Why is League of Legends SoloQueue Losing Players

“As a designer, when we see a trend like this… we can’t ignore it.

The Warning Signs: Declining Ranked Population

EUW -27.4%

KR -30.9%

EUNE -31.1%

NA -32.9%

TW

-56.3%

The data is clear. Ranked player counts are dropping, 30% across every major server, and in TW, it's more than 50%.

We’re not just losing casuals, we’re losing committed competitors. These are the players who used to log in every night, grind LP, and care about improving. And they’re disappearing.

The question is “what do we need to change before more walk away?”

Why Is This Happening?

I believe the causes are multifaceted:

  1. In-Game Toxicity and Lack of Trust: Players cite trolls, soft-inting, and minimal report feedback as top reasons.

  2. Competition from Other Titles: Some are switching to faster-paced or less stressful games (VALORANT, Apex).

  3. Matchmaking Frustrations: Unsatisfying role/autofill experiences push people away.

  4. Burnout: Veterans who have played for years might be seeking fresh experiences.

  5. Insufficient Rewards: Some feel the reward structure (end-of-season skin, rank border) no longer compensates the stress of climbing.

Why Is Losing Players In Ranked Bad?

Solo Queue Feeds Esports Talent

Pros and rookies show their skills or get discovered in ranked games. If the Solo Queue population shrinks or quality drops, fewer promising players emerge and existing pros lose a reliable practice environment. (This is a BIG problem for LTA right now).

Viewing Experience Suffers

Many esports fans are also ranked players. When Solo Queue feels toxic or unrewarding, players stop climbing and lose interest in watching pro matches they can’t relate to, they might just jump to ARAM or other games.

Competitive Integrity

If top-tier games are full of trolls or AFKs, it undermines confidence in high-level competition. Audiences ask, “If Challenger is like this, I rather not play.”

Community & Brand Impact

Ranked is the backbone of player engagement and hype. When dedicated players leave, the community spirit weakens, sponsor confidence may drop, and overall game perception takes a hit.

Solo Queue isn’t just “another mode.” It’s the core competitive experience around which much of League’s identity and esports scene is built. When players abandon it, the entire ecosystem from new talent discovery to pro-level entertainment will feel the impact. That’s why reversing Solo Queue’s decline is so critical.

Core Problem: Trust in the System Has Collapsed

Players no longer feel like Solo Queue is a fair or rewarding place to play.
Ask any high Elo player today and you'll hear things like:

  • “I just dodged two soft-inting Yuumis in a row.”

  • “Even if I report someone, nothing happens.”

  • “If the system won’t protect me, why should I try?”

Personal Experience

I encountered this within the same day

Next game this guy is in my lobby again, and this is his attitude towards Riot’s punish system

“If you saw this coming — why didn’t you dodge?”

I did.
Twice.

By the time I matched into this lobby, I had already used up my daily dodge allowance.
Dodging a third time would mean -15 LP and a 12 hours lockout.

The dodge system punishes players who care too much.
If you're someone who plays 10+ ranked games a day, you don’t get extra tools to protect your experience. In fact, you get punished for trying.

  • There’s no visible dodge timer.

  • There’s no clear indication of cooldown resets.

  • There’s no system to bank or earn dodge tokens.

It’s 2025, and the only way to avoid a soft-inter troll is… luck?

Did those players get punished for doing this? I dont think so. I didn’t get report feedbacks, and their account are still active.

The sad truth is, after waiting for two days and check, their account are still active and allowed to play ranked.

How Do We Build The Trust Back?

A Real Punishment System

Not everyone is a high Elo player, and that is fine. But protecting high Elo games should still be very important, because that’s the rank that most players aspire to reach. When streamers are streaming for thousands of viewers, and their lobby is full of soft inting and griefing, thats when players and the community start losing faith.

“If this is what Challenger lobby looks like… why would I even bother climbing?”

If you queue into Masters+, you're in the top 0.7% of the server.
The stakes are higher. The expectations are higher. And the impact of a single troll is way worse than in a casual game.

But right now, the system treats a Masters game the same as a Silver one when it comes to reporting, detection, and punishment. That needs to change.

Manual Review Access (Masters+ Only)

When 3+ players in a Masters+ lobby report a teammate for:

  • intentional griefing

  • trolling

  • soft inting

  • giving up / refusing to play

That game gets escalated to a priority human review queue within 24–48 hours.

Allow Masters+ players to:

  • Upload a screenshot or timestamped clip

  • Mark key (like intentional tower dives or grief item builds)

Why only Masters+?
Because in these games, the accuracy of reports is far higher. These players aren’t just tilted, they know what real griefing looks like. If the feedbacks are good, it can be extended to Diamond +

Behavior Cooldown for Extreme Games

If a player:

  • Gets reported by 3 or more teammates,

  • And finishes a match with extremely poor stats (e.g. 0/15, 0% KP, grief build),

They receive a 5–10 minute Ranked Cooldown, a short break before re-entering queue.

