Does Elo Hell Exist? - A Silver Player's Perspective

Yordle God·Feb 1, 2015·31 votes·9,358 views

If you don't have the drive or hunger to be a better player, leave this thread. You belong in your rank. If you want to handle your situation like an absolute boss and start your road to that shiny diamond border, read on.

Okay, now I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. Don't be startled by what I'm about to say, and make sure you keep an open mind.

You are trash at League of Legends. Seriuosly, really fucking bad.

Which brings me to my first point. To become a better player, you must first recognize that you don't "deserve challenjour". If you deserved Challenger, you would be Challenger.

Questions to ask yourself: How did Doublelift become a pro? How did Pigglet become a pro? How did anyone in challenger and beyond, gain the recognition and respect they have today?

Everybody sucked at League once. Everybody has had that feeder on their team. Everyone has had that afk'er. Everyone has had losses.

And that can be applied to every walk of life. Did Michael Jordan become a master in his sport by giving up after a loss? Hell no. He got on his feet and practiced shooting at the court.

Did Bobby Flay become a master chef by throwing a plate full of burnt sushi in the trash and wallow around the kitchen full of pity? Pfffft,** absolutely not!**

I began playing league about a year ago. And I sucked. Right when I hit Level 30, I jumped right into ranked, expecting Gold, and got Bronze V. Like any other average player, I gave up and played normals for the coming months, convinced that ranked was just a waste of time, I obviously deserved a better rank than Bronze V. I mean, I go 16/2/14 as Diana in normals, that surely means I'm good at the game, right?

Wrong. I was not that great at the game. But once I realized that fact, I got so much better.

I started to listen to critique, I started to soak in more information, and most of all, I started to learn. You could have thousands of games played, but if you don't learn anything from them, it all means nothing.

I learned to respect every role, I learned to ward, and most important of all, I learned to not give up. And when I was ready, I gave ranked another go. And in one night, I obliterated 4 divisions and got my silver title.

How? I trained myself to be a better player. After I got what I had came for, I retired from ranked, and now with a new season, I'm faced with the same daunting task. My new Bronze is Silver. And I can promise you and myself, that it'll be a piece of cake.

Elo Hell exists in the player, not the game.

If you have the same drive to defeat Silver as I do, add me in-game, we'll Duo sometime. ~ ScRappY

63 Comments

jimmylismFeb 1, 20156 votes

Did Bobby Flay become a master chef by throwing a plate full of burnt sushi in the trash and wallow around the kitchen full of pity?

Well if your sushi is burnt something is reallyyyy wrong.

SecretAgentHulkFeb 1, 20151 votes

He had to nuke it from orbit; it was the only way to be sure.

CommanderPiratesFeb 1, 20155 votes

So I had a 2/15 singed on my promo, I learned that 12/2 cho gath cant be killed in a team fight I had a 1/10 cait in my other promo, I learned that is possible that vayne can 4 hit a tank at 20 min mark I gave mid to a "fizz main", I learned that do not trust anyone in ranked, because 1/7 at 15 min doesn't look like a fizz main to me Our adc throw the game because he was "stealing enemy red", gets caught, not sure what I can learn from that Our bliz started feeding cause he died 3 times in 5 mins, so he "gave up" (afk), and our adc got craped on, I learned that adc can not 2v1 at bot lane. Playing mid, wins lane, but our bot lane lost, enemy bot lane roam to mid about 5 times, took my tower, killed me few times. we lost. (of course) Inslock garen who left top lane and started "roaming", a level 2 tower dive. 10 mins later 0/9, blaming us for not diving with him. I learned what trolls are like in ranked. I lost 7 games in a row due to things like above ^^^^^, I learned that elo hell do exist.

SecretAgentHulkFeb 1, 20153 votes

We salute you, CommanderPirates, for never throwing a game just like these people. May you rise quickly to Plat.

missinggraveFeb 1, 20152 votes

I can taste the sarcasm in that post. I like that. ;)

Rock RockburghFeb 1, 20152 votes

We need more people like SecretAgentHulk. He's sassy and we know it.

BluePolarizerMar 19, 20151 votes

plat is true elo hell. ragers, manbabies and meta sheep rolled into 1 with a healthy dose of AFKing and feeding on top.

