Boards›Dev Corner

Ranked 2019 — /dev Update #1

RiotRiot SapMagic·1/30/2019, 11:02:44 PM·1 votes·178,125 views

Hey everyone, Ed “SapMagic” Altorfer here on behalf of the Ranked team. Last week, we kicked off Season 2019 with new tiers, a reworked placements system, split rewards, and—for North America and Korea—a preview of position ranks. Today I want to give you a quick update on how things are going so far, let you know what we have planned for the next few patches, and talk a bit about the things we’re investigating.

You can find the key information below. If you want all the details, read on! https://i.imgur.com/AJEPJmn.png

#Fixed Season start was relatively smooth, but we encountered and resolved a few issues already. Here were the big ones:

##Issue: Some players were unable to queue together when they should be able to. Early in the season, we discovered some players were unable to queue together, especially if either player had lost their season rewards as a result of punishment. We also uncovered some other issues with premade restrictions, so we fixed them.

We determine premade restrictions like this:

  • For position ranks, we use your highest provisional or non-provisional position rank
  • For other queues, we use your provisional or non-provisional rank
  • If you don’t have a provisional or non-provisional rank, we use your past rank
  • If you’re new to Ranked, we use Iron IV to determine restrictions

We will continue to monitor and investigate any reports of premade restrictions not working properly, so hit us up if you feel like you’re encountering issues.

##Issue: Some players were experiencing abnormally low LP gains. With the introduction of Iron and Grandmaster, and the season reset, some players—especially players who were high Diamond in Season 2018—were getting lower LP gains than expected. There were a variety of reasons for this, but we believe we’ve corrected most of them now.

#Planned Based on the feedback we’ve received so far, we have some updates planned over the next few patches. Standard disclaimer: Any of these are subject to change if we encounter bugs or need to prioritize more important work.

##Patch 9.3

  • New Loading Screen/Borders — We’ll roll out the updated loading screen and dynamic borders which reflect your current rank
  • Dynamic Split 1 Emote — The Split 1 emote will become dynamic and evolve with your current tier. It locks in at the end of Split 1
  • Clearer LP Splashing Visuals — The amount of LP splashing will be displayed more prominently on the scoreboard screen after a game and doesn’t disappear

##Patch 9.4

  • Splashing Can Trigger Promo Series — We’ve heard a lot of feedback from players that you should be able to enter a promo series when you splash to 100 LP so we’re doing it. You’ll still get a free win from Promo Helper if you’re eligible, which should cut down on the grind

##Patch 9.5

  • Autofill Protection in Promo Series — We have heard feedback that it’s pretty frustrating when you get a position into a promo series, queue up for it, and then get assigned something different. After this change, you’ll be guaranteed* your primary selection if it’s in a series

* There may be some extreme situations where we can’t 100% guarantee you’ll get your first choice. We’ll update you again as we get closer to having this ready.

#Investigating In addition to the work we already have planned, we’re investigating a few other potential changes to the system based on the feedback we’ve seen so far:

##Increasing Autofill LP Bonuses Position ranks and splashing are tricky to balance. On one hand, we’ve seen feedback that many players appreciate how the new system makes losing off-position games feel like less of a setback. On the other hand, we’ve heard feedback that it doesn’t feel good to win off-position games.

In patch 9.3, we’ll make splashing more prominent on the scoreboard screen. Many players don’t realize they get bonus LP for their main position when they win while autofilled and we think clarifying the current incentive will help.

Having said that, we’re also considering additional changes to make those games feel more rewarding, like buffing the bonus LP you earn for your main position when autofilled. We’re also looking at ways we can reward players for hitting Gold or higher in multiple positions as part of season rewards.

##Increasing LP Penalties for Throwing Off-position Games We’ve heard from you that negative splashing isn’t visible and in some cases it doesn’t punish players hard enough for throwing off-position games. While we haven’t seen a measurable increase in players throwing games, we’re considering tuning negative splashing so it ramps up faster. At the same time, we want to be careful not to punish players who just get unlucky despite trying their best to win.

##Removing Negative Splashing Between Provisional Positions Part of the promise of the new placements system is that you’re protected from losing LP. This is generally true, except with splashing it’s possible to lose LP from a position that’s still in placements. Splashing in general is an important part of preserving competitive integrity, but we’re digging into whether it would be safe to modify the rules for this particular situation.

If you’re seeing other issues that aren’t captured here or you just have feedback about the system, let us know in the comments. Thanks for all your help and feedback, and we’ll see you on the Rift!

143 Comments

donger b0t1/31/2019, 10:30:12 AM38 votes

How can you have a legitimate conversation with your players about matchmaking and MMR when you keep MMR hidden? Please make player's MMR public so that we are empowered to have an actual discussion on matchmaking not based on anecdotes. The integrity of the division system will remain in tact, it will still feel good to climb divisions even if our MMR stays the same.. But we need transparency, we deserve to know where we truly fall and how we are actually being matched with others. Otherwise all of the work you are doing just feels in bad faith.

