It is the lower end of the ladder in general, but imo it is this ranked system.
Not everyone that is in high elo deserves to be there as - per the intent of the system (proving your skill). Do not get me wrong there are plenty that do, and they are usually really high up if they do and they are probably playing with a group or are in esports. They either got there from constantly abusing champions that are really strong (e.g, illaoi when she first came out and for months later, by abusing champions that have kits that provide little counter to, were boosted, or just got lucky and were carried there. All of those are subjective, but the point is is that when you get higher do you actually belong there?
As Hydra mentioned, you should be able to climb to where you "belong", but is that really showing any real skill? I am not saying that the idea is not true, but does simply doing the same thing as everyone else (abusing unbalance) really qualify as showing any skill? For that matter is skill not relative in this game? Like for instance, if a you are fighting a Yasuo and you allow him to predict you for whatever reason and he is being flashy and walking all over your team is that skill or is that simply a lack there of?
If you have two types of leaders, a dictator and a king, and both are not wise, but because one has a little more morals does that make him any more the wiser man? The same can be said for someone who only plays characters that are seen as a success in esports (and therefore are "meta") and copy skill shown by others because it proves to succeed for a period of time because it is well thought out and not everyone watches esports (they are not actually ever displaying skill because they are always looking for a new strat to abuse) or are abusing champs that need balancing. If the dictator is the person abusing power (imbalance), and the king is the one who does not come up with his own ideas (think typical 16-17 th century and the American colonists) and ends up making a bad environment for everyone, then where does any actual skill come in?
The system where there is a single person in power being manipulated / are manipulating others does not work, just like this system which does not communicate effectively (or at all for that matter, because they do not want you to know how it works, for as the argument goes it would be abused) what its goals are how can you expect people to thrive in that kind of environment? I agree that you can (theoretically, not to say it is just theory) climb if you get better and improve, but there are variables that are unforeseen in every situation. The way this system does not tell you what your doing wrong specifically, just that your doing it wrong, bothers a lot of people and causes them to break down and just troll, afk, or lash out at their team.
I personally think this is to big of a flaw in this system for the other intelligent parts to shine. As evidence they all but copied this system for Overwatch and I think that it is evident that it is degrading. I have watched streamers for that game say over and over that the main strat right now is only so strong because it is perceived as such. People are told that one thing is meta and they should do it and they follow that so much that everything else suddenly dispersal. In fact "dad", Jeff, has outlined this problem himself and I think that the awareness of that idea is something that both blizz and riot need to look harder at because this type of ranked system cultivates that mentality.
