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What playing flex q for a month taught me about the game...

option paralysis··56 votes·15,111 views

I was d1 in solo q, dropped to d3, then stopped playing ranked, because I was too angry and tilted to care. I'm playing flex q for a month, and the thing that makes me hate this game even more is that no matter how better I am, if I'm playing something out of meta, I can lose to fuckin' plat players, because they will bang their head on the keyboard and because they have a better champ, I'll lose. Dmg is so high you just can't outplay something in 0.5 seconds. Last game is the prime example, I was leona with jhin vs. kalista/tahm and we won early game, but as soon as kalista got botrk and tahm invalidated my 4 abilities with his ONE ABILITY, you literally can't do anything. They were plat 3, but doesn't matter.You can't play around it, you just lose. I have 75% win rate with udyr in flex, but I don't wanna play jungle anymore, because even with my god damn udyr, if I get a worse team, I just lose.. you can't carry 4 idiots who don't know what split push and wave clearing mean so we get back in the game... nooo, score is 10 / 20 kills and they'll fight instead of letting me split and them getting farm. This "team game" bullshit we're getting shoved down our throats is garbage. Combine that with dmg being insane, no wonder everyone is toxic and tilted when you have to play hundreds and hundreds of games just to get even on the coin flip of better/worse teams. Yesterday I had a 1/16 yasuo who really INT-ed 'cuz he didnt get a gank from our jungler. And what will happen to him ? apsolutely nothing. But hey, if I said stop inting you fucking idiot and wasting 40 mins of our life for no reason, I'd get punished for being toxic, yeah OK.

54 Comments

DOUBLE TAPPED E28 votes

It is pretty frustrating being so reliant on the team now, especially when you try to shotcall and they just do whatever the hell they want.

The biggest problem I have with it is I'm spending a HUGE time investment learning about macro, practicing mechanics, and broadening my champion pool, but I am consistently and repeatedly matched up with people who don't care at all, won't listen to what I have to say, and refuse to put in a fraction of the effort I've been putting in.

Sure, sometimes I lose because I do some really stupid shit, I'm Silver, I don't deny that, but far more common is losing because someone has no idea what the hell they are doing, refuses to listen to any calls, no matter how politely and patiently I word them, and throws a perfectly winnable game out the window because they don't feel like putting in the time it takes to learn from their mistakes.

Snowman Arc6 votes

That's the most frustrating thing. I also pay a lot of attention and watch a lot of videos about macro, champion limits, tricks and all that so that I can lead my team to smart plays, and then some random clueless person wants to do their own thing, having 0 reason for it, apart from "I'm Yasuo and I wanna fight".

SephAgro2 votes

Not saying you do this but there is good way to shotcall and a bad way. If you're just being bossy and giving out commands, even in a """""nice""""" way (champ x i think you should go here now and do this for me), then you wont get a good response. Leaders and shotcallers are servants of the people. They are there to give their ass to the team for the sake of the team. I learned that when backing up my shotcalling with really good plays people respond better and when I think about my orders as contributions instead of me 'leading', players respected my communication better.

DOUBLE TAPPED E4 votes

{quoted}

Not saying you do this but there is good way to shotcall and a bad way. If you're just being bossy and giving out commands, even in a """""nice""""" way (champ x i think you should go here now and do this for me), then you wont get a good response. Leaders and shotcallers are servants of the people. They are there to give their ass to the team for the sake of the team. I learned that when backing up my shotcalling with really good plays people respond better and when I think about my orders as contributions instead of me 'leading', players respected my communication better.

See there's my issue. I'm not a mechanical player, I'm a strategic one. If I want to make a really good play, it usually involves a teammate, and if they screw up their end, and the play goes bad, even though I KNOW we should succeed, they immediately start flaming ME for making the call in the first place.

But yes, I treat my solo queue teammates like a relationship. Say "we" a lot to build a sense of teamwork, instead of "I" or "you". "We" creates a sense of cohesion, where "I" and "you" are divisive. I throw in a lot of "please" and ":)" or ":D" or "xddd". I am nearly ALWAYS either polite or silent. The only time I get confrontational is after an entire game of being ignored, all my predictions have come true, and the enemy is in the process of finishing off the game after a completely avoidable ace. That's when I explain, coldly and clearly, exactly why we lost, in the vain hope that these monkeys will learn something.

