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Why Riot's Dunning-Kruger explanation is absolute rubbish.

Qiyn·7/10/2016, 3:11:22 PM·2 votes·1,335 views

The Dunning-Kruger effect states that people fail at recognizing their competency level. Or as RationalWiki puts it, "people [sic] are too stupid to know how stupid they are." When Riot applies this to League of Legends, as they often do, they are saying that we all suck at this game, and we couldn't know how much we suck. This explanation is generally used by Riot to rebut any complaints about their matchmaking and elo system.

This really bothers me. And not because Riot is telling me i suck. (That is an illogical statement in its own right, though). I don't play this game aspiring to become pro. I play this game to have fun. And i want to maximize that fun. When i call into question the matchmaking and elo system, i do it because it is not maximizing my fun.

And then, of course, i get the usual Dunning-Kruger explanation in response. So, let us assume their response were indeed true. I suck so bad, that i don't know how bad i suck at this game. Are any of my grievances incorrect now that i have accepted Riot's counter-argument? No. Let me show why.

Typical arguments usually go like this: The matchmaking system does not group me with similarly skilled players, and the elo system does not reflect my true skill. Anecdotally, this seems to be true. We seem to always find the players who amazing ad will successfully 1v5, and the players who you are amazed at just being alive! Also, bronze games can feel a lot like silver games which can feel a lot like gold games.

Now comes the Dunning-Kruger rebuttal. Riot says to the poster, "You suck, and you don't know how much you suck." Poster accepts this statement. Riot to poster, "Therefore, your argument is invalidated." Poster, "Wait, why?"

Can there be different levels of suck? Riot claims this to be true: You can be bronze level of suck, silver level of suck, or gold level of suck (some might argue for plat level of suck and diamond level of suck, but i have not experienced these myself, so i choose to leave them out). Is there evidence to support this claim? No.

Am i matched with similarly skilled players? Riot claims this to be true, as well, but this is based off their unsubstantiated claim of you being in different levels of suck. So, this too is unsubstantiated.

The Dunning-Kruger explanation does nothing to invalidate these two arguments. It is illogical to think otherwise. Stop using the Dunning-Kruger effect as a counter-argument.

29 Comments

disregardable7/10/2016, 3:45:12 PM7 votes

Do you do well (let's say go 8/0 with good cs) in 100% of your games? Do you do horribly (say, 0/8 with very little cs) in 100% of your games?

Everyone has the capacity to do well and do poorly. When a person does poorly, that does not mean they are worse players than you. When they do well, that does not mean they are better players than you. These games are very circumstantial, they're basically coinflips. If you played the exact same match 10 times, it would probably go 5/5 or maybe 4/6.

If the players were ACTUALLY better or worse, they would not be at your rating, because they would not be able to have maintained their place.

A Liberal7/10/2016, 4:53:12 PM5 votes

Someone took intro to critical thinking over the summer

redniwediS7/10/2016, 3:30:03 PM4 votes

Would you mind linking to where you (or whoever) complained about matchmaking and they responded with the dunning-kruger effect?

Crazy Chatter7/10/2016, 6:30:15 PM1 votes

{quoted}

Am i matched with similarly skilled players? Riot claims this to be true, as well, but this is based off their unsubstantiated claim of you being in different levels of suck. So, this too is unsubstantiated.

Here. You basically state that riot's ranking system has no real scale of skill and it's based on if you are bad or not. However, in reality, take like skill rating systems like OW, the good players usually keep on winning until they find someone as good as them while the bad players lose til they reach their level of skill. The thing is the system is only unsubstantiated at first. After a season or so, there is basically levels of skills set for each league, so you really can't complain that you don't belong where you are cause they grade me by how bad they suck because that's all hypothetical.

Buff Jax please7/10/2016, 7:04:33 PM1 votes

Why do people still complain about ranking system and matchmaking in Season 6? Its so easy to climb with all the changes. No more LP clamping (most of these kids dont even remember have 95 LP at Silver I and getting 3 LP for a win the next game ), promo helper, dynamic boost...it is basically impossible to take the game a tiny bit serious and not climb.

FioraWillCarry7/11/2016, 4:24:17 AM1 votes

Focus on not feeding so much, not making threads like this...whatever this thread is.[slayer-jinx-unamused]

Crazy Chatter7/10/2016, 6:16:53 PM1 votes

What's sadder is how you try to explain bad rank with the fact that it's illogical. In all your games, you feed more than you get kills. Doesn't this just show you that you belong where you are? Even the ones you win, you have more deaths than kills. And your cs is not the best at all. So ya, get over it. The first step to getting better is accepting that you are bad, which you clearly don't do. It's all in your history, man. When you lose, you just gotta accept that you suck. You can't blame your team cause they usually do better than you. Just deal with the fact that you are not as good as you think.

Crazy Chatter7/10/2016, 6:24:19 PM1 votes

He basically is a guy who cannot accept the fact that he is bad and he tries to act smart about it and blame riot. Besides, you really can't blame anything else because you need to get better if you want to rise. In almost all your recent games, you were the one weak link on your team that fed the most. It might be hard, but deal with it. Life ain't fair. Some people will never get better. If you truly wish to, practice then. Don't blame riot for your problems. I personally think you're the one explaining yourself with Dunning-Kruger because you fail to recognize you are not as good as you think you are. If you do wish to improve, you might be able to get better, but like this, you'll stay where you are. Basically, don't blame others for your misfortune.