Why the Popularity of Support is Hurting Dynamic Queue
One of the problems with Dynamic Queue, as has been noted numerous times, is the length of waits people have to endure to use the new system. This is because the new match making system works upon the roles people choose, with support being chosen the least often by anyone, save for a few.
This problem has been seen when team builder was running, you would pick your roles, and depending upon which role you picked, the queue time would vary, with mid often having the longest wait time, while support had next to no wait time. It was a joke at one time, that just by selecting support, you would be starting a game for 9 other people.
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In this, we can see, that a role based match maker system would have the greatest hurdle in selecting someone who actually WANTED to be the support. Even though team builder was not linked to ranked, so few people picked support in a mode where their was nothing on the line beyond the win or loss. I can not speak for anyone else, but I did not like being support because you basically gave up your agency in the game, and gambled upon the skill of your bot lane charge, the ADC. This is why, even now, I still loathe to become the support.
This lack agency is felt even more sharply, now that ranked has been thrown into the system. With one's rank now on the line, one is even less likely to pick support. I pose this question, would you be willing to gamble your LP on the skills of a complete stranger( assuming solo-play)?
This is why the queues are so long, especially in the higher tiers. No one wants to be the support, and in the higher ranks, no one has "carried" their way to gold, plat, diamond, or even challenger, by playing support. Even if you play champs such as Annie or Brand in bot as support, you are still gambling on if your ADC can help bring them down low enough for you to kill the enemy before you run out of mana.
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The only reason solo-queue "worked" was because no one could reserve a role, and every match, two poor souls would be shoe horned into the support role, regardless of whether or not they wanted to be the support.
My proposal for a solution, is that no matter what you pick, be it top, mid, jg, or bot(ADC), but not support, you will always have a small chance of being chosen for the support role. This chance would be in neighborhood of 5 to 10 percent. Now, I know forcing people to support is a poor solution, but as it can be easily seen across all ranks, not enough people are picking support, and no one picks fill because that is basically another button for support. A possible solution may be giving supports an incentive, such as more favorable LP gains and losses, but that may not fly with Riot.
