Yegg on S3 Ranked Changes and S2 Reward Borders

Posted on at 2:51 PM by Moobeat
Let's take a break from all the new champions, model updates, and new HUD/UIs to talk news related to ranked play.
Continue reading for several post from Yegg, including the reminder that ranked is seeing some changes in S3 and his commentary on the S2 reward loading screen borders.

Preseason Ranked Play
As we've heard before, S3 will be working a bit different from what we are used to. Yegg reminded us of that today and warned that what you earn in preseason might not necessarily be what you earn in Season 3, once the "big changes" come into play.
"Season 3 will work differently in many ways. It won't exactly use highest rating, but once the season starts there will be something similar that ensures that playing more can only help you earn better rewards.

Edit: Note that the medals that show on your profile right now (if you've finished your placement matches) are not necessarily indicative of rewards that you've qualified for in Season 3. The preseason is still using the Season 2 rules. There are big changes coming and you'll have to wait until Season 3 actually starts to see what tier you're in with the new ruleset. That said, attaining a higher Elo during the preseason will of course count towards your standings in Season 3."
On the Loading Borders
Here is Yegg weighing in on the loading screens and addressing the complaints that premade 3v3 and 5v5 borders are only shown while participating in ranked queues, while the Solo queue border is shown in normal/custom games.
"Let me first say that the current implementation of the loading screen borders is an experiment, and I'm willing to change how they work if and when I'm convinced that it would be better for the health of the game. What does "health of the game" mean in this case? A couple things:

1. You guys want to show off your accomplishments with your best foot forward. I hear that and it definitely weighs into the decision. Some of you also feel like we didn't give you enough warning on how the borders would work, which is a fair point. We should have locked down how they would work earlier and let you know in the original announcement.

2. I want there to be less toxicity in the game. There are reports of players using the borders as an excuse to belittle other players. The question here is: would those players have been toxic anyway and it's just taking a slightly different form? Or is it creating toxicity where there wouldn't have been any? I'll be looking over the data in the coming days to start to make that distinction.

Some people are saying that this is an example of Riot shunning competitive 5s or indicating that Ranked Teams aren't as important as the Ranked Solo queue. That's simply not the case. I'm one of the biggest advocates for Ranked Teams in the entire company. Since I've been at Riot we've seen huge increases in the popularity of Ranked Teams, and we're only just getting started. The Season 3 Path to Pro that the eSports team put together is a great example of this. Did you know that you can eventually qualify for the Season 3 Championship Series just by making it to the top 32 of the Ranked 5s ladder during the preseason? I don't think a lot of people realize yet just how big of a deal that is. This means you play League of Legendsprofessionally, receive a salary, play in a season with weekly scheduled matches, and compete for millions of dollars.

However, as much as I like Ranked Teams, it's a fact that doing well in those queues is as much about who you know as it is about your own individual skill. And generally I'm totally okay with that. I'm fine with people showing off their Platinum and Diamond badges on the forums even if they might not have been able to achieve that in solo queue (yes, even Morello). But when it comes to the loading screen, I'm much more concerned about the accuracy of what's being portrayed, because it's natural to read a lot into it in terms of raw player skill. Is it really better for everyone if we have Diamond borders showing up next to Silver borders in normal games? I think it would be confusing ("Why am I matched with these Diamond players if I'm Silver?" or "I don't play ranked, does this mean I'm a Silver player or a Diamond player?") and I think it could cause even more elitism than we're already seeing.

Going back to the point about the borders being an experiment. Originally, they were only going to be shown in Ranked games. You all asked for them to be shown in normals as well and after much deliberation I changed it to the current incarnation. Clearly not everyone is happy with that, so I'll keep gathering data and reading what you guys have to say, and make further changes if and when they're warranted."

37 comments

  1. I agree, i got gold in solo Que not 3's, i hate going into 3's and people expecting me to carry there shit

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    1. Funny, most the arguments about that issue are the other way around.

      " I GOT DIAMOND in 3's BUT SILVER in SOLO QUEUE SO EVERYONE THINKS IM A NUB"

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    2. Wasn't it soooooo easy to get diamond in 3's?

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    3. With the right team setup you could win without any effort.

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    4. Try getting Diamond in 3s and come back to me. The Diamond NA community is still only .2-3% of the entire community.

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    5. Out of the repotd 11.5 million players .2-3% would be 28,750 people which divided by 3 would make 9583 teams

      It does feel like a big a number

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    6. HUEHUEHUEHUEHEHUHEUHE


      BURN ! ! !

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    7. if you check the ladders in 3s for season 2, look at the amount of teams above 1850 elo

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    8. It is statistically so much easier getting higher elo in arranged ranks vs solo ranks just mainly with the fact that the people you are in arranged with are either players that you know are good or work together with you well. You don't get that factor where 1-2 teammates just plain troll the game or refuse to cooperate for the win.

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    9. Yet you don't think that the chances INCREASE when you have 2 more strangers. The chances increase the more people you have on a team I mean like it only takes one troll to mess up an entire game. 3's are not as snowbally than TT. TT you just require one fed person. Idk it seems pretty easy to me to get high rank in 3s. Sorry if you thought you were good. :'(

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    10. lol if you're gold in SoloQ on SR I find it extremely easy to carry in a lesser-skilled TT game. This is common sense: after you adjust to the new map you should carry just as hard as you normally do on SR.

      Ranks in general show how well you can adapt to new situations, so if you are unable to adjust to a new environment easily you clearly don't deserve your rank in the first place (my subjective opinion).

