LoL Rioters Considering Changes To Ranked Requirements

League of Legends is a week away from its next season both in competitive and professional play. Season 14 will bring a lot of changes to the overall gameplay, meta, and strategy revolving around winning games on Summoner's Rift. Not only will players get to play on a different version of their beloved but they will also have new items to consider building in their games along with new neutral objectives to further shake things up. 

With this in mind, Riot Iksar - the Design Director for League of Legends recently shared a tweet regarding what conditions new players need to meet to be able to queue up for ranked.

Given just how many players log in daily to play ranked, there have been very noticeable patterns of newer fans of the game getting paired up against smurfs thus creating an unfair environment for newbies to learn how to play the game.

We will be taking a look at how Riot is thinking of approaching the ranked problem by possibly changing the requirements you need to cover so you can play ranked.

LoL New Requirements To Play Ranked

The Rioter stated in his tweet that this suggestion to change what players need to accomplish so they are eligible for ranked is not anything final but merely a thought experiment as to what needs to be addressed so that the ranked environment harbors more competitively fair experiences.

Requiring players to play some amount of Draft or QP to unlock ranked would allow us to make a significantly better judgment on a player's starting point in ranked modes. Currently considering this, though we're hesitant to add more friction to playing the mode you want to play.

Out of the gate, it seems that the devs are questioning whether enforcing additional barriers to entry might dissuade new and casual players from trying out the ranked ladder, however, this shouldn't be much of a deterrent as ranked itself requires some time spent learning and practicing the core mechanics of the game and overall macro knowledge with its many variables.

There is a considerable amount of (real) new player accounts who get to 30 through very little PvP SR by playing primarily ARAM, Modes, or VS AI (bots & smurfs are another topic altogether -- handled separately). We do a poor job of placing these accounts correctly with so little relevant info -- causing the ranked experience for players in those games to suffer.

While it is true that the system Riot Games has implemented is lacking when it comes to new players wanting to learn the game, there is very little incentive to play Summoner's Rift so they can prepare for ranked. 

We’re discussing tomorrow how to change how ranked unlocks (if at all) -- putting this out there for any player feedback ahead of that talk.

It is great to hear that Rioters are aware of this issue and are at least taking steps to resolve it, however, they will need to be very careful as to how they implement a fix as it might backfire very easily. 

Community Reaction

Many players were quick to provide feedback as even Riot Games is no stranger to bots farming co-op games against AI to level up accounts that can be sold later on. 

It would be beneficial to have a better-designed system that can help new players easily navigate the casual landscape without having to run into bot accounts that do not provide any environment for one to honor his skills, especially given the fact how much knowledge you need to possess to play League of Legends. 

Ultimately, Rioters will need to carefully distinguish what counts as a new player, who is simply creating a new account, and how bots can be deterred from ruining games for other players. Although it may seem difficult, there is still some chance of Riot Games creating a noob-friendly environment by either creating more tutorials for players or ensuring that players are adequately placed in matches so they can have the opportunity to grow and develop their skills on the Rift.