Solo ranked players: why do you wanna team up with randoms instead of friends?

redfeenix·Jul 13, 2016·2 votes·1,387 views

Hey guys, First of all this is not a hate / argument post at all. I'm just thinking out loud.

I'm just wondering why solo players prefer queuing up with randoms instead of their friends? I personally wouldn't trust random teammates.... esp not in ranked. When you play with your friends, at least you know what your gonna get.

However playing with randoms is like spinning a roulette wheel who knows if they're a smurf, troller, feeder, afk, boosted etc.

So you guys like that variable of uncertainty with your teammates? I personally would like teammates who I know and trust.

Thanks for reading :)

Again no hate for solo players at all ! Just wondering what is so appealing about it .

Edit: just wanna thank everyone for providing such good responses. I was half afraid this was gonna turn into a solo q /DQ thread.

23 Comments

JefftiffyJul 13, 20168 votes

Let me make a list:

friends aren't always online
friends are quitting league
some people don't have friends
some people are masochists
some people like the more individual aspects of league where team comp isn't everything
there are some friends that are really bad
toxic or mad friends are almost worse than toxic randoms because you have to deal with them

ShinkoMinoriJul 13, 20161 votes

I prefer my Toxic Diamond 4 friend anytime of the day, but then again he is Diamond 4.

redfeenixJul 13, 20161 votes

Thanks for taking the time to answer friend. Those are definitely valid reasons I think I understand a lil bit now.

Johr DinhJul 13, 20161 votes

This plus from what i've experienced in many games, it's a more balanced playing field. Partying with friends causes wide variation in skill, ability to communicate, synergy levels, etc. When its 5 randoms vs 5 randoms, the ranks are (in theory anyways if the system works) much closer in variation, the communication is only as fast as people can type if at all, there's no built in synergy with friends. Like sometimes i'll play with someone for weeks and we just aren't good together, but another person I can party up with and we're like Biolift in the bot lane...ergo just putting a group of 3 vs group of 3 or anything else won't just automatically be fair.

Randoms vs randoms has a much higher chance of being even overall, and that is...basically what a rank system is for at the end of the day. Playing with friends is fun, but its casual in nature and can lead to imbalance, boosting, friends being antisocial and toxic to people not in their group, a whole slew of things. I should have the option to disregard all that, if not have the playlist actually work as evenly as possible, that's the whole point of it.

Have Ranked 5's, have Ranked Normals, and Ranked Solo Queue, problem solved. I don't think they're going to break the system, it's the most popular game on the planet. Even Halo has like 10 ranked playlists and with 1/25th the online population lol.

redfeenixJul 13, 20161 votes

Interesting.... do you value a 'fair' game more than winning/having a pleasant experience?

That's an interesting point of view, thanks for sharing dude

Johr DinhJul 14, 20161 votes

When it comes to Ranked yes. I play Ranked to win and enjoy a fair and competitive experience. Ranked before tho was always about winning and I always had a pleasent experience unless I got camped by a duo. I play Normals when I wanna play with friends and have more fun. Ranked getting dynamic queue has really ruined the experience for me, and I no longer value it's purpose as an indicator of skill anymore. I honestly have been getting more competitive matches in Normals lately than Ranked which is odd, cuz I always went to Ranked for competitive matches before. It seems to have flipped lol.

ShinkoMinoriJul 13, 20162 votes

My friends suck dick.

redfeenixJul 13, 20161 votes

Hey I'm not a homophobe don't think that's a valid reason

NiamhNyxJul 13, 20161 votes

I play solo because its supposed to be more of a challenge. I find it more fun most of the time. Plus all my friends tend to get cocky, show off, rage and then throw if I duo with them, and i just don't want to listen to them complain about the one time top did not ping MIA, or a ward dying a split second before the enemy jungler walks in to it view range. Also if they are mad at someone for taking a single CS, you have to hear about it the WHOLE GAME. =u= Friends are fun in normals, but some can be to competitive and to toxic to play with in ranked.

redfeenixJul 13, 20161 votes

Oh haha I guess all my friends are my age so no one really rages etc and we're all chill all the time. I guess if I had those type of friends I wouldn't queue with them either.

Thanks for replying:)

Mysticman89Jul 13, 20161 votes

My friends are mostly worse than me with one or two possible exceptions.

I want to play on my own schedule, so I can take a pause for however long between matches and then get in queue immediately whenever I want.

I don't want to be matched against properly coordinated groups who actually have a serious game plan and are together on voice chat, contrasted by me+friends who'd basically be winging it, and only maybe on voice chat.

I'm good at adapting to random player behavior (in particular to my adc, as I'm a support main), and I'm willing to bet (in the form of my mmr) I adapt better/faster than other random pairings.

I don't want anyone to be able to dig through my match history and go "Ah ha! You queued with someone once, and they may well have carried that game for you, so your achievements are nothing!". All my my ranked play has been solo (no duo queue in previous seasons either). (Edit to add: This is particularly true in my case as a support player, as being able to say I climbed from silver to plat [or maybe further] as a solo support is of value to me, since theres a lot of whiny people who complain that elo hell is real and supports can't climb without groups.)

I know that statistically the amount of games decided by smurfs/feeders will be balanced in the long run (e.g. for every game I have a feeder, I'll statistically eventually have a game where the enemy team has a feeder, and same with smurfs), provided I don't fiddle with the odds by using premades.

