League of Legends Dominion mode will be permanently disabled in two weeks

When Riot Games introduced the Dominion game mode to League of Legends over four years ago, the idea was to bring something fresh to the game. The new mode and its single map, The Crystal Scar, would play out faster, with heroes starting at level 3 and gaining gold at increased rates. It would focus on capturing and holding control points rather than the traditional League of Legends gameplay of trying to take down towers along lanes.

Now, after years of being featured as a mode, Dominion is nearly empty and Riot is giving up on supporting it. In a post on the official League of Legends website, Riot announced that it will permanently retire Dominion and the Crystal Scar map beginning on Monday, Feb. 22.

According to the post, less than 0.5 percent of League players are actively playing Dominion mode, and even within that number Riot believes a notable amount to be bots. The developer says it's also focused all its attention regarding balancing champions for the traditional Summoner's Rift map, which has led to problems with imbalance, bugs and general poor player experience for anyone trying to play Dominion.

To honor those who stuck with Dominion, Riot will be granting a unique summoner icon to any account with over 100 wins against real players in the mode prior to Feb. 22. In the future, the company plans to keep unique modes to timed events rather than full-time additions to the game.

If you've been meaning to spend some time with Dominion in League of Legends, best jump in while you still can.