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Why the solo queue is broken

owning2much··4 votes·952 views

I have a few main grievances with the solo queue I'm sure many of you will agree with. Now, this mostly just applies to Bronze and Silver, so if you haven't been with either of these lately or just want to flame, save your breath.

I'm not here to claim I should have an elo I don't deserve, but more so complain about why the current system doesnt work for the lower divisions

Firstly, I know someone who didn't even realize that Smiting red and blue gave you a buff get placed in Silver 3. The original promos have literally no bearing on how you play. At the end of the last season when I played my new promos, i went 6/4 win loss, but I had a cumulative k/d of over 2.0 and it was over a 3.0 the 6 games I got the spot I wanted. Nonetheless, I was heavily demoted. I realize that summoner's rift isn't team death match, but it should at least serve as some indication that it wasn't ME who threw the games, or at least that I didn't feed. I had one bad game as Pantheon, admittedly, where I ended up 5/9 or so. But every other game I did well, and it counted for nothing at all... I literally could have afked/troll every single promo and I would have been equally demoted.

What this leads me to is that until you make it into gold, a game isn't won by superior team fighting or skill, rather, a game is won by which team has the fewest trolls. What I'm saying is, someone could play 300 ranked games and still be put onto a team with someone who has never played ranked games before because they got placed in Silver 3 luckily. I don't like how it's called my SOLO rank when in reality it's determined by 3-4 strangers more than myself. It doesn't matter how much you improve individually, because most of your games are more so lost by your teammates rather than the other team.

When riot said they were coming out with a grading system, I thought to myself "wow this is great, because now if it's ME that does poorly I won't blindly blame my teammates and if we lose and I have a high grade I can know that it wasn't my fault!" BUT, again it doesnt matter.... I have literally been demoted on games where I received an S. Why does the grading system not serve as some sort of buffer on LP gains or losses? You can get a S and still lose as much LP as the kid in bronze who thinks he can carry as AP kog'maw but goes 2/10/3.

Pursuit of a higher elo isn't a matter of personal improvement as much as it is the luck to avoid the wrong people. I'm not saying I carry games consistently by any means, but I'm very cautious to not feed my lane, and 9 out of 10 times I don't... even if that means I'm not fed either... but it get's so old to make it 15 minutes into the game and realize even though your lane is about even another laner on your team is 0/5 and has either given up or started trolling. I hate that. I hate when your teammate single-handedly guarantees a loss before you even leave laning phase. My elo would barely be any lower if I purposely trolled, so why is nothing done about trolls. If 9/10 people in a game can agree to report a person for trolling why can they queue up and do it again. If someone is reported 50 times for being unskilled why are they still being matched up with people who have never been reported for such things.

I think the only way these problems can be fixed is if you were allowed to bring a third person into the solo queue, because despite being called "solo" your results depend so much more on other people (strangers, really) than it does yourself. At least this way you would know that the majority of the team is actually trying.

OR

Make the grades count for something. If I have a jerk troll a game and end 0/10 and I try my best and can muster an A or A+ despite the trolling why do we both lose the same amount of LP??? wth????

This game is so much fun, win or loss, when you have a team that is actually trying to win. The thing that ruins it are people who purposely sabotage ranked matches. I can't stand it

18 Comments

The GG Janitor2 votes

The grading system is based on many different factors including kda and cs. People can take advantage of that system if they feel like the game is already lost. They can purposely not group mid to defend just so they can get a few extra cs at top for better grade, or a support doesn't body block cait ult for the adc just so they don't get a extra death. There is only one real objective in this game, and that is to blow up enemy nexus and that's the only factor that should count.

Kazaashi1 votes

{quoted}

Firstly, I know someone who didn't even realize that Smiting red and blue gave you a buff get placed in Silver 3.

Actually, killing Red and Blue gives you the buff, smiting them only gives you health and mana, respectively. Smiting Gromp and Krugs gives you a buff, and wolves a ward. Make sure you have your facts correct before trying to sound superior.

