Why Ranked is Luck based, not skill based

I love League of Legends. It is a very fun and rewarding game, but falls short when you finally make it to ranked play. I played only a little ranked last year as that was the first time I made it level 30 and got placed in Silver 5. This year I got placed in Bronze 4 and can't go up. Regardless of how well I do, the progression never happens. I'm NOT blaming bad teams, though I do feel that some people are ill-equipped for ranked for some odd reason.

Getting promoted requires tons of wins in a row, including promos. Forget the "lose less LP than you gain" it practically never helps, as loss streaks destroy it. The reality is your skill does not determine if you win. If the opposing team got lucky to get first pick and take the broken champs of the week then it's over. They scale too hard, especially the tanks. Other times one person just has a bad lane, everyone does, but then that monster turns into a 1v5 machine of horror. If you are going alone into ranked, then you better hope that your team is the best of your division, or you lost already going in. It really depends on whether you get a team that can perform well together or maybe just your bot lane happened upon two people in the wrong lane. So in reality it depends on luck, because you can try to carry all you want, it won't always work. Or, in my case, you just aren't THAT good. I believe a lot of people fit that bill. They are good players, maybe not professional, but decent and can hold their own and pull out some amazing plays. Though these players are kept down by the ones that just can't. They either don't practice enough to be better, or are so mean, cynical, and aren't in the right mind set to play with others in any online game.

It all depends upon whether you luck out and happen to have a better fit team than the opponents, but even when you do, you better hope they don't have someone to carry them into victory regardless of your performance (I'm looking at you juggernauts). Look at other sports, like football, soccer, any team sport really, and you'll see that they practice together and know each other, their skills, and their downfalls. In League, we won't know most of our teammates, changing the game from "I know my team can do well" to "I HOPE TO DEAR GOD my team can do well" and that's not the game we came to play.

"So just play with friends or people you know" I'm sure everyone would love to play League with their friends all the time, but some people have lives outside League and can't play all the time. Having friends would be sweet as well . Another reality is that the system treats teams, duos, and the like much differently and has an odd tendency to place teams that haven't been playing together long against very skilled players that have been in ranked ques as a team since day one. Again the capability of the system to royally screw you over is there.

League of Legends is also a very big game with many many players, of all different kinds and skill levels. I don't mind losing a game, after all, you don't learn anything from winning, though I do mind losing a game when I did extraordinarily well for my skill level, but someone else just had a bad game and no ifs ands or buts about it, you lose. You can play as hard as you want and pull off plays the pros would be jealous of, but if the system found you the worst team possible for you, then good luck salvaging that 10/0 carry wherever and whoever it may be.