Riot Pls: Ranked Pls

Riot·Aug 24, 2016·17 votes·61,552 views

Riot Pls is our ongoing effort to share our vision for League of Legends and to keep players in the loop as to what’s going on back at Riot HQ.

Hey everyone,

New001 here—lead producer on League of Legends—for the ranked edition of Riot Pls.

Dynamic queue is still failing to meet many of your needs. More specifically, it’s undermined competitive integrity at the highest levels of play. It’s taken us too long to get here and we apologize for the delay.

Let’s get straight to it:

TL;DR: For players near the top of the ladder, we’re bringing back solo queue and making a number of other changes focused on competitive integrity. For 2017, we’re developing a new ranked experience that offers legitimate competitive standings for all types of players. We’ll have details on the 2017 features in late September—you can read on for the short-term changes planned.

We’re focused on the top first because that’s where the 2016 ranked season changes have caused the most pain, and where we believe we can take immediate action to address player feedback. Accurate standings are critical when determining the top of the ladder, and we’re committed to addressing that with the following changes:

Challenger tier will shift to pure solo, and Diamond and Master tiers to solo/duo. We’re making this change first at Diamond / Master / Challenger because even minor levels of premade coordination have disproportionate effects on match quality at the highest tiers of ranked, given the limitations of the player pool and the sometimes massive skill disparities between single divisions.

We’re tightening the decay rules in Challenger and Master tier to encourage healthier competition at the highest level of play.

We want to raise the bar on how we recognize players who hit the top of the ladder at the end of the competitive season, so we’re working on new physical rewards for Challenger (more details coming soon).

We’re adding an autofill ‘grace period’ for all players and a guarantee that you’ll never be autofilled during a promotion series. Autofill is essential for ensuring shorter queue times during off-peak hours, but it can be pretty obnoxious if it happens back-to-back (this generally only happened at Master+).

These changes should serve as meaningful steps in the right direction, but we’ll be listening closely for your feedback. They will roll out over the next few patches and will carry forward next season as well.

We’re also currently closing in on our final designs for the 2017 Ranked experience, with the commitment to designing a system that provides legitimate standings for players of all competitive types. It’s clear we made too many trade-offs this year on the Ranked experience, but we think we’re now on a better track. Details are still being finalized, and we’ll have more in September, along with a reveal of our end of season rewards.

Finally, while we’ve heard some comments suggesting otherwise, it’s never been a goal for us to make League more casual. We believe League is for hardcore gamers, and mistakenly believed we could offer real competition to all parties with the same experience. Our long-term vision is to be a global sport, and our goal remains the same: to offer competitive experiences for all players, from solo competition to focused, competitive teamplay. Many things are a further ways out, but that’s where we’re headed.

We’re committed to continuing to improve League for you. Thanks for sticking with us.

- New001

633 Comments

Merlin the WiseAug 24, 2016488 votes

I have come to the conclusion that too high of a majority of the people who play ranked games at bronze-silver and I am sure, even sometimes gold elo do not actually differentiate between Ranked and Unranked games. In other words, they play ranked games with little to no care or effort, when they should leave that mindset in aarams or even unranked ques.

There needs to be a better system of punishment for players who are intentionally and obviously (consistently) not putting forth effort in ranked games. I am talking about players who not only feed, but also players who have obviously given up well before a game would end. Do not neglect lower elos, because I can tell you from personal experience that the lower the elo the worse this problem is - which makes climbing a living nightmare Nocturne

Why should players who are trying their damndest in any elo be penalized for players who type in chat "gg" at 10 minutes after giving away 4 kills?

I don't understand why I need to lose lp because of these people.

Goon TimbinöAug 24, 2016128 votes

Wow so true man and it does get worse in lower elo because I'm silver 2 and i thought getting out of bronze and into silver would have been a relief...But silver is still full of stupid ppl......

freight train722Aug 24, 20167 votes

[deleted]

EvilUnicornLordAug 24, 2016126 votes

dimond

dude spel sum wordz rite 4 wonce.

