Discussion on the bronze division

Lord Boltrix·Aug 21, 2015·1 votes·412 views

I have no issue with the bronze label itself, I don't really bother with ranked, haven't bothered at all for a while. My concern is that... why does bronze have to be the so-called 'baddie' division? I mean, normally you consider in sports events, you know, like the Olympics? The top three medals are Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Bronze doesn't mean you were the worst, it meant you were bested only by two people, otherwise you were ahead of all of the rest of your competition, possibly in all the world. Here, the concept of bronze is a joke, and I feel off about that.

Discuss your ideas here.

6 Comments

MimyAug 21, 20153 votes

[{quoted}](name=Lord Boltrix,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=AGcphFQP,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-08-21T23:18:35.544+0000)

I have no issue with the bronze label itself, I don't really bother with ranked, haven't bothered at all for a while.

Bronzies are just considered bad because we're the division to likely have... More trolls, people who just hit 30 and rushed into ranks, people with high lag, and people who rage easily due to everything above.

It's not that we're all bad, but like you said some of us don't feel bothered to do ranked. I'm not a big ranked person myself.

Bronze is actually fun when you see past everything! You just... gotta look at it from a new more positive perspective!

DeadlyQuestionAug 22, 20153 votes

It's because in the Olympics the people who are the worst don't get placed, but in League, everyone places, even the worst ones. To compare to the Olympics there would have to be an "unranked" rank below Bronze that persisted until you passed a series.

Until then, the least lucky/least skilled players have to go somewhere.

I personally don't like it when people treat you the same as a Bronze I than a Bronze V. I mean, its actually getting to where you're treated as a low bronze peon until Silver II and then only considered average until high plat. It's ridiculous.

CheeseyogerAug 22, 20152 votes

You know, this isn't entirely related, but you got me thinking about bronze labeling and wood V and all that, and how when people talk about wood V it's usually in a much more upbeat sense than anything bronze related. And I was just thinking, It would be cool if League had a Wood division that was separate from standard ranked, and existed essentially as a pvp school where people could learn the basic tools and strategies of competitive play.

Basically like with bots but more in depth. In coop ai, it will show you the turret range and aggro state when you get close, which helps you learn how far they can shoot and under what circumstances you should be concerned/not concerned about drawing aggro.

Imagine if League had a casual pvp version of that where you could select different things to work on, such as cs, and in game enemy minions would turn orange when their health gets close to your AD, and green when their health is at or below your damage with armor factored in.

Or warding, where it notifies you when you haven't bought a ward, or placed one in a while. And while you have a ward, it could highlight the typical high-traffic areas of the map in red.

It could also have brief tutorial videos to watch outside of the game showing things like positions in lane, freezing waves, pushing waves, signalling team mates for plays, warning team mates of hidden dangers, various ganking paths. Just individual little things to think about and try implementing in your next match.

Lord BoltrixAug 22, 20152 votes

I am glad everyone is submitting your thoughts, positive or negative I want to inspire thinking. And yes, I feel that everything from Bronze V to Challenger should be earned, the division and rank system doesn't work if everyone is going to be put at one division as a baseline. It sort of makes Bronze seem inconsequential if everyone is going to be put there at the very beginning. I'd rather not call it Wood because there is a stigma attached to the name, as in 'worse than bronze' - which again, also attaches the stigma that bronze is composed of nothing but bad players - and we don't want that.

My idea is that there should be a Developmental Division. You know, an Intro, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert for Ranked? To enter Bronze, one has to PvP until they are deemed well enough to earn an actual rank and possibly even a border. However, at these levels, advancement is promoted by one's individual effort and contributions, followed by their team contributions, this is to solve the idea of 'elo hell.'

The idea of 'elo hell' is the idea that one cannot make advancements because their teammates hold them down even when they perform well, because of various reasons, toxicity, lag, trolls, etc.

At this level, it would not matter if your teammates are trolls, the evaluation is determined by your personal score before something as arbitrary as a win or a loss. I mean, what does a win matter if you decided to troll and feed 30 kills without getting a single kill? And should you be punished if someone decided to AFK and you lost even if your had at least a 2.0 KD ratio? Maybe you are the support and didn't get to contribute much beyond assists, but your presence is noted, the warding and placement significant, and maybe you were willing to give your life to make sure the team won?

So yes, team contributions would matter, but at this level your performance matters more than how your team did as a whole.

What do you think?

CheeseyogerAug 22, 20151 votes

Yeah, I think you make some really good points. I was amused by the idea of calling it Wood (perhaps even a bit extra since my old college dorm hall was called Wood) but you're right, it shouldn't cater to the stigmas we've built, even for humor.

And I totally agree individual performance should be what drives advancement. I'm not sure how they'd track it, though. Some things are easy to measure, like what % of the team's/the game's deaths you make up, perhaps even measured against features of your champion like range, mobility, tankiness, etc. But how does getting caught out of position differ from sacrificing yourself to save one, two, or even more team mates from getting caught?

Warding would be a good one. You could get points for placing wards that grant unique vision of key targets like blue/red buffs, dragon, baron, and key gank routes. It'd also make sense if you got points when your wards grant unique vision of an enemy champion. I say unique vision in these places because it'd be easy for people to place three wards on one spot for triple points, or for each team member to ward on top of each other at high value spots instead of spreading a net of vision.

Clearing wards could also grant points the same way it currently grants gold.

Damage dealt to champions and healing done to champions would be another couple good ones. Even if you don't get a kill, pressuring the enemy team with high damage or superior sustain does a lot for securing objectives.

What do you think? How should individual skill be measured? Especially in a way that doesn't encourage people to sacrifice the team to protect their own KDA and such. 'Cause in the end, the goal is a team of five players working together on objectives to win the game.