Riot Games has finally unveiled the long anticipated Team Builder for its MOBA pride and joy, League of Legends. This new feature allows players to begin a game by queuing for a particular champion and role, rather than scrambling to call for it once thrown into champion selection.
Although Riot has a very detailed description of how Team Builder operates on its website, there is a deeper question at hand, “What does it mean?” Arguably more important, even, “How does this change Summoner’s Rift–for the better or worse?”
1. No Ranked, No Point?
Perhaps the most influential, negative aspect of Team Builder is that it’s only available in Normal mode. While this gives casual players an oppurtunity to queue in a fun, new way, it also leaves the hardcore players in the dark.
Ranked mode is arguably the particular place where most League of Legends competitors harness and exemplify his/her skills at a particular role. With the ability to move up the ladder, it allows bragging rights among social groups.
Wouldn’t it only make sense to improve ranked play, where your performance is scored publicly, before improving any other aspect?
2. Pick Right Into A Counter
The other negative aspect of Team Builder is that you and your teammates will have no indication of who is on the opposing team.
Many Reddit threads, forums, etc. are filled with participants asking the infamous “How do I get better?” question. Without being able to pick and ban in front of the opposing team, there’s no way to know if you’re picking Garen into Teemo, or another equally horrendous lane matchup. There’s no way to improve if you’re diving head on into a team you can’t prepare for.
3. No More Raging… Kind Of
Every single player can attest to, at least once, joining a game and seeing two teammates fight over a role. This can ruin an entire game and no one likes wasting (a minimum of) 20 minutes of his/her life.
Team Builder can potentially eliminate a significant amount of resentment for teammates and consequently present a much more cordial, pleasant atmosphere.
On a brighter note, there are positive approaches to Team Builder as well. One immense direction would be reducing the vicious animosity the League community is so well-known for.
4. Skill Cap Increase
Another pro to this provocative new feature is the ability to improve, in the right situations. Assuming you and your friends don’t get paired against a direct counter, as I mentioned above, there will be plenty of circumstance to improve gameplay.
For example, if a player wants to improve his/her performance at mid lane, this is the perfect way to grind games. One well-known way to better your League game is to simply familiarize yourself with the different mid champions and what they can do against particular champions.
By grinding Ziggs games, for instance, you can drastically advance your knowledge of Ziggs matchups, providing you with polished skills to show off in ranked play.
5. Wider Variety of Champs
Since players will be queueing as his/her favorite champs, there could be a heavy increase in the champions that we see. This is a great opportunity for a more diverse champion pool in the current meta, (maybe NA can even some up with some innovations before Asia).
This could be a good or bad thing, considering the trolls will always be trolls, and an occasional Teemo or Viktor “only” will be sadly unavoidable. I’m personally curious to see how well this aspect of Team Builder turns out, especially with rebellion against the current meta.
