As someone said already. Unskilled player is just a filter to avoid having a million assisting enemy team reports in the tribunal. If you have a lot of unskilled player reports, apparently your hidden Elo ranks get lower so that you are matched with players your level. Not a big deal since if you don't belong in that rank you can just win yourself out. You won't be punished for unskilled player. It won't appear at the tribunal.

As for toxic players, just report them. There is a lot of deserved warnings, bans, and permabans going on daily. Just another person to be taught respect. A vast majority of people think they are the best, you can't change the way people think. Sadly, some could be the worse players ever and they will still blame others for it. Barking orders with a K/D ratio that would cause someone to lose faith in humanity.

So long as you don't trash talk others & accept blame the only people who will really dig into you are both 1 - total jerks & 2 - horrible at this game. Part of getting better at the game is learning how to lead your team to victory. Those who just trash talk clearly lack the leadership ability that skilled players acquire.

In other words - ignore them. You are new, so your skill level is understandable. Their's is more a permanent state, so they take out their frustration with this by raging on new players.

The mean/poorly skilled players far out number the other kinds combined in this game (though in the MOBA genre that is pretty normal). So if you are playing this game to socialize with new people & make friends you are probably playing the WRONG game. MOBAs aren't for making friends. They are more like Call of Duty. Turn it on. Kill people. Listen to them rage alot as you kill them. A safe place to kill people & not go to prison.

If you enjoy the play style of this game & want to get better you have to change your view of what the game is. It's not a friendly hug fest. It's a brutal SLUG fest. Set goals for yourself, skill developement wise & ignore all else. Your team doesn't care about your growth as a player, usually (maybe 1 in 100 matches they will). But you are improving for YOU, not them.

If you want more friendly Co-op style play -- switch genres of games. MOBAs are just NOT that kind of game.

Dude, just research on your own. If you don't like people hating on you so much for being bad at the game, or not knowing the basics, watch youtube video's, play bot games, research. Learn, learn, learn. Not everyone is going to hold your hand for you.

How about instead of complaining about people being mean to you, take an initiative, and learn the game so it will stop?

You will downvote me on this but it's the harsh truth. You are begging for randoms to NOT criticize you on every mistake you make, and to teach you about every aspect of the game. They are smurfs. You are better off learning on your own, and becoming a better player yourself or else this will never stop. If you think you are that bad of a player, play with friends and just improve or else like I said, this will not stop.

Exactly what you meant by demoralizing, right? The negative attitude I just mentioned you will find in certain players. Like for instance ones in the 2nd lowest tier of ranked (bronze 4) & who commonly have deaths in the double digits as of this post...

Just ignore the bad attitudes & practice away, if you enjoy the game. And feel free to add me, if you like. I play normals for fun (not ego) & would gladly help out in what way I can. My teammates have been playing ranked far longer than I (they ragged on me til i started, finally). They are commonly Platinum + so the tips you'll hear are from that tier of play, so pretty useful.

We play matches helping new players learn the ropes, to keep from taking the game too seriously. That and to help fight the bad attitudes we witness so often.

I definitely agree with everything you're saying. I wouldn't consider it a hugely toxic community for actual new new players, like level 8 or so and below, (I still consider myself new and I'm in the late teens lvl wise, once you hit lvl 20 i probably consider you at the..like adolescent level) because they usually play bot games and everyone expects for there to be some huge error when you're learning.
But that grace period ends pretty abruptly, even once you venture into normals. I don't have as many trolls as in ranked because it isn't quite as serious but there still is a lot more than I would like to see.
The thing about it that Riot will keeping singing and the community will keep ignoring is that your team DOESN'T DO WELL if you're flaming them. It seems like common sense and yet people do it anyway and wonder why their team is discouraged and doing worse than they were five minutes ago. It's because if you are encouraging and supportive you can at least try to change your teams situation. If you are constantly yelling how bad everyone is and how the team is going to lose then you will lose. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.
And unless you're God's gift to LoL you're not going to become a master by reading guides. They are an amazing tool and hugely helpful, but there is nothing that can compare to actual in game experience. You can know your champs abilities and item list front and back, but situationally you will struggle until you are comfortable with the in game experience. It's impossible to become proficient at a champ otherwise.

