Idea's for an improved Solo Q ranking system, stat pages, and more.
First off, I know alot of people are going to point at my rank being bronze. Alright, fair enough. Before I even get into the situation, lets put that to rest. I'm carrying myself out of bronze, but I only play a few games a day, maybe 1-2 tops. Not often. I had a 13 or more win streak as Diana, and I'm keeping with that trend. If I really wanted I could get myself into gold in 2 days if I just sat there and played all day.
However, I hope most of you will have the wisdom, and intelligence to not just use my rank as a blanket insult/dismissal and instead look at what I have to say.
Now onto the meat of the situation.
There are problems with the current ranking system. Some people getting carried up by friends, who then ruin ranked games for others.
Smurfs who'll go in and pad their stats, MMR by carrying themselves from bronze to whatever elo they are.
Or people who just go into ranked to not really care, or who aren't really trying, afk alot, etc. or decide to try a new champ with 0 games on it, cuz "Reasons".
All of these and more issues have become an unfortunate "norm", and I don't feel like they should be. I feel like there is a solution to many of this, that would make the ranking system less toxic, less grindy, but still get you to where you belong, and not an inch higher.
The ranking system works very well for pre made 5 man squads, but is atrocious and very incorrect when it comes to Solo Q. This is a TEAM game after all, and you being 100% ranked based off of 4 other randoms is.. well not right.
How do you rank the person who carried the team? Or rank the person who got carried?
I believe I have the solution for this.
**Stats, and personal Skill level. **
There are many things which make a good player. AVG CS per minute, K/D/A, winning lanes, making plays, taking objectives, wards and wards destroyed, etc.
These are stats which the ranking system for Solo Q ranking the individual can work from.
- Damage to objectives
- CS per minute
- Kills
- Deaths
- Assists
- Wards Placed
- Wards Destroyed
- Number of quadruple/Penta kills
- Over all damage done
- Over all damage healed/mitigated/taken (For healers/supports/tanks)
- CC's that lead to enemy deaths
(Note: These are not all 1:1 equal stats. Some will mean more based on lane/position. etc. or might not even be counted at all depending on the position you play)
These alone though do not mean much. You need to have a comparison.
Averages of the Tiers and LP rewards
Pro players have an average of cs per minute, etc. as an example. This and a few other stats all have an average by rank. Bronze, to silver, to gold, to platinum, Diamond, challenger, each rank has their own "averages".
Each game you would be compared to your current ranks "Averages", and be rated based off of that. If you play exceptionally higher, you get rewarded for it, if you play lower, you get punished for it.
If say you are playing in Bronze as a smurf, you are doing exceptionally well, and are averaging way higher than any bronze could dream in all stats, and doing 90% of the objective damages, objectives, etc. you may gain extra LP credit during a win depending on what "average" you placed in. So instead of 18-20 LP perhaps you'll gain 30+ based on your performance, averages, etc.
But what about Mr. Got carried? Perhaps a friend boosted him up, and he's now playing alone. He fed a bunch, got abysmal CS per minute and is averaging bronze level of play consistently in a gold I match. He will begin to be punished, seeing much lower LP gains from wins, and much higher LP losses during losses.
Note: These are immediate comparisons, within a few games, or every promo win. Right now there is a system that rewards less LP, or more LP based off of a few things, but that mechanic is very slow, grindy and isn't an immediate reward/punishment, but something that takes weeks to influence.
Examples of the ranking system in action
These are examples of how I envision this ranking system to work using several real life examples.
These are 4 examples. 1 of a person who plays at his average elo the whole time. 2nd a person who plays at their level exceptionally in lower ranks, but breaks even just at it, 3rd a person who plays at a high elo in low ranks, but doesn't continue to meet it, and plays less at higher ranks, and 4th a person who is currently getting carried by a friend.
Example 1: Mr. Challenger starts up a new smurf. He goes into Solo Q to climb. He plays 3 games and gets into promo's, and during those promo's he continues to play at challenger level of averages. Decimating everything and solo carrying each team in bronze by a very large margin.