DeadXeraFeb 1, 20151 votes

And statistics says that you've also won 7 games (maybe not in a row, you probably haven't hit enough games played for all permutations of win/loss streaks to be hit) due to those factors being on the enemy team.

AlëkFeb 1, 20155 votes

{quoted}

So I had a 2/15 singed on my promo, I learned that 12/2 cho gath cant be killed in a team fight I had a 1/10 cait in my other promo, I learned that is possible that vayne can 4 hit a tank at 20 min mark I gave mid to a "fizz main", I learned that do not trust anyone in ranked, because 1/7 at 15 min doesn't look like a fizz main to me Our adc throw the game because he was "stealing enemy red", gets caught, not sure what I can learn from that Our bliz started feeding cause he died 3 times in 5 mins, so he "gave up" (afk), and our adc got craped on, I learned that adc can not 2v1 at bot lane. Playing mid, wins lane, but our bot lane lost, enemy bot lane roam to mid about 5 times, took my tower, killed me few times. we lost. (of course) Inslock garen who left top lane and started "roaming", a level 2 tower dive. 10 mins later 0/9, blaming us for not diving with him. I learned what trolls are like in ranked. I lost 7 games in a row due to things like above ^^^^^, I learned that elo hell do exist.

And ofcourse you did absolutely nothing wrong.

AriCeiFeb 2, 20151 votes

I don't think he's necessarily saying that.. I've also experience ridiculously lengthy sprees of teammates like this, and being a more team oriented player it is hard to cope with. I can say with confidence that I never feed in ranked, and I rarely lose a lane. Going even, providing wave control, vision, jungle pressure however is not enough to take you past silver. Not to mention losing more lp than what you gain when you win, makes it harder to get out of lower elo than it needs to be. You can have a fairly solid understanding of the game, but without going 25/0/10 as riven and being able to 1shot entire enemy team, every single game, you will need luck to get anywhere. Especially considering I can still have a positive kda, every game, win or lose, often by a laaarge margin, and I still lose at least half my games. Which actually drops me ranks. And this is in addition to the intelligent wave control and vision, and smartpings/shotcalls I provide the team. Not saying I'm the best, just saying you can get stuck somewhere you don't quite belong for a long time based entirely on poor luck.

Lt CuddlesFeb 1, 20154 votes

Dat pic, goddamnt! XD anyway thanks for this~

Yordle GodFeb 1, 20156 votes

You're welcome, thanks for reading :D

Lt CuddlesFeb 1, 20152 votes

No problem~

Here's a poro. summoner 31

PikmintsFeb 1, 20153 votes

I hear that in every LCS event, even pros will lose an average of 50% of games.

Yordle GodFeb 1, 20151 votes

Especially CLG. Shhh

B1naryB0tFeb 1, 20152 votes

I only believe in Elo Hell if you're playing a support, which if you have a bad ADC, can screw you over.

agbudarFeb 1, 20152 votes

i wouldn't call it elo hell but more like hell games

season 3 i kept track of all the games and why i lost

from the 200 or so 100 games i lost i had 37 games with 4v5 were lost 4 games 3v5 all lost 2 games 2v5 lost 1 game 1v5 lost ( i was actually doing ok but yea...) 20 games were i fed horribly (these are the 5v5 i personally had no other way of sayin it we lost that game because of me) 36 games or so with intentional feeders trolls haters and flamers (think things like sona jungle that never ganks stuff like that) most of these games were lost due to 1 person infuriating the fuk out of team members ( i usually don't care about it since it happens so often games that i lost because started raging at these people are counted into the personal loss of 20 games that i personally felt were partially my fault)

elo hell exists to a certain extend because people exist and they can make your games into a living hell. as many of us have experienced. do i care? no should you care? no its no excuse for you not to keep trying and to keep yelling at riot to give you free tiers.

i do however think riot should take a better look at their data and put better parameters in

right now bronze is 50% of the playerbase this reset probably turned that into 60% at least. thats a massive dump if you ask me and there should be more tiers out there to assess the players skill.

as strange as it sounds a person in silver 4 and up is in the upper 60-70% percentile you beat 60 to 70% of the playerbase that's huge. this means you are actually really decent at the game yet its considered ... trash. i mean wtf.

