Ways to improve ranked gameplay

Hello. There is a lot of information here that I have thought through, and would like to recommend. Yes, some of this may be controversial, however, I'm asking that we all keep an open mind, discuss, and work together for the benefit of all. I also realize that several of these topics have been previously suggested and discussed, however I was hoping to centralize the concepts into one proposal.

Problem For some players, ranked games are meaningful, meant as a sign of advancement, elevated status and privilege. Unfortunately, for others, ranked games are just another game, with no feelings of achievement, bringing to term the phrase “the new normal.”

Entering ranked queues should be a reward, based on proven experience, knowledge of the game, and continuous positive sportsmanship. Players should be rewarded with unlocking ranked games, as opposed to allowing anyone and everyone to participate.

The current process for ranked queues is flawed, creating poor team chemistry and bad gaming experiences. This post will outline some of the challenges of the current queuing structure, and offer concepts on improving the overall gameplay for lower tier players, while giving the community an additional motivator to demonstrate knowledge of the game, and positive sportsmanship.

Challenges

1. Autofill - In lower tier games (B5 – S1) autofill creates some disadvantages and toxic gameplay. For example, arguably the most important role in the game, Support, is also the least played and understood role. When a player is autofilled into the support position, they often become angry, ask to switch, and more often than not, are ill-equipped to successfully play the position. Players will then take champs they know, or have, and create a situation where there are multiple carries in the bottom lane. The lack of experience in the role creates chaos, confrontation, and communication issues. The autofill isn’t exclusive to the support role. Any role may be filled with a player that is not familiar with that position.

2. Champ selection – Another direct result and indirect issue with autofill is that several newer players do not have enough champs to select from. We often see players selecting champs they have little to no experience with, or do not have the rune/mastery configuration for those champs.

3. Seriousness – People don’t take ranked games seriously. The separation in mindset between bronze and platinum is night and day. Because players don’t take ranked games seriously, they will play how they want, with the champions they want, at the expense of other players who are taking the ranked game more serious. Ranked games need to become more of a VIP experience, with stronger benchmarks to be accepted into ranked, and harsher penalties to improve the overall ranked community.

4. Overall lack of knowledge – Players can begin entering ranked as soon as they hit level 30. Although we believe that adequate game play knowledge can be achieved in the process of leveling, in most cases we see that it does not. Basic concepts of last hitting, objective control, spell use, team play, and map awareness are missing from at least 1 or 2 players in every match. Some of these gameplay challenges are directly related to the individual, or situation (distractions at home, etc), however most of these issues are simply lack of experience, and have not been learned yet.

Improvement concepts

Introduce “Qualifier” queue Flow: Draft / Blind pick -> Qualifiers -> Ranked Solo/Flex

The Qualifier queue is designed as a testing ground for players to prove and qualify to UNLOCK ranked queues. The 5 tier Qualifier is designed to give players additional experience, learn to play additional roles, and get a better grasp on game mechanics. This queue is also designed to control the toxic behaviors by implementing stronger penalties and rewards for game play in the qualifiers. In short, the Qualifier queue is designed to build positive game play experiences before a player can join ranked.

1. In this queue, a player will need to play each position a minimum of 5 times before they can unlock ranked. This will help teach players new roles, while also improving autofill in ranked queues.

2. Players must successfully demonstrated knowledge of each position on the map, by playing 5 times in each position before they can unlock the final qualifier round. If we are going to force players to play every role, they should be forced to learn every role.

    a.	Alternative option would be that a player must achieve a mastery on a position before being able to qualify. This would open up mastery ranks on positions in addition to masteries on champions.
   

3. Players must successfully win 3/5 games in Qualifier 1 round to unlock ranked game queues.

4. Players must have minimal reports against them and/or dismissed reports before being able to unlock ranked queues. Any current restrictions will prevent them from unlocking ranked.

5. Players who have unlocked ranked, and receive a chat restriction or other warning may be downgraded to Qualifier queue to serve their sentence and/or until they unlock ranked queues again.

6. Queue structure is similar to ranked queues. Players can select their roles, however autofill is always activated.

7. Advancement however can be accelerated. Normal wins may earn a player 15-21 points, whereas autofill games could reward the player 21-31 points.

