How Do You Measure Your Success/Skill Level in LOL?

devomp·2/20/2016, 11:20:48 PM·8 votes·36,228 views

I still consider myself new to the game- started playing in December 2015- and after many games, I honestly wonder if I did all right. How do you know if you're any good at this game? Do you judge yourself on your Kill/Death/Assist ratio, win loss record, the letter grade you're given after every game, or some other way?

My win loss record is above 50% (89-69, I think that's 56%), so that's good, I must not be awful, but after some games I honestly don't know if I did well.

And I should have different expectations for myself for every role, right? If I'm support, it's acceptable to have few kills, more deaths, but a ton of assists? ADC should have a ton of kills? etc.?

What are your thoughts on this? Thanks.

37 Comments

disregardable2/20/2016, 11:24:33 PM13 votes

When I was level 23 I was probably just happy when I didn't lose a game.

Little Stick Man2/20/2016, 11:22:37 PM3 votes

rank usually, but even then that doesn't mean much. winrate is probably the best way to judge, if you're winning a lot you're doing well.

Live2LetDie2/20/2016, 11:25:13 PM2 votes

Rank with timed played is my way. EX: 3 friends are d5 with 180 days played in league. I am p3 with 60 days. If consider my self on par if not better than them just have less time to play.

Subtweet2/21/2016, 12:35:02 AM2 votes

Personally I think you get better at the game over time. If you're winning a lot that's obviously a good sign.

Rebonack2/21/2016, 12:10:38 AM1 votes

Since we don't have Ranked in Dominion, I mostly just tried my best and had fun.

Though getting to play with/against Master/Challenger/LCS players more than a few times is neat.

Masalar2/21/2016, 12:32:05 AM1 votes

Once you're 30 a good way to know how you're doing is to, in the end game lobby, look at the rankings of your opponents. Do this for a while and you'll start to get a feel for how good Bronze, Silver, Gold etc. are and how well you do against them. Pre-30, try and focus on what mistakes you used to make and don't make as much anymore. Do you miss out on a lot of CS trying to harass your opponent? Do you face check a lot of bushes and get killed? Do you ward much or at all? Do you land your skillshots? How many of them? Comparing how you used to do, and how much you've improved is the best way to asses your skills for now.

devomp2/21/2016, 2:42:07 AM1 votes

Ok, thanks for your thoughts. If it matters, I'm level 23 right now. I'm trying to learn everything I can about this game so I can keep improving- It's amazing how much stuff there is to learn about LOL. I heard Mark Cuban described LOL as 5-player chess. 2-player chess is challenging enough- There's lots to learn here.

AMYS GRAVE2/21/2016, 2:47:21 AM1 votes

Just pay attention to mistakes you make and learn from it. Dont play every game to win, play to improve and you will outclass everyone.

JZPorkins2/21/2016, 3:19:47 AM1 votes

Skill level I dunno, but for Success I guess I would measure that by how often I lose or win my lane.

Jungle Lux God2/21/2016, 3:47:40 AM1 votes

My personal thought is that you never know how good you actually are until you actually start playing ranked, but it also doesn't matter to know how good you are as long as you keep on improving at League of Legends. It doesn't matter to know how good you are now, it just matters that you understand how much better you are now than you were before, even when the results don't always reflect it.

To be honest, I felt like I was a horrible player when I was at your rank. I was losing games left and right, and in the games I actually won I got carried super hard, and it wasn't until like levels 25-26 that I actually started to play half-decently.

GenghisEmo2/21/2016, 4:44:26 AM1 votes

Game uses W/L Ratio.

But after i gutted my W/L Ratio teaching new players (friends, fam, randoms), i got pretty freaking negative.

What i use, is knowledge and tips. Item builds, effects, usage. Funny how i know more strategically than most Bronze, Silver, Lower Gold. But i cant climb (even when on my mains my K/D tends to be good). I suck ADC, yet out CS and outplay in laning (which is weird, im not good at ADC).

And ive used several champs and can play em quite well against others in my elo. And can play quite well against most.

I dont always get S or A. But even when i end as C, i make sure to peel (which is rarely done, and if u get no assist even if u peel well or martyr, you wont always get the A or S apparently XD).

Mechanically, im alright. But knowledge im quite well off.

Oh, ive noticed others dont notice little details. Map awareness, or shen ults, visualizing ranges for enemies, tower ranges, etc. Use ur "imagination" for some of these.

