Let us flash mastery in pre-game lobby
I know this seems like a strange request, but I think it'll help with dodging and trolls. Just hear me out.
When someone locks in an off meta pick, people tend to tilt. They tilt because of fears that the person who locked in off meta will feed or otherwise be useless because they don't understand what the off meta pick brings to the table, how to play around it, what it will build or what it will do in laning phase, mid game skirmishes, map control, or late game teamfights. Some of these tilted players just dodge, which causes the other 9 players to have to sit through another lobby and increases chance of autofill. Some of them just become toxic, while still others troll and feed intentionally.
There's four possibilities when someone locks in off meta:
- They're an experienced <insert off-meta pick/role combination> player who plays it often, knows their matchups, and is likely to win.
- They're a troll, looking to incite flame and toxicity in game with their off meta pick.
- They watched <insert streamer here> do it and want to be like their idol.
- They're a <insert champion they picked/role that champion is usually played in> main who got autofilled and isn't comfortable on meta picks in their current role.
Trolls generally have low mastery on the champions they choose to troll on. The same is true of stream viewers who watch a streamer do something cool and decide to try it.
Even though a mastery flash won't rule out 4), the fact that the player didn't ask for their preferred role in pre-game chat usually does eliminate 4) -- leaving the person who flashed a mastery 7 as a type 1) who should be trusted to play their off meta pick.
Even though it doesn't mean as much in Diamond+ where team comp matters more than individual skill, in lower ranks individual skill is usually the deciding factor, so even if it doesn't help the top 5% of players, it still helps most of us down here in lower ranks have games that actually start.