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Do You Have to Be a Bad Person to Have a Good Rank?

Just A Firefly·12/26/2016, 4:51:23 AM·9 votes·1,950 views

Opinion: People in higher elos tend to not be nice.

#This is an entirely opinion based of off personal experiences.

Most, but not all, players who are Gold or higher tend to just be bad people. I just encountered a game with a Gold player who essentially gave up the game because top and mid had bad match-ups, and like expectation would dictate, lost the lane. After the dust settles I talk to the player about not playing the game like a team game. He went on to banter about how top and mid lost so the game was lost but I told him that even if the lanes are losing or have lost, try to help them or help others (he was jungle in that game). At the end of the conversation he told me to join his playmates to allow him to show off his true skill in the mid lane, but I could honestly careless since A) I was in a trio queue and B) I didn't want to spend time with a player who had such an elitist attitude that he was better than everyone because he had the least amount of deaths and was plat (even though he has never finished a season with plat). I leave and I assume he wanted to continue his belligerence because he sent me a friend request (and by no means would it have been a "friend" request). I refused, but then another player who I believe to be his friend sent me a request. The jungler must've really wanted to get his message out so I accepted this unknown player's (who was plat6 in s6) request. If you'd like to see the conversation then it'll be here, but if you're a TL;DR person, he called me low elo trash for believing in a team-oriented stlye and saying that to a "plat" player instead of submitting like the low elo trash I am. I guess he didn't know I only respect people that are respectable.

Needless to say, I didn't report either one of them because I felt bad for them and I still have no intention to whine about it to Riot. They just became one of the many "high elo therefore I can tell you what you're supposed to do." I honestly do not understand this mentality of "because you're higher rank, what you say is clearly the right thing to do and you can never do wrong," but I see it come up time and time again when players try to justify their statements with "I'm x rank" where "x" is higher than your rank. It is quite ridiculous and lends no weight to your argument. This is because it is not necessarily an individual skill based rank. Many will tell you that it (your rank) shows your ability to carry the game and what not but it doesn't. It really doesn't. What about the four other players on your team that you just carried? They certainly did not carry the game, but they still get the LP do they not? The rank comes from those you play with and against, giving your rank a chance element which by all means is not fair, but is unavoidable.

It's a joke amongst my group of friends that if any of us want to get Gold or above, we need to be assholes, which is not in our nature. This statement however, like most sterotypes, has basis in world one observed. We have played many games with Gold players or the occasional Platinum player on our team or the enemy's, but they all seem to have this common ground with being toxic or rude in some manner. They are sometimes elitist, like the couple mentioned in the anecdote. They are sometimes defeatist and whine about the fact that the game is over within the first 10 minutes. No one ever seems to be a helping hand, only Scars, but do not be mistaken as there are some good people in high elos though few and far between. Every master was once a novice.

I'd like you hear your opinions on the possible corrolation between a player's personality and their rank.

-Firefly

15 Comments

Doctor Whomst12/26/2016, 5:04:10 AM7 votes

From personal experience, I can say it seems about 50/50 with how a higher "elo" player will act. It's not uncommon for higher "elo" players to be toxic, yes, but it's probably their sense of pride for having finally moved on past bronze after being stuck in there for 2+ years

xXMrPeanutXx12/26/2016, 8:15:15 AM6 votes

I'll give MY opinion, but it won't be a popular one and I expect to get downvoted a lot but here it goes:

Coming from someone who's actually low elo now, stopped playing the game but used to be good on a different account:

In short no you don't have to be a bad person to be high rank, however I can see why people of high rank are sometimes viewed as bad people

Reason being

For example, I train MMA(actually) and I go to class and I learn from Black Belts, Brown Belts, even Purple belt, all the way down to my corresponding rank. I am extremely aware that if I am not a black belt, the black belt indeed has learned more than me and I learn from him and listen to what he has to say.

This is not the way it is in gaming societies of 2016 (hopefully 2017 will be a brighter and better day for Esports and gaming as a whole)

People refused to behest that people can and who have proven to be better than them at the game are indeed better than them. They ignore statistics as a whole for their own sense of grandeur that (oh that player just got lucky, or he's this rank for 'x''x'x' excuse) When they themselves haven't even attained that rank

Mind you I myself am a low elo player and if a higher elo player was trying to give me tips I would listen to what they have to say and give feedback rather argue

This is not how it is with most low elo players, if someone is better than them ( god forbid you tell them that because it instantly turns into an irrational debate of that 1 game you had back in 2009 where you fed as Rammus even if you are comparing them to Faker). You give them advice they blatantly ignore it and say something that is objectively false.

