We can still have League be a team game without this large mmr gap (plus Dynamic queue qq)
In fact, it makes playing as a team worse because there are noticeable differences between a silver 4 and a plat 5, and yes I have seen that much of a difference in games. I personally do not like dynamic queue, but not for the main reasons that everybody else does. It hardly seems like I ever play against 4 man premades and the "better communication excuse", at least for me, doesn't seem to be a noticeable factor. What bothers me is the insanely large mmr gap that didn't seem to be around last year. Lolskill, while not a perfect representation of games, gave one of my matches a 65% chance of winning and we stomped on the other team.
To me ranked is a different kind of game and dynamic queue should still exist, but should just stay as the normal mode. Ranked 5s can be a separate mode and ranked solo/duo q can be its own thing as well. http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/XvqbAgrF-letos-talk-about-dynamic-queues-and-ranked-play This post by Lyte 4 months ago says that they investigated why some players didn't play ranked and "a huge number said they didn’t want to abandon their friends to do it". Whether or not there investigation included adequate sampling and the proper scientific method, who is to say that people have to play ranked or should play ranked? Ranked is its own thing and playing with friends in normals is different. They are both fine, but playing with more than 2 friends shouldn't be blended with the ranking system because it confuses things too much.
What has happened is that games have become increasingly diverse (not in a good way). That is, ranked games consists of too much player skill diversity in order to relax queue times and to balance out mmr across the board. MMR may be balanced out between teams, but pitting a plat 5 top vs a silver 5 top is not healthy. The game is team-based, but this matchup can create a snowballing effect that has a huge potential to decide the outcome of the game.
Furthermore, as so many have mentioned, team mmr and solo mmr are now blended. Last season I (and I'm sure others have as well) saw a bronze player who would be in a plat ranking with their 5 man team. Conversely I have also seen plat players in a bronze 5 man team. Team games are different than solo games. Whatever the stats are (95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, 99%) of when a solo player is placed in 4/5 man premade match, is not the problem. The problem is that the mmr of all of this is in the same ranking system. That bronze player who was in a plat team could, now in dynamic queue, have a solo ranking of plat. While that is good for that player, it may be a negative factor if that player decides to play a solo game (I don't have proof, but I doubt people only play with friends; I am sure they play solo games, too).
Soloq won't come back this season because implementing it now would confuse things even further, and Riot doesn't want to show weakness. Season 7 will tell us if soloq is officially dead. It will be interesting to see what Riot does.
