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Request: Make Solo/Duo Queue a Serious Competitive Environment

Boxleitner·5/18/2015, 2:31:41 AM·91 votes·5,072 views
Ranked Leagues | League of Legends

Dear fellow Players (and hopefully, Riot employees),

------------------------- Argument -------------------------

I am asking that we address Solo/Duo queue, and what I believe is an unhealthy environment for competitive play. I'm asking that Riot make disconnected player matches not count (during the 1st 10 minutes, and that the match be able to end right then and there), that negative behavior actually get punished, and that other actions be taken to create a more serious environment of gameplay, where you can actually count on other players to make an effort to win.

--------------------- Who are You?---------------------

I have been playing Mobas since they began as maps in Warcraft 3; at the time they were called "3 lanes" or "Defense of the Ancients."

I participated in the beta for this game, purchased and played the first standalone Moba (Demigod) and have been playing all the Mobas seriously over the last few years (this includes Smite, Heroes of Newerth, Dota2, Infinite Crisis and even Heroes of the Storm beta.)

------------------------- Explanation -------------------------

Currently, League of Legend's Solo/Duo Queue environment is THE most toxic, unrewarding experience of my time on the internet. Whether it's people simply unable to connect or a player gone mad, feeding enemies till the match ends, I have seen nothing but bad energy, rude behavior, incompetence and casual attitudes where a serious interest in professional gameplay should exist.

Solo/Duo queue is riddled with trolls, feeders, and players who do not know how to handle their champions. I've seen it anywhere from Silver 1 Division all the way to Masters (when watching players such as TheOddOne, Doublelift or others.) What is reinforcing this environment?:

  1. When a player fails to connect to a Ranked match, the match continues, no matter what, immediately creating an unfair situation. The results still count. League servers have proven to be unstable, and failed connections happen quite often.

  2. When a player decides he wants to be toxic or give up, he can simply disconnect or not play. The match continues to be valid (and counted in terms of LP), and, despite there being an effort (seemingly?) to curtail this behavior, IT CONTINUES in a majority of matches.

  3. Lack of serious interaction, understanding of when to cooperate, when to fight and how to play seems to be missing in most League players in any Ranked Division or Tier. I've seen TheOddone rage at players on his team who pick champions they've never played with (He checks their profiles on LoLKing) and lose his matches time and again for this reason. I've seen Santorin, Doublelift, and many other masters suffer the same situation. I see it myself in Silver and Gold, and somehow, see a lot less or NONE of this behavior at all in other Mobas.

  4. Currently, Tier and Division placement does not seem to be a strong indicator of prowess or ability for our players. I have seen hardworking, incredibly skilled Bronzies, and I've seen trolling, foulmouthed Plats in the same match. Riot's scoring system for ranked is unreliable and uncertain at best. Your win/loss ratio is NOT a good indicator of your ability to teamplay, use mechanics and techniques, and use or create opportunities. (To this end, Heroes of Newerth provides stats, in detail, for every player.) Because of this, I can never know if I'm playing with others of my skill and prowess, no matter what Tier or Division I'm in.

  5. The whining, unhappiness and bitterness the above causes simply sours the entire competitive environment of Ranked Solo/Duo queue to the point of total disgust. I see enemy players hate mongering their enemies, enjoying every moment of pain they can inflict, when in other Mobas I've seen the exact opposite - League Ranked solo/duo queue play does not breed a friendly, respectful environment. It entertains one of hatred and one-upmanship. There is no teamplay and there is no sportsmanship.

  6. Especially in this Season (Season 5) I am noticing a trend toward solo hypercarry players being the only way to move up in Divisions. What I'm saying is that Solo/Duo queue, now more than EVER, requires a player to carry his entire team with one, powerful champion. Riot is not providing an arena where people work together to win the match; this queue practically requires only one player who can handle it all. But this is not how all players want to experience League, and it definitely does not provide for a trustworthy environment. Teamwork does not exist or is very rare in Ranked play here, and because there is no cooperation, it falls on you to either get lucky and have someone carry you and the three others, or for you to smurf and roll over all the enemies. - most players are not taking the game seriously, and do not bring their A game.

------------------------- What do you Propose? -------------------------

I ask that Riot address this concern by making sure players in Ranked matches behave with respect, play with the team in mind, be placed according to their abilities, and be appropriately rewarded and punished for their behavior. I strongly believe this is not happening.