If you are proud of your work this season on the matchmaking adjustments then stand behind them and make player's MMR public so an actual discussion can take place.

ZaneShadow1/30/2019, 11:17:48 PM13 votes

Auto fill protection for a promo series sounds amazing. I’m just starting ranked this season for the first time, and I’d be so sad to get autofilled in such an important match.

Spiçy1/31/2019, 1:02:36 AM13 votes

I'm really worried about this being to grindy..

Riot has said many times that they put splash LP to fix it so it's not to grindy, but I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking this:

  • I don't want to be a Plat ADC, Support, but a gold top because I play the the less, I feel that the lowest rank is your rank.

I'm almost done my 40 games to finish my provisional games in each role, and, it's frustrating, my attitude has felt weak and in some cases not so positive, my solo queue is my try hard, but here I have myself playing Sylas JG for the first time only out of a practice game.

Honestly makes me have a don't care attitude, when my team is, not so good. Which never used to affect my in game very much.

Not sure what I'm trying to say really, I'm just worried that it's still to grindy because there is no clear definition of your rank anymore because of the possibility to have 5 different ranks now.

ImSorryYouSuck1/30/2019, 11:42:31 PM12 votes

Can we have position rank on other servers now and don't wait like 3 months? Also climbing with an unranked account feels terrible this season and it's actually harder to reach diamond. it's impossible in 10 games.

Vlad To Kill You2/3/2019, 5:43:24 AM5 votes

You should do a system that allows you to get free win if you let's say you 98 lp or 99 lp , and win 1 game... , if you get into series you definetly should get a free win ,cause this is quitly weird to play for almost non sense rewards... 1 lp or 2 lp is quit nothing , but it could calculate let's say you get 19 lp for winning the game ,if you won over 17lp on top of the 100 lp you should get the free win into series... ,that's likely 1 game played... it's quitly help and is something which could save time of the people who spent to play ranked , cause wasting 30 minuts for 1-2 lp isn't sound quit good. ,already got 2-3 times 98 lp ,99 lp and the season just start that's about 1 hour and half of my time... which i could save..

Garrotte1/30/2019, 11:32:47 PM5 votes

Something I'd like to see addressed is that if a position hits 100lp/promos, because no LP gets splashed to it until you rank it up, you in a sense get "punished" for playing other roles until then. I'd like to see some banking(maybe a 20-33 max?) So I don't need to actively think about gaming the system in order to not lose out of overall LP

Q zzy1/30/2019, 11:24:06 PM3 votes

I have a question about the ranked tab. Does it no longer show your leaderboard within your tier because I only see the positional ranks. Also is it still possible to show more stuff like top ranked champs or winrates like the old ranked tab showed. So far I'm pretty satisfied with the changes overall though.

Evidence2/1/2019, 9:39:44 PM3 votes

"fixed" "riot" dont make me laugh*[sg-miss-fortune]*

FurryKhan2/4/2019, 6:32:40 PM3 votes

There are a couple thing which u already should have done:

-Everybody know about toxic community. especially low elo. Why no algorithm about instantly chat bann/perma on account which spam really rude things like "kys" etc... why only through report system??? 10 years old game and no one thought about it yet???

-The smurfs makes serious damage on low elo, still no SMS verification on ranked like in Clash.... Dota2 already implemented it cuz they listened to the players. Dota2 has lesser active player base and they knew about this problem with smurfs who makes fun of farming low players in Silver/Bronze completly ruining those ranked elo-s.

-Some people really want longer queue time in lower ELO cuz we face unbalanced teams in MMR so many times. We understand the prombelms of hight elo players who some times must wait half hours... So this could be an option which u can turn on or turn off...

-The minimum ranked requirements should be higher for ranked now. We in low elo, 10/7 games play with another player who just first time with a champ and hard lose without punishment... Should be played some games with a champ before playing ranked. Theese players make a hard lose cuz they cant play and never played with that champion and Riot let them doing this without punishment. We can report intentional feeding but as i can see, in lower elo, no one gets punishment for that. But a 0/15 first timer should be, in these case...

Free tips Riot games....

I could write more but as it seems, u really not listening to the community :(

AetherArising2/7/2019, 11:26:02 PM3 votes

Heya, i may be a bit late to the party but i'd like to provide a little feedback:

New placements are... interesting. I personally dislike the format of "Place really really low, but rapidly climb and lose nothing" as opposed to "Average your bests and worsts, and place you somewhere in the middle", i am hesitant at best to want to place in any queue other than my main role whereas i used to be totally fine autofilling to top, bot, or even support when they were given. I wasn't happy, but i tolerated.

Now, since you gain SO much less LP for autofill games, and you lose less, it feels like a waste of 30-40 mins to me. Instead of getting a sweeping +18 or +21 LP to my rank and helping my climb keep its steady pace, now i get.... well, the same but only for a role i do not play frequently enough to value whatsoever, so that number is going to be dramatically lower than it would be. Sure, there's splashing, but does a whopping -3 loss or maybe 5-6 for a win matter for a forty minute game?