CremepieAug 24, 201677 votes

+1 for "wonce"

0din234Aug 24, 201621 votes

the skill variation in silver is just bigger thanks 2 new players, someone that manage too make their way through 3 or 4 ranks in B and reach S, most of the time will be more skilled than a new player that got placed in S after the 1st 10 games

chipoclesAug 24, 201625 votes

my thoughts exactly, hope riot hears you (all of us) out

redfeenixAug 24, 201618 votes

Oh they'll hear alright. But then they'll go ahead and do their own thing anyways.

UVU MalachiAug 24, 201628 votes

Riot has actually just accepted on admitted their mistake and are actually listening to us now. I don't think it is fair to call them out on not listening to us when they finally have and are implementing solo queue again. Just sayin'.

dubdubwubbooieeAug 24, 201642 votes

Riot give this man/women/(w.e. he sexual identifies himself as) something, he is a true legend that is exactly what has been happening in low elo ranked games, I tip my fedora to you good sir, alas godspeed

Darf RakkiAug 24, 201647 votes

It clearly sexually identifies as a Ice Generator, as per the name. Maybe you should read names before you go sticking your rude and unthoughtful pronouns on a machine. You think just because it has fingers to type with, or probably was assembled in a human womb, that gives it any less right to super cool water into hard ice to drop in your hot drink, so that said beverage can slide down your throat as a cool and refreshing liquid?

LanceStonerAug 24, 201611 votes

What is this kid talking about, I've never seen anyone as triggered as him/her. Don't comment to be rude, Nautilus you have a reason.

MidgetOnACrutchAug 24, 20168 votes

Please tell me you dont think he was actually serious with that post right?

StexeAug 24, 201617 votes

Actually, on average and on a long enough time, you more likely gain LP because of these players. You know you're not a "troll" thus that leaves a maximum of 4 other people on your team who could troll. The other team has a maximum of 5 people who could troll.

That doesn't mean it isn't a huge problem, but I wouldn't say it is the cause of someone being stuck at a certain Elo level.

NeoeAug 24, 201615 votes

This would be true if the matchmaking system were 100% perfect, however it is not and so that statistic is not completely true. I just played my series from silver 1 to gold and in this series my first game I had a team mate who fed than afked and then the very next game i got a group of three people who fed 8+ kills within the first 5 minutes all from the same pre-made group. Not to mention the fact that my MMR is apparently so low that I gain 13ish LP for a win but yet lose 25 LP for a loss.... its hell.

QQshaAug 24, 201611 votes

5 games isn't exactly a large sample size.

CosnirakAug 24, 201615 votes

That's the point. No individual player plays enough games that what's statistically likely to happen really matters. What matters is their personal luck with the issue.

Some player might have some jerk not really trying only 5% of the time on their team, while another player has it happen 60% of the time. The fact that it's probably fair to the player base when combined into a whole doesn't change the fact that for each individual it can be very unfair.

DrCyanideAug 24, 201630 votes

How many bad games is it worth putting up with though? I'd argue that most people aren't willing to put up with hundreds of terrible games to get to slightly less terrible games.

Auratic SkyAug 25, 201612 votes

RIOT once spoke of "prisoner island", where toxic players got stuck with other toxic players. Now that's an extreme response and we wholely voted -against- it, so it was not done, even though we were offered it as a solution since we had brought it up.

But perhaps as you gather reports for negative behavior, you are placed with other players more often, who were reported for a similar offense.

Likewise, if you're honored after matches alot, then you're more often placed with people who are honored like you are.

This would cause the toxic players to eventually be driven down to the bottom but never be entirely exiled, thus never being beyond redemption. If they avoid being reported themselves, they can be pushed back up after awhile.

I'm suggesting more of a 'thinning effect' rather than a hard exile like the original prisoner island concept would have created. You aren't just exiled entirely but you slowly sink if you don't learn to swim.

DontTiltWeScaleAug 24, 201612 votes

Logged on to updoot. I run into this problem every damn day when i soloq and it just hurts all of our rankings

Kukan SeishinAug 24, 201611 votes

This is so true, I've had games where I'm 4/0/3 after laning phase with my SWEET Ahri But my team has already given up because they died once bot or top lane and they either ragequit or feed

Kukan SeishinAug 24, 20168 votes

I should add, I'm not saying I'm a god, (I'm silver) But I have only lost 2 laning phases in my ranked games, but my team has constantly fed, and then intentionally fed, or straight up give up or dc even though we could easily still win.