      On a side note, if a player got his i.e. gold rank through supporting, do you expect him to play top or mid just as well? Everybody is aware of that you may not play in your favourite position and thus play worse than expected from your rank. Moreover, ranked players playing normals normally play normals to play-test, hence they play significantly worse than in ranked game-play.

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    11. ranked 3s are really easy, I (almost) reached plat(1h more needed). You just need 2 good(or even better: better) friends. 3 decent/very good > 2 decent and 1 bad.

      Too bad I didn't get loading border, at least in soloQ(since I play it the most) :(

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  2. Why not make it so that they let you pick what border you want to show up?

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  3. They didn't fuking tell that only the soloQ rank would matter for the borders, and now they don't want to give what we deserve pff

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  4. It was originally doing to be the highest queue but they changed it at the last minute.

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  5. The borders should apply to whichever mode you are actively in. Ranked 3's should have your border be different than Solos.

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  6. is gold ranked

    picks clarity , heal as jayce :3

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    1. Moo did that screen shot just to show as a example....i doubt he or anyone cares what spells he has. (Janna with smite) Who cares about the spells, you should thank moobeat for putting as much work into this as he dose.

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  7. What do you all mean with 3s and 5s and stuff? o.O

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    1. 3v3 on twisted treeline, and 5v5 on summoner's rift.

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  8. I think borders is not a good idea. No border or silver just leave yourself feel shame when your team have like 2 golds or plus. In the other hand, the gold player may think those 2 silver and bronze are noob. Watched on some high Elo stream, people just say "oh he is silver" when silver player die... wonder what a diamond think when he got matched with silver in normal games...
    Bad English, but u might get the idea...

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    1. Your English is fine! :)

      I think you're on point. I was watching streams and there were those elitist comments like "oh he's only silver he doesn't know how to play" or "those gold players must've gotten lucky in their qualifiers to be playing with diamonds". Elo was already something people lorded over each other and now with these borders it's easier to do. I think elo rewards are nice but these borders need to go.

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    2. Borders can mean much or can mean nothing. Honestly besides your skills it has to do a lot with luck. I'm Silver and I have a Gold friend, sad he got the skin and I didn't. But whenever we play versus each other in the same lane (custom games with friends) I usually win, no kidding. I am far away from pro and I don't think I will ever reach that status but the fact that I know more gameplay and more about League of Legends than him makes me more comfortable battling him. Furthermore I played with a Lee Sin jungle yesterday (Gold badge - he claimed to be the best of the team so we should always follow him, just WTF?) and he was one of the worst players I ever seen! He got fed bot lane (I was supporting) because he was always getting double kill (yes, AD carry ended with many assists as I did) but he ended up killing his own team by ignoring our warnings and finished with an awful build and awful score (he was 7-1-0 and then 9-13-2). You could say it was a bad game, I could say he got luck in ranked matches or someone played for him.
      But like I said it can mean a lot, because I already played with gold players and they did much better than me :)

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    3. I get your point Viet Fox, but I disagree with it.

      The margin of players that curse on under-performing teammates due to seeing he/she has a worse rank or no rank at all is simply.. marginal.

      I like the information about my team, I know who I can rely on. When playing as a jungler it enables me to snowball the right lane thus putting me in an advantageous position myself, too. I perceive it as the better lane to gank due to the player there probably being able to react or set-up a gank better.

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    4. You can always lolking your team mates in champion slect to get a better idea of them. Just 5 wins streak in the end of season 2 can take you to gold for lucky guys, but then 2 or 3 lost might put a good player to hell. So you cant just if they are good or bad with just the borders. A bronze may carry a gold like a boss and gold may just play like newbie. However, at platinum and diamond tier, they really deserved their borders because it hard to be there and they need to be truly good.
      In the end its just a matter of opinion based on just a little bit of data, things will be clear when riot got their hands on bigger amount information.
      Have a nice day.

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  9. Yeah I still don't know how to feel about the borders. I've actually been playing for nearly 2 years but I didn't play ranked until very recently. So now people just expect me to suck even though half the time i do pretty good if not outright carry.

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  10. Ew. Surge and Revive? Report Hecarim.

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  11. Moo, I believe the PBE is being updated. You should check it out.

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  12. I like the borders, it is what you achieved.I have plat and gold I assure you the people that are complaining are the people who don't have anything. Chances are if I have plat and you don't I'm a better player then you. What is wrong with that ? I rarely play normals but when I do its like a troll fest so how can someone improve when they only play normal games. I had to bust my ass to get where I got and it should be showed to the world.

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    1. You should re-read the article. The problem isn't that people complain about others having prettier borders. It's that a too big percentage of bordered players use it as an excuse to belittle and harass other players. It prevents people from judging by actual skill in game and instead just becomes fixated with elo. I know you bjsted your ass to get those rewards, I did too to get mine, but if it negatively affects the game and the community by promoting toxic behaviour it must be redesigned or removed. Simple as that.

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    2. Agree with Garrett Travis, got Wolham's point, but have to disagree.

      I expect the borders to stay the way they are. They are a helpful addition to deem your teammates beforehand, though I never harass people that have a worse rank than I do even if they under-perform.

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  13. I like the borders, it is what you achieved.I have plat and gold I assure you the people that are complaining are the people who don't have anything. Chances are if I have plat and you don't I'm a better player then you. What is wrong with that ? I rarely play normals but when I do its like a troll fest so how can someone improve when they only play normal games. I had to bust my ass to get where I got and it should be showed to the world.

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