By the time this is posted or published, Season 5 of League of Legends will have come to an end. Over 5 years is a remarkable run of life in the changing landscape of the video game industry. A World Championship of E-Sports will have reached the closing ceremony, exciting new additions to Season 6 will appear on the PBE, and the holidays will also be upon us offering more or less work, new distractions, new games, or more time to practice.

As the season ends, let us commemorate Dyrus – the last original member that actively played on the roster for one of League’s earliest E-Sports teams, TSM, and his announced retirement. Let us bid farewell to others as well that plan to step down from their roles or positions and recall the crazy games of LCS. The victors, the upsets, and the champs, SKT1! Let us also reflect upon the climb and improvement we personally accomplished, and the positive outlook towards a new season that will arrive before we know it. E-sports teams this season also offered some great performances, surprises, and upsets. The competitiveness across all servers has risen and Riot has successfully marketed and garnered the popularity of League of Legends to the forefront of E-Sports and PC gaming. From this, Riot is investing its capital in new offices, more employees, better tech, better servers, more research and development, merchandise, and more marketing. Over the next few years Riot is looking forward to putting the “(S)” into Riot Game(s). Riot Games has built a giant in League of Legends over the past half decade. This game has experienced its rise in e-sports, themed events, new game modes, a plethora of what is now constantly released new skins, champs, merchandise, and updates. Yet, for a game that has enjoyed such large success, some wonder if or when the game will wane. Large online games with huge player-bases all experience downtime and decline in their population at some point. What can a MOBA (which is a different genre as well as a different credit/currency system) do to decrease dissatisfied or weakening interest? What can Riot do to increase loyalty and deter its player base from transitioning to other games or games within this similar genre? Aside from bug fixes, graphic, and visual updates, balance issues notoriously plague a MOBA’s meta. Every few weeks a new champion, item, or style of play becomes an overpowered FoTM (Flavor of the Month) and is either a “must-pick” or “must-ban” option or a counter strategy must be developed. This forces the company’s balance team into a cycle of constant tuning to champions, items, timers, and every other nuance to keep the game interesting and Riot’s clock fresh and running with the game they have given us. As new players become fascinated with the game, others have become dissatisfied. Is League of Legends a revolving door of sorts? Yes. The learning curve is a little steep. The game is close to exhibiting over 500+ champion abilities that a competitive player wishes to understand how they work individually and in conjunction with other champs. There is also numerous item sets, runes, mastery pages, strategy, and tactics that change and coincide in playing this game at an effective competitive level. Sometimes this loses people as well as a known issue with player harassment and toxicity from other players which will be a giant subject for later. Still, this game is also extremely fun and addicting to those that finally understand how to play it. It is a certainty Riot has performed numerous surveys and launched many case studies to get to the core of why their current fanbase (which is their main source of revenue) of average players exhibit dissatisfaction or leave League of Legends. Riot has taken to hiring some of the best in their fields of expertise from Ph.D’s, to highly experienced programmers and coders, artists, writers, musicians, casters, gamers, game testers, and they still collect feedback and analyze data over surveys, metrics, and graphs.

Riot has also made numerous efforts to increase their image in E-Sports, appeared with various employees for Q&A and/or PR, attended Reddit sessions, Ask.fm, other forms of media for debate and discussions, conventions, and attempted to make improvements to their servers and connectivity (This year NA got Chicago). From this, new features, promotional materials, champs, games modes, and an increased productivity to champion skins, icons, and ward skins (a main source of revenue other than merchandise) has elevated more now than in years previous. However, the reality is Riot needs to understand what is really deterring interest or fatiguing fans from their game before additional implementation of focus and corrections can occur. Thankfully, Riot is investing in the ongoing process of improving their servers. Riot understands if the core engine begins to feel outdated or broken all the great aesthetic additions may not matter in the end. Yet the matchmaking UI and engine is beginning to feel antiquated. The question remains, other than different new released games or real life situations, what is the real reason many players “logoff,” do not play, or leave League of Legends altogether? Despite what many feel about a popular Youtuber and ex-League player named Dunkey (Meatwadsprite), this individual did come across with some interestingly valid points as to why he quit the game. It is a shame his overall message was not exactly properly communicated as a result of an excessive amount of frustration that led to a ban from toxicity.

This article was written for free and out of passion for the game. Riot of course is dedicating and allocating resources to increasing their revenue, but sometimes to many this feels like some new paint or furniture to a house that really needs improvements to its actual foundation and structure. A giant issue is in the matchmaking. Some is in the wait for queue times at higher Elo. Some can find fault in Ranked Games and Promotional Series. Others will counter that the problem is toxicity but it is toxicity that occurs (out of the way Riot’s current system and rules) positions players together to actually play the game. The minimal amount of player control, ownership, and accountability players feel they have or suffer through in many games lead to many feeling helpless and suffering twenty minutes or more in wasted time. Let us not misunderstand that many wish to play League of Legends, but there are some games that once champs are selected, the outlook is greatly changed in the time invested.

The rest of this article will offer some background, additional photos, and short stories to my own experience within League of Legends. From this, we will highlight how people climb and some key points of interest in regards to problems and propose solutions for fixing them. With the hope of keeping Riot’s player base numbers growing, some work needs to be done in revisions to several algorithms, coding, and metadata. This is a lot of coding and math this writer can not fully understand. We will also analyze how to increase and keep positive behavior and look towards to other additions that maybe one can expect in the future of League of Legends. There are tons of information in the form of guides, mentors, streamers, and promotional materials to this game. However to keep it all simple, and probably a bit vague as this game has a lot of micro-play, let’s discuss how good players become great players. League of Legends is psychological warfare; a rock/paper/scissors design in champions and items chosen. It is keyboard warrior and mouse skills, and a game of Japanese go or chess-like strategy, all in one. If someone cannot choose the champion they want to play, maybe they can pick your counter; if they cannot out-farm you, maybe they can outplay you mechanically in harass; if they cannot outplay you mechanically, maybe they can counter-build you; if they cannot do any of the items said above, maybe they can ping and limit their mistakes and lead their team through map strategy of rotations, grouping, and awareness; and if they cannot do any of that, let us hope they do not feed.

The META

By identifying the points above, we have identified what got my own account into gold this season with a positive winning record. Other than the importance of Champ select, the real core tenants of this game fall heavily upon a fitting acronym of attributes that all work in unison known as META (Mechanics, Environment, Teamwork, and Adaptability).



The “M”of META – Mechanics

Farm (dragon/baron/turrets/inhibs), Skills, Positioning, & CS

Out of all the points listed, the decisions and usage of what a player does with their champ via mechanics is the one point the player has the most direct control over. So it is listed as a very strong and important component but it will not always win someone the game. Exasperation occurs when a teammate notes the farming “cs”(creep score) of others without fully realizing what situation lead to such low or high farm. If the team’s jungler stayed in the jungle and and player exhausts all of their mana top, and the jungler never assists, of course that player’s cs has the potential to suffer or be lower. Even moreso against an opponent that may be a mana-less champion or if the enemy jungler decides to camp or pay top a visit. It is also important to note creep score is meaningless past the point of a champions full build and upgrades (~+16,000 gold). Please, anyone that does not understand the conditions and situations that arrive out of gaining or losing cs (creep score) redirect their ignorance to this article immediately. Multiple skirmishes in the bot lane resulting in death/s, someone is going to have lower cs and experience. If teammates are dying or getting ganked it may be time to stop taking notes on the cs of your teammates. Typing in chat and lowering the morale of your own team-mate that can’t cs after noticing deaths will not benefit the team. Did you roam or teleport to help them after the first time? Did you punish your lane opponent in your own lane enough to carry? In the end, this is a team game. It may be true, some games may have teammates that underperform, but good players realize the need to focus on their own play and how to turn the game around.

Faker vs Ryu “Zed Vs Zed Outplay” OGN Summer Final 2013

Once noted was the question of how two professionals played against each other using the same champ? Game 5 of this particular series was settled via the rule of Blind Pick to determine the “best of the best” for that day.

Then there is your “decision making” and the utilization of a player’s own mechanics and play. Someone may not be great at cs but against an opponent or match of equal skill level, mechanics and “positioning” can help in securing victories in games. Is a carry is out of position in the front line? Engage them….cc (crowd control) them…their carry may fall…now the enemy team is weaker or may even retreat. An enemy is out of lane or a player manages to score a kill and the enemy jungler is nowhere nearby, they may push the creeps to tower or even try to take the objective altogether. What can one do in the middle of a teamfight when a marksman flashes over a wall and no one on the enemy team follows so they are pop-shotting the entire enemy line (starting with either the squishier champs or whoever the team focus-fires) in cover and relative safety? Outplays in mechanics and decision making can be some of the most exciting plays to perform and watch.

Along with kills and cs, farm additionally considers how many dragons, barons, turrets, and inhibitors are taken. Its an easy factor to consider but it still counts as gold accumulation for better items than your opponent and in many instances greatly serves to closing out games.



