8 reasons why the Support should never be the highest mmr on your team.

JavelinJoe · 2016-09-08T16:31:32.647Z

While the Support is an important part of any team, they themselves usually do not have "Carry Potential" like the other 4 roles have. They more are a means to make the other roles get to a "carry" level of fed. But this is not easy to do since they spend a large portion of the game tied down to the ADC. Supports have limited gold income since they actively avoid farming (besides the few from the passive) and try to give kills to the other roles while aiming for assists themselves. Often they wont be the ones to collect the tower destroying gold too. If they are used as a mmr average offset for their team in order to make the two team averages close to equal, then more often than not, one of the solo lanes or the ADC role, will be facing a more experienced/skilled opponent who may be too much to handle for them. A good example that I have seem a bit is where 1 platinum is on a team with 4 other silvers (usually raked between 3 and 1) against a team with 3-4 gold members (usually ranked between 5-2) and a silver 2 or silver 1. While gold and silver have only a small difference on the grand scale, a silver 3 facing a gold 3 is typically a rather difficult challenge for the silver to come out ahead by themselves. At best case they tend to end up just being a passive farm lane which does not benefit either too much in terms of getting fed. Premades make this challenging when they are over multiple lanes. Being the Support, you often do not get many chances to help out top and mid. You do sometimes make a roam or two, but most of your time is in the bot lane helping out your ADC. If you were the Jungler, then you could help other lanes far more often. And while winning bot lane is good, the ADC is a easy target to burst down if focused on because of their minimal defensive scaling. Don't get me wrong, games are sometimes won by a fed ADC, but usually it takes a fed Top ,Jungle, or Mid to solidify the victory, and these roles (besides ADC obviously) receive very limited help from the Support. It is really hard for a Support to win a game for their team. They cannot back door typically, mainly due to not taking or having good offensive AD/AS stats. Usually their job is to protect the ADC/Mid from assassins and divers, engage if possible, and disengage if needed/possible (sometimes even by sacrificing themselves). Support commonly picked items are low cost, low damage, and usually defensive since they mainly are grabbed for the passive/active on the item. all of which are common support items, do not offer a whole lot in terms of raw offensive power when compared to the standard damage dealer's build. Sure you may have 1 or 2 large damage items, but 1 - 2 usually is not enough for most supports to be on par with say, the Mid laner in terms of damage. So by having the highest skill/experience on the Support, you do not get the full benefit of offensive power that the other roles can provide. Having the most skilled player as the Support is like having a governor on a vehicle. Sure it can reach high speeds but it is forced to cap at only 20 or so MPH. Same thing applies. Sure they can hard carry a game in any other role, but as the Support, then are forced to hope their team can recognize what to do and when to do it. Realize when a good time to engage the enemy is or when to not go for Baron/Elder and defend the base instead. You are taking all this potential and putting it in a jar. The Support takes the most heat from their own team. "Blame the Support" has been a common mindset in League of Legends for some time now. While not always true, most players (me a few times as well) use the Support as their scapegoat for why they lost, why the opponents were so fed, etc.... So by having your statistically most skilled/experienced player become tilted, you just set yourself up for failure. Rather them be on a Jungle role or a Mid where they wont be blamed as often. Seriously, (and this may be just me but) notice how rarely the Mid laner given shit compared to all the other roles. What makes them so special?

JavelinJoe·Sep 8, 2016·1 votes·314 views

While the Support is an important part of any team, they themselves usually do not have "Carry Potential" like the other 4 roles have. They more are a means to make the other roles get to a "carry" level of fed. But this is not easy to do since they spend a large portion of the game tied down to the ADC.
Supports have limited gold income since they actively avoid farming (besides the few from the passive) and try to give kills to the other roles while aiming for assists themselves. Often they wont be the ones to collect the tower destroying gold too.
If they are used as a mmr average offset for their team in order to make the two team averages close to equal, then more often than not, one of the solo lanes or the ADC role, will be facing a more experienced/skilled opponent who may be too much to handle for them. A good example that I have seem a bit is where 1 platinum is on a team with 4 other silvers (usually raked between 3 and 1) against a team with 3-4 gold members (usually ranked between 5-2) and a silver 2 or silver 1. While gold and silver have only a small difference on the grand scale, a silver 3 facing a gold 3 is typically a rather difficult challenge for the silver to come out ahead by themselves. At best case they tend to end up just being a passive farm lane which does not benefit either too much in terms of getting fed.
Premades make this challenging when they are over multiple lanes. Being the Support, you often do not get many chances to help out top and mid. You do sometimes make a roam or two, but most of your time is in the bot lane helping out your ADC. If you were the Jungler, then you could help other lanes far more often. And while winning bot lane is good, the ADC is a easy target to burst down if focused on because of their minimal defensive scaling. Don't get me wrong, games are sometimes won by a fed ADC, but usually it takes a fed Top ,Jungle, or Mid to solidify the victory, and these roles (besides ADC obviously) receive very limited help from the Support.
It is really hard for a Support to win a game for their team. They cannot back door typically, mainly due to not taking or having good offensive AD/AS stats. Usually their job is to protect the ADC/Mid from assassins and divers, engage if possible, and disengage if needed/possible (sometimes even by sacrificing themselves).
Support commonly picked items are low cost, low damage, and usually defensive since they mainly are grabbed for the passive/active on the item. all of which are common support items, do not offer a whole lot in terms of raw offensive power when compared to the standard damage dealer's build. Sure you may have 1 or 2 large damage items, but 1 - 2 usually is not enough for most supports to be on par with say, the Mid laner in terms of damage. So by having the highest skill/experience on the Support, you do not get the full benefit of offensive power that the other roles can provide.
Having the most skilled player as the Support is like having a governor on a vehicle. Sure it can reach high speeds but it is forced to cap at only 20 or so MPH. Same thing applies. Sure they can hard carry a game in any other role, but as the Support, then are forced to hope their team can recognize what to do and when to do it. Realize when a good time to engage the enemy is or when to not go for Baron/Elder and defend the base instead. You are taking all this potential and putting it in a jar.
The Support takes the most heat from their own team. "Blame the Support" has been a common mindset in League of Legends for some time now. While not always true, most players (me a few times as well) use the Support as their scapegoat for why they lost, why the opponents were so fed, etc.... So by having your statistically most skilled/experienced player become tilted, you just set yourself up for failure. Rather them be on a Jungle role or a Mid where they wont be blamed as often. Seriously, (and this may be just me but) notice how rarely the Mid laner given shit compared to all the other roles. What makes them so special?

8 reasons why the Support should never be the highest mmr on your team.

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