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The current Matckmaking hurts the competitive aspect and the quality of ranked games .

Oerba No Naja·7/30/2017, 5:09:39 PM·118 votes·5,401 views

i will go straight to the root of the issue that causes such a negative impact on competitiveness , quality of games , and frustration .

Players are not equally allocated in the two teams , it results on games that are not fun to play bc you are mostly likely to lose or win just based on which team has the most secondary role / autofills . This is not competitive , most of these games are stomps , and it create frustration for the player .

Exemple : You are a main top playing against another main top with equal skill , you are even on top lane ( both 0/0/0 with same farm approx ) . But one of the two will win bc his bot lane destroyed the other autofilled ad , or the main jungle hard outjungled your secondary role/autofilled jungler .

It doesn't hurt your win rate that much since "next" game will be for your favor and you will win bc you will be on the other side .

It doesn't happen 100% of the time , but when it happens we play games that are no matchs ( the game won't be close , it won't be interesting at all ) .

League is a team based game right ? lets make a quick analogy , a group of persons want to play a soccer game . one side everybody are pros with just one amateur ; the other side one pro , two paraplegics , and some amateurs . Guess who will win this, is this game balanced ? where is the fun in that .

For the same reasons leagues games needs to be balanced . So I suggest a few changes to the current matchmaking .

1. Autofill equality .

When autofill procs , the two team get the same number of autofill and at the same autofilled role .

So if there are two autofill needed and we need top laners , we will have a " balanced " top lane where the two players won't get the frustration of getting hard stomped since they are against someone who doesn't main this role either . And because of this balance , no team will feel like they have a big burden to carry bc their autofilled fed that main riven .

**2.Best roles for everyone . **

Some players only perform very well at only one role , some are very good at three roles . How does the system can fill everyone properly , and an algorithm would be too hard to apply for this . So , why not let players have a pre set message that tells their strength and weaknesses : " Pref Mid / top and jungle too , but can't play bot lane " And the option to tell their win rate for each position according to the client's data . Also this brings back communication in champion select , with assigned roles and bans nobody really talks in champ select like before . The lack of communication makes the game feel very antisocial . Preset message for everyone to discuss whats the best way to go for victory can't be bad .

136 Comments

Michael7027/30/2017, 5:36:06 PM41 votes

MMR hell is real. Just because both teams have the same MMR doesn't mean the teams are equal. The individual MMR varies greatly which really sucks when your low MMR carries are versus high MMR carries. The game is pretty much decided before champion select.

Cavemantero7/30/2017, 5:54:05 PM22 votes

They wanted faster stomp snowbally games because the call of duty lovers cried incessantly about it. League was the best it ever was in season 5 and they messed it up because they didn't want the much larger pool of viable champs who were 'boring' to watch in LCS but were fun to play. The Ranked system is broken and simply because it wasn't meant for 5v5 games it was meant for 1v1 games. Then, rito purposely and admittedly, tries to get you around 50% winrate regardless of your skill. This means if you have a winning streak you get paired with trash against a well rounded group of players. It is terrible. It literally is a roll of the dice and has absolutely nothing to do with skill. Throw in all the people who compete against you ON YOUR OWN TEAM and you see why LoL ranked has become a joke to people who would actually take it seriously and why it is full toxic players, exploiters, and rage quitters/dodgers.

They need to use a regional club method where you compete against others in your region and don't compete against those in your 'club' (think softball/NCAA sports). Many states in the US are bigger than S. Korea so there is no reason they couldn't do this they just don't want to because they are making money off the broken system and exploiting the toxic players. The City League is a step in the right direction but it costs money.

MeBuffULongTime7/30/2017, 9:29:44 PM12 votes

Personally, I'd be ok with waiting 5+ minutes for a game if I knew that all of my teammates actually got the role they wanted. Besides the obvious issue of people getting stuck in roles they have little or no experience in, autofill creates so many opportunities for drama when people instalock, steal positions, or whine about not getting a trade for the position they queued up for. I think the health of ranked would be greatly improved by removing autofill.

6KEMBE4ORBA7/31/2017, 10:19:54 AM9 votes

You're right but it's not only one thing. It's complex.

  • Riot's pushing for shorter games by the numerous changes introduced cause they want to compete with HOTS/Overwatch + the LCS viewership - read "PROFIT"
  • enforcing the early deathmatch snowball meta
    • in which a good player can not carry on his own (or chances for that are reduced greatly)
  • minions/towers/green and pick ward removal changes
  • the team that's behind can't do much
  • one team flooring the other one
  • borderline problematic system that ensures people will specialise in 1 role/lane leading to entitlement + leaving the other roles/lanes heavily unpracticed

I've said this last year that the Role Selection System + Autofill will cause problems by:

----> spiralling down (similar to the retarded DynamicQ) and that there is a reason that Pick Order was invented/good and is still used.

