Two Simple Suggestions to Improve Champion Select
I think we're all aware of the conflicts that can occur when multiple players want the same role in champion select. In blind pick, two players might call top and insta-lock Jax and Riven. In draft, disagreements over who should take what role can lead to infighting and resentment among team members, trolling in picks/bans, etc. I've considered a lot of elaborate ideas on how champion select (or picks/bans) could be restructured to mitigate these problems. On further reflection, however, I think there are two steps that would be simple both for Riot to implement and for the community to adjust to, which could significantly improve everyone's experience:
-
Although I think I've seen material from Riot suggesting guidelines for how to decide roles in Champion Select (I believe it's something like "try to agree on roles, but if you can't then whoever picks first can decide their champion"), but I think it's fair to say that the etiquette of champion select is neither prominently published nor completely agreed upon. In draft mode, if two people call top, should the player who called it first (even if only by 1 second) get it, or should the person who drafts first get it? I think that Riot should collect some input from the community, then publish a document with a title like "Champion Select Etiquette" (in a somewhat prominent location, such as in a corner of the main screen after logging into League of Legends) so that the community has a single standard for how to handle these sort of conflicts.
-
In champion select, add a small icon near a player's summoner name that, if clicked, allows someone to flag that player as "Uncooperative." I'm not suggesting that the mechanics of Champion Select should work any differently than they do now; I am, however, suggesting that if someone is being an asshat, you should have the ability to report them for it (quickly and easily). These complaints would be handled similarly to how "Leaving the Game/AFK" reports are handled now; you wouldn't receive any punishment for a moderate number of complaints, but you would receive punishment for being consistently flagged as uncooperative.
I think that by agreeing as a community on a set of standards for how champion select should go, and providing players with a means to (in time) punish players who flout those standards, Champion Select could be made into a much more consistently enjoyable experience. Moreover, these changes should be very easy for Riot to implement and in no way "enforce the meta."
Please upvote if you think this is a good idea; I'll admit to harboring hopes that this post might get enough support to attract attention from Riot. And in the name of fairness, feel free to downvote if you think it's a terrible idea. (I'd be interested to hear why you think that way, though.)