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Something Is Actually Wrong With Solo Queue

Snowball4u·5/25/2018, 8:22:48 PM·57 votes·17,528 views

Solo Queue feels very aweful right now. When I queue up, it is specifically to achieve the next rank, and get the shiney border. I do not queue up to get better at the game. The main reason I'm complaining, is because even though I find myself to be better than these players, I struggle to win against them because of the unstoppable snowballing of games, and because of the current pool of strong champions.

However, queueing up for games feels aweful. Every game I get into, I hope and pray that my team is decent at the game. I do not expect them to win, or to even do well. I expect them to spend the first 10 minutes comfortably keeping their place in the game, until I can snowball out of control. An ideal game looks like this: I bully out my enemy laner, as like I said before, I should be better than them. After this, I roam to bully the enemy jungler, and the enemy bot lane. Most of the time, this works well and helps my team to easily win the game.

Recently, games have not been working like this. In all roles, there are several champions that can easily prevent you from getting an early lead. For example, top lane has Darius and Vladimir, and Mid has Vladimir Talon Zed and Swain. Each of these champions all have their own issues, but in some way,they can prevent you from snowballing and/or force you to stay far back behind your minions. Because of this, I am unable to do anything, as I watch my team get solo killed repeatedly. I cannot roam, because If i do, I will lose my tower. I cannot farm, because I will get shoved out of lane. And I cannot fight them, because they are designed to either be extremely safe, or destroy you in a duel.

Even though I'm just ranting out of frustration, it is obvious that Riot is very ignorant about the problems in Solo Queue. They seem to balance based on both casual (meaning normal games/very low elo games), or for competitive. Especially these last few patches, there has been very little balancing done around solo queue, which is upsetting, because these problems have been around for a long time, and have been this extreme since the introduction of thenew runes. The only thing I want from riot is to make the game feel like a battle, not a one sided stomp.

TLDR: Another post about Solo Queue being too snowbally.

Thanks for reading

57 Comments

Woodakoodashooda5/25/2018, 9:45:45 PM33 votes

The OP complains about the game being snowbally while also complaining that they should be the one to snowball out of the 10 players in each of their games.

-1 from me

MFTORANK15/25/2018, 9:11:35 PM16 votes

The balance in the game right now is just terrible, to the point where I wonder if Riot even plays there own game. You are not the only one complaining dude, even high elo streamers find this shit discuting. Riot needs to step up and bring back the game to an enjoyable state.

z63XnLCMwX5/25/2018, 10:13:40 PM16 votes

Picks fiora, dominates lanes, 11-2. Losses.

Troll pick Janna top, goes 5-7 win.

Troll pick Ziggs bot, goes 2-5 win.

Picks Udyr jg. Barely win with a 2-12 brand.

Rank, the only place where I can pick whatever I want and play however I want yet still keep a 50% winrate because of random match making.

FabWarlock5/25/2018, 11:13:44 PM8 votes

I think Mage midlaners have it rough right now, while Assassins, ADC's, and tanks/juggernauts are much better off. This was the case last season too sadly. Spear of Shoujin needs to have the defensive stats removed as well or mages will truly never be able to kill an AD assassin/ADC that buys it.

Yasuo, Zed, Irelia, and LeBlanc in their current state make the game bad too I feel. A lot of pro players have wanted Irelia gutted and believe Zed is definitely overtuned, especially since it's so easy to climb with him once the player gets better with him.

Snowman Arc5/25/2018, 9:31:21 PM8 votes

You are 22-14 at Plat 1. It doesn't seem you're struggling, it's just that the matchmaking kinda screws you with bad teammates. It's probably just an unlucky streak, even though you're hitting the dangerous D5 territory, so good luck I guess.

muted team chat5/25/2018, 10:20:53 PM6 votes

I stopped playing on my main at that exact same elo. The closer you get to your elo max the less able you are to individually carry the game. That means the team with the biggest pile of hot garbage will lose. The game becomes about who loses the idiot-lottery than you carrying.