Disembark24 votes

Okay this thread is so stupid.

  1. How the hell are Kalista/Tahm considered the "better champions"?

Kalista: A whopping 43% win rate. (.95% play rate) Tahm: With his latest set of nerfs: 45.84 % win rate (2.28% play rate)

On the other hand...

Leona: 48.20% win rate, 4.16% play rate Jhin: 49.5% win rate, 12.22% play rate

Kalista has ONLY one good thing in this game, and its her ability to win lane. If she loses lane, then shes so fucking useless its not even funny.

Is it maybe... no... that she won with a worse champion... some would say maybe.. by OUTPLAYING you? NO! Impossible!?!?!??

  1. You're playing with people in lower elo (hence flex), and then you get mad when they make lower elo descisions? I don't understand the reasoning of this at all.

If you play with/against lower elo people, then EXPECT them to make lower elo descisions. Or play normal ranked where people are equally good (or equally bad) as you (however you wanna perceive it)

  1. You probably dropped from D1 to D3 (and would continue dropping if you didn't quit SoloQ)... because you're not a D1 level player? A lot of people abuse early season to get higher ranks (i.e. a lot of people that are in D2 for the whole season hit Challenger in early weeks).

Hell Trick2g hit Masters early season with Udyr (much like you), and now he's stuck back in D3-D5.

I mean you've ended D5 for 3 season straight, and if you were D5 for the 300+ games you played last season, I don't think you magically improved to D1 level this season (especially considering that you have a shit mental, and make rage threads on boards every time you lose a game).

Well, thats just the truth, and I know no one wants to hear it.

GayFluffyUnicorn5 votes

BUT BUT BUT THE WINRATE ITS TEH TRUTHHHHH I KNOW HOW TO READ NUMBERS HEHEXD. Literally first high elo stream i open has a tahm kench in it. And alistar, sejuani, gnar. BUT BUT THE WINRATE. These champs have winrate so that must mean something.

Disembark8 votes

I really don't understand your thought process when posting this...

"First high elo stream I opened had TK in it, and that means more than winrate AND pickrate. Yes, that one time, I personally opened a high elo stream, I saw TK, and that counts as more evidence than someone who listed win rates AND pick rates.

Let me proceed to ridicule him for the fact that he used these win rates/pick rates as evidence for them being meta, and counter it with my own, clearly superior, one time opened a high-elo stream and saw TK evidence"

Jesus dude.

Also Kalista is so shit right now it isn't even funny.

Tahm Kench JUST got nerfed again in 8.8. The meta will not shift until MSI because everyone copies LCS. Also his pick rate AND win rate is shit, even in high elo.

Also "pick rate" determines what is meta. If his pick rate < leona's, then he is less meta by definition.

Neither Tahm/Leona both aren't really in the meta , but Kalista is complete horseshit while Jhin is good.

GigglesO1 votes

So tham can eat you, kalista ult (possibly flash needed), tham goes under tower using kalista ulti, tham spits you out, what do?

Altiverse14 votes

This. Champion > Skill since the start of this season pretty much, it's so darn stupid.

And no, I'm not saying this as a salty "I can't climb" excuse. Rather, I've climbed to D1 in soloQ just playing stupid, yet strong picks (mainly support tops), just because having an additional tank/support to your team will always be helpful to our gods, the lords and saviors worthy of our praise, aka botlane. More than any current toplaner at the very least. (And yeah, it's going to work mid too once the mana changes go through and mages can no longer permapush. yey!)

Disembark5 votes

Ok but Kalista is by far the shittest ADC right now? Jhin is way more powerful than her, especially later in the game.

If you won early... you have to heavily misplay to let a Kalista that is behind dick on you late game.

He’s claiming that champ means more than skill, but the enemy was playing a much shittier champ and won?

