Always versus people better than me

Vexiconjz··18 votes·4,128 views

I am starting to get so frustrated with league recently. I only play norms, casually, im really not that good, yet im always matched up versus people better than me and its killing all the fun in the game for me. I purposely do norms so i can relax and not try my goddamn best like 99% of the players im up against do.. but no i have to be put against ppl who are with a best friend who setup perfect ganks... or build the perfect counterbuild or pick that one champ that will perfectly counter me. You know, like people who know what theyre doing and obviously play to win above all. Im not saying im not playing to win but at the same time it isnt all that huge a deal for me winning or losing im just trying to have fun but i can't. Just look at my match history i always do horrible UNLESS im with a friend duo bot... and if i do good its because of him but otherwise im bad so why am i always up against tryhards who destroy me?? if its "norms" why is it not normal difficulty for me why am i always struggling. inb4 the people who will tell me "well get good" yea no i would love to but its kinda hard when im never up against people worse than me which would at least help me get better in terms of skill and confidence. i usually do draft but would blind pick help me find people more of my skill level? or am i doomed to always play versus people better than me? Not everyone wants to log on to league and play like their life depends on it... I would think riot would see my ratios and adjust my elo with that but apparently not. And like i said if you see matches where i seem to do well its only cause my friend whos better than me is with me..

37 Comments

IvernBramblefoot14 votes

been having that problem myself lately, getting matched against people who are just way better than me and i'm like "I don't recall being this good at this game, so why match me against this caliber of player?"

Der Lindwurm12 votes

Matchmaking is possibly in its worst state ever. Beginners have to endure months of being abused by smurfs, which isn't exactly an incentive to get into this game, so the percentage of genuine beginners to smurfs keeps shrinking. At higher levels, a dwindling pool of players forces matchmaking to create lopsided matchups in order to speed up queue times.

Vexiconjz2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Der Lindwurm,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=oW9Fo5t3,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2018-01-16T19:21:05.969+0000)

Matchmaking is possibly in its worst state ever. Beginners have to endure months of being abused by smurfs, which isn't exactly an incentive to get into this game, so the percentage of genuine beginners to smurfs keeps shrinking. At higher levels, a dwindling pool of players forces matchmaking to create lopsided matchups in order to speed up queue times.

couldnt have said it any better

Leetri6 votes

Is there any evidence that new players are "abused by smurfs for months"? All posts I've seen from actual new players say that they play against other new people, or at least people who're bad enough they could be mistaken for new players.

Wimbledofy5 votes

Smurfs play against smurfs. New players play against new players. There has been nothing so far to prove otherwise. Only complaints I've seen so far have been from other smurfs.

pitius on na1 votes

false. i had several really good xayah games when i was leveling due to a friend who was lvl 30+ playing with me. After that i was playing against high diamond smurfs and their friends for a good 15 levels. matchmaking is trash

Psybicilin3 votes

By playing those games with your friend your MMR was increased to match with his level of players. That means when you go to play solo, you will also face those players unless you lose a lot on your own so your MMR can go back down to bronze :)

Opheriaux7 votes

you've only lost three of your past 16 games though.. I would recommend focusing on farming way more, that seems to be the most common reason why the other team gets a lead

i believe in you [sg-kiko]

Vexiconjz1 votes

{quoted}

you've only lost three of your past 16 games though.. I would recommend focusing on farming way more, that seems to be the most common reason why the other team gets a lead

i believe in you [sg-kiko]

Most of my wins are cause i have that skilled friend to help me out or my team carries me while i have a sh1t ratio but when im alone im always struggling.. like i would expect at least one or two easy games to be thrown at me for the like 5 past horrible games ive recently played? xD idk man they just dont feel like wins knowing my team made them happen while i get flamed or get called trash when i really try my best.. Like im not saying I ALWAYS do bad its true some games i did well on my own its just i feel its only 15-20% of the time :/ I appreciate the positive energy tho <3

