Harsher Penalties for Dodging ARAM Games

Wrig·Jul 16, 2015·5 votes·825 views

I'm not sure what sparked the fad, but over the past month or so I've been having an awful time trying to get an ARAM game going due to people dodging the game. I've been playing ARAM off and of for about a year, and I don't recall ever having much difficulty with it, until recently. Now, though, I can easily have 6 games dodged in a row before one actually starts. I'm not kidding about the number 6 there. I've counted.

I would propose harsher penalties for dodging ARAM to try to counterbalance all of this nonsense. Possible ideas are:

longer wait times
denial of reroll capabilities for x number of games afterwards
no champion trading for x number of games afterwards

These are just a few ideas, but hopefully they would directly combat the thought process of "I didn't get an OP champ, time to dodge!"

15 Comments

LlamaSpeedJul 16, 20153 votes

I disagree with this, ARAM is a game mode people can chill in no worries of harsh punishment if something goes wrong, like if they need to dodge or even if they just want to. The punishments posted are too harsh, and if a player dodges that player already receives a wait time that give way more than enough time for you to que up and not see him/her again. On top of this, ARAM is not summoners rift, it's a side game mode and should be treated as such, a place to go have fun and not be butthurt :P

sheldonbunnyJul 16, 20152 votes

{quoted}

I disagree with this, ARAM is a game mode people can chill in no worries of harsh punishment if something goes wrong, like if they need to dodge or even if they just want to. The punishments posted are too harsh, and if a player dodges that player already receives a wait time that give way more than enough time for you to que up and not see him/her again. On top of this, ARAM is not summoners rift, it's a side game mode and should be treated as such, a place to go have fun and not be butthurt :P

To play devil's advocate, it also is for people to play to win. Some of us mainly play ARAMs. While the suggested ideas might be harsh, the sentiment that ARAMs are simply casual is an individual perspective.

Personally I don't stress over ARAMs, but I do play to win. I don't care what gameplay mode i'm in, intentional dodging is a crappy habit.

Miss MommyJul 16, 20151 votes

{quoted}

To play devil's advocate, it also is for people to play to win. Some of us mainly play ARAMs. While the suggested ideas might be harsh, the sentiment that ARAMs are simply casual is an individual perspective.

Personally I don't stress over ARAMs, but I do play to win. I don't care what gameplay mode i'm in, intentional dodging is a crappy habit.

Just tagging you to let you know I sent you a friend invite in-game, as I find you quite therapeutic and I had something else I wished to discuss with you.

ShuffledPancakeJul 16, 20151 votes

Most of my matches (that i can remember) had afks, my most recent one had one to even with an ip/skin boost -_-.

Puri Puri TaricJul 16, 20151 votes

arams suck if it wasnt for the community aram wouldnt even exist in the first place. Its a totally worthless game mode anyways.

DragfinJul 16, 20151 votes

{quoted}

arams suck if it wasnt for the community aram wouldnt even exist in the first place. Its a totally worthless game mode anyways.

The community understands that ARAM helps you learn champs, how to teamfight, champion builds, dodge skillshots, perform skill shots, etc etc. You have a lot to learn apparently. It exists for those reasons and will never be worthless.

Puri Puri TaricJul 16, 20151 votes

{quoted}

The community understands that ARAM helps you learn champs, how to teamfight, champion builds, dodge skillshots, perform skill shots, etc etc. You have a lot to learn apparently. It exists for those reasons and will never be worthless.

to me it is end of story.

DragfinJul 16, 20151 votes

{quoted}

to me it is end of story.

That's fine if you think it's worthless. But I gave you multiple facts as to why it's not. And if you can't believe facts then you are just dumb as a bag of rocks and not worth anyone's time.

End of Story.

KarKzzJul 16, 20151 votes

More like "i'm bored, let's launch an aram" -> get terrible champ -> dodge. If i don't get anything decent or something that don't like to play, i'll dodge. If i get punished more, i'll probably just dodge more. If i get more wait time , i don't care, since i generaly don't launch the game back when i dodge.

FDruJul 16, 20154 votes

{quoted}

More like "i'm bored, let's launch an aram" -> get terrible champ -> dodge. If i don't get anything decent or something that don't like to play, i'll dodge. If i get punished more, i'll probably just dodge more. If i get more wait time , i don't care, since i generaly don't launch the game back when i dodge.

And that's why dodges need to count as a loss for MMR. As well as having a larger time penalty.

You can dodge all you want if you don't mind playing with the other gutter trash.

KarKzzJul 16, 20151 votes

Loss of mmr in aram. Couldn't care less. I generaly also take "troll" builds anyway. You want to have a high Aram mmr or something ? If i get one of the few champion that i don't like , i dodge. I play aram to have fun, why would i play a boring champion instead of dodging ? Give me one good reason.

Also, time penalty are pointless. If someone dodge an aram, their are likely to spend the rest of their free time in an other game anyway.

Kholdstare13Jul 16, 20151 votes

{quoted}

And that's why dodges need to count as a loss for MMR. As well as having a larger time penalty.

You can dodge all you want if you don't mind playing with the other gutter trash.

Hey, that's my idea. That, along with changing dodge penalties to only count down while you remain logged in. So the people who DO just want an "easy win" and take the MMR hit can't just hop smurf to smurf gimping them all until they roll Sona. If you dodge and inconvenience 9 other people, you shouldn't be able to just log out and run away from the consequences.

With that in place, the current timers should be ok. If anything about the timers needs a tweak, it's how they decay. It's way too easy to log out and wait out the 16 hour reset to a blank slate, and continue abusing the system indefinitely. Instead, dodge count should be tied to the account doing the dodging, and only decay through completed games. Maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of a dodge removed for each game. Frequent dodgers will continue to face the consequences for dodging instead of getting it wiped every day for them to continue to abuse.

Oh, and of course there's unlocking the full champion pool. Smurfs alone are nowhere near as bad as dodging smurfs, but they still break the RNG a ton. What harm is there in unlocking the full pool for ARAM only (and changing rerolls to give 1 full roll per match as a result)? It would probably make skin boosts a bigger seller, too. After all, that temporary skin seems a lot more tempting when you're on a champion you don't own. I have one other idea for how ARAM picks could work, but Ill post a separate thread about it.

With all that in place, ARAM MMR would become meaningful. Over a large number of games, it would normalize out into a realistic measure of skill. This would allow something like my "badge" system (I'll try to dig up my post about this later) to properly function on the map.

CasterGilgameshJul 16, 20151 votes

i personally dont like dodging penalties they seem very un-needed for a game about fun why should anyone be punished for leaving a game when it's not even started it's just stupid my same thoughts for ranked games i lose LP from dodging a game where ill get two people picking mid champions just because they don't want to support this game mode is just a place to have fun so i don't understand why punishment is needed for dodging it

Kholdstare13Jul 16, 20151 votes

{quoted}

i personally dont like dodging penalties they seem very un-needed for a game about fun why should anyone be punished for leaving a game when it's not even started it's just stupid my same thoughts for ranked games i lose LP from dodging a game where ill get two people picking mid champions just because they don't want to support this game mode is just a place to have fun so i don't understand why punishment is needed for dodging it

Because it's ARAM. The point is playing with the hand you're dealt. If you can't work with what you get, you should have to fold and lose your ante, not just get a free mulligan on the next smurf in your lineup.

CasterGilgameshJul 16, 20151 votes

well its a good thing i dont play ARM as much i own tons of champions i dont play i do play it once in awhile sometimes i dodge if its a champion i just don't have fun with like irelia