The “E” of META – Environment

Before we enter the game environment, let’s also discuss the player’s environment. How is the player’s mood? Are they on tilt? Bad day at school or work? Internet connection solid? There are even “outside factors” to consider when one is talking about a player’s environment.



Proper usage of Pings and timers

A huge percentage of this game is won via leadership with pings and keeping up with timers. Duo-queue players take notes: USE PINGS! Talking to your duo-partner in voicechat and comms can inhibit your own play because 3 other people cannot hear you if u aren’t pinging or typing.

Often a support in the bottom lane may notice an enemy jungler about to gank top before the teammate does. Sometimes an enemy mid may attempt to roam to bot lane before it is observed by the ally mid. Teammates always appreciate the pings and notification. The ability to use, listen, or ignore pings is each player’s responsibility. How often do ganks fail by junglers that did not ping the team or target an enemy to communicate they were going in for a potential kill? How many teammates think a follow-up is an expectation 100% of the time without pings and a “blame game” occurs after an initiation goes bad? How many times did a bot lane see their jungler near dragon and put faith that they were coming bot and initiated a fight expecting an assist or cleanup only to die when that jungler was only planning to take skuttle crab for vision? How many contests for an objective end horribly without pings? How many set-ups or follow-ups with teammates leading to a opportunity are being blown by poor planning and under utilizing pings?

Should the team group or split and farm? Lesser forces and numbers are always one ability or simple engagement away from annihilation. How often is a retreat ping displayed when less than all 5 players are overstaying and pushing inner enemy towers as the entire enemy team closes in upon them? How many times is it a bait?

Target Pings

Using pings can actually enhance mechanics. With pings, enemy champions of better priority can be highlighted and target pinged for ally focus fire. Even turrets can be focus targeted to display the importance of eliminating it before fighting the enemy team under it during harass/siege/dive situations. By highlighting the target enemy or objective, your team can control the situation better and focus opponents into potential kills and/or aces. A team that never fully focuses correctly or does not use target pings on enemies usually lose entire games from lack of organization and mechanical cohesion. It is true some fights are won by the ever popular “focus the marksman or adc” rally cry many often see or experience, but more advanced teamfights are won by “focusing the true enemy carry/the strongest player” or through proper positioning and “peeling.” Everything in this game is a lesson in player improvement and advancement.

Importance of Timers

Exemplary allies type timers in chat. These players note blown summoner abilities of enemies or give a “timely heads up” to their team of when Baron Nashor or Dragon is going to spawn. This prompts supports and allies alike to begin investigating and warding these areas to contest the enemy or take the objective. Proper understanding of play around Baron Nashor and Dragon timers lead to Baron and Dragon control which can benefit a team powerfully.

Keep this guy from getting fed off your teammates…use PINGS!

A beneficial way of using simple pings is to find and follow enemy jungler movements and pinging their location while defensively pinging danger in brushes or areas near allies where the enemy is believed to be. Sometimes an MIA ping may be spammed a little as it makes a dull sound and the retreat pings are better recognized. Use common sense and discretion when spamming pings. Pings do save lives and can put many in the lead. What is most puzzling is if everyone agrees that these are the things one is supposed to do, then why are so few doing it? A ping and a ward can be very similar but sometimes even with a ward a ping can be more beneficial. A ping’s utility of usefulness is understood, but often under utilized. The good players use pings and they use them properly. Actually using pings and timers properly also leads to a better and deeper understanding of the game as well as increases one’s own map awareness. Learn to start using them both to climb effectively.

MAP AWARENESS

The following statistics of this particular game is an example of how map awareness defeated the enemy. Xin and Malzahar take teleport for global presence – with Kindred and Janna Ultimates for healing and longer survival in fights – this entire game was based around picks and counters but also proper warding and map awareness. This game limited ally mistakes and deaths; snowballing out of control against an enemy with a decent composition but never given the opportunity to capitalize.

Much of this game involves “thinking like the enemy.” Knowing where to be and the the right time to be there is key in predicting engagements. Warding is vital in this area. We will see what changes in the new 2016 season occur in regards to warding. As noting enemy patterns in their style of play and warding their movement and rotations all lead into advantageous preparation or circumvention. Exceptional map awareness usually only comes after a lot of experience playing so it is one of the harder components to develop rapidly and fully grasp its importance.

Map awareness involves being mindful and vigilant of a teammate in need of assistance, attempting a kill or assist on a champ, taking or contesting an objective with a skillful global missile or other ability, alertness to jungle ganks, and noting the last known position of enemy members. This awareness is used in conjunction with wards, pings, and timers. Ultimately, it is map awareness that allows players the ability to know when to split and when to group, where to be and where not to, how to prevent pointless deaths of themselves and teammates, and where to strike and capitalize individually or as a team. Mechanics are crucial, teamwork is usually necessary, and adaptability is favorable, but map awareness ranks in the list as one of the most important aspects in this game. PERIOD!

Some Steals

How many turret/inhibitor/base races end in disaster when one team has better map awareness and understanding? Without map awareness, mechanical decision making and teamwork can only get a team so far. Some games have such great team play and map awareness that the 2nd top tower, base tower, and top inhibitor can be taken for the sacrifice of one dragon that the enemy decided to contest and secure. Sometimes, a game can be won or lost entirely by such calls or actions.

The point is to understand that one team or player can place so much importance on one objective it could potentially cost them the entire game. Like the King in chess, it is only the enemy Nexus that truly matters in the end. How many backdoors are achieved because the enemy team contest a Baron or Dragon resulting in a teamfight with the hidden goal of preventing the enemy from backing? Bolder and smarter players understand objectives, timing. and map awareness to a degree some games can be closed and won by distracting the enemy or not even fighting them at all.

Winning Without Fighting ~ Sun Tzu

The “T” of META – Teamwork

Champ Select



The story of J4 and the Fanatic (FNC) Kennen “wannabe” – During World’s in Season 5 Fanatic Rekkles knew what he was doing by locking in Kennen. His team was able to confuse the enemy in champ select and pick a composition that cover each other’s weaknesses while simultaneously capitalizing on strengths. Good players choose champs for a particular composition for a reason. Kennen happened to fit into Fanatic’s overall plan. That was professional play….but a firestorm swept through solo/duo queue over the next few days. Prompting many in lower Elo’s to instantly hop the bandwagon and give “ADC Kennen” a try in Solo-queue ranked play.

The entire enemy team in this picture all picked champions with limited escapes, decent mobility, and an investment in aoe (area of effect) abilities with additional consideration for dealing with and ignoring crowd control. Insert the pick of Jarvin the 4th. J4’s ultimate can box every single champ the enemy team has and trap them preventing any form of mobility or escape sans summoner spell flash. J4 can also CC and box-trap an attacking Olaf or Kennen in his ultimate and flash out of it himself, isolating opponents, and rejoin his team in peeling or chasing the enemy and working together to eliminate carries before transitioning to finishing whoever is remaining.

Coincidentally, all teammates also chose champions with abilities that can both hard engage or jump away or hop out of J4’s Ultimate should it mistakenly trap an ally. Although the gold level was closer than need be, the game was over in kills and deaths of a demoralized enemy team that was countered by champions chosen. Champ select – choose wisely!

An extremely effective way to increase or decrease one’s odds of winning a game is done by champ select. Provided the player can actually play the champion chosen, an individual that has played enough games becomes knowledgeable of strong picks in the current meta and can save their entire team by picking the correct champion versus the champ they may truly want or were planning to play. This is a giant part of why teamwork is important. Without selecting the correct champion for the team the entire composition may be weaker than the opposition. Can one really blame their team when they picked a champion that did not exactly fit into a composition and the game begins?

Teamwork is not only grouping and team-fighting on the map or pushing objectives effectively. How many games and ranked games have a player lock in a champ with no one picking a champ with abilities that coincide with a teammates? Think of games with an Orianna or a Yasuo with no one choosing a champion with a tanky engage or knockup? How many games lack proper balance and result in “All AD/AP” teams that are easily countered via builds? Then there are the nightmares of 5 squishy champs versus a more well prepared and balanced team of tanks, supports, attack and magic damage champs with abilities that can crowd control, heal, and deal damage that make any attempts to fight them nearly futile.

There are single target limited wave-clear compositions versus those that have little trouble at all pushing, or the poke composition that falls horribly behind. Got to love those poke champs that miss abilities and run away once the enemy team hard engages forcing a 4 v 5 or worse in the enemy’s favor (Nidalee); or the mid that doesn’t roam and isn’t very well known for taking and pushing towers solo (Leblanc); to the ally picks of little to no crowd control and those last enemy lock-ins of Katarina or Master Yi or both. Picking the right champ to aid in the overall team’s strengths and composition does wonders to win rates! Picking the wrong champs does just the opposite.

By knowing your opponent and properly picking a counter correctly or incorrectly, the game may already be decided. In champion select, choosing proper summoner abilities, mastery pages, and runes is like a mini-game before the actual game. If you are in a ranked game (assuming your opponent is equal in skill level) and cannot envision your team winning once all the abilities, spells, and active items are used in a fight, perhaps it is better to queue dodge and lose 3 LP (or 15 LP the 2nd time) in a day and save 30 minutes of torment as many analytical players often do to prevent LP loss in unfavorable matches.

