User blog comment:Lykrast/A suggestion about Flash/@comment-6906412-20130706215711

The point of Flash is the clutch escapes over walls or fast engages against enemy teams (Flash/Crescendo or Flash/Taunt). This change bascially turns flash into a surprise engage spell from fog of war rather than a dual engage/escape mechanism. Against a poke comp (Lux/Ezreal/Jayce/Nidalee/Caitlyn, etc.), Flash becomes useless aside from a mobility spell. In lane, Flash is now useless as an escape from ganks unless you avoid the initiation, which is difficult in most situations. AD carries like Miss Fortune or Varus will have no way to reposition themselves when engaged upon, especially in cases such as Jarvan's Cataclysm in which you must flash to escape. The smartcast is there for efficient use when you're panicking and trying to escape.

Basically, this change kills flash as an escape and increases its power as an engage tool. However, you leave many champions without a way to reposition in fights or escape ganks, and you make flash useless against poke champions. Right now, the cooldown is long enough (even with masteries and Distortion enchantment) that Flash is effective as a non-spammable last-resort escape or a hard engage.