I'm curious as to what kind of effect the new positional ranking will have on overall skill.
If you haven't seen already, a new dev diary is out on the new ranking system coming for this season.
You can find the transcript here
But what I mean is that this new ranking system could have the potential to cause a "trickle-down" effect in both game knowledge and skill.
Say.....you're a Diamond 4 jungler that got autofilled to your worst position, which is a Gold 1 ADC (the difference in ranking may not be this extreme in reality, but my point still stands). Your skill level in that role may match everyone else's skill level in that game, but your game knowledge is still better than everyone in that game.
See, climbing isn't all about skill, or how good your ping is, it is also how well you understand the game, and all of it's fundamental mechanics. How well can you farm? How well can you help your team lock down objectives? Snowball a lead? Control waves? Close out a game?
So, this Diamond 4 jungler, despite playing ADC, still uses all of his habits and tricks he uses in any general game, even if he is not aware that he is using them. He'd keep an eye on jungle timers, and likely pay more attention to the map than your regular Gold 1 ADC. This would lead him to make calls for certain objectives, and know which area of the map his team should pressure. Maybe he even gives a little advice to his jungler, giving him a tip here and there on the specific matchup.
Something goes well in that game, and a couple other players learn something about the game through the actions of the diamond 4 autofilled jungler, even if they don't realize they did learn something. They then go on to use that knowledge in future games, and possibly even use a trick they learned in that specific game to turn around a future game. This leads them to win games, and be matched against tougher opponents, which also leads to increasing their skill. And, you never know, maybe even the diamond 4 jungler would learn something from that game.
Now, before you say "You're giving the League community WAY too much credit, and actually think a player would pay any real attention to what goes on in a game." , obviously, one game is not going to have that much impact on the overall playstyle of any individual player. However, even if you don't realize that it is happening, you are learning more about the game with each and every game you play. The reason for this is due to human psychology, and how the mind works and what not.......all of which is WAY too much to go into right now on a game forum.
The fact of the matter is, that if you play with or against someone that is a higher rank than you, even if they don't interact with you at all in the game besides just playing it, they indirectly teach you how the game works, even if it's just a minuscule amount. Over time, that experience and knowledge adds up, leading to you climbing higher. And yes, this does happen even with smurfs.
Of course, this is something that would take years to see any real noticeable change in the overall skill of a region. It's not like everyone is going to be fighting for a challenger spot by the end of the season. That said, if League is still around in 5 or so years, and Riot sticks to this ranking system, you may see that high Gold is the average rank of a player besides mid Silver.
