Hypothesis on S4 Ranked Placements

Roaranor·1/27/2014, 7:47:44 PM·1 votes·230 views

Riot is trying to "refresh" the system in a sense. Season 3, there were a lot of people in higher divisions who didn't deserve to be there based on skill, and vice versa there were a lot of players stuck in elo lower than where they should be due to massive clamping. With the Season 4 soft reset, players who were placed in the season before trend towards placing lower than where they were the previous season, but are compensated with the fact that it's now easier to climb and clamping is much less of a problem.

Also, keep in mind that who you play against may not determine where you mmr is. You may simply be a balancing factor in the queue (the low player to bring the team mmr down or the high player to balance out the opposing team having a higher mmr than yours)

As far as I know, this system is working as intended. Majority of the players on my friend's list who placed significantly lower than where they finished S3 had no problem climbing back up to where they were within a week or two of play, and some have already climbed even higher.

This is, of course, just my hypothesis based on observation. Thoughts? Opinions? Confirmation or correction from Rioters?

6 Comments

Sir ArmaMalum1/27/2014, 8:01:04 PM2 votes

I agree with you most of the pains felt right now are transition pains from S3 ranks, and beyond that you summed it up very well imho. Another thing or two to add though. Placements are very skewed if you did not play during the the pre-season because the system did not have as good of an idea where to put you. Also if you duo queued with someone decently far from your own ranking, I believe that duo MMR is being handled differently and makes it harder for the duo (as a duo has a natural advantage over solos). This is all from my personal (and friend's) experience and my own educated guesses as well.

LiarLyre1/27/2014, 10:54:15 PM1 votes

I agree whole heartedly. I have encountered some players with me in bronze that were gold or plat last season but firmly belong in lower bronze.

Im Ðaniel1/28/2014, 2:39:46 AM1 votes

I ended up in lower bronze last season and this season after my placements. Later on while playing in solo que, I find gold players from season 3 who carry hard in my games. I think this is a bit unfair for the people who get free lp and people who lose lp because they are against higher elo players.