Boards›Gameplay

What makes a game a coinflip.

Morgana Q Misser·4/17/2019, 4:41:59 AM·18 votes·11,103 views

I recently got a few downvotes for saying this on the topic:

"If your input as a player changes the outcome of the game, it's not a coinflip"

Admittedly, to make it a bit clearer I should have written

"If your input as a player can change the outcome of a game, then that game is not a coinflip from your perspective"

The coinflip happens when you match with people. First time Lee sin that's 0 6 at 10min probably means the game is out of your hands. From his perspective though, the game isn't a coinflip, because if he had done a lot better your team would be winning at 10min

Some people think all games are coinflips. If you match with people far out of your skill range etc. but it's still sound logic because then your input can't change the outcome of the game and so that game was a coinflip. That doesn't mean that all games are coinflips, if the teams are within eachother's skill range (often the case, don't hit me NA Boards) then you can have a good impact on the game ->not a coinflip

If your team hard carries you, then you won the coinflip, if they hard feed, then you lose the coinflip. If you can do something to win the game (or lose the game) then from your perspective the game isn't a coinflip

That comment is below threshold and my clarification on what I meant is pretty far down so no one read it, they just replied arguing with a straw man, some understood what I meant though

22 Comments

5050BS4/17/2019, 7:00:59 PM5 votes

Its a Coin flip because in most games Riot picks the winners before champ select

Kalikain4/17/2019, 4:46:05 AM4 votes

You know what is a coin flip about league right now? Is top lane and Jungle. Do your top land and jungle know what the OP picks are that destroy other champions without trying? (Hecarim/riven/jax etc) Well if your top is a teemo one trick. Then you coin flipped to tails and lost the game. Your jungle is a hecarim raid boss main. You won the coin flip.

Pretty much all other lanes don't matter because vayne and thresh are perma ban right now. Mid is in shambles to what it once was. Top decides games 9/10 from my experience.

hhaavviikk4/17/2019, 6:48:00 PM2 votes

of course it's a coinflip, that's why the pro LCS players are sometimes just stuck in bronze, bad coinflip luck yo!

Disembark4/17/2019, 12:08:37 PM2 votes

It is because the majority of players in low elo don't suffer from overaggression but rather underaggression. They will never be a factor in their games because they choose to just "sit back and not feed".

The players who are super aggressive and either got 8/0 or 0/8 will always be the deciding factor in your game then. And guess what? Their overall skill level will still be silver, they just aren't as consistent.

You can be a deciding factor in all your games, but that's only if you're willing to go into every game with a carry mentality. Not this "I'm 10 cs up, 1 kill, and now I'm just trading waves with my laner". When you get an advantage you should look to shove it so far down the enemy's throat that they're crying for ff 15.

And maybe you feed while trying, but at least you're actually improving at the game for it.

Z3Sleeper4/18/2019, 10:45:09 AM2 votes

It’s not a literal coin flip RNG thing it just means players outside your lane win = win coinflip and lose = lose coinflip.

Now here’s where it’s relevant to our current game:

In prior seasons, losing coinflips didn’t royally screw your chances of winning over. This season it does.

Thus, coinflips deciding games.

Honestly all of this could be understood using basic logic but everyone wants to argue semantics. Ofcourse it’s not a true coinflip. Who cares about semantics, it’s effectively a coinflip.

Also who cares what the feeders’ perspective are? All that matters is what your perspective is. If it’s a counflip from your perspective, it’s a coinflip.

TL;DR: Coinflip is real and arguing semantics is dumb.

RaQqa4/17/2019, 6:47:09 PM2 votes

40 % of my games are coin flip, due to trolls, dc ,feeders etc. Today I had an ezreal jungle who was fighting with kayn on crab without red and died, then he died 5 times. At the end he sold his jungle item and went ap for troll xD, if he would menaged to be ad maybe i would even win a game.

I think that top,support,jungle makes an important part of coinflip. They are usually the ones who take a front lane for a team. I just hate in the lobby the fact that people can't match their picks to team composition. The funniest thing is when the guy is otp soraka and he is taking it ,while in enemy there is jarvan, thresh while our front lane for example is only a fucking xin.

