Riot Games dispels League of Legends matchmaking conspiracy

Riot Games has moved to dispel long-standing suspicions around League of Legends ranked matchmaking, addressing one of the community’s most enduring conspiracy theories.

In a developer update released on October 2 via Riot’s official Korean channel, Lead Gameplay Designer Matthew “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison pushed back on claims that the system punishes players after winning streaks by deliberately assigning weaker teammates.

“We only match people based on their skill,” Phroxzon said. “And we want to make sure that every match feels like it’s fair, which means that each team has an equal chance to win. And that means 50% win rate.”

According to Riot, streaks of wins or losses are not engineered but occur naturally as players are tested against increasingly skilled opponents while climbing the ranked ladder. The developer also pointed to another factor: matchmaking’s effort to keep queue times short.

“Lower queue times can typically mean that the spread of ranks that you see in your games can be bigger,” Phroxzon explained. “And this can look like the match is worsely matchmade than what it feels like.”

While acknowledging the frustrations players may feel during tough runs, Riot stressed that it does not manipulate match outcomes or intentionally stack teams to enforce a 50 percent win rate.

League of Legends esports is exceptionally popular at the higher levels, but up and coming players have often bemoaned the matchmaking process, which they say stops new emerging talent.

All LoL esports fans eyes will turn to China later this month, with the LoL Worlds set to begin with the play-in stage on October 14.