In-Client Ping Tester
Greetings!
I am not completely sure if this type of idea goes in this sub-forum-board-thing, but I will post it here anyway. I will give a brief overview, but will then go into more detail.
Overview - Short Explanation (no details) I think that League could have an in-client ping tester that works without you having to go into a match, it could tell you if you are at an okay level to go in game, but could also give suggestions if you are not. This would help the community overall, and would lead to less bans overall, and also would keep more players happy.
In-Depth Explanation This will break into a few different sections just so I can keep it neat. I will start by explaining the idea more in-depth, and I will address issues that will get brought up, things that have already been said about this idea, and I will end by moving into explaining the benefits for the larger community if this idea would be implemented.
The in-client ping tester could work four different ways from my perspective: 1: it could be activated by just clicking a button somewhere in the client that will then test your ping, 2: it could be activated whenever you try to join a room (to play with your friends for an example, 3: after you join a room, but before you queue it will activate the ping-tester. 4: Once you have a room with people in it, the owner of the room can then click a button that will test everyone's ping in the room, and will then give each person individualized feedback, possibly also allowing the owner of the room to see each players' ping and kick accordingly (this touches on how this system can be very beneficial for the community as a whole).
If you are not pinging within a decently modest range, then it could stop you from playing, and ask you to try a few things to reduce your ping before you play; examples of this can be from shutting open Internet browsers completely, closing other programs that use Internet like Steam, turning off other things that are using bandwidth like Netflix or Hulu-Plus, as a lot of people stream these over their console while playing League on their PC/Laptops.
The ping tester could function very well by doing both #1 and #2, or #1 and #3, and I will explain why, but also just explain about how the system would actually work. #1 and #2 would mean that users could test their general ping level at any time without having to join a room, but it also means that when a user joins a room that already has the game type set, then the ping-tester could take the user's ping and then adjust it for the average rise in ping for that game type, since a 3 vs 3 and a 5 vs 5 will affect one's ping differently because of the amount of data-flow, and then the system can decide if the user is likely to be okay to play that match. #1 and #3 will do just about the same thing, but is really just a preference based on how the system would be coded/implemented into the already existing infrastructure. #4 is more tricky to say how it could be done, as I am not sure how Riot would want to go about this option, although it would work pretty similarly to how #1 and/or #2 would function. There can also be a mix of all of these, but that just sounds complicated.
It was suggested that you could test your ping by just joining a custom game, but this won't work because of quite a few variables that affect your ping. First off, I have no proof for this claim, but I doubt that beginner bots or intermediate bots could replicate the same amount of data that will affect your ping as unique users, which would mean to get an accurate reading, you would need to create a custom game and then fill up the spots with real players, so for a 5 v 5 norms (the game-type you want to play), you would need to then create a custom game and invite 9 other players to get a more accurate reading of what your ping would be like in a regular 5 vs 5 match. This is obviously a big waste of time, and highly ineffective, because you are effectively creating a 5 vs 5 norms match anyway, which this system is meant to replace.
Benefits to the Community This is easily the most important part, as if there are not benefits, then why do it at all? Players are being banned for AFK'ing, quitting matches, and also for lagging out. This could solve the lagging out leading to bans problem, or at least help the problem. This will also make playing more enjoyable, since it will drastically reduce the amount of matches that people join, lag out, then leave their team 1 person short, which more often than not means they are going to lose. Having players lag out and leaving teams 1 person short (even for just a little while) or maybe more than 1 person short exceedingly hurts the morale of the team, and leads to a game that is not played as well. This would help overall morale by reducing the amount of times that players are left fighting a massively up-hill battle. This will also solve the problem of joining a game and then realizing that your ping is very high, and you either have to try and play (which means feeding most of the time), not playing that much (disadvantage for your team), or AFK/quit (which means ban). Overall it seems that the benefits are pretty big, and could help League stop a lot of issues that are very common.
If you have comments, suggestions, or questions, please post below and I will try and reply and/or edit this post if possible. I may have missed some stuff, which I will probably add below if possible!
Thank you, ArkDeception