Ranked Game: Give me Alistar fam….oh, you do not have a champ that you can get freely with a skin…say no more…

Please have a good number of champs in ranked in all roles and positions. Especially since some are free to attain. Alistar and Tristana are free and quite easy to obtain. You already need a certain number of champs to play ranked queues and the community pleads with you take the necessary steps to add these two free champs to your roster.

How to get Alistar and a skin – FOR FREE! (CLICK LINK)

How to get Tristana and a skin – FOR FREE! (CLICK LINK)

Incredible Teamwork can give players the euphoria of the greatest, hand trembling, heart-pounding Victory, or the most sickening and agonizing Defeat. With no 5th Dragon or Baron, one game had my team overcome an incredible Gold deficit before we aced them and pushed for what felt like the comeback or “enemy team throw” of the season.

The “A” of META – Adaptability

There will be some patches where your main champ or champs will excel, then there will be other patches where you will hate Riot for everything they did to your main champ or champs. Adapt or die.

Adaptation to one’s opponent or to the flow of the game or even to Riot’s patches of new champs, new items, nerfs, buffs, tunings, and balances can have an individual skyrocketing through the ranks.

Item Selection

Item selection and building is heavily considered when discussing adaptability. Building magic resist against teams full of magic damage or armor against attack damage teams or banshee veils to help in managing enemy crowd control. It makes sense to consider purchasing a hexdrinker or spectre’s cowl against an AP opponent but many still ignore this logic. Sometimes, breaking from the guidelines of recommended items found in some forum or build guide designed for “sheeple” to follow and instead learning to counter-build effectively may allow a player to get an early lead in harass, experience, or even a kill in the in lane. Competitive players theory craft as the game progresses and think which items in the game will be a better value against the opponents they are facing. Some consider an extra point somewhere in the mastery page or a pre-selected rune page against their competition/lane opponent or anything that can give them an edge over who they are fighting so they can snowball out of control leading to a hopeful enemy surrender @ 20. Players that exhibit traits in quick adaptability climb faster.

Many times Riot will implement patches where players discover a particularly strong item or champion that players will abuse to climb in the ranks. Mordekaiser specifically served in securing one of my accounts gold this season. HUE HUE.

After enough normal games I decided to take advantage of the Mordekaiser update patch where he can control the dragon. This was before he was a “must-ban.”. Here is an enemy teammate that didn’t understand morde’s kit and “had it on video” and “was going to get me banned” for destroying turrets and the enemy team with the dragons we secured. Surrender @ 20 in a Ranked game. This player had me rolling in laughter and I was certain a report was probably going to be filed on his behalf against me, but could I also not report him for being ignorant to Patch Notes? Before another patch further tuned Mordekaiser, he was banned around 90% or more in the games I played.

The Devourer jungle item was very similar to Feral Flare jungle item from a previous season so it also helped as many familiar with this item used it to jungle their way to the top. Then there was a brief period where this item was disabled so people reverted to Cinderhulk item champions to climb as they were strong earlier in the season. The importance here is players either adjust to the changes Riot hands down to them and adapt or they will experience difficulty climbing in ranked games. Even top professional teams sometimes exhibit difficulty adapting to changes in the meta leading to them displaying poor performances against other competitive teams that adapt better to the changes Riot implements with each patch.

My personal best in Ranked play… Shyvana Fully Sated (Devourer) at 14 mins. The game was over 6 minutes later….cellphone screen shot…

Counterplay / Outplay

Much of counter-playing and outplaying an opponent goes into mechanics. However, some of these attributes or situations may also be a product of adaptability. When a player notices a pattern or a behavior and adapts or uses an opponents moves against them then that player has adapted or exploited a weakness in their competition and can now overcome their foe to their own advantage until their opponent also adapts.

Riven, first off kudos for not being camped by Lee to oblivion for your choice of summoner spells and beating up on Lissandra. Second, thanks for being cocky enough to think you were going to win a “team game” with your choice of summoner spells and beating up on Lissandra.



“MEAT” of the META – Pulling It Altogether

Now let us look at a typical champion select sequence (or ranked game after the ban phase) and how 5 players choose a composition and come together.

Teammate 1 – Chooses the flex pick Shen (often known for Top, Jungle, or Support) – Shen tells us he is top. Teammate 2 – Chooses another flex pick of Diana (popularly known for Mid, Jungle) but tells us she wants mid lane. Teammate 3 – Picks Alistar (also flexible in a few positions but Ali calls Support.) Teammate 4 & 5 lock in Jungle (Zac) and Marksman (Draven) respectively. Now the players are ready to play their enemy each with their own inherited experience of strengths and weaknesses in the points listed above: Mechanics, environment, teamwork, and adaptability. Just like their own chosen champions have meters and a charts of their powers and attributes, each individual has a core of experience mixed with strengths and weaknesses. How the game progresses to victory and defeat depends on how well each play and also how well the team plays together.

The “MEAT of the META” one plays and encounters will be like a graph. Another player will be both stronger and weaker in some categories than yourself or others. You and your teammates (the MEAT) will all exhibit your own strengths, weaknesses, and attributes. It is a player’s and the team’s META that determines how proficient they are in lane, in map awareness and warding, trading or contesting objectives, setting up offensive and defensive maneuvers against the enemy, rotations, team item building and ability correlations, or whether or not they are grouping or splitting. So one can say that one’s skill-set acronym of META determines how well they play…….in the MOBA meta…. YEAEAEAEAEAEAEAEAAAHHHHHH!

ok.

Toxicity

Despite the way the game is played, a multitude of games leave a player feeling helpless and with a feeling of wasted time within the first 12 minutes (sometimes sooner). This feeling of being trapped once a game is even queued currently lasts for twenty minutes or longer for about a total of a half hour (once champion select is counted) or more of player frustration. This leads to a lot of chat abuse towards allies and enemies as well as frustrated play from players. Riot is currently implementing great PR and damage control (reinstated future tribunal/updated tracking of toxic play/updated report system) but it feels too many active players as largely ineffective in handling player-on-player abuse. Strides are still being taken and promises and changes keep coming, but this process is slow. Let’s look at the new updated “report feature” and the various behaviors that get a teammate reported….

Reportable Offenses

Negative Attitude, Verbal Abuse, Leaving Game (Rage Quits, Disconnects)/AFK (inactive in game), Intentional Feeding, Hate Speech, Cheating, and Offensive or inappropriate summoner name.

Anyone here notice a few report items that got left off the list?

Anyone notice that “refusing to communicate with team” and “unskilled player” was remarkably left off the list as a “reportable” feature? In ranked play, isn’t it notable to a majority of players that these two issues are a potential giant cause of toxicity in the first place that lead to many of the other behaviors listed above? Is Riot’s new stance for next season largely to curtail attitude and player behavior without appropriately addressing that one person that autolocks a champion in champ select or “refuses to group” despite numerous pings and pleads and typed calls to? What about that unskilled 1st time “X” champion that messes up their team’s LP in a ranked game because they have never played it before but thought it would be the perfect time to just give it a shot in ranked competitive play and end up nearly feeding to a point it looks intentional? How about the auto-lock of a “mid or feed” or “mid or dodge” individual that was last pick that proceeded to mess everything up even at champ select once the game begins?

It is certain particular “troll-type” behavior or “troll” picks in champion select that eventually lead to people becoming chat restricted or being banned for toxicity. Despite the toxicity of the player and the fair ruling for the ban due to harmful speech in chat, players universally understand that sometimes an individual’s level of frustration with the game and certain teammate’s picks or builds or play make many that play this game commit the same or similar toxic offenses. When things go wrong at champ select or in the first initial minutes of a competitive ranked game due to a few behaviors listed above, player frustration occurs as with no accountability, true punishment, or way to quickly surrender and move on for the troll or feeder that commits these offenses. Moreover, there is no compensation, recompense, or merit to the players that attempted to play correctly.





Solution – Muting Players – Counter-Argument

Of course the “mute” feature is a valuable feature to the game but how many loyal players and readers of this article ALWAYS utilize the self control to use it in every game they play? Hitting tab and mute is so easy….yet even in a fight between the bot lane and support after a some horrid play when one does mute the other, 3 other players have to listen to one champ whine and cry the entire game until they themselves decide to exercise the mute function. In the heat of game-play, it may be difficult to figure out just “who” to mute. By then, team morale may already be too low (BG – bag game). Such is the judgment calls and frustration that many players always encounter when they enter competitive ranked and even some normal games.

Reporting Players

Another honest assessment is the Report function is not often used and there are occasions where it is abused depending on the player or players. Sometimes people just instantly leave queue forgetting to voice their opinion to a player’s negative behavior because they desire to move on or are so mad they instantly close out the end game results screen and get away from the toxicity of a particular game. This emotional frustration builds and carries with the player to other games creating tilt (1 loss or multiple losses out of emotional frustration in lacking clarity of mind or positive outlook) situations. Other times, some duo queues multi report a teammate and abuse this system altogether against an enemy or teammate.

