Team Builder Is Too Restrictive

BLACK REALM GOD·Jan 19, 2015·1 votes·764 views

I remember team builder being created to break away from the so called "meta". It seems, however, that it's impossible to find players willing to just play any role. I would like to propose that the team builder's initial search criteria be less limiting. What i mean by this is that instead of having to choose both lane and role when searching for a team that it would be okay to choose only one or both so long as it's clear what the goal of that person is. It would allow people to search for a team looking for a mage without restricting their search to specifically teams looking for mid mages. i believe this would help with the players that want to try weird match-ups such as duo support and tank mid. This might also inspire creativity with the champions already released. I'm not saying those match-ups would work, but it could start a revolution in how the game itself is played.

11 Comments

Duke AnaxJan 23, 20154 votes

What I'd really like to see is an option to put several roles in one position, for example: "Botlane Tank or Support"

Right now when I wanna play Alistar Bot I have to file as support to find a game, but Ali is no support, he is a tank.

BLACK REALM GODJan 29, 20151 votes

i agree with what you just said. that seems like a no brainer.

perhaps it could be a checkbox system. click the ones you want then search. maybe even go as far as to have another feature where you can specify champs entirely. that's a lot of micromanagement though. people would be sitting in queue for hours :P

UberAffeJan 19, 20151 votes

I actually made a rework for team builder based around this idea. http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/summoners-rift/OpgrnU99-team-builder-rework

BLACK REALM GODJan 22, 20151 votes

i went to your link and read your description. you've got the right idea, but your definitions are too vague. the categories would be jumbled. hmm... in my opinion (since they clearly state what each role does i.e. support assassin tank and such) is that you only pick that role and the lanes are assigned upon searching. or you can restrict yourself to a specific lane as well i.e. jungle if perhaps the champion you're playing is only a jungle capable champ. however, i have yet to find a champion who cant do multiple roles. some are restricted by how many people they need in lane with them but since we're talking about weird builds that break the meta why cant soraka be a support for the jungler with a frost queens claim to compensate for gold? drawing from an idea like that even if you ran into the jungler a 2v1 fight would end in at least a 1 for 1 scenario. so to counter that someone would have to leave a lane or the jungler would end up feeding the counter jungler duo. since everyone plays "meta" the obvious choice would be to have bottom sacrifice a lane partner since it's 2v1 or to just try and push through to the tower. as long as the bottom adc stays under the tower avoiding fire from the opponents and poking it doesnt matter that there are 2 in lane. turrets kill pretty easy early game and no one cares about lanes late game. everyone's always running through the forest or team fighting in mid. that's why split pushing was invented after all. that's just my personal view on things from my experience though. what do you think?

edit also im not entirely certain but i dont think assists lower the amount of gold received to the killer. so in that sense you get awarded for assisting in kills and it's easier to kill someone. there are zero drawbacks in a support helping any lane at all since most arent allowed to take cs anyway right? but like i said im not entirely certain.

double edit and i forgot to point this out. when creating a team you have the option of choosing any. all im saying is that we should give that same freedom to the people looking for a team in the form of what lane they play. i'll use my earlier soraka example. searching for a game i just want to play soraka. dont care where just i know that im going to need a lane buddy and i want to play a support build. so i choose soraka and support and any lane (with 2 people in lane. maybe that should be another thing to add.) then i click search. as a person building a team i want to try reversing the meta. bring support and adc up top and put a counter adc bottom. i set up my lanes and search. soraka shows up as a support up top. the lane has 2 players and the role of support is covered. both people are satisfied. elise is considered a mage who works well in the jungle. elise wants to play top for a change but cant find a lobby because she's a mage and mage tops arent usually wanted. so she searches for top only instead of putting top mage. since the person hosting the lobby has set his other top to be only a marksman or a fighter for adc purposes elise will have to find a lobby looking for top anys. sorry elise. looks like you'll have to find another lobby but it's okay because elise is being picky with her lane.

UberAffeJan 22, 20151 votes

As far as i am aware assists are basically just free gold

BLACK REALM GODJan 23, 20151 votes

thank you for confirming.

