What if we changed the structure of Ranked Ladder for both lower ping and a competitive environment?

What if Ranked in NA Evolved to a NA West/NA East Set Up Where Division 1 (top of league tiers) Play On the Centralized Server To Advance? Chat/Store/Etc. Would Be Centralized But Gameplay Divided to West/East

Copy/Pasta from Reddit:

So this post won't be another cry/praise for the centralized server post, but more a discussion for moving forward in NA after the centralized server move. I was having a small discussion in one of the local groups for Hawaii regarding the move and the old topic of competitive advantages from latency came up.

I mean ok let's be real, I played on 3 ms ping from Seattle to the current servers on fiber and it was unreal. There are a ton of testimonies from players of all levels stating how great it was to be able to better sidestep skillshots with precision or landing some sort of mechanical execution that they never thought was possible while on lower ping. This is nice. But in the end, it's not competitive if my opponents don't have this.

This has been reiterated many times by Riot and many others. That's established and pretty much justifies the centralized move.

Going back to how /u/ggMonteCristo approached the sandbox debacle on his youtube channel recently, let's take the assumption that Riot's big picture frames the entire player base, not the eSports group or one coast of the nation over the other. And realistically, US + Canada is freaking huge. There are barriers in technological advances and infrastructure that we currently can't overcome, despite Riot's amazing and ambitious Server/Network Roadmap Initaitive. We can't expect to have the same conditions Korea has or the multiple servers China has due to the vast differences in both geography/technological limitations and player base/density.

Moving forward the only ways I can see a larger proportion of people experiencing better latency in-game would be: 1. Progress in networking technology/infrastructure beyond the Server/Network Roadmap Initiative 2. Larger player base/density from user base growth (Larger player base could introduce the possibility of NAW/NAE servers like Europe, or a larger growth in density in one part of the nation may shift the server location) * 3. Evolution in Competitive Ladder, where we attempt REGIONAL GAMEPLAY Servers with the current player base/density.

Evolution in Competitive Ladder Play: This is vague and I'll try define it in a way that makes sense. Competitive play simply refers to whatever Ranked Ladder we'll have at a given time, be it the current ranked system or the future ranked team builder system, or whatever. What if enough logistical work could be put into what determines one's ranked on a ladder to move it beyond our current system? I'm talking a move as big as or greater than the one from the elo system to the current League Points (LP) system.

For instance, what if we actually had a NAW/NAE server set up here in NA with our current user base/density. The ranked ladder would play out as it currently does on both servers, but in order to move up in leagues (bronze/silver/gold/plat/diamond/masters/challenger/wood7), players in the top divisions of their respective leagues have to play on a centralized server.

In other words in addition to being able to compete with others in terms of skill is your ability to adapt to some changes in environment.

A light parallel could be drawn with this and top competitive play needing to adapt to a LAN environment, where both player environments are different and require some adjustment to progress (crowd noise, different set ups, etc.). Yes the details are a little different and up for discussion: LAN players get the different physical environment but get lower ping, and both teams get the same conditions. Players at home maintain their same physical environment, which can be adjusted to their liking, but get their different latency to the centralized server for the sake of competing with other players that may be near their skill level.

Perhaps proportions of wins/losses per region can adjust which tier/specific elo plays each other, for instance if US East has more talented players, their tier 2 would play tier 1 of US West, etc.

Lower divisions would get to enjoy the lower ping and hone their mechanics and progressing to the next tier would require an adaptation to slightly different latency environments to compete with those across the nation to advance. This path would sidestep the current limitations in technology and player base/density but allow for everyone to have both lower ping and an environment to compete in with similar conditions (the top divisions in the centralized server). I guess if all this plays out, the question is if lower latency in this structure is worth it over the centralized server move.

Thoughts?