This article is not asking Riot to change their position on bannable offenses in regards to player behavior, but it is pleading the case that other players that “mess around” and “troll” in the competitive ranked queue (when there are other modes to “mess around” in or try new things) be evaluated just as critically. Since it is usually troll picks, troll behaviors, and “messing around” in ranked play that spark a lot of toxicity in the first place. This article fully appreciates people trying new things and having fun. Yet this article also calls for some degree of (not punishment but…) a system of player accountability when they decide to “mess around” and “troll” in competitively ranked environment that ruins the competitive spirit of those they play with and against.

Multi-Reports and Other Factors Abusing the Report System

Sometimes players abusing games as duo-queues or more people may file false reports (which happens). Even an enemy team reporting a player should be providing better instant feedback. Is there coding, algorithms, and multiple solutions to discover this? Riot states their system is already identifying mouse clicks, monitoring troll item buys, time spent in brush, or not clicking anything but some of this honestly feels that the challenge may be there isn’t a better metric or coding identifying each of the characteristics above.

As games progress, some people become repeat abusers of accounts responsible for cheating, scripting, and DDOS which can be easier identified as new code notices a trend in the last “X” number of games resulted in a Victory due to a an enemy team member disconnecting. Some of this is is in place with the “cheating” report function of the new report system. But as a teammate disconnects and a player reports 5 of the enemy team for cheating as someone believes a DDOS occurred but cannot identify who is the actual person responsible, how do any of these reports hold any weight? And now a particular player that filed such reports may be flagged and punished by the report system flagging their account as “filing false reports.” Riot insists they are working on creating a better environment for players but this is an area in need of a watchful eye and actual improvement and implementation in addressing and actively taking actions with these issues.

Ranked Rewards

Many players strive to be gold level for a free exclusive skin, rewards, and bragging rights. Yet Riot has initially created a black market out of its own system. Account boosters are now in abundance as individuals or companies receive money to raise a player’s account to a MMR (matchmaker rating) or Elo in tiers and divisions the player did not earn themselves. Now, people are getting paid real money, receiving skins, or some other form of compensation to boost many players and/or friends to gold level and above (which is against Riot’s terms of service). Cheating in the form of “scripting” and DDOS also occur. It is obvious in many instances when a player is not playing in the right tier or division. As if playing against a booster is not disheartening enough when you encounter them and they stomp you and your team, it is later doubly frustrating for others to play alongside these boosted players that perform poorly in the boosted Elo the booster earned for them once they play their own account again. It is quite obvious that many are doing this for the Gold Victorious skin. While one believes it is a good incentive reward competitive play, it also has many negative connotations that coincide.

Meet the Gold V Lux that easily keeps her “Gold V” even though she is almost 40 games negative. Do they…deserve their gold? Did they “earn” it? And now that they have Gold, what are they doing with it and others that they play with?

Then there is the issue of people that have reached their true ELO or MMR that know they can’t go further competitively. These individuals passively pick and troll games by playing whatever they want with little to no consideration for who they play with or against. These players gave up trying to excel. People comfortable in their tier or division (got ranked rewards or as far as they can…now playing ranked games for fun now…competitiveness over…..bronze/diamond for life…u gonna be too while I try out this Zed 1st time…going Bard mid with Orianna ADC, competitiveness to actually climb over.)

Does MMR mean the most or does Ranked Tier and Division mean the most? Meet the near 40 game negative 1203 “ELO Hell” Platinum 2014 Border player that is now at Silver I. Rusty mechanics? Did they have trouble carrying? Did they deserve Plat and just forget how to play from last year? Were they really Platinum to begin with? Did they sell their account? Were they Boosted? Is the climb and MMR just totally messing up their games? Bad Teammates? Seriously what happened?

Let us also address climbing through tiers and divisions briefly. Many players are claiming with the growing population of lucky placement matches, Elo Boosted, carried players, and the trolls that hit their plateau, competitive match-made games in many Tiers and divisions feel very similar in skill level of the META. Matchmaking even currently shows this by sometimes matchmaking within 2 tiers of the other. Of course there are differences between the Bronze and Platinum players in skill, but what about the Silver I and Gold I player? How many times have people said gold and platinum are essentially the same just with worse egos, attitudes, and/or behaviors? How many have heard the comparison that Silver… is Bronze, but Silver (citing only the color difference)?

With the only notation of higher divisions of Diamond, Master, and Challenger really separating the great players from the other tiers and divisions, shouldn’t Riot’s ranked system match and increase in skill and difficulty as players climb? Yet why are we having platinum players with over 15 games negative playing at silver MMR? Why are we having silvers still stuck in silver with 20 games positive while some previous season gold player played 10 games and earned their Gold Tier again and no longer feels compelled to play? And the new proposed Season 6 Ranked Dynamic Queue is only going to widen the discrepancy and mess this Tier and division system further. League of Legends will be less about letting a good player be good or skillful, it will be more about letting lucky players be lucky (good teammates in queues) or or involve less skilled players with friends attaining levels outside of their skill zone but climbing due to these friends.

The Season 6 Pandora’s Box!!!

With information to some factors listed above let us discuss Season 6 briefly:

Ranked is about to open up a new system called “Dynamic Queue.” This system is essentially allowing any number of players to now queue up together in ranked games.

The good part about the newly proposed Ranked Dynamic Queue is we may see more of this with better execution. The bad part about the newly proposed Ranked Dynamic Queue is we may see more of this with better execution.

Some concerns:

Is Riot’s response now just a “free-for-all” and “everything goes” system for whoever wants to queue for ranked can now to combat boosters and carrying less skilled players through tiers and divisions?

What stops ranked multi-person queues from abuse in toxicity, and false reporting?

What countermeasures are in place to stop or curtail ranked multi-person pre-made dynamic queues from Elo boosters or smurfing in abundance in this new Dynamic Queue?

What countermeasures are in place to stop or curtail griefing in lower Elo from multiple pre-mades intentionally keeping smurf accounts with low Elo MMR for the occasional super abusive pubstomp only to “troll” it later to not gain Elo and climb?

Whats to stop a similar scenario of 4 people in a pre-made from just beating the opponent to a pulp and then just troll surrendering ruining the 5th player (the one player that decided to solo-queue and got placed with these 4 trolls) on the team so none of the players climb in LP even though they were easily winning? This is not a surrendering too soon scenario, this is 4 people racking up kills and items over and over for a long amount of time and then just completely troll surprising their teammate (with a loss) opponent (if their opponent does not /ff ) with a win via surrender.

What countermeasures are in place to stop or curtail teams that have “that one or 2 players” that went afk (away from keyboard) but their champ is sitting on the fountain at the start of a game before minions spawn while the pre-made dynamic queue of a larger pre-made working together exploiting such common weaknesses over and over in successful early jungle invasions to win games? What punishments can we expect the AFK player can receive for not being ready at the very start of the game because they AFK’d at the loading screen?

*What countermeasures are in place to stop or curtail several smurfs or boosters from carrying a less skilled player to higher Elo so they can mess up future games in a ladder or division they do not belong in when they “solo-queue?”

*There used to be only 2-3 ways to actively do this – duo queue boost or carry until a bad player got there or buy a higher Elo account from someone. Both are against Riot’s terms of service. As many can vouch, this ruined games in high Elo for people and in many games it is very apparent who got boosted or carried to an Elo they do not belong in. There is even photo evidence above of people with negative games and/or people staying in a tier or division they either became rusty or unskilled at playing in. The future of Dynamic Groups -> that one “elevated” or “carried” player is going to get crushed when they play solo but be constantly carried once they are in groups. What kind of Ranked system is this?

This is going to open an can of worms in the first weeks of ranked queues and placements. This will also be extremely punishing to anyone foolish enough to try to “solo-queue.” Some of my own friends hated the environment of ranked due to its unforgiving nature and environment, this environment is going to turn into a pre-made team power in numbers game on a worse scale with no recourse. And Riot has affirmed us it will match us against similar opponents? One hopes much of the photo evidence in this article as well as anyone that has actually played in ranked queues will raise many concerns and questions regarding this affirmation.

Does it seem Riot now is rewarding the many and ignoring the personal merit and achievement of the few that played hard to get to where they are now?

Noob I carried Me Noob that “thinks” they carried

What countermeasures are in place to stop or curtail griefing or abuse in the new 2016 “dynamic groups” in filing multiple reports of ganging up on that one single person that truly decides to “solo queue.” *This question has been addressed*

Riot’s response to this. (CLICK LINK)

http://ask.fm/RiotLyte

Another thing Riot didn’t think of: If the solo-queue has almost equal Report power to the 4 man pre-made, what would stop the solo-queue from trolling? What if the solo player false or troll reports the 4 man with this equal weight of power? Or basically feeding and saying nothing while the four man is angry and saying things and the troll gets away with reporting 4 people after trolling their game.