Now let me relate this back to my personal MMA training. Imagine if my trainer ( a black belt) showed me a move and I just straight up said "no you're wrong, I think it's done this way" and he goes back "i've done this for many years, I've earned a certain rank, I know what i'm talking about ". I reply "no I think it's this way and you just got lucky, so you're wrong".

It's not exact but that is essentially what happens a lot of the time with higher rank players. People see their rank, instantly get self conscious and try to berate their reasoning with irrational and fervent jealously. Even when they are either A: Ignorant to the correct answer B: Just plain wrong.

I've even had the pleasure of debating one time with a low elo player that Vayne wasn't AP but AD, but he was SO sold for whatever reason the opposite (no troll). There was even another player that came to his aid, for no apparent reason except to say "just because you're x rank doesn't mean you're good, you just play OP champs". Like what.

Imagine thousands upon thousands of confrontation of people who have no idea what they are talking about and refuse to give you the rank you've earned, and refuse to take any advice from you. In any other sport in the world, it would be blasphemy and never happen, but because it's online/gaming and no body contact will ever happen, a lot of low elos continue to pretend they are better than some of the best. (See Twitch Chat raging on Pros when they can't do anything near what they do, also see fat guys on coaches yell at football/hockey players)

The end. //rantover

SiberianTiger12/26/2016, 2:20:57 PM4 votes

Actually, as supp main, I think that people becomes less toxic with elo gain. Bronze/silver ADCs will flame you the whole game because they went ham under the enemy turret 1vs2 while you recalled 20 sec before that, while gold+ ADC will say something like "mb" if they even do something like that. Same goes for my plat and diamond friends.

But again, I'm only gold, so I cannot speak about that in general.

serenity712/26/2016, 5:36:00 PM4 votes

There are toxic people in every elo and nice people in every elo

DHBGrimReaper12/26/2016, 7:31:50 AM3 votes

There are no absolutes. People have different attitudes in different elos. Although, from my experience some elos tend to have more egotistic players than others (Plat 5, Dia 5, Silver 5). The answer to your question is no, although a better question would be "are high elo players more toxic?" And i would probably say no, because of statistics there are more low elo players than high elo players which means there would be more toxic players in low elo because of sheer number .

AbsoIute Dingus12/26/2016, 5:04:32 AM3 votes

Just a thought... maybe you feel this way because the other higher elo players simply don't speak, so you don't always know their rank. Similarly, people claim to be smurfing/higher ranked in general while participating in a flame war with a teammate or raging at their lane opponent.

It may just be a confirmation bias.

PlsTouchMeGently12/26/2016, 3:43:22 PM3 votes

Yeah, we're not all douchebags. A lot of us realized that we needed to stop blaming our teams and focus on improving ourselves in order to climb. When we did that, that's how we got into higher elo.

Papa Andrei12/26/2016, 9:34:39 AM2 votes

Well its ore a correlation between rank and "age". As in how long they have been playing the game, Like if you watch any of those youtubers of the game who have been around since beta and S1, most of the time they aren't really toxic persay, but are just more callous about certain things. "Its a team game, if we group we can win!" that doesn't always work, you ain't gonna win if the Jinx and Oriana are fed, buuut, if you have some good coordination you can stall the game to even it out.

its not toxicity its more callousness for the most part. Except for the new "high" elo players. Gold-Diamond is just worse in toxicity than Bronze-Silver, Becauset thats where most people just get stuck.

RoMz12/26/2016, 5:23:13 AM1 votes

No I am nice boy :)

BossAbe12/26/2016, 7:18:15 PM1 votes

the problem is not the fact that we lose , i have no problem losing , but when the guy in the lane , doesnt listen when u tell him what gear would be best for him and he has a score of 0 kills and 9 death by the 7 mins , it s enraging , THIS IS RANKED , it s not where u come to practice . IF U PLAY RANKED , we expect you to have some skills at least , or JUST HUG TURRET TILL JUNG COME HELP YOU . there are a lot of douchebag attitude people , bu they are a lot of stubborn people too , and good luck balancing both side :)

9 X12/27/2016, 1:07:21 AM1 votes

Eh, I must have been lucky, because I only started running into game upon game of flaming assholes when I hit Platinum.