tl;dr: DQ could work if and only if you can ONLY early LP from queuing solo. And then a bunch of changes to make that work.

Note: This is essentially club ranked version 2. You might be interested in reading that first (warning: it's long) or read this (shorter) first and read that afterward if you want.

This post is meant to be skimmable

Key points are in bold. Read only them if skimming. Normal text will contain arguments that strengthen my key points, but won't introduce new points, so you can skip them if skimming.

Reasons people played ranked:

And how those relate to SQ vs DQ

1. For the rank. People want prove how good they are, to themself and to others. This is an intensely solo experience.
   • If you're playing with friends, how do you know whether you deserve the rank or whether they're carrying you?
   • If others can reach your rank by playing with friends, how do you know what your rank is worth?
   • Bottom line: Individual rank can only be meaningful if it is achieved by queueing solo. And it has to be ranked. Duh.
2. To improve. When your opponents are not trying their hardest, they won't punish you as harshly for mistakes, so it's easy to get sloppy.
   • Queueing in a group doesn't prevent you from improving, as long as your opponents are trying their best.
   • Queueing solo gives you feedback to let you know you're improving (rising rank).
     • Champion mastery grades also do this somewhat.
   • Bottom line: In order to improve, queueing solo isn't necessary, though it has some advantages. It is necessary to have opponents who want to win above all else.
3. For the intensity.
   • I said something similar a year ago: I play ranked because it's fun to win against people who are trying their hardest.
   • Playing in and against a coordinated premade 5 can be more intense than playing solo.
     • Same for smaller premades, but at the expense of the solo player(s), at least until we get voice chat.
   • Also requires everyone to be trying their hardest.
   • Bottom line: Intensity benefits from a premade experience, as long as everyone is tryharding.
4. For "The Solo Experience". Carrying through mediation can be really rewarding.
   • When there's no conflict, you can't mediate.
   • It's not for everyone, but there are people (like myself) who enjoy this.
     • I used to start every lobby with "Good evening, everybody. My prefs are mid > supp > top > adc > jg. What are your prefs?" Those three sentences carried me out of silver harder than anything I ever did in game.
   • Bottom Line: You can't have a solo experience in a premade environment.

Riot added DQ because of #3

People wanted the ability to experience that intensity with friends. As I said in my post about club ranked, ranked 5's were a failure in that respect.

I thought DQ couldn't work because of #4

In some ways, I was right. But *I overlooked something: you don't have to offer a solo experience in ranked. * Riot could offer an unranked solo-only mode, like a revamped Team Builder, for people who want to be sheep-herders.

DQ is vulnerable without #1

#2 and #3 exist because ranked is tryhard and competitive. So while they also contribute to ranked being tryhard & competitive, they wouldn't revive ranked if people ever stopped caring. Say, because of a balance catastrophe. They're vulnerable.

#1 will always give people a reason to try. At least, as long as people continue to care about their rank. Right now, though, DQ devalues your personal rank. That's why people are saying DQ could kill ranked. *If DQ doesn't give people a reason to care about their rank in it, DQ becomes vulnerable. * That doesn't mean it will die right away, it means it's possible for it to die, which is scary nonetheless.

Remember in the roundtable, when Riot said they don't think SQ can coexist with DQ? It's not just because DQ needs solos for matchmaking. It's also because SQ will offer a rank that's more valuable than your DQ rank, so why should people continue to care about their DQ rank? DQ becomes vulnerable. And bad queue times/balance because solos have left is exactly the type of thing that can kill a vulnerable queue, turning DQ into the next team ranked.

Does #1 require SQ? Actually, no.

It seems like common sense, that a solo rank requires a solo queue. But there's something we've forgotten: there's actually two parts to ranked: the queue and the ladder. As long as you earned your rank exclusively by queueing solo, and you're only being ranked against people who exclusively queue solo, the integrity of your rank is preserved, even if the queue also contains premades (as long as you're not being ranked against those premades). The solution: you can only earn LP/rank by queueing solo.

Competitiveness in premades remains vulnerable

Since we've given #1 exclusively to solos, premades only have #2 and #3 left. As we said earlier, that's not sustainable; if there's a balance catastrophe and premades stop caring, there's little reason for them to start again.

A new reason for premades to care about ranked: club prestige

We need a permanent reason like #1 for premades to care about winning. Introducing the prestige system

• When you queue in a premade, you earn prestige for the club whose tag you're repping. You earn the same amount of prestige as you would have earned LP.

• Clubs are now organized into Leagues based on the number of people in them. Leagues are removed from the solo ladder.

  • Clubs are ranked against others in their League based on how much prestige their members have earned this season.
    • There is an end of season reward for being in a highly ranked club (say, the top 25% of its league).
    • I'm considering changing this to a playoff/bracket style competition at the end of season, to remove the feeling of "Our club is behind so many points, we'll never catch up. So why should I bother playing ranked?". There might be a better solution, though (like different rewards at different levels, so there's always something to go for); I'm still working out the details.

• Ranked restrictions use your Solo Ladder rank, plus a modifier based on your performance in premades.

  • For the sake of brevity, I'm going to omit the details of how this modifier works. I'll probably end up explaining it in a comment and adding it to the FAQ.

Other advantages and misc QoL improvements

This version retains the key element that makes club ranked great (the prestige system), stays MUCH simpler, and avoids separating queues (for better matchmaking, and also increased chances of this actually happening). Of course I'd also keep the various QoL improvements, like public club chat rooms and larger clubs.

Credit where it's due

This was my original thought, but original thoughts don't mean much unless you figure out the details. I figured out most of the details in this post with Daen.

Questions, Comments, Concerns?

I'll reply to as many comments as I can find time for, and add common and/or insightful ones to the FAQ.

FAQ