What exactly is the difference between sides?

Myrza··2 votes·1,930 views

Alright, so I'm a level 30, but I don't play ranked, and I am definitely not amazing at the game, but after searching around, I keep finding stuff about the game putting people on different sides of the map for several reasons. What are these reasons? I read something about putting people with low MMR on the blue side to make it 'balanced', and being me, I have no idea what MMR is either. Some please explain?

P.S. Sorry if I put this in the wrong board section, but I really have no idea where to put this.

12 Comments

redniwediS2 votes

Red side has a natural and slight disadvantage, due to objective and UI placements. To balance this out the red team usually has a slightly higher MMR (matchmaking rating). It's supposed to be a very small thing, so that over the course of many games it doesn't effect your win/loss ratio between red and blue side.

Whether it works is a matter of debate, but that's how it's supposed to work.

Myrza1 votes

Thanks! But...isn't it just a mirror or the blue side? I mean, each minion wave is pretty much the same (without modifiers) and the jungle monsters are just mirrored and flipped. I'm not sure I quite understand fully... Probably just because I'm used to playing on the blue side from bots...? ^^'

redniwediS2 votes

The big things are the UI and the big neutral objectives.

On blue side the UI, with your skills and minimap, is on the bottom, which ends up covering part of the screen that is not normally important to you.

On red side the UI is also on the bottom, which covers the direction your opponent is normally coming from. It results in situations where, for a split second at least, your opponent can see you but you can't see them.

Dragon and Baron also have small differences in the way their area is set up. Red team has a more natural path to the opening of Dragon pit, giving them an open area to fight in if blue team is contesting it. This allows blue team to control the area a bit better if they get there first, but also makes it harder for them to escape if the fight goes wrong.

Blue team, on the other hand, has easier access to the wall of Dragon pit. This gives them the upper hand when trying to steal, and if done properly blue team can collapse on red team easier if red team is contesting dragon.

All of this also applies to Baron, although the team colors are switched. Dragon and Baron have historically been early and late game objectives, respectively, which gives one team an easier time securing objectives in the early game, and one team an easier time in the late game. Riot is attempting to fix this by adjusting what sort of benefit Dragon gives, and adding an early game objective (Rift Herald) to Baron pit. Needless to say it's still a work in progress.

Myrza1 votes

Ah, I see. I think I understand a little more now, thank you!

BloodyTompon1 votes

It's something that exists but you can't really 'feel' it. You don't go 'shit I lost that fight because I was on Red side'.

The TL:DR about it is don't worry about what side. They balance the side out through matchmaking so you have 50% win chance on either side.

Myrza1 votes

Haha, alright then.

BloodyTompon1 votes

It's not a matter of debate at all. It's 50% after the adjusted MMR. It works and it works very well.

redniwediS1 votes

Certain groups on the boards would disagree. I wouldn't, because you're following the reasonable side of thinking on this one, but certain groups would.

JayHog19921 votes

MMR is what defines how worthy are you to other oponents. A bronze MMR will match you with bronze players while gold MMR will match you with gold players and so on.

Basicaly it's what defines what oponents you should be facing in ranked.

Myrza1 votes

Thank you!

Quepha1 votes

Pre-game: Blue side has first ban and first pick (although that also means red gets more counterpicks)

Strategically: Because of how the map is mirrored there are differences. Blue side has control of the jungle around the edge of dragon but Red has more direct paths from base (and vice versa for rift herald/baron). Blue can gank top lane through tri brush while Red can gank bot lane through tri brush.

Tactically: Blue side has a better camera angle to see farther into red territory at any given time and when centering the camera on your champ (or playing with camera lock) means the UI covers up less-important screen real estate. This is probably the most important factor and is also one that almost completely disappears at high elo as players learn better camera movement habits.

xCupid1 votes

Yea, red side usually has better people because of the map advantage. Blue usually doesn't even have to unlock their screen whiles red usually always has to unlock it. Hope this helps.

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