Sophie Neko Maid5/26/2018, 12:44:37 AM5 votes

the only big problem with this game is that it got damage power creeped since the release of the new runes, all champions are doing absurdly high amounts of damage to the point that they just one shot or two shot you, that's one of the main reasons ad carries are this powerful

Mcloved5/25/2018, 9:52:50 PM3 votes

Well I thinks it's total shit, I get to s1-2 easily, then get demoted to oblivion due to restards. Hmm past several games I seem to have no jungle and every time I step into any role to keep them from screwing me over I get camped w/o any sort of help, even after asking...even while I don't mind getting camped as long as they are making them pay for it. But it never happens. I can go into every position and do well, but every game I'm camped regardless of champ or the rest of the team. The NMR system is broken, though I am far better than those I'm facing I cannot over come my team being legit useless. Still never understood, how "it's a team game" then "it's your fault for being stuck in x" when you cannot over come let's say a 3v1 bot lane and now their advice is 15/3

Stinrygar5/25/2018, 10:23:36 PM3 votes

I think the shut down gold changes may not have been good after all. I was looking forward to them but it's just kind of RNG and frequently not about skill anyway.

TheInfamousD5/25/2018, 10:19:58 PM3 votes

I see where OP is coming from. This problem is further exacerbated around the P1 --> D5 climb where there is a significant uptick in trolls/people who don't care that have already achieved D5.

Based on his op.gg, it's pretty evident that he's doing well and isn't the [primary] contributor to his losses.

Tenarin11/6/2019, 5:16:05 PM2 votes

This kind of didn't make sense because you want to snowball but you don't want others to be able to snowball. I think what you're saying though is some champs just always snowball regardless of skill, which is correct. The main issue though (and this was posted around the time I quit for over a year) is that Riot keeps making it more difficult to snowball, and continue to rig games at a ridiculous rate. I'm not sure if they rig them intentionally to keep the addiction factor going, or if it's just something that is sort of happening on it's own. I have narrowed it down to 3 major variables:

(I will use examples that you literally can't argue with, since I know all of the defenders of this broken system will come in here and try to say i'm wrong. These are stone cold facts. I will be sure to stick to the facts so that anyone trying to challenge them will just embarrass themselves)

  1. In ranked, people who get boosted are fucking up the balance of games BAD. Some kid who has been playing for literally a week can buy a boost on some random website (ie. xj9's website where be has been boosting for years...several sites like this exist, hundreds if not thousands), and said kid gets boosted to diamond, then q's up for ranked. That game is ruined. You cannot argue with this. Putting someone who has never played a game before into a diamond game ruins the game. Yes it is possible to win a 4v5, but this is more like 4v7 anyway because he's going to feed HARD which an afk wouldn't do. I figured this out when every time I got to gold 1 or sometimes plat 5, I would get people who didn't even know how to lane. They would just aimlessly walk around the map with no clue what game they were even playing apparently. I still remember an ezreal from years ago with 20 cs at 20 minutes. He would just wander off randomly exploring the map as if it was a place he had never been before. I recently introduced my 10 year old nephew to the game and he does this too...that's when I realized what was really up with that ezreal. He was probably in his first week of playing league and may have been 8 - 12 years old as well, hard to say though. So just because of boosting, we already have thousands of people in ranked games which don't belong at that elo and this DESTROYS the integrity of SO many ranked games.

  2. Riot's addiction algorithm. Anyone with programming experience can feel it...that constant push toward 50% winrate. It's always there. The fact is, in League of Legends, if you demonstrate skill, you get shit teammates more often. If you're shit, you get great teammates more often. It's a fact. If you don't believe me, pull up a spreadsheet and play your best for 20 games, recording everyone's kda's, then play like a new person for 20 games and record kda's wins/losses etc. The patterns will be dead obvious. Again, go ahead and try to argue with me. I know 100% that i'm right. I have been playing for so many years and I can see it all the time and it's still there, and stronger than ever (they have "improved" it with each patch since like season 3/4).

