Elo hell does exist?!

Velasan·Jan 25, 2015·5 votes·965 views

After being dropped down to bronze after these last crazy placement matches from silver III I found out it does exist!

See, it's not oh you're so bad so you can't move up (I'm not a perfect player but I can beat people in bronze) it's that now that I'm in the lower leagues people never do what I expect them to do.

They go for dragons and barons at all the wrong times, they will engage then all pull away leaving you in the middle of a 3v1, they will fight separately at all corners of the map even when 4 of the enemy are coming right up mid.

So it's either...

A) Pick a champion who can kill the entire other team (shaco... riven... etc)

B) Try to coordinate everyone while getting a tension headache because they don't understand why going for baron with 2 inhibs down and behind with wards by baron is a bad idea.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

24 Comments

B3ERJan 25, 20153 votes

What I've noticed from lower tier games is that you don't play the team game. You don't mimic the pros, because the philosophies that work for them will not always work for you. You pick a champion you know bronze players can't deal with and you slowly win from that. If you truly have better game knowledge and mechanics than your tier mates, you can show that through something obnoxious like a heavy splitpusher, or Quinn top, etc.

There is no Elo hell.

VelasanJan 25, 20151 votes

Ty. That is actually very solid advice. I know from experience champions like shaco can be a nightmare for the low elo divisions.

Swain might also work. A fed swain can be a monster.

I will try it.

B3ERJan 25, 20152 votes

Very true, Swain is also not played much so hardly anyone knows how to deal with him. People would have to adapt and always use grieving wounds on you, and that's something lower tier players often forget. Everyone is focused on playing meta picks and pro picks, but in the end the differences in power only really matter at the highest skill levels.

Obnoxious/trolly champions can put people on tilt, make them rage, etc. which gives you an advantage as well. Experiment, practice and execute. Ranked is long and arduous demon.

Arcade AndrewJan 25, 20151 votes

{quoted}

What I've noticed from lower tier games is that you don't play the team game. You don't mimic the pros, because the philosophies that work for them will not always work for you. You pick a champion you know bronze players can't deal with and you slowly win from that. If you truly have better game knowledge and mechanics than your tier mates, you can show that through something obnoxious like a heavy splitpusher, or Quinn top, etc.

There is no Elo hell.

This is false, because I do this all the time, sure I will win lane as a quinn top and split push for days, but in elo hell my mid jungle and bot will all lose, then the enemy team comes 5 top I ask for help and stay under turret but get dived because my team refuses to help me. or vice versa I get reported for split pushing and not helping my team who cant ward or listen to mias....

B3ERJan 26, 20151 votes

Well that's your mistake right there. You don't stay under your tower when there are 5 people knocking on it. Too easy of a dive. Try watching replays of your games to see where you mess up. Ask yourself if you've done everything you could to prevent those deaths and remember what you learn for games to come.

Also remember that its ok to lose games. You can't win all of them. All you can do is increase your chances of winning them. If it's higher than 50%, you'll climb.

Arcade AndrewJan 26, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Well that's your mistake right there. You don't stay under your tower when there are 5 people knocking on it. Too easy of a dive. Try watching replays of your games to see where you mess up. Ask yourself if you've done everything you could to prevent those deaths and remember what you learn for games to come.

Also remember that its ok to lose games. You can't win all of them. All you can do is increase your chances of winning them. If it's higher than 50%, you'll climb.

No, see you misread me, Id never stay under turret if I see five of them coming, but lets say mid goes mia or goes B our mid calls it I note it in my head, bot lane is also gone, gone back, "ok cool" my top goes B ill push, little do I know they are just coming top to fuck me without me knowing about it cus nobody wards their lane so IDK that it was a fake back

B3ERJan 26, 20151 votes

Yeah, I get those games are hard to deal with, when you get particularly difficult teammates to work with. The message that I'm trying to send is that the best thing you can do to improve your elo is to improve your chances of winning. A high chance of winning may not guarantee a victorious game, but it will guarantee a higher likelihood of more wins than losses. Probabilistic terms aside, there are many disciplines in this game that you can improve on to increase your chances of winning, not limited to:

Farming
Understanding matchups and comps
Knowing when to back off
Manipulating your opponents
Mechanics
Team coordination
Objective control
General game knowledge
Keeping summoner timers

And many more. If you manage to improve your aptitude in a good number of these, you will definitely rise. Keep faith.

iConcyJan 25, 20152 votes

tbh just stop playing or find a duo to help carry. carrying alone is incredibly hard.

