The other side to Dynamic Queue...

The sole reason I'm making this post is that I have been asked to by my friends who don't mind dynamic queue, but are not active on these boards. as well as the occasional comment I see about people not seeing any positive dynamic queue posts before. Seeing as my first post about League ranked > Overwatch ranked was so controversial, I figured I would make one on Dynamic queue too. Keep in mind that I use some anecdotal evidence. I do not want you to take this experience as the norm, its only here as an argument that not everyone's experience was ruined by dynamic queue.

It goes without saying that people are very vocal on their criticisms about Dynamic queue. After playing 800 games this season(mostly solo) I have to say... I have never had a game ruined for me because of a premade. I have never had a bad experience this season going against, or with a premade. In fact, seeing a premade on either team is so rare that I didn't even know it was a problem until I was 500 games in and I saw stuff about it on the boards.

No one even steps up to defend Dynamic Queue because many people just don't care about the change, as it hasn't affected them. Why would you make a post about something good/neutral with the new system after all? It only takes one bad experience to make someone hate dynamic queue, and make a post on the boards about it. What about all the premades that weren't bad? or the ones who were supportive? No one posts about them because why would you? Being nice to other players has become so underrated that people only want to point out the bad things. No one is going to make the post about the premade who helped untilt them after being camped, or the premade who gave extra attention to their lane to make sure they would be fed. They only make posts about the ONE time that they were harassed by a premade, or the time that they were camped.

Surely, the people on the boards who post about it have negative personal experiences with it. However, how many games have they really gone through to post one incident? Is the system really ruined for you because of one single experience with a premade? How many games have they played that weren't ruined by a premade? Toxic players and bad games exist, in solo Q and Dynamic queue alike. Sure dynamic queue allows multiple people to theoretically do this kind of stuff, however the posts I've seen about this where people have received flaming by premades tend to be unclear, or just an isolated incident. Blanketing this problem to every single premade that plays league is not a good indicator to how things are actually going.

Do you really think that camping wouldn't happen in solo Q? Do you really think that removing dynamic queue will stop junglers from doing their job? Is it only bad when a premade flame you? what about all the solo's who flame you? is that ok because they are solo? Flaming happens, it will ALWAYS happen sooner or later. It doesn't matter if its a premade or not, you will be flamed for some reason, or lack there of. Solo Q will not help get rid of flaming. If anything, a premade of 3 would have reason not to flame considering they would only need to concentrate on their own play with the knowledge that they can carry the game if their solos feed. They wouldn't have much of a reason to lash out at other players for being bad, because they can carry themselves and not have to rely on the other 2 players doing their part.

In solo Q, you had to do your part, and hope to god that your team would be competent enough to even survive their lane. In a team game that evaluates the performance of all 5 players on a team, it comes down to who had the collection of the better players. In this system, it doesn't matter how well the individual does, as 80% of the team has to do their part in order for your team to succeed. If you are the only constant in a system that pairs you with 4 variables, probability states that you can go an infinite amount of losses straight (or infinite amount of wins straight). The more variables that are added, the lesser the influence of the one constant. The steps you take to avoid this can be irrelevent because the game depends on how good your team is. You can go 19-0 and still lose because your team is so bad they refuse to cooperate and listen, refuse to target the right people, or get destroyed by the enemy team before you even get the chance to do anything. These solo players have no reason to listen to you even if you are fed. Last season it seemed like many peopls pride got in the way of whats best for the team. The ability to invite other players allows more consistency on your team. More consistency = an easier way to determine your rank because it no longer relies on 4 other variables.

Communication is the #1 argument against premades. Though their is a chat system, and ping system it is still a valid argument considering vocal communication is faster than typing. Riot is implementing a voice chat system to fix that. However, a communication advantage is no reason to stop playing the match. Its possible for either team to win. It comes down to skill, and people chose not to acknowledge that because often times its easier to blame some other factor than blaming yourself for your own play. Sure the advantage is there, but really, what are you going to do about it? You chose ranked because you wanted a challenge, and to represent your skill level. If people are going to sit there and blame other factors instead of yourself, then ranked isn't the place for you, because you show that you aren't playing to improve. There is no way to stop people from using curse, teamspeak discord or other things like that. If voice communication is that much of a benefit to you, then those things exist for you to take advantage of.

Boosting is the second most common argument. If a player gets boosted to a rank, then they will have to maintain that rank. If they can only maintain it with their boosters, then why should their boosters not get elo for their win? just because they have a really bad player on their team? Sure that booster could be smurfing, but there is NO WAY in any online game to police boosters other than limiting accounts to one per email. It is unpolicable and was present in solo Q as well. Either way, winning a game is winning a game in a system that ranks you based on your wins and losses. If that boosted player is winning games (even if being carried every game) then he may not really deserve the win, but the teammates who carried him do. Its not avoidable, that stuff WILL happen.

