League of Legends Devs Share Update on Possibility of a Solo Only Mode
League of Legends players were teased with the possibility of a "Solo Only Mode" by Riot Games recently when the studio confirmed that it was looking into what this kind of mode would look like in League, and this week, players got an update on the Solo Only Mode explorations. Unfortunately, the update was not exactly a promising one for those who were in favor of the idea. Riot said in its latest post that it's "not currently planning to separate solo and duo parties in Ranked," so it looks like that solution has been shelved for the time being.
The latest on Riot's ranked explorations came from game loop product lead Chris "Riot Auberaun" Roberts in a post addressing the state of matchmaking and other League systems. The post opened with a recap of some of the ideas talked about months ago including the proposed Solo Only Mode. Roberts said that Riot's not yet ready to offer a Solo Only Mode given that duo queue players would not have a fitting home if they were stripped from the current Solo/Duo queue and had to go to Flex Queue.
"We're not currently planning to separate solo and duo parties in Ranked," Roberts said. "While we still believe in the logic for why this could be a good idea, we first need to make sure that duo players have another place for a compelling competitive experience. Flex queue doesn't currently meet that bar."
Once the discussion made its way to the League subreddit, Roberts responded there after being asked a couple of questions about the disparities between Solo/Duo and Flex. One of those answers explained that putting solo and duo players in the same queue allows matchmaking systems to offset skill imbalances by pulling in solos from higher tiers to go up against a duo of a slightly lower rank. Roberts also discussed in another how players perceive someone's Solo/Duo rank vs. how the Flex rank is received. The latter, for example, is often seen as less impressive by players given that it involves more coordinated play.
In the same main post, Roberts also teased the addition of three more League features which are planned to come to the game before the end of the year.