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Is it still possible to climb solo?

BluePolarizer··1 votes·306 views

Me and a friend were both stuck in plat 1/2 for most of the past month. My friend then found another plat to duo with and they hit diamond today. Another friend of mine hit diamond when he duoed with me then didn't want to risk demotion so didn't carry me to diamond, but we had something like a 80% win rate while duoing. Neither of us could climb individually; we'd fluctuate up and down the rankings often, lose promos and have to start over, etc.

All this is despite us not using voice chat (I am bad at talking and playing at the same time and my internet is wood tier). It comes solely through knowing their playstyle, their face and having good synergy.

This has me wondering - with the new dynamic queue in ranked, will it even be possible for primarily solo players like me to climb?

Already, even a duo with good synergy and experience playing together, without voice chat, can absolutely dominate regular solo players. How bad will this be when 3-5 man teams with strong synergy and experience playing as a team, now on voice chat too, be for the solo players?

4 Comments

LuluInWonderland1 votes

I hear you regarding the new ranked queue as well. My fear is that going solo will not just put you at a disadvantage, but that being placed with and against premades of 3+ people is going to be a poor experience as well.

Worse yet, I think it will lead to many people being in leagues that "normally" they wouldn't belong in. A key characteristic of being plat, for example, is knowing more than just 2 roles at a decent enough level to not feed. People still do it, sure, but generally they are capable of going stale in lane and doing their job decently in a teamfight. With the new queue, you'll see a lot of people that are plat at a single role ( maybe 2) but will usually feed playing against their own elo in any other role. It's going to encourage people to focus on single roles...or even only a few champs...to climb. I think that's a horrible change for the game as a whole.

The issue with plat and higher games is that unless you are over a full tier higher in skill, climbing solo is hard. Many games you cannot solo carry anymore, especially at that elo. Some games you will just not be able to win by yourself, so climbing it takes a lot more matches and time.

BluePolarizer1 votes

Just tested my theory.

I decided to play 3 games solo. It is a whole different game. It literally does not feel like the same elo to be playing solo vs. playing duo.

Game 1: had a literal troll who said "first time Yasuo" in game because he didn't get jungle since he was "jungle only". Feeds 2/8. We lose to ultra fed enemy top laner. I was Janna support, meaning I could make no plays.

Game 2: had a guy who was "in it to win it" yet he picks Heimer, a champ he has 6 losses in a row on and no other games of Heimer. Feeds LeBlanc and AFKs. Meanwhile my ADC gets killed because he thinks he's full tank against ignite Alistar. When I tell him to last hit, he allows an entire wave to go to tower and he says "keep saying that, I'll miss the CS I want". Trolled again, ff 20.

Game 3: I am finally jungling. I feel confident I can hard carry. I start 4-0, forcing flashes, force feeding lanes kills and getting doubles for my carry lanes. The result? The minute I leave, the lanes get crushed again. Ashe gets force fed a double, feeds 3 kills in a row to enemy Vayne. Jax gets force fed a kill on Renekton, Renekton solo kills him 2 minutes later.

I predict that solo players literally will never be able to climb, even if their elo is far higher, just because of the discrepency between solo and non-solo.

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