Draft Lobby Suggestion: Free Dodge of the Day

TLDR: Give players a free "dodge this lobby" token on a yet-to-be-determined cooldown.

I just got out of a ranked game where our team stomped some really oddball comp. Nontraditional ADC, nontraditional support, and the other three players were clearly uncomfortable in their roles. In the post-game lobby I learned that they were kind of pigeonholed into playing this comp because one of their guys didn't read the chat, the champion select, or the bans and picked into a role that was already taken.

While I appreciated the win, I also felt kinda bad for them. Right now, players are left with two options in this kind of situation: they can play it out, or they can dodge.

If you play it out, the game progresses as normal and you might win... but I think it's more likely that you lose and you're miserable while playing. You're stuck in an awkward team comp; people are resentful towards the guy who wasn't paying attention; and you're basically held hostage for at least 20 minutes in an un-fun environment. After all this, you lose 13-25 LP.

If you dodge, penalties range can be mild (3 LP and a 5:15 wait), moderate (10 LP and a 30:00 wait), to "worse than playing it out" (1 loss in promo series or 60 minute wait). Something I've noticed is that players are willing to play it out because they really, really don't want to dodge.

This is one of those Dan Ariely Predictably Irrational situations. You could probably start quoting very smart-sounding things like "Nash Equilibrium!" and "Evolutionary Game Theory!" while remaining relevant to a discussion as to "why players act this way." I don't know, because I haven't been in school for a long time.

Anyways, the "why" matters less to me than the fact that they just do.

A rational agent with the intent to win the game would eat the 3 LP loss for a chance to get a lobby with "acceptable" bans and teammates playing in familiar roles. If he's convinced enough that the game will end poorly, he'd eat the 10 LP and 30:00 penalty too because it's still less severe than 40:00+ and 13-25 LP. He'd still play it out if he were in promos or if he were in his 3rd troll lobby of the day.

But... we're not rational agents. Nobody* wants to be the one to eat that 3 LP and 5:15 hit.

I say we adjust the Queue Dodge penalties to the following:

1. No penalty. No wait timer, no LP penalty, no penalty on your promos. If you don't like the lobby because you smell toxicity or a troll; hell, if your friend pops on and you want to play with them instead - go for it. 2. 10:00 wait time and 5 LP penalty, with a penalty on your promos. You already did this once today - that's your freebie. This one should sting a little. 3. 45:00 wait time and 10 LP penalty, with a penalty on your promos. Now you're just being picky. 4. 90:00 wait time and 10 LP penalty, with a penalty on your promos. WELL. EX-CUUUUSE ME. WAS YOUR MAJESTY'S CHAMPION LOBBY NOT TO YOUR LIKING?

Poll at the bottom. Tell me whatcha think.

*Not quite "nobody," but a small number of players.