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Elo Hell at its finest

BlizzardThaKilla··2 votes·1,381 views

The perpetual mind fuck that is Bronze/Silver makes me wonder why I even bother ever playing ranked games. All I want to do is get to Gold 5, so I can get the skin. I don't want to be any higher than that. While I will admit that I'm not the best, nor can I fake the "I'm a Diamond/Master tier smurf", I'm not exactly a bad player. The problem is that I can't seem to, as I'm sure people will point out, hard carry any of my games, as I'm usually last pick due to all the losses. It's frustrating because I know there are a lot of people like myself that are actually good players but resigned to this hell. Unfortunately, there is no easy fix to this, and I'm not sure if I will ever get to my goals. It sucks when you play a game for so long only to realize that you will never truly be able to show off your potential.

It's difficult to improve on something when your ability to win isn't in your hands. There is no room for self improvement when the improvement relies on 4 other random people every game.

Ok, rant over, time to continue the true definition of insanity. Expecting results from a broken system the can never truly be fixed.

34 Comments

LynXerf3 votes

"relies on 4 other random people every game."

Look at it this way - the enemy team has 5 other random people every game. So if you're a good player the advantage is in your team.

I'm not here for the whole ELO hell debate, it's been done to hell and back ;) All I'm saying is, statistics are on your side actually.

Just like the AFK & troll argument. Unless you are AFK or a troll, or the cause of toxicity in your team, the opposing team actually have 25% more chance of an AFK or troll.

Look at these things in a more positive light. After all, positivity is a great starting point to improving your play.

BlizzardThaKilla2 votes

While statistics are on my side, the intangible force of luck is not lol

The elo hell debate will always rage on until there is a system that doesn't have that debate anymore, which will never happen

Positivity is a great tool to have, and I have a lot of it. I am simply going through a rougher than usual patch of these kinds of factors

LynXerf4 votes

That's the thing about luck (and it is luck based), over a long enough period it tends to even itself out.

The thing to remember is, as humans, we tend to note and remember our bad luck far more poignantly than our moments of good fortune. For example, if an AFK is on my team my attitude is "oh great, this crap again". If the enemy team has an AFK my attitude is "oh well here's 20 minutes of absolutely pointless gameplay". We all like to think we're unlucky, despite us sat here killing time on forums with all sorts of luxuries in life. :)

BlizzardThaKilla3 votes

I completely agree with you. I understand that my luck is more fondly remembered in a negative light, and I do my best to try and not live in that world. The fact is that it is just a game, and I treat it as such. But even games can cause heartache and frustration, however silly that sounds

Archon X2 votes

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/1999300503/34543266?tab=overview

looks like you had a good game, nice score

but I look at the warding stats and the enemy team outwarded yours, 91-48.

I would put large blame on your "support" Nidalee who inexplicably started doran's ring and did not purchase a sightstone.

But still, in a 46 minute game, only one person on your team upgraded their trinket. Vision wins games. Might want to suggest to your team that they upgrade their trinkets and actually ward, and make sure you are regularly upgrading yours as well.

disregardable1 votes

Can confirm as someone that wards like a Challenger player in Bronze/Silver.

Vision does not win games. Map awareness wins games, and you can litter the entire map with wards for our side only and I would still be here. I have the map awareness of a fucking rock.

Archon X3 votes

http://www.leagueofgraphs.com/rankings/warding/silver

65% winrate at +20 ward differential in silver+ games

disregardable1 votes

Meanwhile winrate vs number of wards placed is stuck at 50-52%. Wouldn't that say that the difference in number of wards between teams just means you're against a worse team overall?

Archon X3 votes

I think the number of wards placed is like that because it is more likely with a high ward count that you are in a rather long, competitive game in which the enemy team is also heavily warding.

Smitemuffin2 votes

As in another of my comments here (someplace), I think that ward differential is largely retroactive. The team who's behind has much less map to ward. So the difference is likely there because the winning team is already in the lead.

