Since Twisted Treeline is being retired at the end of this League of Legends season, Vilemaw is going to be left without a home—for now, at least.
Riot design director Andrei “Meddler” van Roon reflected on the future of Twisted Treeline’s PvE boss Vilemaw in the Dev Corner today. While there are no concrete plans yet, the magical arachnid may find itself in other game modes later on.
“Could be things like an alternative to Baron on SR in some circumstances, a late game boss in TFT, a boss for an event game mode etc,” Meddler said. “It’s the sort of change we’d want to introduce in a preseason, a new TFT set, or an event mode that had a strongly matching theme, so the right opportunity might not come along for a while.”
With Summoner’s Rift already home to elemental drakes, Elder Dragon, Baron, and Rift Herald, it may be tough to squeeze Vilemaw in as well. A Teamfight Tactics appearance would make sense during one of the PvE rounds where players eliminate monsters, like minions, wolves, and dragons, for items and gold.
Meddler admits that this type of feature is something that’d be implemented during the major overhaul of the preseason. And with preseason 2020 kicking off in early November, it’s unlikely that Riot would be able to introduce Vilemaw for a while.
Twisted Treeline follows a similar premise to Summoner’s Rift, with the goal being to destroy the enemy’s Nexus. The battle is three-vs-three, however, with only two lanes instead of the Rift’s three.
Riot revealed Twisted Treeline’s removal three months ago on the Nexus. Riot principal game designer Stephen “Mortdog” Mortimer explained that the low queue sizes, poor matchmaking, and an unsatisfying PvP experience were the reasons behind this decision.
Dedicated Twisted Treeline players will earn “a few small rewards” at the end of the season, according to Mortdog.
