I can see the potential as a less intimidating way to get casual players and friends into the game. The guaranteed shorter game time is also pretty good for when I want to play one more at the end of the night but don’t want to endure a possible 45+ minute slogfest.
However, the complete randomness of the items in a game where certain heroes are not very playstyle flexible and can be hard countered by actives feels pretty stupid at times. I played a game as Vindicta where the enemy got Knockdown in Round 1 and I could barely play the game until Round 3 where I got Unstoppable (which had a way longer cooldown). Item choices are hidden until a round starts, so there is no way to know whether you’re going to be hard-countered and need to build unconventionally in response. I feel like they should be able to balance the game mode better but I’m not sure how serious they’re taking it right now.


It’s definitely absolute madness from the get-go lol