Honor is so inconsistent...

I'm sure this is a normal topic among these boards but I'm not really sure why Riot is so secretive and inconsistent when it comes to honor. :c

I'm still honor locked since Sunday night and I've played at least 30 games since then (they're all AURF and the majority are with premades, if that makes any difference). People have told me it has to do with number of games, others have said it just has to do with time and I can do one game a day and still get unlocked in 4 days to a week.

Now, I asked a Riot rep if it was still possible to get to Honor level 5 assuming my chat is positive or neutral from here on out. They said, and I quote, "Even though you dropped down to Honor level 1 checkpoint 0, you are still able to get to honor level 5 by the end of the year. You are just going to have to grind out the game a lot and play with a neutral/positive mindset throughout all of them. So keep working hard, cause it will payoff."

So does Honor have to do with amount of games played without getting validly reported, or does it have to do with time? Cause it seems like people are getting checkpoints every two weeks consistently regardless of how many games they play in that period as long as their chat history and behavior is positive or neutral/non existent.

I'm told it's still possible to get unlocked and hit honor 5 by the end of the year "if I grind the game out a lot" which I'd assume means... Play more games? But if Honor has to do with time then why should I grind games out?

I play about 2-3 games a day on weekdays, possibly 5-10 on weekends depending on what game mode I play. I'm wondering if this is grindy enough according to Riot's standards... Has anyone done any experiments that say whether or not time is actually prioritized rather than games played?