I wish they wouldn't let you play ranked as a duo in the first place as that skews things more than most things in ranked imo.  Doesn't really make any sense to me.... outside of some folks prefer to play ranked with exactly 1 pal... so fug it, let's have everyone else in the game be solo and fight with a group of strangers and let 1 guy play with his bud.  I think it should be 5 solo queue folks going at it for ranked. 

I quoted that in particular because I don't think I should be more likely to get my requested role just because I've duo'd.  I just know that statistically speaking, most duo's try to go bot lane.... so folks give in because the silver support that shouldn't be in your gold level game is playing with his gold buddy.  I'd just argue that its far superior to have equal skill levels vs equal skill levels with mmr balancing than letting some fella tag along. 

Ranked team builder (which keeps getting more frequent mentions by riot people) at least solves exactly 1 problem from me without having to persuade some folks in lobby, etc - I get the role I want at least... even if duo queuing still exists.  To me its like a nice compromise. I don't think its fair to imposing on other folks to demand a role just because I drug someone with me.  I do fully understand that folks that to happen, though. 

I hope its not so far off.  At least now I'm not really looking to find a duo queue pal.  I'm not all that super bothered about not playing ranked atm - I was just thinking the other day that I was having fun grinding out games with various adcs and supports and thought - wouldn't it be nice if I could do this in ranked?  Which immediately made me think well.. no... I can't even play normal draft and ensure I get the role I want.  Super. 

I'm guessing that ranked team builder would end up with its own queue with rankings (like ranked 3's, ranked 5's, solo/duo ranked).  And that's cool.  You just understand that ranked team builder likely means that folks are less flexible players (ala mid dump truck).  I don't mind that so much if I get to play the role I want.  I just really, really dislike the the pregame game. 

saw this on reddit - just something that didn't occur to me

Ashe's crits proc Frenzy Mastery for every crit, it means that for her Frenzy is mini Jinx's minigun passive

other ash facts here: https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/36rw7x/facts_calculations_and_build_ideas_on_postrework/

On the other hand, taking the -10% damage from critical strikes mastery as a tank support pretty strongly negates that advantage

Of course, you should certainly run at least 1 red/blue crit glyph on Ashe always just for the Frenzy.

I don't either but I don't Ranked TB is the answer.  Getting rid of Duo's would be wonderful but would cause some outrage and lose Riot customers. Unacceptable.

Here's the solution:

No more talking in Champ Select.  At all.  None.  What you can do is soft select a champion and a role like in Teambuilder.  All five players.  If someone above you selects your role, you have to re-select.  If they select your champ, you re-select.  A short delay before bans begin.

Now the ban guy can see what people want to play and can decide what to ban.  People who really want to play a champ/role don't have to feel like a dick or risk threats if they believe in the sanctity of pick order.  People like me who don't mind filling in most of the time can see what other people want to play without having to feel like they're 'giving in' to the prick who said "Mid Only"  instead of "Mid Pref"

No bitching at someone for playing the 4th best champ at their position instead of what THEY feel is the best.  That the person they're bitching at might not be good with.

No btiching at someone for playing what THEY feel is a counter.

No bitching.  Only dodging or coping.

It would be awesome!

Accept...

-Wouldn't be ideal for those rooms where five civil, reasonable people discuss where they are best and worst at and come up with an ideal team comp where everyone is satisfied and effective at their role.

-Wouldn't solve the problems of people who only want to play one or two roles.

So yeah, there would be downsides.  But I think it would be better than the issues that Ranked Teambuilder would present.

Players with similar skillsets and champ pools as Peter Dump Truck get as high in rank as... well people who know how to play three champs.  Sorry if it's an asshole thing to say but when Pete gets to Plat, I don't really care about getting there anymore.  Well... I might still try just to show that someone stuck in Gold can do it with the new system.  Be sad if I still couldn't though.  I'd probably quit League at that point.

Anyway, I don't think it's Riot's goal to make the reward system that is Ranked mean less to a lot people because you can now rise pretty high by knowing how to play only one champion. You mentioned solving that with different Queues? Well how far does that go?  

-Ranked

-Ranked Teambuilder With Champs So You Can't Ban

-Ranked Without Duoing.

-Ranked Teambuilder Role Only Select So You Can Still Ban

Do you have these for just Summoner's Rift or on Twisted as well?

You guys do realize that if Teambuilder gets its own queue, its going to be trolltastic, right?  Since Solo queue is the standard try hard queue, teambuilder be the ranked queue that people goof off in.

"Hey, let me see how high I can get as Mid AP MF"

"Everybody watch my stream where I try and hit Plat as AD Malz"

And because that queue is sandboxed, they can do it without having to risk their solo queue standing, or having to level up an ult.

Great points Karl.  Maybe I get Diamond in Ranked Teambuilder playing AP Mid Fortune TM Copyright All Rights Reserved.  Think you're totally right about the trolls and it being treated as a 'fun' queue so it might be doable.

Then I will scoff at your 'Platinum opinions' and stop posting here since everyone but Cow is not prepared for my next level Diamond Wisdom.  I'll go argue with Peter in Reddit/Summonerschool as I try and enlighten the masses on the purity that is AP Mid Fortune while he says the only true Mid is Malz. And the only way to play him is stacking Mana so you don't ever need Blue Buff.  

People won't know which Diamond player to believe!

AP MF isn't troll...

Q has a .85 AP damage between the .35 and the .5 second target, E is a .8 AOE ratio, and her ultimate maxes out at 1.6AP over two seconds in that big ass cone.  She does downright spanky AP damage.  If you've got a team with good lockdown synergy, her ultimate going off unmolested is going to wreck the enemy team at 2k+ damage late game.  She can kite well with E's short CD and her passive, and her AA's will hit like a truck between Nashors and Q's every couple seconds that proc the passive from Lich Bane.

