Can ranked play at least require a full rune page?

Cosnirak··50 votes·3,108 views

I just finished a ranked game where our jungler had 3 quints, 7 marks, 0 seals, 0 glyphs and bought poacher's knife (and ended the game with 6 enemy jg creep kills, 3 of which were stealing blue at the start of the game with 3 other team members helping). They use the mastery enchanted armor despite not buying any tank items and having no defensive runes. They went 3/10/5. I checked and they have one other rune page. It has all different runes from the previously mentioned one and includes 3 quints, 9 marks, 9 seals, and 0 glyphs.

How do I get paired with people at that level? How do people play ranked with so few runes? I understand if you've got a few tier 2 runes or maybe you're missing 1 rune, no biggy. But 0 seals, 0 glyphs, and 7 marks? At least the ones they had were tier 3...

My adc and support were duo queue. The support started with a item 1056 and no gold item. Sold it for a item 3303 over 5 minutes in. Bought a item 2049 after 18 minutes because I asked them to. They went 1/9/5.

I kept not being able to teleport to help bot lane in fights because they were well past their dead turret with no minions and no wards anywhere near. Meanwhile I win my lane vs Nasus . The enemy adc went 22/2/7. One of those deaths was to me, both were inside our base.

I don't mind the existence of terrible players. All the power to them to play and have fun, especially if they're nice and no one in that game was mean. But how do people of such vastly different skill and/or knowledge of the game get paired together?

This is what people refer to as elo hell. I can't stop being paired with these people because I lose so many games to being paired with them... Is my whole season doomed to be like this because I didn't carry hard enough in my placements? I won 6/10 games, was silver last season, and iirc I lost at least 1 placement game to a dc. WHY AM I STUCK IN BRONZE?!

tl;dr - Can playing ranked require at least being able to fill an entire rune page? How do people of highly noticeable differences in skill end up playing together in ranked? Can I get a hug and a shoulder to cry on?

40 Comments

Kikirino11 votes

I only have 3 rune pages but as I climb it is becoming clear that the lack of rune pages is starting to hurt me. If they weren't so fucking expensive and anything prior to tier 3 wasn't a noob trap maybe more people would have decent runes.

TheSecretLevel2 votes

i got to plat with only three pages, and had only three pages for a long time, you can do it man. i only recently got more on the last rune/ rune page sale i got everything i needed cus i saved up 25k ip for the sale.

Hyrum Graff2 votes

I semi-recently gifted a third rune page to someone who got D1 with two rune pages. I figured that, beyond his AP and AD pages, he needed one to troll with.

Spacesuit Spiff1 votes

Easy to get away with 3 if you only play a couple of champs. And once a rune page sale is announced, start saving up IP so you can buy 4-8 in one go.

TeemoJenkins6 votes

Wow... a well thought out and articulated post about unprepared players ruining a game... I like your attitude OP, add me in game, we'll get some duo games on.

Jweldy3 votes

I think the reason most low bronze players don't have full rune pages is because they don't really feel they impact the game that much. Since runes are so expensive right now, players who are leveling up to 30 will want to spend their 6300 ip on a champion, not 3 quints. I think if that was made a requirement players would buy a lot of cheap T1/T2 runes, which honestly wouldn't be any better.

I'm personally fine with the way the system is right now, though if rune prices were lowered I could see that being made a requirement.

FHMarshy2 votes

You will be free of those once you climb higher :)

Lmao i checked your match history LOL elise with paocher LMFAOOOOO

Firefox5092 votes

This is why i tend to avoid playing ranked

My friend has had the worst luck with a 10% ranked win rate in b4 after being placed in b3, and by no means is he bad, we play normals together and we can carry most games easily, most of his ranked games he was by far the best on his team but if the rest of your team together has 20 more deaths than kills even if you have triple or quadra more kills than deaths yourself there's not much you can do.

Back to the reason why normals > ranked, Ranked you play with people in your division (bronze/silver/gold 1/2/3/4/5, etc) and your ranked "mmr" is just about solely your division. Which is why playing ranked in the elo hell is pure luck weither or not you get shit for teammates or other good players that have been dragged down by them as well. For normals you have hundreds of normal games to get your normals MMR stabilized to your actual skill level (the grind to 30), where it pairs you based on that instead of your division, which is why they tend to be more balanced games, for me anyways. I don't get shitters in normals like i do in ranked.

