Following Scarra’s show match against the newly acquired DSG League roster, he gave his thoughts on one simple change that could drastically change the high MMR ecosystem and, as he put it, “save NA”.
The topic of high-tier North American talent (or the lack thereof) has been a hotly contested one since the LCS walkout was announced. With many orgs in the LCS opting to go for imported talent when they can, finding native talent from the region hasn’t been the highest priority for talent scouts.
What’s more, the best League of Legends players will often travel to South Korea for bootcamps, spending time in the region for the quality of solo queue. The fact that players have to travel to a different country to get a better practice environment speaks volumes for the level of competition within NA.
Scarra, however, argues that allowing players to have fun in solo queue and play with a queue partner is worth much more than any competitive integrity gained by forcing high MMR players to solo queue.
Scarra wants duo queue to return to Masters+ League matches
Though Scarra has long moved past being a professional League player to make a career for himself as a content creator, he was one of the pro players who defined the early history of the LCS. For many, he was a part of the golden age of North American League of Legends.
That time has long passed, but people still remember Scarra’s competitive legacy. Him and other LCS greats got together to reform the old Delta Fox roster in a show match against DSG, Disguised Toast’s newly acquired League of Legends team.
Following the matches, Scarra reflected on his time in pro play and how his opinion on North American League of Legends has changed. According to him, the return of duo queue in high MMR would be one small change that could pay off massively for the region and regrets having told Riot all those years ago to restrict solo queue to, as the name implies, solo players.
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Scarra discussed the topic for several minutes, with his main point being that keeping players in high MMR motivated to play is in the best interest of everyone.
“First way to save NA: We should all agree, the region — Who cares how good it is, ok? We want people to play. If you want your top players to play, you need to re-enable duo queue above Masters.” Scarra explained. He claims that whatever competitive integrity that’s gained from keep duo queuing out of high MMR isn’t worth it.
Currently, players who hit Masters are forced to queue by themselves. In fact, players who are Masters or above have to go by an entirely different set of ranked rules, the full extent of which you can read in Riot’s explainer.
“If you re-enable [duo queue] I will play League again, I promise. Please, just like, please, give me back duo queue.” he pleaded.
While Scarra said he enjoyed returning to League of Legends for a few days ahead of the show match, he also had a rough time adjusting to all the things that have changed since he last played. And being unable to queue with his friends didn’t help that issue.
Ultimately, it’s hard to say if there’s any one change that could ‘fix’ NA. But, according to Scarra, players being able to queue with a partner is a surefire way to make high MMR lobbies more appealing.