Archon X1 votes

true, correlation does not imply causation

just in my personal experience, the team with better warding more frequently is able to take/contest objectives, catch people out, and rotate better due to better map awareness.

LynXerf2 votes

In all fairness, as you have discovered, you are probably wasting gold then. In high ELO people ward more because people pay more attention. It's good that you ward a lot, but perhaps you can save some gold for items because in Silver/Bronze your efforts are probably going too unnoticed.

But, I think in any ELO - you need to upgrade your trinkets by the 25 min mark at the latest.

disregardable1 votes

Saying that, it's a bit of a trap, actually. High elo adcs all go for the blue trinket and buy a couple of wards. I always get the yellow trinket, so it's pretty obvious that I'd ward more.

BlizzardThaKilla1 votes

I do try and accomplish this goal as best as I can. Helping my team, even in a losing effort, makes me fell good that I can be a good player, especially since it doesn't exactly show up sometimes

BlizzardThaKilla1 votes

Giving my team vision only goes so far. If no one pays attention, then we still lose regardless. If I place 30 wards in a game, then I'm doing ok (not to say that I do, its something I need to improve on, I admit). But if I'm the only person putting significant wards down, something that isn't unreasonable in my rank, then I'm not winning. So even if I can play at a Gold or, dare I say, Plat player, it's a shame that the rest of my teammates either don't want to, or can't.

Then there's the trolls, like my Nid sup, who spent the entire game blaming everyone for not playing well. Riot can't do anything about this, because the system doesn't punish players like this in any significant way to actually curb player behavior towards positive improvement.

Smitemuffin1 votes

To be fair however, it's nearly impossible to ward much once you fall behind in Silver. When a guy starts to slip at that rank, they tend to keep trying for an outplay 1v1 and wind up feeding a ton. That kind of thing can really kick a team off the map at an elo where people near-universally lack the strategic chops to make a calculated sacrifice in order to get back in the game

BlizzardThaKilla1 votes

And that is the main crux of the issue. If you are behind in a low elo, you cannot ward without either dying, or forced to burn sums just to live, which puts you at a disadvantage going into the next teamfight/objective.

theshockwave852 votes

i know how you feel... they need to find away to judge our abilities from our smart play making and strategy or the lack of... and not base our MMR from our win lose ratios. I did my 10 placement matches and got put into silver 1 last week... my mmr is 1487 and im at 76 LP so if i win my next ranked match i will do my five promotion matches and if i end up not winning 3 of 5 because of bad teammates i will be discouraged in playing LOL because i will be punished for others poor teamwork or bad play calling

BlizzardThaKilla1 votes

The problem with that is that then everyone that thinks they are better than they are will scream and cry about not being higher, and those that get into the higher elos will ruin it for them, and that's not fair either. There is never going to be a perfect system, but any improvements to the current system is needed

theshockwave851 votes

my concern is im moving up to fast and im only getting lucky so far with my teammates workin as a team... ive only been playing for 2 months and still have alot of champs to play in custom with to learn their strengths and weakness among learning countless other things this game has to offer... i dont want to get ranked up too fast and then get stuck in elo hell... and never get out

AyRe CoNteMpT2 votes

thanks for sharing your story, michelle

BlizzardThaKilla1 votes

Who be Michelle?

AyRe CoNteMpT1 votes

you are michelle. i figured that must be your name after you cried like a little girl.

BlizzardThaKilla2 votes

There always has to be at least one, that's how the internet works

illogik1 votes

read this http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/n3f5kn7V-as-a-diamond-silver-elo-is-surprisingly-hard

Also the claiming Diamond smurf thing. I don't know if everyone else just lies to get their role, but when I say it, it's true.

And I have thought about your match making scenario. It would prove still quite difficult for an above average Silver player to climb his ranks because of the random factor of 4 other players.

If I wasn't a Diamond smurf every time I played in gold or silver, I would probably be ranting like this as well lol.

