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Suggestion for Team Builder: Add incentive to least played roles

djchillpenguin·4/15/2015, 7:30:25 PM·50 votes·2,150 views

I love Team Builder. Everyone going into the game knows exactly what their role and position is. It allows me to practice new roles and try out new champions. I feel like a dick if I go into a Blind Normal game spamming "MID MID MID" if I've played 2 games ever as Zed. I feel like this is the true purpose of Team Builder, because how can I ever get decent at popular roles (Top, Mid) if you have to just spam them in the chat and hope you got them first?

There's one problem though. It takes forever, because no one wants to be Support or Jungle (and sometimes adc). I propose a simple solution. Add incentives to picking the least chosen roles!

I have 2 simple ideas, and I'd like to see other people's ideas and hopefully maybe a staff member will take notice:

  1. Simple extra IP (nothing crazy, but enough to get people to think "hey maybe I should play a few games as support to get some extra IP)

  2. Daily Quests (shamelessly stolen from Hearthstone, give people a quest/goal like "play 3 games as Support, earn 1,000 IP")

I'd like to see if other people feel the same way and if anyone else has some clever ideas!

40 Comments

Krigjer4/15/2015, 8:41:49 PM16 votes

I'd actually go so far as to say that Team Builder is meant to give you a tool that let's you play what you WANT to play. If you insist on playing mid, which is a long queue time, I think it's fair to trade a long wait for getting to play what you actually want.

I see the benefits to adding a reward system for underplayed roles, but I don't see them adding it for the above reason.

Besides. I'd rather have a jungler/support that actually WANTS to play their role and knows what they're doing, than someone that only chose it because 'I get extra ip for this!'

Ghiefelstein4/15/2015, 8:57:29 PM4 votes

My incentive to play support is because I enjoy it. You could offer me IP, but I still wouldn't play assassins. I see more in making the least popular roles more enjoyable. Players can do that by showing appreciation. Thank your jungler when he ganks or compliment your support for the great peeling.

Riot has the power to make these roles even more enjoyable. Increase jungle diversity, make sure different playstyles are viable. Revisit utility scaling on supports, the values haven't changed since the introduction. Give supports and junglers the xp and gold to participate in the game. What we need is another update like in preseason 4. Show us that supporting and jungling is awesome, enjoyable and appreciated. That would have much more effect than a little IP could ever do.

Drunk Rummate4/15/2015, 7:34:22 PM4 votes

I've seen this thread before, and I support it every time.

Had an 8 minute queue as Ahri mid yesterday. Finally found a team and it was a bunch of intentionally troll picks that I didn't want to be a part of. Pressed to find another group and it took 12 more minutes to find the next team.

Infuriated, I queued as thresh and found a game within seconds. Clicked rejoin, seconds. Rinse, repeat. I didn't even play the game, I just wanted to see the difference in queue speed. It's absolutely absurd.

Renaille4/15/2015, 9:06:21 PM3 votes

"We can't force people to play support or jungle here, so we have to bribe them"

No thanks.

test account4/15/2015, 10:50:38 PM2 votes

We already see part of the result of this system: Guy wants to play...let's say, Gnar. Doesn't want to wait? Ok, he queues up as a Support. There is no intention there to play an actual support, but someone will accept him eventually, if only to get away from the wait times, and now he doesn't have to wait for the team to find a support. Hell, people queue up to Jungle and then go and lane all the time right now. This would just exacerbate that issue.

Really, I'd just like to see the teambuilder matchmaking system fixed. If I have "matchmaking adjustment" active for a new champion, I probably want to be placed with and against people who are also learning new champions. If I don't, it's the other way around. Instead, what tends to happen is that people who just picked up a new champion are placed with and against people who are already considered "skilled" with the champion they're using.

This isn't fun for anybody. I can't tell you how many times I've had mirror matches as Vlad v Vlad (A champion I've been playing since s1 and most assuredly have played enough teambuilder games on to not have the matchmaking adjusted), and won solely because the other guy thought Abyssals was an acceptable item rush or something. I also can't tell you how many times I've had a close lane, but managed to come out on top, only for it to not matter one bit because someone in another lane had just picked up their champ for the first time today and was playing against someone on their main. Or how often I've had a support player get touchy when asked to build a sighstone 30 minutes in, because they'e "never played support before and didn't know" or some crap -- Again, the matchmaking seems seriously off in teambuilder.

I don't mind waiting for unpopular roles. I just wish it put you on teams that fit your level, and put you against teams that matched that. It doesn't, at the moment, and the end result is that it's a really horrible place to learn. Still not as bad as prisoner's islanddraft normals, though.

Krigjer4/15/2015, 8:00:23 PM2 votes

I say this is a good idea because I play support by choice, and I'd benefit from it.

Up until they need junglers, then I'd be mad at the system. I really don't want to play something I don't enjoy so I can get a measly 1k extra IP. I bring this up because I also don't see someone that HATES playing support, suddenly playing it just because of a small reward.

