League of Legends vs. Halo 5 (Ranking System)
Halo 5 has the same ranking system as League: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Onyx(Master), and Professional(Challenger).
I don't want to talk about either game's gameplay at all; I want to point out some things about the system behind the gameplay that I feel League could learn from. The title is dumb and potentially misleading, I get it. I love League of Legends. I also love the Halo series. Here are some observations I've had in two weeks of Halo that have given me a more enjoyable gaming experience:
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Games can be won after a teammate leaves. I'm not talking about 5% of the time. I'm talking like 45% of the time. Sometimes, a team will do better after a feeder leaves. League's current system prevents a team with less players from standing more than a fractional chance at victory. It's not an impossible fix. Maybe prevent the 5 team from having 5 champions on the map while the enemy has a disconnect. Trap the 5th in the fountain until someone dies. The trapped played still earns gold, can ping, communicate, etc. This gives the team with more an advantage, gold and awareness wise, but on the field lets the game play out as a 4v4. The idea is drawn from disconnects in bot games. **Solution: Implement a system that allows for 4v5 to be winnable. **
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Players can place into any rank after 10 promo matches as long as they can win games at that level of mmr. A new player squares off against Silver. Victory gives them a chance to try at Gold. Loss drops the player back to Silver, victory sends them up to Plat. With the current League system, a player needs to go 9-0 to even see enemy Gold in their game. If you can win 9 promotional matches in a row, you're not being challenged enough and should get a better opportunity to climb. A Silver player can go on winning streaks anywhere in the Silver tier. A Silver player won't be able to win consistently at Gold tier.** Solution: Give seasonal promotional matches the ability to place players higher as long as they can keep winning consistently.**
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Leavers and trolls receive penalty timers immediately after the game ends. If you leave a game in progress, you get an automatic timer that prevents you from joining another game. If you keep leaving, the number goes up. League has this only when a player leaves a queue. The fact it doesn't exist for someone who leaves a game feels insane to me. Trolls can be booted from a game in progess by teammates and also receive timer penalties. See my point above for the solution to 4v5s for those who would oppose booting a feeder/troll. These f/ts can be detected by gold income rate, low time spent alive, item purchase patterns - plenty of ingame data. Solution: PUNISH LEAVERS MORE STRICTLY. PUNISH TROLLS MORE STRICTLY. RIOT PLEASE.
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There are no promotional games between tiers or divisions. If you win 3-4 games in a row, you're going to rank up. If you win 7/10 games, you're going to rank up. None of this "you won 3-4 in a row, so now win 2/3 to prove you're good enough". League's current system requires a player to win 80%+ of games to prove they're good enough to win 50%+ of games. That doesn't make any sense. If you're steadily winning 50%+, what else do you need to prove? No one looks forward to divisional promos. Players dread them. Players hate them. It's not fun or exciting. Solution: Get rid of divisional promos. (Keep tier promos, I don't care. Those can stay.)
I love League of Legends. I love the competition and the nuance and the variety of skill required. I also hate certain aspects of the ranked ladder system and I'm finding more enjoyment playing another game that has the same ranked system but pulls it off better. Riot, learn from the other companies out there that use the same ranking system. There's a better way to make ranked fun for your playerbase. I don't want to stop playing League... I'm just getting tired of the crap, you know? If you play the game, you know the crap I'm talking about. I'm just tired of it and I don't see any real efforts on your part to fix it.
I don't care about toxic players all that much. You gave me a mute button! Thank you! Toxic player problem solved. Please fix toxic gameplay and toxic feel to ranked system. Thank you.