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Good news for those trying to rank up, "Elo Hell" DOES Exist.

VMystikage·3/12/2016, 12:35:48 PM·4 votes·891 views

I know I know... a lot of players are saying that it doesn't but trust me, it does. Let me explain. The ranking 'elo' system was designed to be accurate over the long term, not short term. The more games are played, the more accurate it is. This could be a few hundred games, especially in Season 6 with the hard reset. Someone in Platinum 3 could be placed in Silver 3 from unlucky placements: Ex. Having four 4v5 games, two games with trolls, and two games you disconnected, and two games you won.

Assuming you win 100% of the games, that is still an average of 7 games per division for 11-12 divisions = ~84 games. Losing just ONE game adds THREE games to the number. If you lost a game, winning the next one brings you back to zero. Meaning you played 2 whole games for no gain. Most people who climb do so with an average win-rate of 55%, meaning you lose 45% of your games. Out of 100 games: 55 wins, 45 losses. With this basic understanding, in reality to get back to where you were (Plat 3) would be at least 113 extra games bringing your total to at LEAST roughly 200 games. This is assuming everything goes perfectly as planned.

Unfortunately, luck does play a big role in league of legends. Better players can and do lose to worse players. Higher elo players will still lose games to lower elo players. You can play perfect and still lose. Conversely, you can play a horrible game and still win or get carried. Sometimes you'll get five 4v5 games in a row where one person never reconnects. You'll get 'duo' who will only play certain roles no matter what, if you don't let them then they will troll.

In the short run (below a few hundred games), two identical players with the same exact skill level WILL end up with different results. One may win 20 games in a row while the other may lose 20. Now one of the player has to play a total of 40 games just to be even with the other person. This is 'elo hell,' it's the short and temporary but it DOES exist. 'Elo Hell' is simply the Elo that you're stuck going through for a certain amount of games, just because you're stuck for 30 games in a division does NOT mean you belong there. I can go into more details but it'll get too long (if it isn't already =p) I've made it to Plat 3 many times and I honestly believe 'Elo Hell' does exist.

7 Comments

Maikal3/12/2016, 12:48:24 PM2 votes

I thought elo hell existed. But then I started maining MasterYi in season 4 [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Best Darius KR3/12/2016, 12:37:05 PM1 votes

....How is ELO hell existing a good thing?

JRobin313/12/2016, 1:21:40 PM1 votes

That's a good explanation of how it can take hundreds of games to return to your last season's ranking. Some players seem to think that you should should be accurately placed after ten provisional games! And it's somewhat ridiculous to think that the system is going to be able to place you at your rank after ten games. Also one of the common misconceptions about ELO Hell is that ELO Hell prevents you from advancing. It is more accurate to say that ELO Hell increases the number of games you need to play to advance.

One more thing I'd like to note is that ELO Hell isn't just about playing the games needed to return to your last season's ranking. It's also about the fact that things like afks are more common in lower ELOs. This means that if you actually have a lower rank, then you can end up playing more games with afks than players at high ranks. RIOT has actually improved the situation quite a bit (or I have simply been a lot more lucky this season than last season). One of the very nice improvements for players playing in Bronze and Silver is that the system remembers if you were in a series to advance to the next division already and if you were it grants one free win. This is important because last season the inconsistency game to game in lower tiers could easily cause a drop of multiple divisions but I speculate that the ideal is probably that players play most of their games in a particular division rather than oscillating through four or five divisions because of random wins and losses.

Phenyxs3/12/2016, 1:22:39 PM1 votes

Rank is hell in general and a waste of time. Troll kings. Afk and unskilled players. Not to include the new system to get you to level 30 faster will result in more bad matches. Simply a waste of time.

Primo883/20/2016, 11:00:45 PM1 votes

Lol is a team game and of course there is elo hell.Even 1 teammate out of 5 can destroy the whole team.The ones saying it does not are probably masters or very lucky guys.The problem in matchmaking is that the mmr system does not show a player's true value and thats why 90% of games are stomps,1 team stomping the other.And it is unacceptable that in the matchmaking algorithm kda ratio is not applied even in the slightest,at least until gold division.Applying some kda value in the algorithm would save hundreds of players from guys that are 0-7 by 7 minute.