Grading System

qlmarksii·May 27, 2016·1 votes·1,125 views

The grading system is highly flawed and I've been told to turn to the Discussion Forums to vent. I've been trying to earn S grades to level up and earn the Level 6/7 badges; however, I've noticed a huge flaw in the metrics used to grade us. I've played several games and have used trial and error to find a way to earn these grades with some sort of guidelines, since Riot refuses to give us any (which is unprofessional and quite ignorant in my opinion). The flaw is as follows: If I play a perfect game, I should earn an S+, no matter what. It should be a simple concept, and I don't understand why they are so afraid of people "abusing" the system, when in reality, It's people learning and playing the game based on your set guidelines. They refuse to tell us how to earn these grades, and when we do play well, we are poorly graded. I have had several instances where I have played flawless games and proof to showcase these instances where I have gone 11-0-10 as a Sona, 17-7-11, as Lucian, and so on and so forth, and have been undergraded. I do not think it's fair to grade people based on the performances of other players. That's highly ignorant and toxic. Also, the guidelines towards getting these grades should be fully disclosed and open to the public. It's only fair to those striving to earn these grades. It's highly irresponsible to openly say to the public "Yeah, there's a method to getting these grades, but we won't tell you because we don't want you to earn them." It honestly doesn't make any sense and I hope to A.) see a change in these rules B.) see a Change in how Riot is ran/ operated C.) that all the rules and regulations are fully disclosed to the public and not hidden from us. Only because I know for a fact that a few higher tiered players, know how to earn these grades. It's not fair that they get to set the "Standard". We should all be graded on our individual performance, not compared to Master summoners/ Challenger tier'd summoners. Make the playing field level. All for fairness. Not whatever this is.

35 Comments

qlmarksiiMay 28, 20162 votes

http://imgur.com/6iD0gse ... :'( they seriously hate me

Leopards GhostMay 28, 20162 votes

nae, S- means room for improvement. ggwp

Leopards GhostMay 27, 20161 votes

the rating system is designed to reward impact players, not princess players.

qlmarksiiMay 27, 20161 votes

Irrelevant, when I am carrying my team, and making a positive impact for my team, and win us the game, I and all teammates should be graded properly, for our own individual contribution to the win.

Leopards GhostMay 27, 20161 votes

getting lots of kills doesnt win games. i've lost matches where our team is up 20 kills and i mean stomped-didnt-kill-a-single-turret lost.

qlmarksiiMay 28, 20161 votes

Again, irrelevant. Winning the game doesn't guarantee an S, I've lost games and had teammates earn an S, with something like a 14-5 KD, which makes no sense.

Leopards GhostMay 28, 20161 votes

it isn't irrelevant.

i played a match yesterday: 3/5 of us had perfect score. sion went like 10/6/+.

sion was only champ to score an S, i had a B- (perfect game). the rating system works, sion won the game.

yes i have pics yes it did happen.

congratulations on playing a good game though.

qlmarksiiMay 28, 20161 votes

That's why it's flawed to me. If the 3 of you had perfect scores, the 3 of you should have perfect grades. Just like in every other game, when you get a perfect score, you get a perfect grade. It only makes sense. That sion did not deserve the S.

ShadowatomMay 28, 20162 votes

But that's where you're missing the point. Lots of kills and few deaths may help with winning and such, but the system is looking for the players that are doing the most for the team, pressuring the enemy jungle, taking objectives, initiating team fights, keeping the team alive, placing wards so the team can set up plays. That sion was more than likely taking the entirety of the damage for the rest of his team to get those perfect scores, making him the most impactful, without him, they'd die and there would've been no damage for them to win to begin with. Yeah, you can carry a game and without you your team would lose, so what's the difference. The difference is that you getting kills is for you to get to their nexus and kill it, that Sion was taking damage so his team could get to their nexus and kill it.

qlmarksiiMay 28, 20161 votes

Ok, so if I'm an ADC, I have to be taking copious amounts of damage to earn an S grade? Even though we won, and I earned the most kills, placed/ bought the most wards, dealt the most dmg? There's no line, the metrics just takes into account too many factors in my opinion, when overall, for the game played, I outdid everyone and performed exceptionally. That's my whole point. If I perform exceptionally, grade me that way, not with an A-. That's like a slap in the face. Always leaves me asking myself, "What could I have done better?" It's extremely frustrating.

ShadowatomMay 28, 20162 votes

Isn't that the point of the grading system though? It's there to make people think "What could I have done better?" You may have out done everyone on your team, but compared to a team of idiots, what kind of statement is that? "You have common sense, good for you!" Is that really what you want an S grade to mean? I doubt it. You know you're performing well, but what that grade is effectively telling you is there's something you could've done better to give you an S grade (I will admit it's frustrating since it doesn't tell you what, and that's where the frustrating part comes from).