3TWarrior3 votes

kalista actually has a decent kit with a targeted stun, free engage for her front line and up to 20% max health magic damage for the price of one auto attack and as the person i'm sure thought was obvious, tahm kench is basically a perfect match for her with his own stun, large amounts of durability and a strange reliance on auto attacks as a tank

thing about her though, it's almost impossible to coordinate in solo queue, so she's not very valuable there and she also has her mobility balanced with a 90% modifier on her AA damage

My Waifu Vanilla3 votes

Kallista still sees next to no play this season in pro play though when they have the coordination and LOVE kallista. She is hot garbage. She does next to no damage unless you win lane and falls off like a brick compared to an ADC that actually builds crit (or on-hit for Kai'sa/Varus). Also, champions like Skarner and Olaf have been running around all season who both don't care about kallistas little bunny hop and will run her down.

IainG102 votes

The shittiest ADC has until now and forever shall be Sivir . So much of her power budget is spend on her safety, that her ult is essentially item 2065 and she has 0 cc. She is baby's first ADC, and whilst there is certainly a place for that, just ask yourself, when was the last time you thought "Oh fuck, that Sivir's ahead, guess the game's over now..." . . . No, it's "Ah, Sivir's ahead, better get the mid to go stop her splitpushing bot for the 4th time"

Disembark1 votes

Ever heard of the “500cs win condition”? That’s for Sivir.

Sivir at 3+ items means the games over. She’s never great in SoloQ because her ult isn’t as impactful, but she does a fucking buttload of damage in late game.

IainG101 votes

With the damage; that's true of every ADC at the moment. Played a game with Cait earlier and at 35 minutes I 2-shot the enemy Draven (who beat me in lane btw). She does have an amazing split lategame, but I'd say not noticeably better than Ashe /Kalista /Twitch /Xayah

My Waifu Vanilla2 votes

How do you explain seemingly random switches in "meta" then? Trundle received no direct buffs/nerfs so far this season but is now a top tier jungler in competitive. Caitlyn was considered garbage by almost the entire playerbase and has received no buffs in who knows how long, but is now a top tier champion. Caitlyn does just as much damage now as she did at the very start of preseason (less actually due to rune nerfs like Coup), but is now considered overbearing whereas at start of season she was a troll pick.

JJI7449 votes

That awkward moment when you realize your example has the more off-meta pair winning.

Disembark5 votes

I love how you’re getting downvoted when Kalista is sitting at a 43% win rate and Tahm at a 47%, whereas both Leona and Jhin have higher win rates and pick rates.

JJI7443 votes

A lot of people on the boards hear something they can use to jutstify losing, then just parrot it without actually checking if what they are repeating is legit or not. They don't take kindly when someone points out what they are saying is not based on reality.

Seenan4 votes

{quoted}

I love how you’re getting downvoted when Kalista is sitting at a 43% win rate and Tahm at a 47%, whereas both Leona and Jhin have higher win rates and pick rates.

Why're you concentrating on winrates? In coordinated teams, Tahm shits on most supports cause he has a 'get out of jail free' card for his carry. That's why he's still viable in LCS.

My Waifu Vanilla4 votes

he didn't fixate on winrates. He said winrate AND pickrate. Pickrate determines meta. Pre-rework yorick or top lane karthus CONSTANTLY had winrates of 58% or more in high elo but were still never meta because their pick rate never even reached 2%. Pick rate determines meta. That is a factual statement. I don't care how good a champion is if it's pick rate is hot garbage and thus "not meta". TK doesn't see play in solo queue at all AND does poorly when he is picked. That is a statistical fact. He is OBJECTIVELY worst statistically than Leona just as Jhin is OBJECTIVELY better than Kalista. Everything else such as TK "could do" or "can do" means nothing when he IS worse than Leona at winning the game.

Also, Tahm Kench only does well when he can actually use his W on something that does damage. Eating Kalista accomplishes nothing since all it is going to do is have her spears fall out of the target (without rending them) and she has to start over while doing negative damage autos while Jhin and Leona can just reload much faster.

