Earlier this week, the folks over at Super Evil Megacorp unleashed the latest update to their mobile MOBA, Vainglory (Free). Along with new skins and the requisite balance changes, 1.17 also introduces the Battle Royale Public Queue, which is the next step into truly making the game a ‘mobile MOBA.’

In case you haven’t checked out Battle Royale, which was introduced as a private game mode in an earlier version, Royale is a new game mode that significantly streamlines the Vainglory experience. Players are assigned a random hero at the start of the match, and engage in lane-only battle (i.e. no jungling) hero centric battles with game lengths that average between seven and ten minutes. Battle Royale also rewards fame and glory so it’s a viable alternative queue to the standard game.

From a gameplay standpoint, a very interesting change was made in regards to enemy item builds. Now, you can also see an enemy’s current build if you have vision on them and you must re-obtain vision to see updated builds. It’s a very interesting move that makes counterbuilds a bit less of a lock. Other changes include Kraken boosts late game as well as a change to gold bounties on the minion mine. In addition to the above, skins for Rona, Phinn and Vox were also announced and also look pretty cool.

Speaking of heroes, many heroes got balance changes in 1.17 including significant changes to Alpha, Fortress, Kestrel, Ozo, and Reim. The Recommended Items shop was also significantly revamped for the better.

The full change log for Version 1.17 can be found here. Meanwhile, don’t be surprised to see us streaming a bit of Battle Royale on Mobcrush in the near future.