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Forever Stuck In Silver

Simple Moon··2 votes·1,080 views

TL;DR This season I have been stuck in silver for what seems like forever. I was placed in Silver 2 right off the bat and climbed from there to Silver 1 and was very hopeful and excited to cross into gold. Then it seems like some Devine existence was hindering me from making that happen. I can usually carry from the role that I am generously given due to pick order. I don't complain, just play what helps the team. Always going positive and for awhile it was working. Then it seemed as if the flood gates had opened and matchmaker started giving me teammates who had no idea what was going on. As Silver 1 you sort of expect the teammates that you receive to have general knowladge. But when a Bronze 5 gets the right to ban and first pick lane it gets very frustrating. I'm not bashing on anyone because league takes time to learn and master, by no means have I mastered the game but I do understand what proper lane game play looks like, how to ward, push objectives, get those risky "worth" kills but it seems like the teammates I'm matched with are not aware of these things. Leading to all lanes losing but mine, no ganks and constant headaches on trying to get into gold. I play solo queue because everyone I know has a different schedule then I do and can't join me on the road to gold. I guess what I'm saying is that I don't see how it can be fair to match low level bronze (where you can lose every single placement game) to high level Silver and expect it to work. I usually don't have a problem as long as I can get into a roll where I can carry. But more often then not I receive last pick, get stuck filling as a support and the rest of the team doesn't step up into their rolls, resulting in a loss. Does anyone have any clarifications as to why there isn't more of a balance to matching teammates or tips on what to do to finally get out of silver, even with less skillful teammates?

8 Comments

Ternt6 votes

You've played 48 games.. Are you serious? First off,** I looked through 40 games and you managed to buy 0 wards, even playing support.. **No shit you're losing games. Secondly, you really aren't like super carrying anybody and you have no impact on any game I have seen. You play support champs with no amounts of assists, high amounts of deaths and mediocre kill stats. You're getting matched with low level Bronze because that's where you belong. You apparently are pretty new to the ranking system, I'd say you hit 30 1-2 months ago and you got placed into Silver 2 because you had good promos. Although you got placed high, now that you're actually playing, your MMR is around Bronze level. I am Silver 2 with MMR of 1200, which is normal for my level. You are in Silver 5 with MMR of 900, and the minimum for Silver is 1150. So contrary to your belief that you are on some high and mighty shit, you will fall to Bronze. I got put into Silver 2 when I first played at the end of the season last year, and I started to fall really fast because of this same reason. You think you're better than you are, and if you're willing to admit that and improve then you will climb back. I am currently Silver 2, placed in Bronze 2 and had a hell of a time climbing out. But climbing from Bronze I learned a lot about how to win games and what it took to be successful. But you are no better than any of your teammates, you are getting exactly the same skill level you are.

EDIT: And a side note, your grammar is really terrible, which doesn't help your cause.

Kaxi1 votes

Just about everything this guy said is about right.

Then again, I've known this for years and have been gold consistently since accepting my shortcomings in Season 2 (barely shy in S2 QQ). I mean, I was placed in Silver 5 after going 3-7 in Promos. It took me 50 games to get from Silver 5 to Gold 5. Ward, ward, play safe, watch the map, ward, and ward.

Atlas Mason3 votes

The moment you start thinking, "what could have done better", rather than "we lost because my teammate did or didn't do this." you'll see yourself climb, i started at b4 this season, trust me.

Simple Moon1 votes

See, I have done that exact thing. Always supportive and helpful when I can be. Try to encourage objectives and even set up kills but the execution/teamwork is not there.

Kaxi2 votes

The game doesn't match you based on your Tiers, Divisions, or even LP. It matches you based on your Match Making Rating (MMR). MMR is calculated based on performances against relative strengths. MMR is not dissimilar to the Elo system that Riot promoted for the first two seasons: you were just a number rising and lowering based precisely on how you performed against other people around your rating. Let me tell you that that system was dull and mundane and didn't give any short-term goals. Great, I'm 1200...got another 300 to go until I'm Gold. It was rather tragic because lots of players lost motivation and just didn't care because all they saw was a number, nothing else. When Riot changed their Ranking system to "TDL" (Tier, Division, LP), they introduced short-term goals and the ability to control floodgates. However, the ability to rise rapidly when it was deserved needed to be implemented, so they introduced an MMR alongside this shiny foreground of the TDL. Your TDL is just that, though, a shiny foreground that doesn't truly reflect your current value or potential as a player. MMR does just that, but it does make for some awkward situations where you're paired with someone an entire Tier below you either because of a duo queue or even because his MMR is really high (or your MMR is too low, even a combination of the two). The MMR is just like the Elo system from before where you're just a number, and your TDL rating is affected by your MMR compared to the MMR of the teams involved, which more likely than not is a net gain. However, this isn't assured, which is why many people get "clamped" with low LP gains for longs periods of time until their MMR rises to an equivalency of the TDL. This is nice; it feels good. Win streaks also temporarily raise MMR to test the individual not unlike series; the same applies for loss streaks with the lowering of MMR. I do like the steps that Riot has taken to lock out a lot of things to unbalance games, like the one-tier difference cap in duo queue.

