Placements - What are they good for?

fendall·Jan 23, 2016·2 votes·140 views

So i was Gold V last season and i go 7-3 in my placements only to be put in Silver IV. Is there a reason Riot feels the need to make people grind to get back to where they were?

1 Comments

BetaDude40Jan 23, 20161 votes

There's two major reasons why they exist.

In ranked systems, regardless of whatever game it is, you need an entry-point system to prevent skilled players to be lower than they should be, or vice versa. I'm going to use Rocket League as an example. In Rocket League, there are no placement matches, you just play ranked a couple of times and you're placed in Bronze I (equivalent of Bronze V in this game. Their tier numbers ascend rather than descend). While there is an experience system that is much larger than this game (requiring a very large amount of time just to reach veteran at level 30, and there's even more ranks past that) and the matchmaking tries its hardest to get you matched with people of similar level with you, there are issues. Players can start ranked at any time, whether they've just hit level 20 or when they're somewhere in the high 60s. Yet, despite this, they're being placed in the same ranked tier together once they start. Given, the matchmaking system almost always prevents these two from ever fighting each other, it really messes up the perceived average skill of the Bronze-tier player. You don't know if the Bronze you're fighting is extremely good or, well, like you'd expect a Bronze player to be. In games with less effective Matchmaking, this becomes even more of a problem.
Riot believes that you should have to fight to keep your rank. A quick series of 10 games isn't a complete basis on whether or not you deserve the rank you were at last season, so it naturally defaults you slightly lower and basically says "climb or you don't deserve it". While I don't necessarily agree with relying on a mere 10 games to decide your fate (or Promo series for that matter), their intention is to make it an actual challenge for their players to strive.