TL;DR- Ranked: Play within your division, normals: play within your skill level. Or at least this has been my experience with the match making and that i always get better teammates in normals.

TheSecretLevel2 votes

That's because you have played way more normals than ranked, since you have played so many normals, it has found you skill level accurately. if you played around 100 ranked games i am pretty sure your ranking would be accurate to your skill level by then. and saying that your teamates in ranked are "shitters" is not the reason you lose, if your teamates are that low skill, that means the enemy team is also low skill, so that means if you were TRULY better then the rest of the people in the game, you would win games and climb easily. like seriously back when i was even only ranked gold 3 on my main, and i started out on my smurf in silver 3 (even after going 8/10 in placements) games were so easy, like if i lost a game it was because it was a 4v5 or because i make a few mistakes, i made a huge impact in every game. so please, rethink your thinking.

Space Bum2 votes

Same. Been playing since 2010. Finished my first promos this past preseason because my casual/aram friends stopped getting on every day. Decided to give ranked a try. Had 4 games with AFK's in promos. Got S4. Went 7-3 in promos at the start of the season got bronze. Not going to continue playing ranked on this account when I get paired with higher elo in normals. Have a fresh 30 to play ranked with so I can at least start in silver if not gold (AFK's willing...)

I didn't know they were doing a "soft reset" so I got screwed for doing my promos in the pre season.

I could also use a hug...

TheSecretLevel2 votes

you dont improve if you dont try, ranked is the best way to improve, and trust me, if you are TRULY better than everyone around you, it will show and you will climb. afks suck, i know but sometimes theres things that try and stop you, but you just got to keep going, even if you had an afk every 10 games (highly unlikely) that would only hurt your winrate by 10%, assuming you are higher skilled and know how to control games, you can easily have a 65-70% winrate, minus that 10% you would have a 55%-60% winrate minimum which is plenty to climb, so dont worry about leavers if you are truly better you will climb, trust me.

Space Bum1 votes

That's all fine. The way I see it though is that I already have a second 30 so why should I continue on this account when I could play much fewer games to make Rank on that account?

Even if I won all of my promos they would have still put me in bronze because of the way they did the reset this year. I got silver after what were terrible promos and just a couple weeks later they forced me to go to bronze. I would have waited for the season to start before doing promos if I knew they were doing it like that.

Occams Raiser1 votes

I'm not sure you should bother with this tactic. From what I hear, the bullshit doesn't stop cause you make it out of silver. Gold and plat have told me the shit is continuous and because the player base gets smaller the higher you go, you learn who the trolls and the lames are on sight. You have to play with them all the time. That is where smurfing comes from. They get bored playing the same people out of a pool of mere thousands. Instead of coming down to act as Gurus to the rest of us, they slum, troll, and smurf. But that is just what I heard.

bulldoggamer2 votes

You can cry on my shoulder bb.

MeesterMoo2 votes

I am currently in bronze too after being in silver and I am stuck too. My games are win lose win lose win lose win lose and I am learning now to get better, look at enemy builds, ward, etc. without being toxic to the fed botlane. Also, PLAY WHATEVER YOU'RE GOOD AT. If you have first pick, pick whatever you can carry as. You have to make sure that you do well. Not your teammates. I am talented at Yasuo so that is my instalock and I play for kills, to get fed, and then steamroll the game. Just do the best you can because there is nothing you can do to fix your teammates being stupid.

Renaille1 votes

Meanwhile I win my lane vs Nasus

Did you really have to include this? Anyone who loses lane to Nasus should automatically be demoted to bronze 5.

junglerboy161 votes

There is a difference between "losing to Nasus" and "not winning vs Nasus" Losing to Nasus means you fed him or are behind in farm, not winning means you didn't shut down his farm and went even (which is average). Winning vs Nasus means you got kills and a CS lead (though I don't know if that was the actual situation or not).