DreamspitterJan 22, 20151 votes

eh dont see why not

Leaf of the lakeJan 23, 20151 votes

If you don't care about role they're queueing as, you can put X lane/"any role". I usually leave mid/jung/top as any role since they get the most variety of champions, while everyone expects ADC/supp to go bot.

BLACK REALM GODJan 29, 20151 votes

not everyone. just meta players. and that doesnt help people trying to find a game who dont care about their lanes. people still end up having to "lie" about their intentions to get a specific role ^ like with the above person who wants to tank bottom instead of support bottom. those are 2 very different builds. one is ap and the other is defense. an alistar that supports is a healer and a very poor one at that. a tank allistar is someone who sacrifices healing potential for defense. 2 very different playstyles entirely.

and if you were to put bottom any you end up with everything from marksmen to assassins and fighters and so on. a support player would be even harder to find.

Leaf of the lakeJan 29, 20151 votes

If you're planning on playing a duo bot lane and aren't planning on taking farm, you're a support. End of story. Morg and thresh have very different playstyles, but they're both supports, and both queue as support. Just because one builds AP and one builds tank doesn't change the fact that they're both filling the support position. If you're planning on taking farm, you pick a role for yourself besides support. It's that simple.

And I've seen what happens when you put bot lane/any. You get tons and tons of marksmen. If you use bot lane/any for the support role, you end up just getting a flood of marksmen and it actually takes longer to find a support, because you eventually run into stupidly long join timers.

BLACK REALM GODJan 30, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=BLACK REALM GOD,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Etd1apP7,comment-id=00020000,timestamp=2015-01-29T22:21:45.615+0000)

i agree with what you just said. that seems like a no brainer.

> perhaps it could be a checkbox system. click the ones you want then search. maybe even go as far as to have another feature where you can specify champs entirely. that's a lot of micromanagement though. people would be sitting in queue for hours :P

[{quoted}](name=BLACK REALM GOD,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Etd1apP7,comment-id=00030000,timestamp=2015-01-29T22:21:07.636+0000)

not everyone. just meta players. and that doesnt help people trying to find a game who dont care about their lanes. people still end up having to "lie" about their intentions to get a specific role ^ like with the above person who wants to tank bottom instead of support bottom. those are 2 very different builds. one is ap and the other is defense. an alistar that supports is a healer and a very poor one at that. a tank allistar is someone who sacrifices healing potential for defense. 2 very different playstyles entirely.

**> and if you were to put bottom any you end up with everything from marksmen to assassins and fighters and so on. a support player would be even harder to find. **

i already addressed that with another form member. you're missing the entire point of this discussion. we're not talking about the meta. we're talking about how to avoid the meta. please pay attention to the entire discussion. i never said he was or wasnt taking farm. i never said there'd be another person bottom lane. those things are only assumed if you're assuming the person playing is attempting to use meta form - solo top/solo jungler/solo mid/duo bottom

also as a side note just for clarity - morgana and thresh have different play styles because they are two different champs. alistar support and alistar tank is still alistar. how well you fill your role is based on who you pick, what you buy, how you customize through masteries and runes, and how you play. if someone wants to try playing a different way that should be embraced. otherwise this game will get very stale very fast. ever seen ashe support and ashe marksman? regardless of who you play where you play or how you play if you have 2 people in a lane they will level half as fast as everyone else. that's why jungling became so important and support is normally reserved for the champs that i like to call "healers" and "buffers". this is because at higher tier games they understand that per minute there's only so much gold and xp on the map. that's really all this game is. if you get gold and xp more so than your opponents you win. how you go about getting that gold and xp is all about your teams personal strategy. it could be wave clearing. it could be ganking. it could be stealing jungle camps. it could be a passive like twisted fate's roll the dice. it could be overwhelming your lane and breaking an early turret. it could be just hoarding assists all day long. the more gold you get the more xp you get the stronger you are the more gold and xp you can get the stronger you get the more gold and xp you get... it's called snowballing and no matter how much they try to take it out it's exactly what this game is about.