New Ranked "ONLY" Feature.

MyReality·Aug 11, 2017·3 votes·1,013 views

The reason for this post is over the past 200-300 games I've played in Ranked I've observed a disturbing trend that I wish to be fixed. The unfortunate Truth is that especially at the lower ranks i.e Bronze/Silver farming and chasing kills has become the primary objective, "Winning" the game has become secondary. This has become increasingly frustrating because especially in Solo Ranked Queue it has become much harder than it should be to Climb the Ladder. I don't know how it is in Gold/Platinum since I am not there this season but with that being said I wanted to give a report on what I have observed and a possible solution to the problem as well.

Before people rip me a new one saying that you individually need to get good, play champs so you yourself carry the team etc. etc. I would hope that the people reading this post will hear me out first. I personally consider myself a mid ranged Gold player but having a much harder time getting to that point do tot he reasons listed below.

My concern revolves around the disconnect between how I see Ranked and how the general player see's Ranked. I consider Ranked gameplay for the competitive gamer. The sole purpose of Ranked is to Climb the ladder and is all about "Winning". If you aren't Winning you aren't happy. I think everyone understands this concept. Unfortunately many people say "Hey its just a game, it doesn't matter if you win or lose". My answer to this is "NO". Ranked gameplay is solely for those who want to take the game a bit more serious and play in a competitive environment, to me if you want to just "Enjoy" the game then that is what the "Normal" Queue is for or the other game modes.

Right now at the end of a game we have options to Report people mostly based on behavior. They can get limited chat bans all the way up to full game bans but what I wanted was something a bit different. The automated system verifies the reports with the chat logs and makes it's decision. I wish for a similar concept for a way to not only clean up the Ranked Queue's but also to hopefully teach people how to play in the competitive environment. So with that being said I believe there needs to be an added option to the Reporting feature, something along the lines of "Needs Training". Everyone in ranked has played with those individuals that just don't understand the basic concepts of how to win the game effectively or are just too selfish to do so.

The automated system when it gets enough reports on a specific player will go back into the last 20-30 games at least to see if there is consistency to the Reported claims. It would have to look at many different variables to be sure to make an accurate decision. A number of them I could think of revolved around the List Below:

Average Rating (Below a B grade)
CS
Warding
Gold accumulation (Are they keeping up or falling behind consistently)
Objectives per game (Especially Towers/Inhibitors)
K:D (Should be implemented but doesn't necessarily reflect if it had an effect on a win/loss)
Behavior
In-game chat logs showing team asks for their help but they don't or refuse too.

I'm sure there are many more things that could be quantified so the automated system makes an accurate decision. So if you have any more suggestions please post them here and I can add them to the original post.

Now I know people are going to instantly harp on the exceptions such as having a "Bad Game". That's why the automated system needs to look back on the last 20-30 games before it makes a decision.

The Ruling would be is if a player is deemed "Not Up to Snuff" by the automated systems template then they will be locked out of Ranked for 10-20 games or more and given a report on what they need to improve upon and solutions on how to fix their weaknesses. When they go back into Normals and complete their "Training" they will be allowed back into Ranked until such a time comes that they need "Training" again if at all.

If a Toxic player is unwilling to abide by this structure and just straight up refuses to change their gameplay causing hardship for all the teams they are in then maybe they are banned from Ranked for that season all together.

I believe the mindset of Ranked gameplay should be addressed at the beginning of a new season that not everyone that plays LoL will qualify for Ranked play and that is why the other game modes exist. If people know this going in then as a new season starts they might rethink to themselves on how they should be playing in Ranked games.

So to summarize,

New Report Option (Based on player skill and behavior)
Automated system needs overhaul to accommodate new "Report" feature
Admins and Community base need to be well informed on how 'New Ranked" system will work.
Every other Game Mode other than Ranked won't be affected.

I understand that for the developers this would be a pretty major overhaul to the game but at this time I do believe that it is something that is needed.

