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Personal opinion: season 9 has become the hardest one to carry and win games in

lHide on ward·3/19/2019, 1:57:10 PM·32 votes·17,544 views

This season has really pushed me away from playing the game as much as I normally do. Do you feel the same? I think this is because most of the games are a complete coin flip. The game is now all about who picks the champ with the most 1v9 potential and stomps lane/mid game the hardest. Being a support main and playing and something like Lulu, Taric, or Nami you usually have no impact on the game's outcome, even if you do pick the champion into the right situation and play out of your mind. Same goes for any non- 1v9-get-fed-kill-everyone-in-sight champ in all lanes. Also, as others have mentioned the games being easier to tilt and lose than actually carry, and smurfs, also play a role in this problem.

The bounties rework was supposed to help fix this, but I honestly feel that it wasn't enough and more needs to be done. The games are just flat out not fun to play anymore. Most of you will say "then play something else" but league is really the best game out there right now in most aspects, it's just that matchmaking and ranked gameplay are in a terrible spot at the moment. I have a deep love for this game and I really want to enjoy it again.

I wanna know, do you agree? And if so, what do you think could be done to help change this? I have been playing since late season 3 and I really feel that the game is worse than it's ever been before.

39 Comments

reaper40423/19/2019, 2:59:46 PM8 votes

Everyone says duo, but if you're like me and can't just play broken champs. Lately i switched to jg from support. But when I play support I have to play morgana and pyke. I have no way of knowing if my adc is competent or not so the only way to carry as a support is to 1v2 bot lane.

Cavesloth3/20/2019, 6:03:27 AM4 votes

If the past is any indication, it's only gonna get worse. It sucks, but you're probably gonna have to find a new game. Feel free to use the name "League refugee" in your next game, you might get more sympathy than you'd think. There's a lot of us out there playing other games now.

MordridtheBlack3/19/2019, 2:19:44 PM4 votes

Matchmaking and ranked are horrible in every MOBA, not just League (go look at Smite, they might actually be worse).

That being said, it is still early in the season, plus the whole provisional ranks did screw with things a bit (that system is on the out so woot).

I don't know what could be changed to fix the problem. Ranked has always been kind of weird. I mean after all you can play (and win) 10 games in a row in Bronze and maybe move up one rank. But in Gold you move up like 2-4 or maybe even skip to the next division.

That is mainly due in part there are FAR more players in the lower brackets than anywhere else.

In theory you could fix that by making lower tiered ranks have less of a ladder to climb, but then we would see a possible influx of players getting into ranks they may not be ready for (Yeah that Iron 3 player "totally" belongs in Plat).

Matchmaking is also wonky due to the multiple ways the system finds a match. I think it combines your rank (or lack of one) plus the invisible MMR system. Just because player 1 has a higher mmr than the rest of the team means that "somehow" the entire enemy team is keyed to that mmr (1 Gold and 4 Irons, vs 5 Gold/Plat players).

That is a bit harder to fix. You could get rid of the mmr part of the system, but that might increase queue times (which players will complain about).

Draehl3/19/2019, 7:59:01 PM3 votes

I think it's the 'playing support' bit. Whether it's someone on the enemy team or your's getting fed, it's ultimately not you. We still get the same minimal support gold income.

It's why even after all the nerfs I've gone back to playing Zyra even though I'm much better at and enjoy playing Bard so much more. She gets more kill = more gold = more control of your destiny. Support as a role feels much better when damage is low and the meta is less snowbally :/

Mogarl3/19/2019, 7:47:04 PM3 votes

Definitely in the top 10 of hard to carry seasons.

NY643/19/2019, 2:28:31 PM3 votes

I feel like this is one of the easiest times to carry because it’s obvious which champions can 1v9 and get fed very quickly.

The struggle is that you can do very little against them. It feels like unless someone on your team picks a champion that can also 1v9 you are screwed.

If you play the op champions, it’s easy to carry, if you don’t, it’s very hard to carry just because the op champions easily outclass you.

hotarse3/20/2019, 2:43:44 AM3 votes

The worse the ranked matchmaking is, the more you'll play to get that hit of whatever it was you were getting before. Hit of "carry the game" maybe? Maybe that was how you got your jollies. Probably. The less satisfaction the game gives you, the more you have to play. It's as if the beer you're drinking keeps decreasing in alcohol content, forcing you to purchase and drink more in order to get the same buzz you were getting before. This has all been researched and planned out by the Tencent research team, and apparently it's working with you.

5050BS3/19/2019, 8:02:39 PM3 votes

Its not just that. The positional rank messed up everyone's MMR too. When it was ~500 games to find your rank it now takes 1k-2k games to find your rank.

Match Making is all over the place with teams with average win rate of 40% getting matched vs teams with average win rates of 60%.

Riot needs to rebuild the MMR system they are using completely.

BigFBear3/19/2019, 8:19:27 PM3 votes

It's so obvious. When I check op.gg and see even teams like (3x Plat1, 2xDia4) vs (2x Plat1, 3xD4) all around 55% winrate, this games are the best. Like in earlier seasons. It feels like good old LoL actually. You can even carry them if you play good(!!) But this shit is rare.

But most of the games are like (1x Gold1 85% wr, 1x Plat2 79% wr, 3x Dia4 57% wr) vs (3x Plat1, 2x unranked, all negative winrate). This games are so out of control and coinflip. 0 fun!

