Team Builder Bonus IP for tough to fill roles...

theTyger·Oct 8, 2014·25 votes·3,328 views

Team Builder is such a great game mode. If you want to practice or learn something specific, you can just que up into Team Builder and off you go. The trouble is that certain roles seem really hard to fill. Namely Jungle and Support (although, adc sometimes takes a while too). You have to deal not only with long que times, but also people getting impatient and either ditching or disbanding a match. This sometimes leads to waiting 15-30 minutes to actually get into a game from the time you initially que up.

The feature that let's you know what is currently in demand is great. Why not take it a step further? Award extra IP for those willing to play those roles. After all, if you're only wanting to practice Zed mid, there's not really any incentive to que up as a support just to make the que go faster.

14 Comments

Nicholas FuriousOct 9, 20146 votes

I actually really like this idea, especially the bit about reducing the IP as the roles are less needed (equilibrium factor). It is a market balancing strategy, and as long as the equilibrium factor is in place it shouldn't be too abused. I would just worry about people taking a support role and not truly playing it as support, but I guess this happens anyway.

Since the negative value of wait time (t) is no larger than the positive value of desired position (p) it makes sense to alter the equation from:

p + t = equilibrium (0, ideally), where p > t and equilibrium != 0 , to p + t + y^ = equilibrium where y is allowed to scale by ^ to achieve equilibrium.

theTygerOct 9, 20141 votes

And the beauty of the proposed system is that if someone comes in with something like a Lucian support, you can pass on that player. Right now, when someone comes in with a carry support, you almost feel forced to take it because you know it's going to take another several minutes before you'll get something else. If you could cut the wait times down by implementing a system like this, you might feel a little more comfortable passing on a Vayne supp if you know you won't have to wait long to pick up something else.

Another possibility is that if you put in for a bottom lane support specifically, the game automatically passes on anything that has a main tag of marksman. There are probably dozens of ways to implement similar mechanics to keep people from queuing up for support with things that obviously bring nothing to the table in the way of support to a traditional adc. Not saying it'd be easy, and it'd almost certainly take some experimentation and finagling, but it definitely seems like it should be doable.

theTygerOct 10, 20141 votes

Or perhaps it would drastically shift the meta in favor of kill lanes. Who knows? :P

RagingfangsOct 9, 20142 votes

because then people would pick those instead of other positions for more ip leads to the same problem

theTygerOct 9, 20147 votes

No, because the rolls that people are looking for automatically adjust. ie I just saw a "Middle Lane Assasin," as something captains were looking for. Not a common thing, to be sure. But why not add a tag to those roles that adds extra IP if you're willing to pick them up. The more in demand the lane/roll, the more IP offered.

The system is already dynamic and adjusts automatically. This would just be an added functionality.

OgaflowOct 9, 20144 votes

No, because the rolls that people are looking for automatically adjust. ie I just saw a "Middle Lane Assasin," as something captains were looking for. Not a common thing, to be sure. But why not add a tag to those roles that adds extra IP if you're willing to pick them up. The more in demand the lane/roll, the more IP offered.

The system is already dynamic and adjusts automatically. This would just be an added functionality.

This has already proven false from WoW. They introduced a system just like you propose and it gives an unfair incentive to people to play these roles. In WoW you often see people who play Tanks and Healers specifically not queueing unless the special bag is available for the extra reward. It has led to longer queue times in dungeons.

In this game it would have a similar effect. You would have people who are queueing up just for the bonus IP. This will give rise to people who have zero desire to ACTUALLY play the support role in the support position. I myself would fall into this category, if I want to play support I can play any mode and get that position. But if I get a bonus for playing it in Team Builder then why should I not play it there? Anytime I want to play something else I would just play ranked or draft as I have a higher chance/less time in queue of getting the desired role. By playing all the other roles outside of Team Builder I also avoid the players I mentioned earlier that are playing support purely for the bonus IP.

In this instance it is better the way it is. If you really want to see less queue times then Riot should disband blind pick mode or draft mode, forcing more players into the Team Builder queue rather than giving them an unfair incentive to go.