MagicFlyingLlamaAug 24, 201679 votes

I completely agree with this. Ranked should be competitive.

As a silver II (when i am not pinballing back and forth between silver IV due to matchmaking luck), i see way too many people who simply give up as first blood, and either start "passively" feeding, or just command everyone to surrender at 20 and refuse to make any further effort.

Surrenders should be restricted or punished in ranked in some non-permanent way, enough to make people think twice before mashing surrender - teams can make impressive comebacks by defending, but not when half the team is crying like a firehose.

Matchmaking should really be cleaned up, and (this is a sentiment i hear a lot) the bar to play ranked should be a bit higher. I am seeing people with under two months of experience in my games, and most of them are very confused or lacking in basic knowledge from experience.

Chris the FrankAug 24, 201651 votes

On the surrender point, I've always wondered what would happen if you couldn't surrender while dead. If you had to wait those twenty seconds (or whatever) to consider it and then after you spawn at the fountain you could call a vote. There are too many people, who in the middle of a prolonged teamfight, die and give up then call for a surrender vote. Right as I trying my hardest to turn things around, I've got to (1) be distracted with a surrender vote, and (2) be distracted with voting 'no' because I can't know how emotionally unstable my teammates are and it seems that an initial 'no' influences people who are on the fence.

You would still be able to call for a vote every 3 minutes, just not right after you die and get emotional.

GayyyBoiiiAug 25, 201613 votes

To add to your thought, I wish the surrender vote was not shown as in the yes/no format. I think just that little bit of 'peer pressure' (kind of but not really) to vote yes if 3 other people have already voted yes you're more likely to vote yes in my opinion. Just my two cents take it for what it is.

JPlayahAug 25, 20165 votes

This is a really good idea.

47484591DEL1Aug 24, 201638 votes

I played my promos at the beginning won 6-10 games got put at bronze 3 one of my friends however went 3-10 and got Silver 5 how this happened I have no idea.

I stopped playing ranked altogether at the discouragement of being 3-0 and one lane feeding and every other lane saying "gg" "ff" ten minutes in.

I have been playing since the release of Jinx on and off. I just started getting hardcore into ranked and it is freaking heartbreaking when you're doing so well and your teammates are salty because "this trash jungle wont gank" or this support sucks" The frustration this game causes is paramount.

Of course we all have bad games, but there's a difference in making the same mistakes every game, or learning and advancing.

People just want to be good, if they lose lane they think the whole game is over because they're doing bad. Also they want to be good without putting the effort to get there.

This is a team game. Sadly most people are individual minded. And those of us who are team focused, are left with frustration.

Side note, Watching TSM vs. CLG greatly impacted my thoughts on farming. If you dont think creep score and last hitting makes a difference watch those games.

Also I totally agree with Ice

BaconOfThePanAug 24, 201612 votes

In my experience Rito does a decent job of placing players where they should be, I'm not saying you belong in bronze, but they want to encourage playing their game so they place you lower than you are meant to be and so you climb through elo hell and get to where you want. For example last season I placed in early December (just started playing last year) and got silver 4, I improved ALOT during the off season and then did my placements this season and got bronze 4. Now I've (so far) climbed to silver 2, Gold 5 being my goal for this season. And through it all Rito has made me want to play their game by proving that I don't belong in bronze.

Crap She Was 13Aug 24, 201629 votes

What people don't realize is that if you're honestly good enough, you can climb out of the "elo hell". I was placed in Bronze 4 this season and within one week I was in gold. If you really are a higher skill player, you will climb out. It's that simple.

RakdosLordofRitoAug 24, 20165 votes

I not only doubt that you played solo queue, I would even go as far as saying you had a 5 man team... "elo hell" EXISISTS! You're a fool if you think otherwise. I play with gold diamond and plat friends ALL the time, and we 1v1 FREQUENTLY, and i am on par with most of them. Tell me why then i made it into silver 5 at the end of my promos. I know why. I went into rank as solo queue summoner 3 I Literally logged on just to downvote you irked me so much.

TheRealWhiteBoy1Aug 24, 201620 votes

"Literally logged on" to tell you that 1v1ing someone doesn't mean you are as good as them, just means you have good mechanics, while your shot calling is probably horrible.

