My First Encounter With Ranked: Why I Don't Like People

Mellori··3 votes·1,356 views

So a few days ago I finally hit level 30. I was so excited to finally start my ranked climb, and then literally every game I played, I was matched with players toxic beyond anything I'd ever met in Normals. Here's the story.

Most of my friends are in the silver-gold area, and in Normals I was able to keep up with them just fine. When I started ranked I had the ambition to land somewhere in Silver. 5, 3, anything. As long as it was Silver I'd be happy.

However, every game I played, I'd get a mid laner who would feed then accuse jungle. I'd get a top lane who would afk. I'd get a support (I play ADC mainly) that goes "I'll only help you if you ping and ask me." In champion select if I'd ask to take Teemo bot and do AP which has worked wonders for me in Normal, I'd get called a noob or r%%%%%ed. Well, sorry. Didn't know meta was law to you guys.

In game, after mid fed or top left, my game would of course do badly. I'd end up dying a lot, not able to carry a team that well because hey, I just started ranked, I'm still new! And guess who was the butt of the blame. That's right. Me. The new unranked fresh blood.

Now why is this so much of a problem? I've barely even played 100 PvP games total. I've made it my habit that while every game is loading I look up both my team and the opposing team on lolnexus.com, and wanna know what I found? I was getting matched with high Golds and Silvers during my provisionals (which I only won two of by the way) who had over 800 ranked wins. I haven't even PLAYED 800 games, let alone that many in ranked. Not to mention since 4.20 I've had lag problems out the ass on the new Rift. Not helping my case any.

Bottom line, I ended up Bronze I. Not so bad considering I wanted to be silver, it's only a step away, but I'm still getting matched with high silvers who have played hundreds more games than I have. Every game I get blamed for the downfall of the team. I know. I do bad. But you know what? At least you KNOW I'm the one doing bad and it's not YOUR fault. instead you're making yourself look like the biggest asshole on League by saying "Go back to bots" or "Uninstall and stop playing" or the best yet "Yeah, lag is your cover for doing bad." No, I don't try to lose. I've had this computer since middle school and I'm in college now, of course it lags. If I was purposely trying to lose the game I wouldn't be sitting here venting out my frustrations about losing due to the League Of Jerks.

I'm not an angry person. I'm chill, I'm nice if you're nice to me. I didn't do anything to deserve this just from trying to learn and do better. I want to play ranked like the rest of you. I just don't want to be treated like I'm a level 5 all because I can't do ranked. I can do PvP fine. But apparently there's a big learning jump that makes ranked a LOT harder than anything I've found in normals.

What should I do? Give up on ranked for a while? Just give up all together? I'm running out of options to keep my sanity at bay. It's really wearing me down.

Edit: I don't get why this is getting downvoted. Somehow I'm at fault?

15 Comments

Terff5 votes

dont start ranked right away, I waited a few months, and I'm still fairly bad. My friend from plat says get as much practice as you can in lvl 30 normals then go into ranked when you feel comfortable, or never. Your preference.

Astral Zephyroro2 votes

You need to try to duo que with someone or get a team together of friends around your rank. If your interested add me, I can duo queue with you.

Arakk012 votes

I got placed high silver, fell down to bronze primarily due to lack of game knowledge mixed with pure awful luck for an ADC main (you can't rescue toplane from bot, in general, and I'm only recently learning when to roam mid). Even if you have great mechanics, you're gonna have problems if you don't know the difference between blinds and silences. There are a couple of tricks for low bronze, if you end up there. 1: Chill. It's just a game, getting wound up over it always stunts your ability to play. Ranked isn't really harder than normals- you're just more stressed. 2: Get other people to chill. Your mid is raging because he's feeding and feeding because he's raging. See if you can placate him. 3: You have to be lucky. Sorry. Riot wants a team game, solo carry is getting less and less reliable; there are going to be people at higher skill levels in bronze on occasion, as good as or better than you. Your team can and will feed before you get fed. Good luck.