FDruOct 9, 20145 votes

No, because the rolls that people are looking for automatically adjust. ie I just saw a "Middle Lane Assasin," as something captains were looking for. Not a common thing, to be sure. But why not add a tag to those roles that adds extra IP if you're willing to pick them up. The more in demand the lane/roll, the more IP offered.

The system is already dynamic and adjusts automatically. This would just be an added functionality.

This has already proven false from WoW. They introduced a system just like you propose and it gives an unfair incentive to people to play these roles. In WoW you often see people who play Tanks and Healers specifically not queueing unless the special bag is available for the extra reward. It has led to longer queue times in dungeons.

In this game it would have a similar effect. You would have people who are queueing up just for the bonus IP. This will give rise to people who have zero desire to ACTUALLY play the support role in the support position. I myself would fall into this category, if I want to play support I can play any mode and get that position. But if I get a bonus for playing it in Team Builder then why should I not play it there? Anytime I want to play something else I would just play ranked or draft as I have a higher chance/less time in queue of getting the desired role. By playing all the other roles outside of Team Builder I also avoid the players I mentioned earlier that are playing support purely for the bonus IP.

In this instance it is better the way it is. If you really want to see less queue times then Riot should disband blind pick mode or draft mode, forcing more players into the Team Builder queue rather than giving them an unfair incentive to go.

LOL. The incentive to queue as a tank/healer was INSTANT GROUP INVITES. The bag was just a bonus. Trust me nobody was doing that crap just for the bag, it wasn't worth it.

theTygerOct 9, 20145 votes

One, WoW and LoL are completely different games. Two, you perfectly make my point. When enough people are queuing up for the rolls, the reward automatically ceases to be given. When those rolls become hard to fill again, the reward is once again offered.

This wasn't actually abused in WoW. The abuse case you're thinking of came before the reward system. People were basically selling their tanks/healers. They'd que up with someone for some amount of gold so said dps champ could get into a match without having to wait 15 minutes. Then the tank/healer would leave the party as soon as they got into the dungeon. WoW ended this behavior by kicking all members of a party who queued together if one of the members quit the dungeon. So if you queued up with a tank or healer and they left, you'd be kicked from the party as well.

The above mentioned behavior really had nothing to do with the reward system that was implemented as you wouldn't receive a reward if you left a dungeon early. In fact, if anything, it helped prevent the previous abuse case as it gave tanks and healers an added incentive to stay in the dungeon in addition to punishing people for leaving early. Presumably, the same would hold true in LoL, much as it does now. You don't receive any IP, much less bonus IP, if you ditch a match early.

PotatofaktmanOct 9, 20142 votes

Seems like a great idea in theory, not sure how effective it'll be in practice though. I love TB since it totally eliminates the annoyance of champ select and lets me choose whichever lane/role I feel like playing at the time, but it's definitely true that it takes ages to get a game going sometimes, what with people leaving after a 5 minute wait only for the role that was missing all of that time to join in and the role that the other guy just left now searching for another player. I think the longest I've waited was for about 40 minutes or so before the 3 of us who were there right from the start decided to quit for the day and get to bed, only good thing to come out of it was we struck up a great discussion during the wait and occasionally queue up together now!

KögâOct 10, 20142 votes

I dig this, maybe have the bonus ip gains scale with wait time?

MegaLobunnyOct 10, 20142 votes

Well, I guess I really like this idea because I main supp and usually go into team builder as a supp anyway so free extra ip haha. But yeah there are some people who would be jerks about it. That's kind of unavoidable in these games though so I think the benefits might out weight the rewards?

JunkοOct 9, 20141 votes

Won't work because it's not accurate. You would think when i see Top/Fighter is wanted i would get matched instantly? I still waited about 10 minutes before i found a team, and then had to wait more for the others.

SoleAccordOct 10, 20141 votes

I fear the blowback on people who want to do the role as opposed to people IP farming for it and trolling. Queueing support/jungle/anything needed and doing something else. The best reward for the roles not popping fast is probably just a faster lobby.

theTygerOct 10, 20142 votes

That's a reasonable concern. It's my hope that the majority of players wouldn't purposely go into a game to troll for a little extra IP. That, and it still seems like a win should grant you more IP than a loss, even with the bonus. So troll picking Jungle/Support wouldn't be worth as much as playing adc/top/mid and actually winning.