Some problems with designing a ranked system that feels like a "grind"
I would like to start by giving context to why I am writing this then I will move on to my actual points and concerns. Perhaps consider skipping down if you would like to jump straight to the argument points (just start reading below the ***).
I just played my first ranked game in about a month. This past month I have been playing tons of normal games to practice my skills before I went back to ranked. I am silver four at the moment; I was silver one last season. I think silver is where I belong.
I think normal queue is a great place to casually play league or practice skills and techniques. I think ranked is great for those who wish to play in a more competitive environment or those who wish to be challenged by other players of their skill level. By this logic, two separate queues is blatantly appropriate and such has been provided; normal queue and ranked queue.
After practicing in so many normal games and feeling more confident with my performance on my strong champions and growing tired of having teammates that are clearly playing roles and/or champions they very new to, I desire to play ranked, to play with people, ally's and enemies, who will perform to the best of their ability, meaning they will pick roles and champions they are competent with in the ultimate attempt to win the game.
So queue up ranked. I am playing mid and I lose lane; he played very effectively. Later in the game I disconnect and we lose well before I am able to restart my internet and reconnect but even if I hadn't we were going to lose in the next minute or so anyway. They were destroying our nexus turrets when I disconnected.
I friend the enemy mid laner after the game to ask him some questions. He said he was gold one last season and just hasn't been playing lately. Meanwhile, I look at his current rank and it is silver two.
This makes me ask myself "why am I, a silver four player, being matched with or against a gold one player?"
Though there are those that might disagree, I know it is perfectly achievable to climb the ranked ladder in League of Legends. There are many Youtubers and streamers that make "unranked to diamond" series of videos as proof.
My concerns however are not with players' ability to climb the ranked ladder. My concern is this; while that diamond player is climbing their way through bronze or silver etc., how does that effect the quality and health of the game for the other nine players in all of their games? Are the other players not looking to play in a competitive environment but still with and against people of their skill level?
Lets say a diamond player is climbing from bronze. How many players will they actually play with before they get to the rank in which they belong?
Time for some math. Skip to the next *** if you don't care for the calculations.
From my experience, players gain or lose approximately 20 LP whether they win or lose a ranked game (I am aware this number changes slightly under certain circumstances but I think we can agree 20 LP is average ). Every rank requires 100 LP to progress to the next rank in the division, which is five games, plus at least two Promotional games to decide whether or not the player actually progresses for a total of at least seven games per rank.
And yes, we are assuming we have a 100% win rate.
And there are nine players in each of this players games, not including themselves. Seven games each having nine players means this player, having a 100% win rate, will play with a total of 63 other players per rank.
And we all know there are five ranks per division. And lets factor in the extra game we will need to play in our divisional promotional series, which again is assuming we have a 100% win rate.
In total:
(7games * 5 ranks) + 1 extra divisional promotional game = 36 games
And if each of those games has nine other players in it:
36games * 9players = 324players
There are four divisions lower than Diamond, not including Diamond (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum)
In total: Bronze 5 to Diamond 5
((7games * 5ranks) + 1extra game division promotional series) * 4 divisions = 144 games
And if each of those games has nine different players:
144games * 9players = 1,296 players
In conclusion, assuming my theory that matching players with other players of vastly different skill levels causes and unhealthy gaming experience is true, then by forcing players of such high rank to climb their way to the rank in which they belong will cause (bronze 5 to Diamond 5 with a 100% winrate gaining exactly 20 LP per win) 144 unhealthy matches and with that many games comes an unhealthy gaming experience for 1296 players.
But wait. If being matched with players of vastly different skill levels causes and unhealthy gaming experience then wouldn't the diamond player climbing through all those ranks also be having a poor experience as well?
Which means my calculations were wrong. There are in fact ten players in all of those games having a poor gaming experience just one of them happened to be the same individual player in every game.
The point I am trying to make here is that forcing players to play countless games to get the division in which they truly belong not only causes an unhealthy gaming experience for them but also for the copious amount of players in which they will play with on their way up to their true rank.
So, as a silver player, I now need to decide between two queues: one queue will most likely match me with players that are vastly worse or better than me while playing at their best (ranked) and the other queue will most likely match me with players that are vastly worse or better than me while playing at their worst (normal).
This is a very frustrating conundrum to be in.
I would like a ranked system that is constantly analyzing the performance of its players and placing them according to their performance. As of season six, with the introduction of the post-match grading system, we know the analytical data and means of calculating that data is already established. Still, even before this grading system, there has surely already existed an analytical system that attempts to place players directly in the division they belong; it is called placements, not surprisingly enough.
Now lets wonder about placements.
I'm not sure if this is true for everyone, but I was silver one last season and I got placed bronze four this season. A silver player...in bronze. i have heard this story from others as well but wanted to get another testimony to make sure it wasn't just me.
So I went onto youtube. Searched "unranked to diamond 10th placement match" and found huzzy. Season six he finished his 10th placement match and he, being a diamond player, got placed gold five.
Which means, to get to diamond, which is his true rank, he is going to have go grind (there is that word again) his way through gold and platinum to get to where he will matched with players of his skill and he will negatively affect all the games he is in up to that point.
This has lead me to believe that placing players lower than where they belong and forcing them to climb up to where they should be according to their rank is intentional. Either Riot believes that players like working at something and feeling like they are achieving something by increasing in rank or they just want players to play their game for a really long time at the cost of their players actually enjoying the game or its both.
To the former, I say that though it does feel good to get a higher rank and even better to actually improve at the game, what i want the most is to be able to queue up and be matched with people of my skill level in a competitive environment of ranked queue. Nothing beats having a truly good game of league of legends in which all the players in the game are of the same skill level, be it bronze or challenger, and it ends up being anyones game. These games are full of exciteing moments and after a certain point when i play these games i don't care if i win or lose because I am having so much fun and excitement from the game and i know that if they win that they deserve it because they played well. I want to play and see more games like this. And now that i think about it i have seen fewer and fewer of these games as of late.
And to the latter, Ill say i understand why riot wants players to play their game after all they need to make money. But if making money is the primary consideration when making a game, or anything really, the result is a pretty shabby game. Though people might stick with it for a while longer, perhaps in hope of change, people don't play shabby games.
Riot,
Please fix this.
