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Not Welcomed As A New Player

TheSuccInSuccess·10/1/2017, 4:08:20 AM·2 votes·818 views

I began playing around the time Xayah and Rakan were released after school occasionally and have spent more time on the game recently after I graduated and eventually had 20 champions. I probably wouldn't have taken so long to acquire 20, but I took my time to learn the game, mechanics, etc. and make decisions on who to purchase based on preference and experience. I saw that a lot of my friends play ranked and wanted to try it out. I normally play adc, but was auto-filled and put into jungle. I was also matched with people that were ranked while I am unranked. I had no idea I would be playing with and against much more skilled opponents. I thought they would be around my level. I understand that it is difficult to address someone's skill level when it is their first ranked game, and therefore could not provide enough information to match to similar players. However, it was again, my FIRST ranked game so that should've been enough to match me with fellow first-timers. Instead, the higher skilled teammates and opponents alike threatened me and insulted me, and made me feel truly unwelcome. I understand it is a competitive game, but a great amount of the community is not kind to new players, and I can say from my experience in AI games, ARAM, blind pick summoner's rift, etc. that there are just so many people that expect a new player to have the knowledge and skill equal to or greater than their own. I wish I was playing with other new players, but instead was harassed for not knowing what to do. I understand that I was the reason why the match was a loss, but I even warned them ahead of time that I had little jungle experience and no experience at all in ranked, only to receive a bunch of insults and to "stfu" pre-game. I know muting is an option, but it is a team game and being unable to communicate with your own team would make it more difficult. Besides, I was also hoping if anyone could give me any advice, though my hopes were in vain. They threatened to report me (which more than likely happened) and have my account banned. Post-game chat was nothing kinder, only one player on my team, who still reported me, gave me advice. I have spent a good amount of money on this game as I enjoy the content it offers. I would love to continue doing so, but the toxic side of the community is discouraging and I wasn't expecting to play against much higher skilled opponents, which the ladder certainly is my fault for having hope that I would play against fellow unranked players. My first ranked game certainly was depressing but I don't want this bad experience to ruin the whole for me. I just wish new players were more welcome and veteran players were more understanding that hey, we're new and we don't quite know everything yet, but maybe instead of flaming us, direct us. "Yo newbie, you should go for the blue buff which spawns soon". "Yo newbie, make sure you last hit" Etc.. Such kindness and sportsmanship would be very appreciated and lead us in the right direction. I'm going to continue studying guides and watching helpful videos and practice in hopes that I may hone my skills enough to actually be ready for next season for ranked. I at least know more of what to expect and hope I play with people more understanding and around my level. I certainly don't believe that the entire community is toxic as I have met a lot of understanding and chill people. But for me to say "this is my first ranked game, I'm sorry in advance" and get a "stfu no one cares" and the rest of the team to agree with that mentality, it is sad.

Any advice or constructive criticism is welcome. I know I made a mistake for rushing into ranked and as they say, curiosity killed the cat.

16 Comments

Kei14310/1/2017, 4:27:42 AM3 votes

Think about it, if you were only matched with new players, the system would never know where your real MMR (Match Making Rating) is. Eventually you'll have to play with the more experienced people.

You might even have to tank a few games for the system to know where you really belong.

Also, other people have no way to know that you are new, but I suggest you to /mute them at the sign of toxicity, and then report them afterwards.

REMEMBER THAT ASKING FOR REPORTS CAN BE CONSIDERED HARASSMENT.

HalcyonDweller10/1/2017, 4:50:31 AM2 votes

OK, first off those people were assholes, they shouldn't have been so awful to you. And I'm sorry that you had to deal with that.

Constructive criticism: League is an extremely complicated game, it takes a significant amount of play time even after reaching level 30 to gain a solid grasp of all the mechanics that would usually be required to play competitively. IMO you probably were not ready for ranked if you had such a terrible game, like you said you were matched with higher skill opponents. I'm not trying to insult you, simply saying that the situation you were placed is called for a lot more experience than you have currently. But you've already recognized that, in your words, "curiosity killed the cat." So here's some suggestions on what skills to practice before attempting ranked again:

  • Map awareness, learn to predict when the enemies are doing things based on what you can see (or can't see - for missing enemies) as well as which objectives are available and where enemies were seen last. These all feed into predicting and understanding what is happening on the map even when you don't have actual vision in those areas on the map.
  • Learn every role and map position. This is for two separate reasons. First, you're going to get auto-filled sometimes, and if you don't want it to be a terrible experience for you, you need to be prepared for it. Second, by gaining a better understanding of what each role does, you will gain a greater understanding of what your teammates can or cannot do and you will be better equipped to strategize and cooperate with them.
  • Lane and minion wave management, last hitting under tower, how to freeze a lane, zones of control and windows of power, shoving to deny xp & gold, etc. For this I recommend looking up SoloRenektonOnly on youtube, on his channel there is a playlist specifically for Minion wave management. <Here is a link to that series>

Youtube is a great resource, you can find lots of educational stuff on youtube to help you learn different tricks to help with the above skills. Some good ones that I recommend are; Phylol, Foxdrop, JeremyGamingCurios, Dong Huap, LS, and Gbay99.

Also it doesn't hurt to brush up on teamwork and psychology stuff, because the players you wind up in game with will be everything from the best to the worst. Knowing how to interact with them without losing your cool is important, so is learning how to get them to cooperate with you despite their selfish and rude tendencies.

I've actually written a guide for players who want to learn how to better interact with teammates to gain their cooperation without getting banned. Link below:

Feeders and toxic teammates got you down? This may help:

Telephone Booth10/3/2017, 4:30:56 AM2 votes

Ayyy... I hate to be "that guy" but, that wall of text is quite formiddable. Try spacing it a little with paragraphs. They don't have to make sense (like paragraphs end a certain way and start a certain way) but it just helps a lot to space out the text a little. Makes it tons easier to read.

Anyways, yeah ranked is gonna be more difficult. You get a lot more tryhards. Also, Riot has to see what you're capable of, so you'll get some high bronzies or silvers, but as you continue losing, matchmaking will become more accurate.

The flaming will never stop. I only get flamed maybe one in ten games, so maybe as you improve (hopefully) you will be flamed less often. But regardless of skill, it will happen every once and a while. Riot has given you the power of muting though so it's not a big issue, just never be toxic back or punishment will come swiftly. Don't even try reasoning with them, they are tilted and irrational. Just mute, report, and move on. Don't take it personal.