Occams Raiser1 votes

A good jungler will make sure Nasus gets fed. There are two factors to Nasus winning. If I play with Kat (rare occasions she isn't banned) I try to get her fed.

Avorok1 votes

I've been playing for a while, and have 2009 runes [ aka - Lesser Mark of Alpine Attack speed, Glyph of Soaring Slalom ] To me, too expensive to spend on, and not worth it. Knowing rito, they might not want to code something that requires you to have a full rune page, because, what's stopping someone from buying the cheapest runes to fill up everything that don't even match the sets. More requirements, more coding, rito says nty. But due to your story, this seems it had nothing really to do with runes, more, either he had a bad time as jungle, wasn't a good jungler/ doesn't play jungle a lot/ forced to play due to someone picking his lane, or he was just trolling. And the other part is due to your teammates not matching up to your expectations of being "good" and they did bad, which they did. Calling people bad because they don't have runes or spend countless hours grinding to get runes isn't a right way to think.

SwordGrunt8 votes

{quoted}

I've been playing for a while, and have 2009 runes [ aka - Lesser Mark of Alpine Attack speed, Glyph of Soaring Slalom ] To me, too expensive to spend on, and not worth it. Knowing rito, they might not want to code something that requires you to have a full rune page, because, what's stopping someone from buying the cheapest runes to fill up everything that don't even match the sets. More requirements, more coding, rito says nty. But due to your story, this seems it had nothing really to do with runes, more, either he had a bad time as jungle, wasn't a good jungler/ doesn't play jungle a lot/ forced to play due to someone picking his lane, or he was just trolling. And the other part is due to your teammates not matching up to your expectations of being "good" and they did bad, which they did. Calling people bad because they don't have runes or spend countless hours grinding to get runes isn't a right way to think.

It has everything to do with runes

You don't need to grind countless hours to get a decent, generalistic rune page

You should NOT be playing ranked if you haven't even played enough to get ONE complete rune page

I completely agree that having a full rune page should be a prerequisite to playing ranked, I'd say having both your runes page filled would be even better as a requirement

iamthegoatofwar2 votes

then you get sneaky bastards like me that will fill both with the same ruins at that point. not saying your idea is bad or anything but it's really simple to get past.

SwordGrunt1 votes

{quoted}

then you get sneaky bastards like me that will fill both with the same ruins at that point. not saying your idea is bad or anything but it's really simple to get past.

Far better than having no rune page filled, still

Duchess of Deer1 votes

never think you win lane vs nasus he will just one shot you

NEVER LOWER YOUR GUARD

AbstracT Theory1 votes

players are always gonna q up as soon as they get to 30... when they are at 30 it requires 16 champs at least to play ranked, so they cant afford a rune page and all 16 champions. This is an ip problem, as for the masteries yolo idek

SwiftKitten882 votes

[{quoted}](name=ExRa Godzic,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=1MMjuZOf,comment-id=0008,timestamp=2015-04-06T22:12:43.875+0000)

players are always gonna q up as soon as they get to 30... when they are at 30 it requires 16 champs at least to play ranked, so they cant afford a rune page and all 16 champions. This is an ip problem, as for the masteries yolo idek

i agree that having runes cost so much is an issue but also requiring 16 champs like you said is pretty stupid. i really only play 4 champs in ranked atm. i found it really dumb that i needed to have 16 champs when i hit 30. and even they champs i play i play at varing skill lvls.

i play nidalee at around a silver1-gold 5 level reksai around silver 3-2 and lux around silver 4-5 blitz around silver 4-5 (which i just picked up and haved play ranked yet but have had immense sucess in unranked with)

i can play about 10 of other champs too but none of them at a level is would play ranked at unless i was forced to as im not going to play ranked with a champ im only bronze at.

i have played exactly 250 games in ranked this season 137 of them as nidalee (mostly as mid but some jungle and a few top and support) 83 as reksai (all as junle) 25 as lux mostly (support but around 2 of them mid) 4 ziggs (mid) 1 sona (support)

thats 5 games out of 250 that i needed to play a champ i wasnt atleast silver as

i really don't think requiring 16 champs for ranked play is necessary

Occams Raiser1 votes

You silver 5 now. What were you last season? You don't think there should any entry restrictions past lvl 30?

