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Riot games released patch 10.8 for League of Legends over the weekend and one of the most interesting ones in the new ability to scout prospective teammates that aren’t already on a team. The new feature, which is available in the clash mode of the game, allows players to set themselves as a free agent and gives other players a chance to see, scout, and invite others to join their team.
“One of the more silent features we released this Patch (10.18) is the first BETA version of Clash “Build-A-team” Riots competitive gameplay lead, Cody Germain, said in a tweet, “. In this feature, we allow you to set yourself as a free agent and find other free agents for your team. It’s early on in development and open to next step feedback.
Once a user sets themselves as a free agent in the clash mode tab, the players information will be available to friends, friends of your teammates and people that you have played with in the past. The goal of this new feature is to allow players to know who is available to join and ultimately build the best team over a period.
“The first iteration is intentionally very simple so we can build it in the right direction based off feedback and usage data,” Germain claimed in another tweet to fans of the popular video game series “We expect this version to mostly help those teams with 4 players find a 5th when they have run out of options.”
While the idea of now being able to easily find a fourth or fifth team member is a great addition to the game, it will be very interesting to see how the developers decide to build upon the idea. Furthermore, it will also be interesting to see what players reactions are to the new feature and if it truly does help make finding a teammate easier
As for ways to grow upon the idea, what if a future patch had a filtering system that allowed players to find free agents based on skill, stats, position or some other desirable trait. If nothing else, this seems to only be the beginning and the developers will probably be very much looking for more ways to help players find teammates as time goes on.
How that manifests itself remains to be seen and will depend on what the community positively reacts to, but the idea of setting yourself as a free agent seems like a brilliant start. It also feels like the start of changing the ways you find teammates, which will be great for those looking for quick pick up games or even long-term teammates.