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Interest in a mentor mode?

The Whamboozler··20 votes·995 views

So let's all be honest here... the new player experience for this game is pretty bad. This idea came up in a different post and I figured it deserved one of it's own.

I was thinking league could use some sort of mentor mode or the like, where new players could get help from NON toxic players who would know the game and could assist them with builds, mechanics and just basic game info. Players could sign up to mentor and get queued in games with players who signed up to BE mentored... and play casual games designed to learn the game rather than stomp out the enemy team and then spam "gg ez". Players who mentor could be given a banner or a flag of some sort to show that they're willing to teach, and then even in normal games players could seek their advice or help if they have questions. Maybe to keep these players sane, let them turn this banner off if they just want to play without getting questions thrown at them.

I haven't fully fleshed out the idea, nor do I know how we as a community could even get this sort of thing rolling... so I'm seeking help. If any other players... or even rioters, want to be part of this idea... have ideas to add to it... or just want to support the idea of mentoring new players, please add to this post. Right now, I'm thinking maybe making a chat for new players and older ones willing to teach could be a start, but we can probably come up with more. All ideas welcome.

Also anyone interested in this should join a chatroom simply named Mentor, where I'm hoping we can get at least some help to some people. Anyone is welcome to learn or to teach. I'm no pro myself, but if we can get even a few more people willing to help out the new blood in the game we can improve the player experience for everyone!

20 Comments

Zerolera1 votes

I think it's a pretty cool idea although not sure how many mentors would sign up. I do think it's a bit ridiculous that people have to pay money to others in order to get lessons but maybe that's just me.

I would also love the ability to speed up the game or increase the leveling and gold that you have in those games so that if you're talking about late game fighting for example, you wouldn't have to wait 30 minutes to farm all your stuff first.

Teeana2 votes

I made a plat friend and get lessons for free.. ^_^

I've learned how to orb walk, as well as support properly. Useing an advantage we hit level 2 first.. boom automatic first blood for adc..

Teeana1 votes

Plat+ mentors make good mentors if... the student is willing to learn.

Sorry but I wouldn't trust a gold.. plat is where shit gets real.. Gold is perfect for people just starting... but once they get to that point.. you need someone higher to teach you..

There are also levels of learning people need to go through.

What they know. What they don't know. Like a test on a site asking questions about mechanics. Tactics and such.

Nyaboron1 votes

I'm in D5 and it's still a clusterfuck clown fiesta. There are already coaching sites where you can recruit a free coach. If people aren't willing to google league coaching, they clearly don't want it enough to warrant my time.

Teeana1 votes

True, but then again I wouldn't go near those sites simply because idk if I can trust them. Too many league sites out to place viruses and hack you or something. Or that is just me being paranoid. my high friend said theirs a Duo Finder site and it isn't that great.

Not saying you're not good, but idk how you teach people. If people just watch my games and pull up paint trying to explain what I'm doing wrong (A challenger player did this in a video and he charged money).. I will not be able to follow.. I would be like "What?" the whole time and you'd probably get frustrated with me.

My high friend plays with me and whenever I do something wrong he tells me what I am doing wrong and I try to remember it always digging it into my head... for example..

him: "What are you doing?" Me: "Not sure what I should be doing..." Him: "Remember as an ADC, if you're just standing around you're doing bad."

So I immediately look for either CS or a fight.. something I can do that's useful.

That isn't all he's doing for me, there's a lot more. My point is.. sometimes it's nice to have someone. There. A little more of a hands on teacher..

Nyaboron1 votes

Yeah, I usually start by asking how they prefer to be taught. Some people prefer me to dub over a recording of one of their games and send them the video, some people prefer me to play next to them and tell them what they should be doing. I've tried making guides on stuff like lolking but I finish the guide and it won't let me save it (has happened 3 times now), a huge waste of time. This site is the one I use to coach, though I haven't had much time lately. Read reviews before taking lessons, and don't pay anyone to teach you. They usually charge because they're cocky or don't enjoy doing it that much. You're much more likely to find a good free teacher who teaches for the joy of teaching than a paid teacher who teaches for money or because he would rather be doing something else. As for me, I love to teach, and I usually teach for free, but I will charge if someone wants a lesson at a weird time that conflicts with my schedule. It's more to off-set opportunity cost than actually make me money.

The Whamboozler1 votes

Well see... that's not always true. You don't need to be plat to teach the basics. You're talking about people who grasp the game but not the high leveled play in it.

I'm talking about the new players who have just started and learning the basics about the game and each champ. The guy who just learned that garen's spin doesn't hurt towers or how tower aggro works. Orb-walking and all that is stuff that people learn when they want to get GOOD at the game. If you're just starting out I think all you would need is a low-stress, low rage place to play against other people (bots don't cut it) but without the piles of smurfs stomping you as you're trying to learn to aim your skillshots or how to jungle. Even a lowly bronze player could take the newer players and explain tower aggro at least in basic terms. He could show them what jungle buffs do and give them an idea of what champs can jungle well and what ones can't.

