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Is there a reason why Flex ranks were messed up so badly?

Dukues··1 votes·711 views

I know Riot won't read this post, but anyone with programming knowledge have any idea why Riot did ranked in season 7 the way they did?

Let me explain. So in season 6 we had dynamic queue where you could play solo or with up to a team of 4. That was our only rank for the season since team ranks were removed. Then at the start of season 7 they took our dynamic queue rank and used that mmr as our starting placement mmr for solo/duo. Here are my questions.

Why not use our dynamic queue starting mmr for flex queue instead of solo/duo queue? Or better yet, use it for both?

What we saw happen at the start of season 7 was our placements for solo/duo were based off our prior season 6 dynamic queue rank and flex queue rank as basically just a brand new queue. Logically this does not make sens. It would have been better to use dynamic queue starting mmr for flex and have solo/duo be a new rank queue or just use season 6 dynamic queue for both.

Only explanation I can come up with is programming wise it was not possible or too much work. And Riot knew having a new queue with fresh mmr would result in terrible ranked match ups. So instead of ruining solo/duo queue they just treated season 6 dynamic queue rank as solo/duo queue starting rank and said F it for flex queue. Someone else has to remember how terrible match making was at the start of the season especially for flex queue besides me right?

Well.... I will admit after like 10 months flex queue match making is a little better. But honestly it's still shit. Which is why I personally can't take the queue seriously and I see many other people not taking it seriously also. Which is why I think it's dumb to even call it a ranked queue much less have extra rewards for it. Hopefully the reward is a stupid victorious ward skin but still.. no one should be rewarded for ranking up in this shit. Even in low ass silver I can play consistently players who are plat in solo/duo. Or have bronze 5 solo/duo players with hundreds of games but are "silver 5" in flex with only a few games played. Reality is... these players are actually super bronze but because it 2 separate queues they get matched in these games and results in uneven boring matches.

I can literally play one game and lane against a legit bronze player and then the next get stomped by a plat 1 player. Yea... it's cool playing higher level players but when its 1 in a game of mixed ranks all it does is result in just a random shit fest lol.

I personally didn't mind dynamic queue and had my most consistent season playing it. I do think the two queue option is a better idea, but it has been screwed from the start since Riot messed up starting ranks.

I also wish in season 8 they started focusing a little on 3v3 Flex. It can be a fun mode. I am pretty close to gold in it but it literally means nothing. I guess you get a gold border in it next season or something but meh.... I just can't really stand playing the mode without playing with friends. And now they changed the banning system to make it even worse so now not even 6 champs are banned usually. Yea... new system works for 5s but fuck man... 3s has needed more bans forever and now this system results in even less bans. Champs picked in 3v3 are so damn influential, but Riot doesn't care.

4 Comments

GankedByWindows1 votes

Programming likely had little to do with it. I can't think of a reason that I wouldn't be able to program it to take the MMR. It probably is more likely a design philosophy thing, though I don't remember them saying that anywhere.

DeathBurst1 votes

They DID use the Season 6 MMR to seed the Season 7 Flex Q.

The matchmaking in Flex Q is still sh*t but for a totally different reason. With all the people treating Flex Q as a "joke Q", they are not playing at 100% like in Solo/Duo. As a consequence, the match-making system can never know if they're going to play at, say, 40% or 80% of their potential, their MMR is wildly inaccurate, and it's impossible to have balanced games.

People in Flex Q don't play their mains, they play off-roles, they try/train new champions, and you end up with, for instance, a Plat Yasuo one-trick who's trying to learn Riven and fails because he doesn't know how to do the combos, so he ends up facing low Gold players because he loses a lot. Except he's not a Gold at all, he still has the knowledge and decision making of a Plat, just with the mechanics of a Silver. And THAT is why you got horrible match-making in Flex.

Not to mention that this guy can suddenly decide "well fuck, I'm bored of losing, let's play Yasuo." And then you have a real Plat player matched against Gold. And what can Riot do about that?

Very Hard Engage1 votes

7-3 in placements for flex, placed g4, never played flex again.

played only solo, and ranged with players who were unranked all through diamond with various sized groups.

1 of loss was against a team of 5 plat-gold players and i had literally garbage to work with, unranked - bronze and silver players, it was awful.

i didn't have to try very hard, and flex was mostly poorer players with occasionally 1 good player on their team trying to boost their friends, so i was basically a giant in what was bronze elo.

flex suffers from literally no matchmaker balance, it was so incredibly flex with what you could do you statistically were liable to be placed against bronze/silver players. which made me seem like a god in comparison.

ultimately you cant recognize any form of rating or ranking from flex queue and apply it to solo, unless you played only solo while in flex, your MMR is too variable based on who you play with and the capacity to get carried exists moreso in flex.

you need a new MMR for solo/duo and you have to start from the scratch rating of ~silver 4 in order to prove yourself.

yes it "ignores all of your efforts in flex" but ultimately flex is so free that theres no real way to say what you obtained in flex is even admissible, so to speak.

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