CerealBoxOfDoom2/21/2016, 4:45:34 AM1 votes

I pick ahri and know i've succeeded

#AhriFancultBanner

alfavhunter2/21/2016, 5:04:14 AM1 votes

As a support main I range my success by a few factors that are all based on how my allies are playing

LANE

1- if my adc is competent I just my success by how well I'm disrupting the enemy adc and support from trading and farming

2- if my adc is bad I judge my success by how well I keep him alive and my roaming to get other lanes ahead

3- how well I get other lanes fed by kills towers and dragons by 15-20 min if team is doing well, if losing how well I stall our loss of towers and trading objectives to try and catch my team up (if I know they will try for dragon I will try to get mid top or not pushing

If my adc is really bad I will leave bot lane to support a lane that can win and tell my adc to just try to stay safe and farm as best you can

I judge my success by how useful I am to my team, lives I save, kills I help get, objective / minion control, exc

I once had a game where we were losing badly to a severely fed Fiora

As they were seiging our mid I went too and made a banner minions and pushed top out a little (so it would end at there tower with 50+ minion) then went mid

Their Fiora went after the "juicy" farm top 1 min later after we slowly lost 1 tower, after she was top we collapsed on her team and won without a death, then we killed her and won the game

John Viande2/21/2016, 2:01:50 PM1 votes

With more win than losses you are doing well for a new player. It means you are above the average skill level of a new player. However, everything is relative, I don't think you are in the 50% best players of the north american server (you will need to reach Silver 4 to prove that).

What really measure "skill level" is the ranking you will have once you begin ranked matches. Here is an idea of your performance in comparison to other players once you begin ranked:

http://www.leagueofgraphs.com/rankings/rank-distribution

RisenDarkKnight2/21/2016, 6:55:16 PM1 votes

Most people just use their rank in ranked (IE Silver V). It's hard to use any other metric, because they are different for each role. Most people are at around 50% winrate, because that is how the system attempts to match you against opponents you win half the time against. So if you get better, you usually just get matched against harder opponents.

If you play mid/top/adc you can look at CS at 20 minutes, but that is not a useful metric if you are playing jg/support.

KDA can be useful, but it depends on context (ie if you are 0/10/0 on tryndamere top, but you took 6 turrets and 2 inhibs, you did well).

GigglesO2/21/2016, 7:24:06 PM1 votes

{quoted}

What are your thoughts on this? Thanks.

Unless I play support I rate myself of damage to champs, damage taken, healing done. objectives destroyed If I was the highest in all of those categories, I was our carry, regardless of kills.

Captain Aishi2/21/2016, 8:10:44 PM1 votes

I look at what rank my lane opponent was after a game and if his soloQ rank is higher than mine and I did well in lane, I take it as 'I played well' but aside from that idk... i always sucked at objectives and map awareness so if I have a game where I group with my team early and we win after a few good teamfights, I try to remember that because I have the most trouble reproducing that kind of result

B3ER2/22/2016, 1:42:56 AM1 votes

If you play a lot, and I mean a LOT, the best way to measure is by rank. KDA is nothing more than a possible contributor to victories. Same for damage dealt/taken, same for CS, same for objectives secured, etc. What truly matters is bringing them all together and getting that win. If you can do it consistently, you'll find yourself winning more than losing. Do that in the most competitive environment the game can offer, you'll find yourself to be challenged to the max. And when you get 200 or so ranked games under your belt, you'll very likely have reached your true Elo for your current skill level.

Papa Slothy2/22/2016, 2:37:27 AM1 votes

I got a 9 multikill in one of my first games

(A penta and 4/5 kills for a second, NOT TWO PENTAS, 2 pentas combined in a 9 multikill) Fizz pls

Amelie2/22/2016, 2:46:03 AM1 votes

Generally I check KDA ratio alongside damage dealt, especially in comparison to the enemy team. The letter grade is usually a decent indicator as well. CS (minion kills) is also important in comparison to your enemy laner and your team in general.

Roles will vary a bit for this, yes. Supports or tanks usually won't have high damage dealt, and supports won't have high CS, but it depends on the champion played.

Ryo 20019/29/2016, 10:17:50 AM1 votes

I highly recommend somewhere other than NA. If you're doing well in borth servers, you should consider going LCS

Critmaster Garen9/29/2016, 10:57:58 AM1 votes

used to be solo que before dynamic boosting became a thing. you should see d5.

ReadyxPlayerxOne2/20/2016, 11:30:27 PM1 votes

Ego. Nothing more. If you're not in LCS you're probably a LOT worse than you think you are and it's common that any group of 5 people can get to diamond. I haven't found 5 people to play with... but I see it happening.

Frankly, I think cs, kda and gold and level all contribute to how you did in a particular game. It's extremely common and extremely rude how a great many people just think their skills and theirs alone win the game. It's not true. At ANY mmr.

z14GaKI7TO2/20/2016, 11:56:29 PM1 votes

I mean your rank helps measure your skill to an extent. If you're diamond 2 you're obviously not garbage unless you were duo boosted or you fed every game and SOMEHOW your teammates were gods.

If you average over like 7 cs/minute and over a 4 or so kda on your mains then you're probably good compared to people playing st the same level as you. Like if you have those stats in bronze you're better than a majority of bronze players. Doesn't mean you're platinum though because you hard carry silver games.

Also dying as few times as possible is a goal for any role. Your deaths, if you play perfectly, will only be for a greater gain. Example. You die so your ADC gets 3 kills.

DrNova2/21/2016, 12:09:34 AM1 votes

Play to have fun.

Hell never play ranked. It doesn't really matter and you aren't going pro, there really is no upside to the stress it can induce.

Just play for fun man. (You usually play better that way too)

On a side note I'm pretty sure the majority of the game population is gold and below (if not silver and below) so chances are you are averaging what everyone else is achieving.