Is high elo spectating ever coming back?

Packun Flower·May 15, 2016·109 votes·2,895 views

A really enjoyed watching the featured matches on the front page and often used it as a learning tool before Riot removed it.

Can we have it back please.

41 Comments

LatetotheRaceMay 16, 201611 votes

They don't want you to see all of the premades and elo boosting that's going on right now. Trying to keep the illusion that the system is actually working.

LeetriMay 16, 20162 votes

You can still spectate them (as Calabok shows above), it's just not on the home page. You can remove that tinfoil hat.

LatetotheRaceMay 16, 20161 votes

But it's shiny, and it makes me look taller.

RiviniMay 16, 20169 votes

It's more important for Riot to remind us about their merch store.

/sarcasm

CalabokMay 16, 20167 votes

you can watch them yourself. just click your profile.

Click Leagues Click Ranked Click Top Ranked Players Scroll down until you see an EYE Right click the EYE on the match

Earthlord JazzMay 16, 201612 votes

{quoted}

you can watch them yourself. just click your profile.

Click Leagues Click Ranked Click Top Ranked Players Scroll down until you see an EYE Right click the EYE on the match

Very true, but it doesn't show you which champion are played in the game before you start spectating, something I found really convenient if I was trying to learn a specific set of champion

NightstalkerX7May 16, 20164 votes

http://quickfind.kassad.in/featured-games

MeDicenWeraMay 16, 20161 votes

Holy crap i love you

BloodyTomponMay 16, 20166 votes

N.B. Pure speculation I suspect i's a casualty of Dynamic Queue (possibly also the new client). The way they were previously done was High Tier or high MMR. The Tier system was designed for solo play though and kind of breaks down on Dynamic Queue (which marks a paradigm shift towards team over individual) and so high Tier play isn't the most representative of high play. Alternatively, and I think this the more likely scenario, in the transition to Dynamic Queue the mathematics changed substantially. While everybody is assuming that matchmaking still uses MMR and uses it in a similar way, that may not be the case. If it has changed then the client function that used it falters. Fixing this would divert resources away from the new client, which has been prioritised. TL:DR- Client side view thing would have been dependent on some function. Function got messed up by changing to Dynamic queue. New Client takes priority over fixing view thing. And again, this is pure speculation.

AkeydelMay 16, 20161 votes

While everybody is assuming that matchmaking still uses MMR and uses it in a similar way, that may not be the case

YES THANK YOU The rest of the post is also great.

BloodyTomponMay 17, 20162 votes

No prob Bob. I do find Dynamic Queue an interesting discussion. It's a bit difficult to do that now though; Too much hate clouding peoples minds.

FourVsFiveMay 16, 20163 votes

what was the reason for removing it?

YennMay 16, 201616 votes

{quoted}

what was the reason for removing it?

Because high rated games have become a shit show since season 5, thanks to the changes in balance. The important factors to winning games have moved from decision making and smart play to who has more hard counters and champions that win by going balls to the wall.

It's depressing for the general player base to know that there are players who are just as bad as they are in most Diamond games.

Rand0mH3r0XMay 16, 20169 votes

What? How do you get smart play and balls to wall not factor in decision making? This is the best Season since 3.

PhelasMay 16, 20166 votes

You either stomp or get stomped, thats not what i would call "skill matchup".

Rand0mH3r0XMay 16, 20163 votes

That's exactly what I'd call a skill match-up.

If I've outplayed you consistently throughout the game, I deserve to win. If I haven't been able to seal the deal before 30min, then it can be in the air. I prefer the faster ending games.

BluePolarizerMay 16, 20168 votes

stomp or be stomped =/= consistently outplaying.

Rand0mH3r0XMay 16, 20166 votes

There isn't a key binding for stomping.

Win your lane, work well with your team, and then glide to victory.

If you lose your lane, then you should be really good at working with a team. If you suck at working with the team, then you better win your lane.

I believe people exaggerate their losses just a little bit.

What I don't like most about matchmaking is the fact that I can get low level silver players and get matched against plats and diamonds for no good reason, just because I'm on a 5 winning streak. That's been a problem for years now.

BluePolarizerMay 16, 20166 votes

its a matter of snowballing potential and how that's amplified by the premades.

also, from what I see in your ranked games this season, you are mostly being matched up against silvers and high bronzes. I don't even see a single gold in your games, much less a plat or diamond.

Rand0mH3r0XMay 16, 20163 votes

I agree with the premade arguement, but the snowballing is a tactic of the game. Tryndamere is the best example of solo snowball. Wombo Combo snowballing, like Orianna+Brand+Jinx Ult is hard to stop, especially since a 3 man premade can pretty much dictate the game. Ultimately, I'm just reiterating my earlier two points.