Opheriaux4 votes

{quoted}

Most of my wins are cause i have that skilled friend to help me out or my team carries me while i have a sh1t ratio but when im alone im always struggling.. like i would expect at least one or two easy games to be thrown at me for the like 5 past horrible games ive recently played? xD idk man they just dont feel like wins knowing my team made them happen while i get flamed or get called trash when i really try my best.. Like im not saying I ALWAYS do bad its true some games i did well on my own its just i feel its only 15-20% of the time :/ I appreciate the positive energy tho <3

that right there is why, when you play with people that are better than you, it raises your mmr. when you play alone, you are expected (by riot's matchmaking api) to perform at the same level as your friend, even though you're alone.

make sense?

Vexiconjz1 votes

{quoted}

that right there is why, when you play with people that are better than you, it raises your mmr. when you play alone, you are expected (by riot's matchmaking api) to perform at the same level as your friend, even though you're alone.

make sense?

Now that i think of it makes perfect sense... but then i either have to stop playing with my friend (which kinda sucks) to be sure my elo will be easier, or i have to wait for my friend to be online to be sure i dont get horrendous games... :l ughhhh. Then again life isnt perfect

XeroKimo1 votes

It shouldn't last many games if the skill difference is that great, riot's API is good at detecting whether you should face your friend's level of opponents, it takes a few games to make sure, either way, it's a learning experience to play a few games of higher mmr until you get back to normal

Vexiconjz3 votes

Exactly why am i against these good people lmao. If i can barely survive in norms wth am i supposed to do to have actual good games and fun? BOTS? I love this game but if i keep having to get demolished im just gonna quit at one point its pointless.

Eedat3 votes

I actually enjoy playing against better players. Last night I had to lane against a D2 player (I'm G4) and actually won my lane and solo killed them a few times. Playing against better players will make you better over time even if you don't notice it

Lauchmelder2 votes

The problem is the skill difference though. If you are actually fighting hard while accomplishing something then yes, you're gonna learn a lot from playing against higher ranked players.

If you get shitstomped you won't learn a thing though. If you have the feeling of not being able to do anything that would help you out then it's already over.

Troll for Trump2 votes

50% winrate

PopcornBunni2 votes

Been experiencing the same. I feel really bad for the poor souls that have to be stuck with me in games that are losing their rank because this mission wants me playing Flex draft.

Just had a game against a platinum (I went unranked in flex the last two seasons) then against gold, while my team had bronze. silvers, and other wood ranks.

Vexiconjz2 votes

Thought i would try out a ranked like suggested.. Nothing changes, got demolished like usual. You would think that after 7 horrible matches they would put me up against lighter opponents but nope.. am i gonna have to buy a bronze 5 account? lmao..

Nik Nikerson2 votes

Have you ever thought that there just isn't anyone worse than you?

Vexiconjz1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Nik Nikerson,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=oW9Fo5t3,comment-id=000b,timestamp=2018-01-16T22:30:43.401+0000)

Have you ever thought that there just isn't anyone worse than you?

Lol there must be im bad but im not retarded bad. Im sure theres some people who are way worse than me but league doesnt allow me to play versus them bc apparently my win rate is high.. even tho my ratios are mostly sh1t.

Nik Nikerson1 votes

Yeah but if there's only a tiny handful of people worse than you, you're not going to get matched with them often. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but if 99% of people are better than you, then you can't really complain that you don't constantly get matched against the 1% that isn't.

Vexiconjz1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Nik Nikerson,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=oW9Fo5t3,comment-id=000b00000000,timestamp=2018-01-16T23:15:03.683+0000)

Yeah but if there's only a tiny handful of people worse than you, you're not going to get matched with them often. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but if 99% of people are better than you, then you can't really complain that you don't constantly get matched against the 1% that isn't.

yea no ur not a jerk dont worry i get what u mean and u have a point. I guess my only option is to "get gud"

mythicalmango691 votes

I've had this issue as well but my solution was playing ranked games. You said you don't like ranked but if you want more skill based matchmaking I've found this to be the best option.