Promotions and LP

This guy went through hell for Diamond

Looking at MMR, amount of games played experience, season 4 rankings/levels, as well as champion experience and skill power level, why is matchmaking placing this Rammus against opponents in a promotion match like this just for Silver V? Why place the odds so heavily against him? ok?

Promotions and matchmaking on many occasions give the impression that it is working against players or punishing player success. As a player advances and goes more games positive games sometimes become harder to climb no matter what tier and division one is in.

Many have manipulated this system in matchmaking and MMR to either play with lower Elo friends to lower the MMR and climb or to actually attempt to not win streak as hard so they climb more steadily without any hard clamping.

This is not just happening at lower Elo of tiers and divisions, this is at all levels of play. Even games where players are denied a promotion entirely with 0 LP gain….

As if that isn’t enough, the competitiveness at the top tier of play results in some wonky things to LP, promotions, and overall placements….

Being in the “90+ LP Zone” sometimes feels incredibly frustrating as the outcome of that next match depends on a promotion and affects one’s mood and attitude about the game. It is already a ridiculous time-sink for anyone sitting above 90 LP to be forced through the frustration of another game that could result in a tilt or lucky champ select of players on their team so close to a promotion series. This very aspect breeds a boiling point of stress and frustration in a player at competitive play.

What Toxicity can possibly develop from such a “fair” matchmade game as this one above?

I personally played through Silver IV promos 14 times. Some from losing promos, some from demotions, some from tilts. A single demotion or lost promotion out of a division can range from 2 – 5 additional games or more just to get back to where a player was originally before their climb continues. It is disheartening that players can tilt so easily and lose several games straight in succession and drop entire divisions but it takes almost double or triple the games to make up the difference. Riot is currently working on fixing some of this in the 2016 season. In the end I attained the highest tier and division of Gold II with some points only to fall with the end result of Gold V and staying dormant until rewards are dished out this season. The season is over, with little incentive and lot more discouragement to even try to continue playing ranked games to the end of the season.

The True Ironic Statement – “I am being very competitive and “sportsmanlike,” its these other noobs messing up MY games that need this warning… MY BEHAVIOR IS IN LINE WITH HOW MOST LEAGUE PLAYERS ACT! “

Is it Riot’s stance that skilled players will climb as long as they win positively? This season my account intensively poured through 1000 games. That is a sickening amount of real life hours poured into a game that of course had its share of my own mistakes or problems, trolls, bad teams, and disconnects. It is very apparent we all know there are better players and friends stuck under the MMR they probably truly deserve. Because some players do not have the time and dedication some others have, is Riot rewarding the time and dedication, or the skill? If it is the skill, why are so many players left with a feeling of displacement and lack of control in their games?

Also quite honestly, with other games on the market that some missed and want to play but instead dedicated their time to this game, the lack of fun quality games mixed with the toxicity and the grind makes the backdraft and burnout huge, it is also a reason why many quit League of Legends altogether.

How many had accounts trolled with bad champ selects, disconnects, promo curses, and just overall bad games that they feel held them down more than their own play? Should we not have a system that allows a player that lost to feel good if they were a better player/carry and at similar times a system that protects people from fully tilting and demoting divisions?

Proposal:

Changes to the 2016 Ranked Season – Keeping Ranked Competitive!

Changing the Champion Ban System

The current system is 1 captain bans 3 champs for each team. This is 6 bans x 35 seconds = 210 total seconds of time used dueing the banning phase. Instead of a team captain having total control doing whatever they want (like troll banning), why not propose 10 bans total and allow every player to have a ban? That is only 4 more additional champs banned (2 additional from each side). We can lower ban timer to 20 seconds per player (10 bans x 20 seconds = 200 seconds total).

Another option is to run it like the champion select sequence where blue side bans 1st, then red gets 2 bans, back to blue with 2 bans, again red 2 bans, and blue with the final ban). If the champion ban system was run similar to champion select – the timer for bans could even be lengthened to the standard 35 seconds with the same time allowed equaling 210 total seconds which is the same as the current ban system. No additional time will be spent or even less time during this phase can be allotted in draft and ranked games. Using this measure grants each individual player a feeling of actual decision-making and sense of ownership in getting a ban they chose or want instead of mouthing off (“shoulda banned irelia”), griefing, salting, and/or throwing shade all over their team later. League of Legends currently has 125+ champions with more in development to keep the game fresh and interesting.

The future system is still working on a sweet spot for the time involved spent in the Champion Select screen.

Here’s a rough break down of how the new champion select will work:

1 – Queue champion select process

2 – Choose icons underneath your name to choose 2 roles from: Top, Jungle , Mid, Support, Bot, and Fill

3 – Queue for game (Wait-Time).

4 – Accept game found, selection starts, select the champion you are want to play based on your previously selected roll.

*this is not the lock in, it is a preview of all player’s intentions and if player picks and decisions fit into a good team composition.

5 – Banning phase begins, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th pick in each team get to select 1 of the 3 total bans for each team.

6 – After bans, teams alternate picking.

*The splash art for the current champion pick is displayed in middle.

*After every selection, the champion select quote for that champion plays.

*After selecting a champion, you can select your skin (minimize / max by clicking arrow)

7 – After all picks, the UI zooms back out to the map and you are free to swap champions.

*This is an interesting concept but it can change entirely as showing player intentions on champions they wish to play (in item 4) can allow for a good counter pick strategy all the way through the process. It also enables higher priority players to steal FoTM OP champs for the team for trades and swaps.

Concerns:

Riot made this stance – “We’re distributing drafting responsibilities among all players. A new ban phase distributes one ban each to the players who receive the last three picks, while the top two have a shot at securing priority champs for the team. For clarity: bans still happen before picks.”

This is illogical as the new champ selection process already designates players into roles once all the players are together. The priority is already set! But this “priority” is still only optional. This will change the champ select intention entirely at higher Elo but chat and arguments may still ensue when someone may be unwilling to change who they wish to play because it doesn’t fit a composition as effectively. Let us also think about that high priority support in the video or imagine if a person designated as a “support” steals an OP FoTM that isn’t banned then decides they wish to actually play that champion instead of supporting, and banning may be a different beast altogether. Since champ select now places these players on the map and notes what a player intended as they queue, are we now glad Riot removed the “refusing to communicate with team” option as a reportable offense?

Banning can also be problematic as giving bans to the last 3 players can incite potentially even more trolling in bad banning as the last 3 players “ban out” player 1’s, 2’s, and 3’s, 4’s, or 5’s champion they showed and intended to play as they entered queue (in part 4). In the video above, whats to stop player 3 from trolling Ekko and banning him, player 4 banning Gangplank as retribution for player 3’s action, and player 5 just bans Sona hoping for a queue dodge? Or going even further and having player 1 and 2 selecting and locking in another player’s pick they showed and wanted?

The only counter solution to this would be a way to lock-steal the champ from your teammates doing bans. Similar to the way a champ is unselectable to others in games current normal blind and in A.I. matches except to the person that has the champ highlighted. Since people TEND to troll with champ preferences, there should be a way for people to “lock” in champs to prevent teammates from banning certain champs before actually banning? For example, a player is first/second pick, called and got Top, and picked Garen as a “champion preferred”. Garen, then, can’t be banned by allies anymore, but the enemy team still has full power to ban Garen whenever they want. This would be an easy solution to curtail such trolling acts/toxicity as teammates banning champs players want or wish to play? Yet even this would not be a good counter measure. Imagine player 1 is not the true 1st pick of the match (Red Team) and they wish to gamble with the entire team by highlighting some OP FoTM “must ban” champion that the blue team can easily steal away and acquire so long as they do not ban them. The new system seems currently problematic.

Many People will still “troll” the “Pick intent” for dodges in unfavorable match-ups/compositions.

If Queue wait is longer in higher ladders and divisions, “support” and “fill” picks could be a problem. *Riot has reiterated they are working on the queue wait at higher Elo but this is still a concern.

New Champ Select with 10 Bans – Those “marksman” bans and the mad rush to grab some!

10 Bans honestly make the most sense. The 2015 season alone had 3 champion releases (Bard, Ekko, Tahm Kench) as options in E-Sports and the 4th of Kindred which could be used by the general public. Granting all players the opportunity of a ban restores a sense of player choice and ownership to draft and ranked queues. With each player getting a ban for 10 bans and wrapping on a brighter note, this could actually create for some interesting games in the banning and counter banning phase. Target-focused bans against a particular role or even E-Sports professional players. If Riot truly wants to take a stance about not enforcing meta…get 10 bans…all marksmen banned…..have fun HAHA! This would be a viable strategy but it would also be fun to see the creativity and ingenuity of adaptive players and their thought processes in team play involving bans and champ select under this new system. Soon their will be 125 champions and counting. Balance issues and FoTM picks aside, this is definitely a game that can be played with 115 champions in the pool to choose from in regards to multiple roles.

