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Since Dynamic Queue exists, I actually can't play with my friends anymore.

A Ocean·4/29/2016, 11:22:32 AM·329 votes·9,987 views

So I have some friends at university who play League and the individual skill greatly differs between us. 4 guys are somewhere between high Diamond and high Plat, 2 used to be mid Bronze and me and another guy are high Silver (actually I'm unranked atm, but I used to be).

Last season, whenever we wanted to play together, we just jumped into 5v5 Ranked and tried fun stuff. We didn't have much to lose in Ranked, I mean it was Ranked Teams, it was a separate, fun ladder that didn't ruin your solo rating but actually gave you SOME motivation to play well, not like Normals where it doesn't matter at all if you win or lose. I suggested playing Normals once, but none of them like Normals because there's just no reason to play at all.

Now my Diamond friends all made some smurfs and keep going into Rankeds as a 3 or 4 man premade with the rest. For them it's only a smurf account, for the others it's a free elo boost.** One of the Bronze guys is Gold 2 now** (where he doesn't belong at all) and keeps bragging about it. My friends keep having fun in the only "team" mode that still has any incentive to at least try to win: Ranked Dynamic Queue.

I really really loved the 5v5 Ranked mode. Now there are three choices for me:

  • Play alone.
  • Try and convince my friends to play boring Normals where there's no reason to try to win.
  • Play Ranked with my Diamond friends and get my solo ranking boosted to high Gold / low Plat where I don't belong.

If you really think about any of these three possibilities, you'll see that all three are the exact opposite of what Riot intended, which is "shaping a competitive environment for us to play with our friends in Ranked".

Thank you, Riot, for preventing me from playing with my friends.

116 Comments

Lucifer4/29/2016, 12:49:53 PM83 votes

Accurate assessment of why dynamic queue is problematic. It's laughable that Riot says this mode is supposed to be more competitive when pretty much all the pros don't want to play anymore, and/or are sitting in 20-60 minute queues waiting for a horribly mismatched game. Three fucking cheers. :|

Caítlyn4/29/2016, 11:28:45 AM36 votes

Posting in a soon to be epic thread.

56552559_DEL4/29/2016, 3:12:11 PM27 votes

I honestly think that having ONLY DQ in the game is the biggest mistake. Everyone keeps saying that DQ sucks and never should have been in the game but i argue that people are looking at it the wrong way. Its not that DQ was added, its the fact that it REPLACED everything else is what the actual issue is.

Not everyone is wanting to play with friends and not everyone has friends to play with either at all or at the same time. Yet with the DQ it is forcing people to play in groups otherwise you are at a severe disadvantage going up against 4-5 man premades that have better communication whether by always playing with each other or using a second party software (ie. skype, teamspeak, curse chat etc.).

But then you get these people who are defending the addition of DQ til they are blue in the face saying that there is nothing wrong with it and people need to "get gud" or some bs like that.

DQ has obviously caused problems otherwise we wouldnt be seeing as many complaint threads about it and we wouldnt be seeing complaints in game (which im sure everyone has seen complaining in their matches every so often) so its not just a small part of the forum that thinks this. But at the same time i am NOT saying that the people who dont like it are the majority. What my point is, is that if we are seeing an increase in people complaining about it almost every day, then there is OBVIOUSLY something wrong and the issue needs to be investigated.

At first the complaints were just......meh, it will pass. But just like with any real life situation, if the complaints gain momentum and more and more people keep coming forward about a certain issue, then there is enough reason to suspect that there is something wrong with that issue.

But the main thing to point out here is not the issue of DQ being added in, its the fact that it was added in to REPLACE everything else which is what i believe the REAL issue is and that is unacceptable.

Wolfram Oxford4/29/2016, 11:37:07 AM23 votes

Please Rito, listen to us.

The Deckowner4/29/2016, 2:06:43 PM23 votes

dynamic queue is the opposite of: fun competetive friend

Gnart Even Close4/29/2016, 12:28:41 PM18 votes

bring back ranked teams!

Dukues4/29/2016, 2:17:13 PM14 votes

Although who knows what the actually numbers are the fact that it is a lot more common for players to get boosted now is annoying. I mean there are a lot of problems with dynamic queue that everyone has touched on many times. But just think about the grind for a second. I have played hundreds of ranked games, pretty much lost my mind in the silver grind the last couple seasons before something finally clicked and I finally reached gold. Then to hear of people who should not even be silver being ranked up to gold for free is annoying. None the less anyone getting boosted to any rank that they do not deserve is not only a huge middle finger to the players who actually grinded and learned the game to rank up, but also just a huge F U to competitiveness and rank meaning in general.