Overall, I would rather people be able to invite whoever they want instead of being limited to themselves. Last season this game felt a lot more like who was the best child psychologist and could appease the toxic solo players on their team so they wouldn't have a conniption fit and afk. The game felt like more of a challenge to win with your teammates, rather than beat the other team. It was a struggle against your own team rather than a struggle against theirs. The lack of an individual examination system defeats the point of playing alone. Being graded based on if your teammates want to cooperate is not a examination of skill, but is rather a examination of how well of a negotiator you are. Not to mention, why should you be graded on if your teammates can pull their own weight or not? You didn't get to decide if you wanted the garbage top or not. It wasn't your decision, why should you get a penalty for it? Dynamic queue focuses on the point. Beat the other team by any means necessary. When you are with a premade, the attitude isn't, "how can I make these teammates useful" the attitude is, "how can I play to win this game for my team." League of legends is a TEAM GAME. Why should the rank of an individual depend on what the rest of his team is doing? Solo's aren't obligated to listen to other solo players. What makes you think that players will be any more cooperative in solo Q? Last season there was so many more problems because of uncooperative solo players who thought that they deserved to climb and blamed their teammates for their problems. This season, its on you for not being responsible and taking action to prevent bad teammates.

dynamic queue does appeal to casual players, however, if there is a casual premade, their rank will be significantly lower than someone who tries in ranked. Players who seriously play ranked play to improve. If they are genuinely trying to improve then they will be climbing higher than the casual players. If they aren't, and casual players are doing better than them, then why should casual players not get their rank even if they are casual? Ranked is a system that determines a relative player rank based on your performance at the game. It doesn't account for casual players or hardcore players. Overall, it shouldn't matter what kind of player is playing, they are representing their skill level as a League of Legends player. The ranked system is not accountable for filtering out people who want to have fun from people who are trying to win, stop acting like solo Q will fix that. Solo Q will not stop casual players from playing Ranked, even if they do like to play with friends. Why would casual player even be drawn to ranked? its still stressful like last years ranked. Its full of people who want to improve, its not the atmosphere that casual players prefer.

People talk about the loss of competitive integrity because of dynamic queue, which is also kind of involved with boosting in a way. Pros are complaining that dynamic queue isn't a legitimate ranking system due to players being able to queue up with who they want. It's an argument that really doesn't work very well in my opinion. Pro players have to play and work as a team to win. Very little happens solo in LCS games because the teams have the understanding that its a team game, and you need to play as a team to win. It doesn't matter how good of a solo player you are, if you can't work with a team then you can't play at a professional level. there is a HUGE difference between playing solo and playing as a team. Improving by playing as a solo does nothing to help improve team skills when you get 4 random players every game, as opposed to playing with the same 4 players every game, as seen in the LCS. If anything, Dynamic queue increases the chances of good teams finding their way into the competitive scene, its all about teamwork after all. Having good synergy with your teammates shows skill as a player. The ability to pick your teammates allows you to use this synergy, rather than throw that skill away when trying to deal with solo players. EVERYONE has the ability to play with a premade. It is not unfair if everyone has the possibility to do this. It really seems like people are using premades to justify their losses rather than acknowledge that they lost, and proceed to get better.

Overall, my personal experience has been so much more positive with dynamic queue. I know I have said before that my experience has not really been changed, however when I compare this season to last season, the changes are astronomical. Both seasons I have played ~800 games. Last season was my first ranked season ( I started playing League in november 2014) Though I was somewhat new to the game, I understood that I had to carry every game if I wanted to climb. So I did my absolute best to climb. As soon as I hit plat however, a new realization hit me. I didn't feel like I was doing any better than when I was in silver. Obviously I was playing better, but I spent more time trying to appease my teammates and childproofing the enemy team, rather than improving myself. Game after game I started to realize that even if I forcefed my teammates, they still wouldn't perform the way I needed them to. It didn't matter how fed I got, the game was always determined by how much my teammates fed. This is the #1 reason I was pushed away from champions I liked to play, into champions that could 1v5 and prevent my teammates from getting anywhere close to the enemy, for fear that they would screw everything up. Obviously throughout that season I understood that those games were unavoidable, and the only thing that I could do as a player to improve my chances of winning was to keep improving. Eventually I ended up in my diamond promos. (which I ended up losing 3 times, one game I had an UNRANKED player on my team, not even sure how that's possible, might have just been a glitch with lolskill though.) Looking back, that season was a complete mess. It was countless the amount of times I had afks, trolls, and just overall toxic players. Sure you remember the bad things but I remember most of my season being filled with this sort of stuff. In silver 1, I had gone 11 games in a row with at least one afk on my team. I even had a few games where I was in a literal 1v5 because the other 4 players didn't even leave the fountain. I remember hard games of convincing the pantheon to stop afking because someone on my team recommended he should go tanky rather than finish his 5th damage item (which I know for a fact that he should have gone tanky sooner but I really wanted him to play the fking game). I remember complete clown fiestas of players just flaming each other despite me asking them to mute each other so we could win. It really felt like I had no influence over what my teammates did because of the risk of them afking.

