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Elo hell

JhomasTefferson··2 votes·462 views

I don't want to say it's real, cuz no one will believe me, and use every bad game I ever have against me, but when im consistently the only one going positive on my team, and consistently the one with the fewest deaths, and best cs, and usually very good/the best kill participation, and the only one who took towers/objectives, it's really hard to doubt its existence. Sure I have some bad games here and there, but they are clearly the minority.

I know I should get better, and then I'll climb, but one of the best ways to get better is to play against better players, and when im stuck playing against players of the same skill level over and over again cuz my teammates are holding me back from playing against those better players, theres a cap to how good I can get.

I consistently outperform my team, and in most situations the enemy team, yet I can't climb. Im better than my teammates, but can't climb. If that's not evidence of elo hell, and by elo hell, I mean me being trapped in an elo below my skill level due to bad teammates, what would constitute evidence of elo hell?

I'm calling it now, this is going to be systematically downvoted just because of my stance on the subject, and I'm going to be told to get gud, but clearly getting good won't help, as I am getting/have gotten gud, yet im still not climbing. Also, everyone is going to look at my ranked match history and look back two or more weeks/ 15+ games to find games where I did really shit, and even point at games where I didn't do that well, but still better than everyone on my team, and still went positive in 4v5 games, as an argument against me. But they're missing the point. Even in those few games im doing better than my teammate. And when I'm really ahead, I do better than most people on the enemy team, and again, not just in K/d/a, but many stats, and I still lose. People are going to look at those games just based on my score alone. Those people that just point at those games have no argument, theyre just pointing at something as evidence that I don't deserve to be at a higher elo, without even investigating said evidence. If you're going to tell me I'm wrong, please construct an actual argument.

Please tell me why it doesn't actually exist if situations like this happen.

5 Comments

redniwediS2 votes

The big thing to understand is that the situation you described happens at almost every Elo. To put it simply in order for Elo hell to exist it would have to span from the depths of Bronze 5 to the very top of Diamond 1.

You're not talking about Elo hell here, you're talking about Ranked.

The key detail people get stuck on, however, is the skill of your allies. Everyone has a bad day, or a losing streak, or any other problem that can cause your personal skill to appear lower than it is on average. Considering the fact that there are more allies on your team then there are of you it's far more likely to run into someone else who is having a problem than it is for you to.

What you need to do is stop focusing on how your team is doing. You may be doing better than them, but there's still room for improvement before you can start carrying. There are three groups at each Elo level, those who are climbing, those who are falling, and those who are stagnant.

You are currently stagnant. You've finished climbing based on your natural ability, along with a little luck, and are now where the Ranked system thinks you belong. The stagnant group is the largest group at each Elo level because it houses both people who belong there and people who are slightly better but are not yet good enough to convince the Ranked system they should be climbing.

Work on improving your gold and experience income, practice roaming, and minimize your time spent dead. If you really are better than most of the allies you are matched with then you're not far off from being able to climb again, you just have to put a bit more effort into practicing and improving before the system catches on and stops being as punishing when you lose a match. All you need to do is start putting your better score to proper use in carrying your team. Carrying is a skill after all, and not everyone who regularly gets good scores knows how to do it.

That said you may also have to accept the fact that you're not actually better than the average people of your Elo level. When you see yourself make some sort of mistake you don't immediately view yourself as worse than your team do you? So why do you do this to your allies? It's possible that they really are just as good as you are, and you are where you truly belong. Everyone plateau out eventually, and it's nothing to be ashamed of. All it means is you need to put in a bit more effort toward improving yourself before you can start climbing again.

In the end it's all up to you to focus only on what you can do to improve, and to that I say good luck.

JhomasTefferson2 votes

I am at 0 lp b5 I couldn't have finished climbing, because I didn't climb at all.

And its not all based on one mistake. Im taking many stats from many games. Sure, I make mistakes, but when im making far fewer than my team, or even the enemy team, I think it's fair to assess that I am better. I'm not immediately thinking they are worse based on one mistake. Its when the same mistakes are made over and over again, and many different kinds of mistakes that I rarely or never make, that I begin to judge the person who made them as worse than me.

When you said "accept that you aren't better than the average people in your elo", you were being stupid. I am better. Stats and decisions I make in the game can prove that.

And youre missing the key point. Even if I do everything right, if someone on my team does everything wrong, or the whole rest of my team does everything wrong, they can not be carried. I can make anyone lose a game if im on their team. some people simply can't be carried. And although its statistically unlikely, it is possible that im unlucky enough to always have that one person who can't be carried on my team.

redniwediS2 votes

I'm not sure if you noticed but I was just trying to cover all bases. Different people come on here to talk about Elo hell for different reasons, and rather than look you up and make assumptions based on your rank and history I would rather make broad statements that cover a variety of situations.

Different people have different levels of skill and knowledge, and so in some situations they can do quite well and in others they make repeated mistakes. Some realize these are mistakes and some do not. A good example would be the youtuber Gbay99, who constantly overextends in lane and dies to ganks on almost every single one of his videos. He is in diamond. Repeatedly making mistakes does not really say much about your level of skill. What does show your skill is what you do between your mistakes. Judging based on a single game is a mistake on your part.

Even if I do everything right, if someone on my team does everything wrong, or the whole rest of my team does everything wrong, they can not be carried.

And you missed the main point I was making. They can be carried, so long as you are good enough. You may be better than them but you're not good enough to carry. That is what's holding you back. You don't play many champions who can hard carry, and the ones you do carry primarily through their utility. I would suggest shifting your champion pool toward champions who are self reliant. Focus on champions you have a positive win rate with. Your score at the end of the game means nothing when you lose.

And above all stop making the single biggest mistake people at your rank make; stop focusing on your team. I cannot stress this enough, and almost every bronze person I try to give advice to ignores it.

You can't control your team, so don't spend any amount of time worrying about it. It doesn't matter if they are good or bad. High ranked players can carry themselves out of bronze with relative ease, even with all the horrible team members they get. Why? They focus on what they are doing and what they need to do in order to win the game.

So stop thinking they can't be carried and start figuring out the steps required to carry them. Until you correct this problematic way of thinking you simply won't get out of bronze, let alone the very bottom of it.

JRobin312 votes

ELO Hell is something that comes from the prevalence of random factors that cause you to win games as well as lose games. If you are saying that you lose games because of your unskilled teammates but don't say that you win games because of your unskilled opponents, then you aren't looking at your games objectively. Also, ELO Hell can't stop you from climbing in the long run, but it can slow your climb down significantly. If you say you aren't climbing even though you are more skilled than your teammates and this is true, then you should be able to see a climb after about 500 games even if you aren't a challenger smurf.

TL;DR Yes, ELO Hell exists, but you have to objectively examine both your wins and your losses. You can't just say that you lose games because of unskilled teammates. That's not a clear-headed approach.

Powderkegg1 votes

It doesn't exist because smurfs exist. If elo hell existed high level players wouldn't be able to make it out of low elo, but they can.

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