Some Thoughts On The New ARAM Queue

With ARAMs (All Random, All Mid) becoming a somewhat popular mini game within the League of Legends community, it's pretty awesome that Riot decided to make an ARAM specific map and game mode that you can queue for within the client. I for one was really excited when I heard that they were thinking of doing something along these lines, and could not wait to play, and I haven't stopped playing them since. ARAMs have always been the “I don't care” game mode for the League community, it's all the players getting early levels, some more gold than normal, and beating the crap out of each other, which is awesome!

When the map came out it appeared that Riot put a lot of thought into how they wanted to portray their new piece of content, the back story behind the “Howling Abyss”, as the level is called, is deep and enthralling, and I have found myself more curious about how the bridge came to be and the mysteries behind it. I have always had a love for those conspiracy style back stories, where something you thought was dead, wasn't and now wants to kill you.

Overall playing ARAMs is a really fun thrilling experience and it does allow you to progress as a player when it comes to playing champions, it forces you to learn champions you would never normally play, if they're free or you own them, and it also allows you to work on team fighting, which is something that can be transferred into playing standard 5v5 on Summoner's Rift.

So what kind of doors does this open within the League community now? Well first of all, the fact that this is now an actual queue rather than a custom game, means that when you want to play for fun and mess around rather than just playing normal 5v5, you don't have to wait for players to join that one lobby that wasn't full and it also gets rid of that “no below level 30s” mentality, which was annoying for someone like me, who was below level 30 when ARAMs became more popular within the community.

One downside I will say to this becoming an actual queue is the fact that some people have started taking ARAMs as a serious game type because, maybe, it has its own queue now, and while I can understand the competitive mentality that League of Legends brings out in people, it does make you wonder if making this more official than before was a bad idea. You will always get the people who rage, that's just what happens in games like this, but with ARAMs being a “legit”, if you will, game type now, it has kind of sparked this competitive aspect more. It's not incredibly common by any means, but it is still something to take into consideration in my opinion.

So overall nothing but good things to say about this new game queue, and I think as a long time player of League I have found something that allows me to enjoy the game that little bit more.