Ranked re-work!
Hello all!
If you've reached level 30 in league, a new playlist opens up. We all infamously know it as ranked. It's always been a much more competitive playlist where your matches are tracked and your opponents are much more accurately matched with your skill rating. Ranked mode is a way that Riot has allowed us to feel like we're climbing the ladder to eventually better ourselves a lot quicker than normal queue. Over the seasons, ranked has become more and more popular but it hasn't seen much re-balancing since its launch. So here, I'd like to spit out an idea to enhance the ranked playlist!
Fixing the tiers system Currently, the ranked ladder is purely hierarchical meaning people have ranks above and below other ranks based on their performance. The lowest tier, bronze consists of 5 divisions ranging from 5 to 1 (5 being lowest and 1 being highest). There are currently 7 tiers you can achieve, from lowest to highest, the tiers are as follows: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond,_ Master, Challenger._* Within the divisions are ladder points (Commonly known as LP). A player wins games to receive LP and once they reach 100 LP, they are put in a promotion series where LP is negligible. In a series, the next 3 games are special: winning 2 out of 3 of the games allows you to move on to the next tier, starting at 0 LP. If a player loses his/her series by losing 2 games out of the 3, they are placed anywhere from 30 to 20 points away from 100LP at their current division. A player starts his/her ranked season by first playing 10 placement matches at around Silver ELO (ELO is a term used to describe "Player skill"). If they win more frquently during their placement matches, they are then placed against harder opponents. On the contrary , if a player loses more games, they begin to get matched versus weaker opponents.
*Master and Challenger act differently than normal tiers. You can read about them elsewhere
At first glance, the ladder system feels fine. It's served us well for many years but I think it can be improved upon.
Here's my shot at it.
There are 10 ranks, each consisting of 15 ladder points. Everyone starts at the bottom, rank 10. Winning a game makes your ranked status "Rank 10, 1LP" Losing a game from this point makes your rank status "Rank 10 0LP" When a player wins, he gains one ladder point. When a player loses he loses one ladder point. Winning 3 games in a row awards you 2 ladder points. Winning 6 games in a row awards 3 ladder points. Losing a game on a 3 or 6 point winning streak does not lose you any LP. however, the next game will. When a player reaches 15 LP at rank 10, they get instantly promoted to Rank 9, 2 LP. Losing 3 games in a row at 0 LP will demote you back to the previous rank at 12 LP. At rank 5, you need 20LP to advance to Rank 4. At rank 3, you need 25LP to advance to rank 2 At rank 1, you need 30LP to advance to Challenger Tier. At challenger tier, players are allowed any amount of LP At the end of each day, the top 200 Players on the ranked leaderboards will be awarded with the prestigious rank of Master. (Based on LP) After playing 200 games, a player can decide to reset their rank back to rank 10, 0 LP if they wish.
It's a little similar to the hearthstone ranked playlist where your consecutive wins will grant you more and more points. I believe this ranked ladder will better represent skill tiers and actually show more than just the ability to win, but to win consistently. Players who climb will be generously rewarded. I decided I would remove ranked series altogether because they're the source of ranked anxiety which deters most players from even coming close to the ranked playlist. Losing games is a lot less heartbreaking I find. With this ladder, people can accurately track their net gains and losses.
In addition, some things should be added to matchmaking.
You can select 3 positions that suit you best (They can be changed at any time)
Top, Jungle, Mid, ADC, Support These 3 selections will allow you to be matched up with people that have selected other positions than yours. For example, if I select Top, ADC and Support, I would be matched with Junglers, mids and supports.
You can hide your current rank from your public/friends profile. This takes away from the judgmental aspect of league, you can show off what you want to.
After a game, you can rate your teammates from 1 to 10, this rating makes it so you can avoid or become more likely to be placed with this person in the future. If you're rated 7+ by 4 or more people, you gain a small IP boost! :)
That's all for now- I just wanted to share my ideas with you guys. If you could change the ladder, how would you do it?
