No, this is not a post to encourage queue dodging. This is not a rant about matchmaking. It’s just a quick little guide on getting the most enjoyment from the game, particularly if you’re new and want to play with some friends.

For starters, I’ve been in this situation a lot lately. I have two friends with whom I regularly run arranged team games. One is over level 20 while the other is in his high teens. Unfortunately, our pairing makes it difficult to find a team of similar level/skill. Some games we get stomped, the others we do the stomping. Out of five games this evening we only had one that was at all close. Here’s how Riot explained the situation to another user on the forums who was experiencing similar difficulty:

I am going to strongly advocate that you start a practice game for you and your friends until he gets a better command of the game. By grouping with him in MM on one of his first games you’re presenting matchmaking with a decision:

1) Either place players of level 13+ into newbie island, where the level of play is appropriate to your friend’s skill level, but the two of you, as experience players will be extremely dominant.

or

2) Place your friend into the regular player pool, where it is going to attempt to match you against a similar premade. If there isn’t a premade of similar construction in MM, which is unlikely, given the level (and probably Elo) disparity between yourself and your friend who is brand new, you’re much more likely to end up with a mismatch.

The key part of that post is “practice games.” You still get XP and IP, albeit at a reduced rate, but you can choose what level players you’ll see and whether or not you want to play. In my case, since we have 3, we can even premade some Twisted Treeline, which would be a lot of fun. It’s not a bad way to get around landsliding in matchmaking and the more people that look in that practice queue, the easier it will be to find games.