Thank You for your time,

MyReality

34 Comments

AraMoOseAug 11, 20173 votes

Gigantic wall of text = no

I can synthesize your novel here in the following sentence :

I want other people to play the game the way I want them to play, do you think Riot should overhaul their game to please ME!????

My answer is no.

MyRealityAug 11, 20171 votes

IMO I believe Ranked should be treated differently than the other game modes. If someone wants to do their own thing and just have fun have at it! Just do it in Normals or ARAM.

In Ranked there is always 4 other people you need to think about not just yourself.

AraMoOseAug 11, 20172 votes

{quoted}

IMO I believe Ranked should be treated differently than the other game modes. If someone wants to do their own thing and just have fun have at it! Just do it in Normals or ARAM.

In Ranked there is always 4 other people you need to think about not just yourself.

I every game there are 4 other people you need to think about not just yourself.

MyRealityAug 11, 20171 votes

This is true, Norms though are for not just enjoying the game but testing new characters and combo's so the feel is quite a bit different. In an ideal world even in norms you would hope that people are taking the other players into account.

Kei143Aug 11, 20172 votes

So.. at the extreme cases of the top MMR, all the top players just want to stay at the top, so they report everyone else every game as 'needs training' and suddenly these top players can't play ranked anymore.

If you are having trouble as a mid gokd player in bronze, learn better side lane wave management and choke the game out of the bronzies when they chase for kills.

MyRealityAug 11, 20171 votes

You are misunderstanding something. Just because someone gets reported wouldn't mean they would be locked out of Ranked. The persons Overall performance and behavior would decide that not simply based on a Report.

You have to remember Reporting someone is simply bringing to light a "Possible" infraction. It doesn't condemn someone to being automatically guilty with no basis.

GreatWhiteNorthAug 11, 20172 votes

I read it an realized that you are trying to deal with a problem that doesn't exist.

Most trolls of this kind only exist in people's minds.

MyRealityAug 11, 20171 votes

It's because I've played over 300 games in this bracket that I understand the types of players in it. Just like people learn the nuances of the games I've observed a lot in the Bronze/Silver brackets and wish to see improvements based on what I have posted.

Kitty Cat ToshaAug 11, 20172 votes

You do realize that even with all this in place, you will still lose 50% of your games or more if you don't improve yourself?

MyRealityAug 11, 20171 votes

I already know what I need to improve for myself. That still doesn't mean that what I have been observing isn't true. I wish for people to give an honest take on the idea and not just shut it down outright because they think someone else is just complaining about losing.

SavageConcordiaAug 11, 20172 votes

Your criteria that I take exception with:

Average Rating (Below a B grade)

CS
Warding
Gold accumulation (Are they keeping up or falling behind consistently)
Objectives per game (Especially Towers/Inhibitors)
K:D (Should be implemented but doesn't necessarily reflect if it had an effect on a win/loss)

Why?

Rating can be artificially inflated by afk farming
You complain that at low elo people put more emphasis on cs and kills versus objectives but now you list CS as something they should be judged on? Again, this promotes afk farming if you are otherwise having a bad game to protect yourself
This will be, I assume, based on vision score? Well champs like will be artificially inflated (ward hoping) and it will punish the swapping of trinkets by anyone but support or people building because destroying wards (while important) is much less of a sure thing for vision compared to keeping your yellow and warding.
Compared to what? You can't compare across the team or support and jungle will always be punished and you can't compare across roles because you will fall behind in 50% of your games
The game doesn't record objective "assists" only kills. What if you have a split pushing champ ( ) they will have relatively higher objective kills than anyone else. Also winning a game with 0 objective kills is not unusual. In a game I lost recently, the enemy support got 0 objective kills, would you report them for that?
Wayyyyy to easy to manipulate. You get an early lane kill bot, you notice the top, mid and jungle all just died. Better afk farm to protect your KDA and buff points 1 and 2, no way you will get punished now!

