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If you aren't already diamond, is there really a point to try climbing the ladder? Or even possible?

MrNuclearPumpkin··2 votes·1,075 views

I'm not ranting, nor am I angry. I played my 8 games and I hit gold 4. I am happy with where I am at the moment.

However I do look at the road ahead and I see it's incredibly long and arduous. Having to for from Gold 4 - 1, win the provisional and then do it all again in a brand new meta with a brand new group of people and mindsets.

Whilst I can definitely see people who are already high elo pulling this off, what about people who aren't high-elo players. Is it really possible to break through the low-elo and hit high-elo? I mean at this point, even low-Diamond could be viewed as low-elo. If you're part of the majority of players who are all low-elo, is it even possible for a gold player to go, "I'm going to become a plat player now."

Cause if you've been Gold for four seasons straight, is it really possible to suddenly say, "I'm going to become a diamond player this season."

I have been told many times over that, "If you were good enough to hit Master or Challenger. You'd have hit it already. The simple fact that you're not already Challenger only means that you're just not good enough to ever hit that rank."

Is it really possible for a Gold player like myself to strive for something like Diamond or Master? Or should I just stick to being a Gold Player and liking it?

16 Comments

Beerstein4 votes

People that get to gold after 300 games I'd say have competitive potential, masters+ though never a guarantee someone can make challenger. (essentially they naturally kinda land in gold, previously this would be gold at lvl 30 which I translated into 300 games in current league) anyone below can probably make it high with a ton of effort (Diamond), but not competitive IMO. Also keeping in mind Masters isn't really competitive.

Anyone that really is serious about getting competitive might want to think twice about League being the game they do it in TBH. With any game it's a grind but with 16h days you can do it in many, with league a 16h/d grind and 0 gurantees, it's a huge player base.

Personally, as a former competitive player in other games (last one was World of Tanks) I wouldn't recommend competitive gaming to anyone, especially so in League of Legends. It's not "fun". I found it more difficult and less fun than my actual job while paying much less. It's a scene I was way more than happy to leave.

At the end of the day for someone as competitive as me though, it's either go all out for the top, or relax. There's no inbetween, you're at the top or you're trash is my mentality. In gaming, I have chosen to relax, league included. To me there's no difference between Diamond and Bronze players, they all fall under "casual" despite obvious the skill gap.

End of they day my current mentality is "I lost, cool, next game will be that much easier, maybe I'll grab an S chest next time."

Baval3 votes

I also want to point out there is no shame in being a gold player. People like to look down on it because its only the third lowest rank, but thats because the ranks are incredibly skewed. Gold is still the top 25-20% of all players.

Beerstein4 votes

{quoted}

I also want to point out there is no shame in being a gold player. People like to look down on it because its only the third lowest rank, but thats because the ranks are incredibly skewed. Gold is still the top 25-20% of all players.

No shame in any level of play as long as you're not talking smack IMO.

Baval2 votes

{quoted}

No shame in any level of play as long as you're not talking smack IMO.

i can agree with that

Baval2 votes

if you belong in a higher rank, especially as high as diamond compared to gold, it should be easy.

Your expectation to grind to diamond if you see getting out of gold as difficult is unrealistic.

however the only way to get better is to practice and really analyze your play. So grinding is what you must do. But make no mistake, its your improvement that will rank you up, not just grinding.

Beerstein2 votes

{quoted}

if you belong in a higher rank, especially as high as diamond compared to gold, it should be easy.

Your expectation to grind to diamond if you see getting out of gold as difficult is unrealistic.

however the only way to get better is to practice and really analyze your play. So grinding is what you must do. But make no mistake, its your improvement that will rank you up, not just grinding.

Also game knowledge, you should spend as much time studying as you do playing. Understand all champions, understand their mechanics, ALL items not just some, their interactions, and the math behind league. if you're truly aiming to be the best you can, you absolutely must understand the math behind the stats, and the items, these should become to you, comfortable to the point that you can discuss them without opening up a web page.

For example when I played world of tanks, I knew the angles on all the tanks, the angle of second armor plates under the first, shell penetration drop off based on shells, how different shells reacted to spaced armor (hidden plate under another) the penetration numbers on all the tanks, the locations of the internal systems of most tanks, rate of fire, damage per min, etc. etc. with hundreds of tanks.

You can't hit your peak ability without understanding the math behind the game IMO, this kinda goes for any game if you want to go truly competitive. It's possible to get high with this and no reflexes, it's possible to get high with good reflexes and without this. But it's not possible to reach YOUR full potential without both.