So what other solution is there to Silver besides playing at a Diamond smurf level? The only other one I can think of is abusing broken items / champions / cheese the enemy.

Invading with shaco smite ignite, stealing their buff and killing them.. Have a duo mid or top help invade lmao

( as in duo with a top or mid player and invade throughout the WHOLE game ) You will probably out level their jungler and out pressure due to the extra time they have to spend to catch up. Out leveling = Your smite will do more damage = Securing objectives just got that much easier.

Playing Teemo against a very very favorable lane match up and create immense pressure top lane and objectives with mushrooms.

( Learn his match ups and you can pick him when the other team picks their top ) So if they pick Garen, Darius, or Gnar you're gonna shit all over them.

Following up this tactic, you can purposely leave Garen or Darius open.

Master Yi, Xin Zhao devourer jungle. Even Jax will work for this one.

Wukong should be pretty fucked against Silver players.

Pantheon as well.

They're all fairly easy things to do, in fact non of these champions I have listed has a skill shot, unless you count Teemo R.

BlizzardThaKilla1 votes

Funny enough, I read that just before posting this lol

Your suggestions, while making perfect sense, do not factor in the types of players that are in my elo and MMR. The people that troll, that feed when things don't go well, that play only one role and don't do well when they don't get to play their one specific role. I know that most people in Gold and above can play at least 2 different positions well, if not at least good. I pride myself on being able to play all the roles fairly well (excluding jungle, but at least I'm trying to improve there). It simply sucks to watch your match screen be full of red losses when you yourself have positive scores consistantly

Skadeglädje1 votes

{quoted}

I'm not exactly a bad player. The problem is that I can't seem to, as I'm sure people will point out, hard carry any of my games, as I'm usually last pick due to all the losses. It's frustrating because I know there are a lot of people like myself that are actually good players but resigned to this hell. Unfortunately, there is no easy fix to this, and I'm not sure if I will ever get to my goals.

Come S6 you will be able to find that one positive, skilled, motivated player on your team every game, queue with them next game, rinse and repeat until there are five of you - motivated and skilled - grinding the ladder together. Should take no more than 4-8 games to find a full group of 5. Personally I'm very psyched about this.

BlizzardThaKilla1 votes

I hope to god you are right, all I want is to be out of silver, even if its only G5 lol

ImNLuvWitATeemo1 votes

If you're in silver or bronze it's because you belong there. You're never going to get better if you blame it on everyone else and don't try to improve.

BlizzardThaKilla2 votes

To some degree, you are absolutely correct. I could and should play better if I want to get out. The problem is, no matter how skilled I am (and, like I said, I'm ok, not amazing) I have 4 other teammates. All it takes is one of them to not play well, or flame, or feed, or troll, or do 1000 other things that ruins the games for everyone, not just myself. And it happens on a more consistent basis in lower elos, so the odds for an ok player to be able to play at a level that is respective of their ability shrinks significantly

BluePolarizer2 votes

I've carried multiple 4v5s in low plat. What now?

ImNLuvWitATeemo1 votes

And? I used to blame my rank in Counter Strike on the same thing and then I realized that it was because I was bad and focused on getting better and went from (rank relative to league) bronze 3 to plat 3 in like 1 month. Keep blaming your teams and you'll never get out of it, the other team has just as many trolls and flamers as yours does.

Smitemuffin1 votes

I can empathize with this a little. I'm not saying I deserve a higher elo - in fact, I'm quite happy in Gold. I'm "above average" and I get a skin (boo Sivir). But I'm betting that elo hell exists and this is why:

In my last 10 solo queue games, 6 had an intentional feed or a rage quit. While most of it was on my team, I think it happening on either side just ruins the game. This happens so much more in ranked than normals that I basically don't bother playing ranked. I'm sure loads of people do the same, so now all the toxic/trolling/afk jerkwads are still around. Voíla! Elo Hell

BlizzardThaKilla1 votes

It's just difficult to see the light when your batteries don't work at optimum efficency

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