Dear Riot: Idea for a new Ranked Function
Quick Note for people who don't know if they want to read this giant block of text: I can't really give a TLDR, but I can give you some incentive to read further. Imagine a new ranked function that could potentially prevent you from losing games on account of trolls, and this function can't be abused by duos, parties, etc. Because I know this has happened to almost everyone, and nobody likes losing because of trolls, go on ahead and read the post! Don't forget to up-vote if you like the idea!
Almost everyone has probably had a game where they felt they were doing everything in their power to carry the game, but their team simply would not allow themselves to be carried to victory. Maybe you had someone autolock kassadin support out of rage, or maybe you had two junglers. What if there was a way to reward that one player on the losing team who kept trying is hardest to keep his team in the game?
What I propose is a new function at the end of game lobby, where a single player on the losing team could potentially not have his LP deducted or a loss counted on his promotion game. I expect that this new function will encourage more players to play games out, rather than give up on them so easily as saying "gg" in the first 5 minutes, and I expect that this new function will encourage players to exhibit sportsman-like behavior throughout a game.
Here's the idea: At the end of game lobby, there is a voting option for the winning team. The winning team has the option of voting for a singular player on the enemy team to not have the loss counted against them. (No LP loss and no Promos Series Loss). If a player on the enemy team seemed like he got the short end of the stick with toxic/inting/whatever teammates, then you'll have the option to vote for him to not suffer a loss at the hands of trolls or toxic players. Voting is optional: If you do not feel as though a player deserves your vote, then you don't have to vote for anyone. It would work similarly to how honor works. Majority Consensus: What if only one person votes for a player and the other 4 members of the winning team leave lobby without voting? Then everyone will have the game counted as a loss. It's not enough to simply receive all or a majority of the votes from the winning team. Here's my current idea for requirements to not have a loss deducted: 1). Three members of the winning team vote for the same person, and the other two members leave the lobby without voting. 2). Four or more members of the enemy team vote for the same person. This means that if three members vote for the same person, one member leaves lobby without voting, and one member votes against the same person as the other three members OR for a different person, then a loss will be counted for all members of the losing team.
I've had a lot of games where I try my hardest to carry and most if not all of the members of the enemy team pity me. I don't ask for pity. I don't rant about how bad my teammates are in all chat. It is because I've had so many games like this that I think this is a system that may very well actually be used in a decent number of games. Even if this voting system isn't used very much, it should at least provide incentive for better behavior on the rift.
Advantages:
- Players will have more incentive to put good effort into winning a game. From a vast amount of experience, I can confidently say that there are still a lot of players in ranked who gave up on games far too easily because of very small things. Even if a game is lost in a players mind (we won't go into whether it is justifiable to think that or not) they will still have incentive to try to win. Even if they can't win, maybe their effort can persuade the enemy team to spare them the loss at the end of the game.
- Less players will suffer losses for games that were lost by no fault of their own.
- Players will be have more incentive to exhibit sportsman-like behavior. We've all had those games where the enemy team is typing in all chat, asking to report a certain player and what not. There's that player who types in all chat "Open Mid" ten minutes into the game, when nobody else on the team wants to give-up. By having a negative attitude and trying to assign blame in all chat, it is far less likely that the enemy team will vote for you to not receive the loss.
- The voting decision is determined by the enemy team. If this were a decision voted on by the losing team, then obviously there would be abuse from pre-mades and what not. And from a solo queue perspective, it wouldn't be possible for someone to have a loss deducted if there's a toxic duo queue that just flamed you the whole game and went afk at 10 minutes.
- Loss Prevented. Because the voting system only has the ability to prevent losses for a singular player, it can't be abused as a means of gaining elo. And it can't be used as a means of punishment either.