I also suggest that Ranked matches be cancelled and not counted if a player disconnects and stays disconnected during the first 10 minutes. Players who disconnect and misbehave should be punished in a way that actually creates a serious environment, instead of one that pretends to.

-----------------------Conclusion-----------------------

If players want a casual, fun environment in League, they can take it to other modes of play within the game. Ranked Solo/Duo queue should be a Mode dedicated to serious gameplay, cooperation, and sportsmanship.

Please reply to this post with your understanding, opinion and ideas. Upvote and downvote as you see fit; I intend to see League improved, and to this end, I take time to make posts that are serious.

Sincerely,

Boxleitner

89 Comments

Eluviel5/18/2015, 3:11:09 AM24 votes

I feel like you've made very good, true arguments, but failed to provide a good proposal for a solution. Riot already has in mind that they should get rid of this stuff (or so I certainly hope), but who knows why nothing is happening. Are they out of ideas? Are they working on something but it's taking too long? We can't know for sure.

Here's how I want to add on to your proposal:

Situation: Player getting a disconnect No matter in which time of the game, beginning, mid-game, or late game, if a player gets disconnected, the team of the player who disconnected gets an option to pause the game, somewhat like in Dota. Only the players from the team that activated the pause can unpause it.

Pausing the game freezes all gameplay, the game-time clock but leaves the ability to chat on. A pause may last up to 8 minutes. If the player does not reconnect in these 8 minutes, all players left in the game get an option to (Ask For Mercy / Give Mercy).

If at least 2 players from the enemy team show you mercy, and at least 3 players from the allied team ask for mercy, the game ends, with no LP changes for either team.

EDIT: Forgot to say, if they decide not to give mercy, the LP gain is 3x less for the team that did not suffer a player loss, and 2x increased for the team that did, in case they manage to play so fantastic and still pull a victory on that game. (the dced player gets nothing)

Harsher Punishments For Massive Reports

If a player manages to get more than 4 or 5 reports from the game, which include an equal (or greater than) number of reports between both teams, this player should be flagged for being a serious case so that riot employees can detect and harshly punish the player.

Putting him in low elo queue is cool, and keeping him there until he learns how to play and behave. That's the only way you should be able to leave low elo queue in the first place. But definitely keep him away from ranked. He can play normals and other game modes, but not ranked (5v5/3v3).

Ban the player from playing ranked games until a significant amount of time has passed so that he has time to rethink his behavior and fix it. If he does it again and the same thing happens to him, the duration of the ban doubles. Proposed start duration: 7 days.

Remlap12235/18/2015, 4:32:39 AM10 votes

Yeah, League's ranked system is a farce for reasons that you aformentioned. The difference between Yolo Queue and the LC$ is so ridiculously huge, it should be a MAJOR red flag that there's something wrong with the system. It rewards this idea of "carrying yourself out of your league" when in reality it should be about teamwork, cooperation, and smart play in order to win. It's pretty much gotten to the point where I realize that I will never be able to carry myself out of my league unless I always play carries that I'm skilled with and can pubstomp regardless of my team's effort. As someone who considers support to be his strongest role, you can see how the system is inherently stacked against me. Hell, I've had a game where literally everyone on my team fed besides me. How exactly am I supposed to single-handedly carry that game as a support Janna, because if you can do that, you deserve to be in the LC$.

Yet in Smite, none of these problems exist. Hell, I've had better teamwork in assault (ARAM) on Smite 90% more than I ever did in Yolo Queue, and outside of re-rolls and trades, you don't get to pick your team composition. Sometimes you'll be matched with a heavy all-in comp when you're a huge poke hunter or something, and yet I STILL see better teamwork.

Oh, and another thing that I think fosters this toxicity is that Riot is focused solely on punishments to improve their playerbase, while HiRez focuses on positive reinforcement. What happens when you leave a game in LoL? You get flagged by a system that scolds you for leaving the game, regardless of the circumstances, and will ban you if you do it too many times (too many times is roughly 3 in a row, or more over a short period of time), once again, regardless of the situation. You will lose end of the season rewards, and your account is permanently blemished. If you are toxic in games, you are punished, regardless of the circumstances. The punishment is mostly dolled out through chat bans, which encourages poor teamplay because Riot does not have a hotkey based chat system like HiRez does. I PHYSICALLY CANNOT communicate as effectively under a chat ban. What if I need to tell my teammate that the enemy's ultimate is down, and I'm out of chat rations? Well I guess I'm SOL because now my teammate has to play unnecessarily passive, when all it would take is an improved smart ping system, or a removal of the incredibly stupid chat restrictions that are currently dolled out in order to communicate properly.

