Support Mastery Grades

 Hello everyone! I am a support main Silver II / Gold V player (I seem to just go up and down).  My main support is Morgana: she has been my go-to support since I saw Lemonation start playing her in the NA LCS many years ago. Despite the fact that she has been played at all levels as a support for many years now, she is still listed as only a "mage", aka as an AP carry.  It is due to this fact that the Mastery System, which rewards players for playing characters well, to undervalue a Morgana support's participation in a match.

 In the attached screenshot, the results of one of my games is given.  In this match, Wukong received an "S" rank,  Caitlin received an "S-" rank, and Morgana (that's me!) received an "A" rank.  

 Time for the stats breakdown! Let's start with Wukong, since he had an amazing game.   Wukong ended the game with a Kill Participation (KP, involvement in total kills) of 67.6% and a Kill Share (KS, earning of total kills) of 38.2, both of which are the highest on the team.  He also had a great KDA ([Kills + Assists]/Deaths) at 3.8.  Wukong really performed quite well in this match, and truly earned his S ranking.

 Now let's look at Caitlin. Caitlin's stats are overall much lower: she earned a KP of 41.2% and a KS of 20.6%.  Her KDA was higher than Wukong, but still only the third highest on the team.  Despite having the most gold in the game, her damage done to champions was the second lowest on the team (next to the jungle Gragas).  Although her value in teamfights and in raw damage to champions was lacking, she filled a much needed role in pushing lanes and clearing out the enemy creeps.  This is reflected in her creep score (CS) and explains her high gold earnings.  In all, I believe this justifies a "S-" ranking on the champion.

 Now let's look at the rest of the team.  I am not sure as to the actual grade received by both Orianna and Gragas, but neither of them received an "S" ranking.  Both Ori and Gragas had KPs of 61.8%.  Ori had a KDA of 5.3, the second highest in the game, while Gragas had a KDA of 4.2: still an excellent score.  Gragas' jungle play was phenomenal; he helped Wukong get a leg up in his match-up, bailed Ori out against a tough opponent, and counter-ganked Diana's bottom attempts without missing a beat.  If I had to name one of the people as the largest reason for our cohesion and success, I would have to pin it on Gragas.

 Finally I come to the support role, Morgana. While my KS was low at 8.8%, my KP was the second highest on the team at 64.7%, and my KDA was through the roof at 22.0 (I died so we didn't have to divide by zero).  As for the stats you can't see (and have no way of showing *hint* rito pls fix view stats online), I had easily the most wards placed in the game.  Every back I would make sure I had 2 pinks to place and replace around the map as the objectives called for it.  The vision control we held over the other team allowed us to dominate the map, securing dragons and towers while evading the enemy team.  Early game, I assisted Caitlin in securing multiple double kills while also heading to mid lane to snare the enemy mid laner and helping Orianna get to where she was a serious threat to the enemy front line.

 Despite playing what I felt was a "flawless" game on support Morgana, I received an "A" rank.  Now, if this was a class I'd be ecstatic. However, the current grading system makes this feel more like a "B".  Good job Morgana, you landed some binds; enjoy second place.  This is why I feel there is a flaw in the Mastery system, particularly when both Supports and Junglers are concerned.  In these roles, you don't necessarily want to be getting all the kills and carrying the game.  For these roles, Kill Participation is a much more important stat than Kill Share.  Sure, the carries may have an insanely high amount of kills, but the bindings or flash/bodyslams that allowed for each kill to happen are just as important to winning the game.  

 I suggest that something is changed in the mastery system; clearly having a champion's role predefined by Riot is not the answer.  But how then can we know when a player is playing a champion as a support as opposed to a mid/top? One possible solution is to use the now fully implemented Dynamic Queue system.  In this method, the values that go into calculating your Mastery Score would be determined by the role you accepted when your queue pops.  A Mid role would be governed more by KS and Damage done to champions, while also still accounting for KP and KDA.  A support should be governed more by KP and Wards Placed: things that exemplify a good support.  Moreover, these values and statistics should be weighed not only against your teammates but also the opposing team and the total stats of the game.

 So anyway, this is my case for the Mastery system to be reevaluated for Supports and Junglers.  It's frustrating to have what feels like an amazing game only to have the client tell you you're nothing special.  Combine this with the fact that the Chest/Key system is directly tied to your Mastery Score and it creates serious problems. The system should be updated to synergize with the now mandatory Dynamic Queue, and it should more accurately gauge and value the Support and Jungle roles. Thanks for reading!