Riot Games has now presented why they are considering a radical change to the SoloQ in League of Legends. Despite the name, pre-made teams of two players, the Duos, can compete there. But this causes problems in LoL.
What kind of change is Riot Games flirting with?
- Currently, SoloQ is open for solo players, but Duos that have teamed up beforehand can also compete against the solo players.
- Now Riot Games is considering kicking out these Duos and making SoloQ accessible only for solo players. Duo players would then be placed in “Flex Ranked”, along with Trios.
SoloQ is performing better than ever before
Why is the decision for LoL so difficult? The Riot developers Codebreak and Riru have publicly shared their ideas and considerations in a blog post (via lol).
The problem is:
- the current system actually works better than ever before: All statistics of the Solo Queue say SoloQ would quickly match equally strong opponents against each other. The statistics here are extremely strong.
- In addition, there is a relatively large “Duo Community” and they want to ensure that they find a good competitive environment when they switch to “Ranked Flex” to continue playing in Duo.
Ranked Flex is struggling for Trios, here Duos could help
Why is this even being done? Essentially, Riot Games says: They see no other way to further improve the SoloQ at the moment. Games that involve pre-made Duos statistically perform significantly worse than when all 10 players are soloists:
- The matches have a worse matchmaking rating, meaning more “unequally skilled” players are playing against each other.
- The matches have a longer queue time, meaning people are waiting longer to start.
- Additionally, another core mode, Ranked Flex, just isn’t performing well. It might help to have pre-made Duos in the mix. There are only a few opponents found for three players when pre-made Trios sign up.
Will the change happen? Riot Games doesn’t know yet. You can sense how hesitant the developers are to implement this radical change.
They apparently want to ensure that the Duo players do not leave frustrated, but continue to play competitively.
If one follows the argumentation of Riot Games, the change would significantly improve the experience for solos and trios – it’s apparently just a matter of whether the Duo players will go along with it.
Duos have a bad reputation in the community
How is this being discussed? The community on reddit seems to welcome such a change:
- Duos are seen by some as ‘E-Daters’, many have a stereotype of “couples in the Botlane” in mind. Women would then say: “They are HIS SUPPORT” – men would say they are “HER CARRY” – this can’t be tolerated on reddit.
- There is also the suspicion that some are smurfing on their second account to boost a partner’s ranking in Duo. “Smurfing” means that an experienced player plays on a new account to temporarily face newcomers and weaker players.
- Generally, the idea of removing Duos from SoloQ seems to be welcomed. One could then distinguish between “SoloQueue” and “TeamQueue”.
At the moment, hardly anyone takes the “FlexQueue” seriously, it is said. Riot Games should also consider the image of the queue.
Riot Games seems to want to shake up quite a bit in LoL at the moment:
LoL announces systemic changes to the meta to solve a major problem
