Annoying Firstpicking in LoL - Players are Fed Up
Although matchmaking in League of Legends doesn't seem to cause much of a problem, it does sometimes provide reasons to complain. In this case, it's the order of character selection, which many players feel should be randomized.
- Players have a problem with the order of character selection in League of Legends lobbies;
- When playing with a group of friends it often happens that one and the same person is forced to choose the champion first in several subsequent matches;
- Instead of a random selection of players, seats in the lobby are assigned using hidden account numbers.
League of Legends has several game modes, and each differs slightly in the way characters are selected in the lobby. In the case of ranked and non-ranked matches, we deal with the so-called "draft picks", where players, after removing ten characters they do not want in the match, alternately choose their champions. So the order is very important in this case. And although it may seem that the order is random every time, it's not.. And according to a large group of players it should be.
Recently, a post by user Nowlexx gained popularity on Reddit, who describes the selection problem as follows:
"I regularly play normal drafts with the same set of friends. The problem: I am always firstpick.
While the priority of the pick is sometimes a good thing, to me it's frustrating to "blind pick" almost all my games. I feel my champs get counterpicked often. I also don't want to always ask someone to pick for them, because most of the times they haven't decided what they want to play and don't like to firstpick either.
I think it would be a nice QoL-change to randomize pick-order. There wouldn't be any downsides to this, right? What are your thoughts on this?"
Currently in LoL players are matched up with hidden account numbers during draft selection. According to the League of Legends Wiki:
"Each player has a hidden account number that is compared against their teammates within an algorithm that determines pick order. Theoretically, the order is maintained when playing with the exact same players."
This means that when playing with a group of the same friends, one person will choose the character first at all times. Since the mechanic behind the hidden account numbers isn't explained, it's hard to see how unwanted "firstpicking" will be remedied. Since Riot Games hasn't implemented a random order in seat assignments so far, they probably have their reasons for doing so, but at first glance, such a small change could make the game easier, and certainly more interesting.
