeamBuilder doesn't really work for Dominion (four players queue up for "top", one player queues up for "bottom" lane?) -- it's just not necessary for the game mode.
Ranked Dominion doesn't exist because Riot Games (and Tencent) don't want it to exist. But they can't just come out and say that. So here we are, some four years later. An unsupported, decaying game mode that Riot was originally very pleased to release. But then Summoner's Rift became "the game with the highest active/simultaneous playerbase in the world" (or whatever the exact claim is) and Tencent acquired Riot Games. The only reason Riot doesn't remove Ranked Twisted Treeline is because it existed before the "Summoner's Rift uber alles" business model. And because the playerbase would react negatively to it. Also because Ranked Twisted Treeline requiring a 3-man team (as opposed to solo queue option) keeps the majority of the playerbase (which would be solo queue) from playing Ranked Twisted Treeline instead of Ranked Summoner's Rift.
TL;DR: ranked Dominion doesn't exist because Riot only supports Summoner's Rift
I'm not sure ranked Dominion would have enough players :P
As for ranked 1v1/2v2, there's two problems: one, there's no normal game version of it, so why would there be ranked games for it? and two, this game is a team strategy game, not a deathmatch. As cool as it sounds, 1v1's (and I guess 2v2's) are mostly for bragging rights. As for 2v2's, it wouldn't work on existing maps due to each map designed to have one or two extra players on your team according to lane, so you either have a roamer or a roamer and a support. A 2v2 on TT for example would cut out the roaming role (which is the jungler), and a lot of the strategy. Games shouldn't be decided solely on laning phase :P
Just my $0.02