Moral Hazard of Surrendering at 15

There seems to be a common lament about players being "held hostage" in unwinnable games. I've spoken at length before about how I disagree with that mindset. I'd like to touch on a related point.

'Surrender at 15' makes losing games too painless.

There is a feedback loop between behavior, results, and expectations. Many players expect games to be quick. They perceive that the game so favors an early lead that if one team gets that lead, the other team may rush to surrender. If some teammates resist surrender, those expecting a quick game often argue or tilt, creating the result that they expect - a swift loss. That reinforces the expectation that the loss was inevitable, that the surrender request was correct, and that early surrender is the "correct" way to play.

And why shouldn't they do that? A substantial fraction of the player base will surrender between 15-20 minutes. Even from a statistical point of view, players are "correct" to expect a swift decision in "every" game. The availability and popularity of early surrender reinforces this unfortunate trend. You either win hard and fast or reset and try again.

I'm not arguing that every game is winnable. In fact, if teams are balanced correctly, you should be losing about half of the games you play. But if you become so demoralized at the first setback that you basically give up, then you are a major reason why small setbacks result in unwinnable games.

Would anybody like to make the case that "Surrender after champion select" should be a thing? I certainly don't. I'm here to play League of Legends. Sure, losing is a little bit less fun than winning and getting steamrolled is a lot less fun. But it's also a lot less fun when so many players have such a strong expectation of 15-20 minute games that they will self-regulate to ensure they get that expected result.