League of Legends to get new ARAM custom map?

League of Legends developers Riot Games plan to release a new map designed to replicate ARAM (all-random, all-mid), a subgenre of normal games invented by players. The new map, named Proving Grounds, has been made available on LoL's public beta server for testing and will be released on the two main servers in an upcoming patch.

Riot planned to release the new map with the last patch on June 20, but have now delayed its launch, Riot designer Brackhar said on the official forums . Brackhar posted: "While we still plan to ship the assets for the Proving Grounds custom game mode with the next patch, we will not have it enabled on patch day. Very late in the cycle some concerns with platform stability arose, so we're going to delay turning it on for a few days to iron that out... It will still be playable on the PBE in the mean time."

Proving Grounds will not be a new game mode, but will be available for players to select in custom games. Players can choose champions as normal in either blind or draft pick, but can also use the all-random mode to recreate ARAM battles.

The new map is a modified version of the game's tutorial level, and forces both teams into a single lane. Riot have made various tweaks to its balance in response to feedback from players on the PBE server, such as reducing respawn times and giving players extra passive gold and experience gain, although they may make further changes before releasing it. Like Dominion, Proving Grounds games are likely to be fast-paced and take less time to play than on Summoners' Rift.