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Dynamic Queue: A Threat to Integrity

HurriKayn Rhaast··18 votes·779 views

Though the subject may be tired, I can't help but feel like we must keep making these threads in the spirit of the player base having any say in the direction Riot Games takes League.

Dynamic Queue is dangerous to the integrity of the ranked ladder in one key way that has nothing to do with people queuing together and "having fun" playing ranked with one another. This is not the point; it is a distraction. Defending Dynamic Queue on grounds that it promotes team oriented play completely fails to address other areas where it wreaks havoc on the entire goal of a ranked ladder: To meaningfully stratify players through tiers in such a way that conveys skill, ability, and performance.

Earlier this week in a normal I laned against a Darius who is currently in low tier diamond as Lee Sin top. He started Doran's Shield and proceeded to build Ravenous Hydra first, which hasn't been a viable build path ever since black cleaver was reworked in late S4/early S5 (cannot recall). This was a minuscule issue though. This player demonstrated little more than silver-level capabilities during the entire game. I won't bore you with a chronicle on what happened, because after that game I know what boredom feels like. It wasn't even a real game for me.

Two days ago, my friend was queuing ranked with a diamond Ezreal who arcane shifted into the enemy no less than 3 times during the game. I don't have any more information than that, but we had a conversation afterward about how out of control boosting is.

My last anecdote is playing jungle against a Master Tier Riven in a normal who missed a flash Q. And two or three ultimates. Didn't hit a thing. And that wasn't even the highlight of how horrendously she played! After 40 minutes with this person, there's absolutely no way she's higher than gold. Mechanical ability aside, her game awareness and objective knowledge supported this conclusion too.

Is it possible that these players are simply having bad games, are unlucky, are trying new champions, are having connection issues, or are playing buzzed/intoxicated? Sure, it's possible. But my experience with Season 6 so far tells me that, more often than not, incidents like these aren't the product of randomness or coincidence. They are products of a broken ranked system which makes boosting legal and encouraged. I don't have to make a case study on this issue to draw away some clear, intuitive conclusions. Most streamers I see on League these days MMR tank accounts to silver/gold/platinum to boost their followers/viewers blatantly. There is no shame. If I had 1 lp for every time I've heard "Ranked is an absolute joke this season, so I'm just boosting for the remainder of it until something changes," I'd be in Challenjour right about now. The competitive landscape of League is dead.

My stories come from normal games because I am SO discouraged to climb the tiny way I have left to diamond and beyond. Why? Because there is just no point in doing it. I'm horrified that I have no statistics on how many people above me on the ladder actually earned their way there, and what that means for me when I lolnexus my ranked game. Who here actually deserves their rank? There's no way to verify, and that means there's no longer any integrity in the ranked ladder. Not only does it make ranked seem daunting and burdensome to throw oneself into, but it also diminishes my (and others') accomplishments. Who can believe us either? Who would blame them?

If for no other reason, Dynamic Queue is harmful to the game because it has forever changed the atmosphere of ranked and, what's more, has made boosting a commonly accepted practice. I don't think it's too much to ask that I be able to reasonably believe all 9 players in my game actually deserve the rank they currently have. Instead, we have a curious mixture of boosters/boostees that spice the balance of games up in all the wrong ways. There's no integrity left to speak of, and that's made me apathetic about competing in a game I've loved for 3 years now.

Something needs to change.

9 Comments

BigBellBrute3 votes

There is no real integrity to a system that purports to measure individual performance in a game where you change teams every game and your rating is based upon team win or loss. DQ is but a drop in the losing integrity bucket.

Blu Avenger2 votes

Can I just leave you with a thought, is it really so bad that riot is trying to promote teamwork in a TEAM GAME, yes I know there are some flaws, most common is boosting but this game isnt a 1v5, its a 5v5 your team mates are a resource for you, it is easier for riot to balance the game for dynamic que rather than solo.

Vistha Kai2 votes

How about a different thought?

Which do you think is a better definition of "teamwork"?

First situation: You end up with 4 complete strangers around the same ELO and have to figure out a way to win a game against a team of 5 strangers with similar ELO.

Second situation: You play with the same 2-3 people you played many times before, who have completely different ELO and roll on with the same cheese, that won most of your games in that premade, while disregarding the rest of the team, which is the matchmaking put in your team to balance your completely not similar ELOs.

Troll for Trump2 votes

Defending Dynamic Queue on grounds that it promotes team oriented play

That in itself is a flaw, which can show that DynaQ is just "premade=win"; The people who defend DynaQ like that say that it isn't unfair for people who premade in large groups to win, as they have more teamwork, so they should win more often. So, the more people you premade with means the more communication and teamwork you will have, which, by the logic of "teamwork = victory, LoL is a team game", you just win more if you premade; Ranked is just premade= win

Locke Daemonfire1 votes

I can't verify your other two stories, but the Darius you laned against who took Doran's Shield and Ravenous Hydra was Silver 3. You may have gotten him mixed up with the Diamond 3 that queues mostly solo from a few games before that?

HurriKayn Rhaast1 votes

Ahh, right you are. Thank you for pointing that out. I will say that over the past month there have been a lot more instances of this kind of mismatch between demonstrated gameplay and current rank. This isn't something I just ranted about because it happened once or twice; it's literally happened dozens of times. I go into a game expecting a real challenge from a Diamond 2 or 3, but am really disappointed. On a scale that S4 and S5 NEVER offered me.

The Yetii Rider1 votes

Riot heard your pleas and doesn't care, because players have been asking for trio and quad in ranked since League was introduced.

pirateninj41 votes

I wish the nerds would stop trying to defend the idea of team play, when your team barely communicates. I liked solo q, it made it even for everyone who was in there. If you communicated, you normally won more often. I've played on premades and against premades and they are just awful. Toxic group mentality and little to no coms with the people who weren't in their group.

Blanchimont1 votes

Dynamic Queue is fine, but only as a substitute for Ranked Teams. It does promote team oriented play, but there in lies the problem because you're measuring their team skill, not individual skill. The fact that it is used as a substitute for Solo Queue and players are giving a rating for solo while playing on a premade team is just ridiculous, especially when they are then later placed in games based on that rating later on. However, matching these players against solo players is a complete mismatch and a poor measurement of player skill. It makes no sense to make five random individuals fight with another group that plays together on a regular basis.

Dynamic Queue should be used to form groups for Ranked 5v5s as a replacement for 5v5. 5v5s will still exist and players will still earn a rank, but Dynamic Queue will make it easier for 5 man premades to find teams and they will compete on a similar level, with their improved communication and teamwork from playing together over multiple games. Players can then play in premade groups with their voice chat and their improved coordination and teamwork and see how they compare to other groups. Someone might say that it won't work without solo players and Dynamic Queue needs them. Then this is where the real team experience comes into play. Like professional teams, you have to be able to recruit and integrate new players into your team like when LCS teams recruit substitutes or new players. How is your premade able to adapt to a new player and integrate them over the course of a game? That is a skill that a premade team needs to have.

But, defenders of Dynamic Queue will dismiss your anecdotal evidence as isolated cases. However, I already think that even in these isolated cases, it is happening far too often. If you only play through 100 ranked games this season (which I already think is a lot) and you encounter something like this in 1 in 10 games, it is already a significant problem.

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