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How RIOT Could Improve Ranked in Silver and Bronze

JRobin31·6/3/2017, 8:16:10 PM·9 votes·591 views

IMO, **LoL does a good job at ranking players with higher skill and a poor job at ranking players with lower skill. ** By the time a player gets to Diamond, the players have had to play enough games to constitute not only a fair judgment of a player's skill but also a fair judgement of a player's experience. But what about the difference between Bronze I and Bronze II? A player might take a few hundred games to grind up from system reset or a player might hop on, play a ten game provisional, not do particularly well (or just get carried) and get placed there. This means that the system does not accurately judge player skill in low ranks. And it shows.

So, what can be done about it?

First of all, why does this problem exist? The current system is designed to fast track highly skilled players past Silver and Bronze so that they can starting climbing the higher ranks. It's a consequence of the ELO system which puts the starting point for ranked in Silver V. While this works fine for highly skilled players, it also means that lower skilled players can get fast tracked too!

There's no need for fast tracking highly skilled players. The system is just going to reset at the start of season and force those fast tracked players to grind up anyways. This pretty much negates the benefit of fast tracking players to the higher ranks, but doesn't negate the problem of low ranked players that get unfairly fast tracked. The system simply resets them at about the same MMR.

Solution: all players should have to earn rank starting at Bronze V and system resets should not pull Bronze MMR closer to Silver MMR. Highly skilled players are always going to climb faster in the lower ranks anyways. The only difference is that they aren't being fast tracked (a process undone by system resets anyways). Meanwhile, lower skilled players can be more fairly judged amongst themselves. This will result in the Bronze and Silver ranks becoming more meaningful as achievements.

Guy from Bronze I: Yeah, I played 300 games this season but couldn't make it to Silver V. I guess I'll just try harder next season. I'm really proud of my Bronze I achievement though. It's the highest I've ever gotten. Guy from Silver V: Really? I got placed in Silver. You must suck; I'm clearly better than you.

Guy from Challenger: I grind back to Challenger every season. Guy from Diamond: Yeah, I grind back to Diamond every season. I'm not sure I want to do the grind this season though.

Please tell me: Why reward ten game scrub lords? At least give players that play three hundred games some sort of Ranked Veteran Icon.

Edit: For those concerned with the MMR problem of Silver Entry see this comment. It's not enough to move the entry point to Bronze V without handling RIOT's super secret hidden MMR system. I have proposed a solution.

13 Comments

PePsiLemoNN6/4/2017, 2:45:39 PM3 votes

Throwing diamond+ and bronze players in the same games for the first part of the season surely sounds like a good idea...

Daddy Braum6/3/2017, 8:49:52 PM2 votes

What if someone was placed in bronze 5 and played 250 games and was still in bronze 5 that would tell just about anyone that bronze 5 is where their skill level is but if someone was placed in bronze 5 then played 250 games and ended up in plat 5 it would tell people that his skill is about where he ended up and if he kept playing until he started losing as much lp as he was winning it would tell you that that is where he belongs wether its bronze 5 or #1 on challenger our skill levels are determined by how we play. If bronze players claim they are "stuck in elo hell" they need to learn to carry themselves. Learn how to carry a team and make calls. The ranking system is fine as it is there are just people who are better than others

ChaddyFantome6/3/2017, 11:12:56 PM2 votes

you know what? this is a very valid point.

Itsbeghdev6/4/2017, 12:47:46 AM2 votes

Was just thinking about this myself yesterday, when I realized how much faster I started playing ranked in Hearthstone than in League--I've been playing the former for about a month, and the latter since early S6, but to date I haven't finished my League placements. There's certainly a very large element of Hearthstone having far fewer barriers to hopping straight into ranked, and its not being a team game (plus RNG to blame certain failures on) eliminating a certain amount of pressure to do well, but what stood out to me is that since everyone starts at the lowest rank possible, the only way to go is up, and there's not really any shame in being an Angry Chicken like there is in being Bronze 5. I've been Unranked the whole time I've played League so far because I'm way more comfortable being Unranked than risking any division of Bronze because I have the excuse of simply preferring normals over ranked for being Unranked, but that Bronze emblem pretty much just means "bad at League". I don't doubt that I could climb out of Bronze if I was placed there, I'm not afraid of getting stuck in Elo hell, but I just don't want to be or ever have been Bronze in a system where it's possible not to have ever been Bronze in one's ranked career. As long as placements exist, Bronze is an insult to Bronze players, rather than a place from which to improve. I'm not sure how many other people feel this way, but speaking for myself, placements are just scary. Ranked should be only about the climb, not about where you start it.

Ultimate Deadpoo6/4/2017, 8:51:27 PM1 votes

I agree with this idea, that people who first start ranked should always start at Bronze five. However, for people who have earned their way past Bronze I think they should start at the fith rank of their division.

For example, let's say someone get's to Gold three by the end of the season, instead of going all the way back to bronze five for the next season, they start at Gold 5 for the start of next season.

And if you end in the fith rank of a division, like let's say gold 5, you start the next season at the top of the previous divison, so that person who finished gold 5 at the end of a season starts at Silver One next season. This would prevent higher ranked players from being placed by newbies and prevent people from simply not wanting to grind all the way back up to where they were last season from bronze five.