The Problem with Bronze

I have been playing LoL since S4. I was Silver IV in S4, Bronze III in S5 and 6, and now after placements for S7, I am Bronze V. I hate being in Bronze and I feel like it is impossible to get out. I got close last season (made it to Bronze I), but ultimately failed. What pisses me off is that I was Silver in S4 and I have only gotten better at playing since then. But this stupid system places you lower than you were before during your placements and thus I have been in Bronze ever since. And now, with S7, I am in Bronze V which is the ultimate elohell. Players in Bronze V don't give a shit about the role they are supposed to play, which, namely, is playing as a member of a team, not for yourself. This is obviously an over-generalization, but for the most part, this is what I have come across in the past few weeks playing in Bronze V. I mean, when I was Bronze III last season and the season before that, it was very frustrating as well, but not nearly to the level as it has been in Bronze V.

Let me put forth some facts about me -- I can play almost any role (sorry jungle, I love you but I suck so bad), but mostly I play support because no one else is willing to and I don't mind. I'm actually a pretty awesome support (Morgana [level 7] is my poison of choice). As a support, I know that it is my job to support the team and to get items that help us as a whole, not myself. This means getting sightstone and other support items, which depend on the other team's composition, our team composition, and the gameplay, among other factors. What pisses me off to no end is when I am not support and (1) our team's support picks a player that is really a mid lane mage; (2) this individual proceeds to build as if they are mid; and (3) last but not least, no sightstone purchase. THE NUMBER ONE ITEM FOR PURCHASE AS A SUPPORT IS SIGHTSTONE. NO IFS ANDS OR BUTS ABOUT IT. What you do with it after that is your choice. You want to up it into ruby, lovely. You want to build it into something else, go for it. But for Gd's sake just purchase it. I hate after politely asking the support to buy sightstone receiving the flippant response of "I don't have to get sightstone if I don't want to" or "you should be warding, that's not my job" or some variant of one of those. Most of the time WE DON'T WIN. I believe this is directly correlated to the lack of vision on the map, among other things. Because most likely, if they are not buying sightstone, it is because they are building straight AP or something of the like and not playing the role they were assigned -- support.

Another issue I come across is the lack of team gameplay. We need to work as a team. If someone screws up, berating them isn't going to help the situation. If anything, it is going to make it worse. Everyone has bad games. Stop cursing and name-calling your teammate cuz this happens to be one of their crappy ones. Furthermore, this crap of "I'm done" is ridiculous. Games can turn around even if a player has a bad laning phase. Sometimes difficult matchups that you did not anticipate result in you losing your lane. It happens! Doesn't mean the game is over, for you or your teammates. I hear that conclusion of "I'm done" from both those who lost their lanes and other players who think the game is over or they are "fed up" over the other player's feeding. Intentional feeding is one thing. And I am the first to admit that there are some fed champions that are hard to overcome and sometimes surrender is a viable option. But the underlying lack of support for one's teammates that permeates the Bronze (V and others) sphere is mind-boggling.

I know this is a long rant and I haven't nearly said everything that I want to. But the tl;dr bottom line is this: I don't know how much longer I can put up with this. I love league; it's a great outlet for me as a graduate student with long hours studying in the library. But after being placed in Bronze V and my recent horrible experiences playing at that level, I don't think I want to play anymore. It is just so unpleasant and not fun like it used to be. It is also extremely demoralizing how many games I lose and seeing that possibility of escape from Bronze disappearing right before my eyes. Riot, I don't know if you will read this, you probably won't, but I hope you do. And what you should take away from this is how toxic the lower Bronze levels are and try to make the dream of a friendly and enjoyable game for us lowly Bronzies a reality. Cuz right now, it's just sucks.

Rainarasinya