Does it make sense?
The current system of LP/mmr, for ranked, in my opinion is broken. There's pro's and Con's to the system, but if you don't feel like reading the rest of the post, here's my statement: In order to rise in rank you need skill of course, but primarily you need time.
Let's create a persona of the average player to help understand where the system needs to be adapted. Joe - works 9-5 at blah blah job. Joe wakes up at 8 A.M. with the dream of going pro in league. Joe showers/ready's for the day, and then shows up at work at 9. He returns home at around 5:30, Eat's a quick snack, and logs on to league
Joe's really quite good at league. He know's how to play effectively all the roles equally. Joe doesn't make mistakes in lane, he knows how to position himself in team fights, he knows how to ward/counter-ward effectively, he knows when to go for neutral objectives. He knows to stay calm, and not rage at teammates who don't do things quite correctly. He also knows how to play against the counter-picks to his champions. Rarely does he feed. ( you get the jist )
He accepts the que at 5:35. as soon the lobby opens, chat receives the following messages;
: Mid pref : top pref : I'd like to play adc, but I will fill. : ugh... don't make me support, I hate support I did so last game and I sucked.
Typical ban phase continues: Zed ban - tristana ban Warwick ban - morgana ban - - - - - - - - - : OMG PLEASE DONT BAN YAS I WANT MID YAS Yasuo ban - maokai ban
: WOW wtf noob I was gonna mid yas : we're purple team, we don't have first pick man. : fk u noob I woulda carryd : c'mon man just play Joe: Let's just play to win! : fk u all GG : Don't do this... please... : Nope, GGLOOL I CALLED : damn dude... why'd you ban after he called : well... honestly I don't like mid yas's... : makes sense... they tend to feed anyways :/ Joe: Can I play top? : sure man : w.e :NO FKU IM TOP : didn't you want mid? :ugh... Joe: okay, that's fine I'll play adc. : what? I wanted adc...
Joe re-accepts the que at 5:43
= Similar lobby phase = Joe received support as his role, and he's playing thresh!
League announcer: Welcome to Summowners Rift! -All: Wow report fio our jarvan called top, but she picked fio as last pick. -all: omfg report fio shes nub all: okay all: Lol Syndra prepare your an** -all: what fizz?
League announcer: An ALLY has disconnected! XXXXX (wukong): has quit ( top wukong starts retreating to base ) all: Wow report wu
League announcer: thirty seconds until minions spawn!
Laning phase begins!
Joe's watching the adc miss the creeps by a small sliver of health, and starts feeling a little upset. Not only does he have a DC. But his ADC can't even farm. Thankfully he picked up a Relic shield so he can tidy up a few of the creeps at least. He goes to last hit one of the creeps, and does so successfully.
: WTF DON"T TAKE MY CREEPS NOOB Joe: I have relic shield, you got the gold. :Fk u, Don't auto them you're messing me up. Joe: I took one. and I'm only autoing the enemy adc. : Why don't you grab janna nub? Joe: Because you're half health from MF's q. : we can kill em lol
Joe continues to farm with his relic shield, and only his relic shield. He's set up a few wards around the bushes to try to see the enemy jarvan come down. Sure enough at around 5:40 minutes in, jarvan comes gallantly streaming down from big wraith. Joe sends a danger ping to where jarvan is spotted, and a retreat ping to his adc. While retreating he throws out a lantern. his adc trys to auto the enemy adc and then get's knocked up by jarvan.
league announcer: An Ally has been slain! :WOW WTF THRESH Y DIDN"T YOU HELP WE COULDA KILLD MF!? Joe: I don't think so, I sent you a lantern to retreat, Jarvan was coming down. :fk u noob. League announcer: An ally has left the game! XXXXXXX (ezreal): has disconnected. XXXXXXX (ezreal): has quit.
all: GGWP plz push mid Joe's mid laner leaves the lane and allows the enemy mid to push the lane. While the enemy top has already taken the second turret.
The game's a defeat, and joe loses 17 LP.
Joe Accepts the que at 6:25 Joe's team wins the game and he receives 18 lp. The enemy team's cait apparently fed. Joe accepts que at 6:55 Joe Loses the game fair and square. Joe loses 18 lp. Joe accepts que at 7: 52 Joe wins the game and receives 13 lp. Joe accepts que at 8:40 Joe wins the game and receives 15 lp. Joe makes dinner at 9:25 Joe accepts que at 9:45 Joe loses the game and loses 16 lp Joe accepts que at 10:50 Joe loses the game and loses 15 lp. joe accepts que at 11:28 joe loses the game and loses 0 lp. Joe goes to bed at 12:14.
let's say he had 20 lp to begin with. 20
- 17 + 18 - 18 + 13 +15 - 16 - 15 - 0 = -24 but clearly he can't go negative!
After 6-1/2 hours Joe's day ends with him at 0 lp. And 1 loss away most likely to leave gold 2 and demote into gold 3.
Let's say after day 2, he had a great day! and ends the day with 80 lp in gold 2.
day 3. He ends the day with 50 lp in gold 2.
day 4. He's read a trick on how op urgot is at the moment, and boosts himself into gold 1.
day 5. more than usual amount of feeders, Demoted to gold 2.
day 6. team's are wonderful and he gets carried a few games. Ends with one win into his series.
day 7. Feeders.... Again. Ends 1 loss away from demoting into gold three.
after 7 days, he's ended right back where he was at the end of day one. 20 lp shorter than he was at the beginning of the week.
Joes forced to take a week vacation from work, since he's never taken a day off in the past 6 months! He's excited to be able to play for a week!
14 hours a day! Incredible! So much league, So much fun!
Let's say he has a MIRROR IMAGE of the week He had previously, except with 14 hours a day.
Because of the extended amount of wins in day 4 and day 6. He's now in plat 4! WOW! what an awesome position to be in! Day 7. He starts streaming to Twitch.tv believing in his dream of going pro one day. He plays a match, but strangely feels a little out matched. There's things he needs to learn. So he loses lane, and because of it. he loses the game, ending his streak. he plays another, tries to adapt to the new techniques his opponents have so carefully mastered, from the several matches of experience in this elo, but is unsuccessful and loses again. rinse repeat- 3 or 4 games. Joe's on the verge of demoting to plat 5. He loses two more since he was tilted about the verge of demotion, but now actually demotes to plat 5. he receives another few games of feeders/leavers/afkers. verge of demoting to gold 1. But wins the next match because the enemy team had feeders. 8~ish p.m. on the last day of his vacay. He looks at his elo, while he's in plat 5. And it's around 1450. He's crushed. He was so excited about finally leaving the "elo-hell"
Determined to change the pattern, he plays a few more games, only to have his allies leave the game and rage quit. He's finally demoted. elo 1390 Gold 1.
How is this possible? League points are not in sync with MMR. Which is a good thing and a bad thing. It can hold you when you're losing, giving you a little nudge to do better. It can hold you when you're losing, forcing a massive drop in mmr from leavers and feeders. utterly destroying your position on the metal-ranks.
There's a lot of different factors that play into this, And this whole post is just a scrap run through of some guy and a few weeks of playing. But the intention of this is to say that with the current system, Luck plays an incredible part in whether you can go "pro" or not. Lucky to NOT have leavers. Lucky to have the enemy feed or mess up. but either the LP/MMR system needs to be altered, or loss prevented needs to be added to games that aren't just Server-issue based. Loss-prevented needs to be more sensitive to the player. Just a suggestion for a more balanced system for yolo-que.
