On Lobby Hijacking
Look, I originally intended on posting this to the League of Legends subreddit, but they have a rule against specifically addressing Riot, and this is definitely addressed at Riot Games--Mostly.
When I queue up to play a game in ranked, I don't really have a lot of expectations. They are as follows:
- I will be given a role. It will be either top or ADC, my main roles, or I will be autofilled.
- If I am autofilled, I expect not to be autofilled for a few games. I will play a game as autofill to the best of my ability or dodge in order to avoid autofill. The reason I won't just hijack the lobby is because I'm afraid of Riot banning me for my foul deeds.
- My teammates will understand that this is the case, and have queued up understanding these rules.
In short: There's a bit of an unspoken social contract here between me and my soon-to-be teammates. If I am autofilled, I'll still try to play the game even though I won't be the best, and I expect the same of them. If I don't play by the rules, Riot will ban me and I won't be allowed to play any more. This is the only way for the autofill system as it is to function. If the rule of autofill is not followed, then the system does not function. If even a small fraction of players consistently refused to follow the rules of autofill, then ranked would collapse and become unplayable.
The issue I'm posting about here is that although it is rare, you'll still come across players who hijack the lobby. In theory, Riot has made statements before that this behavior is bannable. However, this isn't really made clear to players. What exactly is there to stop me, when I join a lobby, from attempting to hijack it and force the other players into giving me my role? I have effectively broken the social contract expected of me, but the other players are now suddenly captives. Their options are as follows:
- Give me what I want and play a role they don't want to
- Refuse to give me what I want and either dodge, giving them a timer and punishing them for refusing to allow me to ruin their game, or they can just play with me and report me after.
This is basically completely unacceptable. By the time there's an opportunity for any "justice" to be done, the game is over, I've lost my LP, and the player has probably not even received a clear message that what they did was wrong. As a matter of fact, there isn't even a relevant report category that can be used to specifically filter and target behavior like this.
There's multiple solutions to this, but autofill absolutely cannot function as a system to make games quicker to play if it is not enforced. By the looks of the current system, autofill is either not being enforced or not being enforced harshly enough. It needs to be made absolutely clear that autofill is not optional or a suggestion, and Riot cannot tolerate players refusing to abide by the autofill system. It ruins games and negatively affects overall ranking, and can make players feel as though they're totally wasting their time.
Some detailed suggestions to fix this issue:
- Adopt a no tolerance policy on lobby hijacking and role stealing. Players found to attempt role hijacking or successfully do it in a game should be banned permanently with no leniency whatsoever. Again: This behavior is on the same level as intentionally feeding, and cannot be tolerated if you want a competitive game.
- Implement a report-in-lobby function. Potential for abuse, but there's ways around this--For example, reporting in lobby could only have an impact if someone is consistently reported and found via an independent Riot investigation that their behavior is legitimately toxic. Players that meet both thresholds should be rare, meaning that there are few false positives.
- A specific report category should be added in the post-game screen that specifically targets this behavior, and searches pregame chat, role pick, summoner spells, and position on the map throughout the game (Tools we've seen that Riot has access to) to determine if the player was legitimately role-stealing.
- Riot needs to clearly communicate with the community that this behavior is not accepted, and explain how this issue is going to be addressed in a concrete way that impacts players positively.
I appreciate the read, and a red post would definitely go a long way in restoring some faith and letting us know that you guys are paying attention.