IainG102 votes

If both champ sets had equal mechanical difficulty, pick/win rate would mean something. Kalista is one of, if not the most mechanically difficult ADC due to her move-and-shoot interaction, and the fact that her ult is completely and utterly pointless if her support roams or takes an non-engage tank. Most people pick her up once or twice, fail horribly, and never even think of her again until the see her against them. Tahm Kench is not the most mechanically difficult champion out there, but compared to Leona's entire team-worth of cc and easy dash-root engage, he is NEVER going to see her pick rate. Eating the wrong thing at the wrong time, the minion-block and condition on his stun, and blowing your Grey Health battery at the wrong time are all potentially play-destroying, and whilst yes, you can save a team-mate, TK still has less effect on a team fight than Leona's ult. But if you take the single tankiest support, turn him into a half-lane radius cannon-ball, and follow him up with a champion that effectively has Blue Smite after 4-to-2 seconds of autos, you are going to affect play in a very serious way. Jhin and Leona are very safe, meta champion choices, but anyone who has taken the time to get good at the mechanically harder ones will be rewarded because of how much more power they can have in their kits. If you are against one of those players who is keeping Kalista at 43% win when so many of her games are first-timers or people learning, you should fucking fear them!

sphinxthelion78 votes

Yup, you pretty much said the same thing I have been saying. I have deleted this game. It's a damned shame too because I really like this game. My final game I smashed bot lane to pieces. But my teammates just fed like retards and we lost anyways. Like you said, you cant carry 4 retards. It is a total flip of the coin if you get a good team or a shit team. And if your MMR spikes you will likely get a shit team because riot thinks you should be punished for playing well because they have their heads up their asses.

PhearBunny6 votes

i mean...hard counters exist, and Tahm is a Leona hard counter. You were lucky to even win early. Rank means nothing unless youre above Diamond and even then its hardly an indicator of superior over lower ranks in terms of skill. Que normals for a month, and watch Diamonds lose to offmeta silver 1tricks repeatably every game. A massive demographic of LoL has stopped caring about ranked because all it does is induce stress, in a game where your own personal skill is irrelevant.

it doesn't matter how good you are, how fed you are, what rank you are, you cant stop your bad teammates from making game losing decisions. Games can no longer be carried to a win, they can only be carried to a loss. Idek why anyone is queing ranked with the game in this state. You are literally flipping a coin every match.

y0r1ck2 votes

Tahm should not counter everyone who wants to hard engage. I can live with him countering 5-10 champions but he just counters everyone who wants to cc the adc or damage the adc. Hmm who doesn't he counter?

My Waifu Vanilla1 votes

Tank shredders who just murder TK first. Please play TK into Varus in his current state. Sliced through like butter. Also, TK loses to poke or VERY frontloaded all-in in lane since TK has next to no lane presence besides eating his carry every like 20 seconds meaning you can just abuse HIM in lane while he is squishy and has absolutely nothing besides his E to help him (and if he pops it you just walk away and he just cost himself a lot of potential health from just healing).

IainG101 votes

Morgana, and a good Janna is an absolute pain to deal with. An Alistar who knows how to disengage you can also be problematic

Rìveń5 votes

It's not the better team that wins the game anymore, it's the worse team that loses it, that's sadly what this meta seems to have boiled down into.

And it doesn't even have to be that the entire team is worse, just one botlaner, that's all it takes.

BestPudgeNA5 votes

"Damage is too high, you can't counterplay" "WTF my all in Champ got hard countered"

I love it.

T4underbolt1 votes

DMG is too high in a matter of everyone being overloaded. Tanks doing DMG when they are not supposed to. Supports doing DMG. ADCs having too much DMG. Getting your engage nullified with one point and click ability on low cd is a different problem.

2Charmnot2Charm4 votes

https://i.imgur.com/Uii6p5U.jpg My flex games just tells me it doesn't matter if mid and jungle are fed, we still had to stall the game for our adc to be strong before winning the game.

Yes it was 4v5, but me and jax were this far ahead in levels and yet still had to depend on our adc to get towers (not that twitch wasn't trying but just look at how far behind he was, he isn't getting any towers like that) https://i.imgur.com/qy1kqaF.jpg , i tried to fix the problem by getting lich bane but it's just not the same as having a real adc deal with towers for us.

