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Understanding the ELO ladder...

Black Jesus lV·5/26/2015, 9:47:48 AM·26 votes·2,459 views

Climbing the elo ladder is a hard thing to do, purely based on luck, or an entirely new skill level. Before you go off screaming about how fair it is and how i'm trash, please listen, or tell me how. Out of 20 games from gold 4 to gold 1 i can win 15/20 of those games and once I hit a cap It sets me into a downward spiral losing game after game after game till i wind . After this has happened to me several times, i've decided to do some statistics, I call it the fluctuating ladder.

On my climb I was playing with the better teammates and some of golds worst opponents. example: my 1600 to their 1500.(maybe they're going through the fluctuating ladder). To put it plain and simple, during the climb I was placed on the better team 80% of the time, once i hit a promotion series they started placing me against players much better than me, and my teammates a MUCH MUCH lower mmr and MUCH MUCH more toxic, than where I was BEFORE promotions. Its a test (one you won't win as a simple league player like me). I play for a solid 4+ hours a day, and in comparison I honestly CAN say it was my team due to toxicity and trolls, bad non-meta picks and people that just didn't care... HERES the question, how do you expect anyone to climb with this system? I made it to platinum 4, after losing promotion series 6 times and going through this ladder at least 4 times. With that being said i believe its based on luck. HOW, How is this fair?

Sure, pros climb the ladder A LOT, you can use them as examples, but if you payed attention they duo with smurfs when they're in placement series to bump them OUT of the hell. Sure, good players don't have to do this, because well they're better and can physically just win by skill, but that's obviously because they're just better than bronze/gold+.

So here's my question: What about the players that can't advance BECAUSE of people holding them back? YES I MEAN YOU FOXDROP/SOUL WOLF. Yes I mean every toxic player that thinks he's better than everyone. IT doesn't sound too bad at all, after all its a game right? But that's an understatement, I don't play games to lose, League of Legends is all about the competitive scene, summer/LCS, splits, worlds, VG, MSI. AS A COMPETETIVE GAME THAT WANTS TO SEE GROWTH, YOU'RE KILLING THEM SOFTLY. How do players like me, enjoy the game when you simply can't? I believe I speak for anyone trying to climb this ladder that has a fluctuation. There should be a thresh hold or some way to re-balance this. I just can't be bothered by this anymore because I want to let the system depict how good I am based on my rank, yet i don't belong where I am. Riot clearly states that your rank is where you are, and where you need improvement, huh, well statistics can tell you otherwise.

So what can I DO to win? As a valued player who opens his wallet to support Riot know that my money is going to a good cause, considering they can't even balance matchmaking. How can I have fun if i know that i'll be in the same place I was 2 days ago... And don't you dare blame it on lack of sleep or how you're feeling that day... Because I can hop on halo/CoD/WoW/RS07/CS/ESO pissed or naw and still wreck face, but you know... League of legends can sense your feelings and know you're going to lose 8+ games in a row. HEY SEASON 2 CALLED THEY WANT THEIR EXCUSES BACK.

look at the fluctuation. Friends also have this problem:

http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/36753721#profile http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/31014583#profile http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/40140773 http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/44703196

item 3070 item 3070 item 3070 When will i bloom into a item 3040 ? Luck? Riot please, you're running out of time.

If you read this far, thanks.

22 Comments

JAGMAG5/26/2015, 11:26:08 AM12 votes

the game is actually designed to give you around a 50% w/l ratio so when you start doing good the system matches you with worse players and or against better players if you keep winning then your elo goes up if you lose your games get easier but you lose elo. theirs still a good amount of luck but that's how its supposed to work

jaymc11305/26/2015, 11:13:56 PM4 votes

Congratulations on reaching the realization that the ranked ladder below diamond level is almost entirely luck based due to matchmaking! You have now come to realize what I and several other master tier players (pissed we have trouble climbing on our gold smurfs) realized quite some time ago. Caristinn and I may not be liked by the high level community for saying this, but we will continue to champion the cause of a reworked matchmaking and ranked system. I will now bump for you a thread where many posts are made and many opinions shared. I will also link it here.

