@Riot look into Ranked:Must Wins & Losses be Black and White?
Somewhere sometime ago Riot made the change from Solo to Dynamic Queue because a majority of players were playing Normals according to them and those who wanted to participate in ranked but felt sad they couldnt do so with their friend, needed a way to do so without doing ranked 5's which supposedly was cumbersome and not popular.
I've participated in ranked for two seasons and last season I saw great growth predicting I could make plat this year, and I had reached that goal. However I felt I had the skill to go even higher than just plat 5, maybe even hit Diamond. Was I wrong? Not until recently no, I peaked at plat 2 to unfortunately meet trolls, afkers, ragers, etc. to tarnish my games/performance and tilt the outcome time and time again. It's been a struggle and while I am not perfect in my two preferred roles, I dont perform as badly as my wins/losses try to reflect. This isnt a plea about how much I deserve to be ranked higher but a consideration for the future of the ranked ladder as a whole. Currently all that matters is that you win, and if I wanted to I could easily just get boosted, claim I deserve the rank and be perfectly justified while playing a game a month because the current ranked system allows me the individual to hide my many weaknesses and achieve ranks I do not deserve. I'd honestly feel better participating in a different ranked environment as the current one doesnt really reflect all the work you put in and your progress.
It doesnt challenge me to improve weak areas, it doesnt compare how I stack up to others in my role who are statistically better or worse, It's not competitive in a healthy way whatsoever, furthermore it doesnt even emulate remotely how we would evaluate professional players who share the same roles. How is this in an environment that was initially designed and intended to cultivate players, to climb the ranks and become promising prospects as future talent? Am I forced to watch from the sidelines as those who are in the LCS/challenger scene remain, while the rest are crabs in a bucket dealing with trolls and having our efforts wasted time and time again, with no hope of replacing those we aspire to surpass? Truly as a fan of the esport and the game going higher on the ladder feels like a waste of time, grinding feels like a waste of time, it's like nothing you do matters only the win. How can i even properly evaluate myself or get better as an individual in an efficient manner? When im not even focused on my own play, but the play and emotional state of others. YES games these days feel more centered around your interpersonal skills and temporary bonds formed with a PUG, rather than the skill you bring!
On the flip side, while yes you can spend an entire season grinding to higher ranks, it feels like a lottery the higher you go. Games start to get more trolls, more greifers, more irrational people. Suddenly for a nicer way of putting it people start to have more and more bad days, and they can't help but take out their bad day on their team by feeding, afking, troll picking etc. I've had many ranked games where the spiteful decisions of the few impacted the hard work of the majority of the team. We lose a lot of LP, we lose elo, rank and we are worse off than we were with nothing to show for it.
Is it possible to find a way in which the ranked ladder evaluates the individual players among players in their main/secondary roles? Much like how we get ranked on our champion play with S's and what not, but on a much more intricate level where it concerns our actual skill level in our role and not just the win/loss. I DO NOT believe the player who merely has more wins under their belt is simply deserving of the higher rank. I think it's unfair to the player that does experience more than their fair share of really unfortunate games, to have all their effort be for naught merely because his team lost, whatever the reasons. For example in this system you could be evaluated on:
- Average KDA on champs with over 30 ranked games, which could be further broken down and specialized depending on role
- Average Creep Scores
- Warding
- Damage Dealt
- Deaths
- Wins/Losses
- Objectives/Giant Jungle monsters taken (further broken down into towers, dragons, barons, etc)
I feel this is what the old solo queue lacked and probably needed for a more competitive environment in terms of developing aspiring talent and having quality ranked at all stages, both low and high elo. Evaluating what you actually bring to the team rather than just how many times you managed to win or lose. How can I gauge my progress when at the end of the day, when my play is only being twisted in ways unnecessary to force a win. I have to not only play my role, I also have to be the diplomat, the nice guy, the father figure/teacher, the moral hero. When is enough quite simply enough? When will ranked get away from the results that are easily skewed and twisted by the emotions of the few? When will ranked fairly show you how you stack compared to other mids, adc's, supports, junglers, tops in a meaningful and objective way?
There are many redundant aspects of the current ranked system and the only thing that drives me in all honesty are the extremely talented and blessed players at the top who inspire me to keep pushing. But as an individual who is very passionate about the game and tries to give constructive thought to every issue both personal and in the areas I work/play, I think ranked truly needs to be relooked at, being more of a tool to evaluate how consistent you are as a player than just how many wins you get. Whether you win or lose, you can be consistent in certain areas of the game, those areas of the game can determine the caliber of player you are, wherein which it can statistically predict your impact on a game or at the very least compare you by the numbers to an individual on the ladder. What does a win tell me? Maybe you carried? Though thats not always the case. Theres also this false fear of padding stats when the topic arises of account for your actual stats and not just the win/loss.
Where we assume everyone who wins with a 12 kda carried, but the guy who loss with a 12 kda was just the loser who wouldnt group or close out the game. Like honestly as an ADC what am I supposed to do when you have no peel, no tanks, no hard cc, manage some miracle kills and still cant close the game out, much less bring your team back in it because they insist that the game is over or they feed? I feel this is more of a common event than creating some fictitious character who represents your most hated twitch fanbase, be it trick2g, gosu or whoever. Yes if you win you probably did play well, but if you lost that doesnt mean you played poorly, or you didnt do all you could, nor does winning mean you played the perfect game. Right now losing literately translate to you being an inferior player or you not doing anything. While winning unanimously gives you all the credit for everything you consider in a win no matter who it is gotten. Theres no judging a win based on how clean it is, or the quality of your performance which impacts your rank. All that matters is a win or loss, this is unfair in my eyes and should be considered to be looked at.