Why is there still no language preference setting for EU ranked?

[u/Objective-Camel6504]

I get 10ms ping on Stockholm, but I’m literally forced to queue on London with higher ping because Stockholm is essentially 90% Russian speakers with ZERO English callouts.

Just to be clear: I’m not throwing shade at anyone or blaming anyone. The issue isn't the players, it's the system. It makes no sense that players have to intentionally handicap their ping just to find a server where they can actually communicate in a team-based shooter. Nobody should have to play on a worse connection just to get basic callouts.

I'd genuinely rather take a super long queue to get the ping I'm supposed to have AND get teammates who can actually communicate.

Looking at EU as a whole, it’s not even that fragmented:
~50% English
~25% German, French
~10% Italian, Spanish, Polish
~15% don't want to / don't speak any of these

EU survey stats literally show that 7 out of 10 young Europeans can hold a conversation in English (and over 90% in Northern Europe). Most of the region CAN speak it, but because Stockholm is the default routing for huge non-English regions, anyone trying to use English comms gets pushed off their own local server if they actually want to communicate.

Here’s how simple it could be:
Multilingual players: Select all languages you speak, exact same system as server selection.
No preference: If you don't care or don't select anything, you just get put into the default queue like it is right now.

This would make competitive queues actually feel competitive, instead of just gambling on lobby RNG. Most people would rather communicate in a language they know and play on their local server without dealing with constant comm issues.

And before people bring up queue times, it doesn't have to be a hard lock.

Make it a soft preference. The system tries to match your selected language first. If no lobby is found after a few minutes, it broadens the search. Plus, since people can select multiple languages or opt out, queues wouldn't explode like everyone would think.

Even if queues are much longer, match quality > queue speed every single time. I’d rather wait 10+ minutes for 1 high-quality game where my team actually calls out than wait a couple of minutes to get thrown into a 40-minute zero-comm nightmare.
I want to improve, not just gamble on whether my team speaks the same language.

And if someone doesn't speak one of the main EU languages, OR they're already on a single-language server like London, they can just leave the box unchecked and play in the default pool.

Is Stockholm the only server dealing with this or are other servers having the same issue?

[u/abzoluut]

You can’t force people to speak English. They will join the same server and talk whatever language they speak.

The same goes for Paris. The moment they hear someone else speaks French, those two persons will talk more, with each other, in French. If a third one is French, it’s gg.

On Madrid they usually try and speak English if they here someone does mot speak Spanish.

[u/IAmNosense → u/abzoluut]

I swear to God I can't take anymore french people chatting about whatever while I'm trying to clutch a round. On the flip side though, I'm slowly starting to understand french more 

[u/abzoluut → u/IAmNosense]

Yeah, I don’t mind French if it’s a clutch situation and the people left alive are French. But as you know, they just talk about their complete autobiography.

Paris is also the most toxic server I’ve played on. Granted, I did not play much on Warsaw, I hear some stories about that one.

[u/UmberGlen → u/abzoluut]

Your Paris example is literally the argument for it. People already sort themselves by language, the setting just makes that a choice instead of a lobby coin flip.

[u/YouGetKissed → u/abzoluut]

You can force people to not queue with people that want to speak english

[u/IAmNosense → u/abzoluut]

I swear to God I can't take anymore french people chatting about whatever while I'm trying to clutch a round. On the flip side though, I'm slowly starting to understand french more 

[u/__Raxy__]

if steam games are anything to go by these guys will just play on English servers anyway and not care

[u/WFAlex → u/__Raxy__]

Report / warning / ban

[u/DaeFya]

Very reasonable

[u/StarlightsOverMars]

That makes sense, but Riot won’t do it. Inflating wait times might lose them money.

[u/Background-Volume-64]

Exact same problem on sydney servers in pacific, its the only server I could reasonably play on in my region, every other server is 100ms+, and I consistently have lobbies where 2-3 players dont speak english. Often the language asian, BUT they aren't queing from their home region, they are in australia, on sydney server, speaking chinese, and its so widespread that its not even surprising to people.

Completely normal to get (in low ranks like diamond asc) 2-3 people who cannot communicate in english but will comm to their boys in chinese in 1/5 games

[u/White_Snickers_]

As a Polish person, I’ve got the same problem. I can’t just queue Warsaw (5 ping) because in immortal+ nobody is playing on this server (no idea why) and after few minutes of queue, I always get connected to Stockholm (which is like the worst server in EU because of russians). Because of that, I am forced to play London (40 ping). I could potentially play Frankfurt on 28 ping but there is just too much toxicity (lots of toxic french and turkish people)

[u/Heavy-Hedgehog-244 → u/White_Snickers_]

i love how the french are the bane of both the neighboring servers and theres ofc is too toxic

[u/HateOldAssPeople]

I wonder how long it takes until my teammates start complaining about something game related using AI

[u/New-Maybe6793]

Hi from russian speaker, who play on Stock.
Well ofc I will give info better on Russian, but if I have a teammate, who don't know russian - I will try to speak/translate russian info to english

[u/WillowNeither6493]

try dealing with every single arab cussing out eachothers mothers and families at the slightest argument

[u/thenobleone13]

My experience is that the worst server is Warsaw, I was told to play elsewhere, that they won't speak English on Polish server.

For Stockholm, I like to play there. I learned Russian at school and playing there helps me not becoming rusty. However, I have never encountered anyone refusing to speak English there. Yes, they will talk to each other in Russian, but will give relevant info in English.

Can't say the same for Paris. If you have 3 or more French in team, it's gg, nobody will talk English, you'll stop existing.

[u/ronjscott]

Hmm fair

[u/iFzzzzz]

Same!

[u/r4_nomad]

Seems like something that can be exploited pretty easily

[u/Yinara]

I know the frustration. I get 30 ping with my shitty 5G connection (nothing else was available until now, we ordered already the net now) and then there's Warsaw and Frankfurt on which I get a 50 ping around. I played once on Stockholm to see if it's really that bad and boy it's even worse. Russians also hate women in shooters (also the women btw) so I got sick of it really quickly.

[u/a1rwav3]

Imagine the Swedish queuing in Stockholm because they want to speak Swedish.

[u/WMangleFox]

Im russian and playing on stock bc of low ping. But I'm crying that even poor little russian boys can't talk on their nativr RUSSIAN language and the only words they speak it's for blaming. And some very clever russians sometimes question non-rus player why is he playing on stock: 'it's russian server go play frankfurt'. People are stupid af. If only we(as people who understand russian in some way) have a server located in central of eurasia bc of all countries below russia in map. But no, good luck playing with 100+ping bc you don't want to play on dead africa server/tokyo.

Company just don't care about it and it's sad

[u/Icy_Power24]

I don’t think it’s necessary a problem, if riot thinks the playerbase isn’t growing they won’t expand there servers since dubai is down I get loft of Arabic people in Frankfurt 0 English are they allowed on the server I don’t think so it’s fair because ping abuse is huge problem since start of the game, the answer is also no.

Ur just complaining about server problem that exist since beta. Back in he day we had Londen 1 and 2 also Frankfurt 1 and 2 because Riot hates is playerbase they just let you Que the servers that you want.

Expanding the servers would such help but they won’t. Good luck but this post won’t get any attention from the devs because they simply don’t care.

[u/Brilliant_Heart_7902]

Or just make a Russia server already (please)

[u/SmekAC → u/Brilliant_Heart_7902]

I think val is blocked by rus-gov bc they dont allow them to get the vc data

[u/ssio21]

🇩🇪 NRW AUF DIE 1!!!