MeesterMoo1 votes

And you haven't had to play ONE adc game?

SwiftKitten882 votes

{quoted}

And you haven't had to play ONE adc game?

lol no... why would i do that... im like bronze 5 at adc. maybe bronze 4 at jinx.. any time i get adc, i dodge. I will gladly take a 3 LP loss rather than take a guaranteed 15 Lp loss and drag 4 other teammates down with me.

TheSecretLevel1 votes

You should concentrate more on what YOU are doing and not others, YOU have complete control on how YOU impact the game, and if you are TRULY better than everyone around you, you will carry games easily and climb easily. work on your mechanics, think about your mistakes, look at the enemies builds, what they do early game so you can exploit it later on in the game. think about the current state of the game when buying items, don't just buy the same build every game. make sure your warding enough, upgrade your trinket at level 9, get sweeper upgrade if they have invisible champs ect. roam when winning, spread your advantage, if jungling learn camp paths, have a pink ready so you can safely take dragon, DON'T blame your teamates, worry about your self first.

Cosnirak1 votes

{quoted}

You should concentrate more on what YOU are doing and not others, YOU have complete control on how YOU impact the game, and if you are TRULY better than everyone around you, you will carry games easily and climb easily. work on your mechanics, think about your mistakes, look at the enemies builds, what they do early game so you can exploit it later on in the game. think about the current state of the game when buying items, don't just buy the same build every game. make sure your warding enough, upgrade your trinket at level 9, get sweeper upgrade if they have invisible champs ect. roam when winning, spread your advantage, if jungling learn camp paths, have a pink ready so you can safely take dragon, DON'T blame your teamates, worry about your self first.

All great advice, truly. But I already do all that. I know I didn't say so in my post but hey it was already really long. :P I appreciate the constructive attitude though. And we all could use a reminder at times to focus on what WE can do better. I don't play any game perfectly, and sometimes I even play bad. I just wish my rank was more directly related to that. Some of my worst played games I won cause of team mates or opponent disconnects and I try to keep that in mind.

{quoted}

I've been playing for a while, and have 2009 runes [ aka - Lesser Mark of Alpine Attack speed, Glyph of Soaring Slalom ] To me, too expensive to spend on, and not worth it. Knowing rito, they might not want to code something that requires you to have a full rune page, because, what's stopping someone from buying the cheapest runes to fill up everything that don't even match the sets. More requirements, more coding, rito says nty. But due to your story, this seems it had nothing really to do with runes, more, either he had a bad time as jungle, wasn't a good jungler/ doesn't play jungle a lot/ forced to play due to someone picking his lane, or he was just trolling. And the other part is due to your teammates not matching up to your expectations of being "good" and they did bad, which they did. Calling people bad because they don't have runes or spend countless hours grinding to get runes isn't a right way to think.

I know what you're saying but it's not wrong to ask for minimum standards in my opinion. You can't measure people very accurately on that many things in LoL, but you can require reasonable minimums. Even if people buy cheap and/or bad runes to fill a page to meet the requirement they'll be AWARE of that. They'll know it's not what it should be. And they'll realize that runes are important. It's not a perfect solution, but I feel it's better than how things are now. We can't make the horse drink, but we can at least lead it to the water.

{quoted}

never think you win lane vs nasus he will just one shot you

NEVER LOWER YOUR GUARD

Haha! Too true. I almost died to him 1v1 at one point and had to back earlier than I wanted. Even with a lot less than ideal stacks he hits pretty hard. But that's all the more reason you gotta work to keep him from farming right. CC him to disrupt his Qing on cd does wonders.

[{quoted}](name=I Like Hugs,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=1MMjuZOf,comment-id=0009,timestamp=2015-04-06T22:39:59.116+0000)

I could also use a hug...

hugs

{quoted}

i got to plat with only three pages, and had only three pages for a long time, you can do it man. i only recently got more on the last rune/ rune page sale i got everything i needed cus i saved up 25k ip for the sale.

