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Updating Rank to Actually Reflect Your Skill Level In Solo Q

Noctem Aeternum·2/3/2018, 2:37:23 AM·1 votes·606 views

So ive been playing a lot of ranked for the past 6-7 years now on League. Trying like every other tryhard on here to climb the Ranked Ladder and coming from the bottom of League in Solo Que that there is something really really screwed up with Solo Q rankings.

Rankings are by design a reflection of YOUR SKILL LEVEL. IE: Bronze players are of course Bronze and Plat is Plat. So when you hear of a Bronze Player you think they are total crap, and you think of someone who is Plat as capable and able at this game. So it would assume that person in accordance to their Ranking would indicate what skill level that player is. Yet everywhere you look Rito makes it very clear that this is a "TEAM BASED GAME" So when you que for Solo, your solo q ranking is a reflection of your General Random Team Skill rank and not a reflection of your own skill level.

The reason I say this is cuz this game is not a 1v1 but rather a 5v5. And unlike a premade 5v5 where you actually can communicate more efficiently and know their skill level, instead you get paired with people with a 50/50 chance of getting paired with people you cant work with like a well oiled machine. So when you play a game and win, you automatically are awarded so many LP and advance the ladder regardless of whether you sat in base and let your buddy carry you the whole game and vice versa. You can do almost everything right, but that one person (or two) causes you to lose the game. And when you lose, everyone loses LP regardless of your skill or not. Which is kind of the messed up part. Especially when you notice the flaws.

So as one example and as many people have done, is just duo with someone who is a higher skill then them and therefore "boost" them to higher rankings that they themselves may honestly not have the skill to compete at a higher ranking. but since they were carried by their friend they are now queuing in a higher skill level where they get destroyed screwing up the game for their other teammates (thus bringing the 4 people'r rankings they qued with down) Alternatively you have it where people who absolutely troll the crap out of the game being awarded LP regardless if they contributed or not. And Im fully aware that "eventually" the system will catch up to these people and it will supposedly sort itself out. But what if we as players were able to control more of how much LP we win or lose besides just based on winning and losing so many games.

Rito put into place a really cool grading system where depending on how well you play throughout the game, you are awarded a grade. So what if how much LP we win or lose is also a reflection of how well we did in the game? Obviously winning and losing should have a serious impact of how much LP you win or lose, but say you play really well throughout the whole game instead of losing a flat out of LP (like 20 for 1 loss) you instead only lost like 5 cuz you played really well (or 20 if you played really terribly) Same with winning (Like if you did terrible but still won, you were awarded positive LP but at a reduced cost) and if you played really well, you would earn more LP.

The Pros of this idea (and just my idea so maybe someone has a better way here) would be instead of getting paired up with a random person who trashes your game making you lose, or saving your bacon and carrying the whole game determining how much LP you win or lose, your own skill level and what you are doing in the game itself is what determines how much you win or lose. Again effectively cutting off players who may be really bad at the game, but are just in a duo getting carried by 1 person from sitting back and letting them do all the work. As well as making sure troll or someone who is clearly outmatched from drowning everyone and reflects back on them without punishing everyone as much.

The cons of course would be the obvious of just having a bad game would mean that its affecting you alot more. but i really cant think of a too serious con here cuz if you are doing really great and dominating everyone, then it would also reflect that meaning you are gaining more LP as well so idk lol.

So in summary, does anyone else think it would be alot more fun if your Individual ranking was actually determined by your own skill level, through the grading system, vs whoever you get qued with and hoping that you can work through the kinks to win?

3 Comments

Remove Jungle2/3/2018, 3:04:24 AM1 votes

Yes, but how will riot implement that? KDA? CS? wards?

It would be nice but it will ruin the game. people would play to the system standards and not for winning the game.

Into The Aether2/3/2018, 3:49:18 AM1 votes

Still has the same problem of not actually pairing the variables to reality.

Winning and losing is reality.

But how would this account for things that are difficult to compare, such as Pick vs Split Push vs Team Fight vs Siege performance? Each can be a path to winning, but they aren't weighted or measured the same.

This also doesn't account for playing behind or "losing well" as a legitimate skill. As in, you get the attention of 4 members of the enemy team for most of the game, and your performance gets tanked. But because the enemy doesn't beat you well enough they don't make as much progress as your team does, don't get enough return on the time investment, and your team is ultimately in the better position and wins. Or flip it, and you lose when your teammates could've pushed harder while they were unopposed, and you eat the bigger punishment for having been targeted by the enemy team.

The grading system has gotten a fair amount of justified flak, and presented a couple of problems.

First, we don't see the formula it works on, and can't easily make the case for the situations where we were highly impactful and yet the numbers wouldn't weight those actions properly.

Second, the reason those things are hidden is because it is plainly obvious that if they were exposed, people would try to game the system, and any flaws in how it's constructed would directly train poor play to exaggerate the abuse of the scoring system.

Third, the system as it stands is based on champion and role, and you'd have people picking with the intent of inflating their grade instead of winning. Picking based on things that are easier to S rank, or just score pad with.

MasterDClone2/3/2018, 3:49:42 AM1 votes

part of skill is playing with a team