League of Legends: Popularity of ARAM

What is ARAM?

ARAM (All Random All Mid) has been a fairly popular "game mode" for League of Legends for roughly two years now. Through the early stages, the community developed the unwritten rules of ARAM, such as no backing to heal or shop, no leaving the lane, and no going into the jungle or side paths. Unfortunately, there was a lot of flaws for the make-shift mode on Summoner's Rift. The game mode had so much more potential.

The Proving Grounds

With the recent release of The Proving Grounds map, ARAM entered a new era. Riot addressed some of the limitations of ARAM on Summoner's Rift, by implementing a lot of the fundamental rules of the mode directly into the map. No longer can you shop once you leave base. The summoning platform no longer heals. There is nothing but a singular lane. Additionally, it adopted some of the mentality from Dominion, with starting at a higher level, heightened ambient gold, ambient experience and shorter respawns. Now there is a dedicated map for ARAM lovers, and it's more fun than ever.

The additional tweaks really made a large difference to the mode. What I personally disliked most about ARAMs in Summoner's Rift was the pace of the games. The ambient experience and starting at a higher level really kicks up the pace for a more exciting game. Similarly, it was terrible spending forever saving up for an item prior to the map's release, but now people can get to their item builds much quicker. Overall, The Proving Grounds provides a much faster paced game to get the action going.

For ARAM-lovers, it's unlikely that this map will be entering matchmaking any time soon. League of Legends is a competitive game, but it's difficult to encourage good competition with an all-random selection. This would also draw attention away from the main map of Summoner's Rift, where the entire eSports scene revolves around. The queues would be split further, and people would be more likely to hop into The Proving Grounds queue to farm some IP rather than Summoner's Rift since it is more casual. Another big reason is that the game is clearly not balanced for ARAM, and to encourage people to play it could lead players to want more balance around it.

So why is ARAM popular?

The main draw for many ARAM players is how casual it is. A casual atmosphere lends itself to a less stressful environment, and lower expectations in general. People's competitive nature takes a back seat when playing ARAMs...usually. If the mode were an official mode released with matchmaking, people's attitude toward it would likely be much different. The fact that it can only be played in Custom Games emphasizes that it is meant to be a fun and casual game. Since it is casual, people can enjoy the game for the fun of the action and playing a random champion. With a random champion, there are less expectations.

Since custom games aren't recorded on your account apart from the last ten games played, there is little lasting upset for losing an ARAM. A lot of people care about their records. No one likes watching their win-to-loss ratio slowly shift more toward the loss direction. People also know that in custom games there is no matchmaking or rating system, so you won't end up in "Elo Hell" or at a lower rating than you "deserve."

The frustrations of ARAM

The biggest frustration I have with ARAM is the high variance in team composition, and the extreme nature of some champions. Certain champions are incredibly powerful in ARAM, such as Nidalee, Heimerdinger, Blitzcrank, Lux, Ziggs and Master Yi to name a few. Since everyone is given a random champion, sometimes you're against an incredibly frustrating poke and heal team when your team is comprised entirely of melee champions. Unfortunately, thus is the nature of all random.

This then lends itself to the issue of people constantly dodging match-ups they don't want to play against (which I don't blame some of them sometimes). Since custom games have no penalty for dodging, people do this constantly. This is particularly frustrating when you are playing ARAM with your friends, but people on the other team continuously dodge until your team rolls an unfortunate team composition compared to theirs. You and your friends don't want to dodge it, since you had to create the game and invite all of your friends into it. 

Overall...

While ARAM may be frustrating at times due to team composition, or the random player skill levels, it is a great way to take a break from the intense games of Summoner's Rift. Unlike Summoner's Rift, there is only one thing you really need to pay attention to in ARAM, and that's right in front of you, everyone in mid. It takes a lot less focus and thought to play, and the stress lowers are much lower. Everyone has more patience and are generally looking to just hop in and kill some people as a group, rather than to bump up their rating. So if you're looking for a break from your tense games on Summoner's Rift, play a few ARAMs. It's a nice change of pace.