More Promotional Games For a Better Initial Placement

How many players last season achieved a much lower placement due to disconnects or weird MMR when the season began? How many players remember that from this many accounts resulted in more losses than wins? How many players in tiers Gold and higher easily just placed gold no matter how bad their season promotional matches were or climbed easily back into Gold from Silver as they most certainly were not placed Bronze. How many then trolled or just played less games altogether? How many Bronze players improved dramatically but were not given this same preferential treatment by not being placed higher? Is it fair to assume the previous season Platinum player that somehow received a placement of platinum again this year by only winning half of their games and then only apathetically playing 1 game every 28 days to avoid decay (sometimes bypassing client patches that changed the meta entirely) without playing is truly playing this game at a platinum level? How many true platinum players have had this player lose games for them in their own attempts to climb higher?

The argument is that 10 Promotional Games is not enough games to determine where a player resides in tiers and divisions at the start of a season. Any number between 15 and 25 promotional matches before an actual “placement” occurs while resetting all MMR and previous placements may serve as a more accurate measure of where a player belongs. Imagine if Riot just put everyone at the bottom and reset the leaderboard entirely forcing everyone to climb their way up. This should be fair considering people may be able to climb faster with more friends and the use of the new Dynamic Ranked Queue. This also allows the Matchmaker system to allow more accuracy by gauging individual player and team performance over a larger number of games.

During these ongoing placements, is the coding within Elo and matchmaker monitoring our account, champion mastery score, gold accumulation, champion builds, K/D/A, and overall behavior to better place us with players of similar skill like the new Leaverbuster system is monitoring player actions and behavior? If it isn’t, why isn’t it? A lot of weight is centered on placements as a gauge of where a player’s skill level ranks in comparison with everyone else in the the region in which they are playing. Why would we not have a better system for more accurate placement at the start of the season?

Tighten up Matchmaking

*want gold? – sure?…ok,beat 2 plats and a previous season plat! GLHF! ~.*

For the love of Avarosa! Players are tired of playing matches that seem predominantly unfair. At lower tiers and divisions, many would love to wait longer in search queue for a better match. In higher tiers and divisions, many want their wait time reduced. Riot is trying to work on this in the upcoming season but some serious revisions need to take place. How many times are Promotional games squandered due to the incredibly crazy and wonky results of Riot’s matchmaking system. Why should a Silver I have to play vs Plats to earn Gold? Why are games with Silver, Golds, and Platinum players being matched together at all? Is this acceptable? After noticing many Silver II and I players stomping Gold V – III players because they desire to win more to be in Gold, why would Riot’s matchmaking ever place a majority low tier Silvers and bronzes against them? To add, if a Bronze Smurf can lower the MMR to get their Silver friend into Gold and climb themselves abusing the system a little, why is this allowed to happen?

Ranked “YOLO” Queue – 1501 Elo Vs. > 1400 (*According to op.gg, which may not be entirely accurate but still…)

It is a logical opinion that Bronze should only have to deal with Bronze Players. Bronze can then be Silver by being the best of the best and beating the rest in their tier. Silvers should only be dealing with Silver Players under the same conditions. Gold as well. There is little reason a Gold V player should be fighting low tier silvers or bronze. There is littler reason a Platinum player should be matched against silvers at all. If a Platinum player’s MMR is so low they are getting in queues against silvers and they are losing then DEMOTE THEM ALREADY! This allows justification for players to climb and fall while filtering players into the tiers and divisions they truly belong. A Bad Gold V can lose their spot by being at the bottom of the ladder at 0 LP and by losing and having that top Silver player take their place. This is how true leaderboards work.

Take a moment to view this. Look at the tiers and divisions, look at the games played by everyone, win percentages, champ select, and the projected MMR. Now look at Graves. Make Graves rank your rank tier but keep all the divisions #’s the same. Adjust everyone else’s ranked tier accordingly to the adjustment you gave Graves to match the MMR of the tier and division you play in. Do you feel this is a fair match for you? Does anyone want to trade places with Graves for this game? Does anyone want this to be your 1st promotion game?

There is not a good reason any tier should enjoy cresting in division V at 0 LP under Diamond with minimal risk to demotion in a competitive game with a Ranked queue. Great players can climb or fall faster by actually playing their respective skilled peers. At Platinum and above Elo and MMR, perhaps due to queue timer and the game’s population in searching for matchmade games it may be ok to mix and mingle tiers and divisions but in the lower tiers and divisions there is no reason for this to be happening with the multitude of players online at any one time. Especially in regions with a higher player population.

You didn’t volunteer for this, but may the odds be ever in your favor!



ReVamp Leaverbuster

This applies to everything from the disconnect, the red texted name already identified at end of game results screen, the player that disconnected last game but wishes to continue ranked despite disconnects, the laggy connector, the person that finally connects 8 minutes later but is already so behind in level/item/experience its too late, the rage quitter, the unstable bugsplatter, the toxic rage quitter, the fountain sitter, to the the dragon/base/baron dancer: every one of these aspects and circumstances add to 4 other’s team frustration.

How many entered promos to suffer to the actions of a team member that wasn’t even lvl 3 in a lane to an enemy level 5 or 6 that was ahead in cs due to an afk? It also does not allow for any kind of fair play or quality game. And just about every one of these offenses is a reportable condition to Riot’s “Leaverbuster” system. Yet why should a player have to report many of these instances at all? This is not to say that Leavebuster does not “catch” this behavior or that reports do not “punish” this behavior (….eventually…) but the argument is the system is not identifying these accounts fast enough. Also, how many times is a player with connection issues on a winning team carried to victory and then not reported at all only to queue again in a ranked queue?

At what point should an individual with an identified bad connection bring their problem upon 4 others in a game? Connection issues is probably one of the worst aspects of team based online gaming where every player provides a contribution (for better or worse) to a team’s Victory or Defeat. This should also be one of the more looked over and correctable problems within all of League’s matchmaking queues.

Solution

Accounts identified in giant red leaverbuster text at the end of game results screen or enough AFK reports (whatever Riot deems sufficient) with an actual claim should experience removal from ranked queue almost instantly. Riot is working on a better instant feedback system but shouldn’t this be the norm? Shouldn’t it be a later or final contingency to place a player in a lower priority queue or further punishment after granting this initial favor of allowing a player to “troubleshoot” their connection. The system already identifies when “a summoner has disconnected,” and when “a summoner has reconnected” as well as the account of the summoner it is. Leaverbuster needs to have better tracking and monitoring of players on the server in regards to this issue and a better system of contingency.

How many of you are tired of that 1 guy that “lagged?” in your Ranked Teamfight losing you and the rest of your team the game? How many would love to report a player or get them out of queue for a few games for even using the excuse of lag? If a player’s connection is truly a problem that they can not play to the best of their ability, why are they in ranked as it is the most competitive queue of play of the game? Make this feedback after a game immediate and instantaneous. The player is now forced to play AND win (to prevent further trolling/positive reinforcement) a normal game in order to have the privilege to play ranked again. A simple action like this can test and verify a player’s connection and at the same time keep a player from tilting or disconnecting and losing their own and 4 other’s LP in ranked matchmaking.

By forcing a player to win a normal game it prevents them from trolling as many competitive players really wish to proceed back into ranked queue as soon as they can. It also reinstates some confidence in the player again before a ranked competitive game occurs. This also allows a player to avoid irresponsibly tilting for loss of LP with a bad connection. How many have been in games with the player that admits to a bad connection but still insists on playing ranked? This should honestly be looked at as a safety measure from Riot’s standpoint that the player is not ruining games for others as well as not hurting themselves (by losing LP) and cutting down on toxicity in games. This may also ease traffic on ranked servers should connection problems occur on Riot’s side. By taking this stance, Riot gets to be the white knights of protecting all sides on the issue of AFK and disconnects.

Should a player still experience disconnect issues in normal match-made, ARAM, or Teambuilder games (under the same tracking and reportable functions and features) the player is then further removed and locked out of from all normal modes and has to play in 2 (number of games are just an example; actual number is conditional and up to Riot’s team to determine) Bot AI matches until a good connection can be satisfied or established. Then the system allows the player to try normal games again and finally ranked after a win in normal games is secured.

This would eliminate a lot of negative feelings from a user standpoint. A person with a bad connection is initially quarantined into some areas where they can still play and enjoy the game without the negativity of lower priority queue wait times or being account suspended or banned. Only the latter result should occur after tracking of Leaverbuster has exhausted the primary conditions of removal from ranked and normal games or after enough tracking of AFK’s have been established to determine and warrant such punishments.

Soft Reset/Time Condition

The actual games and time condition for a soft reset should be up to Riot to decide. An example in the photos above is the entire system has a soft reset of 8 hours but this is only a example. This makes the case that even should a player be removed from ranked or normals, the entire system resets to allow a player to play ranked after 8 hours regardless of criteria or conditions being met or settled. However the tracking and monitoring of the account has already commenced in case of further violations. This allows for individuals with not a lot of free time to play whatever they choose after the reset and does not further punish players from joining whatever queue they desire to play. Meaning after 8 hours even if a player did not satisfy a normal win they are not held back from joining ranked again. However, if similar problems arise…. the “8 hours condition” begins anew or further contingencies or punishments are near in the account’s future.

