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Question about the LP system

theDeblin·1/2/2015, 1:03:13 PM·1 votes·501 views

So I've been doing primarily solo queue with random people. Obviously this means that pretty much every match is sort of random people in random combinations, so I'd sort of expect the match to work out where losses and wins average out to the same change in LP.

This is not the case. With a hundred or so games played in the pre-season (mainly back to practice up on the new mechanics), invariably a loss subtracts more than 20 LP, most commonly 24, and a win adds less than 15, most commonly 9.

So despite a win:loss that's a bit short of 1:1 overall, mid-season has dumped me from the middle area of silver all the way down to bronze. Given that this rule has applied without exception for over 100 games, I'm pretty sure I'm not imagining it. Since my ratio is still 1:1 ish, statistically I was in the right tier to begin with.

So... what am I missing here, about how the LP system works? Surely it's not doing something like taking the MMR from the team games I play on normal, that would be phenomenally stupid.

3 Comments

FHMarshy1/2/2015, 4:19:48 PM1 votes

Took a quick peak at your match histories. If you would go into your match history, you are playing people who are in lower elo than you.a As a bronze 1 player, you have been playing with and against bronze 3 and bronze 4 players. To the match making system, you SHOULD win those matches as you are a higher elo player(supposedly more skilled player). When you win, you get lower LP gain (because you SHOULD win), and when you lose, you lose more LP(Because you SHOULND'T lose).

Above is why you are seeing this LP trend, and WHY you are playing against these people?

It might be because you were on a losing streak. Riot suspect that you might not be qualified to play at your current tier so they match you with people who are worse than you(elo wise) to see how you do against them. They expect you to win more than you lose. But if you are going 1:1 against these people who are supposedly less skilled than you(judging by ELO), you will continue to drop in ranks until you hit where they are.

theDeblin1/2/2015, 5:54:04 PM1 votes

Ah, so a bad approximation based on a losing streak, exacerbated by the fact that I was coming back from a long break and that I came back at a bad time (the patch where you had a 15% chance of DCing permanently in NA and all games were 4v5 at best), then carried on by the fact that support doesn't carry.

Fair enough, at least it'll go away in season change.