Riot games rolled out “dynamic queue’ for League of Legends to ease the process of finding good matches in League of Legends. Unfortunately, the new matchmaking system was controversial, to say the least. One of the side-effects of change was the loss of Ranked 5 queue, which would exclusively match complete five-person teams with other pre-made five-person teams. Now Riot is rolling back some of the dynamic queue changes, returning Ranked 5s back to players.
Though don’t order your team jerseys just yet. Riot is still experimenting with matchmaking in League of Legends, only making Ranked 5s available during specific windows of time. If you’ve got at least four friends, North American players will be able to join as a team Monday – Friday, from 4-10PM PST and 2-10PM PST on weekends. As a West Coast Ranked 5 player, the schedule seems somewhat insane. Presuming you have a day job and like to, y’know, eat dinner, you’ll be able to queue for one or two Ranked 5 matches at best. It can be hard enough to schedule a good time for team play without having a strict deadline.
That being said, this is a step in the right direction for League of Legends. Climbing the team ladder added an exciting progression system to the game, turning groups of friends into mini-esports organizations. Riot will continue to experiment with matchmaking, so expect to see more changes to the queue system in the not-too-distance future.