Even if you haven't been playing League of Legends you're most likely aware of the outrage that happened with Riot Games removed the solo queue option in favor of dynamic queue. If not, let's just say that there was a whole lot of shouting and arguing, and for once it wasn't pointless as the system really did have some deep-seated flaws.

After the most recent ranked updates ended up not producing the desired results, Riot has finally decided to admit defeat and not only bring back solo/duo queue, but also introduce a couple of other improvements to the League of Legends ranked ladder! You can read more about this over at the official website, but for now I just want to highlight the most interesting part of the entire announcement - Riot's willingness to experiment and further improve upon the system:

But what if we're wrong?

It may be the case that solo or duo players aren't interested in the Flex Queue, and its population—and thus queue times—could suffer as a result. All queues need solo players to survive. It may work in some regions, but not others. If that's the case, we'll turn the Flex Queue into a strict five-man queue, effectively converting it into the old ranked fives queue (minus the roster management restrictions and plus all the algorithmic improvements we developed during the 2016 season).

We always want players to have the ability to play competitively as a group, but we'll give up our dream of a competitive "dynamic" queue if players don't think it's worth their time.

The 2016 ranked season taught us a lot about our game, players, and how Riot can do better. Thanks for sticking with us. 

The good news don't end there, however, as Riot has also announced that the long-awaited (and much memed about) replay system is now nearing completion! As before, you can read more about the replay system over at the official website, though its important to note that you won't be able to watch replays from previous patches - its just too much of a technical hurdle to handle. On the positive side, the replays will come with a handy built-in recording software, so you'll still be able to safely store away your favorite moments, or just upload them to Youtube for all to enjoy.

I haven't played or cared about League of Legends for years, mostly because the constant IP 'grind' slowly got on my nerves, but even so I must give some praise to Riot and their willingness to bow down to community feedback. This sort of community interaction is not very common among developers today, especially not among massive companies that clearly know better than everyone else, so to see Riot actually admit their mistakes and revert their changes is quite refreshing indeed. Here's to hoping they'll continue down this path in the future as well!