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Should Newly Reworked or Released Champions be Restricted From Ranked Play?

HalcyonDweller·Mar 12, 2018·1 votes·177 views

This is a VERY controversial question, made much worse by the conflicts of interest of each side. Most people who argue against this are the very people who want to use these characters right after their release. And most people who argue for this are the very people who don't want their ranked games ruined by people trying the new champion.

But I think that the question is actually very simple to answer. Because everyone can still have what they want without getting in each others' way at all.

We already know that Ranked and Normal MMR are not connected. People who care about 'fairness' and competition can only find these things in the ranked queues. Additionally their competitive standing and their end-of-season rewards are dependent on a stable ranked system for them to compete in. Ranked is a competitive mode after all, so shouldn't it be important to preserve the integrity and stability of that system?

People who would try new things do not care about this integrity or about the fairness of the competition. Their values don't align with the queue at all. These people will simply follow the characters to whichever queue they are available in, regardless of which queues those actually are.

This means that restricting new characters from ranked play won't actually prevent the people who want to try them from actually trying them out, and it will help to ensure a more balanced and fair ranked environment for everyone.

So in conclusion I think that yes, Riot should restrict newly released or reworked characters from ranked play. Such a restriction could be implemented in any number of ways, including a set number of days (do not recommend), a set number of games as that character (could work), or simply until the player has achieved their first level of mastery with the character (do recommend).

Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Ideas? (Also Poll)

And if you enjoyed reading this then please give it an upvote, we can't reach more people if our voices aren't heard.

8 Comments

FOR JUSTICEMar 12, 20181 votes

personally I wouldn't bar any champion, but if I had to choose, I'd say number of matches, because nothing would stop me from first timing kai'sa in ranked if I simply just waited a week or so until she's now selectable.

barring via number of matches forces a player to learn the basic mechanics first, if at least for only a little while. but hey, at least your not going in 100% new, you at least picked up something

HalcyonDwellerMar 12, 20181 votes

That's a great point, thanks for speaking up about that.

Do you think that mastery would be too steep of a restriction?

FOR JUSTICEMar 12, 20181 votes

The problem with mastery is that it dosent actually correlate to skill either, because to obtain that i can just play blinds, take them in an offrole and then AFK farm all day.

But mastery 4 can at least prove the basics of the champion. That would be fine imo.

HalcyonDwellerMar 12, 20181 votes

Mastery 4 might take a long time to achieve though, wouldn't it?

I'm trying to find a common ground and/or a good balance between each side of the issue. If mastery 1 is meaningless then what about mastery 2 and 3?

Why do you feel that mastery 4 would be ideal as opposed to those others? Do you feel like that would be fair to you if you wanted to take the character into ranked?

(Not trying to interrogate you, I'm just genuinely curious as to why that particular level of restriction)

DOUBLE TAPPED EMar 13, 20181 votes

Mastery 4 is 15-30 games depending on your performance, so yes, it requires an effort to achieve it, but do you honestly want teammates who are too lazy to put in some effort?

HalcyonDwellerMar 13, 20181 votes

I certainly don't, but I also want to set a reasonable expectation. People will revolt if Riot puts a 30-game requirement on characters.

It would probably be safer to require like 5 or 10 games. On most characters that will be enough for somebody to figure out the basics on the character, even if they can't actually do extremely well as them yet.

Divine WindsMar 12, 20181 votes

yes

HalcyonDwellerMar 12, 20181 votes

Well I agree with you, but how? We've got to find a tenable solution, rather than just insist on what we want no matter it's impact on the "other" people.

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