Mellori1 votes

I got placed high silver, fell down to bronze primarily due to lack of game knowledge mixed with pure awful luck for an ADC main (you can't rescue toplane from bot, in general, and I'm only recently learning when to roam mid). Even if you have great mechanics, you're gonna have problems if you don't know the difference between blinds and silences. There are a couple of tricks for low bronze, if you end up there. 1: Chill. It's just a game, getting wound up over it always stunts your ability to play. Ranked isn't really harder than normals- you're just more stressed. 2: Get other people to chill. Your mid is raging because he's feeding and feeding because he's raging. See if you can placate him. 3: You have to be lucky. Sorry. Riot wants a team game, solo carry is getting less and less reliable; there are going to be people at higher skill levels in bronze on occasion, as good as or better than you. Your team can and will feed before you get fed. Good luck.

That's something I haven't really done. You're right, though. Ranked is more stressful because it's something I haven't done, then when I get snapped at for messing up, my stress goes higher. However since I don't really rage often, it's more of me trying to defend my newness.. then I get more nervous and stressed.

Jubbinaut1 votes

it's more of me trying to defend my newness.. then I get more nervous and stressed.

As this is the case, one thing you may consider is simply waiting to get back into ranked until you're more comfortable with your own skill level. That will certainly help you alleviate at least some of that stress.

Mellori1 votes

it's more of me trying to defend my newness.. then I get more nervous and stressed.

As this is the case, one thing you may consider is simply waiting to get back into ranked until you're more comfortable with your own skill level. That will certainly help you alleviate at least some of that stress.

Probably a smart idea. I've been going back to normals for now, at least. Trying to save for more runes as someone else mentioned. Waiting until I can buy RP again and get a few more pages now that I can actually fill them.

Jubbinaut1 votes

Are you doing Normal Drafts? It may also help to get comfortable with banning, and learning to pick/counterpick.

Having a couple decent generalized rune pages full of T3 runes is probably the most important part of that, but filling out more never hurts. You might also want to save some IP. The last couple years, they've offered rune pages for IP somewhere around Feb-Apr (I don't remember when, specifically, though). They may do the same this year.

If, later on, you're still seeing a fair amount of toxicity, be liberal with the mute button. Especially at lower ranks, players who tend to belittle and berate others tend not to also use chat for important game-related discussion. Or at least, they tend to stop doing so once they start berating people. So you won't be missing much - if anything - by muting people.

Don't be afraid to report jerks - nobody really wants jerks around - but also don't talk about it. There's no real benefit to asking for reports or declaring reports, but there's a lot of potential downside (including increased hostility and counter-reports).

Ragnar422 votes

God this board is filled with jerks.

OP: If you want to play ranked, go ahead and play ranked. Ranked is a little bit more competitive, but you'll rise to the occasion much more quickly.

The problem is this: what's required to win in a ranked game is more technical, and tougher than a standard normals game. People are in ranked to win.

My only recommendation is to wait until you have tier 3 runes for 3 roles before going in. That's it. If you want to play with the big-boys right out of the gates, expect to lose more often than you win for a long time. Try to learn after each game, and I promise, before long you'll be climbing the ranks and not free-falling.

Another thing you can do is go to twitch.tv and find some players who play your role that talk about yourlane strategy. Watch and emulate how they play.

At the end of the day, This is your time, Your money, and your sweat you've put into the game. Don't let anyone else tell you how to enjoy it. If you have fun as a fresh 30 in ranked, everyone else can go to hell.

Mellori1 votes

God this board is filled with jerks.

Yeah, I noticed that when the post had a -1 on it earlier. I can vent my frustrations about other people while admitting my own faults, and it's still on me. @.@

OP: If you want to play ranked, go ahead and play ranked. Ranked is a little bit more competitive, but you'll rise to the occasion much more quickly.

The problem is this: what's required to win in a ranked game is more technical, and tougher than a standard normals game. People are in ranked to win.

