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Does the ranked system disincentivize the casual player from playing the game? (Help a guy out Riot)

vivimos··1 votes·1,408 views

I only have time to play between 3 and 5 ranked games per week usually. I qualified in Iron 4 last season which is bad, I know. But I was determined to watch training videos, get good, and climb out of that. After exactly 200 games I ended the season in Silver 4. I was proud of my achievement and felt I could make Gold if I had more time to play.

The new season 2020 began and riot had me in Iron 2 before I played my first promo game. I feel that with my ending last season with a 78% win rate during my last 50 games I should have qualified higher than Iron 1.

The problem is that even if I maintain a good win rate I'm still looking at 100 or so games to get back into silver and then another few hundred games to get into Gold. I just don't have the time to play 400 games each season and Riot qualifies me so much lower than where I ended the previous season that it will be impossible for me to climb any higher with the the amount of time i have regardless of how good or bad I am.

**Knowing that I wouldn't be able to climb the ranks even if I was as good as faker because of time constraints dramatically diminishes my reason to play. **

What are everyone's thoughts on this? Is there a way to improve the system for working dad with 6 kids who just can't play 1,000+ games each season?

3 Comments

iiGazeii2 votes

Short answer: yes

It drops you down to incentivise you to try and reclaim your rank. If you just place and play a few games now and then, you'll just constantly drop. The system is designed to accurately judge your rank in 100-200 games. A couple of dozen simple aren't enough.

I recommend trying to play three games a day, and only three games a day. That's about a 2-hour block set aside for League, which is doable even when you work. I work 12-hour shifts, and even I've got 2 hours at the end of my day for League. Maybe two sets of three on a day off, but with lots of space in between.

Grinding yourself into dust with long sessions won't help you improve your rank or your skills. In fact, it just reinforces bad habits. People get tired. People get tilted. Short, frequent sessions let you consistently play your best so you can climb, as opposed to slamming a dozen games a day over the weekend and wearing yourself out.

vivimos1 votes

Thanks for the reply. I think your remarks are accurate. But my issue is that with all the responsibilities between family, work, church, music lessons, dance lessons, etc. I can only play 1 or 2 evenings a week. I don't feel that an Iron rank accurately reflects my skill but feel helpless to change it.

Do you think there will ever be a change to the system to accommodate people like me or should I just accept things the way they are and only play normals because Unranked is better than Iron?

Unker1392 votes

{quoted}

Thanks for the reply. I think your remarks are accurate. But my issue is that with all the responsibilities between family, work, church, music lessons, dance lessons, etc. I can only play 1 or 2 evenings a week. I don't feel that an Iron rank accurately reflects my skill but feel helpless to change it.

Do you think there will ever be a change to the system to accommodate people like me or should I just accept things the way they are and only play normals because Unranked is better than Iron?

I'm in the same boat with limited time to play.

If you maintain that win rate, you will climb back to silver much quicker than you think. Even if you don't, the system will eventually put you where you belong. You "skill" is your MMR and not your rank. Your LP gains are increased if you are winning in games that are a higher MMR than your rank and you will gain faster.

Riot could accommodate players like us by making it easier to climb in less games, but the issues is that easier to climb is also easier to fall and in the end, all that will accomplish is greater volatility making the middle ranks less meaningful than they are now.

If you can climb from iron 4 to silver 4 in only 200 games, getting to gold by the end of the season is very realistic. Getting past that will be a challenge....not because of your limited play time but because the skill level jumps. To climb, you hit only have to improve, but improve faster than the people ahead of you and that is difficult when they are playing several hours a day.

You could switch to normals, but in my opinion, you don't get a better play experience and you have no idea where you stand.

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