Elo: Rewarding or Punishing?

Starting this out, I've discussed this with a few of the people I know who also play League on a regular basis. While they go through their placements most of them feared the introduction of the new tiers knowing that it would definitely have an effect on them and their gameplay experience. Having thought on it and having gone through the experience myself it was frustrating and I decided about halfway that I was just going to stop and not even attempt the rest of my games this season. To be frank, I'm not that great but I'm not incredibly terrible either. I'm okay with knowing that and not needing to be Challenger level. In this I plan to begin discussion on how to better the experience offering a way to reward those that carry while punishing those that get carried through a match.

Riot to an extent has to recognize that most players are not teams but they are solo players. If they did not recognize this, they wouldn't have initiated letter grades on an individual basis regarding how well you are doing with a particular champion. Also, they wouldn't have created Ranked Solo/Duo. Riot prides itself on League being a "team" game, however, they do not reward enough for those that are doing well, in it's current state, every time you queue up it's a wing and a prayer that you do not get matched up with someone that is bent out of shape for no reason at all, for multiple reasons, or just because they feel like dragging others down with them. (We all know some gamers are salty and carry it on with them. They don't know how to put the keyboard down for a few minutes to relax before going into the next match.) By this you limit players that are at lower elo's to potentially be doomed to remain in lower elo because they are being matched up with players that have proven themselves to troll from time to time or in general. This would be fine, because the general idea is that if you are doing well, then you should be able to carry your team to victory yourself and escaping from the depths of what is labelled "Elo Hell". However, say there are two players matched up against one another trying to make their way up, suddenly it isn't an issue of carrying your team of trolls, but being better than one person. Theoretically, this shouldn't happen as much as it does, but through experience, it happens more often than not. What if you could disregard that worry by just trying your own personal best? You could potentially have people that are getting letter grades that are S's and still be stuck in Iron 4. Elo, after all, doesn't take into consideration how well you did but how well your team did.

If Elo were based off how well you did in your matches and winning your lane, you'd find that there were people who would likely not only join in more ranked games, but also see more players trying to do well rather than getting irritated and intentionally feeding their lane opponent. You would have no one but yourself responsible for your failures or successes. It wouldn't matter as much if other people are doing poorly so long as you are doing well yourself. Gaming is a competitive field. We all wish to see what is the best we can do and want to push the limits of our own successes. That said, by initiating a new ranking system that rewarded Elo to players that are doing well in their games while you lower those that are not doing well based not only on KDA, but also factoring in objectives like CS, towers taken, dragons/baron taken, warding, etc. If you can reward a letter grade based on that and give rewards to those that are doing well, like chests are given now, you then are in a position to give Elo based on the same item sets. Frankly, you hear all those talk during Worlds that this player is the best jungler in the game or best ADC. You can't truthfully say that in League with it's current system. You only have those that do better with their current team, and those that do not.