Queue health comes to patch notes

Riot·Nov 30, 2016·7 votes·264,589 views

The new season is just a few days away, so this year we’re opening up communications when it comes to ranked.

To give you more information on how 2017’s ranked queues are performing, we're making their overall health a part of each and every iteration of patch notes. Here’s what it looks like:

Queue health

What does this update mean?

Ranked Solo/Duo Queue

Ranked Flex

FOUR'S A CROWD We will be removing the ability to queue up as four to reduce queue times.

To assess what “healthy” is, we’re constantly going to be looking at queue times, dodge rates, and position preference rates, across premade sizes, skill level, and time of day/week. From those, we’ll devise a simple graphic rating and stick it in patch notes. We’ll do this on a per-region basis.

Means queue times are generally low, matches are fair and role selection is well distributed. Awesome.

Means one or more metrics are veering towards… suboptimal, but the queue is still playable and we’re happy to keep it as-is. This one’s more of a heads-up than a warning.

Means we’re going to have to make some adjustments to Solo/Duo or Flex, and you’ll see exactly what we’re changing to help make the queue healthier.

One of the requirements for Ranked Flex to work is a minimum number of solo players to keep matchmaking smooth. We’ve prepared a plan to make sure we can respond quickly if we see long queue times.

The things we’d try first include:

higher weighted position preferences
scheduled queue availability
limiting Ranked Flex to pure five-person premades
limiting Ranked Flex to restrict four-person premades (which all regions launch with)

The latest updates will be recapped in the following patch notes. If we have to make massive changes quickly, we’ll likely make it part of the status page with an in-client notification.

Queue health updates roll out in patch 6.24, and we’re looking for feedback and suggestions. Let us know what you think!

387 Comments

PsiGuardNov 30, 2016180 votes

"limiting Ranked Flex to pure five-person premades"

Just saying, if you guys ever do this you might as well rename the queue 'cause it won't be flexible anymore.

TwoFaceTonyNov 30, 201633 votes

I think (and hope) that maybe this means that 5-person premades will always be against other 5person premades.

porkerpantsFeb 22, 201714 votes

Damn it's almost like this queue existed in the past...................................................................................................

PreShotDec 1, 20167 votes

I think that is more of a worst case scenario. They just don't have enough data at the time and are showing us some steps that will be taken if things don't go as planned.

AirKingNeoNov 30, 2016158 votes

When will you remove Autofill from normal Draft? People don't like it and it causes more dodges making queuing up longer.

SwissCheeseDOANov 30, 2016139 votes

Seriously. Autofill really only works in higher elo where all the players know each other and are fine exchanging roles. I would much rather wait an extra 5 minutes to play a role I know I will get than being stuck in a minimum of a 30 minute game in a role I never play.

NoblewindNov 30, 201668 votes

I've never experienced a queue time issue (Silver player).

On the other hand I have almost always experienced an issue in an autofill game.

DragoniteDDNov 30, 201619 votes

It actually doesn't work well in higher elo as well. For ex. I main top & sup, I'm plat at top, plat ~ diamond on sup depending on the sup style, and at most gold on mid, ad & jg. I would be out-tiered ezly if got filled at those roles in a serious game, unless my enemies are mis-positioned as well. Which came one of the auto-fill suggestion, if it is an auto-fill game, make it auto-fill on both sides, especially for rank

XenomorphhhNov 30, 201634 votes

Plat isn't high elo. He's talking challenger, high master

IesbianNov 30, 201645 votes

Statistically speaking, Plat is a higher ELO than most will ever reach (outside of boosting).

So yes, to many Plat is a high elo and the point still stands.

RavenHuskyNov 30, 201637 votes

People need to be willing to play support, as autofill is the result of lack of one role in the queue, with an overabundance of the others.

Autofill is required to get games going in a timely manor, by getting everyone to share the burden of filling in the missing role.

XonraNov 30, 2016122 votes

When I queue up as primary support and get top, then autofull is a fail and not needed. When I WANT to support and don't get support, then the system is bad and what you just said about it being the result of a lack of one role isn't quite realistic.

