Anyone else notice extreme mismatches in promo games?

GundayMonday·Sep 23, 2013·5 votes·497 views

Just curious. I keep track of my team and opponents every game and noticed that promotion games are generally stacked against me (ridiculously so in some cases). For example, it took me 10+ promo series to get into plat III. Main reason for this is the extreme mismatches that my team faced in other lanes. I had a couple games where my team was me and gold/silver players against diamond/plat players. There were a few games where the enemy laners would have 1000+ games against my friendly gold player with only ~100. Some games it's the other way around, but those are definitely fewer in number than the games stacked against me.

Seems to happen pretty consistently in my data and is dramatically different than the spread of non-promo games. Not complaining (I love a challenge), but wondering if this is universal or if I'm just unlucky.

10 Comments

ViciousCanadianSep 23, 20132 votes

Probably is Universal, considering promo games are meant to determine if you can or cant progress on to the next rank.

GundayMondaySep 23, 20131 votes

Oh definitely. Just seems a bit unfair pulling in teammates from the rank below you. Wouldn't have much of a problem with an all plat team vs diamonds. But silvers vs diamonds is a little brutal. See what I mean?

BarciumSep 24, 20131 votes

I've had the same problem, In my promo up to silver I would lolnexus the match up, and I would have bronze 4 or bronze 3's on my team playing against silver 1's and gold 5's.

The ranked system still has some pretty obvious kinks to work out. Hopefully Riot will be able to make some improvements for season 4.

IxioranSep 28, 20132 votes

When I notice gross mismatches like that it's because of Duo Qs. I'm in Gold V and I had a match last night vs a Platinum V and his Silver V duo. These types of games are unfair for the people in Solo Q, because they have to play against someone who is, according to the system, vastly better than them.

There's also abuse cases of the Duo Q system where a person in say Gold I will queue with someone in Bronze for an easy promotion series against players less skilled than they.

I honestly think that Duo Qs should be matched based on the MMR of the highest player, NOT an aggregation of the two in order to discourage queuing with a friend drastically lower than you. I understand there are people who want to play with their friends who are less skilled than they are, but that's what normals are for. It's not right to screw 8 other people so you can play with your friend. This will eliminate abuse cases as well as even the playing field for everyone else involved.

Bubble Butt LuluSep 23, 20131 votes

I have never experienced miss matches that extreme and I've made the climb to diamond on more than 1 account.

GundayMondaySep 23, 20131 votes

That's what a few of my friends are saying. I'm starting to think I just got unlucky. hue.

RedHawk ShadeSep 24, 20131 votes

Yea ive seen hard miss matches in promos. My problem is that my bot lane ALWAYS loses. i kept track of it for a month and for some reason the enemy team just has the better bot lane except for one match i played last night. Its happened so often that it cant be just by chance. win lane lose game.

GundayMondaySep 24, 20131 votes

I'm a strong believer that you can win with any team. But it's still pretty rough when you look at your team's data compared to the enemy team and your gold III adc only has ~50 games with ad champions against the platinum/diamond twitch with 1000+ games. I've won that game, and I've lost that game. It's more interesting to me that in promo games I get the gold adc more often than the diamoond one. Wondering if it's by design or chance.

RedHawk ShadeSep 24, 20131 votes

I dont know man but i hear the same thing all the time. Also people say once u get demoted u actually get better team mates, and u get really bad ones after u rank up.

GundayMondaySep 26, 20131 votes

I think I was just unlucky. Just breezed through my plat II promo games as soon as I complained on the forums (not recommending complaining as best practice). Although it would be ingenious if Riot built something in to match you with worse team mates against better players periodically to keep players engaged and in flow. A little devious though :D