How to craft a better Ranked que?
The most common complaint and frustration is teammates. Is this inherently just part of the game or can a better solution to MM be made? I feel that its entirely plausible to solve this complaint, as well as generate a higher competitive experience.
The concept to solve this is that Riot invests into their Club system to be the core for a Ranked 5 que. By placing teammate moderation into the hands of players you remove the issue of RNG teammates. Some one keeps trolling and throwing games? Kick them. Leader/officers are dicks? Quit the team. Put the power of who your playing with into the hands of the players.
Now at a cap of 100 players per club? Its clear a team of 5 is not going to cut it. I suggest that for every 10 members the team has the ability to create a ranked team with its own independent MMR. Or alternatively they use a resource like BE or a "Club point store" to unlock additional teams.
To prevent "smurfing" Where higher MMR players hop into low MMR teams to pub stomp, a limit is placed where any player whos solo MMR is above the teams MMR is unable to que in that team, with the exception for players who participated in at least 50% of the provisional games that placed the team. They also will need to be an Active member of the team and if their participation drops below a majority of games they lose the ability to play for the team. This is to add weight for the higher skill players on a team to serve as a backbone and prevent the system from just being LETS GO PUB STOMPING BOYS. The goal is to up competitive quality. I feel that accounts who have not placed or participated in solo/duo enough for low system uncertainty are barred from participating in ranked 5s. The intent here is to try and weed out trolls and smurfs.
Now, alone this is an improvement but I feel more can be done to really make this an attractive prospect for players and Devs.
- Generate Club points that can be spent on club related improvements and swag. As Riot seems to be learning to Battle pass style $ generation, a club pass for all members could be an attractive draw to participate even if your not into the competitive que. It also allows F2P players to benefit from the folks who are willing to spend $ on the game.
- Run a "Semi-pro" Tournament where the top preforming 5v5 team is able to go on and participate for a chance to go pro.
- If you have not given up all hope on Clash, its a good opportunity to tie the Club teams into the clash system as part of 2. Round robin tournaments do a good job of helping find skill levels.
Thoughts?