I gave up on this season whenever they allowed premades in. I only ever saw diamonds and plats during promos (last season), while on winning streaks essentially, that would pair me up with people on losing streaks for my team. For this season, I recognized where I was going to be placed, and I don't want to start from there and work my way up (high silver), so I just left it at that.

BluePolarizerMay 16, 20163 votes

the difference in MMR between an average silver 1 and a plat 5 is 400 points (1450 vs. 1850). Let's take the best possible silver 1, having a gold 4 MMR (1600) and the worst possible plat 5 having a gold 3 MMR (1700). It's impossible to have a lower plat otherwise they'd get demoted, and it's almost impossible to have a better silver and not get promoted.

Even then, the worst possible plat 5 will STILL have a higher MMR than the best possible silver by 100. Matchmaking attempts to put people of roughly 50 MMR within each other in a game. Each 100 points of MMR is roughly 10% higher win rate. The typical plat 5 should have a 90% win rate against silvers.

Rand0mH3r0XMay 16, 20161 votes

That's some math, but it's not the whole story. I could get another gold 3 on my team (being the other good player on my team), but that would be meaningless since wherever the plat went was going to be where the party is.

PhelasMay 16, 20161 votes

{quoted}

That's exactly what I'd call a skill match-up.

If I've outplayed you consistently throughout the game, I deserve to win. If I haven't been able to seal the deal before 30min, then it can be in the air. I prefer the faster ending games.

BUT it does not depend on being the better player. You have to cross fingers that the "meta-picks" (Lucian, Rek'Sai, Kindred and so on) go thru ban phase and you can get your hands on them first. Dominate, like him or dont, said that it feels like trolling when hes not picking either Rek'Sai or Kindred when one of them is open, since other junglers, at least in higher elos, simply underperform.

Best season? C'mon!

TormentulaMay 16, 20163 votes

Is rek'sai even a meta pick anymore? IIRC rek'sai is currently one of the least played and least successful champs as of patch 6.9. The only play rek'sais usually see is in LCS where teams cooridinate and have global+vision control with rek'sais abilities. I haven't seen a successful soloq rek'sai in ages.

http://www.lolking.net/charts?region=all&type=champion-unpopularity&range=daily&map=sr&queue=normal

idk who would ban rek'sai anyway...

SpecterVonBarenMay 16, 20162 votes

Uh... no, it's because of the changes to champ select and dynamic que in pre-season 6.

MinardeMay 17, 20161 votes

Basically, client issues and lack of filter options.

We decided to remove the featured games card because it hasn't really been a compelling watch experience and wasn't compatible with some of the recent technical changes we made to the landing page. We think a watch experience should empower you to find games you care about (e.g., games where a Challenger player is playing a champion you're learning). There are probably other features beyond choosing one of a random set of games to spectate that would be valuable as well. This might be a problem we tackle at some point, but probably not any time soon. I'd love to hear from you guys - what did you think was valuable about the previous featured games card? What would you want to see from a watch experience in general? Edit: Clarify that featured games wasn't compatible with some recent technical changes we made to the landing page. Not a real estate thing.

Krys StarMay 16, 20162 votes

Pretty sure Riot wont give it back until the new client is out, which is who knows when... :\ I'm gonna be so mad if the new client offers us the same spectate of their 5 choices of games, instead of allowing me to filter and watch certain matches. I love studying and learning tips and tricks on champions I'm interested in. I'm not always okay with random games to watch.

GottedMay 16, 20161 votes

I think with the popularity of streamers on twitch.tv it is a little redundant. That said, I miss it too.

warpenguin555May 16, 20161 votes

yes please. its how i started playing rammus and rammus is still my favorite jungler. i saw a guy wreck shit with him back in season 4 and was like, hey i can do that too.

Acidic PuddleMay 16, 20161 votes

TWITCH.

BisaknospMay 16, 20161 votes

i am really wondering who enjoys watching ugly people talking about some annoying bs

Acidic PuddleMay 18, 20161 votes

Me.

However if you have that mindset there is a wonderful streamer for you on this AMAZING website: Kaceytron!!!!

BisaknospMay 18, 20161 votes

? so you consider her as attractive? xDDD she is the ugliest person around and trashtalks more than anyone else why would i enjoy watching her stream?

Acidic PuddleMay 19, 20161 votes

So everyone is ugly and you are sooo perfect.

Maybe this is the reason you have no life outside of this insignificant video game.

BisaknospMay 19, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Acidic Puddle,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=htTdaEgb,comment-id=00060000000000000000,timestamp=2016-05-19T03:40:33.543+0000)

So everyone is ugly and you are sooo perfect.

Maybe this is the reason you have no life outside of this insignificant video game.

Xdd you have to know rite?

The Taco KatMay 16, 20161 votes

Sadly no, as this was implemented when solo queue was still a thing. Anything associated with solo queue is an automatic "NO" to Riot.