TLDR: Your system would allow people to avoid punishment by afk farming and in some cases just be really hard to legitimately enforce

MyRealityAug 11, 20171 votes

Im not really sure where you are getting the idea of afk farming in Ranked. This feature is for as the title says, "Ranked Only". You mentioned the game doesn't record certain things as well. Well that's simple it can be made too. Also I made the list of the many things that have to be taken into account before a "Training Lockout" takes place.

I think many of you are misunderstanding that you could get locked out of Ranked just because of 1 area you might be lacking in. The automated system would grade your OVERALL performance not just s single infraction.

It's the same with reporting for behavior. Just because 9 people report you doesn't mean anything will happen. The chat logs prove whether you deserve a ban or not in that instance.

SavageConcordiaAug 11, 20171 votes

Im not really sure where you are getting the idea of afk farming in Ranked.

If a system like this were in place at least half of the metrics you want to use (CS, rating and gold accumulation) can all be manipulated by walking into a lane away from the action and just csing once you deem a game "unwinable". The ones that aren't able to be manipulated (objectives, warding and KDA) are all going to be heavily influenced by if your team is winning.

MyRealityAug 11, 20171 votes

Good you are listing things that can help elaborate on the new function to make it more precise. As I said before this would be a big undertaking. Many variables would have to be listed and overcome, the difference between characters, lanes, and roles plus many more things.

Thank you for your input.

SubdueAug 11, 20172 votes

This whole post is a huge oxymoron. You open with "People are too focused on things other than winning," and then suggest that they should be penalized for not focusing on things other than winning.

Also, what you "consider" yourself is irrelevant. What is relevant is where you can win and where you can't. And if you can't win consistently in Bronze or Silver, then you probably belong in Bronze or Silver. Keep in mind that it has already been proven both by extravagant experiment, such as players dropping their MMRs all the way down to Bronze level only to rocket their way back up, by people actually making money off of taking accounts from Bronze all the way to higher ratings (Elo Boosters), as well as by empirical evidence, as each time players are reset with the seasons, they soon find themselves back up at around the same bracket.

MyRealityAug 11, 20171 votes

What very talented gamers do is whats irrelevent to me. I fully understand there are people who can just coast through the lower ranks at their own liesure because they are that good. That doesnt take away from the fact that there are also many in Ranked who just don't understand how to Win and play properly not just for themselves but their team as well.

This whole post wouldnt affect those people that are really good. Would mainly help the middle of the row group.

ValyrianBladeAug 11, 20171 votes

I think if you're capable of giving an honest assessment of yourself (which most people aren't) your belief of where you belong is probably far more accurate than where you actually are, until you've played something in the ballpark of 500 games in the season.

I started flex this season in bronze. It took me 3 or 4 attempts to get through my promo series despite the free wins. I actually didn't get out until i switched to mid Lane, at which point i maintained about an 80% win rate straight to gold. As a top laner though, i couldn't win. Every game was about 50%, even though i won my Lane every game. It didn't matter - going 2/0/0 with +60cs on my Lane opponent and +30cs on the next highest player on the map meant nothing when there were 20 kills elsewhere already.

I am, was at the time, and have been in previous seasons, a high gold to plat level top laner. Don't let my gold 5 rankings each season confuse that - i only ever played ranked to get rewards and got to gold with few games played, and played with gold 1 to plat 3 opponents in each season while gaining 25-28Lp per win. My mmr is also incredibly high in normal Draft (the last time a site provided a check it said i was at the 1.15th percentile). People claim normal means nothing, but those people treat normal like nothing and hence aren't at high normal elo. I've played with masters and challengers in normals, with them on their mains, and won against them sometimes even. I'm not saying they're going all out or that I'm a master - calibre player (or even diamond for that matter) but i am saying that the competition in my normal games puts my ranked games to shame.

