I still wish there was a way for groups of solo players to play together
The new ranked system for season 7 is going to once again split the ranked playerbase into two types of players:
- The solo player who likes to play with completely random teammates and solo-carry games.
- The social player who likes to play with their friends, probably using voice comms.
Dynamic queue already did this to some extent, but the new ranked system will solidify it even further.
I feel that neither of these systems accommodate a third type of player:
- The solitary player who wants to play with a team of like-minded individuals.
Solo queue doesn't allow this because the players you are matched with are completely random. They might have completely different play styles, or worse, might be toxic.
Dynamic queue doesn't really allow this because it's designed for friends to play together. Its matchmaking is adjusted assuming that the players know how to play well together and are using voice comms, which means that more solitary players will be at a huge disadvantage there. Finally, it requires a lot of work on the players' side, collecting and managing friends lists, coordinating invites, etc. - which goes back to the problem Riot have mentioned in the past of it being hard to organise people to play together as a team.
What I would really like to see is some kind of system where groups of like-minded players could come together and queue up with players from their group. I suppose you could call these groups "clubs" or "clans".
Rather than choosing individual players to play with, players would join a group, and then be randomly matched with whichever members of the group at the right MMR are currently online.
Imagine a group of players who hate flaming in their games forming together to make a "no-flamers" group, ensuring that they would never get flamers on their teams. Sure, maybe matchmaking would be slower because of having to find someone in the group, but I'm sure a lot of people would be willing to pay that price for the vastly improved game quality.
Image another group of players who like to play carefully and get exasperate by their more reckless colleagues - they could form a group for cautious players who prefer to play it safe rather than taking excessive risks.
I could even imagine a group of players who like to be a bit harsher in their communications than most (e.g. they like to flame) playing together in an environment where they are more free to vent at each other without fear of offending someone who doesn't want to communicate like that.
We've all played solo queue games that weren't fun just because of the types of players we were matched with on our team - a system like this would be designed to overcome that particular disadvantage of solo queue, without turning it into a social experience like Dynamic Queue and Ranked Teams do.