SkatterathAug 24, 20166 votes

lmao im in the same boat as "Crap She Was 13". provisional's put me at bronze 4. It took me longer than a week to get out, but here i am in gold now. The most i have ever qued with is 3. It is not hard to climb out of super low elo (bronze) if you dont belong there. The main person i duo'd with is a real life friend who isnt very good at the game (still in silver 5, duoed with him to get him out of bronze 5). The point is... if you are better player than the ones in the league you are in then you will progress, and just because you can beat someone in a 1v1 just means you are okay at 1v1 kill lanes. The game is so much more than a kill lane... get it straight.

Chris the FrankAug 24, 20166 votes

duoed with him to get him out of bronze 5

This contradicts your and "Crap She Was 13"'s points...

That just adds to the problem.

HATESCRUBFEEDERSAug 24, 201612 votes

Sorry but this is total Bullshit! I dont care how good u are u cant continuously carry 4 trash kids to a win every other game!

Camp the RivenAug 24, 201615 votes

You actually can carry but you need to be from a significantly higher rank and this is the issue. Everyone is a product of their environment. On my masters acc you literally play the game differently. When i got my irl friends to start playing again they're silver and gold and to play at that level of play you have to change your play style and take bigger risks.

on another note, another issue is that their are to many people crammed into one area... we are now seeing the issues that diamond had with to many people being there... in season 3 d1 wasnt actually that hard to get and more people were d1 than d2 and d3 combined.

There honestly needs to be a differnt system for the larger amount of the population... maybe even bring back the old ELO system until you hit a certain level, and then put people in brackets.

-- here is another idea in reference to the above. You could start brakets and tiers divisions whatever at a specific mmr. but below that, its a total crap shoot say silver 1 could be vs bronze 5 and be completely random BUT and i say BUT balanced per game for team mmr. This would do two things. First it would give the better players more influence on the game and therefore have higher potential to carry. Secondly, which i find to be more important, if you were from a lower rank you could learn from the better players. Everyone is a product of their environment and if they are constantly exposed to poor decisions and gameplay then obviously that's what they will do if they don't know any better.

SmileInABoxAug 24, 201625 votes

Riot doesn'seem to give half a fuck about lower ranks.

HATESCRUBFEEDERSAug 24, 201616 votes

The problem with ranked is you are judged, scored and penalized off of what 4 other individuals do and how they play. You have absolutely NO CONTROL over how they play.I get it that this is a team game but when every fucking ranked team has a feeder, troll or afk it got old as fuck in 2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yet here we are going into 2017 and ranked still blows dick! I had to pick myself up off the floor when i read solo Que was coming back. Now RITO didn't come out and say they were WRONG {don't ever expect that} they just said it in a really not our fault round about way!

SębAug 24, 201627 votes

Another problem at lower elo is how Unranked players are currently being incorporated into the lower division for their Placement games. It is unfair for someone with a year+ experience at the mid-silver level to climb to get an unexperienced, first time ranked player on their team. It's understandable that unrankeds are hard to place simply because there is no data in which to use to place them. Possibly a system that checks match history in normal games or a system that checks their KDAs against enemies at higher and lower elos and compares them to other unrankeds. Just a thought*[slayer-jinx-wink]*

A Normal KittyAug 24, 201673 votes

Their is so many issues with how ranked works now, and I get this is the easy immediate fix. But rito pls... Gold and below holds 90% of your ranked player base.... Plat holds the other 5-7%. All I keep seeing is "oh we want it to make it a legacy past time esport." The first of its kind. The issues with doing that is that

