[2022] The solution to smurf queue has increased the presence of duos in master+

Update: As it turns out, I'm completely wrong and now feel pretty stupid and embarrassed. As correctly pointed out by u/VaporaDark and u/trusendi there has been a system in place that restricts duo queuing based on your hidden mmr, something I should've known . What ended up happening was a series of games in master+ with multiple players with plat/diamond rank. in 3 games it was unanimous among my team that duo queuing was taking place, so I didn't think to verify beyond that. In hindsight, it's obvious that it was mostly decayed/smurf accounts and I'm honestly flabbergasted by how confident I was that duo queuing had taken place and the conclusions I took assuming it to be true.

I'll probably delete this post eventually, but wanna leave it up for at least a while. Don't want people thinking I got caught lying and tried deleting the evidence. Below starts the original post.

I'm referring to the change laid out in the post "CHANGES TO RANKED IN 2023". I'm specifically referring to,

we’re removing visible rank influence from your matches.

Previously if a smurf was gold with a hidden mmr of diamond, then he'd get placed into games somewhere in-between those two ranks. With these changes that same smurf player would instead be placed in diamond games, hopefully preventing unfair matches.

I personally think it's a great change. Conceptually it makes sense, and I've seen a mostly positive response from the community. Having that said, it's undeniable that it is causing an increase in duos appearing in master+ games.

For those unaware, duo queuing was removed from master+ in preseason 2021. The benefit of 2 players having improved levels of communication/synergy while probably sitting in a discord call is really oppressive. I personally don't think duo/solo queueing should coexist in a competitive ladder, but I understand the appeal of playing with a friend. However, I hope we can all agree that duo queuing probably shouldn't exist in the highest parts of the ladder.

But how is riot's change causing any of this? In short, players placed into master+ games can now have a drastically lower visible rank and therefore still duo queue. I've personally seen a number of platinum/diamond players duo queuing in mid-high master (300-600lp), where previously duoing was nonexistent. Duos appearing in the lower parts of master has always been a thing as it neighbors divisions allowing duo queue, but now it's having an even bigger impact.

The change should be simple, just restrict duo queue based on a players hidden mmr. Personally I don't understand why there needs to be a separation between visual rank and your hidden mmr. I've heard that riot doesn't want people to know exactly how their system works so that it can't get abused, but I don't get how that's a concern. The Elo rating system isn't exactly new, and shouldn't have to be kept secret.

Edit: Something to clarify. This is a planned change for 2023, but variations of this idea has been implemented and experimented on since 2020. I'm guessing they are testing things out during the preseason, which is why it's affecting games before season 13 proper.