The whole point of this is to say that the skills it takes to succeed in low elo are very different from what it takes to succeed in high elo. In high elo i can reliably play Lane very passively and develop a farm lead and come out of nowhere in the mid game and go from 1/0/0 to 7/1/2 and proceed to win the game. In low elo i can enter mid game 4/0/0 and die repeatedly to the enemy's 8/0/0 mid laner or 12/0/0 adc and lose. Recognizing that and switching to a role with more early presence and carrying from there instead helped me out, but that doesn't mean I'm only a bronze calibre top laner because i couldn't climb out of bronze playing top (even though I'm doing fine in gold as a top laner). And for some people, i have no doubt that aggressive early games just don't suit them, and thus they COULD be gold calibre but unable to climb from bronze/silver because their playstyle only offers very slightly better than 50-50 odds at winning.

It's really unfortunate that high elo skills can be detrimental in low elo. In high elo seeing your solo Lane opponent open for an obvious free kill often means they're baiting for their jungler, whereas in low elo it means you can kill them. High elo restraint will hold you back in low elo.

MyRealityAug 11, 20171 votes

Thank you for the input, at the end of the day this post was to help the community as a whole improve their play not just be a way to ban people from Ranked.

SecondAirbaneAug 12, 20171 votes

normals will NEVER be the same as ranked the challengers u met were probably just messing around with new builds and shit cause thats all normals is supposed to be used for is testing new stuff and leveling up new accounts

if you beat a challenger player in RANKED then tell me ive beaten diamonds in normals before when i was silver

normals mean nothing

ValyrianBladeAug 13, 20171 votes

And then you're yet another player that's not at high normal elo.

My point (as I explicitly stated) wasn't that I was challenger level or even diamond level, but simply that the level of play in my normal matches is higher than the level of play in my ranked matches. Which makes a lot of sense when third party websites that access the API (against Riot's terms of use, so they get shut down) say I'm around the top 1% of normal players. Just because MOST diamond+ players don't try at all in normals, doesn't mean some don't use it as a reasonable training grounds. They may be trying something different, but they're still trying. And I know because I'll never forget the game where I played ADC against a challenger adc and with a challenger support - I've never in my life been harassed that much in lane. I was completely dominated and it took everything I had to just not die. However I also had a mid and jungle from one of the college LOL teams on my team and they came to camp for my lane and we ended up winning. I don't think for a second I didn't get hard carried, but the people in that game actually played and I experienced what that level of play was.

SecondAirbaneAug 13, 20171 votes

im not at high norms mmr cause i dont give a fuck about it

i just try to learn new champs but then again people like you flame me for doing that so i 1trick if i ever see you in my game you'll be giving me mid :)

atleast in ranked i dont get flamed cause im GOOD at the champ i play

ValyrianBladeAug 13, 20171 votes

I don't flame people for trying a new champion in normals. All I ask is that they try their best to win once we're in the game. I could care less if you first time a champion in a normal match.

However while you use normals to learn new champions (and I do sometimes, although I'll start out in intermediate bots to get the feel of last hitting and how my abilities work before I move to normal draft), I primarily used it as an environment to practice. Even professional sports teams have practice. I'm not going to just repeatedly go in to ranked matches and never practice.

And since practice is pointless if you don't take it seriously, I try-hard in those normal matches. Which results in my normal MMR rising.

MyRealityAug 11, 20171 votes

I understand that it's very easy to just close one's mind and not give an idea some thought. I was hoping that people could check their judgement at the door and try to give some constructive thoughts as to how this new feature could work.

SubdueAug 12, 20171 votes

It can't work. In fact, not only can it not work, it actually exacerbates the 'problem' that you think you've identified.

MyRealityAug 12, 20171 votes

Explain.

SubdueAug 12, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Explain.

Okay... You stated:

The unfortunate Truth is that especially at the lower ranks i.e Bronze/Silver farming and chasing kills has become the primary objective, "Winning" the game has become secondary.

And then you stated:

The automated system when it gets enough reports on a specific player will go back into the last 20-30 games at least to see if there is consistency to the Reported claims. It would have to look at many different variables to be sure to make an accurate decision. A number of them I could think of revolved around the List Below:

Average Rating (Below a B grade)

CS

Warding

Gold accumulation (Are they keeping up or falling behind consistently)

Objectives per game (Especially Towers/Inhibitors)

K:D (Should be implemented but doesn't necessarily reflect if it had an effect on a win/loss)

Behavior

In-game chat logs showing team asks for their help but they don't or refuse too.