Kairya4/16/2015, 11:33:03 AM2 votes

While this is a good idea, the aim isn't to make everyone a jack-of-all-trades. As an ADC I want a supporter, who actually knows something about supporting or at least likes supporting, which means he will try his best. And I really really don't want a Jungler, who doesn't know what the hell he is doing.

I think it would be better to think about how to make those roles more well liked. Supports and Junglers tend to be underappreciated, even if it was them who got their carrys fed in the first place. Largly this is because there is little with which we can judge someones performance with. Players tend to look at kills (and maybe deaths) and say " look he did great ". Sure there are Assists, but we all get those once in a while and thats not so hard is it? It doesn't tell you if the player just got a white hit in before someone died or if the player did an amazing engage. I don't know how to solve this problem, however throwing money/IP at peoples faces has never worked out really well for anything.

50000000000000004/15/2015, 9:12:27 PM2 votes

I go to bottom lane and call mage when I actually am a support. Likewise, anyone can just call mid lane support and play assassin or mage.

I don't think it's really possible to implement that system.

M0RDEKA1SER4/15/2015, 9:17:09 PM2 votes

One of the incentives is already shorter queues. I love that. I main jungle and rarely have to wait longer than 10 seconds to get into a match as my preferred role and champion.

However, I see a couple of problems with this idea.

  1. People who absolutely do NOT know how to play the role will jump all over for the bonus IP

  2. Queue times will fluctuate heavily because "OMG, i get bonux ip for playin da jung" (Everyone signs up as jungle)

"Oh hey, nobody needs a jungle, looks like everyone's looking for a support though."

"Grab da supp for te bonus"

"Where's all the ADCs and Mids?"

Not saying I don't like the idea, but sometimes you've got to weigh the pros and the cons.

warpenguin5554/17/2015, 3:09:14 PM1 votes

My incentive is the shorter queue times, which is lucky for me because support and jungle are 2 roles i really need to work on

Mango Loco4/16/2015, 1:20:54 AM1 votes

2 games is more than enough for learning zed

Marinaras Trench4/16/2015, 11:19:29 AM1 votes

Why don't we just remove blind pick. Then everyone will play team builder and queue times will be just as short

Retillin4/16/2015, 2:27:06 PM1 votes

Team Builder if a fail exercise. It is AMAZING in theory, but fails in practice. We can tell by the long que times for some rolls, that it doesn't work. If the players were close to even across the board in different roles they enjoyed/wanted to play Team Builder would work. The problem is, very few players enjoy playing support or jungle. And that is the issue.

Giving an extra 100 IP, for example, doesn't mean you are going to get more support players. It means someone will que up as support Poppy just for the IP. (Granted I enjoy playing support Poppy) Until Riot can figure out how to make support and jungle CLOSE to as fun as the other roles for the casual player, you can not get Team Builder to work. The failure of the system isn't the players, it's the idea of the roles. They are not fun for a large part of the player base.

Take World of Warcraft as a perfect example. (And something I would have thought Riot looked at before making Team Builder, but it seems they did not) If you que up as a tank or a support you get almost instant pops and are on your way. But that is because the massive number of players don't enjoy those roles. And that is what support/jungle are in Leauge. Supportish roles to help that other guy get the penta-kill. Or make that slick looking Zed/Yas move.

So again, Riot has to work on adding something to these two roles. They have done some good things, does anyone else remember running around as a support with boots and 3 stacks of wards? I do, it was hell. It is better now, but most people don't find it fun. And until more people find it FUN, Team Builder will be a failed idea.

Rando McGee4/16/2015, 4:14:58 PM1 votes

For the daily quest thing: if all that's required is setting your role in team builder to support or marksman then you're going to have people going jungle Rek'Sai support or top Darius marksman saying "Please don't kick, it's my daily". For a lane requirement like jungle or bot lane as a whole it's a bit easier to differentiate between people abusing the system or people genuinely wanting to play, but there will still be people that abuse it.

Grouchy Poro4/16/2015, 4:16:51 PM1 votes

The boosts would need to be on win or have some other gate keeping factor, because otherwise people will just go into the role not knowing what they're doing cuz free ip. Support and Jungle (my two favorite roles) are the most strategic positions in LoL and require some mastery other than mechanical. You can't just pick it up; you need to understand your part to play.

WeFlyNoLie4/16/2015, 7:14:35 PM1 votes

My only issue with this is that incentives are nice, but do you really want somebody who is inexperienced with a role or possibly even brand new to it playing that role in team builder? Just for some extra IP?

I get learning new roles are essential, but maybe that should be left for practicing in Co-op Vs AI and then brought to Team Builder for applying that practice.

That's not to say every people who queues up for support after this is implemented will be brand new, but is a shorter queue time really worth possibly having a newbie for your duo lane partner or jungler?

I think its a good idea on paper, but not necessarily what we need in practice.

Earthlord Jazz4/17/2015, 2:25:44 AM1 votes

I really really like this idea

...but

I can imagine all the people that will put their tag under support, and just go somewhere else