If you spurn your casual crowd you are done. This is a fact. Look at TF2, Halo 2 (RIP), even something like Soccer. The game isn't balanced and maintained around the top tier of the crowd. Its balanced and sold to the everyday joe. The person who can put time and work into it if they want to but don't have to spend everyday playing to enjoy it.
Neglecting 90% of your player base seems like an odd business model. You can say that its hard to balance or design a system at the lower levels since players are unpredictable, inconsistent, and a great deal more populated. That being said it doesn't mean you can just enact a one size fits all system that works for the higher tiers/elo and not for the lower and expect the average player to want to play.
Yes, its a competitive game; by nature its a team vs scenario. That being said the issue of sandbox mode comes up again. The simple fact of the matter is that many people in lower elos will practice something new in the ranked system which eventually leads to feeding, flaming, and reporting. Give people a way to draw simple equivalents to real time sports and other games that have aged extremely gracefully.
Community. Community. Community. Community. All of my friends who got me into playing this game have since quit. All of them. The only one friend I have left who plays I got in and we play together. They quit for a combination of all the things I've already talked about but it goes so much further. Quite simply it just lost interest for them. And what was I to do to convince them to play a game they didn't want to. The amount of rewards for playing with friends is pitiful. "Oh, but wait. There's dynamic queue where you and your friends can get the rewarding experience of going up the ladder together." Yes very good point [insert rioter here]. Wait a second they got their diamond friends to smurf into a pre-made 4-man dynamic in ranked. Yeah thats a fun game to play. There's toxic players running rampant and the "honor" system has been thrown to the wayside. On top of that this games entry level is impossible. Between ruins, smurfs, and masteries still being on an archaic and arbitrary level system. This game is impossible to get into as a new player. Ruins are useless before tier 3. At tier 3 they cost the equivalent of 4 champions.

The not so simple TL:DR is that your infrastructure of the game needs to be changed. You are still set up almost exactly like you were 4 years ago. The player base has changed, and from what your public announcements are saying your mission has changed too. If you want the game to last into a legacy status situation then a lot of the things that you started with need to be eliminated or severely reworked. And for the love of god change your mindset about the average joe since they are the whales that fund your micro-transactions.

I love the game. I really do. I've been playing for countless hours over the past 4 years. I would love to see this become a past down esport. But it just doesn't seem like the game is being designed by people who actually play the game. It seems like you are taking a very small specific play group in mind when you make every situation and blanketing it over the large majority after that. I honestly hope I get a riot response to this because I'm desperately just trying to understand what the game plan is here. From an outside view looking in, it seems like these actions are quite contradictory to the mission statement put forth.

RiotRiot CaladAug 24, 201634 votes

Appreciate your thought out and genuine feedback, let me try and do my best to respond.

First off, making these changes now doesn’t mean we think we’re finished with ranked. This is just what’s going to be happening in the immediate future, and we’re specifically focusing on high elo because that’s where the problems are the most extreme. There will be more changes for 2017, and they will not just be for Diamond and above. We’re not trying to neglect other players, we just need some more time before we make our next announcement. Expect that in September.

The “casual” discussion is interesting. I think that, from my personal perspective, if you play league, you’re already in a pretty hardcore category of gamer. League is pretty tough to get into (as I’m sure anyone who’s leveled to 30 is aware of…), and it’s complex, and it’s deep, and in some ways that’s what makes it fun (at least for me). So we don’t want to lose the complexities that make league fun in order to try and increase our mass appeal. That’s not a tradeoff we’re willing to make.

That being said, there are plenty of ways (some of which you bring up, like runes, honor etc.) where some of the things in our game are just bad or outdated. Those are things we want to fix, improve, or remake entirely.

We do play the game. We play it constantly. We want to make it better because you guys deserve better. The “game plan,” at least at right the moment, is to focus on improving the foundations of league (like Ranked and the League Client Update) before we start looking forward to bringing you new features.

Hope that helped answer a few of your questions. Again, I’m really glad you posted this.

A Normal KittyAug 25, 201611 votes

Let me clarify in saying that when I said if you don't cater to the casuals, then you're done. I didn't mean that you were done making changes. I meant that this game dies if its not fun to play casually. I understand that you are attempting to get the quick fix now since it is indeed a simple solution. I'm all for it. A problem with an easy solution shouldn't be a problem for very long.

While I do agree wholeheartedly that you could never get this game completely simple enough to be easy to get into, I do think you could cut back on the straight wall.

First suggestion: Implement a mentor system. A system where one person has spectator like vision privileges and can bring somebody into a game with them and bots to teach them. (And sandbox) Second: Improve rewards at early levels, ESPECIALLY free runes at lvl X. (1-5) . Not that it would be an end all but it would provide a good stepping off point. Third: The tutorial is horribly out of date. Not only that it doesn't go over csing as I recall?

