ELO / MMR factor for multiplayer
There are so many boosted and scripting players in gold to low diamond range it has ruined the game. With the continue "anti-aggressive playing" nerfs (i.e. assassin nerfs), the game play has really gone down hill. I wonder if Riot has ever explored a ranking system that comprises social feedback.
The majority of the games i play now in gold to plat are all one sided. One team inevitably has one or more player who just doesn't carry their weight. Maybe this is by design; queuing players into losing match-ups serves Riot's best interests. I think most of us just want to play a game where a player doesn't feed, spout racial epithets and then afk (this is seriously about 5-10% of my match-ups).
I believe a fundamental flaw exists in either the queuing system or the player ranking. I'm sure the MMR/ELO system in use was never designed for games with 10 players. How do you determine if a player is better or worse when it's a team function? How many accounts above diamond3 that have low win counts?
What the games need is an aspect of MMR that accounts for social feedback. Subjective plus or minus feedback from team mates that is factored into win-loss player rates. This would all but eliminate the aspects of a smurf account. Its pretty clear to gamers when one player has map awareness, skill shot dodging and general champion/game mechanics understanding above the match-ups MMR.
Apply as much machine learning as you want and it will always pale in comparison to human feedback.