Fuck ranked, and the current state of the game.

Hardly worth the stress, especially now that you implemented an early surrender (yeah, because you were all about lifting up the toxic environment, and this is totally gonna do the trick.) Get that shit out of here. All it means is 1) you admit the game has come down to such a god awful state you feel the need for people to leave games hardly 15 minutes in. Why even have late-game champions anymore? 2) Prevents people from learning how to come back from games.. but then again, maybe that just supports my first point in that they're hardly possible anymore, regardless of elo. As if it isn't bad enough for that stupid pop-up to show up.

That's exhibit A: your beta teammate who doesn't understand that building his cookie-cutter MOBA build when he's 0/3 isn't going to work out, and maybe he should build accordingly with the scenario at hand, but would rather blame something ridiculous like a certain champion pick or the comp when he's died 1v1 multiple times early.

Exhibit B: the snowball meta. The Rift's become a place where a single kill by the enemy Riven pretty much guts any chances of top lane making any sort of comeback unless the Riven misplays REALLY hard. And this applies to just about any popular top pick out there, Riven being the worst-case since last I checked, she was the best overall top laner in the game.

Exhibit B/C: here's the thing with snowballing though; there are three "carries" in the game: marksmen, mages, and bruisers. Tanks with hard cc used to have their spot but with health items gutted, they get shredded too quickly unless the game lasts 30+ minutes, which it rarely does; don't count on them.

Marksmen have high DPS and scale the best with items. HOWEVER, they hardly have defensive items that grant them HEALTH on top of high AD, crit, and other valuable stats. Resistances by themselves mean little, hence why it's loads more efficient to buy hp first, unless your concerns are lethality, in which case you've got tabis as a cheap defensive item against AD assassins. So when it comes to the other carry, arguably the most powerful in the game, MAGES, your luck's run out. Mercurial won't save you from burst, Hexdrinker will, right? Sure, early, until they complete their penetration and second AP items. Honestly, they should just combine the two items into a viable defensive item that not only provides a thicker shield and has a cleanse active for cc, because more often than not you're thinking to yourself (both would be really nice to deal with Orianna.) Lastly, there are the bruisers, the easiest class to master since they've among the lowest mana costs in the game. all do a ridiculous amount of damage early, while having some form of gapcloser, reliable cc or steroid yet remain so relevant lategame as a sort of pseudo assassin class by how quickly they burst down anyone who isn't build health and armor. They make champions like dog shit because bruisers/juggernauts do their job but better. They have both good burst/dps and can tank multiple tower shots before feeling anything. I often question why marksmen are even needed anymore considering how reliant they are on other players to do their job, even the pro players feel how lackluster the role has gotten. I can't call them AD carries if they can't carry anything unless they're 7/0. It is ridiculously easy to blow them up, they require massive amounts of gold to get going, they rarely have reliable cc to save themselves with, and kiting is nearly impossible without a completed zeal item, tier 2 boots, and maybe even some lifesteal. Even then, lifesteal won't save you when their mage full combos you and deals 1400 damage in 1.4 seconds now will it? Or their Sejuani lands a massive stun on you and the world is free to walk onto your corpse as you lie in melee-range in front of 3 of their teammates.

So fuck the marksman role; don't even bother learning it. It's hardly rewarding most of the time, and again, requires a lot of reliance on your teammates to get going. Mages and bruisers on the other hand have more tools to initiate teamfights, provide the necessary burst and cc to take down other mages and marksmen, etc. Not to mention mages often work at safer ranges. Also, the magic resist items they came out with are pretty shitty, and with magic penetration values unchanged, they're dominating the game as of now, and knowing Riot, will continue to do so for the rest of the season. You're better off learning how to play Orianna, Lux, Syndra, Fizz, Ziggs, etc. They only need a kill or two to get going.

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SoloQ Rift - Ranked 8/10, I'm at a loss as to how some of these people made it past silver 4. The majority of games have at least ONE terrible teammate who probably played 3 games with the champion, watched a video, and convinced themselves they can hold their own. OR, they're that "X main" with over 300 games and a 40% winrate on the champ. Well, that lane's likely lost no matter what you do. The game becomes unwinnable the moment you have TWO lanes that struggle. Remember when I talked about snowball? Yeah, I'm normally the optimist who immediately nays the surrender vote because I know we scale well in about 7 minutes. Now, I just vote it out of spite. The thing is, Riot is making the game so nauseatingly team-oriented that individual mechanics hardly matter anymore. Your opponent can be god awful but all they have to do is sit it out and wait for the true carries to come down and burst you in 2 seconds. You may have 30 cs over your opponent, but what does it matter if you can't deal with the fat mage because she effectively out-ranges you by like 300 units and will destroy you before you fire 2 auto attacks (if you're lucky)?