Essay over.

TL;DR: System is great. It's not perfect, and there are flaws, but it's as good as it's going to get since we are all individuals on random teams.

Vekkna2 votes

A few constructive points:

  1. You need to hedge your expectations. 48 games is not "forever." It looks like this is your first season, and you only finished placements on July 22. That's only around 6 weeks.

  2. You probably aren't getting gold this season. Even my in-game friends who are plat and diamond in their second or third season say they only capped out in bronze or silver their first season. Change your mindset to be about improving your play, and assume gold is a goal for season 6. Plan on falling to B3 or 4; it will happen eventually just based on your win rate.

  3. You don't ward. Like ever. First off, you should be buying pink and/or green wards in every game. When laning, it's especially important to ward and expect ganks between levels 3 and 7 (depending on the jungler).

If you're a pure support, you need to buy a item 2049 first 100% of the time. Wards will get you more kills than a damage item and avoid more deaths than hp or armor. No matter what lane you are, upgrade your trinket at level 9 to item 3361 ; this is your top priority purchase 100% of the time.

  1. Learn your champs. I see you like Teemo but you are rushing item 3089 when it's not an early or mid-game item on Teemo. Even in games where you had a lot of MR on the other team, you still built item 3089 instead of item 3135 or even item 3151 . In another game against a Riven, you did the same thing, even though item 3191 needs to be your first buy in that matchup.

  2. You cannot carry when you're the one who needs a carry. It's true that you've had some games with shit luck and what looks like trolls and/or DCs. It happens. What looks more common is that you play champs who are lane bullies, but you don't know how or when to transition out of lane phase and into skirmishes over objectives and full-on team fights.

I can't tell you everything you need to know (because I don't know everything). But as Teemo, your job (with your preferred Runaan's build, anyway) is to win your lane, take the tower, shove the wave, and then rotate to the next safest lane and focus structures. Ward bushes and center jungle when you can and shroom the other lane entrances from jungle (and your escape route). Keep rotating like this the entire game until it's time for dragon/baron/inhibs.

Even if you can't get a turret, you can shove lanes super fast as a Runaan's Teemo. Learn when it's safe to go for the turret and when you need to just shove the lane to pull defense resources away from your teammates. The bulk of your mid-game power is that you can constantly divide their team all by yourself. If they ignore you, they lose turrets, and if they're split up all the time, they risk a 4-5 v 2-3 push to an inhib.

Hope that helped some.

Simple Moon2 votes

Thank you for the feedback! Will be doing these things!

SymbolicFear1 votes

I am silver myself, but I didn't start playing ranked at the moment I hit 30, I got to 200 wins before even thinking about ranked. Because of that, I was able to completely jump over bronze. I started doing exceptionally well, till only recently, where I have been fourth or last pick in ranked, being stuck in bot lane has really dampened my progress. I am not someone who will say my team did badly unless that was actually the case, and I will also throw the blame at myself if I get caught out, forget to ward, etc... Also, I am not the best bot laner. I am terrible at bot lane mostly because I hate the fact that I have to expect things out of my support/adc yet because I haven't ever played with them before, I don't know how they play. I don't know if they are going to be aggressive or just sit back and relax while I farm or what their plan is. Yet when I ask for aggression or passiveness I get flamed at cause "Marksmen are flamers" even though I wasn't flaming, I might say, "I am sucking" or something of that nature and if I say afterwards "Ward River" its taken as me demanding it and it is often assumed im raging, even though in reality, I just didn't want to waste more time typing to say please, although once they do it, I say TY

Anyways I am rambling off topic. The point is, Bot Lane is just a terrible lane right now as it is the least influential role while also being the most influential. Least Influential when it comes to helping your team, while being the most influential in harming it if they feed. Its really not balanced in any way, unless you have Vayne on your team.

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