What’s up guys it’s me Jeremy!
Many will know Magma Chamber as a 1v1/2v2 Game mode showcased at the 2013 all-star game
mode, but it actually could have ended up being a lot different and was originally planned
to be a much more expansive mode.
So join us today in taking a look back before the release, to find out what the magma chamber
could have been!
And if you enjoy the video definitely hit that like button because if this video hits,
let’s say ratings, then I’m gonna .
The original design of Magma Chamber was actually focused on 5v5, so like Summoner’s Rift
it would have involved full size teams.
You might wonder why Riot would make another 5v5 map, but actually the way it was designed
it would have had a totally different feel and metagame.
For example, Summoner’s Rift is pretty large, with a disconnect between the lanes.
That results in people chilling in their lanes and only really coming together to fight after
the mid game.
Magma Chamber on the other hand was focused on smaller, more tactical fights - that meant
there was always going to be threats nearby, so you’d have to be way more aware of what’s
going on, and the metagame would have been totally different because the map would favor
fights between small groups of players rather than big 5v5 teamfights.
The map was actually the biggest, even bigger than Summoner’s Rift, with even longer lanes.
Having such a big map actively discouraged players from just walking around in a death
ball, so it was super important to be comfortable in 1v1, 2v2 or 3v3 fights, and achieving victory
in lanes was crucial to getting ahead.
Because the map was so big, it was way more risky to waste time moving between lanes to
gank because a failed gank would waste a lot of time, and the lanes weren’t really set
up in a way that encouraged it.
The map layout concepts shows one really cool feature that Magma Chamber had as part of
it’s design - four different static teleportation pads, which were designed to let you traverse
the map easier since it would take so long to do run across it normally.
There were four pads, two on each side of the map and located between the lanes, and
and they weren’t really designed for ganking so instead they were made to give you a way
to get back to lane quickly or maybe as a way to get between other objectives.
The appearance of Magma Chamber was, as you’d probably guess from it’s name, pretty volcanic!
When it was first teased in a sneak peek, Riot said that one of things that was requested
the most was new maps for the game, and they were answering that with a brand new Field
of Justice called Magma Chamber.
They actually posted a cool little bit of background on the map, saying that the Institute
of War is actually carved out inside an Obsidian Mountain, which is also the home of the Magma
Chamber.
It was originally the center of a huge volcano, and although it’s now dormant, ancient magma
cut out a huge cavern that the League of Legends had re-designed in order to shape it into
a new battleground.
It was built as an arena to settle disputes specifically between the Demacian and Noxians,
and is the largest of the Fields of Justice.
The concept art for Magma Chamber didn’t really give a sense of scale, but it did show
a couple of really key things - first up, red vs blue.
The red side of the map is the half that is still volcanically active, with pools of lava
surrounding the map and obsidian rock still glowing red hot.
The blue side of the map on the other hand looks more like hot springs - signs of geothermic
activity, like steam vents and bubbling pools, but for the most part it’s a lot more calm
when compared to the red side, like you’d expect.
The final piece of concept art shows one of the center pieces - a new neutral monster
that players would fight over, chained down in his own platform with a few access ramps
that players can use to get close.
The concept art looks surprisingly similar to the champion concept of Omen, as it’s
a pretty demonic looking monster with sharp clothes and rows of teeth.
Although we don’t have images of them, apparently all of the jungle monsters on Magma Chamber
would have been different - probably just to make them fit better with the general concept.
For example, wolves and Razorbeaks don’t seem like good inhabitants for the center
of a volcano, but maybe some kind of lava golems would have been really cool - and of
course, you gotta have a fire dragon!
A lot of players might be wondering why Magma Chamber ended up cancelled if Riot had such
a clear vision for the way the map would look and play - even after they were confident
enough in it to give players hope by offering a sneak peak.
We don’t know for sure why it was cancelled, but the speculation at the time was that even
though the layout would encourage a new metagame, the game was never balanced around the playstyles
that Magma Chamber would encourage - every aspect of the game is balanced around Summoner’s
Rift, and that causes a lot of issues.
