The Ranked System...

Before you comment, if you started playing ranked in Season 4 or before, please actually think about how much luck actually affects you before commenting. I know that most of you guys who comment "if you belong higher, you'll get there" played in Season 4 or before, which directly affects the results of this. I'm ASSUMING the reason that the system worked in Season 4 but doesn't anymore is a mix of Riot changes (both Meta and silent changes to Ranked) along side of a larger playerbase (think of it like the US Government. It doesn't work well because it's on such a large scale. Then look at Denmark, it's on a small scale and the people are the happiest in the world.)

If you're going to nitpick on certain parts of the thread, such as placement stories, the fact that I'm a supp main (which shouldn't matter in climbing ranked. doesn't in any other MOBA), or anything that isn't directly related to the ranked system, please do not bother posting and unless it's actually important to the main point of the thread, I will ignore it.

I was a last season Silver support main. In norms, I consistently played against Plats and even the occasional Diamond and held my own, and even beat some of them severely. This says that, unless they were boosted (which most weren't because when you'd look them up, ranked games would show the same level of play as normals), they were legitimate Plats/Diamonds. And yes, no one plays as seriously in norms, but everyone plays at, approx, the same level due to the lack of stress. The lack of stress and lack of seriousness creates an about equal play level, maybe slightly lower.

So with that, I should be able to climb into Plat fairly easily, right? That's what I've been told any time I make an ELO hell/Ranked system is busted thread. I should play Annie supp and just go mage!! (what... this will get me to gold, MAX, because I HATE Annie's playstyle. It doesn't mesh with me, so I don't have fun, so I wont climb that high)

But no, I can't. The silver ELO specifically, which is now bronze, is such a huge clusterfuck of skill levels to the point of, one game your adc could be the best adc you've ever had, will take every advantage you spoonfeed them, and carry it to the end of the game, but the next you can barely get them to follow up initiations, and if they do, they, somehow, manage to not get the kill.

Silver is a huge clusterfuck and 90% of ANY game's playerbase should be in the BOTTOM TWO brackets of ranked gameplay. When this is happening, you look at either the bracket sizes and make new ones, or you look at the system for placements and general matches in ranked. Neither of these are EVER looked at, especially because neither of these were issues in Season 4 or before. My best friend got placed in Silver in S4, got to Gold with ease. Got placed in Gold in S5, never had to climb out of anything. His friend, placed Bronze in S4, climbed to Gold out of spite. Got placed Bronze again in S5, got stuck in silver and quit due to how the ranked system works.

And while yes, there could be other reasons for being unable to climb back to Gold (loss of skill from playing with lower skill players, more rage, less attentive, etc.) there shouldn't be this much of a gamble on whether or not you're gonna climb, or in placements, if you're gonna get placed high or low.

The fact that the ranked system is such a gamble on your ally's and enemy's skill levels says a LOT about how it works. My Gold 1 friend, the same one mentioned earlier, told me I belong in at least Plat, espec considering the previously mentioned things.

My first account ever, while part of the B1 placement was my fault (got to lv30, instantly went into ranked. I had previous MOBA experience tho), it's such a gamble on whether or not the players are actually on your skill level or not. First game was AFK, Second had an intentional feeder, Third had 2 people who wouldn't stop bickering. I got shafted, hard.

My second account, placed Silver 3. First game went okay, Second game had a guy who said "gg ff" after he gave away first blood, then proceeded to run mid and just feed. Third game went decently as well. We could have won that game, especially considering Season 5 was the Burst Season, and we had an excellent mid-late game burst comp, and all the lanes were doing fine.

My third account, this one, has yet to be placed. I didn't hit 30 until just recently, after the reset, but I've done 4 of my placements. First one, Soraka, had a jungler who "didn't know how to play from behind" and went 1/5/1 as Amumu as well as someone who had never played graves, ever, and picked graves top into shen. Second one was my fault, I was tired as shit and decided to play one. Third one, we had a suicidal vladimir who repeatedly engaged a corki, gave up first, second, and third blood to him after saying "god damn he has a lot of damage". He picked up the pace, but by then it was too late and our Voli had tilted from it, and Teemo got earlier kills due to failed ganks from Voli. Fourth one, just played it after a couple days of a break, I played Taric top into a Ryze. Our LB went 2/0, then proceeded to flame me and tilt after I gave Ryze a single kill accidentally. Ryze proceeded to get impossibly fed due to LB's poor decision making and it became too much to shutdown unless we had 3+ people on him.

So yeah, Ranked is ALL about luck. Skill means close to nothing in ranked, especially as of Season 5 and Season 6. And while yes, there are things I could have done differently in EVERY game to result in at least a bigger chance for a win, the fact that I get shafted REPEATEDLY with horrible luck in teammates is the reason I'm in Silver.

And yes, this is the second time I've made this thread... I worded it differently, added different info, etc. this time. I'll be adding a comment in a few minutes on an idea from the previous thread on how to fix this, at least partially, and would like to discuss it further.