A Simple Observation Ranked Solo
I realize this is somewhat anecdotal too, and may not be everyone's experience, But...
My time in Placements & Bronze was significantly more enjoyable than my time in Silver.
I'm actually kind of sad I can't go back to Bronze because of it. And it's not because my skill level was higher than Bronze leading to a 70% win rate.
There was a very obvious difference in the games and community for me. I saw more better-quality games in Bronze, More Good Sportsmanship and much less Trolling / AFK / Leaving in Bronze. Maybe Silvers are burned out from being Silver for so long (though I suspect TryHard Ego greater than skill is more the culprit), but so many of them are louder, have damaged ideas on actual strategy, and are very quick to blame team-mates for their own and the team's failings. I went from 5-10% bad / trolled / leaver games in Placement / Bronze, to probably 60-70% in Silver.
I wonder if others share a similar experience?
(Following is probably ignorable semi-frustrated half-rant)
I dunno'.
But it's frustrating when your team pulls low Elo shenanigans like,
-After giving your own team more vision, hard CC & Damage Tanked than the other team puts out, combined, you get to watch your own team members run into well mapped 1 or 2v4s, die then tilt and yell at the rest of the team for making a dumb play and not being there.
-They don't know how to protect a tower while someone clears a side-lane and engage a 4v5.
-3 people leave a besieged tower to go clear that sidelane meaning the tower is now effectively undefendable.
-Someone clearing a Sidelane solo doesn't set up vision, or worse, ignores vision set up for them and pushes well past the point they should after being warned in chat &/or pinged.
-Or a number of other mid-range principles that keep Silvers stuck in Silver, even though they probably deserve to be Bronze in all honesty.
What's worse, they can't look at the play objectively and realize how bad their decisions were and will spend time in chat, not playing, trying to tell everyone else how correct their decision was, It's like, Half-Decent Dueling Mechanics will eventually get someone out of Bronze, but because they found success on those mechanics alone for so long, they got lazy and never learned anything about set-up and smart decisions, so they're stuck in low Silver, believing it is not their fault, while keeping all their team-mates stuck there too.
And by no means am I making the claim that every play I make is perfect.
I chide myself for making a sub-optimal play often enough.
But I can at least recognize my faults and work to not make the same mistakes.
I also make no illusion to belonging in Diamond or Challenger, On my best day, I'm maybe Gold IV or V, though overall I probably belong in Silver.
It's just that, after having picked up support and doing my best to get better & play the part in as exemplary a manner as I can, and having a mind for knowing where a play breaks down... I am dumbfounded at how many players who (throw games so quickly, give up so hard, troll their own team, spam surrender votes in close games, and then bitch about how they can't get promoted) exist, and how they throw otherwise successful games for the players who are carrying and belong in higher brackets. At times I wish their was a coaching position who could direct play without playing. Or in-game voice chat (though I know how bad an idea that is for most of the community).