It's not only starting to show now - it's already widespread.

Game/Match quality is at another time its lowest since the DynamicQ fiasco.

For example: I have lost games with score like 7/1/7; 16/4/12; 11/4/2, 10/4/1, 14/2/9, 6/1/1, 10/3/3, 12/4/5.

In games my score is not so good like ~ 5/5/9 is because i went 3-5/0 and then I'm risking my score to help teammates which are 0/10/1 and lose the game anyway.

This has never happened during the previous seasons.

Maybe it's time for Riot to start listening to people that know stuff about the game/are good at it and not to some interns and employees that think they know stuff while it's the complete opposite? Another thing - leave the LCS buffs/nerfs at LCS only.

Also they need to stop trying to reinvent the wheel by making it a square.

BØLT7/30/2017, 7:02:45 PM7 votes

I completely gave up on the ranked system years ago when I had mid-Diamond mmr but couldnt get past Plat 2 lol. It felt pretty unfair imo. If you ever get tired of ranked, I highly suggest arams, its much more fun to me

begformymercy7/31/2017, 9:34:49 AM6 votes

I agree with this post entirely. Played this game since season 3, only get good games when playing in a team of 5 or a team of 3.

You get matched with incompetent people who say: STFU, learn how to play, Let me play jungle I'll carry, ban these champs I'll win this for us, etc.

They pick a maokai champion and just don't know what to do, they don't realize they are the ones to engage, not the adc, not the apc...

It's really hard to understand the matchmaking on this game, when they say skill will rise from the lower elo.

Like you get matched against Plats, diamonds on the other team and you get a bronzer on your team that just is god awful playing a critical role, like why did I get matched with them on my team? I got placed in bronze 2 on 3s.. like really?

Based on matchmaking, in 10 games, and based on the teammates attitude which they may be on TILT, or purposefully not caring or going afk, I have to suffer and get a low placement? I can see it now, where Riot is like, if it's 10 games, it's you.. well no, if you fail 3 games, you get placed in a low matchmaking, in particular on the 3rd, 4th game if you were winning in a row, you get placed against higher players and you get a bronze on your team and they capitalize on your weak teammate, that you don't to engage because it isn't beneficial to you, you automatically loose, 3v2 now, as well as pressure..

So much wrong with this..

You know perhaps, if people knew to capitalize on 2v1 scenario, or 3v2 scenarios, while you try to talk to someone on your team who is playing amumu, and they go full ap... and it only takes a garen to walk by and E the guy and finish with a q, literally 2 abilities and both are tanky bruisers?

This experience where people are playing jungle on 3s for example and they stop farming and sit in a bush at level 2-5 waiting for something to happen near them and then they forget to get their camp farm or rotate into a lane, perhaps they forget they can scan bushes too before they face check. It's really mind boggling.

Playing this game, going to heroes of the storm coming back, I really doubt I'm that out of touch on League, specifically on 3s to get matched so low, I do not even want to put in that effort to get out of bronze and go to plat. Realistically I want to say GoFuk yourself to riot. Really.. This game is not competitive on the matchmaking level, no this is trolling on an epic scale. 1 person cannot rally a team to come together, you get people playing a jax and are like, I'm not team fighting, follow me...

You try to talk to the 0/9 jax and he is like, you guys suck... surrender, and I'm like no dude this is a ranked match we can still win, can you please team fight..

once you get matched with people like this that is a 1/10 loss... your MMR is going to match you with the same level of player at random because you already lost, so it will match you with people at the same win/loss as you..

Like, I'm suppose to follow you around the whole game? How do people get this kind of attitude? The mentality people have is so messed up, where do you begin to think you can win this ranked game?

You mean to tell me, that somehow I match up with people who do not want to cooperate? Call me toxic for asking them to help out a top lane, or try to talk to them about their build, they don't even follow even the recommended.. or understand a situational change in what to buy first against a hard counter, etc.

It's like no one watches Youtube, or plays a few normal games first.. The ranking system should be way way way more restricted.

Not that I care anymore, I think they should require everyone to play ranked to have a win ratio above 50% on normal

There is no way a bronze player should be able to play ranked, sorry, I don't think that brings competitiveness to matchmaking. This game never improved over the years. I hate league, I feel that it has a fun style of game that they stole from DOTA, but the matchmaking has no logic programmed on teammates.

