The Problems with Bronze Elo

TLDR: In it's current state, the 5 bronze ranks simply are not working.

Let me start off by saying, not all bronze players are created equal. You see all of those videos on reddit about "Bronze Plays/Bronze Fails" etc. However, from experience, this is absolutely not what all bronze players play like. Some do, but in fact it is a small minority. The term "Bronze" has just become a serious insult, and as such this has made players desperate to get out of this elo. This desperation to get out of Bronze is likely what also causes people to get so salty and flame so much when games do not go their way. These players know that every time they lose a game, they are one step further away from finally making it out of the hell-hole that is bronze.

But this certainly isn't the only problem here. I feel like the difference between a bad bronze 5 player and a good bronze 1 player is simply too great. There are simply too many people stuck in this low elo, and the way they are mixed around in games just turns the whole experience into a complete game of luck. In games, this means that team skill levels can feel very out of sync, and the game can just feel very unfair in general, leading to flaming, feeding, and even rage-quitting. I have had many experiences where me and maybe one other in the team have scores of around 4/1 or so, while the rest of the team are all 0/5 or 1/6 etc. I'm not saying those players are trolls/feeders, but in too many cases they have simply been matched against a player with a much higher skill level than them, and there isn't really much they can do about it.

Not to mention the awfully large numbers of smurfs, trolls, and afk's that you find within these matches. To be fair, the largest problem here is probably smurf accounts. Dynamic queue makes it so much easier for these smurfs to group together and dominate a game, and even boost their friends up into elo's in which they don't belong. (This is especially a huge problem as we are nearing the conclusion of season 6). It's however great to see that soloq is coming back next season which will make it harder for these large groups of smurfs to run rampant :).

So with all this considered, what do I suppose we do about this. Well, I think there are simply too wide a range of skill levels all kept within the title of "Bronze". I personally think that 5 ranks is not enough to accommodate all of these people. I think a way that riot could potentially help to deal with this is to split up the % of bronze players into two groups. (Potentially making another skill tier between bronze and silver?) Another fix could possibly be to move a higher % of players further up the skill tree and raise the median rank?.

I just know that changes should be and need to be made. I hope riot sees this and considers this when making ranking system decisions :)

Thanks, Kukukoke