How Games (League of Legends) Works

What I know about the topic:

League of Legends is a strategy game that matches players from all around the globe to specific matches depending on their skill level, and their "Summoner" level overall. In playing the game itself...there is something called matchmaking in which these "Summoners" are paired with other people depending on something called "Elo" which basically translates to how good you are at the game. All of this match making isn't a very simple thing as there are many people who have a low "Elo," and a high "Elo," which can make a very big difference in choosing which people are paired with which people. Sometimes in the game, when all of the low "Elo," and the high "Elo," players are put together, there might still be some players left that have a high "Elo," that are paired with people with a low "Elo," which makes it very unfair for the players that are less skilled to be matched with someone that has played the game for a long time.

2 questions I have about the topic:

• When there are no people with the same about of skill left, what happens to those people?
• Can the match making system sometimes be corrupted and cause bad playing experience for some people?

Links for Useful information on the topic:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Legends: This link gives an overall explanation on the game itself and also talks about the matchmaking system and the "Elo," which makes it easier for people to understand the system behind this pairing.
• http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/League_of_Legends: This link is the League of Legends Wikipedia itself, and it also explains the different types of games that one player can play, and it also give a very brief explanation on matchmaking just the link above.

Bullet list of things I learned about the topic:

• Sometimes it is possible that a person by himself who is unskilled can face a team of highly skilled players. These events sometimes occur because the matchmaking system thinks that when there is a team that is full and made up of 5 players, that the players aren't so skilled and are friends with each other that want to play together; but actually these 5 players can be very skilled players with a high "Elo," that makes it unfair for some low "Elo" players.
• There are sometimes people who make accounts called "Smurfs." These Smurf accounts are basically accounts that are restarted from level 1 by players who are actually a very high level to just have fun and win against new players. The fact that these very skilled players create new accounts can have a negative effect on the play style and how new players view the game.
• Players with a host who is a level 30, and when they are level 1 or 5 can be matched against a group full of level 30 players. The fact that the match making system only looks at the level of the host can make it unfair for other players that are in the same group as the host himself.
• There are some players that only play OP champions. OP means overpowered in how the company made the champion to be superior throughout other champions. Champions themselves are the types of characters that a player can choose to play, and some champions are harder to get than other characters which makes it unfair for some people who don't have certain champions yet, to fight against others with champions that they have already which are very expensive.
• League of Legends is actually inspired by a game called DOTA: Defender Of The Ancients in which that game has no real matchmaking system because it is a LAN party game. With the fact that DOTA had no matchmaking system, League of Legends had to come up with a system all by themselves which could have been a reason the matchmaking system hasn't been so well made.

How this connects to my life:

I personally do play League of Legends, and I've been playing it for over a good 2 years now. I have reached the maximum level of being level 30, and even have a "Smurf," account myself. I sometimes play with my friends and they are a very low level such as 5 or 10, and I am a level 30 player. With the fact that the matchmaking system looks at the level of the host instead of the level of the general team, the matchmaking system sometimes matches a group like me and my friends, to groups that are all level 30 which makes it very unfair for my friends. Overall, I would personally like to go even more on this whole system of matchmaking and try to come up with solutions on how we can get to make the matchmaking system to become fair.

Questions I still have:

• Will League of Legends (Riot) ever truly fix this matchmaking system?