I'm still skeptical that Iron is going to work, and honestly I'm hoping to be convinced. Iron, to me, seems to be the concession on the part of Riot that if you're at the bottom tier, you're trapped because of the sheer amount of ignorant, connection problems, or intentional trolls.
What's the difference between last seasons Bronze 5 and next seasons Iron 4 in practical terms?
The goal isn't to have Iron 4 to Iron 1 be any different than Bronze 5 to Bronze 2 is right now. The goal is to make the gap between the bottom of the ladder and the bottom of the next tier up less, so that you feel like you're making better progress.
There's going to be just as many divisions in the new system as in the old, it's just about making the ladder feel better to climb.
It's the same MMR system, just dressed differently. And if you're in there, it's because you just aren't a good player.
It isn't going to fix the biggest issue of ranked, which is Silver. Silver is easily the worst ranked tier is league. There's a MASSIVE skill gap here that nobody seems to talk about, but it exists. You have people who clearly have no idea what they are doing and got dumped in Silver just like everyone else, and you have people who have been playing for years and just don't play ranked enough to climb and stomp people. It's also the official Elo of smurfs. Bronze isn't bad because most of the people there truly belong there.
Eh, even if I end up in Iron, my heart and soul truly belong in Wood.
?? There isn't a difference between Iron 4 and current Bronze 5. That isn't a problem that Riot was trying to address.
Adding tiers was mostly to alleviate problems at the top end of the bracket, not the bottom. The bottom will remain about the same, I think.
I think the distribution is different. Silver will still be silver with one less division. Bronze is essentially bronze with 8 divisions.
What's happening now is that there is a huge gap between bronze divisions.
For me, when I'm bronze 5, I gain 21 LP for a win and lose 19 for a loss meaning I'm slightly better than the average bronze 5.
When I was promoted to bronze 4, I was gaining 13 LP and losing 22 meaning I'm a LOT worse than the average bronze 4 so winning 2 of 3 is a gain of 4 LP and losing 2 in a row is a demotion. That's very frustrating and it means you need to go through promos several time before your elo is high enough to stay in bronze 4.
You will need to go through more promotions to get to silver but it will be easier to see progress as you improve and you will feel less "stuck".
