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At a bit of a loss with Ranked

Brann Orn·11/18/2013, 9:58:34 PM·1 votes·302 views

So, help me out here. It turns out that ranks can still decay even though prizes have been dished out (thanks for the warning rito, I thought that didn't happen for now) but I decayed from Silver to Bronze 1 last night so I figured I would give ranked a go and claw my way back up to Silver. Game started out great, Ez+ my Sona bot, Ez got fed easily. Then....two, eventually three of my team mates started arguing over chat to the point that they threw the entire game over a rather large early/mid game lead. So great, -16LP and sinking deeper into Bronze. Even became the target of one player because I wasn't "Warding enough" when leaving base without an escort essentially meant getting jumped and insta-gibbed as they had full control over our jungle at that point.

Look, this isn't a Deer Diary thing for me. I haven't won a single ranked match since my placement matches because of this kind of arguing/throwing in every single match. I'm at a complete loss as to what I can do in this kind of situation. I try and be encouraging and nice to people while trying to get the team on track but for some reason people are content to openly loose a match because of a petty argument over chat.

I know my play isn't the best at times, I know I make mistakes, but I also have a firm grasp on mechanics, I go into every match with the full intent to give it my all and do my damnedest to win and I know I can carry given the chance (obviously Sona isn't the best carry in this case) The last day or so hasn't been the best gameplay of my life and my recent game history is far from impressive but I know from my personal history I'm perfectly capable of doing very well in most situations.

Aside from improving my game play what is there I can do. What do higher elo people do in these situations to potentially save the game or quell the growing problem? What can you do to carry the game (or attempt to)?

I know this probably sounds whiny but I'm frustrated and at a total loss with my ranked experiences. I shouldn't get better playing/acting teams in unranked solo que, more so I shouldn't have to report 3+/5 of my team every match and have repeated losses as a result of this kind of player behavior. I know it's easy to say "carry harder" but I really need some advice with this before things get worse.

~A baddie

1 Comments

Daxknight11/18/2013, 10:48:19 PM1 votes

Welcome to the hell of the Season 3 lower tiers. I am really hoping some of the proposed changes will mitigate this some but there are still some obvious holes. I know Riot keeps a ton of stats and use that data to try and improve the game but I have yet to see them leverage what I assume they can easily mine in certain areas that would help lower play tier. Suggestions : 1.) I expect the amount of AFK players in lower tiers of rank play is significantly higher than upper tiers. I can understand the caveats that might be at play here but I expect the data will overwhelmingly support me on this. Consider making losses where one or more players AFK hurt less to your score. You could even tier it based on rank. So for example at Bronze a loss with an AFK applies only 20% of the penalty normally applied to your score. Silver 40% Gold 80% Diamond and higher 100%. This simple change would dramatically help the decent players escape the swamp of toxicity that exists at lower tiers. 2.) FIX the elo equations for assists. They are FAR too weighted on kills verse deaths. I know that there are going to be things that help with gold, and new assist streaks etc but the penalty for playing support with a bad team to your elo score is MASSIVE at lower tiers. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. The lower your elo more likely to be last pick. Last pick 90% of time gets stuck with support. Support get eaten alive no matter how good they are when paired with toxic players because they are going to be lowest level with least items. Relative to #1 losses with AFK should not affect your ELO score!! Please, again all you are doing is forcing decent players to stay stuck with problematic ones.

Others feel free to add to my suggestions but I am pretty sure there is a large player population ready to quit LOL after last season. I personally will give the new season changes a try but if they don't help alleviate these sort of continuous miserable ranked games I will be looking to other games to invest my time and money into. I think Riot has a great product that has had massive growth but like many other MMORGs you are coming to a pivot point where you can begin the slow but inexorable decline into mediocrity or you can actively work to renew and inspire a new gen of play. -Dax