Can we call a spade a spade?

Zero Shingetsu·Jul 6, 2016·4 votes·416 views

We get it, internet. You're better than everyone. You're an unwashed otaku who dedicates 96% of your life to video games, and it's put you on a level generations - no, millennia! - beyond what we dirty casuals will ever achieve.

But seriously, can we stop with this "x score isn't good game at all" thing? Every time I see someone bring up a score like 10/4, 11/1, etc. as part of a larger point about a champion's balance or something, there's always one or two idiots who reply "10/4 isn't even good kid"

The fact is, that's untrue. I've heard the average pro player's KDA is something like 1.4 : 1. So basically anything above 2.5 : 1 is a great game. More importantly, you don't know the context of the game. A 10/4 game when most people in the game were around 5/8, or in a game that lasted only 20 minutes, is a comparatively great score.

10 Comments

disregardableJul 6, 20161 votes

Pro Players are playing against the most skilled players in existence. You are playing against the least skilled players (that aren't under level 30). Getting a 1.4 KDA in a pro game is almost infinitely harder than getting a 2.5 KDA in a Bronze 5 game. So no, it's not that good.

Zero ShingetsuJul 6, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Pro Players are playing against the most skilled players in existence. You are playing against the least skilled players (that aren't under level 30). Getting a 1.4 KDA in a pro game is almost infinitely harder than getting a 2.5 KDA in a Bronze 5 game. So no, it's not that good.

I considered that point, which is why I added the point about game context. However, by design, that doesn't matter. You're playing against people around your MMR, meaning just like at the pro level - no, maybe moreso, considering that pros don't even track MMR anymore - you're playing against opponents of equal skill. In other words, the context of what "good" means changes. If that's inaccurate, it means Riot needs to fix their matchmaking.

Consider a real sport. Any real sport that has a pro level. The NBA. In the NBA, there are players who can average 20-30 points per game despite everyone in the league being a professional. But then look at high school basketball clubs. There are a lot of players there - more, actually - who can do the same thing. 20, 30, 40 points per game. But many of these players, if they even make it to the NBA, end up sitting the bench. Those players don't have the skill to play in the NBA, but at the lower levels, they were equally stronger than their opponents when compared to the top NBA players.

If you're easily getting a 9 : 1 KDA in every Bronze game, you don't belong in Bronze and won't be there long, so your scores shouldn't set the bar. And if the bar is based on every single player, get rid of the tier system. Ostensibly, tiers exist not to climb, but to rank. I'm low Silver because that's where I belong, and my performance against other silver players should dictate my skill as observed by my peers.

disregardableJul 6, 20161 votes

Maybe the context of good changes in your own mind, but that is not true for the general population who got out of Bronze. You shouldn't expect people that to look at Bronze games and say you did good, because they don't think you did.

Zero ShingetsuJul 6, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Maybe the context of good changes in your own mind, but that is not true for the general population who got out of Bronze. You shouldn't expect people that to look at Bronze games and say you did good, because they don't think you did.

Oh no, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the people in Bronze or Silver. This is a specific argument against people who, ingame, refute someone's claim of their usual KDA with "that's not a good game" despite being in that tier, at that time, themselves.

Zero ShingetsuJul 6, 20163 votes

{quoted}

Oh no, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the people in Bronze or Silver. This is a specific argument against people who, ingame, refute someone's claim of their usual KDA with "that's not a good game" despite being in that tier, at that time, themselves.

Example: No NBA player is going to watch their kid's high school game and see a kid who scores 30 points and grabs 18 rebounds with wild mechanics and a lack of spatial awareness simply due to the low grade of his opponents, and say "Wow, that kid sucks." No, there's an understanding that his level of play will be lower than an NBA player's. What's impressive is how he played in relation to his opponents. At his level, at that time and place, he had a good game.

Telephone BoothJul 6, 20161 votes

It doesn't matter man. Think about how many delusional people exist in the world. If someone is in bronze or silver and stating "facts" about good scores, disregard it completely. Think about it... it could be a 12 year old kid telling you this. It could be some asshole just trying to piss you off. It could be some guy who thinks that YOU think you're the shit and he just wants to cut you down.

You can't reason with delusional people who think they know everything. You can't reason with anonymous names who have dropped their integrity because of said anonymity. You can't reason with Internet trolls... try not to take anything they say seriously unless you know they take the game completely serious and have no ego behind the things they say. (So basically no one)

Angry MonsterJul 6, 20161 votes

I will say that KDA does not mean a good game, but < 3 is personally never a good performance, no matter the ranked game (LCS, different beast).

A good game is a clean game, which IMO never happens in bronze. To much kill trading, lack of map awareness, and 0 understanding of how to properly close a game.

disregardableJul 6, 20161 votes

There are clean games. They're just lucky. As long as all 3 laners win, or 2 win and 1 goes even, the game can be over very quickly. .