Arbitrariness(Elo Hell)

Zelmarked·May 18, 2015·2 votes·889 views

Last game I queued up for had no communication in the lobby. I'm first pick so I call support as so to prevent countering and another calls top. I tried TWICE to get others to call their lane but nothing. While 2nd pick had already claimed Lucian, our 5th pick autolocks cait and says nothing. Suddenly my team speaks up but nobody bails. Naturally we surrendered. Cait went mid and no, did not pull some miraculous meta breaking stunt. She went 4/13/5. Enemy team built armor. Our Udyr went afk near the end and I don't blame him. He was carrying the best he could.

My whole time playing this season has been arbitrary. I started in B3. Got deranked to B4. Then moved up to B2. Now after last match I'm back to B3. I think my skill as a player has little to do with whether I win or not. It's mostly to do with a dice roll that's called champ select. Will our team get the afk/troll, or will the enemy team get the afk/troll? Will I have to be the one that bails to avoid the champ select terrorist that didn't get the lane he wanted? I keep playing because it's fun. But I don't ever boot up a game knowing I'll get a competitive experience. If you asked me in a general sense, "Is league of legends competitive", I'd tell you yes. But from game to game, the arbitrary nature that is champ select, no. It's not. I could play another hundred or so games and make it to silver, but do I have the patience for that?

Above all I hate how you're ranked as an individual based on your W/L but your W/L is based on a vast majority of factors outside of your control. Your efforts as an individual are mute.

(Also the 20min limit for surrenders should be removed. If you have a afk/feeder, it's an obvious loss.)

9 Comments

KazaashiMay 18, 20152 votes

There is no MMR penalty for a dodge, but you will lose a series game and like 5 LP.

Ranked is no more arbitrary than normals. People just have a lot of stress over a stupid ranking. Which causes them to act like jerks.

Your individual efforts are not moot, you just have to make sure that your efforts are increasing your chances of wining the game.

I think about Ranked this way and it has helped me tremendously:

40% of your games are going to be lost due to DC/AFK/Feeder/Troll/etc on your team.

40% of your games are going to be won due to a DC/AFK/Feeder/Troll/etc on the enemy team.

Only about 20% of the games you play in Ranked will you be able to have any meaningful impact in. It is those games that you have to identify and make sure your contribution is positive and leads your team to a win.

Adaelphon DelatMay 18, 20151 votes

Actually, in theory, if you are not a feeder/troll/etc... then you will win more games than you lose because of one, since only 4/5 of the players on your team have a chance to be trolls, while anyone on the enemy team can be. People don't always notice this because of various cognitive biases, and the fact that you don't always notice a troll on the enemy team if they don't use all chat.

KazaashiMay 18, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Adaelphon Delat,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mPxa1YZt,comment-id=00020000,timestamp=2015-05-18T19:26:33.015+0000)

Actually, in theory, if you are not a feeder/troll/etc... then you will win more games than you lose because of one, since only 4/5 of the players on your team have a chance to be trolls, while anyone on the enemy team can be. People don't always notice this because of various cognitive biases, and the fact that you don't always notice a troll on the enemy team if they don't use all chat.

Oh, believe me, I know. I post that statistic many, many, many times.

However, things don't always work out how the statistics say, so it's often more practical to look at it that way.

ZelmarkedMay 18, 20151 votes

Also question. If you're at 0LP and bail, do you ever get deranked or can you continue to skirt undesirable queues?

GuardDXMay 18, 20151 votes

I believe you still lose MMR, which means it gets harder and harder to rank up.

S H A Y C 0May 18, 20151 votes

unless you plan to build damage and carry the crap out of that game..dont pick support on purpose in solo Q

you need a carry role, and you need a very sturdy back pack.

Adaelphon DelatMay 18, 20151 votes

That's not true. A good support can absolutely make or break a game (at least in silver/gold, I can't say anything for bronze). The problem is you have to know how to play support properly, there's more to it than just buying a sightstone and a relic coin. I'd honestly prefer a mediocre ADC over a mediocre support, since a mediocre ADC still knows how to right click.

S H A Y C 0Jun 2, 20151 votes

i played with a draven this morning who would beg to differ...apparently no one told him catching axes doesnt do damage...you have to throw them at champions first Amumu