The term matchmaking seems to have a lot of heavy meaning, but like many other things in League of Legends, it’s actually quite straightforward. It simply means any match that is not, in fact, a custom match. It doesn’t matter if the match is a normal match, a ranked duo, normal draft, or even the Howling Abyss. All a game needs to be matchmade is that it’s not custom-made.
There are a variety of game modes available in League of Legends. The most often played by casual gamers is the normal match. There are two types of a normal match. The quick-match lets you join immediately without the option of being able to decide which role you want to play. This mode is best if you are comfortable with all the roles and just want to have a good time. Many times 5 players join this made as pre-made so that there’s no confusion about who will play what role in the game.
The other most commonly played mode for the casual game in League of Legends is the draft mode in normal games. These are unranked games, but you get to choose which role you want to play. There’s no guarantee that you will get the role you want, but there are good chances you play the role you prefer. Similarly, there are other game modes such as ranked solo/duo, ranked flex, 3v3, 5v5 in Aram, etc.
Sometimes Riot brings out new special initiatives such as the Ultra-rapid fire mode, All for one, and Hexakill! All of these categories can be considered matchmade games. Even games for practice against bots can be considered matchmade.
The custom game mode is usually suited for organizing competitive League tournaments. You can pause a custom game midway, and the game is paused for everyone on both sides. It can be resumed as well, like an off-line game. Lots of professional and amateur tournaments are being played all over the world by League of Legends players. The custom-game mode will be useful for this purpose. But that won’t be called a Matchmade game.
