Riot makes another change in how it deals with ranked game queue-dodges.  While several plans have been active in the past, a small and subtle change could help to make it the best yet.

In the past, Riot implemented an elo penalty for dodging queue in ranked games.  The purpose of the punishment was to decrease the amount of players leaving the game during champion select for various reasons. With the champion selecting process already taking a fair amount of time, it can be extremely frustrating to sit through two, three, or even more rounds of drafts in order to play a single game.  Despite the good intentions behind this system, which meant to benefit those who don't dodge queues, many summoners complained about the loss of elo and how some players were taking advantage of the system. One popular tactic was for high-elo players to repeatedly dodge queues to lower their rating into the fabled 'elo hell' in order to get easy wins for fun.  This, of course, upset those who were trying to climb out of the fiery depths at their own skill level, and calls for change resounded through the community.

The 'grass is greener on the other side' effect quickly took hold after Riot actually made the transition, however.  Whilst the change to a long wait timer penalty instead of elo loss did cut down on the smurf problems, it opened up a new problem. Now, without any long-term penalties, many summoners choose to dodge games in which they believe the enemy will have the advantage in order to increase their win rate. Although these players may have longer periods of time in between games, they can ultimately choose games they believe their team has the best chance of winning, and potentially gain more elo as a result.  In order to reduce this problem, Riot has recently announced that they will monitor players who queue dodge often and implement "long-term plans" to warn or ban the worst offenders. This announcement alone will likely help with the problem many ranked players have recently encountered, while the eventual bans should prove to be an even more effective remedy. The announcement also clarifies that those who occasionally dodge out of necessity will not be impacted by these changes.

This is an editorial written by Ambrielle "KatanaMordecai" Army. All opinions stated in the article are her own and do not reflect Counter Logic Gaming's opinion on the matter discussed in the article.

Source Riot Games