Why ELO isn't the appropriate ranking system for solo Q (must read)

Elo ranking system supposedly is the best ranking system for some games, it is a the most accurate way of placing a player where they belong based on their skill level. It is mostly used in chess for which it was created for but nowadays it's used in other games aswell.

There is a reason why solo q shouldn't be represented by Elo. Unlike chess LOL is a far more complicated game. Every single match has different standards and variables. First of all in chess each player either gets black or white pieces, the pieces are ALWAYS placed on the same squares and white always makes the first move. Each piece can only move in a certain way, bishops for example can only move diagonaly for as many squares availble to them, while rooks can only move horizontaly and vertically. Also both players use the same amount ant type of pieces. This makes chess a very standard game. Even though some can argue that white pieces have an advantage, still in matches people play both white and black pieces to determine the win, making elo perfect for chess. However in LOL each game is very very different.

You could agree that in a 5v5 ranked teams game, each team performs as a unit, there is usually proper communication, each player has a role they stick to and people choose who they team up with. So in ranked 5s you can say that elo still works just fine. But in solo/duo Q it's much different.

First of all, you don't get to choose who you are playing with. You can't avoid being matched with people who are in a bad day, or who play with no runes, or players who have a very tiny champion pool, players who haven' played LOL in a while, players who don't even have basic understanding of the game.

Second, team compositions, in LOL you don't get to pick which champs your allies will play. People's greed and imagination may result in them picking a very bad, inappropriate champion for a certain role. For example, picking a non marksman ADC even tho your team has no ranged dmg, picking a champion for jungle that isn't an actual jungler and is known to have a hard time cleaning camps, i have seen people play teemo or TF in the jungle and it was ranked. Also build paths. people will pick a cho gath to jungle with, then even though our team has tons of dmg and needs a tank, cho will build runeclaive and full ap or i have even had a teamate who build a cho with devourer in ranked games. I have seen sup braum build blade of the ruined king, ect. Sadly the team has no control over what a troll teamate can build in the game. Having an ally midlaner getting their ass whooped , and yet pull no armor or mr and keep getting killed within an enemy combo.

Third, no communication, it's super rare that people use curse to communicate in a ranked solo Q. Many times fights are lost because there is no communication or shot calling. Sometimes you are ready to full combo the enemy team but your team doesn't know and they simply won't follow up, resulting in losing an easy to win fight.

Fourth reason is people's connection and pc problems, unfortunately not everyone owns a top notch pc with fast internet, you can't ban people with bad connection from playing the game. People will dc 5/10 times during the game or not even connect at all, they will afk for 1-2 minutes and ruin the game for all. I have had teamates dc in the 40+ min while we were winning easily, and as a result we lost the game after a coule of 4v5 fights that we lost.

Fifth, trolls,trolls,troooooolls. Yes we all have had someone who decided to feed just because someone said something in chat that they didnt like, or because they didn't pick the role they wanted. We all had that guy who was last pick and even tho mid was picked and called, he picks katarina and goes mid. We all had that infamous duo top lane because 2 ppl wanted to go top and didn't respect the pick order. Now no matter how much you argue that trolls have even chances if not less chance to be in your team than the enemy team, blah blah blah, there is no real way to proove that, yes the laws of possibilities and math say that's true, however in real life there is also a factor called 'chance' and some people are just unlucky. Cause lets just face it, odds are against you to win the lottery, still people win it right??

Sixth, the 5 midlaner-5 support rule, that's how i like to call it. It is very common for 5 or 4 or 3 midlaners to be part of the same team, all wanting to go mid, sometimes it's 5 top laners, some times 3 ADCs, you get the point, he point is that sometimes one team may be consisted of 1 top later, 1 jungler, 1 mid laner, 1 ADC, 1 sup, each one picking a comfort pick on their strongest role, while in the other team everyone mains top or mid and noone likes to play support or ADC, in this case many people are forced to play roles that they don't enjoy or simply aren't very good at. Now what happens when a bot lane with an ADC main and sup main goes up against a bot lane with a top laner as ADC and a jungle as a sup, usually slaughter. Although u can argue that in order to play ranked you should know all roles, i must tell you that first of all not all people respect that, again human factor showing up, and second even if you can play sup at a decent to good lvl, you will still have a dissadvantage against a sup main, or ADC top laner vrs ADC main.

Seventh reason, lags, bugs and glitches, LOl is and online game, sometimes the servers are too stressed and busy making the game lag even with a good pc and a good connection, also server location gives everyone different pings, I for example live close to chicago, i used to have ping as high as 60-70, since the servers moved in Chicago, my ping is 16-20.

Eighth reason, different play styles. It's very often that a laid back ADC who likes to sit safe and farm till he hits an item power spike, is matched with a sup who is super agressive, the ADC can't follow the sup pace making the lane weak. The sup going in while the ADC can't follow up or visa versa, the ADC running in every oportunity to kill, while the sup is slow on following up because he isn't expecting the all in. Sometimes the player is used to more frequent ganks but this particular jungler likes to farm and rarely gank for lanes or the oposite, the jungler shows up every 30 seconds pissing the laners off who just want their peace in lane. Sometimes a jungler is used to their laners doing the ward placing and sweeping for when we is read yto gank and the team just doesnt do that, resulting in poor ganks.

Ninth reason, LUCK LUCK LUCK LUCK, yes LUCK is a HUGE factor in LOL, how many times you stole a baron with a lucky ult from nowhere, i have stolen a baron once with diana's Q from outside the baron pit and i had no vision, so it was a lucky steal that won me teh game, SHIIT HAPPENS BRUH, yes it's true sometimes people just get lucky, lucky skill shots in the fog of war, lucky dragon-baron-buff steals, a glitched minion that chases you further away than it is supposed to, a lucky charm under turret, a lucky stun under turret, one lucky play that can snow ball to a win. It;s happened may times and noone can deny, an item in the unusuall slot resulting in failing a zhonyas for example, a changed key binding from playing a different champion earlier and all can go so wrong...

So for all these reasons and more that i probably forget right now, LOL is far too random and complex than a game of chess or tic tac toe, this means one thing, ELO rating system doesn't work as expected in solo/duo Q. The parameters to take into account that affect each match are so many that even math can't accurately predict what is going to happen. Some people are lucky enough to with the lottery and some unlucky enough to get hit by a lightning, this means that Riot should start looking for another rating system or simply different match making criteria if they want the game to be more accurate.

Thanks to all those who took the time to read this.