And that's the kind of thing I totally get. Suboptimal due to cost is very understandable. I get why the person I played with doesn't have enough runes (and I'm not trying to say "shame on you" to them). That's exactly why a minimum requirement would be nice. Just like Ranked requires summoner lvl 30 and 16 champions for good reasons I think it should require some kind of minimum in regards to runes to facilitate quality ranked games.

Relatedly I see some people saying that runes and rune pages cost too much. And I agree. I get why they are the way they are though too. I think some kind of compromise might be best.

What if Riot gave you like 8k free IP upon hitting lvl 30 (or maybe 20 cause tier 3s open then) that you can only spend on runes? It'd mitigate the 'just hit 30 and want to play ranked' lack of IP for runes issue without hurting the buying of champions with RP much if at all.

Also... RIOT MAKE IT MORE CLEAR ENCHANTED ARMOR DOESN'T WORK WITH BASE STATS! Seriously, I see it on people who get <2 total armor/mr from it even at the end of the game ALL THE TIME.

Worst Mid Ever1 votes

its worse for the new ranked player, i went into ranked soon as i hit 30 after playing with ip boosts and 2-3 games with each free week champ, not maining anything or having any runes, went 0/9 and got placed at 700 elo, people should be required to have a certain number of normals or champion mastery to play ranked, or your first placements should be only with other people in their first placements

The Soulforged1 votes

I'm currently in plat and I have only 2 rune pages. One for ad and one for ap. It has actually worked so far, but... RITO REDUCE RUNE COSTS!!!

Occams Raiser1 votes

You have to be such a bad ass you can carry your team. You can't expect to be paired up with like minded individuals on a regular enough basis that you climb out of bronze organically. You will rise from the depths like Nautilus not floating out likeKayle . The anchor is your team. I too learned the ugly lesson of ranked play being no more respected than normals. If you want like minded players you have to make a team. I have hear excuses why people don't do this but none of them are legitimate.

Cosnirak1 votes

{quoted}

There is a difference between "losing to Nasus" and "not winning vs Nasus" Losing to Nasus means you fed him or are behind in farm, not winning means you didn't shut down his farm and went even (which is average). Winning vs Nasus means he got kills and a CS lead (though I don't know if that was the actual situation or not).

He got no kills and I beat him in CS and we killed him once. Also he had less than average stacks. Not a big win but a win.

{quoted}

Did you really have to include this? Anyone who loses lane to Nasus should automatically be demoted to bronze 5.

Sounds like b8 m8. But if not.... Nasus is not easy for a lot of champs to lane against (and not everyone owns the champs that do). Especially while the enemy team also has a Zac in the jg waiting to pounce (he tried but I lived) and your own jg is.... lets just say not so great. To be fair to our jg they did get a kill by ganking Nasus with me once and did have to deal with our bot lane massively feeding.

Obviously I didn't have to include it but context is nice and people would've likely asked about it eventually.

{quoted}

i really don't think requiring 16 champs for ranked play is necessary

The 16 champs is because if every pick and ban is a champ you own you'll have at least that one champ left over to play if you have to. Imagine owning only 3 champs, 2 get banned, 1 is picked by the enemy team before you get to pick. What happens?

The Kîng1 votes

the only problem I see with that is the game would have to have a set amount of rune pages or something to classify as a rune page. Such as only 8 armor yellows and 1 crit damage yellow wouldn't equal a complete page to most people. Its incomplete. therefore the system is flawed. Plus being forced to have runes in ranked is just saying after you reach 30 and complete ALL OF THESE REQUIREMENTS you can finally play ranked. It just kinda ruins the magic of everything.

Cosnirak1 votes

{quoted}

You can cry on my shoulder bb.

Thanks! <3

{quoted}

I am currently in bronze too after being in silver and I am stuck too. My games are win lose win lose win lose win lose and I am learning now to get better, look at enemy builds, ward, etc. without being toxic to the fed botlane. Also, PLAY WHATEVER YOU'RE GOOD AT. If you have first pick, pick whatever you can carry as. You have to make sure that you do well. Not your teammates. I am talented at Yasuo so that is my instalock and I play for kills, to get fed, and then steamroll the game. Just do the best you can because there is nothing you can do to fix your teammates being stupid.