Yordle GodFeb 1, 20154 votes

I agree with some points you have here. Tons of my losses are due to a toxic teammate pissing off the rest of the team it just snowballs from there. That's why duos are important. You basically reduce your chances of having a toxic teammate by 20%. (If my math is right)

DeadXeraFeb 1, 20153 votes

It's actually 25% (assuming you aren't the toxic teammate), since you're going from 4/4 being potentially toxic to 3/4 being potentially toxic.

qetzelFeb 1, 20152 votes

Well actually, if 5% of people are toxic (and 5% are tocix enough to recieve at least a chat ban) you go from 0.95^4 chance of having no toxic players on your team to 0.95^3. Ths is from 81.45% to 85.73%. It is not a big increase.

YAY PROBABILITY!

EDIT: This is assuming that all people you would consider "toxic" have chat bans. For reference, if 10% of the community are toxic you go from 65.61% to 72.9%.

agbudarFeb 3, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Well actually, if 5% of people are toxic (and 5% are tocix enough to recieve at least a chat ban) you go from 0.95^4 chance of having no toxic players on your team to 0.95^3. Ths is from 81.45% to 85.73%. It is not a big increase.

YAY PROBABILITY!

EDIT: This is assuming that all people you would consider "toxic" have chat bans. For reference, if 10% of the community are toxic you go from 65.61% to 72.9% 5% toxic players means that statisically you have 1 out of 4 games someone is toxic from the start.

that is not including people that become toxic because you or them made a few mistakes

qetzelFeb 3, 20151 votes

Without the data we can't say for sure, but I would expect a large proprtion of those players would be chat banned. And even only half of them are chat banned, it is only ~10% increase.

ThCakeIsALieFeb 1, 20152 votes

[{quoted}](name=NRM ScRappY,realm=NA,application-id=WEuoGbmp,discussion-id=uqXAQ1EL,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-02-01T01:08:14.333+0000)

You are trash at League of Legends. Seriuosly, really fucking bad.

If you have the same drive to defeat Silver as I do, add me in-game, we'll Duo sometime.

~ ScRappY

Why would anyone want to duo w/ someone who calls other people trash... "really fucking bad. trash" who's only Silver IV?

My friend WAS really bad and we got "promoted" down to Bronze since the new season. Yet, I kept motivating the guy on the mic and we've found a sweet spot that has made us get win sprees. So far I've gone up two ranks and he's gone up one. It's not because I agree w/ you that there's really no such thing as Elo Hell, but that I kept motivating him and telling him where he can get better. I also motivate my team and usually am the one calling all the shots so that when players listen to me, we win. If we're losing I say something like, "Okay group. Can anyone tell us where we went wrong and how we can improve?" I also ping others AWAY from me if we're in a losing fight so the enemy team won't get an ace. With saying all this, you seem the type that would be really toxic to deal with. Why call others names when you can build them up instead and work together to achieve the common goal?

Yordle GodFeb 1, 201515 votes

My point was not to call you bad. My point was that we are not perfect at the game. You and I are not Diamond level players, and it is important to recognize that because ego will not allow you to grow as a player.

You are trash at League of Legends and so am I Now let's do something about that.

BorblandFeb 1, 20152 votes

Elo hell is the V division of every league.

Bronze V, Silver V, Gold V, Platinum V, Diamond V, all of them aren't fun to play within.

I played in Silver V and Gold V, it was horrible there. Between Silver III and Silver I, i actually had nice games.

SpEcMeIsTeR187Feb 1, 20152 votes

Almost felt the salt coming on before I opened this thread, then I saw the first sentence, and was delighted c;

Yordle GodFeb 1, 20151 votes

Glad you liked it!