Vexiconjz1 votes

{quoted}

I've had this issue as well but my solution was playing ranked games. You said you don't like ranked but if you want more skill based matchmaking I've found this to be the best option.

Hm you might be right you know i never tried ranked in my life cause i always thought norms was for the more casual (easier) games but maybe its just the opposite.

Power Cosmic1 votes

Best advice is remember how you died and try not to get caught in that situation again; so you generally are knowing what to look out for every game. I do not know who you play but learning on safe champs is the way to go. Most of them are mid but can go anywhere in norm games: Swain Malzahar Lux Ashe Sivir Nasus Garen Chogath Morgana Pantheon

Vexiconjz1 votes

{quoted}

Best advice is remember how you died and try not to get caught in that situation again; so you generally are knowing what to look out for every game. I do not know who you play but learning on safe champs is the way to go. Most of them are mid but can go anywhere in norm games: Swain Malzahar Lux Ashe Sivir Nasus Garen Chogath Morgana Pantheon

thankyou i gotta admit i am lacking a bit in terms of my champ arsenal.. ill try some of those out :)

Power Cosmic1 votes

Good luck :-)

ShaftyMegee1 votes

Matchmaking has always been bad, but it seems much worse now.

StairCasexd1 votes

Eh, not really, you're fighting other unranked players along with low silver/bronze, maybe you just make a lot of mistakes or are caught out of position or not warding correctly. You're not being matched against plats/diamond or something. Maybe you should try to go into games more confident instead of saying you just suck or something.

I think you made a mistake of playing ranked, the season just started, I doubt matchmaking for ranked would be good this early.

Matchmaking can't really control it your opponent will try hard or not. Also some people practice or try new Champs in normals too. Lol is a competitive game, so no figure it'd be this way. You should try playing arams or the rotating game modes, I didn't play on summoners rift pretty much the whole time poro king and snow urf was up, aram is also surprisingly fun too despite being random imo.

Also try playing solo lanes like mid or top, adc and support is a duo lane, which takes teamwork

Vexiconjz2 votes

{quoted}

Eh, not really, you're fighting other unranked players along with low silver/bronze, maybe you just make a lot of mistakes or are caught out of position. You're not being matched against plats/diamond or something. Maybe you should try to go into games more confident instead of saying you just suck or something.

Matchmaking can't really control it your opponent will try hard or not. Also some people practice or try new Champs in normals too. Lol is a competitive game, so no figure it'd be this way. You should try playing arams or the rotating game modes, I didn't play on summoners rift pretty much the whole time poro king and snow urf was up, aram is also surprisingly fun too despite being random imo.

Is there no place for people who play for fun and dont fixate on HOW u need to place urself in this situation and that... what to do when and where... i mean its a game after all its not chess im not trying to outsmart my enemies with great placement and exact builds meant to counter- Nonono... i just want to have some goddamn fun and i dont mind being demolished once in awhile but its at the point where its 24/7 rn... and i dont imply that i wanna play with braindead people nor do i wanna play as a zombie but things could be abit more casual imo...

StairCasexd2 votes

{quoted}

Is there no place for people who play for fun and dont fixate on HOW u need to place urself in this situation and that... what to do when and where... i mean its a game after all its not chess im not trying to outsmart my enemies with great placement and exact builds meant to counter- Nonono... i just want to have some goddamn fun and i dont mind being demolished once in awhile but its at the point where its 24/7 rn... and i dont imply that i wanna play with braindead people nor do i wanna play as a zombie but things could be abit more casual imo...

Yeah lol is a game, a competitive game. You know how when you play chess but are still thinking about where to move your peices even if it's a for fun match? That's lol. You outplay your opponents and add pressure to the map in lol to win. Like I said earlier, people go to normals to practice new Champs and stuff, that doesn't mean that a plat player is now going to start playing like he's bronze.