Yeah I'm trying to stick to that but sometimes the matchup is awful. Plus I like variety. :p Doing real well with Annie mid lately and I enjoy it. She counters a lot of the mid assassin's everyone still picks and is very powerful in team fights.

[{quoted}](name=Hyrum Graff,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=1MMjuZOf,comment-id=00040001,timestamp=2015-04-07T16:36:57.259+0000)

I semi-recently gifted a third rune page to someone who got D1 with two rune pages. I figured that, beyond his AP and AD pages, he needed one to troll with.

That's very nice of you! hugs

{quoted}

And you haven't had to play ONE adc game?

If you mean me... I think Graves is my 2nd most played champion this season. And only once was as top. :p I'm not a great adc but I'm coming along and I really like Graves.

{quoted}

the only problem I see with that is the game would have to have a set amount of rune pages or something to classify as a rune page. Such as only 8 armor yellows and 1 crit damage yellow wouldn't equal a complete page to most people. Its incomplete. therefore the system is flawed. Plus being forced to have runes in ranked is just saying after you reach 30 and complete ALL OF THESE REQUIREMENTS you can finally play ranked. It just kinda ruins the magic of everything.

I think I'd be happy with requiring just one FULL rune page. Even if it's awful. You can't require that people have GOOD rune pages without deciding what's good for them.

More than anything it would draw attention to runes and help get across the idea that runes matter and it's wrong to play with a rune page that isn't full.

As is getting to lvl 30 and requiring 16 champions is pretty big. Requiring a full rune page isn't likely to change much for most players (especially because most already do). In particular if the suggestion of giving players some IP they can only spend on runes at lvl 20 or 30 happened it wouldn't be a problem. For some... the more requirements the more magical when you finally meet them all. :p

Spacesuit Spiff1 votes

It would be nice if there was a way to ensure this, just like it would be nice if there was a way to ensure that the people you get matched with aren't actual honest-to-god dead gophers lying on a keyboard. But at the end of the day, the elo system will play out and people who aren't competitive will drop.

Cosnirak1 votes

{quoted}

It would be nice if there was a way to ensure this, just like it would be nice if there was a way to ensure that the people you get matched with aren't actual honest-to-god dead gophers lying on a keyboard. But at the end of the day, the elo system will play out and people who aren't competitive will drop.

I don't trust the ELO system much. It's 5v5. Too often you can be the best player in the whole game by a mile and still lose. Plus for so many players at the lower ranks champ select has NOTHING to do with champ vs champ matchups and so people end up in really awful or amazing lane matchups by what amounts to sheer luck.

{quoted}

i like the idea of proving that you are worthy to play ranked but i dont think that a full rune page is the best way to go

It's not about proving you are worthy. I explained the WHY in previous posts of mine in this thread. Also please try to use punctuation in the future, it makes things much easier to read.

{quoted}

These are people that just hit 30 from coop vs AI and jumped straight into ranked. I'm of the opinion that a player should required to have at least 100 games in normals before they can play ranked.

I think 100 would be way too harsh a requirement. It's not about making sure someone isn't awful. It's about making sure they understand that having a bunch of unused rune slots is a big disadvantage. Ensuring they have a full rune page makes THEIR experience better as well as their teammates.

FreeLanternRides1 votes

i like the idea of proving that you are worthy to play ranked but i dont think that a full rune page is the best way to go because anyone can lose and play bad and eventually save up enough to fill a rune page i think that people do bad because they dont have enough skill on their champions i think you shouldnt be able to play a champ in ranked until you have at least 15-20 games of experience on in normals and that you must have at least 10-15 games of experience in every role and lane so that going any where with a champ isnt some foreign affair that you have no clue how to do and if you dont have at least 15 or so champs with this experience than you cant play ranked it should be that way runes dont always decide a game but experience with champions do

TotalJerk1 votes

These are people that just hit 30 from coop vs AI and jumped straight into ranked. I'm of the opinion that a player should required to have at least 100 games in normals before they can play ranked.

More from Gameplay

More by Cosnirak