I played a match today in which we were more or less losing. We had already lost an inhib, but we have just aced them. So what does the other surviving team member do? He went out and captured the stupid alters. WHY? They hardly do anything! We could have pushed and broken a tower or the bare inhib... but no getting the alters for a minute until the enemy team was back alive to recapture it was more important. This happens in every TT I've played on the new map. I hate the alters and I hate the new Twisted Treeline. Bring back the old please!!!

what do the altars do? My team captured them all game and we won without losing any towers at all.

Do they make you win games?

Well, if the respawn timers are still short enough, or the lane isn't pushed enough, or the surviving members are too low this can be the optimal play.

If you have one altar, you get an extra 4 gold each kill. It's actually really important to have at least one since the game is balanced around you having one. If you have both, then you get an extra 10% AD and 10% AP.

Having both can even out a losing game or win you the game quite easily.

And capping them means they're yours for 90s, that's 90s of you being stronger than the other team. If you're both low, then pushing the towers might not be an option so capturing the altars gives you a boost that should let you push up a bit. Unless it's something like 50s till they respawn, then push a tower/inhib and fall back to cap around the 15s to spawn mark.

One thing to note about the Alters is they are much easier to capture than defend...
If you take one from an enemy team it locks for 90secs meaning its yours, and once the lock comes off you cant lock it again, but the other team can take, and lock it... Many times, unless you know you can do it, its better to just let the Alter go, farm, and then grab it after the 90secs.