ARAM ranked - Discussion of why and how

cunheta·6/12/2016, 11:15:36 AM·4 votes·453 views

So, to start, i'll say i've read a lot of people asking for ARAM ranked, but they do just that, they ask and very rarely explain why it should be created. So i'll try to give my reasons and hopefully we can build off of that.

Biggest Reason for creating ARAM ranked:

  • I play only ARAM, it's the game that interests me the most, I love the fighting dynamics of it. For me the normal game mode is too slow (sorry guys). A lot of people I know, and I'm sure a lot around the world as well, play it more than the normal game mode. In a lot of ARAMs, you see people who usually play ranked, playing ARAM to unwind (which makes perfect sense) and use it as more of a only fun-no competition mode, they don't try hard, they don't care, and when you call them on it, they say "it's just an ARAM". Well, I understand their point of view, I do, but for me it's not just an ARAM, it's the game that I play. Imagine if you were playing ranked and every 2 or 3 games someone just started doing nonsense (not by lack of skill) and then said "relax, it's just ranked, it's not relevant, it doesn't mean anything". Well, for me that's the daily basis. So, while I understand the need for people to unwind in ARAM from ranked games, there are people who play ARAM as if it was their ranked games (I'm one of them). That's why I think creating a ranked ARAM mode would divide the ARAM world in 2, the people who play purely for the "fun, it's not a ranked so it doesn't really matter", and the people who play it as their main mode, or would like to be more serious about the mode. And that's a division that makes perfect sense, and I think there is enough people playing ARAM for that division to be successful.

Biggest misconception about the possible ARAM ranked mode:

  • "Oh it's ARAM, it's random, it can't have ranked" In normal game mode, there is also randomness associated with it. Not so much as ARAM, of course, but you depend on a lot of factors that you have nothing to do with. If the top lane feeds completely maybe you just lost the game, even though you played well and managed to win the middle lane. If you have an AFK than you will lose the game more often than not and had nothing to do with it. But in the long run, in normal mode, you will get to win a bigger percentage of games if you play better than average and vice-versa. Well, in ARAM it's the same, but because there's more randomness the long run takes longer than in normal mode. But still, mathematically speaking, eventually you will get to the percentage of games won that translates your ability.

A few ideas as to how the mode would work:

  • Obviously, because of the randomness of it, 10 games is not enough to decide the rank of someone, let's make it 50. (for example)
  • Every game should count less for the ELO than the normal mode, because team comps play an obviously much bigger part than in a normal mode.
  • To not make team comps be such a big factor and minimize a little the randomness inherent to ARAM, I have two ideas: either everybody has at least a reroll in a ranked game, or a team has a chance to reroll their entire comp, in a voting type situation, that can happen only once. So if you're stuck with 5 AP mages, you would all vote to reroll, and it would automatically give all of you new champs.

Now, probably because I'm a dreamer, but it would be really nice if this would start an honest discussion about if ARAM ranked should be created or not and how. I'd like people from both points of views to give their opinion in a logical way with constructive criticism. But hey, maybe im just dreaming...

2 Comments

SrbLud6/12/2016, 11:52:24 AM1 votes

Not a bad idea. They can also make a champ pool requierment of 30+ or something like that. It would somewhat keep the OP ARAM champ pools in line.

Minarde6/12/2016, 11:34:34 PM1 votes

Ranked ARAM would be great! Since Riot's been pushing the focused specialization via position queuing in SR, ranked ARAM could be positioned as a test for generalists. Enabling all champs in ranked ARAM would prevent ARAM-optimized accounts, allow for more varied teamcomps, and test players on how well they handle League's entire roster.