Live2LetDie1 votes

It's truly sad to see low elo players dream of a higher elo because they believe they won't get trolls/afks/ragers and will just have more fun in the game. If this is your mindset then I'll tell you now it only gets worst. Now to your points.

  1. A game is never lost because of a single lane. Your mid could go 0/5 but if other lanes are doing fine you can win the game. Lanning phase is all about 1v1 match ups and you will get games where the opponent is just better, doesn't mean it's a lost.
  2. So you got an S on your champ but lost the game... Sounds like you don't know how to properly take advantage of your lead. This game isn't about kda but strategy. If your bot is getting destroyed and you pushed your tower down then roam. You outplayed your opponent now help others. Roaming is underrated and never happens in lower elos

There's a lot you can improve on. Get out of the mind set that there is an elo hell, this game is all rng that you get decent players, that "I" did good so I should of won, etc.. This mindset holds people back since they are blaming their losses on something else but their play. Until plat you have a huge part in a games outcome.

ScurvyNave1 votes

There's a lot you can improve on. Get out of the mind set that there is an elo hell, this game is all rng that you get decent players, that "I" did good so I should of won, etc.. This mindset holds people back since they are blaming their losses on something else but their play. Until plat you have a huge part in a games outcome.

Ok then explain how its my fault that the enemy Vlad in Mid got fed off our stupid Rek'sai and trigger happy talon and proceeded to carry his team to victory. I was Gnar top and got my turret down and 2 solo kills against my opponent (A sin zhao) and then tp'd bot to get a copule kills and help them out. But of course fed vlad is fed and we lost the game. I know for a fact that I made no critical error in that game and tried my damnedest to transfer my lane advantage to others.

But you know what stupid people are stupid and a fed enemy can carry if even 1 of your teammates is a moron.

Solo qui isn't broken but it sure as hell is not fair or an accurate assessment of one's skill and strategy.

The Griefer King1 votes

and this is why you wont get out of bronze

ScurvyNave1 votes

Truly a well thought out response from a humble man

The Griefer King1 votes

its true, until you stop placing blame on others, you will never get better. im sure you being 3/7 on gnar had NOTHING to do with it and you played flawlessly

ScurvyNave1 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Griefer King,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=WUG9GJnu,comment-id=00020000000000000000,timestamp=2015-06-22T17:57:07.985+0000)

its true, until you stop placing blame on others, you will never get better. im sure you being 2/7 on gnar had NOTHING to do with it and you played flawlessly

If you look at my match history you shall see that my deaths came in after the Vladimir had already been fed and that my entire team was stuck playing defensively. When a team loses people die just as I did. Plus being a tank Gnar means Im going in to disrupt and peel for ADC jinx. Sadly dying is inevitable in some situations as I'm sure that your deaths in your recent Evelynn games weren't entirely your fault either.

I got killed trying to stem the flood. I admit that blaming others isn't productive but one does not simply carry his team all the time. Bronze and Silver are full of decent players who are stuck having to play myriads of games because of factors outside of their control. I can improve my individual skill all I want but at the end of the day it's a TEAM GAME. And if your TEAM as a whole is less effective than the enemy TEAM then its a lost cause.

I can improve myself but it doesn't mean I'll reciceve competent teammates in my next promo series.

The Vlad out carried me. He got fed more than I could and as a tank he out dps me.

My team (including me) lost the game not myself as an individual.

The Griefer King1 votes

wasnt saying it was just your fault yall lost. i carried myself to silver 1 solo. bout to be in gold. and honestly i didnt start to win games until i started not to blame others and find my weaknesses in my own game that i could of done better and corrected those mistakes. i record my matches and rewatch them. i do record them on a diff pc in spectator mode so i can better analyze situations etc.

ScurvyNave1 votes

Yeah sorry for my saltiness in the previous posts I was still on tilt from the match.

