[POLL] What Rank Do You Consider "Good" At League?

Troy242621·Feb 7, 2017·2 votes·5,725 views

Curious what the general sentiment is on this topic; what rank threshold must be surpassed to be considered skilled at League of Legends?

9 Comments

Fondling GemsFeb 7, 20172 votes

I think that rank isn't indicative of overall skill. There are many skills in LoL, Map awareness, game knowledge, mechanics, shotcalling, etc.

Even in high level play there are many players who haven't mastered all these skills. I hit gold fairly easily last season (Have barely played ranked this season though) and I can say I meet some pretty mechanically skilled players, people who wow me. I meet great shotcallers, or people who know just what tactic to play out, what items to build without looking through them. I have played with guys who ping warnings to every lane, sooner than anyone else, all while playing Mid.

However all these people failed in different areas. Maybe they don't have the mechanics to back their calls up. Maybe they are great players but always get caught out. They forget to ward, or ward and then never look at the map. Rank is often indicative of how high their average skill is, if you rate each skill in LoL on a 1-10 and average them.

IMO Gold is where you can start to expect players to begin to show skill in different areas or a level of competence in multiple areas. Silver is people showing average competence in a few skills or being pretty good at 1-2 but really bad in the other ones.

This is of course just a rough way of estimating skill. People find ways to avoid it. Not a mechanical player? Well if you play nothing but malphite that is mostly removed from the equation, so instead of it being worth 10 points on the scale it is worth about 5, so it has less impact.

Same with shotcallers in games with other shotcallers in it. Your shotcalling isn't needed as much so it has less impact. People can often rise despite not being good at certain things by playing in a way that helps negate it. If a player with bad map awareness plays Ezreal it is better than say Ashe because ~~Who needs a map~~ he can E away from ganks. As such a player like that could rise higher than their skill indicates, because they play around their weakness and do what they can to make it a non-factor.

Troy242621Feb 7, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Fondling Gems,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=RNaAbllr,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2017-02-07T19:31:39.483+0000)

I think that rank isn't indicative of overall skill. There are many skills in LoL, Map awareness, game knowledge, mechanics, shotcalling, etc.

Even in high level play there are many players who haven't mastered all these skills. I hit gold fairly easily last season (Have barely played ranked this season though) and I can say I meet some pretty mechanically skilled players, people who wow me. I meet great shotcallers, or people who know just what tactic to play out, what items to build without looking through them. I have played with guys who ping warnings to every lane, sooner than anyone else, all while playing Mid.

However all these people failed in different areas. Maybe they don't have the mechanics to back their calls up. Maybe they are great players but always get caught out. They forget to ward, or ward and then never look at the map. Rank is often indicative of how high their average skill is, if you rate each skill in LoL on a 1-10 and average them.

IMO Gold is where you can start to expect players to begin to show skill in different areas or a level of competence in multiple areas. Silver is people showing average competence in a few skills or being pretty good at 1-2 but really bad in the other ones.

This is of course just a rough way of estimating skill. People find ways to avoid it. Not a mechanical player? Well if you play nothing but malphite that is mostly removed from the equation, so instead of it being worth 10 points on the scale it is worth about 5, so it has less impact.

Same with shotcallers in games with other shotcallers in it. Your shotcalling isn't needed as much so it has less impact. People can often rise despite not being good at certain things by playing in a way that helps negate it. If a player with bad map awareness plays Ezreal it is better than say Ashe because ~~Who needs a map~~ he can E away from ganks. As such a player like that could rise higher than their skill indicates, because they play around their weakness and do what they can to make it a non-factor.

I agree with the sentiment that players are strong in some areas while show weakness in another. I voted Platinum because this is the ELO that I believe they are at least competent in all areas and display consistent strength in many of them.

In Gold, I can tell you that players often acquire leads through superb champion and laning mechanics, but when it comes to mid to late game and game knowledge becomes far more important, they start to make mistakes that throw leads. I am guilty of this myself, I'm not speaking from a point of superiority here.

Still, when one obtains a certain rank, it does mean they have played better than players in lower ranks, and while they may be lacking in some areas, it's still indicative of superior skill. While rank isn't a comprehensive indication of one's skill package, so to speak, and one can't perfectly infer everything about a player's skill level based solely off of their rank, surely it does have some value in assessing their skill level.

AquafugeFeb 7, 20171 votes

I haven't played rank yet, but I have seen a bronze player shred a gold, so there seems to be too many factors to consider before making a claim.

Troy242621Feb 7, 20171 votes

{quoted}

I haven't played rank yet, but I have seen a bronze player shred a gold, so there seems to be too many factors to consider before making a claim.

For the purpose of the poll, ignore confounding factors that may impact games on an individual basis and consider only the macro level; which skill level is consistently "skilled" in your opinion?

I know the statistics behind player distribution in each rank, but I'm curious what the perception of the ranks are. That's really my goal in this poll.

AquafugeFeb 7, 20171 votes

Oh ok, as I said I haven't played ranked yet but I'd have to say probably gold level because from what I have seen and heard bronze and silver are pretty much in a constant state of flux but gold there are more consistencies.

Chaos Milk TeaFeb 7, 20171 votes

Well its a funny question. Some people are good at playing champions and dueling. Others are good at tactics and knowing when to push, group, or take objectives. Some players have a better understanding of the champions in terms of their impact on each team and which items provide which optimal benefits. I guess "being good at league" is where the average player has a strong grasp of all three aspects: Mechanics, Tactics, and Optimization.

Troy242621Feb 7, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Well its a funny question. Some people are good at playing champions and dueling. Others are good at tactics and knowing when to push, group, or take objectives. Some players have a better understanding of the champions in terms of their impact on each team and which items provide which optimal benefits. I guess "being good at league" is where the average player has a strong grasp of all three aspects: Mechanics, Tactics, and Optimization.

My opinion is that lower ELO (Gold/Upper Silver in particular) are quite good, mechanically speaking. It's game sense that we often lack, resulting in throwing the lead that we garner though superior mechanical play.

I know N3ac3y has said something to this effect as well, and he's a Challenger player.

Troy242621Feb 8, 20171 votes

More opinions?

Wulframm RolfNov 11, 20191 votes

rank is more a function of how long you've played and how frequently you play ranked. skill correlates a bit with that but it's not a 1 to 1 relationship.