Dodging League of Legends lobbies may become a thing of the past.
League lead gameplay designer Mark “Scruffy” Yetter explained some changes to matchmaking in today’s dev post. While Riot may think dodging is “OK as a very rare outlet,” they think frequent use of the mechanic should be penalized more.
“Champ select dodges are something that hurts the overall player experience by putting 9 players back into a longer queue after they’ve already spent a lot of time and effort getting their last game started,” Scruffy said.
To combat frequent dodging, Riot will increase the “repeated dodge timeout” to catch players who use the mechanic egregiously. This will force players eager to play to stay in a lobby out of fear of being locked out for an extended period of time.
The LP penalty will also be increased. Right now, players lose three LP for their first dodge of the day and then 10 LP if it’s repeated. Riot hasn’t disclosed what the penalty will be increased to, but it’ll definitely make players think twice before dodging.
Being able to abandon lobbies that are unfavorable is a common way to climb faster. For players who look up their teammates to discover that they are autofilled or playing a champion that they aren’t familiar with, losing three LP is better than 17 for a loss. Dodging can also help you avoid teammates who seem toxic or save you from being autofilled or placed on a champion you aren’t comfortable with.
Having that security blanket removed may slow down the ranked grind. But recent changes to autofill and duo parity should make lobbies less unstable.
Published: Apr 3, 2020 01:08 pm