Even before dynamic queue was released ranked was not perfect. You still had players being boosted or placed at a rank higher than they should be. I know my cousin got placed into gold 4 last season (still don't get how) after just reaching 30. Dude then went on a huge losing streak until he had 0 lp in gold 5,. Had no fun in those losses getting destroyed while simultaneously ruining those games for his teammates. Now he is in silver 5 with like 6 lp and a 47ish % win percentage and doesn't understand why he can't rank up.....

I will admit for a low elo player like me it doesn't matter as much, but damn is it frustrating to play with a player who does not belong at your elo. I can't imagine how annoying it has to be in plat and up now playing either with premades or with a boosted players most of the time.

lolptwo4/29/2016, 4:49:42 PM12 votes

The thing is most people are not like the OP, and Riot did not take that into consideration. People are happy to be boosted and brag about their unearned rank, and Riot thinks a Bronze 2 being carried by 3 Diamonds is indicative of the Bronze "learning to play as a team" but it's really not. It has NO bearing on the skill level of the Bronze player.

It would be as logically sound as me jumping on the back of a Cheetah and then claiming to be the fastest man on the world with "teamwork".

I hate hate HATE, how Riot is forcing this to their community. Most of us are waiting for Overwatch. The game isn't competitive anymore, it's just about who you know. The real world is already about who you know it was nice a couple things in life that were about how good your personal skill is.

I honestly and genuinely believe some Rioters do not realize how big of an impact each individual player makes. Sure the Bronze 2 will eventually be useless or the team will just tell him to "stand at tower then entire game farm and do, this, this and this." When the other Diamond players will completely run havoc and snowball the entire game.

The OP is a person of genuine competitiveness, integrity and seeks to improve. Like most Grandfather'd players are, Riot is catering to the youngest part of League ( Play with your School friends in Ranked now YAYYYY, spend more of Daddy and Mommy's money and advertise to other friends to make a group YAYYY)

Dynamic Q isn't competitive, there is no integrity, Elo boosting is legal. This game will be a wash up of 12 year olds in the future and 90% of adults and older teens will be turned off by the lack of true skill assessment.

Tufio4/29/2016, 2:46:37 PM9 votes

Riot never intented to "shaping a competitive environment for us to play with our friends in Ranked".

The real reason is that if you play with friends then you are more likely to $$$ to skins/champs/runes, even more so in a ranked.

That's all, is for $$$.

Ranking, esport, vision are just excuses and damage control. Dynamic queue is not even a competitive system, is a glorified normal and that can't be fixed. (premades and massive range of mmr make any rating pointless)

Croslee4/29/2016, 2:35:20 PM9 votes

Ranked Teams is amazing and allows friends to play together! Bring it back please!

Sohleks4/29/2016, 1:39:59 PM9 votes

I too use smurfs to play ranked with friends.

No reason to play ranked 5s anymore because it doesn't exist :^)^)

Ranked 5s felt much more meaningful

Dynamic queue feels like bologne

612X0dbmDS4/29/2016, 11:47:21 AM9 votes

I feel you. I have posted concerns about this numerous of times but the only thing I can think of is that Riot will in one way or other bring back solo MMR.

Just like you pointed out without the solo MMR (not talking about the queue) people are being forced to create smurf accounts so that they can actually play with friends on different skill levels.

But right now Riot has messed up big time and are probably working on cleaning up the existing mess in dynamic queue before introducing anything solo, including just a solo MMR in dynamic q.

I can't see Riot sticking to only one MMR in the long run. That is not good for anyone.

Slythion4/29/2016, 11:41:07 AM7 votes

I feel you man, I'm sorry

ZeeWolfZ4/29/2016, 3:21:38 PM6 votes

League of Legends Season 5: "The ranked system has never been better. Everything works, Everyone happy!"

League of Legends Pre-season 6: Boss - "I just pulled out an idea out of my bum for ranked. We are implementing it!", Employees "Sir, everything is perfect the way it is. League community hasn't complained about Ranked since Season 3. We have the perfect formula". Boss - "NEW SYSTEM NAO!"

