Promo system is disgusting

botlane romance·Jan 23, 2015·166 votes·22,383 views

I can't believe this, I finished s4 silver 2 with a fairly average mmr 55/50% w/l, during s4/s5 off season, I tested a lot of things in ranked, learned a few new champions tried different strategies and builds and inevitably dropped to s4 ( between season 4 and season 5 start )

so I just finished my promos, I whent 10/10 wins 10 straight, my last 2 games I was playing with gold borders, and I got placed in bronze 1... with 10 wins... bronze 1...

so ridic flawed, I deserved to be placed higher than bronze, I was honestly just saying to a friend during 10th placement game I'm 100% atleast going to make it to gold 5, I can't ONLY jump from s2 to s1 with 10 games won.

has anyone else experienced a huge let down like this.

Perhaps league has to look at not calculating " off " season games into placement and calculated ranked mmr.

signed, mr. sad

214 Comments

Hilltop SunsetJan 23, 201562 votes

Pretty hard to deny this one: it is beyond disheartening to go look at your LoLking stats, see LITERALLY ALL GREEN, and see "-66" on your MMR. That's fucked up. That's REALLY fucked up.

soulbanana8Jan 24, 20152 votes

He's also at 12 wins 1 loss on his stats, having only lost a match on Twitch. Promo series are rigged for sure.

The Epicer ONeJan 24, 20151 votes

i mean i once won did my placements 4w/6l and i got silver II

E1tkoH9FKoJan 24, 20153 votes

Did that this season, got bronze V

Pal2002Jan 23, 201545 votes

A quick look at OP's lolking:

He basically trolled very hard in ranked ("experimenting") after season was over and dropped in a straight line to S5 0LP and also brought his MMR into Bronzieland. Just because you get to keep your silver until you hit bronze 5 mmr does not mean his mmr was anywhere near silver anymore. His first placements that I can still see were already at b2-b3 mmr, the fact he ended up b1 meant he actually did climb at least 2-3 divisions with his 10 wins. You could've definitely placed higher if you didn't randomly ruined your MMR in the preseason.

TLDR: OP thought preseason MMR didn't carry over and trolled until he ruined his MMR. He was very wrong.

Black Star 1299Jan 24, 201517 votes

And that is EXACTLY what trolls deserve for trolling in ranked.

I still can't tell if he was actually trolling though; the kda ratios look pretty legit.

The trolls just got trolled again by Rito...

Varus The Guilty Will Know Agony...

not a starburstJan 24, 20155 votes

Everyone: "but i won my matches!" Me: "But your MMR is trash." Everyone: "but i won all 10!" Me: "Which is why you're in bronze II instead of bronze V."

Stark6000Jan 23, 201536 votes

{quoted}

I can't believe this, I finished s4 silver 2 with a fairly average mmr 55/50% w/l, during s4/s5 off season, I tested a lot of things in ranked, learned a few new champions tried different strategies and builds and inevitably dropped to s4 ( between season 4 and season 5 start )

so I just finished my promos, I whent 10/10 wins 10 straight, my last 2 games I was playing with gold borders, and I got placed in bronze 1... with 10 wins... bronze 1...

so ridic flawed, I deserved to be placed higher than bronze, I was honestly just saying to a friend during 10th placement game I'm 100% atleast going to make it to gold 5, I can't ONLY jump from s2 to s1 with 10 games won.

has anyone else experienced a huge let down like this.

Perhaps league has to look at not calculating " off " season games into placement and calculated ranked mmr.

signed, mr. sad

It is pretty insane when you think about it. You have proved from last season you belong in silver. You upped the level by winning 10 games in a row, literally. Expecting to end up in gold 5, you got demoted to bronze.

that is hard to understand

bradJan 24, 20154 votes

{quoted}

It is pretty insane when you think about it. You have proved from last season you belong in silver. You upped the level by winning 10 games in a row, literally. Expecting to end up in gold 5, you got demoted to bronze.

that is hard to understand

hes been in silver 2 before, bronze 1 should be a literal cake walk

it is literally like walking on cake it is that easy he has nothing to worry about