As an ADC try to peel for your teammates if you can (obviously not always possible). Yes, you were doing everything right, but obviously you were doing something wrong too (everyone does, it's just a matter of what that something is). Just change your viewpoint from getting an S and everyone else is an idiot, so I have to carry to what can I do to help this team the most? Surely you're not the perfect player and you must be doing something wrong, perhaps it's your CS, maybe you could've saved a teammate, maybe you could've saved a tower, maybe you splitpush too much, the only way you'll get an S rank is analyzing your play and figuring out what you're doing wrong, and I don't mean wrong as in you're dying a lot or not getting kills, but I mean in terms of your team. Maybe you could've saved a teammate, but nobody will know until we analyze ourselves and figure out what we could've done better. S ranks are for perfection, not for being the best on your team in a single game.

Leopards GhostMay 28, 20161 votes

nailed it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/capnfrank/Screen%20Shot%202016-05-26%20at%208.26.19%20PM_zpsamqrlvxg.png

qlmarksiiMay 27, 20161 votes

Of course I won't get backed for this. Everyone will just tell me, get good. I guess 11-0 isn't good anymore lol. Typical. this community is so toxic.

Leopards GhostMay 27, 20161 votes

toxic

http://i.memecaptain.com/gend_images/SrxEqQ.jpg

also, this: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/MAELrFw2-bronze5

qlmarksiiMay 28, 20161 votes

what was the point in showing me that? you went 15-2 and got an S+, good for you, didn;t happen for me when I went 11-0, 24-7, etc.. My point is that it's not consistent and frustrating.

Emerald FangMay 28, 20162 votes

I am 90% sure that I know the guideline for S rank. My friend has gotten info that says you need to be in the top 3% of all players for that champ/role. IDK what the 3% is based on, and I am pretty sure it is per month/week etc because if you think about it it would make it harder and harder to get S rank if Riot never cleared the databases.

Just push objectives. I think that's worth the most value, and why junglers get a lot more S ranks (maybe, I have noticed JG's get massively more S ranks b/c they get Baron and Drag and push with towers).

Good guideline is: You need about a 1.75+ K-D and 5 or more major objectives (Tower, Drag, Baron, Inhib). If you play support just assist the hell out of your ADC. If you play popular champions getting S rank will be harder (Someone got A+ with 30-7 as Lucian). Playing off-meta picks may be easier BUT you need to do well.

Mysticman89May 28, 20161 votes

It's top 2% for an S+ according to a riot podcast. I don't know if they've disclosed any other percentage cutoffs, but top 3% is at least plausible.

CerealBoxOfDoomMay 28, 20161 votes

define a "perfect game"

qlmarksiiMay 28, 20161 votes

Ya know, a perfect KD, X- kills, 0 deaths.

CerealBoxOfDoomMay 28, 20162 votes

{quoted}

Ya know, a perfect KD, X- kills, 0 deaths.

your definition of perfect is heavily lacking

qlmarksiiMay 28, 20161 votes

what's your definition of a "perfect game"?

CerealBoxOfDoomMay 28, 20163 votes

{quoted}

what's your definition of a "perfect game"?

Winning the game in an optimal amount of time great KDR which may have some deaths depending on your role wards wards wards, maximum wards amazing CS participation in all the major fights or tower takedowns, even as a split pusher participation in the objective taking, even as a splitpusher dealing tons of damage tanking tons of damage healing away tons of damage buffing the crap out of teammates debuffing the crap out of opponents

There's so much more than JUST kdr, the big factors in getting an S are basically not dying much, getting a ton of CS, and I believe finishing the game in a certain amount of time which is related more to cs. Getting 300 cs in a 2 hour game is pathetic, getting 300 cs in a 20 minute game is pro as heck.

In one of my games where I got an S as ahri I got 402 cs that match.

here's the game

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2197215431/44704340?tab=overview

qlmarksiiMay 28, 20161 votes

Thank you so much for sharing, this is all I'm asking for, some guidelines, some goals to reach for the game. I know a lot of us don't like playing "blind games" (or trying to achieve something without having any prior knowledge of how to achieve it) It's the definition of insanity, or doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. Again, thank you for your advice, all I hope is that Riot releases some guidelines, instead of just telling us "Get Good"

CerealBoxOfDoomMay 28, 20162 votes

{quoted}

Thank you so much for sharing, this is all I'm asking for, some guidelines, some goals to reach for the game. I know a lot of us don't like playing "blind games" (or trying to achieve something without having any prior knowledge of how to achieve it) It's the definition of insanity, or doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. Again, thank you for your advice, all I hope is that Riot releases some guidelines, instead of just telling us "Get Good"

getting good is the best way to achieve it. People actually go 40/0/40 with 300 cs or something like that and think that's actually a good sign...

