The Ladder Wants to Change You

The ELO system
When League of Legends’ ranked system first started out it was with the use of the ELO system, this method of measuring the player was fairly simple; the more games you win the more elo you gain, the higher the elo, the better the player. While the system was simple it lacked something which has since been addressed, each game felt the same. The game in which you obtained a new division was the same game as any other. Whether it was a division changing game or not, there was not much to tell the player that this game mattered more than another.

When Riot implemented sub-divisions along with the promotion system, it changed how the ladder would work. Elo was no longer displayed and instead replaced with LP, a number which would vary in loss or gain to such a wide spectrum a player could receive zero LP for a victory.

The Reason for the LP
The LP system came with many frustrations as it was unpredictable and coupled with the promotion system attached to each division it made games more stressful. Many players would have prefered that the ELO system remain but with competitive gaming in mind, something had to change about the way people played ranked games. With the LP system came a more rewarding experience as it structured a sense of achievement and progress while inherently making promotion games more stressful than other game modes. Players tend to play differently when there is more at stake, something that was not as present with the Elo system.

The Elo system made each ranked game of equal value to the last, the value of each game was based more on personal perception. With the LP system, if you are in the last game of your best of five promotion with a 2:2 record, it stresses the value of winning. Divisions used to be one game away and now players had to qualify for a promotion series and complete a best of X series of games. The LP system may be Riot’s way of telling players that they want them to go into ranked games with a different mind-set.

To generalize the differences between ranked games and normal games is to say that in normal games players can play whatever they want and in ranked games players play want to play what they are best at. In a way, the LP system tells players that there is something more that they have to do to win their promotional series, that there is something other than playing your best champion or getting better at your role in the team. The LP system pushes players to find that extra mile they can strive toward to both become a better player and transition into the next division. When the ranked ladder system changed the value of certain ranked games, with this change it is reasonable that the players change how they play to reflect the value of promotional games.

Image courtesy of the League of Legends website

Adapting

League of Legends can be a game about a single purpose: Destroy the enemies nexus. While this idea holds truths, League of Legends is a much deeper game. Due to the way the ladder emphasizes value on certain games, we as players can place a deeper emphasis on the other aspects of the game we would normally miss. Something as minor as checking your opponents runes, masteries, history on the champion, increasing item awarenss, map awareness, or anything you can do to play the game differently than you normally would supports the idea that these games mean more than normal games or non-promotional games. 

Conclusion
While Riot’s LP system has received some scrutiny as to whether or not it was a positive change for the ladder, it is evident that Riot is trying to promote a different mentality of play between ranked games and other game modes with the promotional system. Many aspects of what the promotion system is supposed to accomplish is lost between the players who want to redistribute the value of ranked games and those that are deterred from playing ranked games. If Riot wants to promote players to treat ranked games differently it needs to take a different approach from the promotion series currently in place. While there are many ideas and suggestions already spoken for, Riot needs to find middle ground between making ranked games more appealing (or less stressful) and changing the way players treat ranked games.