-Queue as support primary -Someone else gets support and I get top -Me and that person just switch as they had top primary

That right there tells me they need to either drastically fix autofill or remove it.

LilybetDec 1, 201629 votes

This exactly. I tend to choose mid secondary and admittedly I do get my role most of the time. However, I have been filled to mid twice in the last few days and been matched with a fellow support main who got their secondary - adc - and didn't realise it until after they'd locked a support.

If there are people willing to main support when it is such an underfilled role, they should always get it. Just as if the same were to happen to any other role. the role people want to play the least should always go to a person who wanted that role enough to pick it as primary.

An Angry KayleDec 1, 201610 votes

exactly, im in low gold, i think G3 currently? and have been autofilled support twice in the past two days, first game midlaner asked to switch, he was a support main with supp primary role, and second was Top laner, who said he could only mid and support well, so autofill needs to be fixed. if your primary or secondary is support, you should automatically get it, instead of getting autofilled into a role you dont play, while your teammate gets autofilled into support

PixelbittsDec 1, 20169 votes

This happens to me as well. If i could thumbs up this post I totaly would. Well wrote friend.Its no a problem especially when i get autofilled as mid... There is always someone who asked for mid first and I'm happy to switch to whatever role they were. Autofill is le~broken.

Demacian SaintDec 1, 201611 votes

Down here in Bronze, Autofill Protection is a lie. Source: Played support two matches in a row and was autofilled into Support, despite autofill protection. I had selected ADC and Jungle.

SkiasDec 1, 201628 votes

I've never had as many dodges as I've seen with Autofill. This thing is terrible.

MexicanPlayaNov 30, 201652 votes

TURN OFF THE AUTOFILL!!!!

[zombie-nunu-tears]

DeathBurstNov 30, 201648 votes

I must confess, I'm a little disappointed. Saying "yo, the queue is healthy" isn't gonna change anything if people don't feel that way.

#If that's the only thing we're getting, I must ask: What is Riot trying to achieve with this addition to Patch Notes?

It won't change how people feel
It doesn't provide more context, such as "OK, it's rough for YOU because <reasons> but on average it's pretty good"
It doesn't provide data to refute people complaining with anecdotal evidence or likely false claims.

I really hoped we could get some quantitative stats, like "how often do people get their primary" or "what's the average queue time per ELO", some facts that we can use to actually discuss the situation.

ShinjusukeNov 30, 201641 votes

Autofill needs to go.

Outright.

If you're having queue health problems, try not caring more about some roles than others so people don't look at Support as "the adc's bitch" and jungle as "everyone's bitch". Then you won't have queue health problems.

NyaboronNov 30, 20169 votes

Most people just don't like support though since you have to have a much different understanding of the game and the role in order to carry as hard as some other roles (and you get next to no credit). I'd rather get autofilled 1/10 games than go back to the old method of drafting. I can see how it frustrates some players and especially 1-trick ponies, but think of your flexibility as a player as being a factor by which to increase in rank. If you get stuck on an off-role, but you're good enough to still exceed at that role, you'll be better off as a player.

Stone Cold SirenNov 30, 201611 votes

When they don't give those that actually want to support it becomes a problem though. It isn't a role everyone wants sure, but I know of other supp mains besides myself and we have not been able to supp because someone else got autofilled into supp.

XonraNov 30, 201625 votes

Yes it needs to go but not for the reason you said.

I've multiple times queue'd as support main (I'm a support main <_<) and NOT got support because it autofilled someone else into support and me into the role they put as primary, leading us to just pointlessly switch.

It isn't just aotufilling people into support, it is actually autofilling people that put support as Primary as something that wasn't their primary or secondary.

XonraNov 30, 201641 votes

It's like all of 2016 was a huge waste of time:

Remove solo queue
force dynamic queue
remove 5v5 team queue
bring back solo queue
turn dynamic queue into flex queue
turn flex queue into 5v5 team queue
have only solo/duo and team 5v5

wtf was even the point of all the ranked changes if they just brought back solo/duo (which I'm glad they did) and then just turn flex queue into the ranked 5s they removed? It feels like 2016's ranked adventure was a huge waste of time.

