Boards›Gameplay

A way to fix Ranked Play based on Skill not wins (while also dealing with trolls and afks)

Noctem Aeternum·2/4/2015, 4:42:04 AM·1 votes·1,053 views

If you clicked on this a warning. This is a longer post and has some issues that need to be tweeked I understand that. and no I do not have all the answers but I am presenting an idea to the League Community in the hopes of creating something better instead of sitting on my chair complaining about how things should be different. So with that said and you read this feel free to offer your own suggestions on improving ranked because I seriously feel like its flawed and I love playing this game but its getting frustrated with the feeling that im getting punished for not "carrying" or etc. with that said here goes

Alright so after playing through 4-5 seasons of League and 3 of those for ranked I have noticed something strange about the way league does ranked. First in order to get League points you have to win games In order to lose League Points you have to lose games.

So with that said, this strategy does not account for having both good and bad players on your team. As anyone in low elos know you just get that one troll who messes up your game even though you are doing great skill wise. The common argument I hear is that if you have the troll its equal that the enemy team could have it too, or the fact that if you are good than its your fault that you lost the game because you cant carry.
This way that Riot does ranked doesn't allow the good players to actually progress while rewarding the bad ones.

An example; As I stated above how League Points are gained and lost, if you have that one troll on your team and you win congrats, you got some League points and you helped move that troll up with you. If you lose well to bad, the troll won, making you lose league points along with the troll losing points Both ways means the troll type player is moving up with your or down with you. but never able to distance yourself from them. And you can switch out troll for unskilled, feeder, etc whichever word describes your scenario but it still comes out the same.

And from a competitive stand point, if you want to get better at the game is it better to play against people who will test your skill, or have your team just give up the game.

I know riot is trying to tackle the afk problem with their new Leaver Buster system because it affects ranked and I can see how it was supposed to combat the problem to help make rank and the game healthier but that's just one part of the problem and doesn't work entirely

My point in all this is that I believe Riot should rework the way the League Points are distributed. Obviously I don't have all the answers here and feel free to offer your own ways of improving Ranked but this is one way I can see that may help ranked become better. So read on if you wish

=================================================================================================================

in the beginning sentence I made a broad statement about how League Points are won and lost. Sure there is some math that I don't know that calculates how much you win or lose, but at its core concept, to go up you win, to go down you lose. basic. So Ranked is based on wins and losses not skill

I think Riot should make league points based on a K/D/A style AND a win/loss style

That way if you win a game but you had a feeder, you gain more than the feeder would be (allowing you to begin to distance yourself from them) but not outright carrying them. Same if you lose, that way you may have the possibility of negating some of the damage that the feeder or troll did while allowing them to lose more league points than you (and again allowing you to distance yourself from them some)

My example would be something along this line A win=10 League Points A Loss= -10 League Points (Keeping up with the whole win and loss and rewarding for the outcome) A Kill= 1 League Point A Death= -1 League Point An Assist= 1 League Point (this would allow something of a variable promoting skill)

Following this example you can use any match you may have played recently and fill in the numbers but for this example I will make up a few numbers

Player A won their match at 12/3/8 The Total League Points gained would be 10+(12-3)+8=27 League Points Gained Player B Won their match with 0/8/3 The Total League Points gained would be 10+(0-8)+3=13 League Points Gained

Player C Lost their match at 14/7/10 The Total League Points Lost would be -10+(14-7)+10=7 League Points Gained Player D Lost their Match at 2/10/5 The Total League Points Lost would be -10+(2-10)+5= -13 League Points Lost

In these above examples this would allow those who display obvious skill (or even luck depending on how you view it) be rewarded highly for their ability to contribute to the win while those people who didn't help as much would not be rewarded as much, but still allowed to be somewhat "carried" Even though despite winning those who are trolling, or feeding are still allowed to move up for atleast being a body in the game (vs someone like an afk who doesn't) but despite even having a win, with the K/D/A combined with a win/loss concept still allows room for the complete feeders to ACTUALLY lose some league points for even winning a game (think of example being like 0/15/2 which would be -3 league points instead of actually gaining) One of the obvious problems would be that feeders just have to "participate" in teamfights and "tag" as many people with their Autos or abilities to rack up as much "assist" as they can which I sadly cant figure out a way of eliminating. However in the terms of winning this way would actually award someone greater league points for helping their team vs those who are either unskilled for their league matchups or intentially feeding.

Looking at the losing team though is really where this feature would shine. With the current system in place if you lose a game because of the feeding, unskilled, afk or whatever may be it still allows those players who try to play the game to ACTUALLY be able to minimize the damage that was caused or in certain cases still allow them to be gain league points for a loss (thus ensuring that those who actually have skill are able to keep moving up and keeping those who are at their skill range right now and/or griefing

I am aware of certain issues that would arise with this system (another problem would be what would stop a player from just running around the nexus for 20 mins going 0-0-0, still winning and gaining a free 10 league points) but I do believe that this is something that riot should look into with their fancy math calculations and reward players who actually can play the game well and play their hardest to win. And not continue punishing everyone on a 5 man team for 1 person griefing or unskilled.

Besides what would teemo do?

7 Comments

BluePolarizer2/4/2015, 4:48:26 AM2 votes

ok then. If I'm 12-0 but my team is feeding, I should not try to help them, because that might risk me dying and still losing anyways. Instead I should immediately AFK.

SwiftKitten882/4/2015, 5:05:41 AM2 votes

while i agree with some of the thing you listed i agree that it does have issues. the first 2 comment are 2 good reason why. but i also think deaths should be -.5 and assists should be +.5 loss should be - 20 win should be + 15.

but ideally is like to see something that could tell if you were winning your lane or not. how many time did you kill or die to your lane opponents before your first tier tower fell and how many of those times was it a gank that killed you or your opponent. i think that would be a tremendously useful stat

SmokingPuffin2/4/2015, 4:55:56 AM1 votes

My example would be something along this line A win=10 League Points A Loss= -10 League Points (Keeping up with the whole win and loss and rewarding for the outcome) A Kill= 1 League Point A Death= -1 League Point An Assist= 1 League Point (this would allow something of a variable promoting skill)

This formulation has many problems. The biggest two are:

  1. More LP are awarded than taken away in a match. Creates rating inflation.
  2. Creates incentive for ahead teams to not end games.
Noctem Aeternum2/4/2015, 4:58:49 AM1 votes

im not sure I understand the first part there smoking puffin but im in the middle of a game checking on this so that could be why I don't understand yet (dying is along time now)

but as far as number 2 goes that is a good point, but the surrender option is still in affect. so the enemy team could surrender at 20 ending the game and thus denying the winning team more points (which is in itself another problem you made me think of...)

Noctem Aeternum2/4/2015, 5:07:00 AM1 votes

That's true too Pro Lee, but with the assit still in affect you could still get the bonus points from the assist and same with the jungler regardless. but you are right it would be harder to climb because of that. but at the same time it might open up more options later (like ap supports such as annie, lux or nid while not necessarily a good thing having supports take kills from adcs it does allow more of opportunity to maybe break the normal metas even. who knows if kills become something important maybe more people will start to figure out ways to get as many league points as they can. meaning more teamfights and different champs being used.

Noctem Aeternum2/4/2015, 5:09:39 AM1 votes

you guys are making some great points and like Pro lee, puffin and Swift Kitten have said somethings that have made me think of some changes too. Like im sure riot could figure out some sort of math problem to calculate drako kills and baron kills (maybe addng those to the jungler as a bonus league points thus ensuring that junglers are on top of them) tower kills etc. really they could open up a lot more options that would inspire people to learn roles while rewarding them