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The Problem with the Bronze Division and Placements (A Bit of a Rant/Opinion Piece)

Ragnarøkr·3/21/2016, 10:32:15 PM·6 votes·2,019 views

So let me just start off by saying that I kind of took a season off last year, for the same reasons as I am about to explain. Coming back from that season (about a month ago) I was pretty delighted to see all the cool and new things that had been implemented. It took some time to get used to changes in items or champs, but now I would say I'm back into the swing of things. So I thought, "Hey, why not get back into some ranked? And so my problem begins.

Now I have no problem with having to work back up the later system starting in Bronze or whatever, and I'm not saying that I belong at the top by any means, but I am probably around a Silver I player if I am actually trying and work at it all season. So I'm not terrible (or i don't think so), but I by no means think I am great either.

So the problem begins when I go to do my placements. I start off 2 wins for 4 tries, so I think, alright, I can deal with that. I proceed to go 1 for 6 in the next sets of placement, due to some toxic, feeding, and AFK teammates. Honestly I might have dropped the ball and will take responsibility for maybe 1 of these losses as I am usually consistently decent. So I get placed in Bronze II, and think that I can deal with that no worries. Boy was I wrong here. I though that it was close enough to Silver to pick myself out of those Bronzes and get with a bit better caliber. And so the problem continues.

I have continued to try and try again in ranked games so I can get out of this Bronze placement, and I have been playing fairly well and am rarely toxic (you can check my history if you want I try to be kind), but have only won 8 games with 20 losses. Thats 8/28 for winning. In all honesty that is atrocious! I have included my last 4 of my ranked match histories in the link section but I will put them at the bottom too. As I hope you can see from these, the losses are not really my fault at all. I had decent games and mostly only died during teamfights because when they're all fed, I cant do much (maybe pick up 1 kill and then also die).

As you can see I mostly play Bruiser Junglers such as Lee Sin or Jarvan IV. I try to alwasy gank my lanes and usually get successful ganks, often getting first blood. I try to help those who need help, hold a lane as needed, control the dragons as possible, invade when I can, overall do what I can do to possibly win the games. So I do not think I am really the problem here. I always seem to get those trolls who use things like Full AP Malzahar Support, or the toxic people who just freak out on others after one death, or the people who decide to start a game then go eat dinner and just AFK, or the people who are just straight not ready to play ranked and maybe need some practice.

This is very frustrating to me and I find it a bit ridiculous. I know this isn't a problem I have alone, as many friends also have this dilemma and I have read other threads like this. I can only imagine how disheartening this situation could be to a person who just hit level 30 and wants to play ranked, but gets stuck like this. It can possibly cause them to quit (like I did), and never return (luckily I did return as I like the game).

I don't know what Riot could do here but maybe just look into it and share some ideas?

If anyone in a similar situation wants to talk about it or play some games and try to get out of it with me, feel free to add me. Below I attached 4 games to show how I think I am a decent player and usually end up unlucky with teams and think it's a problem.

Thanks for Reading, -Peter

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2132168670/36597930 http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2131479858/36597930 http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2130152265/36597930 http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2128816180/36597930

EDIT: I would like to emphasize the fact that I don't claim to be an amazing player here, but I don't think it is fair that I am being held back by this situation. I usually play Bruisers and Tanks, who are harder to carry with and die more often due to the fact that they are in there trying to set things up, so it makes it harder to get into a carry type situation. I'm not amazing, but I don't think I deserve the caliber of play I have been trapped in.

I also have no problem being a Bronze level player, as really that doesn't hurt me in any way. I'm not going anywhere big with this game. I just would like to be able to enjoy Bronze without the toxic, AFK, and purposely feeding players that end up ruining my experience.

What I mean by the Bronze Division is "flawed". There should be a way to keep all of the toxic people (the people who have been reported many times) in one category, until they have proven (through just time without report), that they would be able to play fairly so they aren't ruining games for everyone. This would be a similar concept to GTA V Online (if you have played that) where all the players who cause havoc and kill eachother are recorded and put with players who do the same so they don't ruin the experience for everyone.

Also as a side note, since I have been getting a lot of comments regarding my match history, I don't think you can entirely judge a game based on the end statistics. Sure sometimes I am carried, but often I contribute largely to the team dynamic. Even if it isn't through kills because it seems that's all most people care about, it can be through getting objectives, verbal help/attitude, baits, and so on. So I don't think looking at my end score and saying "this shows you do under average or poorly" is a proper representation of my abilities. Maybe we had an AFK and lost the carry. Maybe I had to go top midgame against a fed player who i couldn't take on. Maybe I was expected to initiate every fight and my team couldn't follow up properly resulting in more deaths on my part. You can't judge an entire event purely based on the result.

KEEP IN MIND I SPECIFICALLY WROTE THIS IS AN OPINION PIECE. I JUST WANTED TO PUT MINE OUT THERE AND SEE WHAT OTHERS THOUGHT. AN OPINION IS NOT A FACT AND CAN'T BE TAKEN AS 100% RIGHT OR 100% WRONG. THANKS

65 Comments

Asydic3/22/2016, 12:58:27 AM3 votes

Going to assume your a new player here.