This season however, I have only had an afk about ~20/800 of the games I have played. I very rarely run into toxic players, almost less than afks. I haven't seen a troll yet this season. I have really been able to focus on improving because I don't really have the risk of anyone afking because of a build recommendation. The games I lose genuinely feel like I could have done better in. I have genuinely had to improve as a player, rather than improve as a child psychologist. I have never run into a game where I feel like I have been outmatched by a premade, nor have I ever been harassed by one. If anything, the premades I get are some of the most supportive players I have ever played with. Honestly, I'd call this season better than last season, though only slightly because of the current balancing.

TL:DR: people feel like its much more important to talk about their bad experiences because the good ones don't matter much to them. Communication is the ONLY concern when it comes to premades. Boosting happens regardless, and cannot be policed. Dynamic queue allows everyone to play with their friends. Premades have become a way for people to justify their losses rather than actually learn from their mistakes and get better. Playing with people you consistently play with doesn't show much of a loss in competitive integrity considering Players in the LCS play with the same 4 other people every game. If anything Dynamic queue allows players to get more of a feel for competitive games considering synergy is a huge factor in team games. Just because there are casual ranked players doesn't mean their ranks shouldn't be recorded.

Overall I feel like Dynamic queue needs to be improved before we can call it an accurate ranking system, however In my personal experience its an improvement from solo Q. Things I would like changed from the current Dynamic queue system:

• Voice chat which is coming out some time
• MMR compensation so that premades go against better players.
• The old 5v5 teams to come back for more organized Team play (pretty sure its coming back anyways)
• The tribunal to come back so that solo players can get justice for being harassed by premades.
• Slightly reduced LP for premades considering Voice chat isn't out yet.
• Improved LP for solo players, they have to carry 4 strangers to win after all
• More specific pings, for easier and more specific communication with teammates.

Things that I would like changed in our community:

• More concept/idea posts rather than more Dynamic queue bashing, we get it, you are unhappy, at least give them some suggestions on HOW to fix Dynamic queue other than just "give us solo Q"
• Quit bashing on people who use dynamic queue. Dividing this community creates more harm than good, if you want this game to keep living on, then stop creating divisions among the community. The developers do not decide when this game is over, the community does.
• Adapt to the new system. Perhaps playing with 1 or 2 other players is whats best to climb. Support is a very hard position due to the lack in consistency because of the greater influence from damage roles. Top lane tends to be very isolated from the rest of the map, allowing much to happen out of your control while your tp is down, or before you even have the opportunity to group. Its better to invite some sort of consistency rather than play game after game where the only lane that doesn't do poorly is your lane. Inviting players to play with you is a good way to find where you and that player lie on the ranking ladder. Its important to know that even premades have skill levels that they will rest at, they will not keep climbing into oblivion.

Very unpopular opinion I know, Id still like to hear what everyone else thinks about it, perhaps give me some counterpoints to think about. I know before I have stated that I don't have much of an opinion on it, however I have never actually compared this seasons ranked from last seasons ranked. I know I can only speak for myself with this points, however Its not acceptable to speak for any number of people, its up to the community to decide how right/wrong someones opinion is. If this post doesn't survive the free and open marketplace on these boards then that's fine. I just wanted these opinions to get out regardless of the social repercussions. Everyone commenting about Solo/Dynamic Q want whats best for the community. everyone's hearts are in the right places for this issue, however I have a different opinion on how to fix the issue than other people do. Either way, no matter what happens this game is still my favorite, I would not stop playing is solo Q were to be brought back, I would not stop playing If I was chased off of these boards entirely. Many individuals play this game, and every individual has their own thoughts and opinions. They form these opinions based off of facts and their own experiences. My opinions on this issue are heavily based off of my own opinions.

No matter what your position on this issue is, please, have a wonderful day. And just know that your opinion matters too.