SEKAI2 votes

{quoted}

if you belong in a higher rank, especially as high as diamond compared to gold, it should be easy.

Your expectation to grind to diamond if you see getting out of gold as difficult is unrealistic.

however the only way to get better is to practice and really analyze your play. So grinding is what you must do. But make no mistake, its your improvement that will rank you up, not just grinding.

No, in LoL's ranked system, the moment you started 'grinding' then the dream of climb is already a fleeting fantasy.

Given its reliance on averages and the various gatekeeping that intentionally provides SIGNIFICANTLY unfair matchup against the player for even just being slightly better than what's expected of your group, it severely punishes incremental climbing; on the other hand, with division skipping and whatnot, it encourages and rewards shooting through the rank by players who are already high skill to begin with.

It's no secret that to even climb out of Silver, you need AT LEAST the skill of a solid high Gold or even low Plat to even make out of it without being stuck in a pushback loop and forced to grind for literal eternity for a promised reward that is mathematically impossible to achieve like a mouse on a wheel.

LoL's ranked system is extremely badly designed that punishes the people actually trying to "git gud" and only reward those who are ALREADY good and VASTLY better than a rank they're in.

Even worse, if you have high amount of your games under your belt in low elo, it's basically a dead horse that you will never climb, EVER, due to the reliance on averages I'd mentioned earlier. And so to acquire the most reasonable climb rate, one also needs an account that is FRESH.

So what kind of player does this ranked system is even catered to, and who are the ones who make the most use of it? Well, there are only a kind of account that the player is extremely skilled even without playing any games on it:

#The high elo smurfs

And NOT the normal players playing normally and hoping to climb. The system is deliberately made to stack the cards against you in every turn unless you can out-cheat the system by being way better than it is allowed to cheat in the first place.

It's a garbage system.

#Ranked is a mouse wheel. Do not fall into this trap, OP.

Just play the normal game, ranked is a fool's errand unless you are already good at the game.

Baval2 votes

{quoted}

No, in LoL's ranked system, the moment you started 'grinding' then the dream of climb is already a fleeting fantasy.

w/e you say bud

GFREEMEN1 votes

This is EXACTLY what Ranked is.

I have like 3k games and when I hit 51% win rate I will have chain 6+ games of Toxic, Int feeders, afkers and or play vers Smurfs until I hit about 48% win rate. THEN I will have a chain of brain dead ez games until 50% where I actually get a few games where the teams are closely matched.

If a Promo is randomly timed for one of the win streaks I get to prompt only to demote from the chain trash games. This has happened 15+ times.

There is only two ways to break this cycle.

Duo with someone 2-3 full Tires over my stuck rank (get boosted) Or cheat some how.

SoloQ is 100% not possible to climb for an account that has over 200 games.

420 grams2 votes

Don't think of it as grinding ranks, think of it as improving as a player

Inkling Commando2 votes

i'm happy at the bottom of the chain. no real reason to climb up higher and see more toxicity than i do now.

Beerstein2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Inkling Commando,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=pB4XE3bW,comment-id=0006,timestamp=2019-01-26T08:38:44.105+0000)

i'm happy at the bottom of the chain. no real reason to climb up higher and see more toxicity than i do now.

With the amount of ragequits and insane tilting I see in ranked, I feel like norms are more competitive as far as consistency tbh.

Inkling Commando1 votes

which is sadly true. i see allot of play to wins in norms. it annoys me.

SeaWeaboo1 votes

I think that you can hit a higher rank, though being hard stuck is usually that way for a reason. I'm not blaming it entirely on you as there will be some players who troll, have a bad game or whatnot. Though I think that if you are hard stuck you have to look at yourself and see what you can do better. If you can not find what is wrong then ask anybody that knows this game (not talking about coaching). From my experience in other competitive games (overwatch mainly) I have always been gold. It took me 10 whole overwatch season to touch plat, but I kinda stopped playing that game. It is possible to get to diamond or plat or even gold 1. Just make sure it is something you want to try hard at, learn from your mistakes, take in-game knowledge, learn your characters in and out mechanics (like what walls can kindred hop over) and most importantly always keep yourself relaxed and have fun. Tilting will probably make you lose.

GFREEMEN1 votes

Nope Riot has a completely broken MMR system

Paravozikchoocho1 votes

I know one cybersportsman who started climbing from Gold and climbed rank by rank each year.

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