Ranked Play, The Rework Riot Never Did

-This is not a rage or flame thread, no content or idea presented represents any rage or complaining-

**Intro: **

Ranked Play is by far the most rewarding and fun game type there is on League. On the flip side Ranked Play is one of the worst game modes League of Legends has. I say worst because Ranked desperately needs a rework and what exactly do I mean by a rework? Well sit back and get your reading glasses because this one is going to be a long in depth rework example that we need within League of Legends. In this rework example I will cover ever single possible situation that we encounter in ranked play and how riot can help fix these core issues that hold us all back from reaching our goals as players within League.

Situation 1 The Discounted teammate:

-I am not discussing teammates who quit this situation is purely for the technical issues we all deal with-

So I recently played a Ranked game and during the loading the screen the Elise jungle did not load in. She encountered a bug splat and had to completely restart her computer (which depending on the model and spec's on the computer can take a good minute) Elise did not reconnect till about 5 minutes into the game and thus was super behind in the jungle. The other team of course caught on and bullied her in the jungle and we (her team) did all we could to help her scale back up. Nothing of course seemed to work and we were doomed to lose our match. (Which we did)

This is a rough example of a common issue among the League Community wether the DC be a bug splat on Riot's end of things or the individual is encountering issues with their internet connection be it a storm, wifi drops, internet goes out for no reason etc. Believe it or not somethings are out of our control when it comes to technology and sometimes a reboot is necessary to sort out these issues.

**Situation 1 THE SOLUTION: **

So how could we possibly fix this issue? Well believe it or not ladies and gents this issue is a very easy issue to fix. I am surprised... no I am shocked Riot has not implemented this yet. Before I spill the beans on the solution let me give an example to draw off of. In a custom game you have the pause mechanic /pause, /unpause, and /resume this is helpful when you are in a third party online tournament. On top of that even the LCS uses this feature within League, WAIT HOLD YOUR OBJECTIONS! Now of course I am not saying give players access to the /pause feature in ranked, the trolls would have a hay day. WHAT I AM SAYING is when someone DC's in the loading screen League should automatically pick up on that issue. Then when the game starts IMMIDIALATY the game pauses itself for 3-5 (time is still up for debate). No League player in the entire world would be mad if they had to wait for their teammate to come back. Would you rather wait 3-5 minutes for a teammate to reconnect or play the game that said teammate reconnects and then is super behind. It is just simple logic.

HOLD YOUR OBJECTIONS I COVER IT ALL READ BELOW

So what happens if the unfortunate person who Dced does not come back? Simple the team will wait out the timer (3-5 minutes) and at the end of the timer the team with the DC will be given an option to Surrender. If the team decides to surrender they will then receive a loss prevention. As for the unlucky person who Dced they will lose the normal amount of LP (or more LP than usual depending on the frequency of DC) and will have to take a loss. The other team will also receive a loss prevention with no LP being lost at all other than the person who Dced. If the team does not choose to surrender they will have to play the game out as usual and if they win or lose all regular amount of LP will be gained or loss no exceptions.

_The logic: _

Why in the world should an entire team who is present and willing to play have to suffer through a 20 minute 4v5. It is simply unfair and cruel it ruins motivation and makes the gameplay of League of Legends that much worse. Giving the team an option to wait for their teammate to return to the game if that said teammate does not return for whatever reason he/she takes a loss and loses LP while the other players can surrender with no consequence as it is not their fault that player Dced. Why punish an entire team when they have no control over if someone Dc's or not?

Other Situations, DC in the middle of a game:

Unfortunately if a player has connection issues in the middle of a game or just simply quits, no pause should be in effect. As the game has already started and developed it would not be productive to pause the game for a set amount of time. The team with the DC will just have to wait it out for their teammate to (hopefully) come back. Usually a connection issue mid game is ping related and is fixed pretty quick by the player himself. No special action is required for a mid game DC.

-Possible Accommodations Could Be Made Read Below-

_Situation 2 The Rage Quitter: _

How many times have you been in the middle of a game and a teammate dies and the enemy gets first blood and you see "GG" pop up in the lower left chat box. Then that said teammates rages and flames the entire team (usually the jungle) and the game keeps getting worse and worse. Then on top of that the player has already fed his lane then they decide to AFK or just quit. Now once again you are in a 4v5 situation with a fed enemy team, you know at this point its most likely GG. You may have some small glimmer of hope but as they push for their 3rd dragon you quickly realize hope is dwindling away.

Situation 2 THE SOLUTION: (Up for debate)

This situation is a bit difficult to tackle other than of course reporting the quitter and then them hopefully getting banned. A possible solution (not full proof yet) is to half the LP loss for example if you were to loss a normal game (5v5) no dc or quitting teammates you would say lose about 18 LP (depends on MMR/ELO). If you had a dc or just a rage quitter you would say only lose about 9 LP.

If you quit or dc I do believe your LP loss should actually be raised for example if you normally lost around 18 LP if you quit or dced you would loss nearly double that.

**PUNISH THOSE WHO DESERVE IT. **

_The logic: _

Again why punish an entire team because one sour puss decides he wants to be an ass and punish the entire team with quitting or trolling in general. If you at least half the LP loss it takes away a little bit of the sting and the frustration from a bad teammate. Of course there needs to be a time cap on this special accommodation. I would say around the 30-35 minute mark this needs to be cut off, typically if someone is going to rage and quit it is usually before that late game maker.

_My Plead to Riot: _

Please Riot take the time to read this and at least comment or give feedback on how you are changing around Ranked to make it more fair and smooth for all. We (the community) beg and plead with you too make these necessary changes as a player that has been playing since season 2 I have witnessed no real changes to fixing the problems of Ranked.

**My Plead to The Community **

Please my fellow Summoners demand better treatment and fight for what is fair. Nothing will change unless we ban together and demand something be done with Ranked Play. We deserve better and should demand that which we deserve. Bump this thread, take away from it alter it make it better. Bottom line is LETS HAVE A VOICE. Lets bring the change that League really needs!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this and critique it.

                     -Alexander.