I am very confused about how the matchmaking system works, more specifically how the system chooses your roles. Recently I was playing a couple of games in a row, couple days later I decided to play Ranked to gain some LP but for whatever reason, the game is constantly filling me in top instead of my main role which is adc. This is really furstrating, and confusing. Can someone please explain to me how the matchmaking system chooses your role?
when you queue up and select your roles, the system searches for games that have that particular role open. when it is unable to find a game with your selected roles open, that also meets your MMR requirements, that's where autofill kicks in.
autofill was implemented because, say 5000 want to play adc, 3000 want to play jg, 4500 want to play mid, 7000 want to play top, and 300 want to play support.
if there are only 300 people trying to play support, the system HAS to throw someone from one of the other roles into support, because not enough people are playing it to balance out your team. fortunately, if you either fill or select support, your garunteed one of your selected roles for the next 2-3 games because of "autofill protection", no mater how long the wait.
The gist of how I feel it works: The match making system is primarily designed to lower queue time above all else. If someone declines upon notification that a match is available, the odds of you being given an off role increases drastically. Why? Because the matchmaker keeps 9 players and must now shoehorn a 10th player, and it prioritizes queue speed over getting your role. If you're in champ select and someone dodges, the same process will happen, as you can end up keeping the same team members or your teammates might end up swapped. There may also be hours where a majority of top laners, adcs or mid laners may be playing at any given time. Tips: If someone dodges, wait a minute before queuing again. If multiple players decline a match, wait. And if you're in queue for almost 5 or 10 minutes, it's better to requeue and have it reduced to 2 or 3 minutes, being in queue for over 5 minutes means the MMR of your team will be skewed and you might end up with or against someone an entire tier above you.