Live2LetDieJan 25, 20152 votes

Elo hell doesn't exist, saying that just shows how bad you are at the game to blame others than yourself. Every elo has the same trolls, feeders, afk etc... Don't be bad and say it's elo hell keeping you down...

From a b1-p5 player last season

VelasanJan 25, 20151 votes

So... here is the thing about your reply.

First, it really just sounds like your trying to flame. I am aware that I went on a rant and am not the most elite player in the world, but posting the equivalent of a "you suck " reply is not helpful or polite.

Secondly, let's be clear about the point you are making. Let's start with that you are having the exact same problem I am. You went recently from plat 5 to low gold and are currently behind. Otherwise your stats indicate you play teams which is not similar to solo que at all as you already know. On top of that yes I can always be improving, but that doesn't mean I don't have games with bad allies as well. One does not cancel out the other. This is a team game.

Anyways, no I am not a horrible player. My win rates from last season reflect that and I see we even played many of the same champions. I also only just started mid s4. Give a frustrated player some breathing room or real advice why don't you?

Like, what changed that sent you from b1 to p5?

Live2LetDieJan 26, 20151 votes

My response was strictly towards the blaming of elo hell and imo only bad players blame it. Check my last post if you want my true advice since I took some time to explain how I got out of every league as a support, which is considered one of the hardest roles to play and get out of bronze and silver with. Idk you so Idk if you suck but if you want advice it's that you can always change a game no matter what. What ends the majority of games pre 20 is people flaming and reaction to bad plays. Your mid could go 0-6 pre 15 and you can win with support and calming everyone down.

Demonsolder21Jan 25, 20151 votes

Yeah dont play ranked the damn thing tends to give me a massive headache if you ask me. Honestly your better off playing normals. With high mmr you can can be placed against high elo players which to me is way more fun than ranked. Yet it can be a bit harder to win compared to ranked.

VelasanJan 25, 20151 votes

Sigh, before placements I had a 11 wins to 1 loss winning streak and was 1 game away from promotionals to silver 2.

Now I'm losing games in bronze 3 because no matter how good you are if the rest of the team isn't with you and you get cc'ed to death it doesn't matter. :/

Might have a point that team builder takes the pressure off... but Idk if it's any better. Team builder is where most people go to test builds and mess around. Plus it's nice to have some competitive aspect. I just would prefer it wasn't as weirdly oriented as the current system.

I honestly think Riot tries to please it's player base. They just never admit when they do something wrong. It's like oops that didn't happen... lets ignore that and focus on the new champion release! (see server issues, several reoccurring bugs, reworks no one was asking for.. etc).

Champion balance is a whole other can of worms, but I don't always get their reasoning on that one either, since they tend to nerf champions that are already so so and then leave the really insane ones as they are or give them buffs. 9 times out of 10 people just stop playing characters who have been nerfed. The meta shifts to whatever set of champions has been left viable in the current patch.

I know there are people out there who have climbed out of bronze. Just wondering how they did it. If I can't expect my team to work together (or potentially even know how to play their champion) what's my strategy? Push as many objectives as possible split pushing and hope that I can backdoor?

Might be exaggerating but this is all so much sadness. item 3070 Was looking forward to trying to get to silver 2 after I wasn't able to get the end season reward at gold because pretty much anyone already good enough to be there stopped playing a good month before the season ended. So, that goes out the window and now I'm dropped down to a level I'm not used to playing at after being trolled in placement matches (still went about half wins to losses) which is the exact same thing that happened to me the first set of placement matches with intentional feeders.

Signed, player on tilt. :/

iConcyJan 25, 20152 votes

Hey i looked at your profile and you seem to play support a lot. Leo is incredible in low elo's as is sona. Thresh is a great support but the simplicity that leo and sona bring far surpass thresh's capabilities at this stage of the game.

VelasanJan 25, 20151 votes

I'll definitely try that. I play a lot of nami and thresh. My win rates with both of them in s4 were relatively high (ran with 60% with nami for a good while and ended s4 with 59% win rate).

Both blitzcrank and leona have been on my to get list. Currently saving IP because I assume lunar revel is coming up.

I play a lot of mid and support. Sometimes top or JG, with ADC being my absolute last and worst role. In my s4 stats can see this in my viktor, azir, veigar, and annie games.

StoningtonJan 25, 20151 votes

I don't think so. I lost 6 games and won 4 and I was placed back into plat 3. Albiet this is on the LAN server. In any event. All you have to do is play a champ that can 1 v 9 like Kayle. On my EUW account I was placed into Bronze 2 I think. I just played a shit ton of Kayle and Tristana IIRC and shot up to gold in no time.