Aside from that, it's a good idea, but i don't see execution working out. It's nice to see "Oh, this dude's a good player, he's just off role" or "Oh this dude's on-role" so the MATCHMAKING aspect would be nice It's exploitable as fuck and there's no amount of safeguard to stop it But it's nice. Better than "wait hold on this dude's both a bad player AND off role? why is he in my game"

Gripes aside, here's what has been done correctly: 1: New loading screen is nice 2: Iron was much needed, though the fact that every division sub Old Gold3 division was pushed down feels bad. Still a nessacary division for the worst players to be sorted apart from anything from 'Slightly sub-average' to "there is no rank low enough for these players" 3: As clunky as the game is right now, i can say that the pacing and balance is slightly better than last season. Not by much, but noticable enough to mention here. Refine it a little, reward good play, and soften the blow a tiny bit from that 1 guarenteed throw player ruining your every game, and you'll have a very satisfying ranked experience once again. 4: Having 1 less division to climb between ranks is nice, i personally disliked stagnating at silver 3 last season until i got over that bump solely because i knew after slogging through that division i'd have 2 more to go equally as difficult, and i was only halfway through so far.

Hopefully this critique serves some purpose, or is at least noticed. Thanks for reading -AA

thefance1/31/2019, 5:48:07 PM2 votes

"Splashing" is a term I'm not familiar with. What is it exactly, how does it work, and how long has League implemented it? I presume it's a positive or negative bonus to LP, but e.g. is it typically associated with a particular type of behavior? Is this term common in when discussing competitive ladders?

I remember provisional matches in prior seasons comprised a total of 10 matches. In season 9, I've needed 8 provisional matches per rank. I can understand one reason might be to reduce the grindy-ness of provisionals from 50 matches 40 matches. But were there any other factors? I'm not complaining, I'm just wondering.

Naively, I'd have thought that playing off-roll due to autofill would reduce both LP gained and LP lost. I.e. in order to make autofill matter less. Are you confident that giving autofill victories bonus LP and therefore giving it more gravitas is the correct decision? Are players throwing their autofill matches often?

Tormentula1/30/2019, 11:50:23 PM2 votes

My main concern with this system that I don't think was answered in a Q/A yet (or haven't seen);

How does elo decay work with the new positional queue? It wasn't a problem when it was one rank since you could play 1 game and just prevent being promoted, but say if somebody gets masters in all 5 positions, would they have to play a ranked game in each position to avoid demoting? If so that's really pressuring and makes the incentive to even bother climbing in more then one position less worth it.

If it does work like that; it should be changed to; "you can reset elo decay for all of them by playing a game in any position that you're plat+ in, playing it in a position you're gold- will not reset the elo decay timer."

idk just feels weird doing placements for roles I don't play, getting plat, then probably by the end of the year sitting at gold 1 in all of them because I don't want bothered resetting their timer outside the only role that matters (main)

Also can we get a visual on how many days are left for elo decay?

Nefas1/31/2019, 1:00:32 AM2 votes

What rates have you seen around autofilling and getting secondary over primary compared to the past? I noticed my rate of getting my main role has decreased significantly, to the point of getting my off role every other game for significant stretches. This feels awful and you making penalties for off-roles worse makes me want to stop playing for a while, to be entirely honest.

I still strongly dislike this new system and believe it is a detriment to the competitive queue that is ranked. The sooner it is removed the better. Ranked is not and should not be the place for experimenting.

HommeGoujon2/1/2019, 11:40:49 AM2 votes

Is it just me or it feels like we're just getting less LP when we win? I was on a 70-80% win rate and I was getting 17 LP. I lost and they took 20 LP from me oO. I feel like last season, if you were winning a lot then you would start earning more LP for each win until you lose too many games. Feels a bit underwhelming tbh.

ADC Yuumi2/1/2019, 2:23:45 PM2 votes

I think personally that the first five placement games give LP even if you lose, then the next five are way more strict.

Pandorax13x2/3/2019, 10:56:42 PM2 votes

Do you lot ever plan to do anything about the report system?? because i'm not being funny but being matched with trolls and feeders and afkers in ranked matches is really starting to piss me off. The matchmaking system is a joke, and you lot expect people to climb in ranked and carry these idiots, but yet, you do nothing about the people that are being reported for the above reasons.

Byakuren Hijiri1/30/2019, 11:53:35 PM1 votes

When was the low LP gain fixed? I remember I played last night, won, and got 14LP Was really bummed out about that and feels like I cheated out of 2 games I could have gotten a lot more in. Only got like 28LP from 2 wins. So don't want to risk anything if it was fixed yesterday and I'm still seeing the issue.

Over Justice1/30/2019, 11:27:16 PM1 votes

As a EU player I wonder how the system works with a dedicated "fill" player? Does it think of him as a support main?

Also will there be a non-tier based version of Morgana emote?