Match making is there to give everyone fun and challenging games. They don't want to put the best player in the world vs the worst player in the world. That's not the most satisfying match up for either of them. The good player isn't tested and the weak player has no chance.
We always want to know where we stand. That's something that's almost 100% universal. This means if there's a scoring system that ranks people so they are matched with similar players those people are going to want to see the score. When two people who compete in the same game each have ratings they are going to want to compare ratings to see who's better.
Just look at StarCraft 2. When people see that I play StarCraft 2 what's the first question they ask me? "What league are you in?" They want to know who they are talking to before they say another word so they don't look silly by saying something stupid to a Grand Master or ask advice of a Bronze League player. It's just human nature.
So, we want to play against people who will challenge us while also not being unbeatable. We also want to know where we (and everyone else) stand. To this end, games like StarCraft and League of Legends group brackets of skill ratings together and call them "leagues." These leagues are a way for you to quickly and easily tell where people stand, are percentage based in case of ratings inflation, and are simple to remember. Great right? That means you get what you wanted.
Wrong.
The first problem that's especially important to keep in mind with League of Legends is that every variable introduced in the match makes your own personal rating less meaningful. To start with, it's not 1v1. The other 9 players are all variables... so are the 100+ champions, the endless variety of item builds, and even connectivity plays a part. If a chess player can get a rating within 5% of what his actual skill level is... you'd be lucky if it's within 25% on League of Legends.
This should NOT be discouraging, it's just part of the way this works and until there's a better way to rank people, this is the best you're going to get... and it's pretty damn good if you ask me. I've played about 1,300 normal games of 5v5 on summoner's rift. I'm something like 10 games below .500. How much closer to a 50% chance of victory could I ever expect in a game with so many variables?
So, let's say I go into ranked games from now on. I get put into Bronze V (the lowest league) and I'm .500 win/loss there. Am in in "elo hell?" Should I be disappointed? Should I blame other people for my bad place in the ladder? No.
Here's why.
Match making is there to give everyone fun and challenging games.
Ranking up into the Challenger Tier isn't the same as saving the princess in Mario Bros. It isn't a required milestone to say you've had the full experience. There's no beating the game. To that end, there is no reason you should feel defeated if you are not in one of the top leagues. By definition, half of the players are below average. That doesn't mean they we can't have great, exciting, fun games. In fact, I'd say you have more "freedom" to have fun in lower leagues where some experimentation and risk taking would either A. go unnoticed or B. be encouraged.
I see ranking up as a punishment. It's the match making system saying "Hey, you are winning too much and we need you to lose more to get back to 50/50 win loss." If it was up to me, I'd put way less weight on wins and way more weight on losses. I'd rather slowly move upwards slowly and win more games against people I'm better than instead of instantly being matched with better players if I win 2 or 3 in a row. If I win 5 of 6 GREAT! It just doesn't happen often. If me and 3 friends queue up together we will win the first game or two of the night and then go on a losing streak only to rebound and win a few later on. Why? Because we get matched with better players for a while and then get knocked back down. My skill doesn't rapidly change... why should my match making rank? I enjoy being competitive in every match, but I'd be okay with being the above average sized fish for a while longer.
I just wish more people would realize that their rank isn't a punishment and that ranking up isn't the goal. Haven't you ever heard an interview with a coach where they go, "Coach, your team looks like you can win it all" and he replies "we are just going to focus on the next game. We need to win one game at a time."? If your goal is to play well in this game and win than that's all you have to do. You can't win 100 games in a row in this game. You can only win one. In fact, you can't even do that. All you can do is play your role well and win your battles. The better you get at doing that (both winning your battles and recognizing that you can't make other players win theirs) the more games you will win and the better your rank will be. If you can forgive a bad play from someone else or recognize a really good play from the enemy you'll be level headed and have a much better shot at victory.
Screw it... I'm in elo hell and can't win cause this troll triss is 0-3...
See, isn't it so much easier to just be a blame game playing, no responsibility having, no self evaluating, piece of garbage?
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