During cooldown, they see a message like:

“That game didn’t go so well. Take a short break before your next ranked match.”

It’s not a punishment. It’s to prevent tilted queuing and protect match quality.

How Do We Encourage Players To Play Ranked?

MVP Bonus LP

Unlike FPS games, League of Legends is a complex team based strategy game where impact isn’t always reflected in KDA. Roaming, shotcalling, staying positive… all of that matters too. But right now, none of it gets rewarded.

After every Ranked game, players get one vote to choose their most impactful teammate — the one who:

  • Played well

  • Encouraged others

  • Made the team better

If a player receives 3 MVP votes from teammates, they get a +20% LP bonus.
Only one player per team can receive the MVP bonus
Applies to both winning and losing teams

This encourages positive in game. Over time, that kind of behavior gets noticed and repeated, and that’s how we start shifting the community culture back toward something healthier.

Skin Trial Tokens

Players love skins, but many hesitate to buy without trying. Let’s turn Ranked games into a way to unlock temporary skin access, while encouraging consistent, positive play.

  • Every 5 Ranked games played without penalties (no reports, no AFKs)→ You earn 1 Skin Trial Token

During champ select, you can spend a token to try any skin you don’t own for that match

This gives players a fun reason to keep playing Ranked

  • Encourages play more games to earn tokens

  • Increases conversion rates for selling skins too, if a player enjoys the skin, they’re more likely to buy it

Champion Rank + Champion Mastery

Some players don’t just play League. They live inside one champion.

  • The Talon main with 1200 ranked games this season

  • The Lulu OTP who’s climbed to Master by just knowing everything about Lulu

Champion-specific rankings are already tracked by sites like LoL OneTricks, League of Graphs, and U.GG.

But here's the issue:

  • Players who are Rank 1 Zed, Most Games of Diana, or Rank 956 Yasuo, have no way to show it inside the actual game.

They have to:

  • Visit third-party sites

  • Screenshot data

It doesn’t feel cool. There’s no cinematic. No badge.

No identity. No celebration.

Make Champion Rank an official part of the League client:

  • Show it on Profile Page, Loading Screen

  • Let players track how close they are to Top 100 / 500 / 1000 (Show ladder like Solo Queue)

  • Auto-generate social share banners “Rank #4 LeBlanc — NA Server — 67% WR in 432 games” for people to showoff to their friends, sometimes people play just for an achievement.

Challenges

MVP System Safeguard — Preventing Abuse in High Elo

To prevent vote abuse in premades, especially at high elo, this system should initially be limited to ranks below Diamond. It allows safe testing, data tracking, and avoids risking SoloQ integrity. If it works well, we can expand it later with stricter checks for Diamond+.

Potential Risk: Pushing Players Away?

Stronger punishments or tighter restrictions might cause some players to stop playing ranked. That is a valid concern. No one wants to make Solo Queue feel even more stressful than it already is. But the bigger risk is doing nothing. If griefing, soft inting, and abuse continue unchecked, more and more players will quietly walk away. Not out of frustration, but out of disappointment. It is about restoring trust, and giving players a reason to believe in the system again.

Free Skins?

Trial Token Cap

  • Players can hold a maximum of 2 Skin Trial Tokens at a time. After earning 2 tokens, they must use one to start earning again. This prevents hoarding and encourages timely usage.

Per-Skin Trial Limit

  • Each player can trial the same skin up to 2 times, so it prevents people from spamming same skin without buying it.

Based on mobile F2P data, time-limited previews can significantly boost purchase intent:

“Players who used a skin trial are 42% more likely to purchase that skin within 7 days.”

This might give players another reason to buy skins they like.

Other Changes / Improvements

Dodge System

The current dodge system is based on time, not game volume. For high-volume or competitive players, this feels unfair.

Instead of a 24-hour cooldown, dodging should follow a per-match system:

  • 1 dodge allowed per 5 Ranked games

  • Up to 2 charges stored

  • Clear dodge status shown in-client (Right now players have no way to check when is their last dodge.)

This gives serious players better control without encouraging abuse.

Report Feedback

Mainrole Protection Button

Right now, there's no way to see which reports you've filed, what their outcome was, or even if they were looked at.

  • "Report History" tab in the client

  • Shows your last 20 reports with basic status:

    • Pending / Action Taken / Dismissed

    • Optionally, reason if dismissed (“Not enough evidence”)

This builds transparency, and helps players feel their voice actually matters.

There are players that are talented on multiple roles, and players that only plays one role or even one champion. Adding an option to make players choose between a faster queue time or a guarantee role protection can improve player experience, especially in high elo when people go 0-10 just because they don’t play jungle, not because they want to troll on purpose.

Final Thoughts

Solo Queue should be for everyone, not just the top one percent. By improving rewards, transparency, and the overall experience, we can make ranked feel more fair, more exciting, and more worth playing at every level. Whether you're aiming for Challenger or reaching Gold for the first time, these changes make Solo Queue feel more rewarding instead of punishing. Most importantly, they remind players that this is still a mode worth investing in.