It hasn't even been a week....
LoL: Faker Speaks Out Against Current State of Ranked
The 2023 ranked season hasn't even been underway for more than a week and already it seems that the state of the game isn't where it should be. You know it's serious when the GOAT himself, Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok speaks up about the problem on stream.
Recently, Faker spoke about the current solo queue state and what he feels has gone wrong in recent times and why it just isn't fun anymore to play.
Multiple Factors Have Caused State of Solo Queue According to Faker
Solo queue isn't supposed to be the most fun thing in the world. It is a grind to reach the highest point on the LoL ranked ladder possible, which means players will encounter griefers and toxic people left, right and center. These issues have plagued the game for a long time, so that isn't the issue at hand right now.
According to T1's mid laner Faker, the current state of solo queue isn't caused by the players, but by the way the game is designed. On his stream he explained that games are constantly snowballing out of control, which means that if you make a mistake early, there is almost no chance to come back from that.
In previous years, solo queue had been fun, since teams were able to flip the game around, but with the way it's currently designed it just feels hopeless. Faker wondered whether it's things like the turret plate gold which plays a key role in this huge snowballing effect.
Faker explained that multiple reasons could be the cause of solo queue quality going down. On stream, he questioned, "Could it be the turret gold that polarized the game? There's also been the champion durability update that has made the advantageous team keep having the upper hand. It could also be a problem in matchmaking. Or it could all of them combined."
There are multiple issues, but it seems that fans agree with him, especially when it comes to the early gold advantages and how they balloon a lead only ten minutes into a game. A top laner can go even, then suffer one bad gank to the enemy jungler, who drops the Rift Herald, only to watch as he is set back considerably due to this one play.
Other League players on Reddit also agree, stating that Rift Herald has too much power in solo queue and that it makes playing mid lane and top lane almost impossible sometimes. Smart support roams also add to this sentiment and even though 'comeback gold' with bounties was introduced, it seems that these don't help teams come back.
With so many people agreeing with Faker, it seems like there is a real issue in solo queue and Riot will have to try and figure out a way to fix it. But first, they're going to make sure to give ADCs some agency again in LoL Patch 13.2.