  3. This one is the dumbest thing I have seen Riot do, and it mostly affects low level games. Smurf detection. Don't get me wrong, it's a great algorithm. It detects who is a smurf and/or already good and who is new. Great job Riot. Now all you have to do is use this algo to SEPARATE THESE PEOPLE into different games. Obviously...I mean that's literally common sense. Oh wait, this is Riot we're talking about here, so they take this amazing algorithm and use it to rig the shit out of games for step 2 (above) to push people closer to 50% winrate, or for addiction factor, or both...i'm really not sure TBH. The fact is they mix new people with smurfs...how fucked up is that? I'm a plat player, and I had a game the other day with a lee sin that went like 20/0 in the first 10 minutes. I was jg and there was nothing anyone could have done to stop him. My entire team was new. They told me they were new. So Riot's goofy idea here was to put me against Lee as the smurfs, then throw a bunch of new people in there. BTW he had 2 smurfs with him so basically it was 1v3 with a bunch of new people just kind of dying. I get fed but there were less new people for me to farm, and also he was playing Lee Sin who has been broken since the beginning of time, so there was no winning that game. Of all the dumb things Riot has done, mixing new people with smurfs and using it to manipulate games is the most fucked up thing. I'm surprised they even get new players...that would make me feel awful starting out a game, then being put against people who have been playing for years, while simply trying to level my account and LEARN the game and the many champions.

So these are 3 huge issues, but in addition to them, Riot has been trying to reduce snowballing over the years, which is good, but they have really just made it worse as there are certain champions who can do it more than ever. My favorite champs can't do it anymore, but Lee Sin can come in and get 2 kills and suddenly dive literally anyone at their turret and kill them AND survive. The anti-snowball sort of worked, they just forgot to nerf certain champs, I would imagine because some high-up people at Riot are fans of them, or want to keep the strong so they can continue to dominate soloq...idk i'm just guessing.

If you want to climb in soloq, just get good at Lee Sin, and be super aggressive diving turrets and make sure to take the turret afterward, gg nothing anyone can do. I know of pro players who no matter how good they get, when they see a lee sin they are like "it's ok just take the loss because lee sin". They try to get to late game because he falls off late, but other than that even they are helpless.

My advice at this point is to play Teamfight Tactics. I climbed super fast in that game, from Iron 2 to Gold 2 in my first 5 or 6 days of playing ranked. My 3 examples above don't apply to TFT because there are no teammates. Hard to rig up games when it's single player. Well, number 1 may still exist because there is boosting, but i'm going for challenger so i'm cool with a diamond or challenger opponent (in the process of boosting an acct.) or even a noob who is post-boost, because if they aren't on your team they can't fuck your game up as much. If I lose to him, I learn from it and use it to better myself.

I have just 1 more thing to say. Someone will try to debate me by saying "well how do boosters climb then?". Simple, they are often challenger players. Lets say for example i'm a diamond 5 level player. I place into bronze or silver, which really is common because well for reasons I explained before. A challenger could be so much better than everyone else that he can climb even with all these fucked up things happening which I explained before, because he/she is just so much better than EVERYONE. What about a d5 player? What about a plat player? We get to gold and suddenly we are getting all these kids who just got their accounts back from a gold boost and they never even played the game. We might be better than other gold players but not like a challenger who is just perfect and so far above everyone else. How do we climb if we're better than everyone but not 10x better? How would a silver get out of bronze when there's boosters all over the place, and all these other things affecting the games? Sure, a plat/diamond/challenger can get from bronze to silver. I hope this is making sense. This is why the best players can still climb in a broken system, and the rest is mostly luck (teammates). The fact that 90% of people who play this game don't realize this is actually beyond me. You're literally 10% of the people in the game. 10%. You could be one of the best players in the country, and all they have to do is put you against TWO of the best players in the country and you're fucked, let alone FIVE OF THEM, and then you get some new guy on your team who is coming down from a fucking challenger boost lmao. I know i'm just rambling at this point but so many people disagree with all these facts and they are plain as day to me and probably anyone who programs or at least has an IQ over 50.

rtbf2256182415/25/2018, 10:07:24 PM2 votes

Literally lost right now as the only guy doing really well in the team and the 4 people in my team surrender with my vote going against theirs when it's still winnable.

