Matchmaking in Normals
I think we can all agreed that LoL is a game that takes some skill to play well. To that end Riot has a matchmaker that is supposed to create games that will be close to the skill level of the players that constitute both teams. I'm not a great player, this is my first ranked season and I've played approximately 25 ranked games in total. I'm in Bronze 1 and that seems to be a decent fit, but as I get better I think I can make it to Silver 5. I play way more Normal games than Ranked games. This is for a variety of reasons. Usually I get thrown in with other players in Bronze, and a few Silvers. Once in a rare game I see a Gold. Some of those games against a Gold end horribly, and some go alright.
Last night I played a Normal match where my team looked like this: Top: Bronze 2 Malphite Jungle: Silver 5 Kayle Mid: Bronze 1 Lissandra (me) ADC: Bronze 4 Miss Fortune Support: Unranked Morgana
And the opposing team looked like this: Top: Gold 5 Garen Jungle: Silver 5 Master Yi Mid: Bronze 4 Lux ADC: Platinum 5 Darius Support: Silver 5 Lulu
The first 10 minutes was alright (2 kills for them and 1 for us), and then Darius and Garen just took over the game. We surrendered at 24:31 with a final kill total of 9 to 25. I know I didn't enjoy that game, and I know that I was not alone in that. I'm sure Darius and Garen enjoyed themselves. But it made me log off League for the night. I'll be back on tonight, I'm not quitting. But it seems like there has to be a better way to balance than the current system. Enough matches like that would drive anyone to quit. I understand that some people have friends they want to play with who are much better at the game than they are. I have a few friends and friends of friends that are in Gold, and I've played some Normals with them. But Riot needs to do a better job of making sure that the outcome of a game isn't essentially predetermined. This is not the only match I've had like this, and under the current system it won't be the last. I'm not asking that Golds and Platinums stop playing with their friends, I'm asking that Riot makes sure to not punish their opponents.
