Boards›Gameplay

Why higher elo players are often the worst players in lower elo...

Weasel Kensei·5/26/2017, 1:01:19 AM·6 votes·1,611 views

Now off the title alone a lot of people will immediately have a hostile opinion of this topic. Give it a minute, you may still disagree, but just listen to the substance first.

While Iv had tons of "Im duo'd with my friend, Im (insert higher division here) on my main account" players in matches be bad; one the other night struck me with what the main issue with these players is when theyre doing really badly in a match. Yes, higher elo players can do poorly in lower elo matches.

So overall they did well KDA wise. The problem stemmed from them going out alone, getting caught out over and over and denying their contributions during teamfights making us 4v5 halfway through the match. All the while yelling at the team asking what we were doing, and stating it felt like a 1v5...

How did things get this way? Well, they were doing well. They had Anivia mid, and our top wasnt anything special, our ADC Jhin.... Well lets just say that we were up against a Karma sup that was hammering him, and I said "Get a vamp scepter to sustain the poke" and they retorted with "Hey autism" "Life steal wont do me any good while reloading." So yeah, those were our carries, a toxic asshat (who refused to build extra lifesteal), a blah top, a smurf, oh and our jg never ganked...

Our team had some real problems with properly rotating. We were in a skirmish at the dragon that ended up with both parties disengaging, then moving mid. Then the jg was moving up river to top, and so I was going up to help. Then a fight breaks out top with 4v2 that me and top lose as they dive, then the rest of the team starts going to top... slowly, as the opponents start moving back towards dragon and our guys stay top while they get drag... just constant "late to the party" stuff going on. I quipped "I think their version of the game installed without a minimap.

Well our smurf has had it at that point. This is where they become the worst player on our team. They have decided that the team is hopeless (maybe it is, maybe not) and that they will just have to "do it themselves." The "it" is everything. So they start hard pushing lanes while we try to collapse on invading enemy junglers, and split pushers. They face check the bushes. After all they have decided that theyre the best mofo on the team and they are in a higher division on their main account so they can do no wrong and every action is "safe" cause theyre basically just fighting against babies that arent as good as them.

So with them tilted at the team, they lose focus and just go HAM and end up giving them kills, and denying us a full 5v5 fight for the last half of the match. Our team and the enemy team being sick of their nonsense statements in the post game lobby tried to tell them their mistakes. Of course they still have the "IM THE BEST PLAYER HERE YOURE ALL TRASH AND WE LOST CAUSE YOU WERNT DOING WHAT I WAS THINKING!!!" attitude.

While I would say they were "Good at Anivia" and had above average game sense, map awareness, they were so overconfident in that they were "playing with lessers" that they had no respect for the enemy team and it lead them being caught a lot.

So what this boils down to is attitude in this game means a lot more than just not being toxic and avoiding calling the team racial slurs. It also means not mentally dividing yourself from your team and "going it on your own." It also means not disregarding your opponents, and thinking theyre "just getting lucky, I can just get them next time." The combination of attitude and our teams shortcomings just meant we had virtually no teamwork, and in a team game a higher elo player shouldnt be the one abandoning all teamwork and being the one making their team 4v5 constantly.

Alright I said the thing, remember people stay frosty, dont tilt.

15 Comments

SnakDatSmilesBak5/26/2017, 1:06:56 AM1 votes

Or when you do, vent outside the game like some people do on boards ;)

Just Jangle5/26/2017, 1:08:10 AM1 votes

You shouldn't backtalk a higher elo player.

Dreadlocks5/26/2017, 1:16:05 AM1 votes

Idk what you consider high elo.. but i dont do bad in low elo games =\

Frightning5/26/2017, 1:23:48 AM1 votes

Playing in lower elo can be hard for higher elo players because we're often not adjusted to what other people will and won't do on their own at that level of play. I'll never forget actually playing ranked in season 3. At the time I was probably high Gold/low Plat material, I went 6/1 in first 7 placement games, then had an 0/3 spree, so ended 6/4, placed Silver IV. Proceeded to stomp ever game just about, and got double promoted to Silver II. Continued to dominate games, got to promos, by this point the other players in my matches were mostly Golds and Plats. Lost promos twice, now I was getting matched with Silver IIs, I was struggling all of sudden, why? Because Silver IIs were just smart enough that I couldn't just abuse their lack of game sense or macro play, but were also bad enough that I couldn't rely on my teammates to make the smart play (like coming over to me when I'm caught by 1-2 enemies and turning their pick into a disaster for them and such). I found it difficult to make plays for Silver IIs, whereas in lower elos, I was just either solo carrying or my teammates were getting fed enough that they would carry it on their own.

SwiftKitten885/26/2017, 1:26:39 AM1 votes

i wouldn't say "often" worse.. it really depends..

a diamond player is likely going to bet a silver player..

although when i am on my main i can easily go toe to toe with some plats and i have many times. (and I'm technically silver), but i assume that has more to do with the game is unranked and they arn't on their main and i am

the issues is once the higher elo players get a lead i cant stop them.

higher elo players are GENERALLY good enough to to mindlessly feed. you don't generally see players with 5+ kills at 10 min.. which u CAN in silver.

if you and your lane opponent are dead even in skill and your top laner fed thier top laner 7 kills.. well even if you are the e same skill or even slightly better than thier top laner.. you probably cant fight them.. the gold difference outweighs the skill difference.

do u think my actual skill is silver.. not a chance in hell im EASILY gold but i cant tell how much higher becuase i normally only ever face golds and a few plats and once in a while a diamond.. but those are unranked games and i would be dumb to assume those players are on thier mains.. when i generally am (at least when i beat them).

i mean just yesterday i met a silver Riven player who i KNEW was good at riven... it wasnt her score.. it was HOW she played.. her ability to dodge... to predict.. she KNEW how to play riven. and the funny part was i am SOO used to playing games where people frankly ARN'T VERY good. and the only reason i lose a fight vs an opponent is when i screw up, when they god feed off another teammate and therefore have too much of a gold advantage my greater skill to overcome. or they frankly just hardcounter me. (mostly the latter 2 but i do make some pretty pathetic plays every so often, although the last one had more to do with until item 3102 was changed about half the chamption pool hardcountered Nidalee me and another 3/8th of it softcountered me.

Mysticman895/26/2017, 1:53:44 AM1 votes

If I'm playing in a low elo game (e.g. a bronze friend invited me), I'm probably going into the game with a less than tryhard mentality, and may or may not choose a champ I'm not super familiar with or less conventional builds to make things more interesting, which also contributes to losing more often than you might think based on rank differences.

Theres also a world of difference in playing at low elo versus high. A high elo played used to playing at low elo (e.g. they smurf often) will be far more stompy then a high elo player playing a one off low elo game, since you need to retune your instincts. A high elo sure kill no hesitation flash ult is not a sure kill in low elo where teammates can't be relied on to follow up appropriately, so while it was the 'right' play at high elo, it could just end up being a wasted flash/ult.

grug5/26/2017, 8:33:27 AM1 votes

high elo players usually win on macro game rotations in the mid-late game and/or outplay the opponent with their mechanics in lane phase.

low ELO win by gambling with seemingly randomly distributed kills across the map until 15mins where it devolves into an ARAM or player's just wandering aimlessly for a pick.