TaarkiJan 24, 201513 votes

Have you ever actually tried to walk on a cake? Like a legit cake that was made well. You would sink in so much and it would be super hard to walk on. So a cake walk should be something hard... But This system for league is F**ked up. I heard stories of diamond players dropping to silver and gold after going 6/4 in their first 10 games. Its just stupid.

doubleguacJan 24, 20155 votes

He killed his MMR in the pre-season. Just because it is pre-season doesn't mean losses stop counting. OP lost a ton of ranked games in the preseason, and his MMR was certainly dipping into low bronze levels--he only stayed in Silver because it is extremely hard to drop full divisions. Winning all his promos actually did allow him to move up a few leagues, relative to his preseason MMR.

If you are going to experiment and try to learn new champions, you should either do it normals, or not complain when you trash your MMR.

Mecha HippieJan 24, 201525 votes

You guys are putting WAY too much thought into this. Am I really the only one who realizes Riot is deliberately putting people lower than they "deserve". They KNOW you'll want to get back to where you "belong", and so you are forced to play more just to get to that point, from there you begin your true climb of the season.

It boils down to this and this alone: more grind = more play time more play time = better chance you spend real money in the game.

I don't buy all the number crunching, + "this", - "that". No matter how well or poor you do in your placements, you will be placed lower than where your actual skill level is. Riot is lazy, but they aren't dumb. They know how to milk money out of its players.

illexaJan 24, 20155 votes

Probably the most logical theory I have read.

cFlameJan 24, 20154 votes

There's no way I wouldn't believe this, and no reason for anyone else not to believe it. No one can play innocent for long.

A ShacopathJan 24, 20154 votes

its having the opposite effect...everyone I know is uninstalling. My buddy was plat 4 and dropped to s3,...platinum MMR and won 7/10 promos...he literally hates this game now as do I

OverkilltomFeb 8, 20161 votes

Gold 5 to bronze. My last game ended and the icon poped up to say bronze 1 I unplugged my computer I'm done for a while

Gank in ProgressJan 24, 20153 votes

every company works that way rofl thats not riot being the evil capitalists.

SecretAgentHulkJan 24, 20154 votes

Arguably, the best capitalist strategy in this case is to keep customers happy because happy customers would tend to buy more in the long run, rather than grinding (people hate grinding, look at how hard Destiny is falling off--and I loved that game), but I think that's how Riot is working currently, so hey.

HateSmokesJan 24, 20155 votes

Agreed. Longevity is always the smarter business strategy and the best way to attain this is to do as you said: keep the customer happy. We don't want(EDIT) free stuff, we just want to not be fucked in the ass. ....

OyddAWqJ5rJan 24, 20151 votes

Well Destiny kept getting worse as time went on. Started off pretty cool cuz everyone was unique in that they all had their own weapons, class configurations and whatnot. Adventuring was cool cuz it was an adventure seeing all these awesome new things and new enemies. Then endgame came. Where anyone who didn't have a Vex sucked in PVP and the people who did have it became bored in being forced to use that one weapon instead of the mass variety that they could before. And the adventure became a grind of the same missions over and over.

I loved the game too. But Bungie ruined it. Not to mention their patch after patch of nonsensical changes that reinforced grinding and anti-diversity.

SecretAgentHulkJan 24, 20152 votes

The grind in Destiny isn't fun. It's the same few missions, same four strikes, same eight maps, and you have to play them over and over and over until you get high enough level to do the raids, and then you grind the raids too so you can get the sweet loot.

Once people figured out that was the gimmick, they started leaving. There's a really good game in there somewhere, and when House of Wolves comes in, I'll revisit it, but people hate the grind, not the fact that you needed Vex Mythoclast (which was briefly Destiny's Irelia once it became the dominant weapon).

OyddAWqJ5rJan 24, 20153 votes

It's both. And I left because of both.

People who like PvE and Adventure were disappointed with the repetitive grind and 'increased difficulty' being a simple up in enemy health and damage (cuz difficulty = extra hours worth of health apparently).