League of Legends Season 6: "We have read thousands of your complains and 8 posts a day about Dynamic Queue but we believe it is better!"

Fovere4/29/2016, 5:15:50 PM3 votes

I've tried to make this point as well, ranked teams were far more friendly towards "friends playing ranked" than the current DQ.

You could have multiple teams each with a discrete rating, so there was never any worry over screwing up your friend ranking b/c you arent as good.

Hyperiön4/29/2016, 1:46:15 PM3 votes

As I a not the biggest fan of DQ either. Smurfing is inevitable. Diamond/Plat mains can purposly throw their provisionals to get placed in bronze, then carry their friends all the way up. It has been apart of league for awhile now. There is no way to avoid this unless they put a limit on accounts based on the IP you play on, in which will only work part way if they move, or go to a friends house to play.

Speedphoenix4/30/2016, 7:15:32 PM2 votes

Please, keep upvoting this!!!

PbJMpP4xzk4/29/2016, 3:47:23 PM2 votes

its simple since DynamicQ is up i see myself and my close friends playing less and less league of legend, also if the soloQ come back along with ranked team queue i would easily see myself and my friends play more and more league.

So that said, i guess rito don't want us to actualy play the game but only watch Esports Events and buy MERCHANDISE more than RP anyway.

MISTAFUNKTASTIC4/29/2016, 5:34:29 PM2 votes

Excellent, well written post. Thanks for sharing your perspective.

I don't have any friends that play league so I've made new online acquaintances and have found away around the new tier limit queues and other problems with dynamic queue. However forcing others to this adaptation and away from their friends is a problem.

Krys Star4/29/2016, 7:52:56 PM2 votes

Same here. I haven't been able to play with my friends in about a month and a half now, ever since they changed dynamic queue requirements for diamond players. I'm diamond, the rest of my friends are plat V-IV, which they busted their asses to get to so we could all play together... then Riot pulls the rug from underneath us, because of people abusing the poorly designed Dynamic Queue. I don't care much for Normals, I had about 3-4 weeks of time to play with my friends in Ranked for the first time in 6 years, and now... I play 1-3 games every other day at most.

Riot's doing a great job of killing their game little by little this season. They might as well bring out solo queue, because I've been solo queuing for a very long time now.

HappyWittleTeeto4/29/2016, 11:34:25 PM2 votes

I HATE DQ, They need to change it back to the way it use to be BECAUSE THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON, so many boosted accounts, premade shit teams I get matched with. PLEASE add soloq back

SinanjuPhenex4/29/2016, 5:18:37 PM1 votes

Hmm good assessment and I do feel for you.

Im recently in the solo climb and I do wonder sometimes at peoples statements about being boosted. In fact I have a question.

While I do see how being quote on quote "boosted" seems unfair, isn't this a more realistic view of an actual player base and skill level. Not of the individual as a league player( that's what solo que is for Q u Q) but as a team player that at least knows what they're doing to help the team win.

The plat players are carrying the team but that doesn't mean that those bronzies aren't doing their own jobs or playing their own positions well at those levels. It might just mean that those players did not have the right environment to play well and in the company of friends in a relaxed state they can play better and thus deserve their rank.

This is all highly speculative and all but I'd thought I'd throw this out there.

TL;DR : There are a lot of good players out there just stuck playing with hard heads and trolls in the lower elos. Maybe they just needed a better environment to show their true skill. It's like a plant that has strong genes trying to grow in two different settings, one in the darkness of other smothering weeds, and another in nutritional soil with help. Which one will do better?

Maximum Morde4/29/2016, 2:47:35 PM1 votes

You still can in normals.

Engetsu4/30/2016, 9:43:35 AM1 votes

How do Bronze/silver players get carried by Diamond in Dynamic Q? When I tried to Queue up with my diamond friends/plat the rank restrictions stop this, So there is one flaw in your story.

Most likely people are going to say is "They just went on a smurf account and played Dynamic Q with their Low elo friends". That's where the issue is in this game, people able to making smurf accounts. if people were not allowed to make more than 1 account than we wouldn't have much of "High elo players going on a low elo account to help their friends".

IF these people were your real friend, they would actually give you pointers and help you get better in normals instead of doing everything for you.

For the dynamic Q issues, there are two things riot needs to do. Bring back 5vs5 Rank teams, and remove 4 man premades. If riot got rid of 4 man premades and just allowed 2/3/5, solo players will not have issue.