League of Legends' OCE Server Expands Normal Draft Testing After Positive Results

League of Legends’ Oceania server is expanding its testing of a Normal Draft mode after initial [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

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(Photo: Riot Games)

League of Legends' Oceania server is expanding its testing of a Normal Draft mode after initial tests showed positive results.

The expansion of the Normal Draft experiment follows an announcement posted to the OCE League boards in September that said a Normal Draft mode would be available for a limited time to gauge interest in the option. OCE doesn't have a permanent Normal Draft mode due to the smaller population of the server and concerns that providing additional game modes would hurt queue times by splitting the playerbase between more modes.

Without the Normal Draft mode, the only way that OCE players can enter a draft is through ranked play, something that a large percentage of League players avoid altogether. The tests have gone well so far, and with the timeframe that Normal Draft is available during the day being expanded, OCE players might soon have Normal Draft enabled permanently.

"We have had Normal Draft enabled for 2 weeks now, Thursday to Sunday between 6pm and 11pm AEST/AEDT," the update read. "What we have seen so far is that players have really been enjoying Draft when it is available and it is currently hovering around 17% of total normal games from a usage standpoint (when comparing the two queues while Draft is open)."

While the first two weeks showed positive results, the game mode was only available conservatively during a 5-hour window on certain days. The Normal Draft mode is now being expanded to being open from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. AEDT and will be available every day from Oct. 5–19.

For those who do prefer the ranked matches, there are also several changes coming to those game modes for the OCE server as well. With confidence that enabling Solo and Duo Queue 24/7 in ranked modes won't impact other queues, the solo and duo ranked modes are now available all the time. The duration that Flex Queue is available is also being adjusted to be 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. as opposed to 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. AEDT.

The Normal Draft testing for the OCE server will conclude on Oct. 19, so be sure to play your preferred game mode during that time to make your voice heard if you want the queue to stick around.

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