Gold 5 to Gold 3 with 7-3

I've come to the conclusion that the system is just random bullshit spewed out. My Diamond 4 buddy Lost 9 / 10 of his placements and got put in Plat 1.

It is. That's how it's designed.

I did shit in my placements and still got placed a tier lower than what I placed when I did placements like 3 days before ranked reset. So it is fair tbh it depend on your previous mmr. Mine was like mid high gold and I lost like 13 -17 lp a loss. I also gained like 27 to 28 a win. I placed silver 3 this season on this fresh account that I had placed in silver 2 with. I feel that's not bad at all. So even if you int if you had a better mmr last season then you will place decent.