Fun times.

RedPannda5/25/2018, 10:28:13 PM2 votes

"you guys mind if I troll" Picks Kogmaw jungle vs Lee Sin.

Shablagoo5/26/2018, 4:10:21 AM2 votes

This is sad how do expect to win if you dont want to get better? Getting better = more wins, thats how you rank up in the game man. Now this team thing is for the most part kinda of true, with the amount of dmg if you do not snowball faster then anyone else you are kinda screwed, and if you team literally enables another player to snowball harder it could hurt, but the chance is to snowball harder then them and spread ur lead thats what i've learn. Almost all the games I've lost have been either me not snowballing at all, not effectively spreading my lead, and poor decision making.

Blåbæret5/26/2018, 4:32:11 AM2 votes

I have a 27% win rate in solo queue. I've always had a 55%+ win rate in the same elo. Matchmaking is broken beyond belief. My teammates get stomped 5 minutes in and start feeding immediately. Unsurprisingly, the games are lost at 10.

Meanwhile I have a 68% win rate in flex that didn't cost me any effort at all. I've completely stopped playing ranked because your individual skill is invalidated every single time. The game feels like shit to play - normals included.

RogueKnightOO5/26/2018, 6:22:22 AM2 votes

YES PREACH! (jungle main) its Rediculus when i camp top lane tryndamere first 9 mins to get my laner ahead yet it doesnt matter because HES FUCKING UNKILLABLE @AAAAAAAAAA WHY IS THAT A THING AAAAAASSS

Ifneth5/26/2018, 3:55:41 PM2 votes

When I queue up, it is specifically to achieve the next rank, and get the shiney border. I do not queue up to get better at the game.

This is one of those rare occasions when “git gud” is the correct and polite answer. You can’t and shouldn’t get the next rank or the shiny border without getting better at the game. Those ranks and borders, after all, represent skill.

report yasuo5/25/2018, 10:08:06 PM1 votes

fking agree!!!!!!!!!!!

gibedepusib0ss5/26/2018, 5:21:48 PM1 votes

"Why is everyone snowballing but ME?!!!!"

formula5675/26/2018, 4:55:34 AM1 votes

I feel for you I am experiencing the same things too its like the whole game is against you i hope riot fixes the match making systems because my teammates are really enraging me about complaining why i didn't carry them*[zombie-brand-mindblown]*

Bind Me5/26/2018, 8:34:05 PM1 votes

i feel you, like you said i'm not asking for a winning team i just want them not to lose hard, i'm sick of losing all my lead and my games just because top decides to go 0/10 and single handedly cost us the game.

i will gladly lane against a much higher rank bot lane as long as my solo laners are getting equal skill opponents and not getting dumpstered on

LordGeovanni5/26/2018, 8:24:40 AM1 votes

is it because any time people get behind they surrender So no matter even if riot made the slowest meta possible no one would know because everyone surrenders the second they fall beind 2 kills or 30 farm.

DepressedAhri5/26/2018, 2:13:42 PM1 votes

Then learn Swain or Talon or Vladimir or Darius or Zed and ban out whichever one you're least comfortable playing against.

HungryAngry2SPP5/26/2018, 2:44:10 PM1 votes

Simple solution: play normals and CHEELL

UpDownLeftRightAB5/25/2018, 10:21:55 PM1 votes

4Fun NA Region

focuself5/26/2018, 12:24:10 AM1 votes

Here is my 2 cents from playing for 6 seasons. Every season, there have been broken items/champ and Riot goes on to fix it. This season is broken season, and here is a list that snowballs the game exponentially unlike before.