VelasanJan 25, 20151 votes

I hadn't even thought about kayle. I rarely play her though I'm not sure how much I would excel with a character I've not played much. Can try her in team builder for a bit to try to get the hang of her.

Any other champions with that kind of ability to 1v5 the enemy team? If I have to carry I might as well carry super hard.

xXSomeoneElseJan 25, 20151 votes

I would strongly suggest playing a lot of normal with her before trying in Ranked she is a bit tricky to get down to a science and usually is very susceptible to hard cc and anything that prevents her ult from going off. but on another note a good kayle is almost impossible to deal with (mainly cause of ult) she can shield pretty much anyone time it right and you can negate almost all of an enemy team's Burst or damage.

StoningtonJan 25, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I hadn't even thought about kayle. I rarely play her though I'm not sure how much I would excel with a character I've not played much. Can try her in team builder for a bit to try to get the hang of her.

Any other champions with that kind of ability to 1v5 the enemy team? If I have to carry I might as well carry super hard.

Tristana with her jump, knockback, and AS steroid. The reason why I suggest those late game hyper carries is because low elo games take a long time to close out. Teams that are head will over extend and throw a lot, which gives you a lot of time to farm up. You also need to play a champ who can take towers and objectives, hence Kayle/Tristana.

Kayle is especially good because of her AOE damage, invulnerability, fast wave clear, and move speed boost. A lot of games I'd just farm two lanes at once because my team was off tunnel visioning an objective and suiciding. I'd use the W move speed to go between the lanes. I usually build CDR boots - hourglass - Nashor's tooth - runaan's hurricane - void staff - death cap/liche bane or GA/other defensive item.

Once you get hourglass/nashor's/runaan's you can just 1vs5 the enemy team and use your ult to soak up a bunch of damage. They're usually not smart enough to run away and try to pile onto you 1v5. You shred the entire enemy's MR and Armour while dealing a ton of damage. If you have red buff you can slow them all down too. Then your team can easily ace them.

xXSomeoneElseJan 25, 20151 votes

may I also suggest that finding good duo que partner usually makes a huge difference when you know that atleast one person on your team is smart and reasonable usually it rubs off on the other members if 2 people are doing the same thing instead of 1 person trying to "coach" or "boss" everyone around.

SwagasaurusrexJan 25, 20151 votes

Once you hit bronze 5 all fucks given go out the window. No matter how hard you try to get out you're constantly getting dragged back under. Mainly due to the horrid LP system for ranking up. You win and gain 19-24... You lose and lost 24-30. Dumb system that needs reworked. good luck..

Leaf of the lakeJan 25, 20151 votes

It basically comes down to playing to the tier. In low elo, it's much easier to win with pubstompers than to try to play super team oriented champs. As average elo in a game goes up, you can expect people to have better teamwork, but until then, you're basically counting on the enemy team to be just as uncoordinated as your own, and whichever team has one or two players that are good at picking on that will win.

Play champs like yi, xin, wu, riven, fiora, trynd, katarina, fizz, akali, etc (although the last three are about to get nerfed). Anyone that can hard carry pubstomp, even if they fall apart to coordinated teams. Why? Because in low elo, teams aren't coordinated. Switch back to playing more team-oriented champs when you climb high enough. There are also a number of aoe burst mages you could play that will still be useful in higher elo (viktor, azir, annie, kayle, swain, etc).

The Queen ViperJan 26, 20151 votes

C) Accept the fact that "elo hell" doesn't exist. It's that simple. Think about it this way: if your skill is around bronze, you will have a hard time climbing since you are not making any difference. If your skill is slightly above bronze, you will eventually climb since you will sometimes make more difference than the average player. And if your skill is way above, then it would be like playing against bots.

The farther away from skill level you are, the more influential you are to the game ... and the closer you get to your actual skill level, the less influential you become within the game. What this means is that if you are finding that you are incapable of swaying the outcome of the game on your own, you are probably pretty near your proper rating.

VelasanJan 28, 20151 votes

Yeah... so for all the naysayers.

I used elo hell to get a response but effectively I'm saying you are playing with people under your skill level and it makes games hard to win because that breaks down communication, strategy, coordination etc.

And that much is definitely true.

Hey guess what! B3ER's advice worked. Started playing Swain and alternating on Nami. Went straight through the current tier into the next one. Two more for silver.

Won about 5 games in a row, lost one, then went another 5 games. Went through the promotionals with Nami and got a flawless victory (4 kills, no deaths, double digit assists).

So, yeah... I wasn't supposed to be in bronze and yes this really does happen.

Post again here when I'm in silver in probably a week or two (just because it takes that many games to get through promotionals and I don't have infinite time at my disposal).

Ty for all the advice everybody.