Your link: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/YTsfXbEx-oh-boy-looks-like-youve-gone-on-quite-the-winning-streak

Remlap12235/26/2015, 3:46:51 PM4 votes

Had a Tristana and her support Blitzcrank give me shit all game because I fed a Shaco mid as Gangplank (tried to lane swap with Akali to be matched against Annie, Shaco swapped back). Proceeded to get shit about being bronze the entire game from this "Platinum" player about how there were millions of players between me and her in terms of skill level. Proceeded to go from 0/4 to 8/9, take out 3 towers and the inhibitor twice while she proceeded to feed and lose baron buff and go completely after kills and not objectives. But please tell me how Yolo Queue is a good representation of skill.

I'd also like to add that I've seen Silver I players with Platinum level farming and Platinum players like those dipshits above care solely about kills and lose baron buff. Once again, please tell me how Yolo Queue is a good represenation of skill.

I probably could get to Silver and perhaps Gold if I wanted to deal with the bile of Yolo Queue and queued up with my IRL friend (at least it would get these higher ranked dipshits to shut up slightly), but honestly, I play this game to have fun. I wanted to climb the ladder to improve my own skills against challenging opponents, but instead I get to sit and watch my teammates feed, blame each other, and get roflstomped. Either that or it happens on the other team, and I roflstomp them without any effort. Solo Queue is just a big freaking joke at this point. You want a real way to test your skill? Get 5 IRL or Online buddies and make a ranked 5v5 team and try to climb the ladder that way.

Grashnim5/26/2015, 11:39:41 AM3 votes

Solo Queue is not a true performance metric, don't treat it as one.

KirynDawn5/26/2015, 2:49:41 PM2 votes

The feels. I've been up and down gold constantly. The only solution that I can think of but don't want to execute is duo q with my friends while he is on a smurf

bigd3an5/27/2015, 8:43:36 AM1 votes

You know wats rediculously stupid watching "pro" stream and everyone in their tier knows what there doing. And can COUNT on there teammates to be non retarded troll dumbasses. Also when they duo THey usually GET a third pro who they try to que with the same time obv no duo Shit is retareded rigged.

Black Jesus lV5/26/2015, 10:33:09 AM1 votes

bump

Singing Lark5/28/2015, 12:20:53 AM1 votes

Wow. I guess I'm never playing ranked ever.

Space Bum5/26/2015, 5:14:31 PM1 votes

Similar feels. Looking forward to trying out that douq.net app from that other thread. Been queueing with B5 friend and that is not helping matters because my win rate has dropped way down. Seems like the only good way to climb is to find a decent duo partner.

Macilento5/26/2015, 10:47:19 PM1 votes

i feel you so bad... I hae the exact same problem. In my case im constantly going up and down from gold 3 to gold 2, but nothing to do... no matter what i can win 5 games in a row just to lose 8 games ina row shortyl after.

Not to mention that sometimes you jsut feel you encounter peopel in your matches that shouldnt be in the same category as you. Sometimes you get people too much skilled for gold 3 level, other times you get people that have 0 map awerness and have 40 cs in 30 minutes... i have no idea honestly, it sucks and is frustrating as hell

CircusT4ffy5/26/2015, 10:47:35 PM1 votes

If someone is having a bad game because of lack of sleep/bad day; tell them to go to bed and that it's going to be alright.

Maybe next time they'll be better, but not everyone can perform when you need them to. That's just life. It's full of mistakes, and you shouldn't think any less of others for not bringing their A-Game every single time.

N30NP4NDA5/27/2015, 6:57:49 AM1 votes

Here's the real logic: You spend all of your luck climbing that when you get to your promos you have no luck left.