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Don't Let Ranked Get You Down

Live for More·8/13/2014, 4:02:11 AM·5 votes·941 views

I'm a dirty Bronze scrub (I play with high Silvers, though. Shhhhhh...) here to give you some random paragraphs words of (possible) inspiration. It's a wall, so don't bother if that's not your thing.

First of all, let me state the obvious. Solo/Duo Queue is where you go to determine how good you are at this game. The problem with this mode is that you are matched with complete strangers who will each take up a single slot of the 10, just like you. They could be terrible, Wood V level, Cheddar Cheese XXVII level, and on their way to the bottom where they belong. They could be amazing, Challenger worthy even, and just making their way up the ladder. You have no control over that. You only have control of you. You could go in and intentionally throw the game, or you could go in and make a mockery of the entire enemy team. What you put into the game is one tenth of what goes on behind the many keyboards of your match. I'm weird and probably the only one, but I personally think it is so cool that so much is going on at one time, and that everything comes together and eventually culminates in a defeat or a victory (well, both, but you know what I mean).

While you have an impact on the game, sometimes you're just going to be overwhelmed. You could be a Silver player, playing against three Platinum-worthy players that have just gotten into ranked and are beginning their ascent to take their place as the prince of Bel-Air. You could be Gold level, but if they do better than you, you're going down. You're not quite where you belong after this match, just because of what you dealt with. You could also be carried by a team of Diamond-worthy players. It's a mixed bag. You can't pick and choose who you play against.

The point is, you may not be where you belong. You could get a 10-match hot streak, or a 20-match losing streak. Things happen. It's rough. AFKs are everywhere in Bronze V. Just do your best. You'll probably move up. And if you don't, well, what can you do? You just have to accept that Ranked can't determine if you've been dealt a really terrible hand or not just by following its programming. You get put with a bunch of smurfs, or AFKs, or trolls, or whatever, and you end up stuck in a rut.

You have to have fun with it. That should be your top priority. If you aren't having fun, get out now. Unless you make a living off of playing this game, which, if you do, hello and thanks for reading this post but seriously why are you doing that, then you have no excuse to play ranked anymore. You can argue this isn't for fun, but rather to prove yourself, but you are wrong. This is not up for debate. This is a video game. This is what you do for fun. Have fun with it or do not do it. Seriously, there are a ton of things you can do for fun, and if this game just isn't one of them, then here's a small list of things you can try:

  • Learn to play Dungeons & Dragons with a group of friends.
  • Watch Breaking Bad. Let's be real that show is amazing.
  • Snort coke. You didn't hear that from me.
  • Drink coke. /royalties
  • Get a kitty.

It pains me to know that so many people get so stressed about this game. One thing about me is that I do not get stressed, ever. I play troll games all the time, and I'm sure I get reported for it a lot. I get honored practically every match, though. Here's a story of one I played earlier with a happy ending, quoted for your convenience.

This one particular troll game was me running around and drive-by ulting the enemy team as Trundle, all while cancelling my team's ults with my E. My Lee Sin kept all chatting, claiming that I was probably a fat troll with no girlfriend and parents who didn't love me. I made sure he knew that his accusations were baseless, though the parent one was spot on. It ended in a loss, and after the match my Lee Sin was telling me off for losing him his match and telling me I was bad. This was what I said, "A question for you all. To Lee Sin: 1v1? To everyone else: Wanna watch?" Nobody took me up on watching, but Lee Sin agreed to 1v1. We went mid lane on SR and played to take the Nexus. As Olaf, I easily overcame his Quinn and pushed his towers insanely fast. He basically told me my choice in champion was ridiculous and overpowered, and could easily win by spamming Q. I assured him Olaf has weaknesses, and proceeded to take out his Nexus. He told me he had stopped trying about halfway through, because my champion was too ridiculous.

After the match, he said we should go again. He told me to be Olaf, and that I wouldn't know who he would pick. I agreed. Same scenario, but this time he was Jayce. I got first blood on him and took his tower, and then noticed he wasn't coming back. I left the custom game and found he was offline, so I messaged him and told him: "I guess that's a forfeit?" He came back after about two minutes and told me that he had a bad day in solo queue and that he was angry with me for ruining his day with my troll match. I offered to carry him out of Bronze III, but he declined. Though he was obviously angry, I did my best to remain respectful. I even offered to buy him a skin. Eventually, he calmed down and told me that he was so upset that he couldn't be in Silver with his friends like he wanted. I asked him about his role preferences and all that good stuff, learned he likes mages and assassins. I suggested he learn top lane Olaf, but he told me that he does not like Olaf based on his first time playing the champion during a free week. I understood. After all, not many people play him, and it's for a reason.

He asked me why I was being so nice even though he had been so angry. I told him it's because I'm chill enough to main Brolaf. I told him that I didn't want to tell him how to live his life, but to not take it so seriously. He was just very frustrated with solo queue.

As I ended the conversation to log off, I noticed he had queued up for another match.

I like to think I gave this guy a little bit of inspiration, but there's no real way of knowing unless I ask. It's a weird question, so I'll let it slide. He can message me if he wants, since he still has me added as far as I know. No sense name-and-shaming him, but I'm sure someone could dig and find his summoner name. I was actually glad to have the interaction. Now I'm not really worried about what happens in Match 5 of my B1-S5 promos that I'm about to play. I'm going to have hella fun, though.

2 Comments

ploki1228/13/2014, 3:36:23 PM2 votes

One thing that I tell myself when playing Ranked is that no matter what I play, as long as I play it a lot it doesn't matter if it's troll or not. I started playing Poppy in mid/high Silver in preseason3. That was around the time Zekent was still toying with it. At that time, people's ocmplaints about me trolling was semi-legitimate, since it was a champion considered underwhelming and I never had done anythign on him.

However, as time went on, I won more then I lost (I may have stayed at the bottom of my tier for a couple days). But once I had played roughly 5-10 matches I was at my Poppy skill level. At that point no matter what others said, I simply picked Poppy and played as well as I could, and even if they found Poppy to be trash tier, it simply meant I was so much better than them that I could reach their ranking with a trash champion (well, either that or they're wrong :P). Right now, my Poppy skill level is Plat V, and whenever people complain, I simply answer that I reached Plat V playing Poppy. There isn't a single good counter-argument.

In short, just play whatever the fuck you want and have fun, you'll be ranked accordingly and once you're ranked somewhere remotely close to your skill level, no one can complain about the shits you do, since you're playing with/against players that are that efficient while playing their playstyles. You chould choose to play with only the mouse and/or by rolling Ultimate Bravery for every games... After 20-25 placement games you'll be taken to your Ultimate Clicker Bravery level and you will end up with a relatively neutral effect on your game. That wasn't short :/

CrystalKamu8/14/2014, 7:20:28 AM1 votes

I've never ranked, even after playing this game for a year. I'm still trying to come into my own playstyle. My friends tell me I like to be in people faces and initiate for my team, that how I move is in and out in a sort of rhythm waiting for an opportunity. To be honest, I'm terrified of attempting ranked since I don't have that much self assurance in my skill level. I've recently started doing pvp on a regular basis, trying to learn the mechanics of playing with others and how to face real people in game, and trying to master team fights. There is so much to take in when you play with a team against a team of other people.