A look at Dynamic Queue and the queue's apparent improvements/problems over time.
PREFACE: I am a Diamond 2 midlaner. My off roles were top and adc. Since the introduction of Dynamic Queue I have only played mid/adc since specialization is what it encourages, and because of autofill I think it's worth saying something since I'll likely be getting hit with it if I get any higher.
That being said, Riot's work to vastly improve their champion select have gone unnoticed, so I'm going to weigh out a lot of the benefits that have come with it over the cons of Dynamic Queue being an inherently problematic system.
Benefits Now, bear in mind a lot of these come with the new champion select, but another few came from direct support for the new queue system. These include;
-Visuals I love the visuals. Simple as that. The visual changes from the previous champion select (including the champion portrait in the middle, the blue background, etc.) just really fit in with the color scheme that Riot wants to fill, and overall it just looks much more pretty, much more interesting. and far more like an organized game. -Champion select allowing only one person to pick at a time This is debatable for me. As someone who only played a few roles, I needed this to hover over a role that I wanted to fill so that the guys over me wouldn't try to lock the last role remaining that I did play. However, at the same time it eliminates a lot of confusion when you have two jerks on the same team that attempt to instalock immediately, and that's a really good thing. -Pick intent/pregame phase By allowing us some time before the game to ready up, Riot has offered some unique time to discuss strategies (mainly just role trading and champion swapping) that would've been much harder to organize due to there being little time to react in solo queue's champion select. -Friends Don't get me wrong. Riot has decreased toxicity by allowing you to play with friends. Does this address the core issue of toxicity? Not at all. However, it circumvents it because even if you're a bad rager, you don't want to rage at your friends (usually, I know a few exceptions). -Role select I think this is important to note because Riot has shown us a form of gameplay for ranked that we've never gotten to see. It's a great experience and it begs the question about whether role select is an important part of a matchmaking system. -Improved queue times No, not improved over solo queue. However, Riot has demonstrated they're capable of tuning the matchmaking system to the point where high high high elo games (if we moved back to solo queue) could likely be found in less than 10 minutes unless you're playing at 4:30 AM.
Inherent problems That sounds pretty nice, doesn't it? Unfortunately, a system that great can't be without problems. Those include;
-Queue times While they are much farther down from previous matchmaking times, a system like that is going to have significantly longer queue times, especially at higher elos. -Slow to get into a game Remember when the system started and it took like 10 minutes to get into a game from champion select, and someone probably dodged anyways? Yeah. It's not a huge problem but it's a minor annoyance. -Premades have a huge impact on the game This is why Diamond players have to have it restricted. On top of making it extremely hard to find games because you have to be matched with another roughly equally skilled 5s team, the games you play against other, non-premades are basically guaranteed because voice comms and solid communication with friends trumps raw skill 9 times out of 10. -The specialization/queue time cycle This is a fancy way of saying if you pick fill you're going to get support 80% of the time, forcing people to pick 2 specific roles, making fills more and more likely to get support, and the cycle continues making real supports an actual burden to find and amping up queue times to the point where autofill has to be a thing.
And finally, competitive integrity. This is one I'm going to go in detail on this because it's probably the most important.
Competitive integrity basically means, "How is this game fair on a competitive level? Are you getting the fair challenges and competition you deserve, or is something hindering that?" By integrating 3s, 4s, and 5s with solo/duo queue, competitive integrity is much harder to maintain.
Why, and how? Say you're Gold 2. You get matched against premade Gold V's and IV's. You still are not likely to win because they have an edge in communication (RIot has even said premade winrates vs. groups of 1-3 are 55-60%, so this is conclusive proof). The issue is that you're not getting the challenge you deserve, because you're playing with lesser skilled players, and on top of that you're also more likely to lose to said lesser skilled players.
Another example is the premade itself. Does the top laner on your team who goes 0/3 EVERY laning phase honestly deserve Silver? If he queues up without his buddies, not only will he likely feed, but he will be costing these people the game because he simply does not deserve the rank he has achieved. This second example is much more important because smurfing/boosting has run rampant during this time. It's easier than ever for someone to hop on an account, boost 2-3 guys with a buddy, and then receive a fat check for it, and then these people go and ruin others' games because they simply don't deserve to be at that elo but they're playing games at that rank anyways. It's also easier for a bunch of Diamond players to hop on smurfs with friends and hit Diamond exponentially faster than they would by solo queueing. It's gotten so bad that when I play on my smurf (it's in Gold right now and I only use it to learn champions because normal draft on this account is a terrible environment for learning champions, so I'm on roughly even footing with the high Gold/low Plats) I expect nothing from either side because I feel like I'm guaranteed to run into at least 1-2 boosters, boostees, or simply the guy who is 5/0 with 240 cs at 26 minutes who couldn't possibly be a smurf (/s).
"So, what solution do YOU propose?"
Here's what I think. As someone who loved solo queue as a test of skill and a separate environment from 5s, I strongly feel that should be brought back. However, there is so much to take away from the DQ experience that people don't consider. I strongly feel the better matchmaking algorithm, the extra discussion time, and visuals should be implemented in solo queue.
I also appreciate Riot's attempts to get groups together and think they should work on creating more opportunities for groups that encourage working with friends and meeting new ones. However, it should never, EVER replace or harm the efforts of someone who prefers to play alone.
