The first two splits of the newly implemented League of Legends Champions Queue have been met with a roller coaster of impressions. The initial wave was almost unanimously positive, but as time passed issues began popping up. After the second-ever split of Champions Queue, Riot Games released an article detailing many changes that players can expect going forward.
Among the changes include the cancelation of Split 3, a new MMR system, and an increase of players.
Split 3 is Cancelled
The third and final split of the Spring Season was expected to begin just a couple of days after the end of Split 2. But with a decline in participation, Riot Games has opted to make some big changes and skip the final split completely. In the article, Riot stated that the reason for this is to make sure that Champions Queue runs parallel to the League of Legends Championship Series as closely as possible. Since Split 3 primarily overlaps with the “off-season” between the Spring and Summer splits, Split 3 is now seen as pointless.
“In practice, players are looking to those moments as a time to reset and prepare mentally for the next split, and in some cases leaving NA to go home or BootCamp,” Riot said in the article. “This is a healthy and positive behavior we want to encourage so our pros can perform at their best when returning to competition. To do so, we’ve decided to skip Split 3.”
CQ will be back at the end of May, this time with an adjusted schedule that is aimed to match up well with the start and end of the LCS 2022 Summer split.
New MMR system
Another big change coming to Champions Queue in late May is the introduction of a sophisticated MMR system. Its current MMR system is very basic to say the least. No matter what the teams are like, the players on the winning team receive 10 LP while the players on the losing team receive 5 LP. This is static and never changes regardless of how stacked each team is. To fix this, Riot is taking the time to create a dynamic MMR system. The new system will award LP in a more nuanced way. It will also do a better job at creating quality and competitive matches in Champions Queue.
Riot did say that this will most likely increase queue times. However, the player base is fine with that if it leads to better competition.
More players
One of the biggest complaints among players in Champions Queue has been the queue times. One solution proposed is to add more players into Champions Queue to ease that issue. In the article, Riot said that there are around 125 players in Champions Queue right now. They also plan on adding more players, as long as they meet the new criteria.
Riot said that the top players from the upcoming Summer Proving Grounds Qualifiers will be invited into Champions Queue. That is if they are at least Grandmaster rank. This criterion has changed since uneven matchmaking was an issue in Split 1. The previous criteria were that players had to just be Master ranked. This new criterion are designed to create a more competitive queue.
Champions Queue is set to return on Tuesday, May 31.
Published: Apr 14, 2022 05:24 pm