I mentioned rotating game modes and aram earlier, because those are more casual. And they're pretty fun which is why I recommended trying them. Because match making can't do anything if you don't want to try to get better or tryhard.

If not the rotating modes and aram, I don't know what to tell you other than try new games and see how they are, I like to play overwatch when I'm tired of lol.

Who knows, maybe if you play a few more games, your MMR Might go down and you could find easier opponents

Vexiconjz1 votes

{quoted}

Yeah lol is a game, a competitive game. You know how when you play chess but are still thinking about where to move your peices even if it's a for fun match? That's lol. You outplay your opponents and add pressure to the map in lol to win. Like I said earlier, people go to normals to practice new Champs and stuff, that doesn't mean that a plat player is now going to start playing like he's bronze.

I mentioned rotating game modes and aram earlier, because those are more casual. And they're pretty fun which is why I recommended trying them. Because match making can't do anything if you don't want to try to get better or tryhard.

If not the rotating modes and aram, I don't know what to tell you other than try new games and see how they are, I like to play overwatch when I'm tired of lol.

Who knows, maybe if you play a few more games, your MMR Might go down and you could find easier opponents

you know what you're absolutely right.. I should be patient and realise this isnt a casual game haha it just sucks to have sh1t games like 8 times in a row xD ill try doing other game modes maybe that'll be funner and could lowkey make me better. Thanks for your input i appreciate it :)

Big Papa Sion1 votes

You are right about that being a issue in league and as many people have said in the comments already matchmaking is in the worst state it has been in a long time. The only real way a new player can get up to the level they need to be to have fair matches is to have a friend that is of that level to play with and help them learn and improve. the community is toxic so the odds of new players getting that is excessively low. But following that I have gotten a couple of friends to join and they are now having fun just messing around. granted one of them is getting carried through by us. But we are watching him and giving him advice on what to do.

LegitBacon661 votes

Yeah my friends and i love to chill and play norms but we get matched against plats and golds for no reasons

Lunar Lunacy1 votes

Playing against people who are worse than you won't make you better, but it sure is fun.

Livin like Riven1 votes

I was in a similar situation to you, actually. I met a group of people while I was playing top. I was a mid main jg offrole at the time, but I wanted to try something different. Two of the three people would always want to play mid and jg, though, and that's not even counting me, but they were very fun to play with, so I tried ADC because I didn't like most of the toplaners at the time.

So I was trying to learn ADC, playing bot lane with the third member of the group, and two of the members were actually Gold, which I wasn't used to at the time. This friend helped me IMMENSELY, by not only carrying the lane like you said, but also pointing out fundamental flaws that I was making that sort of doomed me to not having fun from the very start. For reference, he was playing Janna, so he'd keep me from feeding while I tried to learn my new role.

  1. I never settled on a particular champion, I'd play Twitch, for example, have a bad game, and try a different ADC, have another bad game, rinse repeat. What this meant was I was never gaining any knowledge on how to play a champion because I was so spread out and never committing. Once I narrowed my champion pool to Tristana, Corki and Graves(he was a bot laner at the time) I started having more fun because I began learning the ins and outs of my champion.

  2. I'd focus far too heavily on kills. If you wanna just kick back and relax, but also not try hard and still win, farming is the BEST way to do it! He taught me about lane/wave management, and how if I couldn't safely harass them without missing a bunch of CS, then just don't. And he taught me to set the waves up so I could simply farm and scale into the game and win that way. Eventually I settled on Ezreal as my main, and he still is to this day, because his Q made it very easy for me to farm(which I also sucked at, just practice for a little while in a custom without even bots. It'll come naturally eventually, then you don't have to try very hard. Ezreal was also very safe because at the time, nothing really shut him down if he played the matchup right, so all I ever had to do was learn matchups. I find this holds mostly true today, with the exception of a couple ADCs who can stat check him and run him down at all stages of the game, but even then, you can set up a freeze when they inevitably push in.