AP Graves, that would be troll.

For any of you that don't know about championify, its a stand alone program that uses stats from some commonly used site (can't remember of the top of my head) to put together what items folks are using based on whatever is most common TODAY.  You pretty much download the program and run it - it downloads the files.  when you click on the shop, you'll see new custom item builds.  The recommended (eg normal) builds are still there.  Check it out if you have not.  Very nice imo

https://github.com/dustinblackman/Championify/releases/tag/0.2.1

yay!  was nice to end on a win tonight.  thx all.  night!

oh and bryff is sitting in gold 1 with 20ish lp.  

The league is up for fantasy LCS. Winner gets a mystery gift from all participants. Sign up here: 

http://fantasy.lolesports.com/share/join/league/790894/yLTM2NTilPevjsyWVCOl

I'd like to draft by next week. I know swan was interested in participating as well as thunder

Here's my prediction based on things I've been reading here and there.   1 - a new client is going to be released within the next 2-3 months.  This new client will add in additional logic that does not currently exist that will enable ranked team builder.  For instance, right now, the existing team builder just piggy backs on what riot can do without major modifications. It's essentially a new interface for blind pick.  

Ranked teambuilder is going to require non existing tech/processes to enable picks and bans, constrain people to certain roles, etc.  For instance, imagine the setup of ranked team builder as follows.  You get a screen like team builder where you select your role - not champion.  5 people do this, then they queue up and hit a lobby.   Within that lobby, there has to be some sort of control in place that forces me to play in the role I queued up for me.  I doubt they can just make that a list of champs that play support either, for instance, as there are less common supports here and there... and riot would have to issue some sort of update if the meta changed to having like singed support or some crap.  I'm guessing it will be enforced by the people on your team by having them be able to kick you and perhaps requeue.  

I'm guessing the ideal setup functions like normal ranked.  You do picks and bans and can see what folks are banning out live.  Then perhaps they completely redo how picking champs goes.  One side will have their support pick a champ 1st, then the other will have their support pick... then that same team does adc, etc - alternating.  There will be no champ swapping as roles are static.  Anyway, they have to build things to facilitate all of this.  I'm thinking they will opt for making it in the new client as I'd wager a VERY large portion of their client based coding (eg everything in the lobby) needs to be updated and rewritten to keep existing functionality.  

I really don't think that will be the case.  Ranked queues are the try hard queues.  There will be a lot of factors that drive whether or not ranked team builder becomes a serious competitive scene.  If it gathers acceptance, it could become a big deal.  Completely fair to say that's a big IF.  I think a lot of that breaks down to how matchmaking is handled.  I don't think I'd enjoy it if the current team builder matchmaking was the same in ranked team builder.  

But - I think there is an element that folks very much over look re: team builder.  Matchmaking does seem to improve the more reps you put in with a champion (sadly, it seems to be more champion based than role based).  For instance, after playing several annie games SOLO in team builder, I end up with and against high diamonds and high plats. bleh... honestly, I wish i knew the matchmaking algorithm for it... it's always seemed somewhat elusive.   

Anyway, completely ignoring the hyper competitive side of things, it does get me pretty damn close to exactly what I want in a pre game experience - no fing around in the lobby.  I want to be adc, I'm going to be adc.  Not only that, I can be ranked based on how I do and push towards even higher goals. And if folks don't dig it as much... well that's cool... because I was probably going to play the mode solo anyway.  

My predictions of Ranked Teambuilder is as follows (assuming that Ranked Teambulider is a role-selection, not a champ-selection):

  1. Average level of skill will be somewhat higher in Teambuilder. People like Cow/Karl will actually be getting their roles/champs every time. This will somewhat keep "one-trick Malazhars" from "ruining" the "sacredness" of higher ranks. However, the longer queue times for popular roles will also mean a slower climb (unless you get larger LP rewards). This means that people who want to only play mid Ranked Teambuilder MUST be online/available a large number of hours each week to make significant progress.

  2. People who are flexible will opt-out of Ranked Teambuilder, and stay in normal Ranked UNLESS they are a support main: the very fast queue times of Ranked Teambuilder will put skilled supports in an excellent position

  3. People who only want to play mid/top (read: me), but are competent at both may stay in Ranked Draft, since it may be slightly easier to get mid/top compared to how it is now, but with much shorter queue times.

  4. Players who are above Diamond V will probably stay in Ranked Draft since queue times will be unbearable otherwise. It also protects the "sacredness" of Master/Challenger

  5. i would be surprised if Ranked Teambuilder uses different MMR/matchmaking than current Ranked Draft. Current Teambuilder has a special MMR that also takes into account role-frequency and (most of all) champ-frequency. That would be pretty dumb in Ranked (There's no reason why your first 3 ranked games with a champion you have played 50 times in Normals gets a special -50 Elo "buff". It makes sense in Normal Teambuilder since part of the point is to be able to play new champs/roles against less punishing opponents who are doing the same thing).

i think it'll be really good for people in Bronze/Silver with good mechanics, good teamwork, but tilt very easily to toxicity to climb since i think that the queue will be slightly less toxic: people will be doing what they want with other people who will be doing what they want. This is especially true for the Support/Jungle roles who will benefit from very short queue times and generally being the most vulnerable to team hatred.

My deepest hope is that you will NOT see player names while queuing and be unable to communicate until champion select starts (unlike current Teambuilder). Otherwise, LoLKinging and other pre-pre-game shenanigans will be out of control as people attempt to stack teams as much as possible.

long night.  Tilt'd ranked begins in a few min.  streaming