League of Legends Launches Black Market Brawlers Mode
League of Legends released a new game mode on July, 29, 2015 in conjunction with their ongoing special event, Bilgewater. The new game mode, Black Market Brawlers, takes place on the Summoner’s Rift map and gives players new methods of empowering and gaining new minions to overcome their enemies’ nexus. A new currency called Krakens allows players to enlist new for-hire mercenary minions that replace regular minions in lane until the end of the game. Krakens also give players the option of buffing these new minions to overpower their enemies.
There are four types of minions that can be hired, each with unique looks and different benefits to their team:
- + Iron Backs – Melee, tanky siege minions
- + Ocklepods – Ranged support, shield and vision granting minions
- + Plundercrabs – Ranged champion targeted minions
- + Razorfins – Melee champion targeted minions
Along with the new minion types, Black Market Brawlers features sixteen original items with a slew of unique abilities not currently seen in League of Legend’s inventory. New activatables allow for minions to take damage, while others allow for a LeBlanc style bait-in-switch, granting users the ability to take on the appearance of a nearby ally. The passive items allow for unique benefits, such as buffs while fighting in river and increased damage against towers.
While Black Market Brawlers has a lot of new features including minions, items and currency, the sheer amount of new content leads to chaos, even for players who have played several rounds of this mode. The shop is incredibly difficult to navigate through and the gameplay is honestly the same as regular Summoner’s Rift, however, snowballing is more prominent because upgraded minions are as strong as canon minions by default. The mode basically leads to an unenjoyable PVE if you are on the losing side, while you try to clear minions that have the power to target and kill squishy champions.
Overall, the game mode was grating and the only real incentive to play this mode versus Summoner’s Rift is for the exclusive icon through the Bilgwater special event.
