It’s been nearly eight long years since the Dominion game mode was retired in League of Legends, and to this day, players still pine for one more chance to battle over points in Crystal Scar’s glowing circles.
Dominion’s fast-paced gameplay loop and variety from League’s regular ranked matches quickly made it one of the premier casual modes, with many players treating it as a lobby where they could cool off after tough competitive battles—until Riot Games suddenly slammed the doors on the playlist (and its iconic Crystal Scar battlefield) midway through the 2016 League season.
At the time, Riot suggested not enough players were joining Crystal Scar lobbies, but nearly a decade later, outcry to bring it back remains.
So, will League ever see Dominion and the Crystal Scar return?
What is Dominion in League?
Dominion was essentially League’s Capture the Flag mode. Two teams of five players contested capture points on the Crystal Scar map. Whichever team controlled the points the longest would win.
This game mode was one of the few in League where players did not “last-hit” the Nexus to achieve victory. Instead, the Nexus health bar ticked down the longer you controlled CTF-style points. Each additional neutral point you claimed ownership of increased the damage over time and spawned minions.
Points (damage to the Nexus) were won in the following way:
- Neutralize point — 40
- Capture point — 40
- Martyr (dying at turret) — 40
- Kill on point — 30
- Assisting in capture/neutralize — 25
- Assist on point — 10
- Channel interrupt — Five
- Defending a turret (every 10 seconds) — Five
- Picking up the Storm Shield — Three
- Minion kill — Two
- Picking up health pack — Two
- Assisting an ally (buffs, heal, etc.) — One
Dominion’s biggest selling point was it was a faster game mode: each Nexus started on 500 health, meaning matches were decided quite quickly.
Is Dominion mode coming back to League?
It’s very unlikely Dominion will ever return to League—and that’s from Riot developers directly. While we’ll never say never, don’t expect the Crystal Scar map mode to ever get a modern-day update.
This has been Riot’s stance on the Capture the Flag mode since as far back as late 2020 when the devs declared: “Crystal Scar is very unlikely to come back.”
The biggest issue, Dot Esports understands, is technical. Dominion’s Crystal Scar map was originally designed on old League code which simply no longer exists. To bring back the Dominion game mode, the Riot devs would have to rebuild it from scratch, which they decided was not worth the time compared to shipping upgrades for the Summoner’s Rift and Howling Abyss maps.
They can’t even bring back the original map either because it doesn’t work with League’s DirectX version, which has been the code base for three years.
The only way Dominion could ever live on is if it was spliced onto a new battlefield, but that’s just as unlikely as a full Crystal Scar re-release.
