tl;dr I dropped to -18 rating and went back to above 1520. Here are tips and analysis of the system.

I recently dropped down to -18 rating on one of my accounts (OTT YEAH GG) by queue dodging. Over the course of 174 games from October 12th to October 31st, I went back up to 1524. My record over the journey was 153 - 21 which comes out to an 88% win rate. Of all my losses, all of them could've been won if I played with less mistakes and made different decisions during the game.

Here’s my analysis, observations, and tips for the ranked system.

Getting high Elo is repeatable. I know of several players that would log into other people's accounts and bring them up to gold for season 1 rewards. I dropped down all the way down to negative 18 rating and got back up to above 1520. Then of course there are top players from last season once again being top of the ladder.


In general, the games at higher ratings had more skilled opponents. I saw last hitting get better, ability to group got better, builds become more optimal, and a greater respect for objectives.


Ranked ratings are misunderstood. 1400 is INSANELY good from a statistical standpoint. It's the top 10% of ranked players . Even 1250 is top 25%. Those ratings are GOOD. If you were to compare League of Legends to Starcraft 2, 1400 and higher are diamond players while 1250 and higher are platinum players. This isn't even counting players below level 30 and the ones that have never played ranked. Keep in mind that Elo distribution is on a bell curve. If you claim to be a 1700 player then what you're actually claiming is that you're one of the top 2500 players in North America.


Duo queue is tricky. Duo queue boosts up ratings by a huge amount. A 750 duo queueing with a 1600 ends up playing against 1400s, far above the average between the two being 1175. Elo gains are decreased as the rating difference between the two players increases. If one person is still on their placement boosts for ranked, both players will receive increased Elo gains/losses. Don't find a random person near your rating to duo queue with. If you must duo queue then find someone you truly believe is underrated and will be on their way up. Try to avoid having both of your most proficient roles being the same.


Optimal team compositions are different at different ranges of rating. A support doesn't fit in well in games under 1450. It's much better to have two people getting 40% of the cs each than one ad carry getting 60%. Try to play what you’re best at. If you’re only a so-so at a position then you can expect your impact on the game to be about even. But if you’re really good at one position then you should expect your chances of winning to much higher since you’ll have a better match up against the player opposite of you. But if you're adamant about playing and learning support, it is possible to carry as one. It's much much harder though.


Help out your teammates while playing well as an individual. It's really hard for your teammates to feed if you help them out. You make them much stronger by getting them experience and gold from assists, kills, dragons, towers, and barons. You can get your teammates ahead of your opponents in levels and gold. Who's more likely to feed - someone two levels and 1000 gold ahead or someone two levels and 1000 gold behind? Your number one priority should be to take down the enemy tower and then moving to help other lanes take down their tower.


Make every game count. Win that first game. You win a game and you gain Elo. But let's say you lose that first time. Now in order to get the same result as winning that first game, you need to play 3 games total. You need to win the next two games just to get the same effect of winning that first game. Give every game your full effort even if you're down by a lot because you’re going to have to work a lot harder to increase in rating if you lose.


Take a break after losing two in a row. Maybe it’s you playing bad. Maybe you’re not having good luck. Maybe you’re angry. Or maybe your teammates are out to get you. Whatever it is, you’re probably better off taking a break when your recent track record shows that you’re not likely to win. Remember that you need to make every game count and if you’re losing games or coming up trading 1 win for 1 loss then you’re not making progress; you’re actually making it that much harder for yourself the next time you play.


Be positive. Don’t yell at your teammates and put them down. It doesn’t provide anything positive. Maybe you’ll feel better but that teammate you just flamed at is now more discouraged and/or pissed off. Not only is their play impacted because they’ve been discouraged but do you really think that they want to contribute to helping you get a win after you were being a **** to them?

I've played with 4v5s throughout my climb. They're winnable. It's definitely hard to win them but they're very doable and statistically you should be facing against more teams of four than playing with them provided that you don't leave the game yourself.


Exit queue if someone dodges. Click that x button at the top. It's strategically better to not play with the people that were in champion select with before someone queue dodged. The other players now know what you plan on playing and could target picks or bans against you. There's also the fact that someone left. It must've been pretty significant if they were willing to take a loss of 10 Elo rather than play with the players that they matched up with. Maybe someone's trolling. Maybe someone is a known eager or bad player. It's even possible that nothing was wrong and the person left because of a more personal reason. But why take that chance if you can sit out for two minutes and get a new batch of players that have no idea of your strategy and for sure didn't cause someone to leave champion select.


