If Gold is currently the top 20% of players....

Because you suck less. The ladder is just various degrees of being bad at the game

Logarithmic curve... is my assumption, since that's how learning/mastering something tends to work out.

Because it's really easy to be bad at this game and really, really hard to actually be good at it.

you are above average though.

the feeling of "man im bad at this" is usually an experience when people try to master something and have more potential for becoming better then what they are currently at being aware of your potential but at the same time not being there yet makes you feel like you suck.

so probably the best is to take a break if you get frustrated and keep working on your mistakes and you will improve quickly.

progress in mastery is not a curve for humans but like stairs, step by step.

Well, you don't have to necessarily be good to reach a certain percentage. You could theoretically be absolutely terrible and still climb due to the sheer luck factor of the Ranking system.

If your cup can hold 100 marbles, and you add one more, you need a bigger cup. If you are Silver 1, and gain just a tiny increase in skill and knowledge, you will be gold soon enough. Doesn't mean your cup is immensely bigger, just big enough for 101 marbles.

Lowkey have to try to stay a low elo. i get less rage, dont have to follow meta, and noone reports me for playing whatever wherever most people just dont want to take the time to climb or dont play ranked so while millions of people play half of them might not be so into climbing, or theyre bots. always a possibility

because yer teammates are more awful. kappa ya need to carry em

Gold is the top 20% of players? man I feel pretty good now for being gold last season (soon to be back in gold, just been goofing around in normals)

it feels strange though, like almost anybody claims they are plat these days. gold is high enough for your average gamer. thats why you get the reward

What is said by the good comments here, and also:

Because we are regularily exposed to the supergood levels of play.

i swear to god, if this was a post from any other server, all the comments would say "because u are trash" etc.

back in season 3 gold was 10% of the top player

I think it's more that riot wants to make it so that ALL players are competitive players. Though sadly, that's not how it works. As you try to give every player of every skill level a competitive angle, you end up blurring the lines between the skill of the players.

Take a game like super smash bros. If you are a casual players, then the disparity between you and a competitive player is very clear, there are a lot of tricks which aren't intuitive to most people which are required to learn to be competitive, things like wavedash/shining, many perfect frame combos, and V-canceling. Riot has tried to make all of their competitive tricks intuitive, meaning it really doesn't take much practice or effort for a bad player to preform well in a competitive environment. This is how you end up with pro players losing to subscribers in a 1v1 on twitch.

If everyone is "good", then "good" become standard

what makes you think being gold-plat= good at the game?

I'm D3 and I suck. I feel like I'm somebody who just learned the basics of the game.

Because rank is not a direct reflection of one's skill.

Now you get to contemplate just how badly everyone below you plays.

This game takes time, not skill. Anyone one competent enough in regards to general PvP gaming and has a lot of times on their hands can reach plat in this game easily.