Autofill should be removed from lower ranks!
Autofill in lower ranks sets up a really bad experience. Allow me to explain.
In lower elos, plat and below, people don't usually know all the roles. These are the people who generally get to their rank through playing a small set of champs and such, without really focusing on counter-picking adapting in champ select. Don't get me wrong, the intentions of autofill are correct. No one should wait 20+ minutes for a game, if people wanted that they could just get leaver bans and have the lower priority q. However this is a counter intuitive solution to a problem it was meant to solve. By adding a random "lottery" for roles distributed if your preferable role wasn't chosen quickly creates 2 things.
- Team mentality falls apart.
- Creates a bad experience for BOTH teams
Draft pick changes were actually pretty good before global autofill. Rather than have a random arrangement of roles based on draft order, picking 2 roles you were good at ensured that you got a role you can actually play, and also that you would less likely have trolls in champ select that are dead set on playing a role. However adding auto fill ruins this. Less played roles such as support would instantly be flooded with people that well, don't play support. Having already established the "this is my role not yours even riot said so" type draft, the new autofill makes negotiation harder than even ordered pick. Players that are unlucky to have been assigned a role they don't play would be hard pressed to negotiate successfully. Of course, this still happens, but in my personal experience, plus my friends, its very rarely that roles would be swapped. After all, no one wants to play a role no one wants to play! By forcing this onto players, it creates a bad atmosphere (more on that later). Of course you can get better by playing all the roles, but that takes time, and this sudden change has disrupted that.
This all leads to a bad game experience. In terms of elo itself and ranks, it wouldn't change because both teams have an equal chance of getting these "new to role" guys. However, standards are lowered. League is already quite toxic in itself. By making a guy play a role hes not good at, and then subsequently doing bad at it (because you know he doesn't play it!) causes other players to be frustrated and toxic. This becomes a vicious cycle, of players being yelled at and general toxicity increasing every slip up. This discourages people from the mere idea of ranked. Although autofill solves the waiting list, the toxicity and bad atmosphere it creates is not worth it because it undermines the whole league experience. Games aren't supposed to be won by who has more "autofill cursed" players, neither are they supposed to be riddled with toxicity due to someone being bad at something they've rarely, if never, played. Games are supposed to be won through skill, and by ensuring you are doing your best on the rift means playing what your good at. By having autofill, it is disrupting this balance of good vs lucky, win vs. loss. Don't get me wrong, autofill is a good idea! Just implementing it in lower ranks so suddenly messes up everyone's experience and creates more toxicity, something I think Riot doesn't, and shouldn't want. It's great that Riot implemented the, "you can't autofill cuz you just did!" but that merely makes the problem less severe, not quite solving it.
TL;DR Autofill creates animosity and bad experiences. Revert back to the old draft pick!
~Deftsu2gosu