Dynamic Queue comprimises for Solo Queue players
So, as everyone who isn't as blind as Lee Sin knows, there's a huge fuss about Riot finally declaring they will not bring Solo Queue back. That that done, there's still a lot of players who are greatly upset with Dynamic Queue/ This doesn't mean there can't be a comprimise. That's the purpose of this thread. "Delete DQ and give SQ back" is not a comprimise, so we're going to ignore that option, as well as "have both at the same time" as Riot has flatly declared they will not.
That leaves us with creating options that can mitigate the problems people have with DQ (it would be foolish to say we can solve their problems without making problems for others, so each side has to agree to give something up). There's going to have to be some give from DQ and SQ players both. If there's only going to be a single Queue, it needs to be able to satify as many of both groups as possible. Some meeting in the middle is needed, so let's get down to some ideations.
For starters, limiting Queue's to maximum of 3-player premades at all ranks. This will solve the "nightmare" issue of 4-man flame squads. Most 4-man groups are not rageflamer trollclubs, but the problem isn't nonexistant. Many people hate being solo with a group of 4. I feel this is a fair comprimise to make. It also holds integrity of maintining premade size at all tiers, instead of the rules suddenly changing once you reach that arbitrary level. This simulates old Solo Queue fairly well, with the added tri-queue option tossed in. I don't think that's an unfair concession for the goal of comprimise.
Now, those 3-man groups, is it worth the queue time extension to prefer matching a trio with a duo? Probably not. But how about enforcing trio vs premades. So a 3+1+1 or 3+2 will never face off against 5 solos? That seems decently fair, and 3+1+1 vs 1+2+2 is most certainly not too lopsided. The only question is how it may affect queue times. I don't expect that to actually be significantly affected, due to the number of duo's that would end up being played. A group of 4 would just need to split up into two pairs. 5 Solo players could still be matched up against a duo or two duos. Two duo team would have a greater MMR penalty for that team, but I feel there may still be some room for give-and-take in that area. Tuning would need to be done to make sure MMR adjustments are getting balanced matched without affecting queue times. As fun as playing with as many friends as possible is, again comprimise must be made for the benefit of others.
Ranked 5's. Not much else to say about it, but limiting Queues to 3-man premades almost requires this to return.
Semi-related: Role selection. High tier has an auto-fill after being in queue for so long. Would it be reasonable to have players pick a third option, with a lower weighting. As current, primary/secondary options don't make a difference if you're grabbed to fill a team out that's been in queue for 10 minutes, no matter how many times you've played your secondary role in a row already. The way this third role option would work, is be completely ignored when rolling existing teams, and only be taken into account when players are being found to fill out YOUR current team. What does this help with? It helps with people who are secondary supports, but don't want to play it every game. Since it wouldn't be chosen to fill out existing teams, you won't just automatically be grabbed as a support. You may still support a fair bit, but if we can get enough people who choose tertiaty support, it will not be so big an issue. Those who still like to support can still choose it as a primary or secondary role, and have a good chance to fill out an existing team.
Additional thought: When a certain role is highly desired at a certain time of day (X groups waiting in queue for a support), the game could automatically send an alert (the Triangle ! symbol we currently have, perhaps Green colored) with a message about bonus rewards for queueing up for it. Potential bonuses: 10% IP gain. 2x IP win bonus. Increased Key fragment drop rate. The bonuses for it need to be weighted to actually trying to win, not just queueing up for the bonus and trolling with "Support Twitch" or something like that.
Let's try to keep this thread constructive and see what other ideas we can come up with. Constructive criticism is welcome Remember that it's going to be a comprimise, so "GIVE ME WANT I WANT AND SCREW EVERYONE ELSE" is not helping whatsoever.