Emerald FangMay 28, 20162 votes

Yeah but I don't think CS is a factor. I have gotten 400 CS before and a pretty good KDA and still get an A+. I am pretty cursed when it comes to S ranks, but I think the most important things are objectives (Towers, Inhibs, Drag/Baron) and KDA. I got an A+ when I went 22-6-10 with Akali but didn't take many objectives, but I got an S with her when I took 3 drags, 3 towers, and an inhib and my KDA was only 10-4-10.

But Riot really should release guidelines so they can actually see if people are abusing it. I've seen duoqueue "swappers" where they choose opposite roles so the grade system thinks it's Lucian support instead of ADC. But that's basically it.

CerealBoxOfDoomMay 28, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Yeah but I don't think CS is a factor. I have gotten 400 CS before and a pretty good KDA and still get an A+. I am pretty cursed when it comes to S ranks, but I think the most important things are objectives (Towers, Inhibs, Drag/Baron) and KDA. I got an A+ when I went 22-6-10 with Akali but didn't take many objectives, but I got an S with her when I took 3 drags, 3 towers, and an inhib and my KDA was only 10-4-10.

But Riot really should release guidelines so they can actually see if people are abusing it. I've seen duoqueue "swappers" where they choose opposite roles so the grade system thinks it's Lucian support instead of ADC. But that's basically it.

probably has to do with champion type and items built

also you have to ward... like serious warding

Mysticman89May 28, 20161 votes

Regarding being compared to Master/Challenger tier players:

The cutoff for an S+ grade is top 2% of performances on a particular champ/role. Master/challenger tier players make up closer to the top 0.001% of players, and most of them aren't actually playing any given champ/role combo. Top 2% of ranked players are 'only' in plat or so and above, and again, the majority of them aren't all playing any given champ role combo.

As a result to get the best possible grade, you don't have to have challenger level mechanics (y'know, 10+ cs/min and other insanity), or master, or even diamond or plat. In practice, effectively utilized gold level mechanics all tied together with an overall good performance (warding/kda/objective participation/etc) is all you really need, which is well within the realm of possibility for pretty much all players. Even bronze level players have been known to manage the occasional S+ if they happen to have an exceptionally good game on a champ they main.

What's more, that's all only referring to S+. S and S- are even easier to achieve (although I don't know the % cutoffs), and those grades are the only ones anyone has a reason to actually care about for reasons unrelated to their actual skill (i.e. for champ mastery and chests [the former only loosely being related to actual skill]). Those who do actually care about their skill should be glad that the grade is actually a useful indicator as to if they can push their champ further, since if more than a few% of players are doing it better than you, then that's a pretty clear sign that there's still room to improve and you haven't truely mastered everything to do with the champion in that role.

Emerald FangMay 28, 20162 votes

With 131 champs, you technically need the top 1.984% if you aren't higher than Gold.

I don't really care about the rank system that much. I think you improve more if you watch your replays and analyze why you died, what your flaws were etc. The SCARY players in Challenger and scattered around Ranked are the ones who know exactly how powerful they are; when they can attack, when they have to defend. When you play a champ enough you know the damage numbers and can roughly tell in advance if you will win a 1v1 or not. That's what I focus on. Everyone's obsessing over this mastery score since the Level 6/7 masteries came out, but all that does is give you a little banner.

Mysticman89May 29, 20161 votes

It's not clear to me how you're getting the 1.984 number or why the number of champs matter. (Or why what your rank is should matter.) Not everyone has a performance for every champion in every role, and even if they did, not everyones performance would be reflective of their rank (I'm plat, but if made to play singed it'd inevitably be a bronze tier clown fiesta). Maybe I'm overlooking something simple though.

Top 2% of champion 1 played top gets S+, top 2% of champion 1 played mid gets S+, ..., top 2% of champion 1 played support gets S+, top 2% of champion 2 played top gets S+, ..., top 2% of champion 131 played support gets S+, and that seems like it'd work the same for an arbitrary number of champions.

That aside, you're right that ones mastery level isn't actually that important. Grinding out even 6/7 masteries isn't that hard even if you aren't actually a master of the champ, and those people who all in you and win with a sliver of health are absolutely the scariest people when they did it because they knew it'd end that way and it wasn't just luck. (edit: This is actually pretty representative of most of my run ins with diamond+ players.)

qlmarksiiMay 29, 20161 votes

http://imgur.com/3UBV9hN so lux earned an S... I earned an A... 435 CS 1:03:20 11-6-12... most gold Lux, went AFK FOR 2 MINUTES! You're telling me she earned an S? How does that make ANY sense???? HOW??? Riot, fix it, now.

qlmarksiiMay 29, 20161 votes

i don't get why I'm getting no support on this... I'm the only one that believes this system is unfair? Really? I'll never get how people think this is fair. It's pretty pathetic really.

RIP TSMJul 1, 20161 votes

Dude, tell me about it, i just played a game with annie, went 27/7/14 and didnt get an S. Not only that, the Ziliean in my team earned the S with a 5/6/18 ... Like, wtf riot