If my team have worse front lane I will usually loose the game, unless someone really carry. Front lane isn't really about being tanky , because it may be replaced with aoe cc or aoe dmg front lane like vlad or kennen swain etc. or bruisers like jax,riven,kled etc. tanks are ok too, but they just die to quickly now, and bruisers has cc like them so its not worth to have a one in a team, unless he has a very good cc to peel.

If i got better front lane its usually easier to play as an adc and mid lane. Even if u are behind as an adc and mid your front lane buys u time to shine later.

Kattzy4/17/2019, 11:06:05 PM1 votes

This is a really smart analysis. Thanks for sharing, made me think about matches a bit differently.

[slayer-jinx-catface]

AnotherFeeder4/17/2019, 5:41:49 PM1 votes

If you are approximately where you belong at your skill level, why would it not be a coinflip? That is just saying your impact on the results of the game are going to be average, so you need a team that is better to win. Till you improve at the game, you should continue to win at about a 50% rate. The idea is ur suppose to keep getting better, or stagnate.

Wublerdude4/19/2019, 3:59:28 PM1 votes

I had a game where me and a buddy both went like 1/6 early, and we ended up carrying, just gotta believe I guess lol

Salty Mc Feed4/17/2019, 6:23:45 PM1 votes

When people say coinflip they don't mean it absolute, it just means the odds heavily favor one side and it also doesn't mean you can't overcome the odds in some rare cases.

Coinflips are annoying and kinda take away from the fun, but at the end of the day you still gotta play to win.

Also players tend to notice one sided games more easily when they are on the losing side. This is bad because they can get into the habbit of always blaming matchmaking for every loss. On the other hand you can at least enjoy your wins and don't lose interest in the game when you basically get a free win but you don't realize how bad the other players actually were. LMAO

Also to a certain extend you can't really avoid these cases because there is autofill (and a lot of players that still haven't adapted to this simple fact) and also banned picks and players that don't think a lot about their games in general. Performance heavily depends on getting your picks and positions but you also gotta able to recognize certain conditions. Or in other words players that one trick really hard and players that simply don't know how to win, don't know how to adapt to situations and suck at teamplay can always make matches one sided.

Another issue is how Riot pushes the idea of not listening to criticism or not even being allowed to say anything "negative" in the first place. It kinda oversensitizes players to the point that they are playing in a bubble and become oblivious to certain teamplay aspects and obligations. You can have a one trick lee on your team but when the player just mutes all and doesn't recognize what his team needs and what he should or should not do... it can still become a very one sided game.

Noblewind4/17/2019, 8:37:12 PM1 votes

As much as you feel like you had control in a lot of games, I think the reality is that yeah it kind of is a coin flip.

At basically any elo, 10 players with the same MMR are likely not all going to be the same skill level. Some are at their 50% win rate level, some are on the rise, and some are falling. One guy on your team is first timing a champ, another is auto fill, some are one-tricking or try-harding. Some people are on their 10th game of the month, some on their 500th. You're going to get a random combination every time, that's just a fact.

That's why it's a grind for most people, and why diamond+ players can climb over and over from the bottom. The goal is same as always, and that's more or less to win more often than lose. A diamond player can stomp their lane more times than not in silver/gold, a gold player in silver will still be better, but may often not be able to get as much of an advantage to control a game, hence it being slightly more up to the rest of the map to dictate the outcome. They will still get to gold eventually, but it might take a long time. You only have control over so much in one game, so it's a law of averages thing

CNV Nightstar4/17/2019, 9:17:37 PM1 votes

from my experience of b5 to d2 the only coinflip role ever is jungle. If 2 junglers are close in skill they are basically the same and the outcome depends on everyone's play but if 2 junglers are with wide gaps of skill then its such a one sided stomp its not funny. Same with really any role but in the jungle its so much more amplified becuase they'll get full control of the map against the shitty enemy/team jungle which allows them to free farm both sides and free kill any where in the game.