When to Dodge a Ranked Game in League of Legends Solo Queue?

If you are a regular ranked player in League of Legends (LoL) solo queue, you probably hate when someone dodges the game right before the game is about to start and makes you requeue to join a new game. These people are often abusing the dodging function in LoL, but sometimes, they do have legit reasons to dodge. Many people dodge for trolling teammates, so you should avoid dodging and let your teammates dodge first. Reasons that you should be dodging for:

• Attack Damage (AD) team comp & no Ability Power (AP) on your team
• Best champions are banned and/or taken by your enemy team
• Preferred roles are taken

Attack Damage Team Comp

Attack damage team comp means that your entire team is going to be AD and does mainly physical damage. An example of full AD team comp would be Zed (mid), Renekton (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Thresh (bottom), and Caitlyn (bottom). This may sound like a good team comp, but it is a dead end when your enemy team stacks armor for late game. All they really need is one item to annihilate your team, and that is Zhonya's Hourglass. Zhonya's provides 120 ability power and 50 armors to a champion with a unique active of being invulnerable for 2.5 seconds (1). This item would definitely counter Zed no matter how ahead Zed is because he cannot burst down the champion that has Zhonya's. Thus, it is a wise decision to dodge the game when your team lacks AP champions because it's almost impossible to win in late game.

Champions are Banned and/or Taken

If your main champion is Lee Sin, for example, you are out of luck because Lee Sin's ban rate is 27% (during 10/2014) and has a popularity of 33% (2). This means that Lee Sin is either picked or banned in roughly about 60% of your games. In other words, you can almost expect that 1 out of 2 games you would not be able to pick Lee Sin. It might be ideal to dodge some games once in a while in such situations, especially if you can't pick your preferred champions and are not comfortable with the other champions.

Roles are Taken

If you are unlucky sometimes, you might be the 5th pick of a ranked game, which means last pick. A person who picks last will usually have to fill. By filling, I mean that your favorite or best roles are usually taken and you are forced into the remaining role. In most cases, you are left with support if you are last pick. It might be a smart choice to dodge this game if you are not in the mood to play support or fill.

Consequences of Dodging

Dodging may sounds bad, but it is necessary sometimes; however, there are penalties for dodging a ranked game. Dodging a game will cost you three league points and prevent you from queuing another game for 5 minutes 30 seconds. Additional penalty will be given as you dodge again within 16 hours (3). So think twice before you dodge a ranked game!

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