It was after playing some 5v5 on League and winning yet again (someone’s got to massage my ego, right?) that my friend messaged me on Skype. Knowing I write for Team Dignitas he raised an interesting point: why is it that Twisted Treeline has seemingly been forgotten?

The argument was simply that he preferred the game type: it was easier to get friends to make a three man group and the heightened synergy potential enabled some spectacular team combinations, resulting in incredible fights and more entertaining games. The conclusion was that if he enjoys it, others will too, and how many would like to see it taken seriously?

Video courtesy of League of Legends. Video may not represent current patch of Twisted Treeline.

What is Twisted Treeline?

For those who don’t know, Twisted Treeline is a 3 vs 3 match that sees players take to the field in the Shadow Isles. It’s a two lane map and like any normal LoL game the idea is to destroy the enemy nexus. The lanes are slightly curved, there are bushes, towers, there is a Baron-esque monster in the form of Vilemaw, and there are special altars in the middle jungle section for additional team-wide buffs. All in all it’s not too different from Rift.

Despite being a game mode existing since League of Legends came out, and launched across the board within its first year, Twisted Treeline has never seen professional play. This is understandable given Riot Games would want an identifiable format and the primary map is the key to this, but now we approach Season 5.

League of Legends and Riot Games are in an excellent position. The fan base is growing at a continuous rapid rate. Players join because it’s free to play, and end up happily parting with cash for champion skins, exp. boosts, and other items because of how engrossed in the game they become. This year’s World Championships was a sell-out crowd in a massive venue in Korea, with coverage coming not only on Twitch, Azubu, and YouTube, but also live on ESPN-3 in the USA; a testament to the growth of e-sports.

The question is, why should it see professionals take part and compete?

Map of Twisted Treeline. Image courtesy of leagueoflegends.wikia.com.

Pros:

The upside of Twisted Treeline is that it’s almost like a more zoomed in focus of several aspects of games on Summoner’s Rift. Jungling isn’t too viable on the map, which means the 3 v 3 nature of the game becomes either 1v1 and 2v2 or 1v2 in each lane. Either way this puts a lot of emphasis on regular communication, player mechanics and playmaking. The smaller map size, and the fairly open access to lanes from jungle, means that a team with good coordination can wreck an opponent with a clinical gank, and those without will suffer.

Fans of the LCS will hear constantly from coaches and casters how communication is key. Some players can’t do it, which makes this almost like a ‘best of the best’ situation: those who can talk a lot while they play, and can shot call, will excel. They will be in demand to either captain a 3 man team or be a part of it. Those who can’t will struggle, but even then mechanics are a big part. Nobody would turn down a player like Bjergsen even though he says he’s not wholly comfortable with shot calling. His mechanics make him attractive for teams in this hypothetical scenario and this provides the diversity that makes League appealing. Fans would see whether a team of strong communicators beats a team of strong mechanical players, and what combinations of champion types and player types work best.

Personally I would say a strong leader with two strong mechanical players at their command would be a very powerful setup, but would the team captain be the weak point? Can they multi task? From this comes an intrigue and a desire to find out.

Not only is it almost an experiment in terms of the greater understanding of the game viewers would get from watching, it would inevitably be a mix of hard C.C champions, bruisers, and assassins, and the result would be highly attractive brawling play that offers quicker bursts of action than Summoner’s Rift – something of more appeal for those with limited time or less attention span.

Artwork of the Shadow Isles where Twisted Treeline is set. Image courtesy of League of Legends official website.

Cons:

The problem with adding another professional LoL circuit is that it might detract from the primary map and the LCS. The game might be moving into a strong position but it needs to cement this and really establish itself as the most legitimate e-sport around before diversifying into other match formats.

At the moment the money and the career potential is in the standard Summoner’s Rift mode. More people play the format, its better looking, and has a lot more potential for gameplay and Riot invest more resources into making this the case.

This presents a problem were TT to become a competitive scene; either players come across from the Rift – both pros and aspiring – or the pool picks out players of lower talent who decided they can’t make it into the upper echelons of League in the usual way so they’ll opt for this alternate game type instead. This will greatly disappoint fans because in sports we want to see the best in the field compete, and if that isn’t the case then viewing figures and fans will be limited, which in turn makes less financial sense to invest in something like this. If players do move across from LCS then it’s taking talent away from the area Riot Games wanted it in, which not only lessens the quality of games but also splits the audience across two formats rather than excelling at one.

With this in mind I have an idea…

Vilemaw vs. Rengar. Image courtesy of League of Legends official website.

Potential:

In tennis there are Masters matches; games played by former players – particularly champions – who are veterans of the game. They might be coaches or commentators or just retirees, but either way they occasionally take part in televised matches where they relive old rivalries for the sake of entertainment and, quite often, charity.

This opens up a safe “win win” way for Riot Games to unleash the Twisted Treeline by inviting former players from teams to get together and compete. So for example, Team Dignitas could be the basis for a team consisting of former coach Scarra, LCS caster Jatt, and former ADC turned streamer Imaqtpie.

The result would be a fun match with less pressure than normal which would enable not only braver gameplay but a more humorous “game chat”, as displayed when Cloud9 and TSM played the inaugural match of U.R.F Mode after LCS one week earlier this year. Fans love competition, but they also love a bit of fun.

If you boil it down there are several ways this plan could go:

1) ‘Twisted Treeline: The Masters’ is a huge success and inspires Riot to either make a competitive league system for TT or to open up Howling Abyss to similar ‘fun’ broadcasts.

2) Twisted Treeline is a moderate success that gains fair viewing figures but nothing too spectacular and has its place as a “once in a while” type event around other major events.

3) Twisted Treeline bombs because either nobody wants in or nobody gives it their attention. Either way, Riot can say they tried something new and it wasn’t a major commitment.

Old boys back show off just how rusty they are? We'll have to wait and see!

If League of Legends is to continue to grow it has to diversify a little. The sporadically released new game modes are a great addition and fun to play, but they are examples of player diversity. Now it’s time Riot Games worked on a bit more viewer diversity and offered a shorter, sweeter way of getting hooked on the game to really up the ante.