So lets have a frank discussion about Ranked, competitive integrity, the flaws, and how to fix it.

Hey there folks, its JayMC, you're friendly neighborhood diamond. Today I'd like to start up a conversation about the competitive aspects of LoL that cause this game to be declining in terms of the quality of the gaming experience we as players deal with on a daily basis.

We all know that this game has significant issues when it comes to its competitive aspect and usually when this topic is discussed its just a lot of blah blah blah with people bickering back and forth about nonsensical things and that, in my opinion, is part of the reason why we haven't corrected some of these issues even after 6 seasons of play. I think its time we do something more productive and have a real discussion regarding the aspects of this game that need to be addressed so that players can once again enjoy a rich and full gaming experience. This thread is really only going to be regarding competitive play, and not the normal "for fun" modes, although some of the content in this thread may be applicable to those things as well.

First, I think its important we start by listing the issues we know about that can cause playing League of Legends to feel more frustrating than enjoyable at times (or all the time for some people). We know that the competitive integrity of the ladder is in shambles this season for a number of reasons, but let's see if we can identify exactly what reasons are behind that trend.

1. Ranked matchmaking is not very good. Even Riot has expressed some regret over the quality of matchmaking this season and even flat out said in the round table video that the quality was simply not up to par and quite embarrassing.

2. Dynamic queue creates an unfair and unbalanced competitive environment. We know that DQ will be modified next season and Solo Q will return, which is a good thing, but we also need to think about why DQ failed and what could have been done to keep it from failing.

3. Rampant smurfing. This one is pretty self explanatory, there are a LOT of smurfs out there. They naturally create an imbalanced environment because of the way the systems function and maybe its time we take a look at refining the systems so that smurfing has a lot less impact on the lower end and middle portion of the ladder.

4. Boosting, scripting, account purchasing, and other forms of cheating. Also pretty self explanatory here. We will have to see if we can come up with better ways to deter this type of activity and prevent them from harming other players.

5. The ranking system uses only Win/Loss ratio in a vaccum to rank players. For some rather obvious reasons this might be the biggest issue of them all. Its pretty hard to use a system that doesn't take into account an individual's performance when ranking individuals and actually have it function in the manner intended. How can we change this to make a more accurate system?

6. Baseline starting point for "fresh" (brand new, zero lifetime ranked matches played) level 30 accounts. Currently, the starting point for ranked is just slightly above the half way point on the ladder. If slightly more than half of ranked players will fall BELOW this point it doesn't really make a ton of sense to START players INITIALLY above the half way mark. We will have to consider revising this baseline point and figure out if that could possibly help improve things.

7. The grindy nature. For most players it's going to take several hundreds of games, and in many cases even a thousand matches, to reach an appropriate skill ranking. This can be a turn off for many players, particularly those who don't have a ton of time to invest in playing many matches every day of the year. Can we find a way to help players reach an accurate skill ranking more quickly?

8. Autofill. This last one might apply more to the highest end of the ladder where it occurs more frequently, but autofill, as we now know, isn't exclusive to the tippy top of the ladder and its impact, while less sever on the lower ends of the ladder, is still felt and it certainly can caused some games to become lopsided stompfests. Is there some way to keep autofill to assist in the reduction of queue times while simultaneously maintaining some degree of competitive integrity?

These are the 8 big issues that come to mind to me when we discuss competitive integrity of the Ranked ladder. Now, these issues are complicated, complex, and how they all fit together and interact with one another can be difficult to understand at times. So I think the best way to tackle them is to take them one by one. To that end, what I plan on doing is starting a new thread each week for the next two months to tackle one specific issue listed here for about a week at a time. As a community we can go over that specific issue with a fine toothed comb and try to figure out if we can come up with ways to solve, or maybe just alleviate, some of the problems. Consider today's thread the preface. I'll link each of the subsequent threads to the OP in this one as we create them so we also have a central point to collect all our data and conversations regarding these topics. For today, and the rest of this week, I'd simply like you guys to mention what issues you think are most important to tackle, have the greatest impact on you as a player, and cause the most frustration. Since today is just a general overview, this weeks discussion will be more general in nature.

So, lets have your thoughts on what problems there are, how big those problems are, and what it is about competitive integrity that is most important to you.