Otter FireDec 1, 201611 votes

Riot stated that they were trying new things, and dynamic queue was one of those new things. However, with the backlash and other problems they with drew it since dynamic queue wasn't working.

Guy Fox TeemoDec 1, 201625 votes

If you never try how will you know if it works :P IN this case it didn't work but at least they tried it.

heisenburgwonNov 30, 201635 votes

i feel like the autofill is not healthy for the game, we watch pros who specialize (and sometimes only) playing one role, and playing that role at a high level. it's really hard to improve at jungling when i'm repeatedly forced to play lanes. I'd much rather wait 10 minutes like team builder and get a team i actually want than have people tilted before the game even starts because they don't know or own any champs in the role their forced to play. Are we really expected to have 5+ rune pages for each role right out of the gate? when we're only given 2 pages?

BabyIonDec 1, 201634 votes

You guys really need to work on how you rank supports. I main support and every season I am put into bronze. As a solo rank player, it's already tough trying to get a team to play well but when you are sometimes the best player on the team and a support, it is still not enough to pull up a rank. It's very dejecting because when I play on my other account, I play top or mid, and have gotten into silver 1 or gold 4 easily. I do not like to play those roles though so on my main I have tried to climb the latter as a support and it never gets me past bronze. I do not understand.

Chef LeonaDec 1, 201619 votes

Second this!

Have you ever wondered if maybe the reason why no one plays support is because the ranking system for a support is so bad?

No one wants to be in bronze. Playing as a support for your first time in league, for your first time rank ever, is straight to bronze for you.

Hopefully by the time I reach 30 on my account this problem will be solved.

LilybetDec 1, 201619 votes

Not to mention, you can do as much as you can, but you do not have the same capability to just go off and get shit done as another role does. If 2 out of your 4 other teammates decide they don't want to group and repeatedly go off and die, you can't just split push solo as a support to make that up.

NeaceIsLordDec 4, 201610 votes

Solution: Win as Support you get more LP per win. Lose as Support you lose LESS LP per loss.

More players will play support and since the "traditional supports" can't win lane...it will be a good balance and create better supports.

Always ForsakenNov 30, 201624 votes

When can Graves have his cigar back :(

EvilUnicornLordNov 30, 201615 votes

The same time I'm getting Challenger.

ISellDrugsForRPNov 30, 201623 votes

The same time Urgot gets a star guardian skin.

Pepperoni BaconNov 30, 201624 votes

Personally, if you want a boost to the number of players playing support, just have them lose like 5 less LP per loss than other roles. You'd see a huge bump in the number of supports, and personally I think it is fair to let the support lose less LP than the people trying to carry.

JhinatonicNov 30, 201621 votes

I think you guys shouldn't limit the Ranked Flex to pure Five-person premades, because as PSiGaurd said it won't be flexible at all then, as well as what happens to all of us bros who want to play as a trio xD

Thanks for keeping us updated though! Hope everyone has an awesome week!!! :)

NyaboronNov 30, 20163 votes

They didn't say they were. They said you just can't queue up as a group of 4 players, since you'll be waiting for a solo player to round you out (and if someone is queueing as solo, they'll probably just queue in solo queue as such). I can see how you were confused, though.

XonraNov 30, 20168 votes

"The things we’d try first include: -limiting Ranked Flex to pure five-person premades"

I mean, it says it right there. Don't think it was a matter of them being confused as much as Riot said it was something they would try potentially, and listing right under that something they've already done.

RiotRiot DragglesNov 30, 201618 votes

It's one step of the plan we have in case things look rough, but we haven't got any reason to do it in NA right now, so worry not.

DraykowNov 30, 201619 votes

Have you considered removing Blind Pick completely?

The JigSAWDec 1, 201659 votes

Team Builder is the superior version they removed earlier this year, and my god the difference between the two is so awful I can't believe it isn't being rushed back in. Removing Team Builder is possibly the worst non-ranked decision Riot ever made.