I might as well keep playing lulu mid since adc is that important zzz, at least I'll be passing the time by tilting the enemy mid laners with her during laning phase.

xelaker3 votes

[{quoted}](name=d5 is my legacy,realm=EUNE,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=YVrxuiMl,comment-id=,timestamp=2018-04-22T09:37:41.241+0000)

I&#039;m playing flex q for a month, and the thing that makes me hate this game even more is that no matter how better I am, if I&#039;m playing something out of meta, I can lose to fuckin&#039; plat players, because they will bang their head on the keyboard and because they have a better champ, I&#039;ll lose. Dmg is so high you just can&#039;t outplay something in 0.5 seconds.

crying like this and losing to the lower ranks warms my heart. get off the high horse kid :)

TS Media1 votes

Actually, I feel his sentiment. I lose on a regular to silver plays at the current moment the way this game is set up. We won't even talk about the crap fest gold is for me.

xelaker1 votes

yep, gold is a crapshoot with a bucket full of dice

º Kindred º3 votes

champion pick >>>>>>>> skill Bullshit af since season 8

50Shades0fTrynda3 votes

6?

50Shades0fTrynda2 votes

just none noticed till now in which directions game is going

SwiftKitten883 votes

[{quoted}](name=º Kindred º,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=YVrxuiMl,comment-id=0009,timestamp=2018-04-22T17:49:40.686+0000)

champion pick >>>>>>>> skill Bullshit af since season 8

yes been it been that way since at least season 7, likely season 6

Red Wreckage2 votes

DAMAGE IS TOO FKING HIGH

I think 80% of players will agree/already have agreed to this....but these "brilliant gentlemen & and ladies" in balance team just won't fking budge and try and lower this shit.

50Shades0fTrynda2 votes

mybe balance team is just an algorithm (or so called AI) after all

ForFoxSakes1 votes

I just play on 2-3 accounts every season and thats how I tolerate it. Get main to gold 5 each season for the rewards then I'll do ranked on it when I feel like its in a fun/good/balanced spot AKA mostly just 40-50 games each season because trying to do ranked and really care when things are messed up just stresses me out

Alt accounts to learn multiple champs and play without needing to fully care

MagicalDemons1 votes

Yesterday I had a 1/16 yasuo who really INT-ed &#039;cuz he didnt get a gank from our jungler. And what will happen to him ? apsolutely nothing. But hey, if I said stop inting you fucking idiot and wasting 40 mins of our life for no reason, I&#039;d get punished for being toxic, yeah OK.

http://eune.op.gg/summoner/userName=himmelherrgott

you're 100% right. Still playing games, as of right now, he played an aram 5 hours ago. But yet if you had said anything you would already have been punished/banned.

Hawthorn Tree1 votes

...lol you see though, your example contradicts your claim. You say damage is too high, but the only real counterplay to Tahm Kench is to oneshot the target he wants to protect before he can even eat them, which requires insane amounts of damage. The game is in the shitter, not because damage or anything, but because Riot puts retardedly strong things into the game without even considering if they can ever balance. TahmKench's peel, Fiora 's damage, Vayne being a supposedly squishy and vulnerable backliner but also being one of the best fucking duelists in the game, all these shits are obviously impossible to make fair, but Riot just go ahead anyways because their ego is literally bigger than Trump's.

Azazel Aerternum1 votes

I definitely agree, 30% winrate whenever in promos, 80%+ when out of them, it seems to match me up with the most mentally insufficient players it can find, to test my patience, and ofc screw me over.

Sire Hippington1 votes

not disagreeing, but....what has this to do with flex specifically?

Power Cosmic1 votes

If the Tahm was a counter pick, then I wouldn't sweat it and would actually congratulate people still doing that. But I do agree, front line jungling for bad laners is one of the more frustrating things in the game.

5050BS2 votes

No Tahms shield is stupid broken and with Kalista ADC she can just Ult him away ot he you are focusing her (like you should) he just eats her and runs.

Even if fed like Yasuo there is a point in the game where you just lose to them.

chipndip11 votes

Or you picked Leona into the hardest peeling warden in the game?

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