Earlier this week, League of Legends’s developer announced that one of the game’s longest-serving game modes, 3v3 map The Twisted Treeline, would be retired at the end of the current season. The mode’s limited popularity means response has been relatively apathetic, but the loss of one particular character has got fans talking.
Vilemaw is an epic monster (similar to Summoner’s Rift’s Baron Nashor or elemental dragons) that dwells in a cave at the top of The Twisted Treeline. Little is known about the monster, but it’s thought to be an almost godlike figure, resembling a spider.
With the Treeline going the way of The Crystal Scar, Vilemaw is likely to be consigned to the League of Legends history books – but not if the game’s community has anything to say about it. In a post on the official subreddit, user Eevree said that while they didn’t play The Twisted Treeline very much, “but I always loved Vilemaw and its concept. I was thinking, maybe Riot could find a way to bring him to Summoner’s Rift.”
Eevree’s ideas range from adding Vilemaw to the map in place of Baron, to easter eggs referencing the character scattered throughout Summoner’s Rift. Personally, my favourite of their ideas is including the character as an Epic monster during Harrowing events in late October, although I’m not sure if that’d work when it comes to actually balancing the game.
The fate of Vilemaw is unlikely to be made clear until the end of the season, but given that he’s been around since 2012, I’d imagine Riot has some kind of plan to ensure he’s not completely forgotten.