Before the rest of what I wish to say, I'm not blind to the flaws that Dynamic Queue had. Solos were abused (I was one of them), integrity was all over the place, animals were boosted, frankly it was the Wild West for ranked. Combined with the bad communication on Riot's part, their earnest effort was met with too many mistakes, unfulfilled promises, and yeah, in a couple of cases, some lies.

That said, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, and in this case, I want to tackle an issue that I see being talked about.

That Strategy is dead in League.

As from what I've seen, and you lovely folk are free to add in other reasons that I may have missed, but the complaints about there being no strategy I've seen stem around, well, mainly it being because of damage. The issue that people die too quick, teamfights don't last long enough, everything is a oneshot fiesta. But... that isn't strategy. Don't get me wrong, there is certainly an aspect of strategy in fights, but by far and large, that area is determined by Skill, not strategy.

---

To go further in depth, how you fight, from my opinion, is largely skill instead of strategy. Skill is the fulfillment of your own ability, your task, your job. In many cases, positioning, front line, back line, those are formations in a fight, but being able to execute and use these formations dwell purely down to skill alone. So, if that's the case, what is strategy, you lovingly, condescending asshole Kayn?

Well first off, I love you too, but we can cuddle infront of the fire later, I'm busy. Secondly, Strategy is not how you fight fights, but it's how fights start. How they begin, where they take place, how you avoid them, etc. In the past, this has taken past in certain comps but that's honestly base level. Siege comps, split push comps, Protect that carry comps, but all those have died out. Why? Because we've gotten better.

While team composition is still important, nowadays we favor more balanced team layouts than specialized ones. Why? Because Carries learned to kite, junglers learned better jungle rotations and gank patterns, we've learned lane pressure, minion wave manipulation, Skill has overrided a need for team comp strategy, because at the end of the day:

#Strategy is a crutch.

Strategy is how the armies of old and modern overwhelm superior forces. We've starved out invincible strongholds, massacred the cavalry of Roman armies to devour their infantry, lead fucking WAR ELEPHANTS to intimidate and panic enemy soldiers. We've lobbed cows with catapults for petes sake! Strategy from then to now has always been about winning before a battle has even started, or more importantly, how to win from behind. When you have shittier soldiers, strategy is what wins battles!

And you know what Strategy isn't? It isn't a bunch of people fighting together, but separate. If you want strategy, you need people willing to listen, and you need people willing to lead. And I think most of can agree, it's far rarer to find cooperative teammates than it is to find someone willing to tell you to shove your keyboard up your ass. When we need strategy the most, people are calling for FF@15, or calling out Jung diff.

The reason why snowball games happen so much, is not because of damage, but because the winning team doesn't need strategy. They already have the better players, or their early game rotation by jungler netted them a lead, negating the need for a strategy outside of basic map rotation and warding. It's the inability to work together and create strategy that I think really loses teams games. And despite all it's faults, this is what Dynamic Queue tried to fix.

---

Yes, that's right, he finally got to the title of the post, let's give him a round of applause. I enjoy my flowery writing thank you. But enough of me, let's talk Dynamic. Dynamic Queue tried to bring League back to what it was always meant to be: A Team game. The existence of Solo Queue Ranked is almost an oxymoron to the idea of a team game, and entirely befits the importance of skill over strategy. You may have a team, but at the end of the day, the only person you can rely on not being bad is: You.

So how do you reintroduce strategy? Simple. You remove the randomness of people you can't rely on. You bring in your friends, your acquaintances, that guy who carried you 15 games ago, and who you played with for like 4 more, but then you never talked to again. You bring people who you can talk and be comfortable with, and you talk, listen, and discuss just what everyone should do. So that sounds fine and all, so what's the hook up?

Well, they didn't go all the way. We have 4 mans, 2 and 3 mans, 2 2 mans and 1 man, all you really did was introduce a slightly more awkward hook up of people than a double blind date. Combined with the fact that there was a large degree of different skill level differences that could make these comps, and that such a system was inserted back into a non-changed Ranked structure to accommodate it, we got the famous boosted animals.

---

Which is why, as my time grows shorter at work before i must leave (Christ I have too much free time, why do they not block the internet??), I bring us to our conclusion.

#Clash

Oh baby, there it is. 5 short letters but all the difference between Skill and Strategy. I'm hoping that Clash succeeds where Dynamic has failed. In giving an actual environment Rot in hell Flex Que for people to put Strategy back to use. Zero randos for teammates, a completely new system unattached to normal skill levels.

So, was this post juts a vaguely hidden "Can't wait for Clash post?" Yes, but also no. My point here, is that there really hasn't ever been any strategy in League, not in Solo Queue. It's an environment that far pushes individual skill over coordination, which is why quite commonly people feel the need to be the one to carry their team. To be the carry, instead of the team player.