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This is why ELO Hell feels real, because in a way, it is.

Toxic Zyra Main·10/1/2019, 9:42:30 AM·4 votes·1,421 views

don't even know why I'm bothering to write this since it's not going to change Riot's matchmaking approach at all, but whatever I guess.

There are plenty of players that are better than their current division and don't belong at a certain rank, but feel like they are stuck. They aren't challenger smurfs rocking an 80% winrate all the way to Diamond, but they may be a few divisions or even a tier above their counterparts, and can easily attain a 55% winrate on some of their best champs.

The problem is that, Riot's matchmaking system tries to 'balance out' games so that both teams have a 50% chance of winning. In other words, the system actively works against you climbing, by putting worse players on your team if you're tryharding every game, and slightly better players on your team if you are not giving a %%%%. This 'winrate bias' has been proven in other posts extensively, so I don't need to bother proving it here. Also I am multi-seasons Diamond with thousands of games played on several different accounts, so I can also say with certainty that this is true.

At a 55% winrate, you will have to play 20 games (win 11, lose 9) to gain around 40 LP, assuming a moderate LP gain of 20. So, to advance to 100 LP promos, that requires 50 games, and that only if that you're consistent, don't tilt, play your best champion, dodge trolls, don't get smurfs, etc. 50 FULL GAMES of consistent play in order to climb.

I haven't even factored in what happens when one gets trolls, afks, smurfs, tilt mode from encountering the former, OP picks on the enemy team, facing Pyke 3 games in a row, and general mistakes that can further influence your winrate and create loss streaks.

And at a 51-52% winrate, you're essentially hardstuck, gaining 40 LP every 100 games (51 wins, 49 losses) , or 40 LP every 50 games (52 wins, 48 losses), which is 250 games per division at 51% winrate, and 125 games per division at 52% winrate. Don't even bother trying to climb if you have no champions with a winrate above 53%.

Given that the average game length below Diamond is just about 29 minutes per game, that makes (29 * 50) / 60 = 24.16 hours of gameplay, or 1450 minutes of time.

If we assume that the average player plays 3 hours per day, it will take a week and a half to climb ONE division. And that's when this player is playing his or her best, EVERY SINGLE GAME.

But then we have promos, which statistically you have a 40% chance of winning (if not less). You have one game that is almost balanced but the enemy team is slightly better, one game where the enemy is way better than your team, and one game that your team is slightly better than most of the enemy except for 1 or 2 players. (In no particular order).

If you lose promos with double loss, (L - L - /) you're back at ~65 LP.

Which statistically means you might be in for another 20 games (at a 55% winrate) to gain that LP you unfairly lost (unless you get lucky and win 2 in a row)

If you lose promos with double loss, but one win (L - W - L), you're at ~81-88 LP. Same rules apply.

So if you're feeling like you're in ELO hell, you're probably right. Try changing your approach. The system will not allow you to climb quickly unless you are 1v9 hardcarrying every game. Climbing is a marathon, not a sprint, but it is doable.

8 Comments

preternatural10/1/2019, 10:02:29 AM3 votes

elo hell is just when people reach their actual elo lol. at that point you have to start improving to escape elo hell.

Gay Daddy10/1/2019, 12:09:23 PM2 votes

I will keep saying this again, and again, and again. That if you really think you deserve a higher rank that you cant achieve because of your team. You need to change your approach. If you keep complaining about your teammates and never blame yourself, well. we can pretty clearly see the problem here right? If you really are a good player and deserve a higher rank that you are displaying at your profile. Play like it, Look for mistakes in your own playstyle and try to help your teammates. The more positive air there is around your team, the better will your teammates play and provide opportunities to win the game for you. Now if we think you actually are an 60% winrate machine with zyra and cant get out of your rank. Play for yourself, mute everyone and take kills and farm. Just carry the games yourself. Because if you blame your team about the fact that youre stuck. The problem is in you, not them.

Jonesybones10/1/2019, 12:17:02 PM2 votes

Elo hell only exist in your mind. What happens when you improve and can carry to diamond easily? ''haha just kidding guys, elo hell doesn't exist'' come on bruh

Hawthorn Tree10/1/2019, 4:11:58 PM2 votes

55% winrate deserves to climb? On this account, my Talon has a 68% winrate in gold because I played during the shitshow of positional ranking, and I still lose sleep over how low this winrate is...

