An Open Letter to Riot - Everything that is wrong with "toxicity".
First a bit of context.
Yesterday I played a ranked game. Ya, see. At the beginning it looked like a dream. Everybody called a different lane.
So we load into the game and first thing I notice is that Jax is the last to leave the base. I click him to see if he bought items. What is see is 83 AD, then bought a Long Sword. 93 AD. 0 additional armor or magic resists.
3/11/4, least damage, 13 CS @ 10 minute, build in order:
-> 
-> 
-> 
Obvious boost, 4v6 game at it's finest.
Today I woke up, did my morning routine and ended up with a free hour, before I had to go out (Family Thursdays yay). I played a match of League and without beating about the bush, it was the worst free hour I had in a while. I play Syndra vs LB mid, free lane. LB can't do anything. I go 3/0 despite their Udyr camping mid. Then I look on top lane. Kha 3/7 or so. Maybe bot lane? They started with "[About Rek'Sai] It feels like a cheat you can see Twitch". They managed to go from 2/0 to 3/10 in about 10 minutes. Twitch strolls by mid, pops out of stealth and 3-shots me without giving me any time to respond. So I have their whole team on lane until the end of the game. Complete lack of response from my team.
Then, as the Family Thursday was really... well, boring, I had like 3 hours to think about those games. So I was wondering what when and why went wrong.
A bit of my story.
Back when I started playing this game 3 years ago, I was a really quiet person. I never got angry at anything. The best you would've been able to pull out of me would be a raised eyebrow, laugh and sarcastic remark in that order. Well, so quiet, in fact, that one of girls in high school told me that sometimes she's scared of me level of quiet.
Now, I'm about to end an ~500 game long chat restriction after over a year of not being able to use /all chat and I wonder: How could a person so tranquil become such a rageful individual?
And then it struck me.
At the beginning I didn't bother with others as I was playing mostly normals. Managed to get Silver 5 after provisionals and stayed there as back then one could not get demoted from Tiers. After a lot of hard work managed to get Platinum the next season.
But, boy, how unfair and pissing off it was.
My conclusion.
Do you remember or even bothered to read the context? If yes, then let's continue.
I'm sitting here wondering why that Jax, who was the purest form of boost, was higher pick than me. The answer is: There is no reason.
There is completely no logic in matchmaking.
You queue into a game, roll a dice to determine who will dictate how the game will go, decide if you will get your best role or not, or perhaps even how the teamcomp will look like.
The game starts and that supposedly worthy person goes 0/10 and ruins everybody's day.
People refuse to surrender lost game and you are forced to either face the penalty of every who goes AFK or go through an 30 minute ordeal, while the worst in the team try to act like the best shotcaller in the game.
The game ends and this - I know I'm insulting people with intellectual disability, sorry for that, but this is the closest word I can use to describe that player - r%%%%% loses as much League Points and ELO imaginary-number-called-MMR as you do after trying to claw your way to victory.
You have this "MMR" and "LP" to determine what skill level you are, but it means absolutely nothing, because every one of those 10 people are treated equally, unless cancerous duo is involved into the equation.
It's only natural even the strongest might break if state like this continues for two or more years.
If you'd ask me to name one lost match that was a "team effort" as opposed to playing with one or two individuals who forgot to put a brain into their skulls and demolish everything other teammates do, I wouldn't be able to do it. There simply wasn't one match in the past year or so, that I lost and the enemy team was simply "better".
Final thought.
I can understand it might be hard for you, Almighty Lyte, whoever is assisting you in player behaviour aspects and everybody who is responsible to matchmaking and everything in it's immediate vicinity, to actually address the source, the root of toxicity, instead of punishing it's victims first without a way to appeal or even a proper feedback.
I mean, how cool would it be to exceed the speed limit by a mile, get fined, but without anybody informing you, until the Police is knocking at your door and throwing you into a jail for not paying said fine?
That's how your system works.
It treats symptoms in a very bizzare and illogical way, instead of being an antibiotic to the actual infection.
[Edit] The root of toxicity is the terrible matchmaking this game has, that takes nothing into the account, but the number of wins and loses. It's unfair, illogical and flat out stupid way to be judged.
Riot proved they can measure personal ability to play. That's what I believe should be included into the matchmaking. For example on one hand you have this terrible Jax and on the other there is this other dude with high kill participation, high number of wards, CS, etc.
Why are they judged in the exactly same way?
Incorporate system similar to Grades into the ranked and, for example, lower LP and ELO loses, if you are above average compared to the rest of the team.