Runes: high base dmg with high ratio

Passive gold: increase

Neutral objective: rift herald, buffed baron/elder, now buffed scuttle, so very high early contests

Resolve tree combined with new AP items: high vitality/mana, results in safe laning phase

support buff: losing bot means 2.5 worth of champion is behind, and 2.5 worth of champion ahead for enemy team.

results: scaling is more valuable than before, bot lane is more important than before, which means if your team don't have an assassin/AP/bruiser that can keep enemy bot in check, it will be an uphill battle. Once there is map pressure from the winning team, neutral objective like herald and baron will greatly decrease the losing team's come back, resulting in a 1 sided snowball.

extra feedback: I see you play mid a lot, you either need to just shit on their bot lane, which is admittedly hard when AD have so much fail-safes, or you can play an AP mid like Swain/vlad/ekko that stonewalls the lane and scale into a backline disruptor in team fight.

Or you don't need to be a meta slave, and just keep playing Talon/LB, but you will grind more games, eat at your soul more with bad team likely.

Final note: I think the saddest thing regarding the current state of soloqueue, is that laning phase (1st tower down), have been shortened as a result of 1v2 tower hugging in pro play. Riot changed it because it was boring for the viewers to watch both teams swapping objective instead of confronting each other.

I think the best period of LoL in soloQ, was when you can snowball from gradually winning small trades in lane, then take that lead and go into mid game skirmish/teamfight while your enemy catch up on CS. That's a lost art.

If you think it's more team reliant now, you are right, because winning now are heavily skewed in an early 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, 5v5 before the individual can establish a sizable lead.

TL;DR: fast pace traits of 1st person shooter games have taken over slow strategy game in one of the best MOBA of the decade, ruining its unique quality/versality of a slow strategy game.

Feel Apathy5/25/2018, 10:13:30 PM1 votes

This is kind of obvious, but:

I actually enjoyed the game when my favorite champions were super meta or at least relevant. [Rammus, Zac, Malphite, Malzahar, Zyra, Skarner, Warwick, Evelynn] They've all been somewhat nerfed from the playstyle I used to have on them.

I used to do ~78 flat magic-pen Zac with Thunderlord's Decree and it was a blast landing an E > W > Q > R and killing half the enemy team or leaving them for the adc to last hit. [This was before his rework and using the old talent system and runes + masteries]

Full-Tank Rammus with liandry last item, 60 second ults running it down bot lane and having ult each time to ensure we win a 3v2 > 3v3 fight.

Old warwick pairing up duo queue with a Jinx giving her and the whole team [80%?] permanent attack speed and seeing people from half the map when they're injured.

Malphite kind of out of meta in the top lane atm, conqueror made sure even the champions he "hard counters" stand a chance or even beat him in some cases.

Elder Lizzard > Ruined King > Trinity force > Tank Evelynn was my favorite jungler ever, but it got nerfed with thornmail and later reworked.

Zyra used to be cool... now she's a "mid laner" with the stats of a support.

Towards your post.

Solo-queue has always been "snow-bally" it just seems that certain champions people dislike are at the top right now, whether it was Malzahar pushing you and roaming bot lane to guarantee a double kill and dragon or currently Talon who jumps over a wall hits you twice, kills you and jumps over another wall to run away is the same as Malzahar roaming and pushing you, generating a gold advantage beyond measure or planning how to pressure the map further they'd both snowball out of proportions, one is simply a character that enables his team [which I like] and the other is a "lone wolf" collecting gold only for himself to enable only himself. [which I dislike]

Solo queue was never really about "playing it solo". You always climb by duo-queuing with someone as good as you or better, even more so now that you don't share bounty with everyone, but pick it up for yourself and your duo-buddy and from that point you steamroll together, ensuring a victory regardless of how poorly the rest of your team performs.

UkkoToNA5/26/2018, 3:17:41 AM1 votes

I understand what you are talking about I've notice ranked isnt too bad, but if there is a duo on my team or the other team the game seems impossible. I don't play ranked with anyone, but if the duo is on my team its a blow out. Idk if its a rank problem or a duo problem but it seems not balanced.