LoL: Should Riot Bring Back DuoQ In Master+?
League of Legends can be played with a friend as a duo, unless you're in one of the Apex tiers. There, due to competitive integrity, Riot has removed the opportunity to play as a duo. This might change soon though.
Riot Games removed duoQ in Master and upwards with the start of season 11. This move got them a lot of backlash, especially from pro players, but in hindsight it was the right thing to do. The negative impact of duoing in such high ranks always outweighed the gains for these players.
LoL: Why Did They Remove Duoing In Apex Ranks?
Apex Ranks are the highest Ranks in the game. This includes Master, Grandmaster and Challenger. It is the top 0.15% of players on every server combined. Players in these ranks have a generally great understand of the movement on the map and the roles of each player.
Duos would most likely also talk to each other during the game via Discord or other means. This would mean that if two players were permanently talking to each other and sharing information about the enemies location and preparing for situations together, they would gain a huge advantage.
Top laners and junglers could play together with a certain comp like Renekton and Elise and permanently dive the enemy top on the third wave, which would be an immense advantage and completely ruin the ranked integrity.
Duoing botlaners were also an issue because they can talk to each other and cover their weaknesses. This was especially brutal when your bot lane was not duoing, and suddenly you are playing versus the professional Fnatic Botlaners together.
This had such a high impact on game quality that Riot has eventually decided to remove it completely. To the dismay of many Pros.
Obviously pro players are very good at the game but at such high levels the gameplay isn't the focus anymore. Most pro players excel at very small details, but in general are just as good at macro play.
In pro play, the synergy between players matters the most. If, for example, a jungle and mid-lane duo want to work on their synergy they cannot practice that in high elo solo queue but would have to smurf in diamond which would contribute to the smurfing issue.
LoL: Should They Bring Back DuoQ In High Elo?
While pro players are still advocating for DuoQ in Apex Tiers, it's a very hard topic to talk about. With the recent LP changes, climbing can feel like a coin flip already, and duoing would just screw over the matchmaking system and therefore the ranked integrity even more. Most high elo streamers are against the return of DuoQ for those reasons, but they acknowledge and understand why people want it back.
For streamers and pro players, playing in high Elo can be very taxing. You have to play alone and without your teammates and friends. Some players just want to feel the nostalgia again of playing together with their friends without having to switch accounts.
Many older League of Legends streamers like Imaqtpie, Shiptur and Voyboy have left the League scene behind because grinding the sometimes solo queue ladder without friends just isn't fun. But bringing back duoQ would be terrible for most if not all solo players in that elo.
With the start of Season 14 Riot has again been talking about the possibility of duoing in the Apex Tiers.
Riot Iksar has stated in a Reddit AMA that they are considering it, but it would come with a set of rules.
What do you think? Should Riot bring back duoQ in Master+?
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