A solution to long wait times in team builder.

UNDEADMANBEARPIG·Dec 30, 2014·7 votes·3,637 views

Many times I try to play team builder with friends or family only to have to wait 10+ minutes to get into a game.

I have a simple (yet effective) solution to this problem. Say we're having trouble finding a jungler... Instead of just "waiting it out", what if there was a "button" that popped up on players home page notifying the user of what is needed. Here is the catch: It would give the player a IP/EXP boost accordingly.

Example: I'm not sure what to play. Just going through some runes/masteries and what not. This GUI button pops up on the side that says "JUNGLERS NEEDED! JOIN NOW TO GET A x1.5 BOOST TOWARDS YOUR IP".

Not only does it give incentive to other players to WANT to join these matches, it also speeds up waiting time.

Please let me know what you think.

22 Comments

TheSeltzerBaronDec 31, 20143 votes

I definitely think that offering an incentive would get more people to play the roles, the bad side of that isn't easily apparent. First, ask yourself why there aren't enough people playing those roles in the first place. For jungle (for me at least) the reason is that the role is way too difficult, too much is expected of you and people will do their damnedest to decimate your soul for even the slightest mistake or, God forbid you really suck, you get eviscerated. I will NEVER play jungle again and likely never play rift again. ARAM is faster, it is less abusive and it is more fun. In ARAM if you have a shit match it's usually over well before the 20 minute mark, leave the lobby and start a new match, move on with life. I don't often get people really bitchy on ARAM. I'm almost starting to think queue dodgers are good because at least they know enough to not stick with a role they suck at. It blows that I have to requeue but you get the point.

Rift would be fun if other players didn't act like the fate of the entire world is sitting on your shoulders. Team Builder is broken because rift is broken and rift is broken because players are so abusive to other players who don't perform well. You want to fix TB, fix the difficulty with rift and you won't need to do a damn thing.

UNDEADMANBEARPIGDec 31, 20141 votes

I'm sorry you had to go through that and that's more of a player behavior problem than it is a wait-time problem. I am talking specifically wait-time related issues with team builder.

KMannnnn1Dec 30, 20142 votes

There already is that sort of thing. If you're queueing solo in team builder, it lets you know which roles are in high demand (always ADC and support + 2 others), but the only incentive is shorter queue times, so a lot of people will just play whichever role they were planning on in the first place. TBH, you're better off just doing blinds and calling your preferred role, especially when playing with 2 or 3 friends.

UNDEADMANBEARPIGDec 30, 20142 votes

This is what I mean. Refusing to play that mode is not a solution. Those "Shorter wait times" you are speaking of barely work.

I'm asking you personally, if you were just waiting around the home page. Would you actually click those buttons for shorter wait times?

If no, what if it gave you x1.5 IP?

I think that could really give players the incentive to join in, hence making team builder a lot more enjoyable.

KMannnnn1Dec 31, 20142 votes

It's not refusing to play the game mode, it's a tradeoff.

Either you get the role you want guaranteed and have to wait a little while, or you get a game immediately and may have to fill.

I personally would rather just get more games in, but there are plenty of people who can stand to wait 5-10 minutes because they really just wanna play nasus jungle.

As it stands though, team builder is really only used by people who already have a specific thing they want to play in mind, and I personally doubt a 1.5x IP boost would make people any more likely to play a different role.

UNDEADMANBEARPIGDec 31, 20141 votes

I don't think you understand my point.

Firstly, trading one mode off for another because of how long it takes is refusing to play it.

It's not a matter of tolerating the wait time, but cutting (most of) the wait times all together.

Lots of people suffer with grinding to get IP, so even if it doesn't work for you; I really think it could work for others.

Another thing is, after introducing new people to the game and playing several bot matches. A lot of newcomers would rather have that guaranteed spot and champion to try out PvP, as opposed to the ones you recommended. The only problem is, is this wait time they have to deal with. You get less and less excited and it turns them off to the game.

Would you rather get RP? Maybe something small like 10, but there is a possibility of getting 100+?

What would it take you to click that button and join the others in need in team builder?

Scuttler SlayerDec 31, 20142 votes

What I would love to see to help with wait times is a mini game you could play with other people in your lobby.

Like Pong or whatever.

There's more than enough room if you reshape the lobby a little. The summoner bars are way too long. The map space can be diminished and there's already a large blank space anyway.

