WoT Warning - This post is long.
The * TLDR * here is Dodging games non-abusively to avoid certain, unfair and guaranteed defeat is a way of protecting your MMR when conditions are far from playable.
The best way to raise your MMR is to not focus on your Tier standings. Treat every game as though it mattered, because in reality it does. You don't want to troll your games by picking champions you're not sure of yourself with. Also, Riot has been fair in making changes to the queue dodge penalties. While it's not recommended to dodge every game you just don't feel comfortable playing (as that would be abuse), you are, however, advised to dodge games where you know your team is giving the enemy team a significant handicap. Dodging does not affect your MMR (as stated early, do not focus on your tier standing including your amount of League Points and which division you are currently in, or even being in series).
This means that you could dodge a game in your series, giving you a free loss with no effect on your mmr (yes you might possibly lose your series, but what is more important here is that your MMR does not go down from this type of Loss. if you do belong in a higher tier, you should have no problem getting back to it.)
The worst mistake you can make when it comes to increasing your MMR is to allow yourself to play a game where the enemy team is outright given a huge significant advantage. Some examples include (but are not limited to) ...
Your team has an All AD or All AP comp.
Your team has a trolling summoner.
You or someone accidentally picked against a trade request.
You notice your jungler does not have smite.
Your teammate doesn't realize they picked a role already chosen yet everyone refuses to dodge.
Your sister gets home from school and is about to start streaming stupidly high-bandwidth videos on her phone.
Staying through some of these conditions are the worst thing you can possibly do if you're trying to increase your MMR. Playing through these conditions could ruin your morale for the next game or possibly for the rest of the day. League Points are valuable, but they are not as important as your MMR, which you should protect within reason. -10 League points and 30 minutes of no gaming is preferable to -20 League Points while going on tilt.
30 minutes is acceptable and you should use that time to do something else to clear your mind or brush up on your knowledge base.
This is my personal experience. I finished last season in Silver IV with 1 game left in my series to get to Silver III. Then the reset happened, and i was placed in Bronze 2. I don't remember my promotional scores, but it was not long before I found myself in Bronze 5, due to techincal difficulties and pick disadvantages. Many of the reasons I sank were due to playing through conditions mentioned above, as well as AFK or Rage Quits.
I felt that I was lacking in skill and knowledge anyway if I could not simply win Bronze games, so I used the situation to my advantage to try to learn more and gain the capacity to carry any Bronze game. That aside, I noticed that when I started to win consistently in B5, my LP gains increased wildly. The maximum I have gained in Bronze 4 was 50 points. That's right, I won 2 games and went straight to the series for getting to B3. When I won that, I skipped B2 and went straight to B1.
I realized what this meant. My MMR was considered vastly higher than my actual position on the Ladder. I came to the realization that, after your 1st 10 games, nothing about your standing on the ladder (League points, Tier, Division) matters more than your hidden MMR. So I decided to use this situation to my advantage and play newer champions and champions that I have very little to no knowledge and skill with in the ranked environment. The results are stellar. I never was a 50% player, but as of today I am better than a 50% player. My abilities continue to increase whereas before I was struggling in an MMR that was higher than I could compete comfortably in.
It has been said in reply to a post about merging Normal and Ranked MMRs in the archives, though I don't know who to credit for this statement:
"You can practice against that MMR as long as you can maintain your position in that MMR"
I don't know about you, but I feel it would be quite inefficient to practice increasing my bronze level skill and awareness in a game full of Challengers, I would get nothing out of it at all except that feeling of "WTH JUST HAPPENED". This is why I feel that boosting does the opposite of what it is intended to do, save for blowing away your money while putting your account at risk. It is far more effective to practice in a lower standing. This is must be why people smurf, and how they can verify that Division Skipping is indeed a real thing.
