I don't get it. Last season I was mid/low-tier Silver (hovering around 1300), but this season I dropped like a brick. When the new season League system came about, I was slotted into Bronze 3. Now I'm at Bronze 4. This thread is partially to complain about this bracket, and partially to entertain those of you who have never had to deal with it.

Bronze 4 seems to be a lot like 700-800 elo used to be. Here's how my last two ranked games went:

1.) The other team first-picks Talon. Our captain autolocks Katarina, and when I ask why she countered herself she says
Katarina:stfu noob talon can't mid
Second pick is Lulu support. The other team picks up Kennen and Caitlin, so I counterpick Kennen with Renekton. Our 4th pick grabs Vi jungle with Exhaust/Ghost. She doesn't change the summoner spells.
Me: Are you taking Smite, Vi?
Vi: No, don't need it.
Me: Ok, I guess I'll take it top lane then. Please gank top a lot, without Ignite I won't have much killing power.
Vi: What? Don't take Smite, we don't need Smite.
Lulu: Renekton jungle? wtf
Me: We need Smite for dragon/baron control. I'm going top, but someone has to take Smite if Vi won't.
Vi: Only junglers take smite, we don't need it so change back
Me: Fine, but we're probably going to lose Baron/dragon a lot.
Katarina: stfu noob
We get into the game. Vi turns down the offer to start wolves, starts with blue instead. Four minutes into the game, bottom lane gives up first blood and a double kill to the enemy Caitlin. Vi comes top with double-buff, pings Kennen a few times, then ganks from behind his turret with no wave of minions taking hits (while I'm trying to push the wave.) She dies immediately, but I manage to Slice/Dice/Flash/W/Q/Ignite for the kill.
Vi: wow noob top
Katarina dies seconds later. I offer to switch her mid and she accepts. I go for a kill on the half-health Talon with double-buff as I get to lane, but Taric and Caitlin pop out of the bush next to me (no wards are in the river, and there have been no MIA calls or pings.) Vi rushes in 1v3 after I die, immediately getting stunned by Taric, then running onto a Caitlin trap and instakilled by Talon. I get back to lane; it's 12 minutes in and Talon has a Brutalizer, boots and two Doran's. Kat dies top to Kennen.

We lose quickly. Vi never attempts a single dragon, but I end 4/4/1 anyway. Our Miss Fortune goes 2/6/0, our Vi is 1/5/3, our Kat is 1/6/1 and our Lulu is 0/7/3. A total of seven wards are placed over the course of a 35 minute game. Four were from me, two from Lulu, one from Vi, none from Kat.

2.) That first game dropped me into Bronze 4 from Bronze 3. This queue, I'm last pick.
Me: I'm not very strong with support, but I'll fill in as needed.
I get stuck with support. Our second-pick Xin jungle has Ghost/Ignite.
Me: Xin? Are you taking Smite?
(complete silence for about 60 seconds)
Me: Xin?
Yi: Xin doesn't need smite to clear
Me: Sigh. Two games in a row?
I switch to Exhaust/Smite.
Jarvan: wtf taric jungle?
Me: ....no. I'm taking Smite because we need a Smite, and our Xin is either afk or doesn't speak english.
Yi: idiot we dont need smite
Jarvan: don't take smite noob
I keep Smite. One second before the countdown finishes, our Xin switches to Smite. I don't have time to change spells. The game starts.
Me: Damn it, Xin.
Xin: I was in bathroom. we win fast pls, I have to go in 20 mins
Me: Then why start a ranked game?
Xin: smiteless blue pls
Yi: (/all) report our taric for trolling us with smite
So the game goes as expected. MF and I win the lane hard, Jarvan loses spectacularly hard to Pantheon. Mid Yi never leaves his lane, but pretty much freezes it. Xin never ganks. Over the course of the game, I get 5 dragons with Smite, including two steals from the enemy team. Xin is only there for the 4th dragon. We seem to be winning despite the heavily fed Pantheon, and then after a teamfight Xin pings Baron. He runs up to it, Smites it to start the fight, and we follow him in. A few seconds later Panth's ult appears on the ground, followed by a Maokai ult and Thresh's lantern. Our entire team dies.
Yi: I thought you said smite guarantees baron taric
Me: Not when we're all dead, it doesn't.
Yi: noob
Me: It's gotten us 5 dragons so far.
Yi: ( /all ) report taric for feed pls
Over the course of the game, I put up 30ish wards, help my ADC win our lane, and pick up almost twice the assists of anyone else on my team (Yi got 11.) I took every dragon with Smite, but then the other team took Baron and won a few minutes later. Xin never did afk, but it didn't matter.

FML.

And yet lately I havnt been losing as much.

My IGN is PorpoiseAlert if anyone wants to verify that I'm not making this **** up. lolking seems to be 5 days behind, though.

Here is my advice.

Pick whatever the team will not play, no matter the role.

Stay positive. No matter how ****ty your team mate might be doing. Negativity makes everyone play worse, might even make them want to troll.

If you are in the position to provide a gank for another lane, do it.

Also, you can't win every match. Some times you might even have a 4 or 5 game losing streak. Constantly improve your game and sooner or later you will go up in ranks.

I haven't had games quite this bad, but I have faced significantly worse play on both my team and the enemy team. Not sure what's up with this.

People's general knowledge has gotten higher. From what you needed to know last season to get 1500s, you now should belong in low 1400s