First off, I just read the ENTIRE thread. That out of the way, some thoughts:
Of queing systems, it would appear that RBQ's are strictly better than lane-based ques, in that they better preserve the flexibility of "covering the bases" and avoid the problems of nobody queing for support *better* than LBQ's. That being said... In the interest of preserving the "creativity", perhaps better than a RBQ system would be a "Composition-based system". Instead of queing for top and mid, people can rank que preferences for "Bruiser", "Jungler", "AP Carry", "AD Carry", or "Support"... This seems like roles, but it isn't--not quite. Because it is a "checklist ranking" type system, it can allow the matchmaking system to "weight" having one person from each role, and ass time goes on reduce the "weight" for whatever role is least-populated in the matchmaking system at that time. If it isin no way visible to other players, or enforceable by any kind of way, then hopefully it will reduce the commonality of four people whose first choice is mid being in the same game.

As for que times: Que times will increase no matter how you do any type of role selection or weighting, but I believe most people would like to have the longer que in exchange for being less likely to end up in their two or three least-favorite roles. However, there are two ways to implement such ques: A single-que system, or a split-que system. A single-que system is easily argued against because regardless, it will stiffle creativity somewhat. A split que system would necessarily HAVE to pair teams from each que against each other to preserve integrity of the elo system. My suggestion of a ranking of preffered roles TEAM COMPOSITION-wise however could be implemented on a single-que more easily, and is more adjustable to varying meta over time because anyone who watched season 1 at all understands that regardless of exact laning or farming, teams MUST have a variety of roles to consistently succeed--a 5 adc team used to be popular. 5 AP carries will never all get farmed in a reasonable time-frame, especially splitting lane cs. Whether it's a trio-mid that splits off into a roaming support and jungler early on with two solo laners or an ADC mid and a support/apc bot lane, most of the winning teams have pretty much always had a spread of ROLES.

lol.


For me, I still don't really like your idea though. I mean, for me, part of being a good League player is determining what your team needs and what type of champion you should pick to fill out your team needs.

I mean, let's assume for a second that the meta never changes. Under the current meta, let's say we have a Twisted mid, Ezreal/Sona bottom.

That's pretty standard right?

Now, in the current meta, champions like Fiora or Akali or Kha'zix are perfectly viable solotops. Meanwhile, champions like Shaco and Diana are perfectly viable junglers.

But do you see the problem with a team comp that looks like this:

Kha'zix, Twisted Fate, Ezreal, Sona, Shaco?

Way too squishy.



You can stay well within the bounds of the meta and still have a terrible team comp.


The game isn't about rock-paper-scissors, but if part of my LoL skill means that I can pick a champion that will better fill out my team's composition, I should be rewarded for that.

I wonder if we could have custom games for ranked where a leader pick a loose set of rules.

Because you know, some people do want to play ranked seriously.

You can do custom draft pick games. The option for setting up your own rules isn't in place, but I wouldn't mind seeing it in place for custom games necessarily, but that's pretty much off-topic.

And besides, if you're doing a custom game, can't you just cherry pick a team that will fill the roles around what you want to play? Heck, you can do this without doing custom if you just roll as a premade 5.



But custom games that are Ranked? No.

Since we're talking about custom games, an aside. I would love a summoners rift mid lane accessable only ARAM map. Murdabrige is very different and turned a lot of my friends away from the custom game type.

Now, back on topic!


Soft System: Pick a preference from a list that includes lane, role and even champion if you so wish. The game finds your teammates without concern for this preference, but the preference is viewable to your team in champ select.


Pros: Doesn't affect queue times or elo or anything really. Just saves communication time.

Cons: Doesn't affect anything. It just calls your preference at the same time as everyone else. People will still be free to bicker, but the information is out there for them to immediately see with no room for "Oh I didn't know lulz."

Problems to be addressed: Nothing that doesn't already exist. Also, Riot would pretty much be taking the time to code this, while implementing this for no real change. This was suggested to me earlier, and I would like it if it didn't cost Riot any hard work, so I figured I'd add it.

Probably won't make the final list unless it gets a significant amount of positive feedback.

There are some additional cons to your system (although I'm not entirely opposed to the idea in general).

First off, particularly in draft pick, Riot kind of sends the message that you can decide what champion you want to play before you even get into queue. In reality, considerations should be made for the enemy picks (if draft) and your team's composition (whether draft or blind). It's a bad message to be sending.

I got an idea. How bouts we make a coat out of a towel?

All it has to be is a different matchup type draft pick / role que. Same system. If you like it how it is, cool play draft pick, no play role que. This system is not that hard to do, im still curious as to why this hasn't been implemented.

You skipped the first 22 pages, didn't you?

But it's so much to read T^T