@Riot: Master tier is all well and good but here's what's really needed.

MrSc0tty·Aug 12, 2014·1 votes·380 views

Think of lol's ranked population as a bell curve. Gold+ is the top 20%. Bronze and Silver then should be the "average" tiers, comprising 60% of the population, the bulk of the bell curve.

Below that, introduce "Acolyte" tier. Not wood, not cardboard, or anything stupid and demeaning-this is for the people who want to start to learn the real complexities and intricacies of league's ranked system but are starting from the bottom. Leverage the new match history system to make this tier a place where help is always available and suggestions for improvement are given after each match.

I would suggest an automated post game breakdown for the player, telling them things like

"Your CS is below average on this champion. Try practicing last hitting in a custom game!" Use the system to check the times and locations of deaths and give advice like "a large number of deaths before the 15 minute mark indicate that you should try playing more cautiously in early laning" or "you died frequently near enemy mid turrets-try watching your positioning during sieges" Look at what kind of champions they had trouble with "You were killed by Riven four times. Try building armor early to avoid her all-in."

And then keep a special chat room specifically for players in the acolyte tier to get advice from gold+ players on their climb progress.

Ranked should be a journey, not a frustrating quagmire. Currently bronze players are eternally frustrated by what they feel is an unbearable "Elo hell" and they don't understand what they need to do to improve. Adding a tier built for learning is the first step towards a more healthy environment for low ranked players.

9 Comments

MrSc0ttyAug 12, 20142 votes

(Additionally, in order to ease the phenomenon of 'Elo hell' in Acolyte tier, relax the progression requirements a bit. I would start with either removing entirely or relaxing the requirements of the promo series within Acolyte to winning 2 of 4 for a regular promo or 3 of 6 for the promo to bronze. That way even if a player has a 51% winrate, they'll rise.)

OmnipheriousAug 12, 20142 votes

You know what would be great? If people could sign up to coach those in this "Acolyte" tier.

Limitations

A Mentor can spectate an Acolyte's match live but only from a locked-camera of the student's perspective
Ping the map/minimap (different colour to prevent confusion)
Highlight elements of the HUD
Indicate mouse-clicks
Limited only to Custom and Normal games

MrSc0ttyAug 12, 20141 votes

Awesome idea. I was thinking there could even be a tab of "featured matches" for players to spectate and critique Acolyte matches. With chat fully logged of course so that anyone logging in to just go "haha scrub" could be punished, and with players having to opt-in to have their matches spied on. But that could be a good pick up coaching tool.

OmnipheriousAug 12, 20141 votes

Featured matches for Acolyte matches might be a bit tricky though. I think that if implemented, such a system should be disabled by default unless:

You have opted-in and been approved as a Mentor
Once you are certified as a Mentor, you can choose to view a random Acolyte match or the match of Acolyte ranked players under your supervision.

This will help prevent just absolute randoms from dropping in to do just as you said. Having to earn Mentorship will also prevent people from just thinking, "You know what I'll become a Mentor and troll some peeps." since Mentorship is earned. Additionally, since it is an earned privilege the players who are Mentors can be subjected to reviews by students and other Mentors. This way if a Mentor gets reviews that deem them toxic or whatever, they will lose their status and maybe be slapped with a chat ban/etc.

Hoi Im TemmoAug 12, 20141 votes

What I would say: Acolyte tier would be an initial tier - BEFORE provisional.

Any player who has not played ranked before starts here. They play, and when they reach promotion, the go to provisionals to be placed in a division.

During their time in Acolyte, they would receive the help you suggested, and I would DEFINITELY support the suggestion made by Omnipherious for Mentors - and I would even say that being a mentor can earn ip or something . The acolyte would be matched with a random mentor, who would then be rated by the acolyte after game.

Finally, I would suggest that a player who feels they are in over their head in ranked, should be able to CHOOSE to go back to Acolyte, and learn again in a less stressful environment. Perhaps limit this to once/twice per season?