League of “Lag”ends

Additional thoughts – With rampant DDOS and other forms of tools cheaters are using to disconnect players on the opposing team, this system may more quickly track and identify the individual/s responsible. With a better system handling the AFKs that occur, games should be easy to track “server side” as to who is messing with the matches of others via 3rd party tools.

Lower the Surrender Timer

To coincide with Leaverbuster and AFK many players do not wish to waste time or remain in a ranked or normal game in instances where 4 versus 5 scenarios occur. Riot should lower the timer to 12 minutes once the coding identifies “a summoner has disconnected.” At no point should this cause any change in LP gained or lost unless Riot has determined the criteria that may or may not facilitate “loss prevention.”

Another thought – Should a ranked 4 v 5 result in a win for 4 players some the weight of LP should even increase and the winning 4 person team should gain more LP and the losing team lose more LP. How many enemy teams would report the leaver then after they have been truly hurt by a leaver to a game? This is just an opinion in this area.

Let’s Discuss the HONOR System

Honor isn’t exactly doing anything for players and it feels pretty purposeless at the moment. Though the free icons (which Riot did more of a long time ago and now many icons are constantly being invented and sold for RP) and the yearly free mystery skin are appreciated, this system is severely under-utilized. Maybe this can be revamped and somehow further reworked into the the newly proposed 2016 “crafting system” once it is revealed. Still, unless a major overhaul is done, the honor system feels like a single clap (not even a pat on the back) for a job well done. One rarely sees others in game with a honor crest anymore. It’s like games with Warwick Urf skin, or King Rammus, or even UFO Corki. Ok, maybe not that rare, but it is still pretty rare. Plus it is optional, people hardly use it, or it is over saturated among friends where honor is weighed less. One could even make honor votes an optional extra incentive reward for teammates to join up and use. Imagine if honor distributed extra IP, or “craftable items” (once the craft system is introduced), or even something that actually means something to go along with those honor crests that get distributed among friends and the opposition. For Ranked Solo/Duo Q…let’s discuss something far more measurable and appetizing…

Introducing the Riot Bankable LP System – (BLP) On top of winning League Points (LP) per win or losing them in a loss, how would you like a personal buffer of League Points to use whenever you want? Introducing Bankable LP. Bankable LP (BLP) is LP stored in a player’s account “Bank” and can be used at any time before a Ranked match-made queue is started. The total maximum Bankable League Points a player can hold in their account is 25 BLP. 1 Ranked Promotion (or even beginning of season promotional placement game) can be bypassed and won by utilizing the entire bank of 25 Bankable LP Points (reducing 25 BLP to 0 BLP) if used. This can alleviate a lot of pain in a player’s climb as well as lead to some interesting player decisions.

Maybe you are are carrying your way through the beginning of season promotions (25 games) and wish to bypass some games (25 BLP per game) with the points from your votes other’s gave you. You may use any BLP you earn after every single match to raise your LP further after every game. In a division, maybe you are near 90 LP and have 15 Bankable, maybe you want to skip right to immediate promotion games and save 5 LP in the Bank. Maybe you wish to keep playing all the way up to divisional promotions until you gain 25 LP in your bank and use it on a promotion after winning one. Maybe you have 25 Bankable LP and truly are at 98 LP of your division. So you use 2 LP to enter and now have 23, then you carry your team to victory in the first promotion and gain enough Bankable LP back via end of game votes allowing you to skip that 2nd promotion game altogether. Maybe you wish to buffer yourself in LP after gaining a division or use LP to keep from demoting a division or tier in a true regional server leaderboard system. Allowing player choice on how to use their BLP they bank only reinforces and influences how they choose to play, grind, and climb in Ranked Solo Q.

How the system is implemented

Implement a vote count – A player can not leave end of play screen or if disconnected can not enter a new ranked game until they vote and award BLP in the previous game they played. An example being each vote a player receives for positive play is equal to 1 LP of Bankable LP. Think of this as the current system of honor voting, but with LP.

This adds more accountability to players trolling Champion Select. BLP allows a maximum of 9 BLP that can be awarded in a single game should 1 player qualify for all the votes on the winning team. It also awards 4 BLP should a player qualify and win all the votes on the losing team (this is better explained further down.) This will help alleviate and buffer the LP loss for carries on losing teams.

Victory Voters / Winning Team

At the end of the game screen, Victorious Teams individually vote who they believe the best player was on their team, as well as who they believe lost the game for the opposing team. This allows for some great reflection in ranked games. Bad mannered or toxic players may not secure votes from others. Toxic players or trolls can be even further identified. The player Report System still exists on top of this system as well. It is one thing to have players tell someone they were not playing at their best, it is quite another when a majority of votes (3 or more) register who was truly playing correctly and incorrectly and provides player feedback. This system tracks players. Should a Losing Player gain a majority of votes in a certain number of consecutive games (2/3 games or 3/5 games that are tracked by a better matchmaking system – meaning they were voted as the worst player consistently by the opposing side!), “Tilt-Buster” (similar to Leaverbuster) activates and they are removed from ranked. To re-enter Ranked they have to play and win a normal game to strengthen their play and restore player confidence and competitive spirit.

Save them from the the Tilt! 4 Losses straight out then…that Fizz game though…

w i t h

TILT-BUSTER!!!

Tilt-Buster will save players from butchering the LP of themselves and others for a few games.

Refer to Leaving games and all the rules listed above as this is exactly the same premise and rules of AFK. Riot gets to have a good stance here. As they are saving 4 other players the nightmare of a tilting and potentially toxic players, they are also saving the player from additional LP loss by moving them to a game where they can practice building their skills and attain some confidence after securing win/s in Normal games. Pre-made queues are prevented from voting for each other for BLP and no player may vote for themselves.

With the new 2016 Dynamic Match system proposed, there would now be extra incentive for people to not fear going “solo-queue” versus pre-made 4 player teams because they would automatically get all the Bankable LP votes win or lose. Bankable League Points and votes would allow for even more diversity and options of risk/reward in a Dynamic Match Made system and players now will all have their own reasons and motives of why they choose to bring friends with them or not into Ranked play.

Losing Team Voters



Losing Teams award BLP (via their individual votes) to who they believe carried the other team to Victory. To prevent negative behavior as well as award supportive play by keeping in the spirit of positive reinforcement, they can nominate the teammate they believe played the best for their team. This gives that losing carry some incentive to not condescend, chastise, or talk down to their teammates as they may not get votes through negative behavior and/or blaming the team. This would also eliminate a lot of toxicity as this voting behavior incentivizes players to not be toxic. It also allows the carrying player/s on the losing team some respite as they can earn Bankable LP for the game. Ranked pre-mades are prevented from voting for each other and no player may vote for themselves.

Why can’t pre-mades or duo’s vote for their friend?

It is already an advantage for a duo or pre-made to play together in a game. They can dodge unfavorable queues during important games or promos and exhibit greater communication and teamwork. Also, in the old ranked system, LP gained and lost was more highly weighted in a pre-made versus a solo-queue. This system takes a stance that a single player in a duo-queue can still earn a possible of 7 points (3 teammates and 5 others) and still share the weight and responsibility of winning or losing the game. The future dynamic queue should be equally weighed if a 3 or 4 player pre-made attempt a game. The pre-made accepted the risk of only 1 or 2 potential votes of BLP to a player on the pre-made as well as waiving all the votes to someone on their team (whether they play well or not) that is not in their party. It is then understood members of the pre-made accepted a chance at gaining any possible BLP awarded from the other team as well as the LP awarded for winning should they secure a win. The end game results screen didn’t load correctly but you are still required to cast your votes. So who played the best? Some real options are allowed from looking at the stats. Maybe Annie had some great supporting in the bottom lane that will make Jinx vote for Annie. Maybe J4 put in some work as his assists are incredible or Lux was amazing at stealing dragons and barons. Maybe it was Vi by keeping the lanes ahead and by great initiations in team-fights. We are voting from the Losing Team side so we have to see who performed on our own side even though we lost. From looking at stats alone, it would seem Wu Kong or Victor may be the only candidates worthy of a vote.

It says players can’t vote for themselves and they can’t vote for people in their pre-mades, what about 5 player pre-mades in the new 2016 Dynamic Queue?

Short answer. No BLP unless you win (as enemy teams award winners their BLP votes). Go play Ranked Teams! To add, the BLP System is not in Ranked Team Queues.

What about support players getting limited BLP?

This concern is raised as many feel support mains get little love and go through a lot of abuse already. Yet, the odds of 1 player on the winning team attaining all of the BLP points from 9 other players may be more rare. Especially when considering both winning and losing teams. A losing top lane may enjoy the battle so much with the enemy top they may decide to give their vote to them even if the enemy top laner did not carry. An ADC may be truly thankful of their support’s play and give them the vote. The jungler may have great end game stats but they may not secure the vote from the mid laner that griped at them for ganks. Or a carry on the winning team may be bad mannered and lose votes from teammates and enemies alike for lack of sportsmanship. Someone may just award BLP to a player they feel sorry for or a “salty” enemy on a losing team may “troll award” who they believe was the worst on the winning team. BLP is mandatory to vote, but it is optional on who receives the award from each and every player. Many situations will arise in regards to who gets BLP from the many types and conditions of games played.