And I know what you're thinking, but you can still communicate with pings! No, you can't. I ran out of chat rations playing as support, and this was before I had my sweeping lens. I pinged our jungler and said "ward". He proceeds to completely validate my point with his response. "What about wards? Do you want me to ward? Is there a ward there?" He had no idea what to do with my limited information, and I couldn't clarify because I was a bad little bear who said naughty naughties and papa Rito took away my communication privileges. Here's what would have happened in Smite: V, Q, click. "Nasus (I main Anubis in Smite, Nasus is losely based off of Anubis, the Egyptian God of the Dead) WARD HERE!" My oh my, that was a lot more convenient and clear wasn't it?

HiRez, on the other hand, uses positive reinforcement. The more games that you complete and are pleasant in (Goodwill), you gain a modifier to your favor (LP) gained. It goes up to something like 30% bonus, and to top it off they don't have runes. All you favor goes into purchasing gods (which you can unlock all of them for a flat fee of $30, present and future) or recolors of skins (including mastery based ones that are golden and diamond). You leave a game, you get a deserter penalty, but the biggest hit is to your Goodwill. Your bonus is immediately reset, and you have to grind to bring it back to the original bonus.

Oh, and because of the hotkey system that's in place, I rarely ever type in game to chat with my teammates. I use prerecorded phrases (which can be in your champion's voice for gems, purely for style points Nasus). I don't need to physically type out that Athena is ulting (Athena has a weird hybrid of Shen's ultimate and Pantheon's ultimate) all I have to do is type V, B, A. "Nasus ENEMY ULTIMATE INCOMING!" Guess what you are indirectly doing a lot less of when you can hotkey communicate? Flaming. it's quicker, cleaner, and you get to hear your champ say these phrases! If you have a gem only skin, they'll also have a different voiceover (for $10, I can get a skin and a voice pack that does arguably more than a legendary skin in LoL).

Teal Deer; Riot's ranked and player improvement systems are inherently flawed by hanging judge tactics and a focus on the individual rather than the team, and until radical change is implemented, Yolo Queue will always be simultaneously a poor representation of player skill and a breeding ground for toxicity. It's why when compared to literally every other ARTS, LoL's community is always the most toxic. It's why there's a gigantic community rift between people who vehemently defend Yolo Queue, and people who radically oppose it. Until something is changed, I will ALWAYS have a more positive and cooperative experience in Smite than I will in LoL. I should not have to play another ARTS to scratch the itch of a MOBA while it being a vacation away from the sludge that LoL churns out on a daily, if not game-by-game basis. Seriously, I am not making this up, the number of games that I have played that I consider positive in Smite vs LoL is 15:1. I wish I was making that up.

Makami5/18/2015, 3:21:12 AM7 votes

I think the issue is the exact opposite of what you're saying. I believe that players take the game too seriously and as such create the toxic environment that currently exists. I believe if people play less seriously they'll enjoy it more and in fact they'll perform better in matches, at least in my opinion and experiences.

That being said the tribunal and punishment system or rather lack of it is a serious problem and I've often heard that the reason that many players act the way they do is because there are no repercussions.

The Ellimiist5/18/2015, 3:58:43 AM5 votes

I agree and all but as someone who has also played pretty much every moba, your statement about it no happening in other's is a blatant lie. The difference is other MobA punish and it happens less the higher your rank in them all, same applies to LoL. Sometimes some people rage in master/challenger but it's alot less common than sub gold.

Jinkirin5/18/2015, 2:48:26 AM3 votes

I agree with every statement aforementioned. Today alone, I have seen countless players trolling and disconnecting. AP MF mid feeding Yasuo, Amumu who disconnected every 30 seconds, a Jinx claiming to be a smurf and running into the enemy team...this and SO many other instances continue to go on and it seems there's no punishment for rude behavior or even just lack of player skill. I definitely play above my tier, and have been picked up for a team for my abilities, but yet...the ranked system currently in place makes people who have not sen me play assume I'm terrible. I have tried to carry countless games, have gone positive in KDA and won my lane almost every single match, but it's impossible to carry an entire team from the role of say....support. It makes people not even want o main support. All-in-all, I feel the current system DOES indeed promote a hypercarry environment. My most successful champs for ranking up have been Master Yi and Fizz. But put me in support, and goodbye LP.

