This new development from Riot Games, is going to be met with mixed feelings across the board. Just today, League of Legends has announced a “Team Builder” mechanism. What this means, is that when you queue up to play, you pick what you’re preferred role is, and the game will then try to find a group for you where you can play that role with like skilled players. So… like healers in World of Warcraft, if you’re hot to get in a quick match – pick support.
In my personal opinion, I think this is great. I’ve wanted something like this in League of Legends for a long time. Duo/Solo queue can get frustrating when you constantly don’t play roles you typically play in a row, lose a bunch, go to bed angry, and forsake ranked matches all together. Even if you don’t choose to play support and get in a game instantly, I’d much rather wait to play a role I’d prefer. If you have 5 strangers all playing the roles they want, already everyone is in better moods and more willing to cooperate with one another.
The place where folk may take issue is this concept of “forcing/supporting” the META, aka the way the common popular strategies of what the professionals are doing. While this is most likely commonly true, it isn’t always the case. Each team will have a “captain” that can control (more like suggest) what strategies your team will use – double jungle, duel top, whatever. While this captain won’t have any power, it’s still something. On this topic, Riot responded with:
Team Builder is all about introducing a new, cooperative Champion Select where players can agree to a strategy and team vision before entering a match. Players in Team Builder will be able to outline a strategy they are interested in playing, and the system will find teammates that share that vision. Feel like playing a double jungler strategy or want to send 5 players down the mid-lane? No problem. It might take longer to find 4 other players willing to try a crazy strategy but when you do, you'll know the entire team is bought in and you're going to have fun.
If you don’t like any of this, don’t fret. Riot plans on making this optional – at least at first. As of now, they plan on allowing for both types of queues; no harm, no foul. This feature is going up on the Public Test Server and there is unknown date when this feature will go live. After all, something this big needs proper testing. I’m excited.