KingKoneDec 1, 201623 votes

I stopped playing when they raised the team builder level to 25, only played ARAM to level. I so miss team builder. I honestly had maybe a handful of toxic players there, most matches, even the enemy team were helpful. Especially post match, I'd usually ask for advice and lots of friendly tips (like, just because you can be really aggressive with Leona, doesn't mean you always have to be really aggressive with Leona).

I rock my team builder summoner icons because I loved that que so much.

DemonicAngel67Dec 1, 201614 votes

I agree. I loved team builder.

NA is MIDec 1, 201615 votes

As a support main, one of the biggest issues I see is that while I hear about other people complaining about getting autofilled to the support role, I find that there are often times 2 or more support mains in my games. Maybe as with fill there should be an option for supports to queue as only support so that way someone doesn't get autofilled into the support role while there are multiple support mains in the same game.

LilybetNov 30, 201611 votes

I definitely think it will be a good idea to weight first preferences more, especially when it comes to support. Support mains still aren't that common, so I know I would rather wait just a bit longer to find a game than be filled to my nonsupport secondary. There are people out there who wait for a long time just to hopefully get my mid secondary, so they can totally have it.

NyaboronNov 30, 20165 votes

Being able to choose whether to weigh more on the first or not could even be a choice. Having a scroll bar for preference on the bottom would be an interesting concept (far left is heavy preference on primary, middle of bar is about even between your 2 selected roles, and far right is "i'd like either of these 2 roles but opt me into autofill if it takes more than a couple minutes"). As of right now, it's hard for me to select whether I want one role over another as primary/secondary, or even which my secondary should be but im not to the point to where I'd just main fill.

ÿëët 420Dec 1, 201611 votes

Hello riot! tl dr; autofill sucks and doesn't help queue time. Seriously. Maybe limit it to upper elos?

Thank you for asking. I am curious about autofill. Is there a way it can be changed? Not only is it annoying (WOW LOOK I'm support again...), but also has certain bugs. For example, there are ways to get rid of it (not telling how because I don't want it removed for when I use it, sorry everyone), and, worst of all, there is a bug that can cause it to happen in promo games. It seems to only happen on the last game, but for some reason when I was in promos to get to bronze III (yes I suck at this game) I was autofilled to support, and was unable to carry the game. This problem made me do promos 4 times. On the fourth, I had to pick Veigar support to carry the game. Veering back on topic, I understand how this mechanic is intended to help queue times, but this is not the case. What generally happens is I have to wait for 2-6 games to be dodged because someone on either team didn't get their role (dagnabbit, support AGAIN!). So, what happens is not only do people have to wait EVEN LONGER than they would have without autofill, but because of the way autofill works they are even more likely to get stuck with a role that they don't want, which results in trolling and feeding. I would say over half of my games contain someone who intentionally feeds/trolls or does so accidentally because they have no idea how to play the role they were forced into. Which brings up another topic. Why in blue blazes is there an option to pick your role if you are going to keep getting forced into support? It's a pain riot. A big pain. I frequently have to trade with support because they instalock leblanc and say "give me mid or I feed." That's my two bits on the issue. As a long time player (since season 3 I think?) I have seen the game in a much less toxic, much healthier place, and that was before autofill. Quite frankly, I would rather wait 5 minutes in queue than spend 10 minutes in queue having to sit at comp and keep re-accepting dodged matches, then 20 minutes of in-game frustration and toxicity galore, then suffer the -20 lp penalty of a trolled game. Thank you for reading.

PS please don't disable normal draft. I like to practice my role without having to have the ctrl + c of my role ready and the fastest connection to the server (cough cough blind pick cough cough)

Nose of SorenDec 1, 20167 votes

Riot should do an in-client poll about auto-fill. I'm guessing that they would get near 100% negative feedback since it hasn't worked to get lower queue times since people just dodge. Not only that but at least in my games, the amount of trolling and intentional feeding has gone up tenfold because MOST of my supports didn't queue for it. We're willing to wait for everyone to get their role! It's the most enjoyable and non-toxic playing experience.