In a perfect world, we could all have diamond 1 mentors, but I think all that new players need is a mode where there is a friendly player more experienced than them to answer questions if they have them and a LOT less rage and one-sided stomps at the hands of more experienced players. I know we've all been playing for a while, but do you remember how hard it was to learn the game when you started? You don't learn much playing top lane and getting curb-stomped by a smurf every time you walk into lane... AND it makes your allies flame you. A lot of people were lucky enough to have a friend teach them the game... but not everyone is. The mentor idea is to give people those "friends" who will play relaxed games with them for them to learn and experiment and ask even basic or silly questions without them having to get stomped by smurfs while they feel helpless to fight back.

xBushx1 votes

They could call it. "Get trolled if you don't verify everything told by your mentor queue"

Title too long?? GTVTMQ better??

Either way the community is wayy tooo toxic to trust a system like this. It's like letting convicts teach people how to abide by the law.

However, A+ for optimism!!!

The Whamboozler1 votes

Just for the record guys, I'm not talking about high level skills here. There are already sites for people to watch league vids about improving, to learn builds from pro players or to learn higher-leveled techniques like animation cancelling or the like.

I'm talking about actual matches designed for new players to play with and against other new players, with perhaps one or two more experienced players in them who focus on helping and teaching the players there the game's basics rather than trying to stomp them out because they're not very good yet. Something to keep green players from having to play bots eternally to avoid the toxicity of low leveled pvp. Hell, not every game would even NEED a mentor in it... just a place free of smurfs would help a lot of new peeps learn, and when they're ready to jump into normal pvp, they could.

I'm also aware this is a fool's errand. Any game mode Riot made would be abused by players who got in anyways to troll or smurf or just be jerks in. I mostly just wanted to see who likes the idea of league mentors to teach the basics and if anyone would be willing to devote time to teaching or who wants to chill in some relaxed games and learn.

The Whamboozler1 votes

No interest at all? I thought I'd get more than like.... 6 people posting on this.

Marshbouy1 votes

welcome to the boards dude, its a total lottery to see if you get upvoted

NapaIm1 votes

I like this idea, upvote. I think it would probably have to be thread thats community run and people sign up for it on the boards, with some people as mentors and the new players as students.

forresto1 votes

wayyyyyy too much room for trolling here. do you really want to put the impressionable minds of early league players in the hands of random league players with the air of authority?

The Whamboozler1 votes

No more room for trolling than there are in normal games, really. If someone wants to pop into a casual normal game and be a jerk or a dingus they certainly can... but to what end? People are playing to learn and practice, not win... so feeding is pretty irrelevant and everyone can just mute them and focus on what they are trying to do. They could attempt to curb-stomp the new peeps trying to learn, I suppose... but that would get them kicked out of the mentoring thing PRETTY quick, so it would ruin one game... tops.

Occams Raiser1 votes

Its all been said. People think no one of higher rank would ever bother to help without a major bribe. There is nothing in it for Riot.

The Whamboozler1 votes

I actually don't think the bribe would need to be THAT huge. The mentors also don't need to be high elo players. They could just be friendly players with 100+ games who could play with newbies in a low-toxicity match or two and help them understand fundamentals of the game or the mechanics of specific champions.

morris11 votes

I remember from TF2, you can also be a coach or something like that and when you queue up you become a spectator that can ping and chat with the person being coached. This might be considered ghosting, but mentors that play could also be considered boosters.

billxx1 votes

I can see it working, but there would have to be rewards, like ip boosts or maybe key fragments

Mama Soraka1 votes

I like this idea but then again I also made this exact same suggestion. Its been discussed off and on for years but I guess there just isn't enough interest to get any attention from Rito :/

newyorkninja1 votes

If I remember correctly DOTA 2 has a coaching feature as well. I don't know how many people still use it (or if it's even still in the game for that matter) as I don't play it too often, but back when I was more into it I would see a coach load in every 5 or so games. You would queue in as a coach and it would match you with someone looking for one right before they went into game.

I feel like Riot wouldn't do it though considering spectator mode still has a 3 min delay for a reason. Unless that reason is a technical limitation but I wouldn't know. This game has become a lot more...formulaic? I feel like having coach knowledge is probably pretty helpful considering that there is usually a "right" way to play this game most of the time (there are a lot less objectives to complete during laning phase with no stacking, no smokes for ganks, no runes, etc.). With a lot fewer options being the "right" options, optimal play can be determined in solo queue by people just playing their lanes right most of the time.

Edit: Fixed my grammar a bit

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