5 tips I would give:

  1. You definitely at this point in time deserve bronze. Your ego or personal experience may say other wise, but your masteries, runes, cs difference (camp difference on junglers) are all unoptimised, confusing (movement speed quints everywhere) and poor. Your overall damage contribution to teams are also below average, implying you are not fighting correctly or contributing to teamfights.
  2. You may FEEL you are contributing more than you think you are, it may feel as if you have done your job properly, however this is obviously not the case. You claim to more often than not secure first blood, but you don't seem to snowball your advantage at all by reganking lanes with summoners down, taking camps when you see the enemy junglers on the other side of the map, etc.
  3. Your builds, especially lee sin's, is definitely incorrect. Although not a jungle main myself, I would highly recommend sites such as champion .gg or probuilds .gg for the correct runes, masteries and item builds. If you're serious about getting out of bronze to enjoy a higher caliber of games, watch streamers or youtube videos in the CURRENT time and essentialy copy what they do and think - I believe nightblue3 is an especially good jungler to watch.
  4. NOT EVERY GAME IS WINNABLE. You are correct that, in some times, especially bronze games, people will go afk, troll, etc, and this may make the game harder and/or impossible. In this case, simply criticize to the best of your ablities all your jungle decisions, mechanical plays, etc, and see where you messed up and could improve. Say you saw Elise coming from top side to gank middle, and notice her blue buff not on her, and you just finished scuttle crab, are you in a position to steal away her blue and capitalise on a failed gank or reduce the impact of a sucessful one? Jungle is one of the most rich roles to think about enemy movement and decision making goes a long way to upping your caliber as a jungler.
  5. Admit that you're probably bad. Not fine, not "better than the others", just straight up bad. Hell, I'm gold and I'm probably bad. Admitting you're bad, and not caring about your rank, as long as you still have a desire to win, is a great way to climb and is a good mental attitude for climbing.

Hope this helps.

Asydic

Viperjcs19853/21/2016, 11:00:50 PM3 votes

I started the season in B2 and hit silver within 20 games. It will go very fast if you don't belong there.

For example, I was winning 30-40 points per win and losing 10-15 points per loss until I hit silver. Now I win 25-30 and lose 15-20.

Gated D Latch3/22/2016, 12:38:31 AM3 votes
  1. The division is not really flawed. Keep in mind that it is the lowest division, so expect players to be bad in bronze.
  2. You don't necessarily deserve to be in bronze; if you grind, then you will get out eventually ( like me). It took me about 50-70 games.

Therefore, the poll answers are pretty much flawed.

Edit: Velkoz Nautilus support carried me out of bronze :)

Lugg3/21/2016, 11:11:45 PM3 votes

It should be weighted with your years of experience. Someone who has 3 years of league experience shouldn't be placed any lower than Silver 5 in their promos, and that's if they lose every game. If they fall after that, so be it.

Rain Smurff3/21/2016, 10:36:41 PM2 votes

If your a gold player, just climb out of b2 ? It takes me a week to get out of silver... If your good, you'll be out.

MKDkilla3/22/2016, 12:24:18 AM2 votes

Has anyone in bronze actually taken their time to look at themselves and think that maybe they just aren't good and belong there? Your games aren't that impressive, honestly.

There is a distinct difference between a silver 1, where you claim you belong, and a bronze 2. You should be able to carry on mechanics alone, and should be going 5-0 by 10 minutes if you're jungling with a champion like Lee or J4.

rtbf2256182413/22/2016, 12:31:49 AM2 votes

Try champions that can ramp up and carry easier maybe. Something like Shyvana or Master Yi. Yi is exceptionally easy to carry with if you're really good with him.

disregardable3/21/2016, 10:38:18 PM1 votes

So I skimmed the post because it was way too long to read, and I don't understand what the problem is. "I lost some games, therefore the system is flawed"?

LatetotheRace3/22/2016, 1:14:15 AM1 votes

Feasibly with the sheer amount of players in bronze, they could play with people only in their particular ranks right? E.G. Bronze 1 with bronze 1s, bronze 2 with bronze 2... etc. Not sure why this hasn't been implemented.

Goatfish3/22/2016, 4:00:12 AM1 votes

[deleted]

YouPoro3/22/2016, 2:27:39 PM1 votes

confirmation bias on the feeding part ( ever elo including diamond has feeders), afkers happen at all elos, maybe in lower elos more than normal, but that's part of the game you can only win so many. If you yourself think you deserve at least gold, then you should be able to 3 v 5 basically in bronze. I can practically 1 v 5 after lane phase, there is no teamwork in lower divisions it's all about hard carry, this will change when you hit gold and you start to see better rotations and objective control. If you find yourself losing too much, try playing normals for a bit until your back to normal. If it makes you feel better I started at bronze 5 and know the pain of struggling through games with unfair matchups, and then I realised I need to stop relying on my team and just carry every aspect of the game until people know what the hell they're doing. Also your build paths and masteries are wrong for lee sin jungle, might want to look at some pro builds and masteries to get a better idea of what to build. Not to mention your playing lee sin, which is probably one of the most hardest champions in the game to master, why not try easier junglers who do more for less, if your looking to climb that is. When you play simple stuff like pantheon/amu/warwick and are not hindered by mechanics, you focus more on gameplay, afterwards you can work on mechanics.

Asydic3/22/2016, 11:03:14 PM1 votes

If you're addressing my comments do not worry, there was no harm done. Forums are meant for discussion and it's interesting to hear your side of things. I wish you well in climbing dynamic queue and hope you can acheive silver to get higher caliber games.

Thanks

Asydic