My only recommendation is to wait until you have tier 3 runes for 3 roles before going in. That's it. If you want to play with the big-boys right out of the gates, expect to lose more often than you win for a long time. Try to learn after each game, and I promise, before long you'll be climbing the ranks and not free-falling.

Another thing you can do is go to twitch.tv and find some players who play your role that talk about yourlane strategy. Watch and emulate how they play.

At the end of the day, This is your time, Your money, and your sweat you've put into the game. Don't let anyone else tell you how to enjoy it. If you have fun as a fresh 30 in ranked, everyone else can go to hell.

Thank you so much for the encouragement and advice. ^^ I'd kinda been doing that way back at the starting levels, but kinda stopped after I was soaring through Normals with no issue. I might have to go back and look at some higher skill levels again now that I have more understanding and more mastery/rune slots. xD

Bronze Demon2 votes

i find it funny when silvers are so overly concerned with meta, they dont have the base skills and strategy nor are they faced with the base skills and strategy that would make meta champs the best response option. case in point, do what you are best with, do what you are most comfortable with. if it works then do it, thats how the meta is created in the first place.

Astral Zephyroro1 votes

Also, bronze -gold is pretty damn toxic, I got a few buddies in plat that say they still get it every now and then.

disregardable1 votes

Don't play ranked, obviously. If it makes you feel better, I also played ranked as soon as I hit level 30 , and I lost almost every single provisional as well. Feeders, AFKers, and just not doing well. People that are new to the game generally wind up in Bronze, that's just how it is. If you keep playing, and keep falling, eventually your MMR will level out with your actual skill level. I'm in Bronze V and I typically play with Silvers in normals as well. They just don't play particularly hard.

Stars Shaper1 votes

Don't play ranked, obviously.

That's where I ended, playing only the placements (and then noticing that rating itself sucks much and isn't a real tool to see where a player should be in terms of league). But then we should ask ourselves if it's ok that ppl who actually want to play are either to meet such shizestorms or get back to only play normals because outside of the yard things are bad.

Mellori1 votes

Don't play ranked, obviously.

I guess.. but for the most part I wanted to see where I fell. Have something to be proud of. I mean, I get it.. but it shouldn't be "Oh, just don't play that mode because they're being toxic". Nice, respectful, teamwork-oriented players shouldn't have to give up playing (ranked, normal, or the game in general) just because the select jerk here and there want to make themselves feel better by bullying them, new or not.

Mellori1 votes

Are you doing Normal Drafts? It may also help to get comfortable with banning, and learning to pick/counterpick.

I haven't yet, but I might have to start.

Having a couple decent generalized rune pages full of T3 runes is probably the most important part of that, but filling out more never hurts. You might also want to save some IP. The last couple years, they've offered rune pages for IP somewhere around Feb-Apr (I don't remember when, specifically, though). They may do the same this year.

From what the shop says one page is available for 6300 IP. I don't know though if it's smarter to buy pages, or get runes for those pages first. Runes are what I've been buying as of now.

If, later on, you're still seeing a fair amount of toxicity, be liberal with the mute button. Especially at lower ranks, players who tend to belittle and berate others tend not to also use chat for important game-related discussion. Or at least, they tend to stop doing so once they start berating people. So you won't be missing much - if anything - by muting people.

I generally don't mute, but just ignore. That way if I really wanted to make a support ticket to ensure action took place against toxic players, I had a basis to go on based on what I saw them say for my argument there.

Don't be afraid to report jerks - nobody really wants jerks around - but also don't talk about it. There's no real benefit to asking for reports or declaring reports, but there's a lot of potential downside (including increased hostility and counter-reports).

I do, every game I have with one (or many) I report whoever pitched in. But with my computer being slow, I'm not there until they've all left the end screen so even if I was the type to beg for extra reports from others, I couldn't. But all I can see is in chat where they've said "Report for feeding" and whatnot about me, even if I didn't have the highest deaths, or even if I didn't feed at all.

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