Anyway, Riot's had the scoring system for what, two years? When are they going to do something about solo queue? And it's funny because as I've been talking about, the game hardly favors individual skill, as it did in seasons past (I've played since season 3; good times, even though I was awful.) And it's not like my attitude towards winning changed; I've always preferred winning, and losing against GOOD players who outplay me with movements, trades, timing, etc. THAT made the game intense, strategic, and enjoyable. Not pressing R on top of me and bursting me for half my health. So why not make that cs lead you have over your opponent mean something when it comes to LP gains/losses? E.g. you're the jungler, you've maybe 45%+ k/p, decent kda, a reasonable threshold of damage for your champion, and your teammates are 0/2/1, 4/8/2, etc. In other words, it appears that while your teammates were thirsty for kills, you elected to participate in viable fights and came out on top while others played carelessly. Okay, maybe save 3-5 LP for your efforts in completing the game without voting yes to a surrender. A system that recognizes an indvidual's desire to see the game through to the end, rather than moving on to feed the next one because you're too "tilted" to realize your own mistakes and growing as a player by learning to make comebacks. Too bad I'm only one vote, and if my teammates have already given up, the only thing I've got to show for it is a win/loss brand on the match history. In fact, feel free to watch some of the replays. I've had some of The Most questionable players who have the audacity to play ranked and kid others that they're taking it remotely seriously. Yi top, botrk rush against AP Ekko top, rather than Hexdrinker. 1/9/0. Fuck me. Bot lane Cait Janna vs Jinx XERATH. Loses terribly hard. What fucking dimension am I in where this mode is called solo queue, yet the game is mostly decided within the first 5 minutes? Where the blame is on you for teammates who don't ward (and have an attention span) to realize the enemy jungler is coming for the 5th time because they're shoving to turret, again? The whole "you'll climb if you deserve the rank" hardly fucking applies.

I hit plat in like what, 90 games from silver 3. Pretty damn good batting average. And like ~ 90-100 games from P5-P4. Not great but far from terrible. All from using the most off-meta picks like Veigar support, Malphite jungle, and occasionally Naut jungle. Easy time. Yet for some reason, it gets ridiculously harder each season, rather than easier. Why? I can point the finger at the stupid idea of allowing 5-man premade into a solo queue, making it child's play for multiple smurfs to hop on and boost their friend(s) by having them play jungle/top or something easy. It saturated the hell out of gold and plat; a lot of weak players who shouldn't be playing remotely close to the elo. It doesn't help that Riot insists on making the game more snowbally, which favors the weak (majority of players who can't stand using their brains for anything that isn't a pubstomp in their favor). So in short, a lot of my ranked experiences recently are made up of shitters who don't ever shut the hell up about the most minute things, and despite muting them, doesn't change the fact they've already impacted everyone else on my team. And with the damage already done ("tilt") and this being a nauseous experience where victory is decided by an average and failing to recognize the individual player, ranked isn't worth it. Personally, I'll stop at plat 5 for the border, hopefully within the next 50-60 games, but fuck this game. I play it half-heartedly because it's just decent enough of a game to be worth the stress of playing it in the first place, but not nearly enough to convince me to spend another cent on it. Fuck this garbage. I could care less about that mediocre-looking Pulsefire Caitlyn skin when the marksman role is purged by a 3-button-burst class of champions. When you claim to listen to the community yet shit never passes for like a year (a [4th?] Ryze rework rather than reworking/retuning Yasuo's numbers.) Still waiting for you to buff the towers! Mages need actual mana costs! And after what appears to be a fucking century, ~140 champions later, you FINALLY implement a 10-ban system. "Hey, this champion's pretty broken -- LET'S RELEASE SOME NEW ITEMS. THAT'LL CLEAR UP THE VARIABLES AND ISOLATE THE PROBLEM AT HAND!" As if it's fucking rocket science -- I don't think the balance team even plays the game, honestly! Riot logic: see problem, make it harder to solve by changing up more shit.

Fuck this game. :D