ARAM Dodgers Issue

ProfHeimerdinger·9/1/2014, 3:26:43 AM·2 votes·582 views

The problem with dodgers in ARAM is getting more and more severe. Something has to be done about the situation. Clearly, restricting access for a few minutes is not enough to deter people from dodging. Here are some reasons:

Dodger have smurf accounts that have primarily of strong ARAM champions. Since the ratio of good:bad champions for these account is high, it only takes one to two dodges to not get the bad ARAM champions on the free roster. That create an incentive for dodging. (Solution: make ARAM allow ALL champions, even ones that are not owned.)
Dodgers have alternate accounts, so they can dodge and just log on to a different one. That makes the punishment non-existent. (Solution 1: make the dodge penalty based on IP.) (Solution 2: have a dodge counter in a person's profile. After a certain amount of dodges, the account is banned.)

2 Comments

watbesh9/1/2014, 5:01:59 AM1 votes

About the solution for (1): It can solve "ARAM-only accounts vs all-champ accounts" problem, but it won't reduce dodgers. Also, with so many champions, new players could get a champion who they have never seen (even in Free-to-Play rotation). It's not very nice to them. But honestly, I'm sure this solution would be great at reducing those ARAM-only accounts.

About the solutions for (2):
Solution 1 - It would work well on the dodgers, but you must think about that, people in one house / apartment / internet-cafe often share the same IP. IP-based solution would punish too many people, if handled carelessly.
Solution 2 - It can be good if the dodge counter can expire and the ban is temporary. Imagine if the light went out...

Other ideas I think of:

(a) Punish frequent dodgers harder. Currently, it only punishes harder when you dodge queues multiple times in 16 hours (according to a Wiki page), but this time window could be longer (let's say, a couple of days or one week). This is basically what I hope your (2) Solution 2 to be.

(b) Balance ARAM for champions. They sometimes balance TT/Dominion by giving champions nerfs/buffs only on certain maps. I know it would take a lot of effort, but ARAM needs it too. If this game-mode were well-balanced, players won't think their rolled champions are underpowered too often.

(c) Reward the players for not dodging. Some Reroll Points, IP, and something entirely cosmetic (e.g. a summoner icon) can be used as the reward.

8ake10/5/2015, 2:48:10 AM1 votes

I propose a solution to this. Have a Random Champion Box on your summoner profile, that's the next champion that you will get when you queue up to ARAM. Once you play the game with that champion, or use a reroll, you will get a new champion in that box. Dodging the queue would no longer allow you to skip the champion, making dodging nearly irrelevant. Because unless you consume a reroll or play the match with that champ you will be given that random champion.