@Riot: Proposed Changes to Make Promotional Games More Healthy & Fair For All [Large Thread]
The current state of promotionals in this game is decent, but flawed for most people. Many factors cause promotional games to be unfair to the players in promotionals OR even unfair to the opposing team at times. This post will not have a TLDR but will be organized the following way: BOLD writing will represent what exactly I propose to change with NORMAL writing as the specific details to the proposition. ITALICIZED writing represents my opinion as to why this should be changed.
Firstly, Promos should have MUCH stricter queue requirements. When you queue for ranked during promos the players on both teams should not be more than one division above or below your actual rank according to their MMR (not actual rank) Additionally, the system should not team you with or against players that are of DISHONORABLE standing or have a high LEAVERBUSTER score. I also recommend disabling duo-ing with anybody (soloq ranked) for the purpose of strict queuing.
"Simply put, Promotional games are extremely important games and their fairness in skill level should reflect that. This way you cannot get unlucky with much worse teammates, and you also cannot get lucky and earn a rank you do not deserve. Dishonorable players and frequent afkers ruin matches, and can compromise the integrity of promotional games. To most people, an extra few minutes of queue is really worth having a fair game. "
All promotional series should have a Best of Five games setup. This is really simple, have all promotional series require that you win 3 out of 5 games rather than 2 out of 3.
"A change such as this would make a series more fair to all players. Having a player win 3 out of 5 games entails a 60% winrate, whereas winning 2 out of 3 games represents a 67% winrate. At the same time, having more games played in promotionals prevents players from simply getting lucky in 2 games and promoting, even when they shouldn't have."
Winning your promotionals should grant bonus LP in your new rank based on performance. Completing a successful series should not dump players at 0LP in their new rank. Instead, going 3:2 in promos should grant 10LP, going 3:1 should grant 25LP, and going 3:0 should grant 40LP.
"Winning promos in fair conditions is a serious feat. Players who go above and beyond in their performance deserve some starting LP in their new rank. -Players who go 3:2 often times do well enough at their current rank to earn slightly less than 25 LP per win. Starting at 10LP allows for players to go straight into their next promotionals if they win 4 games in a row, rather than being stuck with 96LP or so. -Players going 3:1 undoubtedly deserve their new rank, and need a good footing of LP in it to succeed. -Players going 3:0 probably are capable of going up another rank with their skill. Granting them 40LP allows them to get to their next promos in 3 consecutive wins, or if their MMR is high enough, 2 wins."
Remove much of the current promo-helper and demotion prevention systems. Promo helper granting an extra win the second time you go into promotionals for the same rank should be removed. Demotion prevention, including that of protection when you just rank up AND the protection you receive in Division V of a League should also be removed.
"With all the other proposed changes, the current systems of protection are unfair, and have always been unhealthy. Players with <50% winrates can often times reach promotionals due to the way the LP system works with MMR, and with Promo Helper would eventually rank up when they do not deserve it at all. Additionally, demotion protection can be seriously unhealthy as it forces someone to stay in their rank whilst they still lose MMR. In Division V, the protection you receive at 0LP is so great that players get stuck because they earn scraps of LP from winning due to their extremely low MMR. In other divisions, I am simply referring to the protection you get immediately after ranking up. One should still not demote as soon as they reach 0LP, like in the current system."
Thanks for reading!