Riot Games is gearing up to add a new “Practice Tool” to its mega-popular online game League of Legends, a single-player mode that affords players game state editing tools they can use to quickly practice strategies.
It’s a bit akin to the debug modes that are built into many video games, but devs may be curious to note that — in a nod to the rising prevalence of taking cues from real sports in designing eSports — Riot staffers blog about the Practice Tool as though it was a sports training facility.
“At its core, Practice Tool is a place where you can train your mechanics,” reads an excerpt of the post. “A simple, straight forward, single-player environment that lets you test out things like checking wall flash points or if you can solo dragon with a certain item build, without wasting hours in Custom Games. As League gains more and more similarities to a sport, it makes sense that there be a place where you can go to shoot hoops!”
There are few, if any, examples of contemporary video games offering trainings modes of similar scope — at launch the Practice Tool will allow players to do things like spawn creatures, teleport around the map or skip forward through time, and Riot plans to add more features going forward.