League of Legends introducing team builder queue for strategic planning

Riot Games is introducing a new queueing system into the popular League of Legends that will allow players to strategically choose their champion before joining a team, then enter them into a group that compliments their chosen champion.

In a post on the official Riot forums it was explained that the new system will be offered alongside existing queues; however, the studio hopes the introduction of "team builder" will solve an issue of multiple players looking to play the same champion.

"An ideal champ select is one where all five players get their preferred role and feel like they're all on the same page for the upcoming match," wrote lead social systems designer Jeffrey Lin. "The current matchmaking does a good job of matching up players of similar overall skill levels, but doesn't have any way to know what a player's intentions for a given game are.

"Sometimes things work out perfectly and everyone gets the champion and role they wanted without a hitch. But if multiple players are looking to play the same role or lane, a consensus has to be built in a relatively short period of time. That's time that could be used to get to know each other, agree on a strategy and build confidence that it's going to be a fun match."

Team builder will enter into beta soon. There is no word just yet on when it will go live.