Hal Su Ice05/18/2015, 3:02:46 AM3 votes

I also take this game extremely seriously and have very high aspirations to become a professional player in the near future. Currently because of players like Kaceytron I am in bronze and this is really hampering me in social situations and my stream because people just refuse to take me seriously when I talk about becoming a pro player, even though just as you've outlined it's mostly out of my hands.

Riot please fix the ranked system so I don't have to suffer any more embarrassments.

Sammystorm5/18/2015, 8:36:05 AM3 votes

Honestly punishment for afk's is pretty damn harsh. the trend you have seen in increased toxic behavior is directly correlated to the extended down time on the tribunal. People believe they can get away with being ass holes so they behave as such. Afk as a whole is down because Riot has been way harder on people leaving games then they have been on people being dicks so that people no longer can leave any games ever for any reason without being put on massive low priority queues. Yet people can be as a abusive as they want for multiple games and get away with minimal to no punishment. Basically the problem is that Riot took down the tribunal and have given off the vibe that all they care about punishing is people leaving games.

Hattricks III5/18/2015, 4:55:45 AM2 votes

the problem lies with riots want, need, and ability to hire a team of staff to scour the report database and make accurate and meaningful decisions about punishment to players , this includes the ability to look through chat logs and build logs much like on the tribunal, but the added necessity of being able to view game replays. riot would need a massive staff dedicated to this single job just to barely make a dent in bad sportsmanship and trolls and the like. this means payroll, workforce, and dedicated employees that are willing to sit in front of the computer viewing all these terrible games . how many of us have spent 8 hours on the tribunal , and how many of us would willingly..... ok add 12$ an hour.... how many of us? would that be enough? i agree with the argument and the solution and with the idea of a staff that is responsible for ridding the game of people that want to harass and ruin our games. i for one would take a position as a tribunal staff member ... for 15$ an hour... lol

eluviel i agree with you and this is a responce to your statement.

makami i do not agree with you , ranked games are meant for those that wish to play competitively for the sole purpose of getting better and acquiring that fancy border! if i want to have a good time and not worry about the outcome and joke around and do what you have suggested i will Que in draft , blind, aram , 3v3, crystal scar, bots or a custom game, not ranked. that is what those game types are for there are many other game modes outside of ranked to play casually in .

Rhinovex5/18/2015, 6:42:57 PM2 votes

At moments like these I like to take a look at games that have a better competitive environment. I know this is a totally different game and genre, but lets take CS:GO for example. The teamwork I can achieve on that game is a thousand times better, not to mention it's a game where it's easy to hard carry if you're skilled enough and there's not that much of an emphasis on teamwork. I believe one of the main factors is communication, CS:GO has it's own in-game voice communication feature which allows for faster more efficient teamwork.... Unless you think pausing and typing out 'EVERYONE GROUP ALREADY" is better. Now of course you could argue "well that's what pings are for" you have no idea how many times my pings have been completely ignored or have not been specific enough as to what it is I want to do. (So yes if an in-game voice chat could be implemented I think it could work wonders)

As stated by the OP I don't feel like losing LP just because some guy disconnected or decided to feed the enemy team and not cooperate. For a game that's supposed to revolve so much around teamwork... it's just not there, there are very few games where I have had an amazing cooperative team. As the OP also stated, ranking up right now usually relies on being on a champ that can carry, either that or the pure luck of actually being put with a decent team. I wish I could give more technical advice as to how matchmaking should be but I have no idea how that works :/ I just now that others games I play are much better at it and they're actually close games, not one-sided.

Transgressor5/18/2015, 1:13:31 PM2 votes

Demigod was FUCKING AWESOME. Rook and Oak are my favourite, and the maps were phenominal. I've never seen such map design in a game ever, they tried to copy it for Supreme Commander 2, but it was nowhere near that breathtaking, and nobody has shown interest in it since then :(.

HandheldBrandon5/18/2015, 6:46:20 AM2 votes

I am pretty sure that talking about that first Moba standalone thing (which shall not be named) is considered Taboo and will get you burnt at the stake for speaking heresy.

l Poro l5/18/2015, 2:13:06 PM2 votes

You made really good points! I've been feeling uncomfortable about ranked games atm and I didn't know why, until I read this article This is what I think, My moral tongue isn't english so I won't make my points clear sometimes.

