High ping has been a huge problem for North American solo queue over the past few years and it’s subsequently affected the overall quality of League of Legends talent in the region. But now, the North American LCS Player’s Association plans to push Riot to implement a new server for West Coast players.
“Low ping solo queue has been something that’s every pro player’s No. 1 problem,” Doublelift said in an interview with League reporter Travis Gafford. “Like when we talk to pro players, everyone thinks that it’s a problem but it’s unsolvable.”
The idea is that a server would be chosen based on wherever the majority of players in the lobby are situated in. If six or seven players in a lobby are from the West Coast, for example, then that game should be hosted on the West Coast server, lowering ping considerably for most of the people in the game.
But Doublelift also said that getting things done as a Players Association “feels so troll” and that he believes that nothing will be done about the ping issues anytime soon.
Current TSM support Vincent “Biofrost” Wang also chimed in and said that CS:GO runs the same kind of system with great success. He thinks Riot should help build a low ping environment for casuals and aspiring pros.
Although there will inevitably be several hoops for Riot to jump through, a West Coast server would be highly beneficial to the current pros and to the future of competitive League in the region. But it sounds like the Players Association will try to push further into this topic to improve the solo queue experience in North America.