What countermeasures are in place to stop or curtail “Winning Team” players from voting the actual “carry” for the enemy as the worst on the team and getting them kicked into normals after enough games?

This is possible (but in my own headquarters we have vast amounts of data that this type of behavior will continue to be unlikely and minimal.) First it would require 3 of 5 players to go along with this type of trolling behavior. It would also require multiple games of “tracking” with different players in order for this to occur. Plus the system would immediately recognize the discrepancy as the Losing Team most likely would have given the same player a majority of their votes for BLP nominating them as a carry. The entire case will be thrown out voiding the votes of the Winning Team.

The question would then be asked why a majority of players on a Winning Team troll the BLP system in this manner as they could be setting themselves up to battling and losing to this “carry” again in future games. It is a given that a majority of players wish to WIN their Ranked Games. So players are highly encouraged to use the system correctly to advance themselves or more skillful teammates and opponents (from the probability of encountering them in future games) for an evenly skilled playing field of exciting quality games while also providing potential reward and feedback to their own play.

Remember also, the Report function is still in place alongside BLP. BLP votes are meant for to judge that last team-fight or throw, end game stats, and skill of a player while the Report Feature concerns itself mainly with player behavior and attitude. There will be occasions where the two systems identify the same person, but overall more players will opt to use the BLP system correctly in order to not face an opponent that could potentially win or lose them games in future queues.

Any concerns with High Elo friends or E-Sports members giving BLP to their buddies on opposing teams?

Players in E-Sports are held to the highest standards of sportsmanship by Riot and the people that regulate E-Sports. We trust any players involved in E-Sports or high Elo streamers will lead by example in regards to this system. Any evidence contrary to spectacular sportsmanship is subject to the same punishments/fines/sanctions defined in this area where applicable.

From a player behavior and psychological standpoint, BLP in a Ranked system restores the player with an impression (not illusion) of choice, control, and power to matchmaking and climbing. BLP gives players a feeling of at least some control and empowerment even if games do not reach a player’s primary desired outcome. BLP reinforces “class act” performance, goodwill, and charity, while monitoring and tracking negative behaviors for player accountability in competitive Dynamic Ranked Queues. This system is not perfect, but it does provide real tangible incentives to players that play well and with sportsmanship while saving and correcting behaviors of those that do not.

Playing with BLP Vote Values

Of course Riot can change these values to a system that uses 2 BLP per vote, which would change the value and allow for a single player on the winning Team to accrue a maximum total of 18 BLP and a losing team’s player a maximum of 8 BLP to use. Or toggle the weight of each side’s vote values – 1 BLP value vote for all winning team votes (Max 9 BLP to 1 player getting every vote and being on the winning team), 2 BLP value votes for losing teams votes (Max 8 BLP to a single player securing every vote on the losing team.) Should this system be considered and implemented the actual final number that a single vote of BLP is worth should be for Riot to decide. An honest assessment is no more than 3 LP per a single vote regardless. Maybe even make the BLP values a promotional idea like double XP/IP Weekends etc.

Karma Top FTW – Honestly, assuming MMR and matches of opponents with equal skill, a nearly all AP team and a Karma top? What can Karma hope to achieve vs. a Gangplank pre-patch 5.21? Would you want and encourage this in your own ranked game? What if it was your last promotional to win? All this Karma could do in our game was attempt to hold top and not let a turret fall. Holding top can only keep Gangplank top for so long as he built Maw and used his global to gain more gold. Karma does not have the global of GP to secure kills/assists, and even if she teleported GP could follow or punish by pushing top even more. The pick offered very little to the team composition and basically asked 4 others to carry her vs. much stronger picks in the current meta. This is not saying to not have fun, but it is also asking that when in competitive ranked trapped with 4 others for what this game’s clock reveals as 48 minutes that other player’s frustration can rise to toxic levels. This is but one example of an issue that frustrates many players. The new BLP system may help with this immensely.

A Brief Glimpse and Additional Suggestions to the future of League of Legends:

Riot Improves Game Loading Screen

Not my idea at all but when this was seen it had to be linked and mentioned. Serious kudos to the developers of this idea.

We Deserve Better! It Is Almost 2016!

Gameplay Correction- Addressing Fountain Sitting

It is an eyesore and an irritation in many games (both Ranked and Normal) where players sit idle on the fountain at the beginning of the game. Ranked frustration especially happens at lower Elo when other teams are ready, off the fountain as soon as the barrier drops, and out of the base actively invading the jungle of your team looking for or securing that 1st blood. At the moment, there is no punishment for the lazy player and all the blame shifts to others on the team for allowing invasions to occur or dying to them. Perhaps some sort of award should occur for players that are actively out of their base and ready to play within 40 seconds (That is 10 seconds after) the “Welcome to Summoner’s Rift” announcement. The following is the proposed Tooltip chatlog of Team 1 (Left) and Team 2 (Right). The decision is up to Riot to use this bonus Gold Reward in game-play at the 8, 10, or 12 minute mark in the actual game. This example uses the FGB (Fountain Gold Bonus) at the 10 minute mark. The easiest way to remember this tooltip is all gold, half red/gold, half gold/red and all red.

All Gold text – Teammates that qualified and received the bonus.

Half Red then Gold – Your teammates that were denied this bonus by not being ready at the start of the game.

Half Gold then Red – Enemy teammates that qualified and received the bonus.

All Red – Enemy players that were denied this bonus by not being ready at the start of the game.

A proposed idea is to somehow mark individual players that are out of the base in a timely manner and reward them with about 150 bonus gold 8-12 minutes into the game for their readiness to play. The extra gold occurs at a stage where laning usually opens, is worth about 1 minion wave, and can help players that were ready to play immensely while punishing players that sit idle on the fountain. Linking this with improved Leaverbuster and BLP, say a prayer for the player or teammate that isn’t off the fountain in a timely manner when the games begin.

Riot awards Champion Icons, Awards, or Craftables for Mastery!

Champion mastery feature why not a champion mastery matchmaking level play suggestion? Consider this for Team Builder and the proposed future “Teambuilder Ranked” queues since the wait time is usually big there. We all look forward to Riot’s new 2016 proposed Hextech Crafting to see what Riot plans to implement once this is functional.

They may as well! Would be a nice addition. If you want a Teemo summoner icon – Attain level 5 Teemo Mastery (every 10 levels unlock an icon for a skin you own for the champion. This is some far off planning…just going to leave this idea here.)

Riot sells Chat emoticons

Riot is taking big strides to improve the social and chat integration into League of Legends. 2016 promises friends lists, parties, and “clubs” as well as the League Friends app. One predicts that certain milestone rewards, 2016 Hextech Crafting, Mastery Levels, Riot Points or something else may unlock future chat emoticons as well similar to Steam’s, Twitch.tv, or Facebook’s emoticons to use across all apps, devices, and the in-game client.

Riot Improves for Even More Clarity

This is a horrible illustration but the only way to show the Riot Clarity Team how to improve for even more clarity. Many times, one has to highlight over the champion ability to see how much damage it will currently do. By actually showing this damage number without mousing and hovering over the ability tooltip, players can instantly know if their smite has enough, or if that Lux Ult can steal a dragon, or if an ability off timers is worth using to try to chase down and secure the kill. The Morgana in the picture has all of her items and the damage numbers are adjusted accordingly. With Thresh’s health bar and stats in the top right, Morgana can now see the damage of her abilities without guessing if she should continue taking turret hits to try and kill Thresh, or if she should immediately Zhonya and try to escape.

Conclusion and Logoff

This article began as a reflection of my own personal account of the trials and tribulations as both a player and a fan of League of Legends. Often I would visit boards, forums, or videos or talk with friends about the game and many of the things we “wish” this game would have to help alleviate player stress and frustration of newcomers and veterans alike. Everyone has points where they have become “burned out” by this game. We notice friends leaving or quitting to play other MOBAs or games and this is bothersome because I feel League of Legends should not be a game with a player “turnover” base where people just leave forever.

“I had no idea it would be the 16,000 word monstrosity that it has become.”

Instead of voicing complaints to Riot without offering a solution, I set out to explain how good players become great players (as skill is something we improve ourselves). I also wanted to focus and pin-point problematic areas where sometimes the game itself feels unforgiving to the player moreso than the opponent they are matched against and actually provide photos, video, or some kind of evidence to back up these claims while still providing entertaining and thoughtful insight. This article began during the semifinals of this year’s LCS. It was not written as a college paper, it wasn’t written for money, and I had no idea it would be the nearly 16,000 word (nearly 35 pages) monstrosity that it has become. I know anyone that reads this in its entirety will provide their own thoughts and opinions as it will be evident in forums and message boards that it reaches. Without great positive conversation and discussion, there can be no change, or solutions offered. And after all the talk, comes action. My plan is to not reply to very much, as I believe I said much that I needed to already….

GLHF,

~ Crackers (NA Server)

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