For example, if the focus is on winning 2v2 and 1v1 fights, all of the champions who are
best at fighting in a 5v5 are at an immediate disadvantage, and strong duo lanes become
the standard.
If there’s less threat of being ganked, that also means that duellist go unchecked
because they can stomp lane without threat of being punished for it like they would on
Summoner’s Rift.
Reasons like this might have been big contributors to why Riot decided to walk away from the
original 5v5 concept of Magma Chamber.
Riot didn’t want to just abandon the concept as a total waste of time though, since really
it started as an experiment that was aiming to evolve the MOBA genre.
After a lot of gameplay testing, Riot decided that a new objective, particularly ‘capture
and hold’ was a lot more fun than just making a bigger map with the same three lane system
- resulting in parts of the Magma Chamber concept being altered and combined with the
newly created Project Odin, which is what became what we most League players know as
Dominion.
Riot weren’t quite finished with their volcanically-themed design just yet though, it was such a cool
concept that they wanted to find at least some way to use the art assets and strategic
tweaks that would provide a similar-but-different gameplay experience to Summoner’s Rift.
They could have used the volcano theme as another Summoner’s Rift re-skin, like they
have done with Autumn and Winter themes in the past, but it wouldn’t have done a lot
of justice to the concept and all the time spent developing it as a different gameplay
experience to what Summoner’s Rift offered to players.
Riot announced their creation in the form of a 1v1 map, also called Magma Chamber, which
was used during the skill matchups for the All-Star games in 2013.
It was designed to be the new map for 1v1 games, in the same way that Howling Abyss
was made to give a new design dedicated for ARAM games.
The 1v1 version of Magma Chamber featured only one lane and one tower for each side,
and only a single pair of parallel bushes.
The matches on All-Stars were made to follow the 1v1 rules that the community had created,
which were meant victory was granted to the person that achieved first blood, killed 100
minions or destroyed the enemy tower first.
This also stretched to work for 2v2s, but two kills were required to win instead of
one.
The idea was that this version of Magma Chamber would support that ruleset, so players could
create custom games or queue up to play in a 1v1 or 2v2 - just like players used to battle
on Shipment in CoD 4, or Rust on MW2.
It would be the ultimate test of skill - just you vs your opponent and no outside influences.
It was actually scheduled to release before Season 4 launched, and in the meantime Riot
were going to test it out and make sure there were no bugs and the map was balanced enough
to make it function properly as the go-to 1v1 or 2v2 map.
Unfortunately for the playerbase, once again Riot cancelled Magma Chamber - this time for
good.
The new map might have only been themed after the original concept, but it was plagued by
similar issues to those that Riot had with their dream for a bigger 5v5 map.
It was cancelled for good in January 2014, with Riot saying that they had weighed up
the workload of making Magma chamber work for the public against how much people actually
wanted to use the new map, and they decided that it wasn’t worth the time and effort.
They did actually release a new 1v1 and 2v2 mode in the form of Snowdown, which used the
Howling Abyss and the same ruleset as the one used at All-Stars on Magma Chamber, but
apparently they came to the conclusion that most people really didn’t care that much
about playing it.
That’s really a whole other video by itself though, so if you want to hear about the 1v1
re-design of Magma Chamber and our thoughts on using it to give players access to 1v1
and 2v2 fights, make sure you check out our video on whether we think Riot should go ahead
and release Magma Chamber.
Anyway that just about covers everything about Magma Chamber’s history, it’s a shame
such an awesome theme and concept ended up being left behind - but the Riot we know now
is totally different from the studio they were two years ago, so maybe they will consider
revisiting the idea later down the road, just like they did for the Sandbox practice mode!
And it looks like that’s gonna be it from me, if you enjoyed the video drop a like,
subscribe if you want, thanks for watching, and I’ll see you guys next time!