8. The primary goal of this queue is to teach players the foundational elements of ranked play, while also making ranked queues an achievement. Unlocking a special opportunity, reward and honor that places more emphasis on ranked game play. If players can demonstrate their knowledge of the game, and positive sportsmanship, they should be rewarded quickly.

9. Any restrictions placed on the account while in ranked (chat, leave buster, etc.) should automatically place the player back into the qualifier queue.

Surrender in Ranked As discussed in other sections, players place different levels of importance on ranked matches. Lower tiers often find more players who treat ranked matches as “just another game.” Unfortunately, this attitude often frustrates players who actually are attempting to improve their rank, and take the match more seriously. One example of this disconnect is with surrendering ranked games.

The arguments to support surrender is as a means to get through a “winless” game quickly and move on to another match. Unfortunately, this rationale also creates additional frustrations for players who will never surrender because, “it’s ranked.”

Players who treat ranked as just another game, will often give up, and when the rest of the team refuses to surrender, they turn toxic, go afk, or try to accelerate the loss. We also see individuals entering a ranked match with only 20 minutes of time available to them. Their feeling being, either my team wins within that time, or we surrender, and if the team doesn’t surrender they communicate “I have to go.”

To resolve some of these issues, a rework of the surrender process should occur.

1. Increase surrender timer in ranked matches on a scale based on tier. Higher tiers have a lower surrender timer, lower tiers have a longer surrender timer. This allows those players who are more familiar with the game, and understand the penalties on their ranked based on a surrender decision, to make that decision sooner. For lower level players, where anything can happen, it is more complicated to surrender, (again, because some players are willing to accept the penalties, and others are not.)

2. Prevent surrender in specific scenarios. For example, surrender can’t be executed if all inhibitors are standing.

3. Surrender can always be executed if a player on a team is offline / afk.

4. Penalties for surrender in ranked games should be increased. Scaling -1 / -5 LP in addition to the loss of game LP. This penalty should not apply to those surrenders where the surrender count is < 5 due to an offline / afk player.

5. Offline / afk players should receive the additional LP loss. When leave buster is active, a player should be demoted back to qualifiers (see above.)

6. Restrictions should be placed on players who consistently request a surrender vote. For example, a player who executes a surrender 2 times in a game, can no longer ask for a surrender for the remainder of the game. In addition, players who ask for surrenders in 40 – 70% of their ranked games, should also receive a restriction (similar to chat restrictions) on other ranked games.

Champion Familiarity Another huge issue in ranked games is from players selecting champions they are not familiar with. This is in part due to autofill, but also in part from players deciding to try new champions. This testing is different for all levels of players. For some players, they can easily navigate from champion to champion and quickly learn the mechanics. For others, this is a challenge, and often results in the player not performing well in the game and/or directly causing losses due to feeding. In addition, several of these players who decide to try a new champ out don’t have a proper rune collection, or rune/mastery selections for the champ. In one recent ranked game I had a player ask if the champ he was going to play was AP or AD. Champion familiarity is essential to creating positive game experiences, not only for the entire team, but for the individual player, who also may become frustrated when they start to lose their position, or have other players complain when they aren’t doing well.

1. Champions should be unlocked per account for ranked play.

2. A player can unlock a champion by either achieving a specific mastery level, or obtaining the minimum number of game players on that champion during normal / qualifier matches. For example, a player wants to select Darius in a ranked game. The player unlocks Darius for ranked play by either playing 10 normal games as Darius, or reaching Mastery level 2. The more familiar a player is with a champion, the better the player should perform during a ranked match.

3. This achievement should be consistent with champion updates. Players will be unable to play a champ without that champion being unlocked in normal first. Players who have achieved a specific mastery on a champion will have automatically unlocked that champion even after a champion update.

In general, there needs to be higher benchmarks for unlocking ranked and maintaining ranked status, and tougher penalties for those who don’t adhere to the requirements. Ranked should be a privilege, not a guarantee. This posts is meant as a discussion, to address some heartaches players have in ranked games, while hopefully also bring positive change to the game to improve the game experience for everyone. Please feel free to share your thoughts, comments and suggestions. The post will be updated and managed with hope that Riot will be listening.