And then there's people who like PvP (me being one of them), who were completely shunned and cast off by the disgusting overpowering of the Vex Mythoclast, completely eliminating versatility in weapon usage (though Thorn and Suros users had some success, there is no denying that they could near double their kd's given a Mythoclast). I loved the PvP. I'd outplay everyone and it was awesome for me to be able to win through skill and even lose through enemy skill. But the Mythoclast introduced extremely shorter kill times which leaves less room for outplays and shifts it from the more Halo experience to the pre-Advanced Warfare CoD experience -- which is something I detest. Alongside, I reinstate, the lack of versatility due to it's gross overpowered state the Crucible became one of the more toxic experiences of the game, leaving only PvE to really have fun in.

But like we said, the grind and repetitiveness killed it. They screwed up when they went with the old Halo-style difficulty where higher difficulty = more health/shields instead of going with a more Diablo-esque difficulty system where new enemy abilities or even new stage hazards occur. Noone likes unloading 5 clips into an enemy -- feeling weak isn't cool. Having a more dynamic experience filled with more hazards while dropping enemies quickly is a much more fun experience. But alas, I'm not a Bungie employee.

But most of the Preseason League BS has been fleshed out and is alot more stable now. So I'm back here from my Destiny vacation and don't plan on returning until things have been fixed or just to get my 4 hours worth of play out of House of Wolves.

Btw the Mythoclast is still the Irelia. I'd put it more in the on-release Renekton/Xin Zhao/Twitch/Vayne level though.

Mecha HippieJan 25, 20153 votes

I think a lot of people are too addicted to stop, even if it is an abusive relationship. I think the divisions/LP add to the carrot-on-a-stick formula. It's not just a MMR number, you want the bigger, prettier trophy than the one you have now. But I completely agree with you, you'd think they would want to toss us a bone here and there to keep us happy. This just feels like a slap down.

space cowboy einJan 24, 20152 votes

I haven't played promos this season yet, but i went from silver 1 to plat 5 on this account last season (i'm plat on my main too before you guys complain). I went 8-2 s3 on a new smurf (this acct) to get placed in silver 3 and won all of my games and promos in 3 to jump to silver 1, but never got to gold. Then I went 9-1 in my placements in s4 and went straight to plat 5. Last 4 or 5 games were mostly plat/diamonds and i swept those. My one losing game was a duo. I dunno how to make sense of all those factors, but it seems fine to me and I went up significantly, not down.

Big Yikes ChiefJan 24, 20153 votes

I'm literally done with Season 5, it's basically CoD with Christmas noobs, nobody knows what the hell they're doing. I lost my first ranked game because MF kept focusing the Leona, when the rest of their team was really squishy.

conzyplaysJan 23, 20157 votes

I agree it's totally insane. 7-3 here and dropped from s4 to b2.

Nuts262Jan 24, 20152 votes

ik how u feel i went 7-3 and still end up in b2 with alot of trolls. i worked hard last season to get out of bronze and into s4 but now im back in there with all the trolls and afk's.

FHMarshyJan 23, 20155 votes

Trust me, it's easy to climb. They put almost every single silver into bronze in the mind set that silvers will climb out fairly easy, and trust me it IS easy.

My friend who was silver 3 last season got placed in bronze 3 after 5-5. He won all the way to promos and league let him skip bronze 1 and went right into promos for silver. Now he's silver 4 again.

It's really easy to climb if you are not where you are

Nucleophilic atkJan 23, 20152 votes

All it takes is 2 games with an afk or troll (which is pretty damn common in bronze) to make you go from winning high lp and climb fast, to normal lp and climb slow. I will say that your friend was extremely lucky not to get an afk in that scenario. The rest of us aren't so lucky.

goodiwahJan 24, 20152 votes

You do realize that there is a better chance that the other team has an AFK/Feeder since you already filled up one of the 5 spots on your team. The main problem is people think they are better than what they actually are. I should be in silver 1 but im stuck in silver 5 because I always get feeders etc. The problem is most people make excuses because they can't handle failure and the truth.

Piece of SchmidtJan 24, 20155 votes

After reading these results this kinda makes me not want to finish my provisionals

I is IlliterateJan 24, 20154 votes

It amazes me that Riot doesn't even reply to any of this. Either they're too embarassed to admit there's a problem, or they aren't being honest enough to say that the system is gonna stay the way it is and for us to man up.

