Barry Sanders: Bronze I Running Back (aka How to Fix Solo Queue Placement)

The ultimate issue with solo queue, and why so many feel that we are in a type of "elo hell" is because we're being judged by the system as individuals for a TEAM game made up of as many as five random strangers. Yes, we shouldn't blame the team for our losses, we should look to ourselves and what we contributed to the losses or wins. I get it.

So did Barry Sanders.

In my opinion, Barry Sanders is the greatest RB to ever play the game. Throughout his career no one could move, dodge, accelerate, change direction like Barry. He's undersized for a running back, playing against absolute monsters, and he did it with a power and grace like no one before or since.

But Barry Sanders has never won an NFC championship. Barry Sanders has never been to the Super Bowl as anything but a spectator.

The point is, there is not a single one of us that doesnt think he was an incredible running back, and no one in the NFL wouldn't want a running back of his caliber on his team. All of us, including the Hall of Fame recognize him and his talents.

However...if Barry was judged alongside his win percentage, and what games he won, or his ability to win playoff games and Super Bowls, he'd be a bronzie.

At best, Bronze I. Barry Sanders: Bronze I running back.

He was never able to win his provisionals--which is the playoffs--and win the two or three straight to go to the Super Bowl. Barry could never get to silver, much less, gold.

Does that make ANY sense to you? It shouldn't make sense to Riot either, yet that's how solo queue works.

No matter HOW much Barry tried, if his offensive line wasn't there, if the defense couldn't hold, if the QB threw too many picks, as great as he was, he could not overcompensate for the rest of the teams failings.

I was in Bronze last season. This season, I went 8-2 in provisionals. That's a win rate of 80% for you non-math types. Know where that placed me?

Bronze V. 0 points.

I could've lost every single game, and I would've ended up in the exact same spot.

Bafflingly, Riot is okay with that.

Their canned email response? "The system determined your MMR places you in Bronze V". My MMR being....a score based on my wins against a certain caliber of competition? Interesting. My KDA average for those ten games was 10.5-3.8-7.0, yet my MMR places me in the absolute worst tier possible.

**What was Barry's MMR? **

Solution: Develop statistical scoring models that more accurately show a players performance, and base placement on THAT.

How many times have you gone 15-3, only to lose the game due to a last-minute blown team fight? You roamed, you out-cs'ed, you stayed positive, you let others take kills and settled for an assist...and still lost. How many times have you seen the other team's 1-9 Vayne carried through to victory? Does that REALLY tell the tale of Vayne's ability to play?

Think about it: why in the world would you lose LP when you went 16-3? Why in the world should the 1-9 Vayne on the other team EARN LP for being carried? Where's the justice?

We are already given scores of A, B, C and for some reason...S...what is that based off of? It's based off of a composite evaluation of your performance. So, Riot is already DOING it, but not using it to influence PLACEMENT.

Want to get rid of trolls and banish them to Bronze V, and elevate players with have a tendency NOT to feed, that have a tendency to have good KDA ratios, that have high CS? Easy. Develop stats like those for football players, baseball players, ANY sport you can think of. You can have the troll/afk that throws the game, but if you go 12-4-8 anyway, you can still be rewarded, earn LP, and move forward towards the next tier, while the 0-23 troll suffers a devastating LP loss.

Shouldn't it be true that the players in Silver V, on average have a better KDA than those in Bronze V? Shouldn't they, on average, have a better average CS per game figure? Eventually we will be left with tiers where you can elevate yourself from the lowest run my improving the things we should improve on: limiting our deaths, improving our CS, and improving our kills and assists.

Here are some preliminary and simple examples.

At bats = CS Batting percentage = total cs/time played (use diminishing returns or "CS @ 20 minutes" cap to discourage late game farming/farming after full build) base hits = single kills doubles = double kills triples = triple kills homeruns = quadra kills Grand slam home run = Penta kill RBI (runs batted in) = Assists

We could make it even easier.

Remember, the Denver Broncos do not assemble every Sunday through solo queue random selection. They are a unified team with a dedicated coaching staff. They are being placed as a team at the Super Bowl, because they are a TEAM. Solo Queuers are NOT a team, yet they're being placed individually as if they ARE.

And like Barry, they often can't escape.

Riot--this can be fixed!

**TL/DR: Solo Queue players should be placed in the rankings based on their solo performance and statistics, using categories for players similar to those used to evaluate a baseball players batting percentage, ERA, RBIs, etc. These stats should determine your LP amount independently of if you win or lose, which can then be modified by either a win or a loss. Example: Did you do great and earn 24LP, but lose? You take a hit for the loss, so you only earn 19LP but at least you aren't LOSING point despite performing well. Did you earn 24LP, and win? You get 29LP, since your good performance likely contributed to the win. Did you go 0-14 and lose? You get -34LP, because you're probably a key component to the loss. Go 0-14-1 and win? -15. You shouldn't be able to perform horribly and have your team carry you and still earn LP. Riot should assign LP value, THEN modify that value based on your win or loss. It intuitively makes little sense to place someone who queued as an individual based on the results of the five man team. This would also greatly diminish the negative impact of AFKers, trollers, toxic players, intentional feeders, and "The Smurf Effect" where a Diamond I player goes 27-4 when you're on your promotional run. **