When's the next AMA for a PB Mod?

RookPusher·10/24/2018, 2:29:47 AM·1 votes·1,396 views

I am losing my mind over here as to why they let someone cold-play a champ in Ranked even though it's statistically detrimental to the game.

If feeding tends to lose games so it's banned
And toxicity tends to lose games so it's banned
Why aren't we banning other statistical safe bets on game-throwing e.g. playing a champ you never play?

Every time I check a player who (imo) was not great in a game, I see that they not only have a strong losing streak but that they also don't have a champ shown/that role shown in the last 20 games. Two games tonight blown because a jungler couldn't find top lane with compass while gank-necessary activity was going on up there.

10 Comments

ModThe Djinn10/24/2018, 3:05:43 AM3 votes

I am losing my mind over here as to why they let someone cold-play a champ in Ranked even though it's statistically detrimental to the game.

Because - and I know some people don't like this -- Ranked is only as serious as you (as an individual) make it. If you legitimately want to see how well you do as AD Teemo, you are 100% allowed to play AD Teemo and get as high up the ladder as you can with that off-build. Yes, this can cause other players to be at a slight disadvantage, but it equalizes pretty quickly over a large number of games played to the point where, for any reasonable sample size, the effect of this is actually in FAVOR of a player who doesn't do this, as the enemy can have 5 off-meta or off-role players, while your team can only have 4.

Jo0o10/24/2018, 4:06:59 AM2 votes

There's a few reasons that come to mind, beyond Djinn's very reasonable "this is still just a game" point.

This kills champ trading. I have a few champs that I've purchased 100% to trade in champ select, like Kaisa and Pyke.
It's perfectly legal to play multiple accounts, so folks may learn a champ on one account and then first-time them on their main in ranked.
This certainly doesn't apply to my Silver 1 ass, but my understanding is that at a certain level of play, norms just aren't valid practice. For the same reason that you or I probably wouldn't bother using a champ in Bots before norms. For me in silver, I simply gain zero experience learning a champ by beating up intermediate bots. I think a Diamond+ player would feel the same about unranked play.
Similar to #3, the better you get, the more transferable those skills are to other champs. Especially mechanically straightforward ones. Like, I've never played Tryndamere, but I'm comfortable on bruisers and am well-aware of his mechanics and strategy, so I don't think it would be unrealistic for me to first-time him in ranked. I've played Lux once ever in a one-for-all, but I'd probably pick her if I somehow got autofilled mid.