Face The SunFeb 2, 20152 votes

as much as I hate to admit it I suck at league. I don't ward much, I panic and miss smites, I don't help my team when I should because I am worried about my kdr, but I know my flaws and I am working at them. I remind myself to at least upgrade my trinket, time my smites, and help my team. Whenever you lose a game its not "how can I not get such crap teammates?" its "What could I have done more for my team so that this won't happen again?" blaming your teammates is the worst thing you can do and since your teammates are match made based on your skill, are you much better? Do you have the right to call them bad even though you might not be better? I am a fan of Gbay99 and I watch his videos everyday. He preaches basically the same thing and is the reason why I don't get so mad and scared when playing ranked. We all have bad games. Being a good player is not based on your kdr. It is based on being determined to win at all costs and realizing your strengths and weaknesses and adjusting to them.

If more people realized that league is a team game and not a one person show then maybe they would be more confident in themselves.

So lets not get mad and have fun at a game and the community we love.

Rammus Okay?

Yordle GodFeb 2, 20151 votes

I 100% agree with you, and you bring up a point that I wish I drove home. If you end every loss talking shit about the other players and not yourself it only hinders you. Unless you stole 4 barons, had 40 kills and called all the best shots in the world, you have zero right to blame other people for your loss. Yes, a teammate can make a bad desicion and help throw a game. Yes, a player could be afk and hinder you chances at winning.

But in the end, what makes you a better student is learning how to analyze yourself first before you analyze others.

FiorinolFeb 2, 20152 votes

And the problem is that the tools to do that aren't necessarily out there. Players in a rank more often than not cannot figure out what they did wrong, even if they watch their replays. And there aren't a lot of tools out there to teach players how to improve other than very generic guidelines that may or may not apply to their situation. The tools that are actually efficient are paid for, like coaches.

I dislike people like Gbay99, because he's one of those people who preach this kind of behavior, yet was stuck in Platinum for a very long time, being completely incapable of figuring out what he did wrong. His videos aren't good to help you improve, someone talking 5 minutes about a random subject doesn't even dent the surface of how intricate this game can be.

I would rather recommend someone like unswlolsoc who has entire lectures dedicated on how to play League of Legends. He actually explains why you do something rather than saying "Place more wards", which doesn't really help if you do not know what, when, how, and why.

Duchess of DeerFeb 2, 20151 votes

YES FINALLY SOMEONE WHO BELLES GBAY SITS ON A THRONE OF LIES

ThCakeIsALieFeb 1, 20151 votes

You can call yourself trash all you want, but don't call other people trash just because they're in the low ranking. I UNDERSTAND what you're trying to get across, but I'm not trash buddy, neither is my friend.

You're ugly too. And you're a loser. How about you say those things as well while you're at it?

People are winners to me until they declare themselves as a loser. Same thing goes for skill. Everyone is SKILLED until they accept they are trash. This has nothing to do w/ ego. This has everything to do w/ a state of mind and your choice words are really bad.

qetzelFeb 1, 20155 votes

I don't think you get it. The OP is trying to say that people need to improve to get better. He did this in a way that gets attention. I thought it was clever.

The point is that until people accept that they aren't skilled they can't improve.

Rock RockburghFeb 1, 20153 votes

One of the best-known beginner's guides for Dota is titled "Welcome to Dota, You Suck." Why is it called that, you ask? Because until you accept it, it's true. Only once you acknowledge how bad you are can you begin to improve.

SecretAgentHulkFeb 1, 20153 votes

http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2014/10/photoskillovertime.jpg

Bobbi Johnson Feb 1, 20151 votes

going 16-6-13 like my last match and losing......

FiorinolFeb 1, 20151 votes

Elo hell exists in the player, not the game

Wut. I really hate this logic of "Get bettar". You don't just "Get bettar" by getting "bettar". This isn't a magic pill, you don't wake up one day, go "Oh my god, I am going to be better at League" and then suddenly climb from Bronze to Platinum. If anything, climbing and trying to learn in solo-queue is frustrating and hard to do. It's difficult to figure out what you're doing wrong when you don't even win 100% of the time when doing things right; even Challenger players can get losses playing in Bronze, even if that's rare.

This becomes even more of a problem with promotion series. A Silver I player that belongs in Gold IV can take a long time to actually get to Gold IV if they get losses on the promos. The ladder system seems to be designed in a way to frustrate players.

I am the RemedyFeb 1, 20151 votes

So how are you going to improve if you don't analyze your shortcomings and try to adapt? You just keep committing the same problems over and over again. People mistake playing this game as practice. If you're not actively trying to improve you're just practicing to be the same type of player you were before.