  3. Most of the roster I was doomed to a bad game from the start with. This is because my positioning was god-awful. It's why I wasn't good at top, or most of my mid laners, or even most of the ADCs. They didn't have any escapes, and I was punished severely and died immediately, which leads to a snowball and then I can't do anything or learn because I'm too far behind with no safety net. Once I picked the safer ADCs with escapes, like the ones I mentioned, I began noticing improvements because I'd escape and learn from it and play not only the champion matchup, but also playing with the knowledge that I'm just not quite able to fight this person yet. Once I was able to play safer overall, my game knowledge improved because I could see the clear-cut weaknesses and strengths of this lane over that one and such and so forth, until my friend finally just started swapping supports around because I was ready to see different matchups. I didn't know what a lot of people's abilities really did, so my friend explained them all to me slowly and over time, that also increased my game knowledge.

  4. Defeatist attitude. I didn't really know how to play against certain matchups. One of the worst was Lucian when his range was higher, and worse yet, Lucian when his dash was pretty much never, ever down. I'd see a Lucian and immediately think "We've lost this", however, this is not the way to improve your baseline. One day, the enemy picked Ezreal and I didn't really know what to pick against it, so my friend told me to pick Lucian, and he picked Morgana so their support couldn't stop me from doing what I'd seen Lucians do to me many times, but the Ezreal actually managed to show me a few new things to try against Lucian. I still won lane, but not nearly as hard as I thought. From then on, I loved Lucian lanes because once I'd learned how to play against it even though it was an unfavorable matchup, I had a lot of fun against him seeing how far I'd come, and being able to actually win lanes against Lucians a lot of the time.

Eventually I did take this into ranked with me, as a 5 man Silver team, and my first game I had a massive success, but it was with the first 3 friends(Bronze, gold, and my support, who was now platinum) and another one of their friends, another gold. At the end of the game, I said "wow, that wasn't even fair, we had 2 golds and a plat, they shouldn't let you guys beat up on silvers like that" and someone mentioned they were actually all Plat. The next game we even went against 3 diamonds and 2 plats and we didn't even lose that bad. I had never even realised just by gaining some knowledge on the game by playing it more and focusing on a small group of champions that I had improved my play so drastically from me thinking I was silver at best to actually getting fed all on my own against a platinum in a matchup I wasn't comfortable with.

TL;DR Get good at farming so it's second nature, expand your game knowledge so you're just aware of what everyone is capable of, focus on a few champions so you know what YOU'RE capable of with no hesitation or uncertainty, and honestly, don't give up. It's not really a lost game if you learn something new for next time. Once it's all second nature, it'll be much easier. And lastly, even if it's you losing, it's okay. You can learn from it, just make a mental note every time you do it to stop doing it. Eventually you'll just avoid it by knowing, and won't put yourself in a spot where you feel like you can't win. For example, I wasn't sure on how to do Alistar combo at first, and had to focus on just the timing and would ignore voice chat almost. But the other day, I was talking to my friend, deep in conversation, as we were taking tier 2 mid tower, I'm not even paying attention to the game really, then my friend stopped talking just to say "holy shit that was awesome dude, i thought you don't even play alistar" and I had no idea what he was talking about. Turns out, there was an enemy Vi, low health trying to run away from the tier 2 tower defense, and I flashed in front of the Q she was trying to use to escape, then combo'd 3 of them under their tower and killed their mid laner who had split from the other 3 while my team followed up on the 3 who were knocked up already. Not trying to toot my own horn, or ding my own cowbell, as it were, but I'm just trying to give you an example of how much improving basic game knowledge and sticking to a few select champs can IMMENSELY improve your game.

P.S. Sorry for the wall, played Taliyah earlier. qB^)

CleverSloth1 votes

I agree with this. Its pretty frustrating to constantly play with people way better than you because the matchmaking system thinks they only have 2 games played but they're really a smuf with thousands of hours played ranked gold or better.

Seriously it can't be hard to fix when someone averages a 10 KDA they obviously should be playing against much better players.

More from Gameplay