I'm committed to helping you become a better player if you're willing to take the effort. I'll continue to be active in the community and League of Legends.

Original climb thread - http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/....php?t=1355769
Blog - http://mrchunkz.blogspot.com/ <--------------- Has post game shots, ranked rating for each game, replays, and stream archive links
Stream - http://www.twitch.tv/mrchunkz
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/MrChunkz/265608760147058
Twitter - http://twitter.com/MrChunkz
IRC Chat - #MrChunkz @ Quakenet

Questions and Answers

What role did you play primarily?

I played AD and bruiser top mostly. It's mostly since I'm the most proficient at those roles and felt really comfortable winning games with them. You can use any role except for support as long as you're good at them.

How difficult would it be to raise my elo just playing support?

It's REALLY hard. Your overall impact on the game isn't quite as powerful as it is in more organized teams. If things are turning sour, the natural skills of a support might not be enough to overturn it and carry like other roles can.

What i do not understand is, how can you be at negative elo when you have a significant amount of wins compared to losses? can you explain this?

Queue dodging doesn't count as a loss in preseason 2 but it does make you lose 10 rating each time you do it.

Out of curiosity, how proficient at various roles would you say you ought to be before doing ranked seriously?

One really cool thing is that a lot of skills translate between roles. If you can last hit well as an AD carry, you can last hit well as a bruiser or AP. The global map objectives of towers, dragons, and barons are also the same. So if you're really good at one role then all your other roles will be better also.

How often did you get games where it was just impossible to carry?

It was possible to carry every single game. I fell short in each of my losses. But it's certainly not the same case when you're playing much better people such as at 1600s. The amount of mistakes and cases of not capitalizing decreases as players get better and better. Under 1500, the players make enough mistakes for you to be able to carry the game every time. You don't always do but it was possible. There's some bizarre cases where you could be put in a 2v5 situation but those are soooooo incredibly rare.


How do you handle this situation - In mid-late game your team is drastically and consistently out of position (scattered around the map), and the enemy team is grouped on your tower?

It's pretty situation dependent. You might want to split push and even possibly base race. You need to be a very accurate judge of how much damage your team does vs the enemy team against towers to do this.

Excessive pings AND physically running in could help lead your team to group up. If your teammate sees something moving toward a place and there's pings, they're probably gonna follow.

There's also the cases where the enemy team gets too greedy and takes the tower but then tries to get another one or doesn't leave right away. This opens up an opportunity to chase them down and get a whole bunch of rewards - kills, towers, Baron, inhibitor.

There's also the preventative option where you aren't scattered in the first place. Generally, you want set objectives and planning. An example would be that you're going to take Baron, go back to heal/buy, take a tower, take another tower, go back to heal/buy, get buffs, get dragon, get Baron. League of Legends is beautiful in the way that the game works. It's a continuous flow of events that happen rather than a random team fight every now and then.

When do you think it's wise to start ranked?
As soon as you're comfortable. I've learned so much from playing in ranked games. I wouldn't be as good of a player if I didn't start playing ranked. You can see some interesting things in normals but there isn't quite that same mindset of playing for the win or playing optimally. The only reason I wouldn't recommend to play ranked right away is that you might be discouraged if you drop into a low rating. Lack of experience can be the reason that you lose. Some players are mechanically gifted enough that they can get away with not fulling understanding the game. As long as you're willing to risk your rating, go into ranked play.

Useful Posts

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baron Von Richthofen Good thread, basically everything is right. Couple of things that I tell everyone: -Farm as much as possible -Never Die -Don't be overaggressive for kills, just harass some damage and wait for your opponent to make mistakes -Most people look at what their teammates are doing to lose the game... but the important question is what're you doing to WIN it for your team? That's really important to realize that wins don't just happen and make the decision to win every game you play Support for example on the last point, almost every single player plays support as the champ that goes bot, wards, and basically just sits there and doesn't contribute. Rather, look for ways to win the game for your team. Aggressive warding and organizing your team for dragon. I always look for opportunities to leave bot lane when I know my carry is safe. Like if the lane is pushed to our tower or if the enemy is weak, I'll leave and gank other lanes or go back to base to give us an advantage. Play ranked whenever you feel like and don't worry to much about it, just know that you can win on any champion in the game and make wins happen

We meet again...

i cried when i hit 600, there is a negative O_o

Very informative and well done.

Well done.

I could sure use a few tips to get myself up on the ELO ladder....haha

A couple questions.
What role did you play primarily?
How difficult would it be to raise my elo just playing support?