Mooing KevJan 24, 20153 votes

Here's what i think. For people who have previous mmr, placements is basically a check on to see if your skills reflect on your previous mmr. Lets say you were S2 with S4 MMR last season and this season you went 8-2 in placements you would probably be placed in S3-S5 around your TRUE mmr regardless of what your previous rank was and the 8-2 record just shows that you can play at that level. For the poor soul who was S2 and got placed in B1 after 10-0 the only reason i can think of was that his mmr was absolutely low around B1 or S5. A lot of you seem to think WR leads to mmr but I don't think that's the case. It definitely takes into account your previous mmr more than your placement wr.

IrregulatorJan 24, 20153 votes

I have great news everyone! It turns out, placements are a starting point for the season, and everyone has the ability to move from that starting point. Over the course of the season you will end up as far as your individual talent will lead you! The only common denominator in a league game is YOU (unless you always duo). YOU are the only thing you can change. Analyze every mistake and make a plan to improve.

soulbanana8Jan 23, 20152 votes

Why have a rank reset in the first place if stuff like this happens? It makes no sense.

MsPlacedJan 23, 20152 votes

Yes I just finished my promos and what a big disappointment. Even when I played very well and lost not all my fault I still ended up in Bronze 5, so honestly what ever calculations they have done this season has definitely screwed over majority of the people who play rank. So Riot needs to fix this asap.

Digital XcaliburJan 23, 20152 votes

I was Gold V and i won 8/10 of my placements and I was put back into Gold V I just won 8 matches that is enough for one more elo but i thought whatever then i saw everyone is getting bs so i'm not the only one i can just imagine if i went 7/10 i would be bronze or better yet 10/10 and I wouldn't even get shit for it this is shit.

RikariJan 23, 20152 votes

Unrelated to your plight,people are winning lets say 4-6 games and getting bronze 5. i didnt know bronze 5 had to be earned. would we be banned if we lost all 10?

Riot LeeSin : Congratulations sir,for winning 6/10 of you promo games you start off in bronze 5! Player: isn't that the lowest rank possible?

PrinceArchieJan 23, 20154 votes

People are being put into ranks that their peers are being put into. So look at it like this, your MMR is going to be place you to the closest league average. So like the examples I gave below these players were placed into leagues that represented best their MMR's. If you end up in bronze like Conzy that just means your MMR is closest to those group of bronze players. Yea it's a tough pill to swallow for many but if you want a certain border, or do not want the general stigma that comes with being in a certain league then just legitimately get to your target league. From what it seems like, the people who maintained their competitive edge in ranked or had really good starts from LAST season, kept or placed even better than their original leagues. If anything you should be reflecting on the results and putting a benchmark for where you want to go next.

Ragnar RahlJan 23, 20151 votes

"From what it seems like, the people who maintained their competitive edge in ranked or had really good starts from LAST season, kept or placed even better than their original leagues" From what it seems like, you aren't paying any attention whatsoever. OP had 10/10 and got demoted. I went 6/4 and got demoted from silver v to bronze iv. Do you know a single person who placed even with their original league who wasnt already in bronze 5?

PrinceArchieJan 24, 20159 votes

You're thinking about it wrong. You're stuck on how bad it looks to be in bronze because you feel you aren't a bronze player. A few things to note.

A. No one doing promos can get a higher rank than plat 1, not even challenger players.

B. Your RANKED MMR from last season highly predetermines what league you will be placed in.

It doesnt matter if you go 10/10 or 0/10 what matters is your previous MMR. If you were consistent the 10 provisional games will have little impact , either placing you slightly below or keeping you at your previous League. This isn't about being labeled a bronze player unjustly necessarily, moreso Season 5 from what it looks like is going to be more competitive from the start.

With the hard cap being plat 1 and only players with extremely high MMR reaching that league, where you place now is going to heavily depend on your Ranked MMR. If the players around your ranked MMR, lets say for instance OP's which is 1,195 with the bronze I league average of 1, 239 MMR; then you will be placed in that league of bronze I because thats the average of those players.

