Quote Originally Posted by Synestra View Post
I also dont see the point of having a solo-que ranked, i mean who the hell wants to do that when your "ratings" are at mercy of RNG? doing anything serious whitout pre-made and TS seems just so pointless, atleast for me.
I think the idea was to appeal to casual players in a way that is fair.

Basically, SE would be in the wrong if they locked out players who will not or cannot play PvP with a hard-core attitude. Not everyone will or can join a TS or form a pre-made. Some people have an inconsistent work schedule, for example, which makes regular log-ins impossible. Scheduled matches at specific repeated days are not always an option. The PF makes it at least possible to form a one-shot Pre-made for when you are online, but lets face it, that's still basically running with a group of randoms. They're just slightly less random than DF slotted players. The solution? There really isn't one, but SE can pretend there is.

Basically, Solo-Q (ranked) options give SE a ready response for people who will inevitably complain about not being able to get ranked rewards. If someone says that ranked rewards are too elitist and only available for pre-made static groups, SE can point to the Solo-Q ranked option and say: "No they're not. You can play that." Never mind the fact that Q times will be obscene. It's the fact that it's there that counts.

That being said, this is also assuming that the ranked solo-Q is a dead Q. Running with a pre-made is obviously ideal, but there are a lot of lazy players out there who would rather just Q up and be done. Further, PvP is not equally popular on every server. Some don't have a solid PvP basis to even form pre-mades. With those two things in mind, it's entirely possible that ranked solo-Q could be the most popular Q option. Personally, I'm a little more disappointed that the 8v8 mode was not given the same options, as I have a feeling that the medium sized format will be more fun than the traditional 4v4 one.