Boards›Concepts & Creations

Ranked Games

CeIesteal·1/16/2019, 7:22:16 AM·1 votes·1,715 views

So I know a lot of people may wish to disagree with me on this but I have a couple of ideas that could potentially improve the game overall, and maybe even the level of toxicity especially in Ranked. I know a lot of people struggle when it comes to climbing elo especially below Platinum and I, myself am one of these people who could benefit from a positive change to the games' Ranked system. I have been playing the game for a few years now, off and on, and the highest I've gone is about Silver 1 or 2 on Oceania. I strongly believe this game is heavily based on luck when it comes to matchmaking because some people may have a similar MMR to yourself but might not necessarily be in the same type of mindset, therefore they may play poorly and effectively lead your team to defeat. This is common in both Normals and Ranked, but Ranked is far more important since LP is also at stake.

My first idea is that the LP and MMR gained or lost each game should be based on the individual's perfomance as opposed to the outcome of the game. Some of us lose more games than what I would consider normal and thus creating tilt and eventually toxicity. This negativity is unnecessary and can be avoided if the game is tweaked a little. Peformance based gains would benefit those who are actually playing seriously since after all, Ranked is for competitive gameplay and not pissing around, and those players should be awarded for their efforts rather than punished for not being able to carry against players that your team had a hard time facing. I'm not saying it's your team's fault they got fed, they just played more poorly to that of the opposing team, and you may not have been able to help in any way. Sometimes I may try roaming to help my team get ahead if I, myself gain a lead in lane, but this can still turn out to be a waste of time as they may continue to play poorly and still cost you the game. You can't win every game but your team shouldn't be able to stop you from climbing.

If you are good at the game but end up going say, 15-4-6 or something to that effect as a hyper carry like Riven or Darius or whomever, but still can't carry against two or more opponents that are equally fed, you shouldn't lose a lot of LP and MMR as a result, instead lose a little of each. Only those that played poorly should be affected by significant losses to make them want to improve their in-game performance. The same would go for that of the winning team, those who played poorly on the winning team should not gain a significant amount of LP and MMR but instead only a little, to also make them improve their gameplay. In order to calculate these gains a number of different factors should be taken into consideration, for instance: Kill Participation (Kills and Assists - not KDA), Vision score, Minion kills, Overall gold, etc. There should be a particular criteria set in place for each Ranked tier and if you score below on the winning team you only gain a small amount of LP and MMR, and if you are on the losing team you lose a significant amount. If instead you score above the threshold, you would gain a significant amount if on the winning team and a small amount if on the losing team.

My second idea is that there should be a system in place similar to provisionals where you instead unlock Ranked. This would prevent any new players from attempting to join Ranked as it is competitive gameplay and only those who understand the game fully should be able to join. I always get the feeling that a lot of new players reach level 30, have their 20 unique champions and then decide to try their luck in Ranked, as it is after all, purely based on luck whether they win or lose as they will most likely have to be carried to win. They are generally a burden for the more experienced players that are struggling to climb and although some may think this shouldn't be considered an issue, it is, and I am often one of the people it happens to far too often.

This new system would effectively unlock Ranked, along with the existing Summoner Level 30 and 20 Unique Champions, and would be judged based on performance as well. Players would need to achieve a consistent level of Kill Participation, Vision score, Minion kill count, etc that would need to reach a certain criteria over the course of maybe 10 games, so that even low elo players won't be too terrible at the game. It would encourage all players, but in particular the new ones, to maybe learn the game in Co-op, develop the skill and knowledge base of the game in Normals, and only then, once they are ready will they be the able to play Ranked. This would be far more fair on everyone and give each team in every match a more fair chance of winning as opposed to it always being so incredibly one-sided. The good players will climb more easily, the bad players would be kept in low elo until they improve, and overall this would hopefully improve in-game toxicity and keep it to a minimum.

Anyway, this was my two cents I wanted to put out there as I know a lot of players are in a similar situation to me and are struggling to climb. I also have been through a few accounts, some of which I simply couldn't remember my log in credentials to, but the others being permanently banned due to 'toxic behaviour' when all I was doing was simply telling my team to stop making so many mistakes which were costing us the game. In Ranked I have certain expectations regardless of the elo and even if it is low elo, there is nothing stopping these players from learning the game from a high elo streamer or youtuber and taking mental notes of all the little things they do to ensure victory or at least outplay their opponents. At the end of the day, it is up to the developers to decide what happens to the game and if this doesn't get implemented in some way I won't be too bothered either way, but if it at least is taken into consideration then maybe we might see some kind of improvements in the future.

  • CeIesteal

1 Comments

Gilgayu1/16/2019, 11:48:37 PM1 votes

I can see that you put a lot of thoughts into this, and I certainly agree there are parts of the ranked system where Riot can make better.

Your suggestions, however, are less than ideal.

My first idea is that the LP and MMR gained or lost each game should be based on the individual's perfomance as opposed to the outcome of the game.

First of all, MMR is a confidential information, and all those "MMR" you see on different websites are purely made up. It is possible that Riot grade your MMR with individual performance, but it isn't safe to assume the opposite. Second, this game is a team game. I know by individual performance you mean performance in all aspects (warding, objective control, damage done, etc.), but it eventually all comes down to kda. Everyone had games when they went something like 30 vs 67(enemy team) and still win the game. The way the game is set up encourages the so-called "big plays." One good teamfight might win you the game, but going 10/0 in the first 15 minutes might not.

You also mentioned toxicity in ranked, but won't making LP and MMR dependent on solo performance make that worse? People would stop caring grouping as a team, jungles would literally farm laners, and tanks become a joke.

The ways to gain and lose LP can't be changed, for it is essentially what makes up the ranked ladder.

My second idea is that there should be a system in place similar to provisionals where you instead unlock Ranked.

(I highlighted "unlock" for my own purpose) Riot announced publically that new players will go straight to Iron IV, and unless you are in iron, you shouldn't worry about that aspect of ranked. By the time they climb to silver+, they would know enough of the game, so that's another reason people don't need to "unlock" Ranked.

You mentioned rank is all about luck, but if you are good enough, why would luck matter? If a challenger opens a smurf acount and starts to climb out of Iron, what would be their win rate? I'd say it would be sad if it is lower than 80%.

It is true that I'm also a silver, but there are reasons why I'm my current rank.

And if what you said about luck is true, how true can it be? There barely is a skill difference between Silver IV and Silver I, and out of those thousands (if not millions) of silvers, how many smurfs are there? Probably less than 10% of your games you've had someone that definately doesn't belong in silver, but what if you win that other 90% or even 65%? You can climb out of silver with ease.

I appreciate your effort to make the game and its community better, but just remember: Riot worked on this system for half a decade.