Guess Its time to try promos again and best of luck to you and me

The Griefer King1 votes

if you still mentally on tilt i wouldnt go into a promo game.

Live2LetDie1 votes

looking at the stats for that game it was just played wrong. Like i said, one of your teammates lost, which is going to happen a lot. This vlad wasnt "fed", you do know he gets almost no gold for killing the same person right, early game and could of been stop. You were winning top but stopped splitting when bot was doing ok? You could of forced vlad to come top and stop your push which would of gave your team time to scale back up. Im not saying you would of won but could of played it better. Your team had 0 ap, no g wounds to hurt vlads sustain, and one ignite. It was a team lose, with bad team fights, and people getting caught out.

Flaming that people are stupid, the reason you lost, etc.. shows your elo. Like i said, you can change the outcome of a game, you just have to know how.

ScurvyNave1 votes

K thanks for the analyzation and yeah the last pick talon did screw us over with 100 AD dmg.

DrNova1 votes

Elitist.

Live2LetDie1 votes

I didn't say anything that isn't true. I didn't mention my elo or anything. Just pointing out facts.

DrNova1 votes

First the vauge "there's alot you can improve on" This is true for nearly everyone, but what isnt true is that they are lacking in something to such a degree that they could have won otherwise.

"A game is never lost because of a single lane" This is just false at non high elo's. Because soloQ, people dont hae the natural teamwork and communication to overcome a badly fed lane. Everyone is out for themselves mostly, even teams working together to some degree are playing solo. The attitude you and others like you perpetuate is "It doesnt matter what your team does, work on what you can control" which is all find and dandy except that it is misleading. You can do well in a lane and still have no chance because you had a lane just feed repeatedly, or had an afk from the start.

People who dismiss people bringing up valid points about ranking system and low elo hell always ignore the core aspect of the game, which is a team game. If you have a bad team, most times you will lose, period. There is no real mechanism for coming back from a game that gets skewed badly by something out of your control, besides "try to survive to late late game and hope you outscale them".

You can do well all you want, but one single person who is actually good can not carry an entire team of truly bad players (not counting people so good they will never be at levels where this is a common occurance), most times. And there are all the games where you do well, I.E. you have a tough lane/get countered hard/are camped BECAUSE you are the best player on your team, and in such a case not feeding, maybe getting a kill or two up and holding lane would be considered a win, but no, because everyone else fed or quit or are raging, and there is no one to step up to reward you for playing well and holding a tough lane.

The mindset is never "I did good so I should have won" Its "I did good but it didnt matter because the team around me was so awful".

I laugh every time I hear "Blaming your team is holding you back" Yet so many times it is exactly that. People who either got real lucky passing through low elo's or people who just are truly great at the game (and likely never had to play those elo's) will never understand that because of the elitist attitude. The worst players naturally end up at the bottom. There is a decent crop of players who end up having a porportionally harder time then anyone else because of the lesser quality of teamates they get.

Live2LetDie1 votes

It's a mindset like yours which is holding yourself back. Everyone started in silver or below at one point, considering that is where your placed on an in ranked account, and any high elo player had to work to get where they are through all the bad players, afks, and ragers. Your talking to a player that went from b2 to p5 last season from a change of mindset. Am no God at this game and I guarantee there are bronze players with mechanics that are gold level. But both you and the op already are stating that you believe if a lane loses the the game is over. You even said this is the mindset of low elo players.

DrNova1 votes

My mindset has nothing to do with the fact that I see it happen very often, that is a cop out elitist reply and nothing more. I didnt say "people at low elo's believe this", I said At low Elo's it is exactly what happpens. Unless you can snowball just as fast as one of your really bad teamates is feeding, there usually is no recovering with the teams you get saddled with.

You cherry pick my words and misrepresent them while ignoring my solid points to be all high and mighty, which is just ignorance at its finest.

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