Why League of Legends Dynamic Queue Sucks? | SmurfMania.com
Jun
Why League of Legends Dynamic Queue Sucks? Back in League’s History
Released in January 2016, Dynamic Queue seemed to be the answer to Solo/Duo queue. People were now able to play with more than one friend, allowing parties of 3, and 4 to play with each other which was impossible in the past. This new feature went through an immense amount of criticism as many believed that Dynamic Queue shouldn’t have been implemented. Boosting could occur much more easily, and an unfairness aspect began to arise. Those in Dynamic Queue argued that whoever had the better premade had a higher chance of winning, hurting the chances of sole players. This would then base the skill on not individual players but groups of players. Is it really competitive if what you’re basing skill on is how good each premade is?
Issues with Dynamic Queue
Players got their roles depending on their rank, primary roles would not always be taken which would move down players to roles they did not even choose to play. This also occurred due to the imbalance of positions, some positions may be more populated than others forcing players to play an off position.
The premades noted above were also a big issue in Dynamic Queue. It became apparent that a group of solo players versus a group of premades were clearly unfair. Boosting was also an issue within premades. This would then cause the League of Legends competitive system to base the skill of a person based on their premade team. The fight to the top became a fight to who had the better-premade team, not on an individual’s skill level.
Due to the adjustments of roles, the queue times were also an issue, this was of course changed as they reduced high MMR queue times once they started to fix the supply of primary and secondary roles between players.
Why take away Solo Queue?
Dynamic queue has been apparent in many competitive video games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch. In these games, the competitive queue has allowed multiple players to queue up with each other. The dynamic queue in League of Legends may have been a direct response to other games implementing this feature. However, a big difference between these games is that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch both provide an in-game voice chat that all players regardless of being premade or not can communicate. These games rely on communication to win, so regardless of being a premade or not communicating with your other teammates is essential to victory. This is different from League as League doesn’t have the luxury of an in-game voice chat. Without this feature many solo and duo players prefer to play without actual communication, referring to pings and in chat text chat to give signals. But the League of Legends community mainly consisted of solo players, which was a true testament to their skill. Taking away solo queue changed how ranked was played for many players causing backlash. Many players just want to play alone, without much communication with other players.
A Big Mistake
Riot has stated that dynamic queue was a big mistake and it shouldn’t have been implemented in the game in the first place. Eventually, the rollback occurred causing Riot’s competitive system to be reverted to how it once was.
League of Legends is a team game and Riot wanted to look in a new direction, focusing on team play similar to that of other competitive video games with in-game communication. But this undermined the actual skill of individual players. It served as a big issue for top players and made it difficult to decipher the skill difference between an actual skilled player or someone who is just riding a team of skilled players. In order to keep the integrity of the skill of the community, change had to occur.
While the direction Riot was intended for good purposes, League of Legends as a community was not ready for the change. While the direction stays true with the competitiveness of League of Legends, a different solution must be made up in order to achieve the direction Riot wants.
Changes
The queue system has changed since the dynamic queue. Solo/Duo queue is available once again. Two preferred positions and a veto of a position are also available. Those in upper levels of Challenger can only solo queue, again keeping the integrity of the individual skill aspect. Premade teams are able to use Ranked Flex, which will assess that team as a whole. Splitting solo/duo and premade teams are not the look Riot wanted but had to be implemented in order to respect the wishes of the community.
After Dynamic Queue
After the decimation of Dynamic Queue and the return of the beloved solo/duo queue, many professional players these days have pondered over the skill of the NA region. Many have argued that the NA region has started to experience a regression in skill, making the region weak in the competitive scene. Many professional players have blamed solo queue for the reason that NA hasn’t been getting any better. People just aren’t playing solo queue enough and not enough players are playing high-level League in the NA region. Having a low player base certainly doesn’t aid with this issue. NA servers have at times been not optimal, pushing away many players. With the decline of competition, and high-level individuals Riot is still searching for an answer. Solo queue quality in the European region is much better compared to NA with some professionals stating that amateur European players were still keeping up with high ranked North American pros. While the dynamic queue certainly did not succeed, Riot will have to find a way to spark team competition in the realm of League of Legends. At this rate, the NA League of Legends scene will begin to dwindle thus creating a dark age for the NA region. With the exception of a few NA teams, the NA region as a whole needs to step up. Riot needs to start making changes right now if they want NA to stay competitive with the other parts of the world.
Conclusion
The League of Legends dynamic queue has changed the structure of League’s competitive system. League of Legend is a team competitive game, which would explain Riot’s attempt to force individuals together. But due to the nature of solo individuality and integrity to skill, this change was detrimental in the long run. Dynamic queue ruined the ability to tell between skilled players and boosted players, and destroyed solo players as a whole. While Riot’s vision for the game could ultimately improve the game’s competitive player base as a whole, which some regions of NA need, dynamic queue was not and will not be the answer to their vision. Whether it be through the use of more queues, or enticing more players to join the game. Riot surely needs to implement new changes in order to keep its North American scene alive. Shifting towards a competitive scene was the goal from the start, but in the current state of League, it is very difficult to shift many casual players to high-level individuals competing on the largest of stages. Without the use of clear communication with in-game voice chat, there will always be a disparity between up and coming no-name players and established individuals. At its core League is a team game, and trying to implement solo players will be a challenging task to solve. As long as Riot doesn’t introduce a horrendous update like a dynamic queue, they will surely be able to increase the competitive nature of the game.