Remodel it in order to have half the screen dedicated to a mini game. That would help with the 10+min waits for an adc/ support.

UNDEADMANBEARPIGDec 31, 20141 votes

I like your idea, however I am thinking they could possibly get rid of those wait-times completely. I think your idea may be more suitable for the loading screen.

Best Darius KRDec 31, 20142 votes

I don't want to constantly see "SUPPORT NEEDED" everytime i go to my runes/item sets page

UNDEADMANBEARPIGDec 31, 20142 votes

I understand your point of view and that was just an example of a location for it to pop up, it could be anywhere. There is plenty of room to place it out of the way.

AccountaBilabudyDec 31, 20142 votes

Youre on the right track with trying to offer incentives to the lesser wanted roles but i dont think IP is what people want. They already kind of did this with the icons for the different roles.

They could make some kind of special skin, or additional rune page, or something that people really would go for...but lets be real. Riot doesnt care enough about it to do anything. If they offered like a special Leona skin available only to those who won 30 support games in team builder then people would be queueing up for support.

UNDEADMANBEARPIGDec 31, 20141 votes

Well maybe not for senior players, but it will definitely give newer players (or players struggling with ip) the incentive. I like your idea for the icons, however then they will only play 30 support matches and no more. Maybe a roll like in Counter Strike: Global Offensive? You automatically get 25 IP with the (slim) chance at getting icons/skins/pages/RP ?

TheSeltzerBaronDec 31, 20141 votes

So am I. I don't know how you didn't get that from my post but I'm basically making the argument that the TB wait times are due to roles which have become unpopular to play because they are too difficult and receive too much abuse for poor play. If the roles you always need (IE jungle) were really that fun then there wouldn't be long TB queue times because there would be people queueing for the roles. It's called root cause analysis.

UNDEADMANBEARPIGDec 31, 20142 votes

"I definitely think that offering an incentive would get more people to play the roles".

That's literally all you needed to write.

For the toxic players you play against, suck it up, use the mute button, or even make a new thread on making junglers/supports more exciting or easy in your case.

Have a good day.

TotalJerkDec 31, 20141 votes

I don't know if this applies for anyone else, but I've noticed that I can wait for minutes to find a mid laner of all things when I join a game, but when I host the lobby fills up in literally less than 10 seconds.

AmelieDec 31, 20141 votes

I don't think giving rewards like RP/skins/etc is a good idea. You're supposed to pay for those things; making it possible to get for free just attracts botters/trolls. Or it empties out the other queues because everyone wants free stuff.

Most people who join teambuilder want to play a specific champion or role already, so a little reward isn't going to change much of anything.

Honestly I don't think there's any easy solution to fix wait times. This is exactly what was debated when such a mode was being demanded by the community. Those against said that you will have a hard time finding supports/junglers because everyone wants to play a carry role. I don't think it's ever going to change (unless the whole game changes); certain roles are just more popular. You have to accept the wait time if you are using that mode. Or play more support/jungle yourself...

UNDEADMANBEARPIGDec 31, 20142 votes

Well in my original post, it was strictly IP. I was just wondering what it would take the community to fill those roles.

Would double IP be sufficient?

Obviously this won't make everybody click but it could definitely chop most of those wait times down.

I don't understand why the majority of peoples solutions are "accept the wait time". I am strictly trying to find a way to bring those wait times down to make the mode enjoyable for everybody.

UNDEADMANBEARPIGJan 3, 20151 votes

Bump?

FantasySniperJan 3, 20151 votes

The incentive is the shorter wait time (which is seriously short). Making a tangible reward seems counter-productive, since most people who end up playing that role might as well be trolling just because they want that IP boost.

UNDEADMANBEARPIGJan 4, 20152 votes

Yeah but if the incentive of shorter wait times worked there would be no need for this post because we wouldn't have the wait time issue to begin with.

As for trolls, they are everywhere. Mute, report, and move on.

FantasySniperJan 4, 20151 votes

I use teambuilder just to get really quick matchups for when I want to play a given role. If I start up a lobby, it takes barely 5 minutes to get it going, and that's with only myself as the start-up party. I don't perceive a wait time issue in the first place, the matchmaking system seems to be doing a really good job already, especially since it ignores low priority-s.

UNDEADMANBEARPIGJan 4, 20151 votes

That is awesome to hear that it doesn't take much time for you.

I play team builder more with a couple friends and the odd time we will get a match immediately, but over ~75% of the time we end up having to wait.