MrSc0ttyAug 12, 20141 votes

The problem with this is smurfs. Smirking in bronze was such a huge problem that riot had to change how provisionals calculated MMR early this season. My reasoning here is that Elo evens itself out pretty quickly. If you're less than a gold caliber player you'll be matched fairly close to where you belong after provisionals, particularly if acolyte was implemented as a third tier for the bottom 80%. Not saying that's a bad idea in theory but in practice acolyte would quickly become the Noob Stomp Tier. The best way to avoid that is to make it faster to rise out of than the other tiers, particularly if you're clearly smashing faces.

Hoi Im TemmoAug 12, 20141 votes

Thats actually what I had in mind: Part of the problem with smurfs is that a player who has been winning will then tank their mmr so to remain in the same area, using third party sites to get an idea of where they sit. If you just made acolyte below bronze, the problem would become "Now their is a lower tier than bronze....lets go there to smurf, lol"

By making it a separate entity from the league system (not below bronze, before it) the goal is that the players in Acolyte would not be a collection of learning to be better - but ANY players starting ranked. this makes it less of a target for smurfs.

The suggestion is acolyte be like normal games that are more competitive to prepare a player for entering ranked. After a taste of the ranked LP system (that would not effect your ranked mmr) you play your provisional games and enter the tier you reach.

Further, if a player then enters ranked, but feels they need to spend some more time learning, they can go back to acolyte (but I suggested limiting the times this can be done, so to prevent smurfs from cycling back in over and over again).

Sir ArmaMalumAug 12, 20141 votes

The main issue with having a rank below bronze is that it won't solve the problems of bronze, it will simply move them to the new rank floor. Stretching isn't the problem, it's the simple fact that it is the lowest area, similar to the issues of Diamond being on the other end of the spectrum. People just clump there.

That being said a 'rank' where one can be coached is a great idea that I've seen before and will always support. I myself would use the hell out of a supported coaching feature to help people out where I could.

Honestly I believe this tier shouldn't be below bronze, but in fact be voluntary. What I mean is that if someone is frustrated with their bronze/silver matches of late they can choose to enter the Acolyte rank, wiping their current rank and forcing them to play a certain amount of Acolyte games before they can re-try their placements (So as to mitigate abuse for new placements). During these matches they can be assigned a coach who can give them tips at the end of the match, a "let's talk about that last game" kid of deal. (The biggest issue with real-time coaching is that that's a legitimate advantage, second pair if eyes and all.) After the talk, both the coach and Acolyte can rate each other (report if necessary, Acolyte's for system/verbal abuse/intentional feeding, Coaches for verbal abuse/bad coaching)

MrSc0ttyAug 12, 20141 votes

The main issue with having a rank below bronze is that it won't solve the problems of bronze, it will simply move them to the new rank floor. Stretching isn't the problem, it's the simple fact that it is the lowest area, similar to the issues of Diamond being on the other end of the spectrum. People just clump there.

That being said a 'rank' where one can be coached is a great idea that I've seen before and will always support. I myself would use the hell out of a supported coaching feature to help people out where I could.

Honestly I believe this tier shouldn't be below bronze, but in fact be voluntary. What I mean is that if someone is frustrated with their bronze/silver matches of late they can choose to enter the Acolyte rank, wiping their current rank and forcing them to play a certain amount of Acolyte games before they can re-try their placements (So as to mitigate abuse for new placements). During these matches they can be assigned a coach who can give them tips at the end of the match, a "let's talk about that last game" kid of deal. (The biggest issue with real-time coaching is that that's a legitimate advantage, second pair if eyes and all.) After the talk, both the coach and Acolyte can rate each other (report if necessary, Acolyte's for system/verbal abuse/intentional feeding, Coaches for verbal abuse/bad coaching)

I would argue that skill at any task will very, very frequently follow a standard bell curve, and any 'clumping' at one end or another generally indicates the need for more categories. Currently the big problem of bronze is that you've got the whole bottom 40% of the skill spectrum in one tier with an imperfect grouping as there are 10 players/match. That's going to lead to some bronze players being far better than others in the same tier as them.

All the statistics aside though, if enough mentors were available this would be a fantastic idea. I would advocate a 10RP or 5RP reward for a mentor who doesn't get reported (or maybe who does get honored for good advice). It would serve the same purpose as my original suggestion.

The only issue is that low bronze would become an absolute cesspool of purely trolls and people with awful internet connections. Anyone placed in B5-4 would end up essentially having to go through acolyte.