FiorinolFeb 1, 20151 votes

{quoted}

So how are you going to improve if you don't analyze your shortcomings and try to adapt? You just keep committing the same problems over and over again. People mistake playing this game as practice. If you're not actively trying to improve you're just practicing to be the same type of player you were before.

Silver players cannot figure out what makes a Plat player Plat. Therefore they cannot always improve just from analyzing their own shortcomings without any kind of outer influence.

We need more resources for players that are serious for improving. Right now we have this "Pay for a Coach" garbage.

Peter McCainFeb 2, 20151 votes

think of elo hell as traffic you arent IN Elo hell you ARE elo hell to add to that, you are all trying to go to the same place..

Sanguine LawFeb 2, 20151 votes

I'm stuck in Silver 2, although in my provisionals I went 7/3 and landed in Silver 1. That didn't last too long, I had a couple of bad games, two of which we had an afk (which honestly can't be helped, it happens) which was really unfortunate. Then I spent a night trying to recover my rank from Silver 2 to 1, which I got frustrated with and tilted pretty hard, picking Vayne (which was a mistake, I don't have nearly the right mechanics to play her effectively against a corki and annie bot lane) and dropping to the 33LP mark from 100 (I hit promos pretty fast after dropping but lost the first 2 games).

From the last 10 ranked games I've played, I'd say at least 7 could have been turned around or won easier had I "carried" and actually closed out a game. I'm definitely not stuck in some kind of hell out of my control, I have quite a lot of control over the game's outcome, which is why I am responsible for the majority of my lost games.

jax jungler Feb 2, 20151 votes

OK. Thanks for calling us trash. I'm not sure about other people but I'm silver 1, not the best but that's 3 divisions above you. I'm sure there are gold players and above reading this and scratching their heads like "who are is this guy to be trash talking me". And then you say that you obliterated 4 divisions. Man I obliterated 9 divisions from b5 to s1 and there is no need to start a thread just to proclaim that you got to silver 4 and want to get to gold. I mean.. who doesn't.

On the other hand, nice job on the motivational speech. You make me want to get to gold :) and I'm sure you can too. If at this point you don't hate me then add me in game :).

Yordle GodFeb 2, 20151 votes

OK. Thanks for calling us trash.

Why people are taking this as an insult is beyond me I'm going to tell you what I told the first guy that gave me shit about this.

My point was not to call you bad. My point was that we are not perfect at the game. You and I are not Diamond level players, and it is important to recognize that because ego will not allow you to grow as a player. You are trash at League of Legends and so am I Now let's do something about that.

SheStupidThiccFeb 2, 20151 votes

If you think you should be a higher rank than you currently are, then you should be always winning your lane, making better choices and carrying the game. As a current platinum player with experience playing in lower elos, if you think you deserve high elo then silver should be easy, you may not win every game due to the OCCASIONAL leaver or afk but you should always be the best on your team, not going even in lane and blaming the bot lane for losing when you aren't doing anything yourself.

Face NemesisFeb 3, 20151 votes

is this gbay99's smurf Irelia

Vincent Ran GoghFeb 4, 20151 votes

I like your reasoning, I added ya in game, crane2lave's the name, I'm in Silver V, I'm hoping to get in Gold V or higher by the time S5 ends, and I guess I could use someone to help me achieve this goal, if you ever need a Jungler, I can fill it in for you :) I look forward in seeing you soon on the battflefield :)

mirAcIeMar 19, 20151 votes

Elo hell is your current skill ceiling. Every single player has it, maybe except for people who are at the very top of the ladder. Once you get stuck in any given league/division whether it's bronze, silver, gold, plat or diamond - it is your elo hell, because you're not good enough to carry the games consistently on your own and often you meet much better players than yourself. In these conditions you will stop climbing since it's the elo range that reflects your skill ceiling the most. Unfortunately this is the place where you'll start raging and become unhappy because people prefer easy games to learning experience, contrary to what they might tell you.

Yordle GodMay 6, 20151 votes

UPDATE: I'm now Gold V. If you improve your game, you will climb no matter what.