Last year, Riot had announced that they had zero plans in bringing a sandbox mode for "League of Legends" soon so that players can have a venue to rehearse their strategies and practice their skills before they go online. They said that this is not the way to go since the best way to enhance a player's skills would be to do so online.
PC Gamer called Riot's announcement both inarticulate and harmful, saying that there are absolutely no good ways for novice players to pick up the hard points of the game or refine their playing methods. The tutorial is entirely useless and appears to be more of a mere formality instead of something that hones a player's skills in the game. Learning "League of Legends" is also hampered by some factors such as cool-down timers, level limits, and veteran players who take advantage of a newbie's lack of experience and bully them in game.
Fortunately, Riot changed their position earlier this year and agreed that there has to be a proper training tool for the game. They, however, warned that work would not start until sometime in the far flung future because the team that would work on it is pre-occupied with a lot of other things. Recently, it has announced that the day they were talking about has come and work has already kicked off on a "League of Legends" practice tool.
The Official Blog says that this feature that will launch soon will be a tool wherein a player can master and hone his skills. They also say that their initial approach with this upcoming practice tool will be low-scope, simple, and straightforward and this will be their counterpart to a punching bag and drills for practicing execution when one goes online. They will do their best to make this tool inclusive to people at every skill level so that every single "League of Legends" player would be able to practice mechanics and map movement.
Aside from that, they are also looking into developing a multiplayer training tool for organized team drills or online play which is good for practicing team play and cooperation. Once the first "League of Legends" version comes out, the team will follow up and pay close attention if anything has been missed in terms of how this new feature will let a player become a better one.