So you want to stop players from making farming and chasing kills the primary objective by penalizing them for not farming and killing enough?

This is common sense dude...

MyRealityAug 13, 20171 votes

Seeing as you are the second person to make the same misunderstanding seems I just wasn't clear enough. You are correct that a certain level of farming and to an extent getting kills is important but not to the extent it hinders the game itself. Some examples of this are after a team fight not taking advantage of destroying towers or if there is not enough time to make it to a tower a dragon/baron objective.

Many people want to scatter to continue farming or go back to get their items when they have time to make an impact in the game. Other examples include refusing to go for an inhibitor when you are right there and people either again scatter to farm, get items, or even run all the way back to baron/dragon because they think that is more important than an inner tower/inhibitor.

There is a time and a place for everything. What I was trying to explain is that when during a game when you and your team clearly have the advantage to push the game more in your favor many Bronze/Silver players instead prefer to farm and chase kills hence wasting their opportunities to win. A lot of the time it allows a team that never should be allowed back into the game drag it out and push for their own win. Happens far to often to be a coincidence.

SubdueAug 13, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Seeing as you are the second person to make the same misunderstanding seems I just wasn't clear enough. You are correct that a certain level of farming and to an extent getting kills is important but not to the extent it hinders the game itself. Some examples of this are after a team fight not taking advantage of destroying towers or if there is not enough time to make it to a tower a dragon/baron objective.

Many people want to scatter to continue farming or go back to get their items when they have time to make an impact in the game. Other examples include refusing to go for an inhibitor when you are right there and people either again scatter to farm, get items, or even run all the way back to baron/dragon because they think that is more important than an inner tower/inhibitor.

There is a time and a place for everything. What I was trying to explain is that when during a game when you and your team clearly have the advantage to push the game more in your favor many Bronze/Silver players instead prefer to farm and chase kills hence wasting their opportunities to win. A lot of the time it allows a team that never should be allowed back into the game drag it out and push for their own win. Happens far to often to be a coincidence.

No, I understood what you meant. How would the system differentiate between when you should be farming and when you should be taking an inhibitor?

A game is made up of many decisions, none of which can be boiled down to a simple always or never. Even something as simple as dying is not black and white. Sometimes even dying can be the right decision. Given that level of infinite complexity, any system that attempts to assign a value to something other than winning or losing is by definition flawed.

MyRealityAug 14, 20171 votes

Like I have said many time a low of statistics and variables would have to be put in to make a template for in "general" where people should be stat wise. Based on progression of the game mainly based around time, all the things I've listed before and many others that I might not have forseen. To back that up would be the in-game chat logs.

Riot already has a system like this in place they would just have to expand upon it. So it's more of a reason of having the correct data collected for accurate decisions to be made.

SubdueAug 15, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Like I have said many time a low of statistics and variables would have to be put in to make a template for in "general" where people should be stat wise. Based on progression of the game mainly based around time, all the things I've listed before and many others that I might not have forseen. To back that up would be the in-game chat logs.

Riot already has a system like this in place they would just have to expand upon it. So it's more of a reason of having the correct data collected for accurate decisions to be made.

You completely ignored my point and just repeated yours. ** Any system that bases rewards and penalties on anything other than winning or losing creates incentives for actions that do not contribute to winning.**

The system Riot has in place is for observation, not for affecting matchmaking or rewards and penalties.

MyRealityAug 15, 20171 votes

I'm not here to argue, just to have a constructive conversation about how this idea can work. Thank you for your opinion.

AnshenKAug 11, 20171 votes

This is by far one of the best posts this board has ever had. OP understands the purpose of the queues and has provided a solution to "casuals in competitive".

+1 my friend.

MyRealityAug 11, 20171 votes

Thank you, I know its a long read but to me the idea is just a rough draft. I'm sure there are many things that I'm not taking into account and i want to know what I might be missing to make this idea viable.

MyRealityAug 12, 20171 votes

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