Seriously, the requirement to play ranked should be based on win ratio. Fall below 50, you get banned from playing ranked until you bring it back up, on a rolling average or something. You guys need programmers that understand matchmaking and correlation analysis.

hotarse7/31/2017, 1:26:42 AM5 votes

Basically, Riot wants snowbally games that end before the 30 minute mark to make sure that everyone can get that hit of endorphines at least once a session. Their research found out that the maximum hit of endorphines is realized during a game in which the player is kicking ass. The more ass kickings the more addictive the game is. The shorter the ass kickings, the more likely you'll have enough time to give the game another go, win or lose.

SiffLort7/31/2017, 9:02:22 AM4 votes

The problem is, as you play better and climb higher, you start getting better enemies and worse (?????) teammates, which makes no god damn sense whatsoever. Why do we get punished for getting better? This is especially true when one plays promo games. Absolutely disasterous. I've recently dropped from promo to p1 to p3 around 50lp. According to Rito, my skill level must have deteriorated over the course of 2 hours because obviously, I can't blame 0/12 toplane or 'ok, I'm done, I go troll' midlane, right?

Michael7027/30/2017, 6:58:08 PM4 votes

I don't think Riot understands. There's no telling how many of them actually play ranked and have seen the problem 1st hand.

Aterpater7/31/2017, 4:11:37 PM3 votes

I wouldn't be suprised if Riot was using something like presented in this paper: An Engagement Optimized Matchmaking Framework, Chen et al. 2017 (I can't link but you can find it easily at Cornell Unviversity Library online)

In layman's terms: Instead of balanced matchmaking they always place you in unbalanced games, based on your recent W/L ratio. Live tests on a different online game showed better results in terms of "player retainment" than other methods.

The reason: Bad players will have some success regulary so they will keep playing. As one of the main issue of high skill ceiling, player skill based games that the player base shrinks as people don't like to be owned 24/7. Good players will have enough frustration to keep grinding day and night and hopefully enough to even spend on the game, as they can't avoid losing from time to time. This negates the situation when experienced players get bored and stop playing every day or stop buying and trying out new approaches as they have a good old solution anyways. (Btw this is the reason behind why Riot keeps turning the meta and balance upside down every few weeks aswell)

This is the sad truth and why the MM and ranking system will be the last thing what Riot will change - despite the continous debates about it since long long years. LoL is a business and not really a sport (yet?). The keywords here are: user experience, player count and financial success. It has nothing to do with a fair matchmaking or ladder...

Kloqdq7/31/2017, 1:47:04 PM3 votes

when you go against a diamond and challenger player and your just in silver fucking 2. God bless ya match making.

An Enemy Sutando7/31/2017, 11:04:36 AM2 votes

All the result of Riot forcing extremely quick and snowbally games down our collective throats so that LC$ can be extremely fast-paced and not boring to watch.

Pro play is already a completely different beast than literally everything else. I don't get why they still haven't created a separate balance set for them so that we don't have to suffer the result of what makes Riot the most money.

Engelin7/31/2017, 2:44:45 AM2 votes

Autofilled supports are the worst

MAKAVELIncarnate7/31/2017, 1:35:38 PM2 votes

Got an unranked Bot in placements while playing support vs. a Bot lane main playing Tristana. You all know how bad that feels. I understand a skill gap disparity between players, but literally around 30%-40% of games there is one person that is far and above awful. In my opinion, blind and draft non ranked games are much more balanced, which is completely backwards as to how it should be.

gottrjr7/31/2017, 1:28:18 PM2 votes

Matchmaking with MMR alone will never NEVER have balanced games (NEVER!). Here is a good example.

Let's say I main JG and have a 2500 MMR from playing JG solely. Now I Q up, and ZAC is OP as fuck right now, so I want to play ZAC in my game but the thing is .... I have never played ZAC. So matchmaking shows even MMR for both Junglers but my micro and macro is complete shit cause I don't know what I am doing with ZAC. This is the crux of the problem with using MMR only for matchmaking.

Now if matchmaking could somehow tell that I am only mastery 1 on ZAC and make the match accordingly then matchmaking would be much more balanced.

Spacesuit Spiff7/30/2017, 8:23:27 PM2 votes

Even if it did autofill evenly, if one of the autofills talks someone into swapping, mismatched game.

Unsure how id fix matchmaking tho. Too many confounding variables.

ÂFRÏCÂN GØD7/31/2017, 1:26:58 PM1 votes

lmao this is a joke right.... this sounds like low elo excuses.