(Now I will be fully transparent and say that I have not played the tutorial recently, but the last time I did play it it had Ryze as a playable champ. (since reworked). On top of that I'm not sure if objectives such as rift and elemental dragons have been added. )

Personally I would love to see more of an incentive to be social. That would go a very long way in bringing back the casuals. Events or something more significant than just ip boosts for playing with friends. The idea is to get people who use to play back. If they have already left and aren't actively playing then ip or an icon isn't going to bring them out of retirement. I'll be honest with you, its a difficult dilemma and I don't quite know how to solve it.

I'm a huge fan of the patches between LCS and worlds being synced. I think the this vs. us mindset is a huge detractor from casual players.

Quite honestly I'm not even looking for new features, although I have been on the alpha client and I love it. Its sleek and organized with intuitive controls and features. I think refinement is definitely the way to go.

I'm trying my best to bring up only solutions if I have problems since its quite easy to point out things that are wrong without any thought about why they're that way. My one exception to this is to make it harder to join ranked games. Put a higher bar on it and I mean way higher like min. 500 games or something in that variety. For two reasons:

Anybody who's a legit lvl 30 looking to adventure into the hellscape that is most likely silver ranked will have at least a solid knowledge of what the game is about. And thus any issue they have with their provisionals is fully on them. This gives a fighting chance to anybody who happens to get paired with them.

SMURF DETERRENT. I know you guys don't particularly have an issue with smurfs. But if you implement this I guarantee the "rich, rewarding, and competitive atmosphere" you guys want will improve, especially in low elos. It sucks to get pubstomped by someone 15 tiers ahead of you while it arguably rigs and delegitimizes the system.

Honestly, I'm glad Riot's PR is open to this kind of thing and I want to help as much as I can. God knows I've been stuck in the muck long enough and they're things I legitimately enjoy and things that make me want to punch a wall.

mochibuniAug 25, 201636 votes

I'm logging in just to respond to your comment about casual players-- I disagree that League is for hardcore gamers. When I first started playing, back in 2010, all of my friends who even had a passing interest in video games played League. It was super fun to bring a group of friends together in a team based game and mash our little keyboards until maintenance would bring the servers down for hours. I met so many friends through this game who came for the same purpose, to have fun with what the game had to offer and build a community.

Some of my friends only came to play All Random All Bot when Dominion first came out. Some of my friends played 5 hours a day and climbed to Diamond on Nasus. Some of my friends only played bots. I played a little of both and ran a fairly popular ask blog on tumblr to engage with the community I loved further. But we all played together almost every night and had fun. We have hours worth of videos of us playing together for 3 years.

And I say 3 years because all but a few of my friends stopped playing. We used to have trouble making custom 10s because there was too many of us, now we barely have enough for a premade 3. I met my husband in this game and most times he doesn't even want to play. They stopped because the game stopped being fun when all the emphasis started being placed on pro play and top tier players. When mobility creep became a real issue that has now evolved into game breaking champions. With the item changes, the vision changes, any changes that revolved around making pro play what Riot wanted and not thinking what it did to the rest of their player base.

When Riot's philosophy was to make sure the game was fun, it had to be fun for everyone, fun should never be traded off for mechanics or appeal, and this is why Gangplank's deny was taken away, this is why Blitz can't grab his teammate, you should feel good when playing your champ's role-- that was when this game really shined. Because the dev and balance team really worked at making sure the game stayed fun and fair.

I'm not here to play League to be competitive. I've only played ranked for the last 5 years simply to receive gold rewards. As soon as I'm done with climbing, I go straight back to playing a different mode. I believe I've played less than 100 ranked games during my entire League career. I keep playing because I loved this game so much, I loved the community I used to be part of, I love all the friends I made, and I'm so happy when I meet other players who are also here to have fun.

And I know I'm being biased and stupidly nostalgic. I know Riot has grown incredibly big and it's not longer the dev team and atmosphere it used to be. I spent the majority of PAX11 talking to the Rioters about the game and what I loved and what I'd like to see, and sharing our mutual passion for the game and the community. They would take their breaks to sit with fans and arrange photo shoots with cosplayers and form genuine connections. I'm very grateful for having that experience with the devs and I hope they are very proud of how far their work has come. League is too big for that type of interaction to continue, but League should never be too big to connect with its players.

