Despite the fact that the developers have been open about the consequences of avoiding, it remains a problem in the game, even after severe safeguards were implemented. Avoiding the matchmaking queue during “champion select” phase has harmed League of Legends’ gameplay since the ranked system was first introduced into the game. As a result, Riot Games plans to go even further in punishing disruptive dodge in the game in future releases.
In the newest dev blog about Tackling Queue Dodging, Jordan Checkman, League of Legends’ “Competitive Team Design Lead” discussed how the developers will handle the situation in the upcoming patches.
Dodging data
The amount of games that do not start is the first and most obvious. According to the blog, for the previous few months, 33% of champ selections have resulted in a dodge at high levels of ranked play (Diamond I+).
In contrast, only a small % of highly-rated players actually abuse the system. 1.6% of top-ranked players dodge 3 or more times each day. But this can still leave consequences in the near future, the results in a 40% increase in the time it takes to get into a game at this level.
Future plan for dodging Queue
Dodging champion select isn’t only an issue in League of Legends’ lower ranks. It also persists at the higher ranks, as challenger and master players frequently restart matching in order to obtain an advantageous team composition to win the game.
To address this, League of Legends developers recommended two ways of solving this:
- Adding New Punishments to Champ Select Reporting: This will allow players to report someone who intentionally ruins the game from champ select.
- Autofill/Secondary Role Parity: Targeting matchmaking improvements that will emphasize both sides having the same roles auto-filled, rather than just the same number of players.
Riot Games is refocusing on the types of quality of life adjustments they want to bring to League of Legends, and it appears that the queue dodging penalty is high on their list.