Shahamut10/1/2019, 12:49:03 PM1 votes

Champion pick matters too...

I have been hard stuck gold for a few seasons. This season, I finally climbed into plat, starting at silver 3 and peaking plat 2 with a 60% winrate on Skarner top lane.

I dont get to play that often as a full time working father of 4, but I like to think I'm pretty consistent in my play for the time I'm able to put in.

For me, I feel confident in saying that if I mained some other champion, I could very well be diamond by now.

Starcraft243ver10/1/2019, 5:19:43 PM1 votes

There are plenty of players that are better than their current division and don't belong at a certain rank, but feel like they are stuck.

If everyone is below its right rank, maybe everyone is at its right rank ?

The problem is that, Riot's matchmaking system tries to 'balance out' games so that both teams have a 50% chance of winning. In other words, the system actively works against you climbing, by putting worse players on your team if you're tryharding every game, and slightly better players on your team if you are not giving a %%%%. This 'winrate bias' has been proven in other posts extensively, so I don't need to bother proving it here. Also I am multi-seasons Diamond with thousands of games played on several different accounts, so I can also say with certainty that this is true.

I'm sorry but i've yet to see a thread in which it has been proven, can you show the proof again ? A small data set of 500 000 games showing a pattern of what you are saying with a low variance would totaly satisfy me.

As a multi season diamond who climbed quite a lots of smurfs I can definitely claim that I've got the same shitty allies weither I'm tryharding to climb as fast as possible or playing full casual fun builds.

The system puts players with the same mmr/elo against players with the same mmr/elo.

Now unless you are playing regularly on the same account and have played enough games, your mmr is not stabilized and correctly assessed by the system, also switching from your main champion to a champion you barely know puts you and your team at great disavantage this is the reason behind the shitty matches.

Given that the average game length below Diamond is just about 29 minutes per game, that makes (29 * 50) / 60 = 24.16 hours of gameplay, or 1450 minutes of time.

I would add 5 to 8 minuts per game for : waiting for a game, selecting the champions, bans, getting a dodge, and to account for the remakes

I haven't even factored in what happens when one gets trolls, afks, smurfs, tilt mode from encountering the former, OP picks on the enemy team, facing Pyke 3 games in a row, and general mistakes that can further influence your winrate and create loss streaks.

Trolls and smurfs evens out in both team at the end, if you play enough games, also if you are set back a bit because you have too many trolls in your games, you will have a mmr below the mmr you deserve, so you are more likely to carry your games and thus climb back to your real mmr.

And at a 51-52% winrate, you're essentially hardstuck, gaining 40 LP every 100 games (51 wins, 49 losses) , or 40 LP every 50 games (52 wins, 48 losses), which is 250 games per division at 51% winrate, and 125 games per division at 52% winrate. Don't even bother trying to climb if you have no champions with a winrate above 53%.

Well that's the point, the closer you get to your deserved rank, the slower it is to climb unless your improve massively or quicker than the players surrounding you in the ladder. Do not forget you are not judged in an absolute way, your rank depends on how the other players are playing.

If you're worth gold 1 and are bronze 1 atm, you will climb very fast to gold 4, then slowly climb to gold 1, because the more "out of your league" you are, the more impactfull you are on your game. The day you feel you have no impact, well it's sad but it means you are perfectly at your place.

The problem is most people have the "hero syndrom", they need to hard carry to feel good, they need to feel they have an impact, they need to feel important. So they play meta early champions, and just surrender in their mind when they have a bad start and spend the next 20 minuts asking for a 15min surrender. When they have a good start they are good at snowballing.

The funny part is this behaviour gives them what they want, they do not climb, but as they surrender some games that could have been won if they had a consistent mental, they are always playing below their true elo, and thus they are more likely to matter and be important in their games since they artificially lower their elo by throwing the games they dont feel like tryharding for.

So if you're feeling like you're in ELO hell, you're probably right. Try changing your approach. The system will not allow you to climb quickly unless you are 1v9 hardcarrying every game. Climbing is a marathon, not a sprint, but it is doable.

I definitely agree with you, if you're feeling like you're in ELO Hell you have to understand you are close to your true elo, and you will either have to improve your way of playing drastically (but dont worry it's not hard to do), or to play a lot to keep climbing.

Gl.