In normals, if I feel like really being adventurous and trying off-meta stuff or questionable builds, I won't care as much if I'm a let down to strangers, while I feel compelled to use my strong picks with people I know so as to not be a disappointment.

redfeenixJul 13, 20161 votes

I want to play on my own schedule, so I can take a pause for however long between matches and then get in queue immediately whenever I want

Ah this is an important one thanks !

I don't want to be matched against properly coordinated groups who actually have a serious game plan and are together on voice chat, contrasted by me+friends who'd basically be winging it, and only maybe on voice chat.

Oh shit yeah I'm probably way lower rank than you but we only sometimes use VoIP. I haven't encountered any organized teams yet, and your right me and my friends just wing it as well.

Thanks these are great reasons :)

KONO RUBICK DAJul 13, 20161 votes

because i don't have friends sitting in master rank.

and before you tell me "find one" i'm telling you that with old soloq I didn't need to find one, i was fine alone and it was a great experience. Now riot wants me to find friend? ahem.

redfeenixJul 13, 20161 votes

But don't you have friends who are similar in skill to you (ie your rank)?

KONO RUBICK DAJul 13, 20161 votes

http://www.lolking.net/summoner/euw/21335235

My true rank was master, i achieved it in season 5 and right now i have 62.5% win rate sitting on plat 3 but i stopped playing ranked because i don't want to play solo in dynamicQ in master, this would be a nightmare.

redfeenixJul 13, 20161 votes

Hmm wow didn't realize you were Korean:p that makes much more sense thanks for clarifying

Bulletz64Jul 13, 20161 votes

Friends are a waste of time in league if you're a competitive player. Secondly, when you're in diamond and above only "good" players are worthwhile. Mediocre players are simply useless.

Going solo is comparable to russian roulette, with the catch that you can see where the bullets are. It literally takes 5 seconds to look up your teammates on lollking while in champion select.

You dodge if you see your teammates have bad match history. summoner 6 It's not that bad once you really take everything into account. Going solo is as viable as ever.

PS: the solo preference sign is quite pleasant to see. Dynamo players should be laughed at.

seraph1mJul 13, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Hey guys, First of all this is not a hate / argument post at all. I'm just thinking out loud.

I'm just wondering why solo players prefer queuing up with randoms instead of their friends? I personally wouldn't trust random teammates.... esp not in ranked. When you play with your friends, at least you know what your gonna get.

However playing with randoms is like spinning a roulette wheel who knows if they're a smurf, troller, feeder, afk, boosted etc.

So you guys like that variable of uncertainty with your teammates? I personally would like teammates who I know and trust.

Thanks for reading :)

Again no hate for solo players at all ! Just wondering what is so appealing about it .

its a better measue of skill because everyone has to deal with the random chance now people can get boosted and have higher win rates in premades due to communication differences

EndlessSorcererJul 13, 20161 votes

I don't really have an issue with people playing with friends in ranked; I don't particularly think that it is a good idea, but it isn't my main issue with dynamic queue.

However, I greatly dislike the skill disparity between players within a game in the current queue system.

Last season, I'd typically see people in a game all be within about three divisions of one another.
This season, I've been seeing people ranging about 10 divisions (or two full tiers) within the same game.

It tends to lead to uneven match-ups (i.e. Gold V vs Platinum 1 in a lane), which makes the matches far more stompy than they had been previously. The overall teams may be relatively even, but the lane match-up are not.

redfeenixJul 13, 20161 votes

Ohhh holy shit I didn't realize teams had such variance ?? Thought you could only queue with similar ranks. If you have a gold v vs plat 1 that's a huuuuuge fkn problem !!

EndlessSorcererJul 13, 20161 votes

Players can queue together with other players in an adjacent league for every league below Diamond (where it is a little stricter).

Since Gold and Platinum are adjacent leagues, players within those leagues can queue together regardless of their division.

Thus, it is possible for a Platinum 1 and a Gold 5 to be within the same group, placing them within the same game.

This range can stretch even further if such a grouping happen to get matched with or against another premade group which happens to have a Silver or Diamond player within it.

YuGiHoJul 13, 20161 votes

My friends and i do do not play at the same level so i dont think we should play ranked together just because we are friends. normal's should be what you do with friends and ranked a test of your own personal skill or atleast thats why i thought they dont have personal stats for normal games and they do for ranked so you dont have to worry about how good or bad you are playing in normal's with friends but ranked was serious, i guess not so much anymore.

Lilly MayJul 14, 20161 votes

Quite frankly, I value my friendships. Ranked provides an atmosphere of needing to do good and needing to win. I mean that's obvious, it's ranked after all. However it can be a very stressful environment too. I don't play with anyone else in ranked cause if, for example, I make a mistake that costs us a death or two I don't want my premades getting mad or raging at me and that spilling over into my normal friendships. The same could happen the other way around. I don't want to be mad at my friends for a video game, and ranked simply sets up that atmosphere to do so, and I really really don't rage easily. Another quick point, premades can get relaxed playing with friends, they make mistakes or do dumb shit in game and don't care about the game as much cause they're with friends and think their friends won't get mad at them for doing so cause they are friends after all, so why should they get upset or annoyed? To me, solo is just the best way to go for me personally. Sure I may get shitty randoms or trolls sometimes, but at least I'd only get mad or annoyed at random people I'll never have to deal with again instead of my friends which I will still talk to afterwards.