Probability for first and second choice of role in the new Team Builder Draft

Phobos Selini·Jan 24, 2016·1 votes·2,648 views

I'm very interested in the actual chances for role assignment in the new TBD mode in ranked. I really hope the first choice gets some precedence in the matchmaking algorithm and you don't just get the role that is just free in the queue.

I'm a main midlaner and my second choice will be preferably Support. If the new mode will assign me Support more often it is just a failure. Like many many other players I want to play my preferred role most of the time. So if I don't get Mid lane with 1. Mid 2. Sup choice in like 70% of the games the new mode will be a huge dissappointment and not an improvement over the current draft mode at all, where I got midlane in around 60% of the games in S5..

It would be nice if one of the developers could dissipate my worries and clear things up.

11 Comments

QuephaJan 24, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Phobos Selini,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=a6KkJGWz,comment-id=,timestamp=2016-01-24T03:14:54.996+0000)

I'm a main midlaner and my second choice will be preferably Support. If the new mode will assign me Support more often it is just a failure.

That's not really true. Mid is a role that is much higher in demand than support yet every team needs exactly one of each to play.

If 50% of the playerbase want mid but only 5% are willing to support, then for every 1 team with a mid that gets a support, there are 9 more waiting in line. This results in massively longer queue times for people who want to play but are not queuing up for support. Even if you only get your chosen role something like 1 out of 3 games you are still saving a lot of time waiting in queue, to the point where you've played entire extra games with time that would otherwise have been spent waiting in line (in addition to helping many other players who don't play support save time too).

Even if you support more often than you mid, you are still getting mid more often than people who put mid as secondary (at least, i would assume so) and playing WAY more games in total than you would have otherwise played (of this I am certain).

Phobos SeliniJan 24, 20161 votes

I'm well aware of the discrepancy in the playerbase although it is for sure not that high. But it is true that midlane is the most wanted and support the least wanted role. Just playing a few more games in total won't make the mode a success if the majority of those games are not on the desired role.

I'm the midlaner of my ranked team (playing 5% of our team games not against full premades will also be a huge dissappointment in the future with dynamic queue but that's a different topic). So I consider practically every game that I wanted to play midlane but didn't get it a waste of time to train my role and my champs.

It is understandable that Riot wants to reduce the queuetimes by requiring a second role choice but the algorithm should still try to assign the main role noticably more often even in the extreme case of Mid and Support.

Aeolian MelodiesJan 24, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Phobos Selini,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=a6KkJGWz,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2016-01-24T03:37:27.215+0000)

I'm well aware of the discrepancy in the playerbase although it is for sure not that high. But it is true that midlane is the most wanted and support the least wanted role.

then whyyyyyyyyyyyy does it always give me mid over support XD

I don't want mid, take it!

what you deserveJan 24, 20161 votes

It depends on the queue. If there are 50 people who said mid/jungle and 25 people who said mid/support, the people who chose the less popular role are more likely to land there.

Phobos SeliniJan 24, 20161 votes

Sure it is more likely. So expect a 1. Sup 2. Mid player to get Support almost all the time. But I would expect a good matchmaking algorithm to also assign a player with the most wanted role as first choice and least wanted role as second choice his preferred role in >60% of the games. Otherwise I consider it a dissappointment.

Aeolian MelodiesJan 24, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Phobos Selini,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=a6KkJGWz,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2016-01-24T03:40:37.915+0000)

Sure it is more likely. So expect a 1. Sup 2. Mid player to get Support almost all the time. But I would expect a good matchmaking algorithm to also assign a player with the most wanted role as first choice and least wanted role as second choice his preferred role in >60% of the games. Otherwise I consider it a dissappointment.

As i said, it doesn't seem to work that way even if you put a "less desired" role first.

game 1 support 1st, mid 2nd, got mid, our support was support 2nd and ? 1st game 2 support 1st, mid 2nd, got mid again, our support was support 2nd and mid 1st (so what in the actual fuck) game 3 support 1st, mid 2nd, FINALLY got support, and the rest of my team was on their secondary role

then I gave up and switched to blind where I get support without argument 95% of the time and the other 5% I can plead my case and get it anyway.

Seriously there should be a priority put on your 1st role, otherwise what's the point of first and secondary?

QuephaJan 24, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Aeolian Melodies,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=a6KkJGWz,comment-id=000100000000,timestamp=2016-01-24T04:26:50.030+0000)

As i said, it doesn't seem to work that way even if you put a "less desired" role first.

game 1 support 1st, mid 2nd, got mid, our support was support 2nd and ? 1st game 2 support 1st, mid 2nd, got mid again, our support was support 2nd and mid 1st (so what in the actual fuck) game 3 support 1st, mid 2nd, FINALLY got support, and the rest of my team was on their secondary role

then I gave up and switched to blind where I get support without argument 95% of the time and the other 5% I can plead my case and get it anyway.

Seriously there should be a priority put on your 1st role, otherwise what's the point of first and secondary?

Game 2 seems like clear evidence that there's a problem with the priority system. Maybe the game actually has first and second priority mixed up?

Phobos SeliniJan 24, 20161 votes

That would be another facepalm moment which is actually not completely unlikely for a company that even in their 7th year after the game release creates bugs that allow minions to proc champ abllities (see Kindred).

Phobos SeliniJan 24, 20161 votes

Well I wouldn't consider 3 games a very evident statistic. I will for sure take a list of the first hundred games or more in TBD to see the outcome. But your experience shows some very worrying signs.

If they didn't code a priority for the first choice the system is completely useless and a degradation to the champselect before. We can still hope that it is a bug and not a feature. But I have my doubts.

Aeolian MelodiesJan 24, 20161 votes

Considering I'm 2/3 getting my 2nd over my first, the odds suck balls.

And before everybody jumps on the "but if so many people want to play X", I put support first and mid second. In the two instances I got mid over support, the guy who was support openly told me he had put support 2nd. The second had actually put mid 1st (first one did not remember). So, what the fuck? We get matched in the same game, and we get each other's first role.

There SHOULD be an option that you check for "I'm willing to wait longer for better role priority" or something. I get support way more often with blind pick than I do with this shit queue, and the point of the queue is supposed to help me get my desired role more often.

Phobos SeliniJan 24, 20161 votes

Well that was my anxiety, that the matchmaking won't be an improvement over the random pickorder you got placed in in standard Draft games. I don't have any experience with the new mode myself so far, since I'm on EUW.