For me personally Smurfs and bad matchmaking are the No. 1 problems of LoL atm!

Illabethe3/20/2019, 3:01:41 AM2 votes

Sorry....... but I hard carry as Nami support. Your post is Biased towards how YOU play her.

Learn to cast her entire kit in .5 seconds, and you'll do better as Nami.

Z3Sleeper3/20/2019, 12:46:47 PM2 votes

I personally feel like this is the most balanced season in terms of player contribution. It really feels like everyone plays an equal role now.

Most of my games are being won by one of any of the roles now, as opposed to previous seasons where it was almost always just bot, jungle or mid (or way back when top was a super-hypercarry role).

This is coming from a top lane player, most seasons we are the ones who have the least impact, but this season it feels like we actually make a substantial difference.

Granted I’m also playing at a Masters level.

Edit: oof downvoted, guess I didn’t fit the narrative.

Reohare3/19/2019, 6:06:26 PM2 votes

Sometimes, to me, it feels hard to carry because the game promotes one tricking far too much. Whoever gets "X high skill-ceiling" one trick on the team has more probability to win, leaving champs with low skill-ceiling in the dust. For the longest time i played tanks like nauti and maokai, and now it feels like I have to learn to play again to win, and people who chose Irelia, Riven or Yasuo etc. as first champs can climb much easier than me.

Sebastit7d3/19/2019, 7:14:50 PM2 votes

I absolutely agree with you. Now don't get me wrong, I've never considered myself a "Carry" type of person, but I do feel like the way the game is right now, even when you get a snowball going, your impact in the game as a single person is completely Irrelevant as long as the enemy team doesn't know what they're doing. The amount of games I've lost because my team starts doing dumb stuff instead of pushing the leads we've gotten baffles me. The game comes down entirely on what team throws the hardest in the end. At least that's how it feels like to me.

joywhodidthisjoy3/20/2019, 6:42:50 PM2 votes

whenever I play ranked If I'm mid, our bot lane feeds If I'm support, our mid/jungle/top feeds.

Is it hardstuck or really unlucky?

Ulquiorra01233/19/2019, 2:36:36 PM2 votes

Play Twitch Jungle and find a duo who won't int, done.

Ahri Baka3/19/2019, 3:43:51 PM2 votes

Like every season Incoming thread ib season 10 : same thing above

Fluffeh3/20/2019, 9:35:36 PM1 votes

season 9 is the hardest to individually carry a game in because people are individually carrying games?

Eedat3/19/2019, 6:39:43 PM1 votes

the hardest one to carry

all about who picks the champ with the most 1v9 potential and stomps lane/mid game the hardest.

[sg-lux-2]

mack91123/19/2019, 9:12:47 PM1 votes

I play velkoz support and carry every game :)

KVbqbFsC8e3/20/2019, 2:57:26 AM1 votes

People bitch about this every season, but I don't agree. Season 6 was the most difficult because of Dynamic que. Its silly seeing people complain about "coinflip games" now, when Dynamic que was the very definition of that. Solo players vs premades, yeah that was fair.

astralwit3/20/2019, 3:48:09 AM1 votes

I've felt some of this since the Dark Harvest changes for jungle. It's hard to really scale well into late as most junglers.

Midnight TTG3/20/2019, 1:44:18 PM1 votes

I'm a Nami main and I have saved many of my team members with her, albeit I don't play her in Ranked because I don't trust my ADC. Instead, I play Lux or Neeko in Ranked and it worked well until the Kayle ADC.

Nami is a good support (at least in my opinion) and, while she can't carry, she can help the carry. If your ADC is feeding, abandon them. While I don't personally like doing that, sometimes its necessary so you can help the actual carry get fed. If your ADC flames, point out the fact that they are 0/7 at 10 minutes in (or whatever it is) and that they should get good at the game. It works better if you have kills building a full support set as well.

Xela Syab3/20/2019, 2:17:27 PM1 votes

Supports carry the game with map awareness not with gold or abilities. I have fun playing support, but I feel like I need a counter pick or something that really synergies with my team in order to win. I can't just go Thresh or Janna and expect to peel for my whole team simply due to this damage meta. I have to pick either constant sustain enchanters, situational tanks, or poke mages that don't belong botlane or Morgana because she can counter ganks and carry a game.

Nevrankroaton3/20/2019, 2:35:07 PM1 votes

I don't really agree. There was always elo stomper champions through the old seasons. Camille jungle at very high elo, reworked talon, quinn, old yorick and new yorick in bronze, hecarim for silver/gold back in S3, etc etc. At one point, janna/lulu were freelo as supp and it switched to some other support (hello alistar).

Always had been the same, maybe your champion pool don't fit the meta or you are hitting a wall that you have difficulty to climb. I mean, if other people win consistently, maybe it is more about you needing to improve your gameplay or figure how you win a game and less about the game itself.

Watching high elo streamer really help about this.

JoeMG3/20/2019, 4:58:10 PM1 votes

I feel the same way. Last season I became a mid main because I wanted to be able to carry and finally just get out of bronze and I climbed to silver pretty quickly.

This season, getting out wasn't too bad, but now that I'm in silver I'm on an 8 or 9 match losing streak, despite winning lane and performing well. I could chalk it up to being unlucky with teammates but after 9 games in a row, it would seem the luck factor isn't applying anymore.

I guess maybe the new matchmaking system and position ranks may have something to do with it, but I see it happen to high elo streamers too so who knows.