Because of the rest the leagues are going to be more competitive, your current MMR may represent a lower league than last season. For some their higher MMR's placed them at a higher league than last, if you find yourself dropping leagues you need to win games it's as simple as that. No one is placing into diamond or challenger from provisionals, so when you tell me that you went from Silver V to Bronze IV what it tells me is that your MMR is representative of season 5 bronze IV players. You don't think you are bronze IV? Win games.

WimbledofyJan 24, 20152 votes

I would believe what you were saying if it was true, but the problem is that it is not. This current season is hardly reflecting last season mmr. In most cases it has just been putting people in lower elos. I was gold V last season which i had gotten to twice. Got to gold V from silver 4 over a long period of time than I stopped playing league for a while so my rank dropped to silver 2, but as you should know your mmr does not change when you don't play ranked just your rank.( and this pretty much happened right before they made it so your rank couldn't decay a whole tier). Than I got back to gold shortly after I started playing again, so my mmr would still be gold and should not have been any lower. But after my placements this season going 5-5 i was put into silver 3. If it was truly based on mmr i should have been placed in silver 1/gold 5 since it was a 50% win rate and if you have a 50% winrate your mmr won't change. The way I see it is that they have done whatever they can to place your rank as low as possible. If you are gold and win half of your games you will be placed in silver, if you are silver you will almost always be placed in bronze, If you are plat and lose most of your placement matches than you will also be placed in silver. (and yes i did play with a guy who was platinum but was placed in silver due to many unfortunate matches). TLDR: current mmr does not have as much impact as it should and placement matches also do not have any relevant impact.

illexaJan 24, 20152 votes

So looking at my score on Lolking.net you would think I lost 20 games in a row. I was in Silver 3 before the season started. I also got placed in Bronze 1. I don't care it just doesn't make sense that no matter my wins or losses I lost a significant amount of elo with no explanation. It really is repulsive. Here we go again....

ChrisB5Jan 24, 20152 votes

Keep in mind Riot did say they put a soft reset on your ladder ranking from last season. This is still pretty ridiculous. With all green you shouldn't be pushed down, especially not that far! Best of luck man...

Tommy Titty TatsJan 24, 20152 votes

This is fucking stupid riot come on you should even be smart enough to stop being lazy and make a legit promo system. You are the reason i am stuck in bronze i just won 8 out of 10 games and i finished B1 in season 4 and you mean to tell me i deserve to be in bronze 5. I really hate this system and something needs to change now before i summoner 4 my ass back to counterstrike and leave this trash

SiazkJan 24, 20152 votes

You know I see a lot of people saying more play time might make you spend money. All this has done is make damn sure that I will never give riot any money as they clearly don't care enough to put in proper systems. Why should I help fund a half assed job?

HisDaemonJan 25, 20152 votes

I placed S4 for S4. I dont troll, but I have some d/c's because of connection problems. This season I came out with a 7-3 W/L. I got rewarded with a B4 placement. This, honestly, I find to be beyond unfair. I carried myself out of Bronze last season and now, for some absolute reason, I have to do so again. I'm not arguing because I didnt get Gold or whatever, I'm upset because this placement isn't legit. This is horryfing and incredibly stupid. I'm on the verge of giving up this game, after being on the same account since Beta days. Riot, fix this or you're losing someone that's been next to you since the beginning.

SiazkJan 25, 20152 votes

I also love how now you keep getting people who say - yeah I got fucked by my promos so I'm going to drive this account into the ground. Now you have a small army of people who are ruining games for 4 other people through feeding, afking, or other forms of trolling. People get pissed, and thus the cycle continues.

AlëkJan 24, 20151 votes

I'm scurred now T_T i'm 2-3 right now. Am on tilt lost 3 ranked in a row so I'm taking a break. But Hopefully i'll win the rest of them. but holy shit pple got placed back into b5 omg im so scared

JhindereJan 24, 20153 votes

It's mostly based on where your MMR was last season, the placements don't have the most drastic effect, its just 10 games to start the season. I don't intend to be a buzzkill but if you were hovering around the bronze level at the end of last season and in the end of the preseason that's most likely where you'll end up. Honestly just keep playing and you should climb over time, sadly that's just how it is, just gotta keep your head up ^^