The end of Flex Q: What was Riot's logic behind splitting the ranked Q's???

WeLiveInAS0ciety·11/22/2016, 9:24:15 PM·1 votes·765 views

Dynamic Q had some problems for sure, but one thing it definitely did was attract more players to ranked. Queue times were one of the biggest problems for FlexQ last season, and so why in Noxus' name was Riot's response to split the community by adding in Solo/DUO (EMPHASIS ON THE DUO)???

I can see adding in a dedicated Solo Q, as that certainly has it's "pure skill" appeal. But duo?? That DIRECTLY siphons off players from Flex, and muddles the "purist" aspect of the Solo Q, hence nullifying its reason to exist...

As a player who often Q's with anywhere from 1 to 4 players, this saddens me greatly. Will Flex Q be left to die because of whiners wanting a dedicated Solo Q and Riot's subsequent botched implementation of it?

Riot pls halp...

9 Comments

N Pelosi11/22/2016, 9:26:30 PM3 votes

I actually agree that Duo should go to Flex as well. Because I don't want to play with them. I just want to solo queue with other solo players and have a fun, disorganized match.

ph1234k11/22/2016, 9:30:00 PM1 votes

Because the community asked for Solo/Duo to come back and Riot answered the requests by fulfilling the wishes of the community

BastionKross11/22/2016, 10:01:36 PM1 votes

but one thing it definitely did was attract more players to ranked.

Do you have a source for this?

I got the impression it was the opposite: DQ disenfranchised SoloQ players who stopped playing ranked as often, driving up queue times for the players that remained and disenfranchising them as well. I would assume that was the main reason Riot switched gears from "SoloQ is never coming back" to "Okay guys, here's SoloQ back so please play ranked again".

Having S/D and Flex, we've essentially gone back to the Solo/Duo and 5v5 system we used to have before Dynamic with the difference of 5v5 including premades over 2 now. However, queue times for Flex will go up as groups with less than a full team will be left searching for solos that may never come. Yes, the promise of greater end of season rewards will bring some SoloQ people to Flex, but most will only go there to get to gold and then go right back to S/D. SoloQ players ineligible for end of season rewards for whatever reason will most likely not touch Flex at all.

A lot of solo players will tell you some of their worst experiences ingame came as a result of playing either with or against premades. I would personally theorize a lot of SoloQ players won't go to Flex even for the promise of better end of season rewards for this reason. If that happens, queuing up in Flex with anything less than a full five man team will have you waiting longer to get into a game than the average game will take; and Flex will essentially become a fancy version of the 5v5 queue once again.

Shuten Ðoji11/22/2016, 10:46:19 PM1 votes

Seems to me if flex is dying, it's probably because a lot more people prefer solo/duoq. Also keep in mind it's still pre-season, so a lot of people are just not playing.

That being said, I do think it would be "okay" to put duos in flex if its population is that bad. Not that I really care since I don't plan on ever playing in flex, but hey.