RiotRiot CaladAug 25, 201615 votes

That’s fair. TBH I think I’m tripping up on the definition of “casual”. I totally think League was, and still is, for players like you. I also played All Random All Bots with friends in college, and though I’m an occasional ranked player, most of the time I just play norms. Part of the main reason we made ARAM a matchmade mode, and, more recently, added the rotating game mode queue is because there’s plenty of players who don’t think that being hyper-competitive in ranked is for them, and we want to support those players too. Ranked doesn’t have to be your cup of tea to have fun in league.

So I guess the point I’m trying to make (perhaps poorly), is not that we want to leave casual league players behind - but that we don’t want to simplify league to the point that we lose what people like about it in the first place.

It’s unquestionably harder to personally communicate with players now compared to 2011, there’s a lot of you and it’s hard to keep up. But we can’t let ourselves get complacent, and have to try and keep up as best we can despite that. I’m sure a lot of Rioters are proud of how far league has come in the last 5 years, but I think most of us are just excited about how much work we still have to do. There is plenty.

Thanks for sharing your story, mochibuni.

mochibuniAug 25, 201611 votes

Thanks for coming in here while all of us are throwing tantrums, myself included.

I really enjoy the rotating game modes, it's just enough every weekend to keep them from being stale and a nice break from ARAMs. That said, I was primarily a normals player until this year because of how much antifun has been allowed in the game, which is one of my big issues with normals.

It feels like the company has changed their stance on antifun game play. Zileous used to wax on about the cost of game play: how much antifun should be allowed and is it worth putting in the game? I know we all groaned back then about nerfing Irelia and I never agreed with Morello's hate on Soraka, but over the years of receiving Zed, Yasou, and Ekko I've come to truly appreciate what Zileous and Morello were getting at.

Personally I would never say make the game simpler, but I do wish champion/game balancing and creation philosophies be reconsidered (coughcough wind wall cough).

WreckanizeAug 25, 201610 votes

I just wanted to comment on a couple things you don't seem to be understanding.

Yes, League is a very challenging game, with a very long learning curve. It's taken me a couple years to learn as much as I have, and I just now made it over the hump, and am in the top 50% of players. And Riot is only making the game more complex, not less. But that complexity and time commitment is discouraging to a lot of potential players. I have a number of friends who I've tried to convince them to try league for a couple years now, and they won't. They're interested, but the learning curve is too long. (FYI, we're mid-30s, with jobs, families, etc.) Your esports viewership and player base will only continue to grow if you keep the game accessible, so new players get in and get hooked.

Also, to further address the comments on "community." I think the changes you've made in the last couple years have had a dramatic affect on the toxicity and such of league. However, I think you've been forgetting about other special events and perks. To me ranked play is just one more arbitrary goal to set for myself, but I don't really place any more value on it than some of the other mini-goals you've set for the community in the past. Special icon for getting a Perfect Ascension game? I'm down! Free Pool Party Mundo skin? Let's give it a go! Free skins and champs for being a "nice" league player? Cool! Since you've rolled out the Rotating Game Mode, special events have flatlined. Pool party minions showed up randomly this summer, with no fanfare or celebration. Special URF login package? MIA. All these things are pretty trivial, but to the casual player, it's a reason to log in and do some binge gaming on the weekend. Keeping people interested will generate referrals, and more players will lead to more interest in your esports scene.

RiotRiot CaladAug 25, 201610 votes

Our focus historically has been on improving the game for the people who are already playing it, but I think you're right that at some point making league easier to learn is going to have to be a bigger priority for us. There are a lot of Rioters around here who are really passionate about that, myself included, so I look forward to that work.

And point noted about events as well.

EndlessSorcererAug 24, 201643 votes

If access to solo/duo queue isn't motivation to climb to Diamond, I don't know what is.

Final Raid BossAug 25, 201613 votes

Once again Riot logic is impossible to understand. They completely disregards 90% of the player base for high level pro players. We hit them over the head repeatedly with what we want and they still do the wrong thing. Why do Diamond / Master / Challenger get a solo queue and no one else? They to failed to give any reasoning. It affects lower level play as much as it does high level play (but they ignored that fact).

I'm plat/gold elo and dynamic queue very much affects climbing solo. Having these shitty low quality matches because the other team is at least 3 or 4 man premade is not fun. You have to spam twice as many games to actually get where you belong which is a terribly designed system. Now maybe if you're a mindless zombie and don't actually care about ranked you won't see a difference in matches but I definitely do.