The Ranking system compares his averages, games, stats, etc, to the ranks averages and finds he's won with a 98%, and has a challenger level of averages or even better. The ranking system then places him into Platinum III 0LP, skipping Bronze, Silver, and Gold.
He continues to play and gets to Platinum I promo and continues to play at challenger level of averages, with a 80%+ win rate, and still showing much higher skill level through stats, and averages. The Ranking system then bumps him to Master V 0 LP Skipping Diamond. (He's put in master V since that's the elo just under the elo he's averaging as).
While In Master V he continues to play at Challenger level, but does not get bumped or skipped again as his average, while still better than Master, does not exceptionally exceed it.
Example 2:
Ms. Diamond is playing in a new season, after everything has been reset. She gets placed in Bronze II. Through her games, similar to Mr. Challenger, she's exceeding the averages by a very large margin, and solo carrying games averaging the 90% of the teams killls, exceptionally high K/D/A and exceptional CS per minute with diamond level averages, and a 100% W/R
After her bronze I Promo she skips Silver, and is placed into Gold V 0 LP. She again plays with exceptionally high averages, however, her averages have significantly dropped as well, only just barely beating the Gold level averages and on the bare minimum for Diamond averages. She doesn't skip anymore, and continues playing through Gold normally and gets into Diamond.
Example 3:
Mr Gold is playing in bronze V. Again like the others, he's blowing the averages out of the water for bronze players, and carrying teams. However the ranking system see's that while he's playing at Gold averages, he's only barely beating them despite being 2 ranks lower than he should be. While gaining large amounts of LP for his wins, he doesn't skip Silver, it boosts him to bronze I. After his exceptional games, and promo wins while still gaining bonus's to his LP per wins, it boosts him to Silver III, where his averages have dipped yet again. He is no longer playing at gold level anymore, and is averaging silver. He then stays in silver, gaining normalized LP gains and losses in matches.
Example 4:
Mr Got Carried, is duoing with his friend Mrs. Carried. Together they started in Bronze V, but Mrs Carried is playing much better her friend. Together She carries him into Silver, however she is playing exceptionally well and a very high gold average player, while he is breaking bare minimum for bronze still.
During their games, she is recieving much higher LP than her friend, who doesn't belong in that elo, and despite him winning as many games as her, she advances to Gold V, while he is still in Silver III, with the gains between them increasing significantly each time.
**Personal Stat Page: **
So here's where the real bread and butter, most awesome section comes in. Your personal stat page. It's something to help you get better, see hwere you're struggling in averages, and help you climb the ranks.
Basically the page would list your personal averages, what elo average you're averaging in each specific stat. (Some of us are better at some things than others), and even what position averages you're averaging.
Perhaps you're playing at a gold average for jungler, but your ADC averages are bronze, etc. With a break down of where your weaknesses are.
Perhaps your CS per minute is lower than it should be, but your Kill participation, pressure, and objective damage is great. etc.
Coupled with this ranking system, this page would be even more beneficial, helpful, and over all a welcome addition in my humble opinion.
** Final Thoughts. TLDR **
The final thoughts on this, and the reason I came up with this style of ranking system that compares your personal stats, participation, etc. is as I mentioned before, to combat many of the problems with the current ranking system that ruins games for others.
With this ranking system.
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People won't stay in elo's they don't belong for very long.
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People who get carried by smurfs etc. will not gain an equal amount of LP for the win, as it's based off of personal score and skill based on the elo/ranks average.
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People who are playing exceptionally well will get through ranks faster as it will be less dependent on their teams skill level and more dependent on them and where they belong.
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People will have a better understanding of where their strengths/weaknesses are, and understand why they are/deserve the elo they are in.
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People cannot get carried indefinitely by friends much better than them, and will eventually get to a point where the friend can no longer carry them due to the system.
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People who have gotten carried, will quickly drop back down to where they belong, even skipping ranks, (going from Diamond to Gold to bronze if they are continuously playing at a very low bronze average elo in ranks much higher than that).
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Hopefully as well with a better understanding of the global averages, seeing that on a stat page, compared to your own stats, etc. for the elo, it will minimize the amount of flaming/rage in games, as well as help normalize the skill level between players quicker and reduce the toxicity.
