The Foggy Vision of the Players Association Explained Through Champions Queue

We have an update.

On April 13, Riot Games announced changes to its Champion’s Queue system. A follow-up statement was released by the long-standing president of the LCS Players Association Darshan Upadhyaya, giving his insights and thoughts.

There’s a lot to digest.

In recent weeks, increased conversation has happened around the state of the system. Players have decreased their usage of the system — citing several reasons that leave fans and pundits scratching their heads and raising pitchforks. An environment meant to provide an elevated practice system for players instead was met with mixed levels of interest. And with Riot’s preliminary adjustments, it is starting to become a single question: what do the players actually want?

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Upadhyaya entered literally an unprecedented position as the first — and currently only — president of the LCSPA. He was elected to the position by a group of his peers, with the rest of the cabinet being filled by current or former members of TSM. It is always comedic to mention that fact. Darshan is widely respected in the scene for his poise and professionalism in the competitive spotlight. While he potentially wasn’t the first player that came to mind for the position, he was incredibly deserving given the circumstances.

He was thrust into this position during a relatively disappointing split with Counter Logic Gaming, balancing these newfound responsibilities while also balancing the volatile nature of being on a struggling team.

It’s a tough job.

The area of focus for the PA has changed dramatically since 2018. In 2020, there was a general push for players to be better educated — whether it was regarding contracts or health. The PA had to maneuver through COVID — which truly became the starting point of a massive distrust of the player base by fans. The association itself was effectively re-built recently, bringing in new industry leaders to replace Hal Biagas.

But the lone individual that has remained a constant has been Upadhyaya.

This isn’t to discredit him or devalue his accomplishments in the position, it is just an important wrinkle in things. The players continue to lean on him to represent their best interests and he looks to deliver just that to the public, Riot and board members of the Players Association. He’s the figurehead.

In his statement that followed Riot’s announcement, he addressed the public. Focusing on the practice habits of players, most of his points touched on how players approached improvement differently, different habits and different lifestyles. Players should be more intentional with their practice, more drills.

When he did speak on the state of Champion’s Queue, he spoke of the flaws of the system. He pointed out clear issues that distorted the matchmaking experience — a poorly designed MMR system and a lack of moderation regarding player behavior. He would even shed light on his viewpoint of the lack of usage of champion’s queue:

This is a personal note, but I truly don’t believe the majority of NA players are lazy. Some may be, but I believe that if something is clearly adding value to your career, you would do your best to keep that a constant in your life.

And while potentially not the response the community was looking for, these were valid points — albeit, the actionable takeaways weren’t necessarily as valid. It also begs the question: why did players push a narrative regarding solo queue being poor for an extended period of time? Why did they want Champions Queue?

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The state of the solo queue ladder in North America has been a hot bed of discussion. Every offseason, players make the journey to Korea — whether it be to embarrass themselves at Worlds and say, “we’ll get them next year” or practice on the highly praised South Korean solo queue ladder. The culture, the ping, the people, it has become a mecca for League of Legends players. If you don’t suck in Korea, you have bragging rights for life.

The North American ladder appears to be the exact opposite. The solo queue ladder constantly is on the receiving end of criticism. Despite professional players and content creators primarily being located in California, the server’s move to a centralized location in Chicago back in 2015 simply ruined their lives. Or at least, it was all that was talked about on social media (and is still all that is talked about on social media). The region itself has a smaller player base with a larger geographic distance compared to other popular regions. Players from Canada, the United States, central America, even South America and western Europe access the ladder.

A frustrating environment for players became a breeding ground for hostile attitudes.

But it does feel a bit too extreme for solo queue to be labeled as the reason why North America doesn’t improve. Players have often pointed to having a worse environment compared to their associates as the reason they’re falling behind — unable to appropriately improve their skills.

It is sort of like trying to improve by playing on a concrete floor rather than an in-door basketball court. It shouldn’t dramatically influence things but is understandable. But, you could get upset when the gust of wind may disrupt a shot. The key mechanics, behaviors, decision-making and intentions are still the same. North America’s regression in recent years isn’t necessarily explained by the problems associated with environmental differences.

Champion’s queue was meant to resolve this massive pain point that players have been expressing for years. And nearly everything about the system should indeed do that just. There’s just one problem: players were not taking advantage of this new, shiny system.

Split 2 of champions queue took place between March 14th and April 11 — 28 days. Assuming an average of 2 games a day — not a huge ask, it would roughly be assumed that 56 total games would have been played by some of the best players in North America. Out of the 198 players that played at least one game, only 50 players met the 56 total games threshold. And unfortunately, not all of those 50 were LCS players. Even worse: not all of them were substituting it with games on the solo queue ladder. Instead, it is assumed they were “drilling” or only practicing with their respective teams.

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Riot has continued to show a willingness to assist players in improving their quality of life when the request is reasonable (not completely bringing the server back to California). The company needs a clear vision of what the players need and are looking for. And players need to take advantage of the resources being provided to ensure the proper support is provided.

With champion’s queue, there appears to be a difference in what is being communicated versus what is truly valued by the players. This is the fault of the Players Association.

It is not surprising that where the PA has found the most success in has been in improving education — learning things, building a contract database. It doesn’t necessarily require a ton of effort and not a ton of player input.

In more collaborative efforts, they’ve fumbled. They’ve struggled to communicate a clear and cohesive vision to not only the public but to Riot Games.

What do you want?

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For a union to be successful, there typically has to be a unified vision for what the collective group wants. This doesn’t appear to be the case for the Players Association. And that is a problem. On social media, players have become more vocal about how they feel other players aren’t holding their end of the deal.

There is now a general distrust.

This is why Upadhyaya’s role is incredibly important. He is in a position to act in the best interest of his peers and his recent statement doesn’t necessarily address that. Instead, he deflected from the criticism at hand and did what some players and a majority of the community are sick and tired of: he created excuses.

The PA is still a valuable tool but continues to lose value as a respected partner to the league. Executive director of the LCSPA Phillip Aram has yet to comment on the recent matter and that is frankly concerning.

There isn’t a good solution readily available and it appears that it could be a long few months as the world prepares for the Mid-Season Invitational. A poor performance from whatever team represents North America at the event will likely lead to a massive community outcry and Champion’s Queue will be the first on the topic of discussion.

The organization continues to try and push back the hurdles rather jumping over them and continuing in stride. Not only has it taken time and energy away from more pressing issues with the league, it continues to remain an unproductive effort. For an association continuing to want more responsibility (and more money), it is continuing to become the one thing it shouldn’t be: unimportant.

Key stakeholders need to understand the importance of what is wrong with their efforts. The lack of investment from the players continues to seep into the general operations that can and will have a dramatic impact on the overall state of the league. It is on senior members of the PA to make people care rather than make them irritated.

And if that can’t be done, maybe it is time to give someone else a try.