  1. Especially in this Season (Season 5) I am noticing a trend toward solo hypercarry players being the only way to move up in Divisions. - Riot is not providing an arena where people work together to win the match; this queue practically requires only one player who can handle it all.

after reading this part, I was yelling 'Yeah! this is what I grew uneasy at!'

I was playing league because I believed that teamwork is the key for the game. That's why I liked league, and that's what I believed in so far. But for now, I just found myself I'm following this trend.

Another one.

4) .... There is no teamplay and there is no sportsmanship.

Unlike DotA, which usually one op player could handle the game, everyone has to be good to win game.

For example, when you think of one game. When our bot lane screws up and others did better than their enemies. even know game would be hard because they know there is reason for calling marksman as AD carries. But still, There is chance to win the teamfights when whole team focuses on their bot lane. Encouraging teammates to carry on the game, even know it would be hard game.

And that's why league is explained as good game for teamwork, isn't it?

Well, How many people would agree with this IDEAL match... How many people, HONESTLY would say 'When our adc is bad, we used to send him to botlane for farming and tried to hold other lanes as much as possible to get ADC prepared for the fight at least.' rather than 'Wow this adc. Surrender at 20'

sighs and rests for a sec I believed that league was good society. That's because of one player in my 2nd game of the ranked game of my life. There was one player who encouraged me by saying 'You are new to ranked games! GL on your rank, May the trolls not be with you!' his/her attitude on me made me believe league is good society. where are this players, who had good attitudes are?

Dengeden5/18/2015, 2:26:56 PM2 votes

Ironically, as soon as Riot implements something to deal with unfairness, this forum is filled with people who are (allegedly) unfairly affected by it.

You do realize that your general attitude also breeds toxicity, right? You're very civil about it but as soon as you start thinking: "Wow! This person isn't behaving correctly and that needs to change NOW", you're creating a very negative atmosphere.

Points 3) and 5) (or 6?) though... 3) will always be true because LoL is an easy-access game. It's very easy to learn the basics and very forgiving to play even at higher levels. As long as those 2 facts hold true, people who don't take the game seriously will continue to play it. And since our beloved community complains about anything in the game that's even remotely challenging ... that's not gonna change any time soon. 5) is plain wrong. We have a tank meta. Sure, you can't just farm for 30 minutes (mostly) and ignore objectives outside of your lane but I fail to see how that's relevant (or change-worthy). In low elo especially you need to capitalize on mistakes and strong solo picks are good at doing that. Not that you can't make it a group effort, I rarely carry my games but my win rate is fairly consistent. If you can't rise in divisions as high elo players do so often, then you are where you belong (sorry). And that's fine, I'm surprised I made gold last season and would be even more surprised if I did it again.

iainB855/18/2015, 2:32:56 PM2 votes

You got to wonder if the Tribunal being down for "maintenance" for over a year now isn't contributing to the worst online community I know of. It seems now more than ever people are just doing whatever the hell they want with no regard for other players, and no fear of any kind of consequences.

Boxleitner5/18/2015, 3:33:51 PM2 votes

Thank you all for the replies! I see that more people than I thought are concerned about this.

You are also probably correct that I may not be offering a proper proposal as to how to fix these issues. However, what I want most is to draw attention to Riot that this problem cannot be ignored any longer. Years and years of it aren't okay, and the players need to rise and speak up. Many of us are interested in the game, and not in being toxic or in misbehaving at all. We want to have fun and win matches, not argue and bicker.

Here's another idea I had about how to improved Ranked play and lessen the Toxicity:

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/summoners-rift/mEbsVTip-suggestion-use-champion-mastery-grades-in-ranked-play

I am still reading the suggestions and posts and I will reply when I can contribute, but I feel we are taking a strong step by talking about this. If Riot will begin to offer solutions, we should see what they propse.

Banuvan5/18/2015, 1:42:29 PM1 votes

People have been trying to get Riot to change ranked to make it meaningful for years. They aren't going to change it because they think it's great. It's interesting that NA gets destroyed in international competitions and every team has to import players from other regions. Why? Because there isn't a good pool of players to choose from here because solo queue is garbage. I stopped playing ranked after watching my team go 3/20 in the first 25 minutes. The 3 kills were mine and I had zero deaths. Rest of my team had died 5 times each already.

It's really rather easy to stop people from playing brand new champs in ranked. Only allow people to play champs that they have mastery 3 or higher in ranked. Make it so they also have to have atleast 3 of each type of champion ( marksman, mage, assassin, etc ) at mastery level 3 or higher before they can join a ranked game.

Pretty simple.