I think a huge thing is expectations in normal queue. What are blind pick and draft mode for?

Is blind pick for people who must win at all costs and pick their OP/commonly banned/fotm/countered in draft mode champion? Or is it for people who just want to get in a PVP game quickly and just have fun? Where does a jungle Janna belong?

Blind pick mixes the two extremes of the intention spectrum and I think that creates a TON of animosity. In blind pick, I often choose my worst roles to improve. I'm far less likely to choose to play a role I'm not interested in to benefit the team. Then there are dudes who rage if there is no jungler, or if there are AD carries in a game.

How can we separate these players into queues where they play the way they want to? At first thought, draft mode and blind pick would separate intentions, but they do not.

Non-try hards enter draft mode simply to avoid specific champions, with no intention of it being more competitive. Some try-hards enter blind in order to play specific champions. Which is counter to the perception of the queues and their relative competitiveness.

I'm not sure if it is a solvable issue. Any solution such as self selecting intentions is prone to abuse, and any player could switch between intentions between games. Would people play a "for fun" queue where no stats are tracked? I'm not sure if I would, yet I'm not hard core at all.

Edit: Yes, custom games qualify for everything but matchmaking. Players stack themselves on the team with the highest Elo player, and often leave the lobby if that team is full.

Called a Custom Game.

Hi Lyte,

I know this has been suggested numerous times about when you queue, there could be a prompt asking what role you would like to play, i.e. support, jungle, etc. The idea is not favored because it favors a "meta" and stifles creativity.

What if the same model were used, but I think there is an assumption being made that when these people pick their "best roles" they are being otherwise pigeonholed into playing these roles, as well. If I pick Support as my best champion, then I will get paired with the player who said their best role was "AD Carry", etc, so my team will be well balanced, but it shouldn't restrict Champion choices at all in case we need to shuffle things around or counter pick more effectively.

For example, once again saying I am best at Support and another player on the team is best at AD Carry.

Enemy team picks Vayne AD Carry. Our AD Carry says he/she mains Vayne and not well with others. Now, they can instead pick Support and I could AD Carry in his/her place. I think with preference systems like this, it would be very similar to what it is now, but more streamlined in the sense that people are more likely to get the roles that they are best at.

On this same tangent, players could even say "I prefer leading, I prefer counterpicking, I prefer..." For myself personally, I am best at counterpicking, so regardless of whether I am the highest or lowest ELO on my team, I hate first pick! I like to be the lowest so that I can counter pick more effectively. Players who prefer leading would have a higher chance of being first picks, etc maybe? Not very well thought out on that idea, just trying to give some sense of depth.

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Also, secondly, I haven't thought about this as well as my previous idea, but what if there were Practice Ranked games (separate from Normal) and Ranked Games? Well, what would be the difference between Normal and Practice Ranked? Practice Ranked would show your Practice Ranked ELO, like the hidden values of a Normal ELO, so you get kind of a sense of where you are. Normal Games could maybe as a result offer more IP for playing them to give an incentive to still play Normal Games as well. This way people have multiple venues of practicing, playing, and enjoying the game. Either playing Practice Ranked which is taking the game "seriously", but still not at a competitive level. Normal for casual, fun games for testing or just relaxing, and Ranked Games for serious, competitive play.

Sorry, lots to post. I don't know whether or not to expect a reply, but I never bookmark threads. If for whatever reason you plan to reply to this or want further discussion, you can email me at lmcphers@mines.edu.

Good luck in finding a solution to these many complicated problems!

Random pick orders might be nice for ranked, just to help minimize the "I'm better than you, so you do what I say." mentality a lot of players in ranked display.

Lyte if you read this, I just want to let you know that the community and I appreciate your hard to work to try to make this game better.

just had a 1700 game were a 1900 top pick duoed with a 1300 , i have honestly never been so pissed off in my life, i needed to ****ing stick my head in the freezer after this game, this 1300 was so bad that i was in actual pain and i raged so hard at this individual, its not my fault. its the mm system that made me rage. like ive said countless of times. i cannot progress to my actual elo when i keep getting these ludicrous things hapening in my games, people randomly being bad at high elo when they should be lower, people troll alot at high elo when they get bored but they know there good enough to stay there.