Team Builder: Feedback & Suggestions

I really enjoy Team Builder. It's probably my favorite mode right now since I can't enjoy ARAM with the new summoner spell. I've heard rumor that a ranked version of this gametype is on the way, which is really exciting and cool news to me. That said, I still think there's plenty of room for improvement, so following are aspects that I personally enjoy and constructive criticism to helpfully improve and polish this mode.

Positives:

1. I can choose my lane position to queue for. I don't have to worry about pick order or calling a position in champion select.

2. I can choose the champion that I wish to play.

3. I can hop around until I find a team composition that fits my preferred champion, rather than choosing a champion that fits my team's composition.

4. I have time to research my team's stats with their selected champion before locking in. I don't feel rushed in any way and there's no penalty for skipping out if I don't like my teammates.

Negatives:

1. I have no idea what champion I'm laning against until the loading screen. This makes summoner spell selection difficult, and often has a negative impact on champion selection and team composition as well. (EX: I've played a midrange/teamfight comp into a poke/disengage comp and been utterly destroyed before with minimal counterplay due to a lack of hard engage, a mistake that wouldn't have been made in normal draft mode). *Potential solution: Not entirely sure here, I think this will take a very creative approach. Pick and ban phase is a huge part of strategy in League of Legends, but once you introduce this aspect to team builder you start to lose a lot of the positive aspects that I've listed above (namely #2 and #3). Perhaps a menu when you queue to select a preferred composition or style of play would help here, so that you can go through pick ban phase and your team knows that you play primarily "teamfight mages" but you aren't necessarily forced to pick Orianna, for example.

2. Queue times are misleading and unpredictable. I don't mind waiting awhile to get the champion/position that I want to play, but part of that is reliant on people making teams and those teams having a slot open. Just yesterday I queued as Azir mid and sat there for 20 minutes waiting to join a team until I gave up and made my own team. Upon making my own team it filled up within minutes and I was able to start the game almost immediately. That's when I realized that queuing as mid wasn't so much the problem, but that there simply weren't enough teams built at that moment.
   *Potential solution: I think this one is pretty easy. There need to be notifications in the original menu that give stats on the quantity of open teams and the positions that need to be filled. Players need to have a more informed outlook on what they're queuing into. Ex: If I queue as top and there are 10 open teams, but all the creators have picked top, then I'd obviously be better off making my own team at that point.

3. Champion classification is bonkers. If I queue as Leona it recommends that I choose "tank." But if you choose "tank" for teambuilder in your bot lane, the chances of finding a support become absurdly low. It's far better to select support, and people who play Leona in bot lane also know by now that they need to select support when they queue (hopefully). The problem with this is that since Leona is not classified a support, it makes finding a team for "support" Leona more difficult than "support" Nami or "support" Janna. *Potential solution: I believe it would be best to have flexible options in team builder. I can select 3 options for bot lane such as "support/mage/tank" rather than choose between "support" and "any." And for roles like marksman that I wish to be less flexible with, I can simply choose "marksman" and leave it at that. This also makes searching for solo laners more targeted because I can choose "mage + fighter" for mid lane (for example) and I don't have to worry about a Zed or Leblanc joining my team over an Ahri or Pantheon mid.

That's all I've got for now. Feel free to leave additional comments or suggestions in the comments below. I'd like this to be a constructive thread if possible because I'd love to see improvements to team builder and I'd welcome a ranked team builder with open arms.