League of Legends Tests Blind Pick Replacement

League of Legends players who prefer the game's Blind Pick mode may have to find a new favorite soon now that Riot Games is testing a replacement for that mode. Announced this week, Riot is currently exploring a "Quick Play" option which puts players in the game much quicker than Blind Pick would while hopefully still achieving some of the same goals the current quicky option does. This new Quick Play mode will be tested first in certain regions before Riot decides to roll it out as a wider release, assuming it works well enough to be the Blind Pick replacement.

Riot covered the topic of Blind Pick and Quick Play this week in a new video featuring updates on modes, champions, and more. League game director Riot Pupulasers said in the video that Blind Pick is the "least popular queue in League of Legends." That's not particularly surprising since you can't guarantee your role in the mode nor can you guarantee what champion you'll get to pick, so Blind Pick is always a tossup that could lead to frustration before you even leave champ select. It does have some merits, however, when it comes to expediting the process and just hopping into a quick game of League, so Riot is proposing an alternative through Quick Play.

"We want to evolve that into Quick Play in order to give you guys what you want about Blind Pick in a better way," Riot Pupulasers said. "So similar to the old Team Builder, we're going to allow you to choose your favorite champion, your favorite role, and you're guaranteed to get at least one of those in your next game. The queue's going to pop, and you're going to see which champion and role you got, and you'll go right into the gameplay."

With that idea in mind, the next step is for Riot to test this mode out "in a few regions in the coming months" to see how it does. After that, the mode will be refined a bit, and if all works well, League players can look forward to playing in Quick Play lobbies in the future.