Solution to Dynamic Que wait timers, and a possible solution to clear trash from ranked
I did my placements in January so I could get placed. I got into bronze 2, and climbed to bronze 1 where I stopped playing ranked for a while because everyone was gold/plat from last season (my skill is around low gold, high silver) and my team is usually gold/silver from last season. So here I am now, in March, and now it's dreadful to try and climb ranks. Whenever I want to play a game, I can either get in instantly by queing support or fill in either of my roles (which I get support), or I can get a nice 6-20 minute wait to get literally any other role. I recall in the preseason notes that when dynamic que comes out, that when roles are needed badly (as support is for my rank), that there would be a little bonus to give them, which would motivate people to play that role. Clearly that either isn't for low elo, or it just hasn't been brought into the game yet. Either way, there should be a way to motivate people to play roles like support when there's a drastic shortage of them. Not to mention if I do happen to wait the 6-20 minutes to get a role, the supports typically cant support because they fell victim to marking fill as one of their roles and getting stuck with the one role they don't want, and don't know how to play. Now I know a lot of people will tell me "you're not climbing because you're not carrying hard enough." Support is a hard role to carry with if the adc doesn't understand what's going on and plays adc because they think right clicking is all they need to do. Even if I get a different role, say top for example, it doesn't matter if i go 20/0 in lane or 0/20, or even if I roam and snowball mid, and even shut down their jungle because if our bot lane feeds (which they always do), the other carry 2 shots everything, then right clicking is all they do need. Now some may tell me just play adc, and it won't matter what my support does as long as I carry them. Assuming I can play adc, or want to, it doesn't help if their jungle is smart and ganks lanes that are losing, nor does it help when the support yet again has no idea how to play support, and is stuck feeding thinking they were making plays.
"Well what's your solution to this, Thatonetallguy?" some might ask, "You seem to want to come to the boards and complain and hope Riot can fix all your problems." But you see, I do have a few solutions, even though they probably will be ignored like most of the solutions low elo players make.
Option 1:
Because dynamic que is for draft on Summoner's rift (ranked and normals), a lot of people will play two roles, and get really good at them, and start climbing. That is fine, and expected in League, not many high elo players are a fill main that can do it all. But say you're one of those people that main a top/jg position, and you play like Lee Sin and Fiora or something, then you're going to want to que Top/Jungle, no problem. The dynamic que works for you. But what if you get those players that prefer one of three roles, and doesn't want to focus on only two (me)? What if there was an option of "Anything but". So say you play mid, top, and jungle (3 hard carry roles), then you would put as your primary and secondary "Anything but Bot" and "Anything but Support". All of the sudden, players get to have more diversity. This would give way more options to players who main more than 1-2 roles, but not all 5. Say you want to play anything but mid (me), then you could do primary "Anything but Mid"and secondary "Fill".
Option 2:
Now this would take a little bit of work to get a solid non-bugged code down, but hear me out. What if before you can play a role in ranked, you have to do a proving ground kind of thing. Say each position you want to take into the rift, you have to finish this proving ground to show you know how to play that position. This wouldn't be something easy either, so that way you can't slap stick it half drunk/high and pass easily (unless you're actually better that way). Furthermore, this proving ground should be available only at level 30, and can be entered multiple times with a difficulty level so people can train in it. What if it also is required to have a different ground for the different roles (Assassin, Fighter, Mage, Tank, Marksman) for each position. Reason being, if you prove to be a good Alistar support, that doesn't mean you're a good Nami support.
Proving ground difficulties would be based on your division.
Bronze: Dirt Easy Silver: Really Easy Gold: Normal Platinum: Hard Diamond: Really Hard Master: Extremely Hard Challenger: Pro
Proving grounds requirement to become "Proven"
General: Map Awareness, Warding, Roaming, Lane holding Top Tank: Endurance (how much hits you take to go down), CC/Damage Top Fighter: Kill potential/split push potential, Dueling Potential Top Mage: Map awareness, K/D Top Marks: W/E marks does top, I haven't seen one top All Jungle: Clear time, Clear route, successful ganks per laning (summoners blown/kills), Objective Control ADC/bot: Minimum farming per 10 minutes, Damage output Support General: Warding, Roaming, shot calling, Team Fighting Support Tank/Fighter: Saving ADC, Absorbing damage, CC/Damage Support Mage/Marks/Assassin: Damage output, Poke strength, Positioning
Now all these ideas are just ideas, but personally, I think they're not too bad. Option 2 would make it so when you hit level 30, you can't instantly go into ranked, and ruin everyone's mmr, reduce instant trolls/feeders dramatically, and make gold and lower seem not that bad. Option 1 would give the player more options to what he/she wants to play, and make it feel easier to be someone that mains 2 < > 5 roles. Personally, I'd love to see one, if not both of these implemented into the game to give it a better feel of control, and I feel right now is the perfect time to add it in with draft mode just now being changed, and the client being redone (out of Adobe Air).
Please no hate in the comments about me being bronze at the moment or being silver last season, I've heard it all. I'm simply trying to give new ways to make ranked seem more like fun, and less like a struggle.