The entire system of elo/mmr that Riot implements was designed to reflect the only constant being an individual player's skill. I think Riot was fully aware in designing their ranked system and matchmaking algorithms that people would try to game the system, and thus added the "unskilled player" report category.
The "unskilled" report, to my understanding, was created as a safeguard against boosting. In other words, an ADC in Gold that has 20 cs at 10 minutes would be a valid report, as such performance is FAR below the expected skill of a Gold ADC. Enough such reports flagged the account for manual review to search for evidence of boosting, which, at the time, was viewed by Riot as cardinal sin.
There is an article from November of last year, the tail end of Season 5, which was posted by Riot which talks about so-called "MMR Boosting" and the consequences it can impose on the ranked system. Their definition of MMR boosting was changed when this article was updated in November, but the portion that refers to consequences of boosting is highly relevant and interesting. I'll sum it up here, but it is definitely fascinating to see how Riot has doubled back on their previous philosophy and I recommend everybody here planning on seriously playing ranked reads it.
MMR boosting may sound like a victimless crime, but it can have numerous negative effects on the game and other players.
Our Leagues system has been carefully tuned so that players are placed in the proper tier with others who are within a similar skill level. If a player's MMR is boosted unnaturally they will most definitely falter when they begin to play ranked at their new tier. If a player is unable to keep up with the other higher MMR players in their match they will most certainly degrade the game experience for everyone involved.
It takes hard work, commitment and buckets of blood, sweat and tears for players to earn a high ranking in League of Legends. MMR Boosting devalues the commitment that many of our players make to earn their rightful place among the world’s best League of Legends players.
This is an actual quote from Riot games, which is representative of their philosophy last season. They say, in so many words, that boosting devalues ranks that people work hard to obtain, and creates an unenjoyable experience for players that happen to be put in a game with boosters, due to either an unfair advantage that a smurfing booster has over other legitimate players, or skill differences between boosted and ethical players.
Here is where things get REALLY interesting. The same article mentions how Riot handled cases in which a booster was caught.
Any account found participating in MMR Boosting (both Booster and Boostee) are subject to the following punishments:
2 Week Account Suspension in League of Legends
Removal of any prior Season's Ranked Rewards
Exclusion from receiving the current season's Ranked Rewards
Second time offenders will be permanently banned from League of Legends
Bloody hell, last season, boosters were temporarily banned and then permanently banned if they did it again! How did this become acceptable behavior in the time which elapsed between the end of season 5 and start of season 6?
Here is an actual quote from Riot regarding Dynamic Queue, published in the last couple of weeks:
When it comes to a philosophical stance, however, we do want to be clear: we believe that dynamic queue is closer to representing a healthy, competitive landscape in League of Legends than solo/duo queue.
This is absolutely ridiculous. Riot is a company with tremendous capital to get things done, and balancing the ranked system is something that is completely doable. There is clearly a disconnect between how Riot believes the ranked ladder should work and how the players believe it should work.
I scraped through the terms of use and found that smurfing is not against the terms of use, provided one creates and levels their own smurf account. I'm pretty sure you've made the same connection I have. What is stopping a perpetual Bronze from queuing with higher elo friends on smurfs to boost himself out of Bronze? In both the terms of service and the summoner's code, this is NOT EXPLICITLY STATED AS BEING ILLEGAL. Furthermore, Riot changed their definition of boosting late in season 5 to the following:
MMR Boosting is an action where a player (the booster) logs into another player’s account (the boostee) with the specific purpose of improving the boostee account’s MMR.
To paraphrase, if everyone is on their own account, it is not boosting and therefore not bannable.
Honestly I'm starting to believe that Riot is willfully ignorant of this problem. Hell, it probably is good for player retention considering everyone can have the shiny rank they want, provided they have the cash or the charisma to get a better player or four to queue with them. They're probably making more money than they ever have, and the game is still growing.
I just think that I put an intangible value on competitive integrity, and in playing ranked, I am putting my trust that Riot's system is working and I will be matched with players of approximately equal skill, however Riot's new philosophy and queue system breaks ranked for all intents and purposes, and it's really frustrating as a 4+ year player that they don't care about fair, provided their pockets are lined at the end of the day.
I'm not going to deny that some people probably like dynamic queue more, but I find it incredibly troubling that Riot is trying to transition the ranked ladder away from individual skill and adaptability to a big "forget you" to anyone queued solo, since in my experience I'm far more likely to be a part of a team with a flaming premade of four than a cooperative, communicative team.
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