One of League of Legends’ original game modes will be retired at the end of the year, as Riot Games announced that Twisted Treeline will meet the same fate as Dominion and be removed from the game.
Twisted Treeline has been the neglected stepsister to Summoner’s Rift, receiving minimal changes over the years accompanied by ever-decreasing player counts. Despite the last change to the map occurring in patch 5.11 midway through 2015, there will definitely be diehard fans of the game mode that will soon lose the 3v3 format.
In Riot’s latest /dev post, it was mentioned that there was a discussion about whether an ARAM-level rework would be able to salvage Twisted Treeline, but the difficult decision was made to shut it off at the conclusion of the season. Citing the lack of growth, it’s an unfortunate but reasoned decision. There simply weren’t enough players to sustain it, with numbers dropping below that of the second Nexus Blitz run.
In exchange however, this will free up time and energy to focus on new game modes that can potentially capture that magic that Nexus Blitz and now Teamfight Tactics have done: game modes that keep players engaged and that play again and again. URF will make a return alongside Nexus Blitz, and ARAM will receive semi-regular changes to keep the mode feeling fresh.
Riot has also taken the responsible step to not offer a Twisted Treeline-exclusive chroma for this year’s Victorious skin, in order to preserve the integrity of the game mode in its final months. However, Riot has rewards planned for those committed Treeline players, but there is no word about what those will be.
Even if you don’t play Twisted Treeline, it might be worth jumping into queue in the near future, as many players will return to the mode for one last wave of nostalgia before Treeline is lost forever.
