Doesn't this sound an awful lot like Duo Queue?

Dr Poro·Jul 30, 2015·2 votes·315 views

Riot Lyte

We also saw that teams with mixed communication (some in voice, some in text) were more toxic... and it was interesting because the toxicity was from the players in voice chat. What was weird was that the players in voice chat were up to 126% more toxic in text chat to the players who were not in voice chat! The players in voice chat also received 50% more reports, even though in many cases the other players were not aware these players were in voice chat.

This was in response to a question about adding voice chat in LoL (http://ask.fm/RiotLyte ). Mixed communication already exists in the form of duo queue, where premades usually chat on teamspeak with eachother. What do you think of this?

6 Comments

Deep Terror NamiJul 30, 20152 votes

You know why they allow duos;

WHY IS DUO QUEUING ALLOWED? The vast majority of our players actually prefer to play with their friends. While we have to be cognizant of this fact, we are also monitoring the solo queuer experience. Currently, the win rate for solo vs. duo queuing is equal across the entire MMR spectrum.

They don't bar people from the game just because they might be toxic. They restrict them afterwards, and because those that are due to their VoIP receive 50% more reports, they get what they deserve through the punishment system. They are in no way less susceptible to reports than any other toxic player.

Dr PoroJul 30, 20151 votes

I have no problem with people playing with a few friends. I, myself, do it almost everyday. However, I think these matches should stay seperated from the competitive ones. In my opinion, the SoloQ ladder is a personal evaluation of your skills. Sure, you get random teammates and opponents, but as you play more games, that randomness will even out and only your personal skills (in all its aspects) will matter. However, with duoQ you can bypass this system. Playing with a friend that is ranked significantly lowered than his actual skill allows you to climb a few divisions higher than you deserve. You get a tag of having achieved something personally, while you actually didn't.

On the other hand, I would love to have a ranked 2v2 mode where you go premade or "duo queue" with a friend but don't disturb the soloQ ladder.

Deep Terror NamiJul 30, 20151 votes

I just quoted Riot stating that win rates for duos are no different than solo players...plus, you can only queue with 1 tier difference and no more. Smurfs affect the ladder far more than having a gold buddy when you're silver.

Dr PoroJul 30, 20151 votes

I really love the restriction to 1 tier higher/lower as it protected me from the many requests to duoQ I received with my friends (as most of them were/are silver and just wanted to be carried to gold). But I'm still fundamentally against the idea of duoQ for the reasons above (I'll repeat it: It ruins the value of the soloQ ranking as you can premade with someone of who you know is currently underrated in his MMR. It doesn't matter that globally they have a similar winrate to soloQers, there are people abusing the system, but it has no effect on the global statistics because there are as many people soloQing from an underrated MMR. The only difference is... With duoQ, you can actually boost another player with you, one who doesn't deserve it.

Vistha KaiJul 30, 20151 votes

Welcome to the League of Hypocrisy, featuring one and only true PhD, Lyte.

Dr PoroJul 30, 20151 votes

I didn't open this discussion to hate on Riot or Lyte. I think the fact that he volunteered to do a Q&A is awesome and he said a lot of interesting things in it. I just wanted to discuss about this point because it seems to lack consistency, atleast in my point of view, while I've also been an advocator for removing ranked duoQ (and creating a ranked 2v2) for a long time.