I really think something needs to be done. I don't know what it is and unfortunately, I don't think riot does either. They're trying, what with the tribunal and all, but it doesn't seem to really deter people...I don't know, maybe some it does but there are still so many out there who make the game such a struggle for others. Again, I don't have the answers, I'd like to hear from someone who does though...

I don't think level matters too much, though. Lots of skilled players have Smurf accounts, and lots of people go all the way to 30 against bots, and then find the curve going back to PvP all the steeper.

I was intimidated of PvP for a long time myself, so I have very few PvP matches for someone of my level, but I actually found low-level PvP matches were often a lot more forgiving than playing Intermediate bots, because while bots often lack creativity and flexibility, they also make fewer open mistakes and lapses of judgement.

Also while practicing more will always help you develop, practicing core skills under a mentor or in LoL University will improve one's game a great deal. Also while steady practice is important, so is healthy downtime. Very often stepping awa from the game for a few days or weeks can refresh your mind and your enthusiasm, letting you see the field from a fresh perspective. That's what I've found anyway. Again, take that with a dash of salt.

You bring up some good points Vieryn.

I hear at higher tiers it's not as bad, cause alot the players who get that high had to stop blaming & raging non stop TO get there. So it's more a problem of the people who are having trouble getting better at the game venting their frustration on others. They verbally bash the new guys & then the new guys do the same to the next batch.

Had the majority of us not been picked on harshly when we started playing things wouldn't BE so toxic.

But passing the buck & raging on someone doesn't stop until the person doing so decides that they are going to carry their teams. If they lose? Then they failed TO carry. Not their team failed to carry them.

Example - Top lane dies. Carry Jungler says "Ouch. Want help top, when you get back to lane?". Rager Jungler says "Wow top you SUCK".

They speak differently cause the Carry decided they were GOING TO CARRY. So when something goes wrong they see it as something THEY must deal with.

So a tip to a new player is to get in the habit of ignoring the rage & just focusing on improving your own game. You want to carry your team (even as support). So focus on YOUR faults. YOUR mistakes. 'Cause the sooner you do, the faster you improve in skill.

I do agree with what you have just said. When I first came into this game, I was really lucky because I would just play with pre-made teams which were made of just friends of mine so they were indeed really nice towards my terrible mistakes. When I did get to play with other players, however, oh mate… just no. It was so stressing as they'd normally just insult you because they felt like it and if you'd ever make any mistakes, they could simply throw you to the fire. Luckily enough, I've never got reported but that doesn't quite cut it.

I think being an unskilled player isn't a viable reason to report someone else, considering that the only other option you've got to train yourself is going against intermediate-level-bots which still is like no training at all and people would still report you there if you made a mistake. Also, I'd say that getting reported for being an unskilled player is the least clicked of all options since 'intentionally feeding' just seems to have a lot more impact amongst the 'judges' in the Tribunal.

I do hope you can get better enough not to get reported and that you also have a nice time whilst playing the game from now on. If you have any questions on a champion, you can always look up some guides on them on the internet and/or add me in-game and ask away; I'm not a pro or anything alike, but I do know the basics.

Healthy downtime may indeed be beneficial, but I would hesitate to classify a week in that category.

When a player does take a break in that range of time, they need to keep in mind that their skills will atrophy significantly, and they will have to play quite a few games before they work out the rust. This is the reason behind elo(mmr, lp) decay.

However, OP is not using his large gaps in play sessions as a temporary downtime before resuming a more normal schedule - that is his normal schedule. As such, he cannot expect to experience the same skill gains as a regular player, and will consistently find himself behind his peers until he adopts a more consistent play schedule.

Actually.. pulling the OP up on LoLking I would say he's actually well ahead of the average player. Miles ahead of me at lvl 20. I think this is the problem. He is being placed with players who have a deeper knowledge of the game because they are smurfs.. most likely they have had their main account banned.

He's using relevant builds (ap or ad focused anyhow) has runes and masteries up to date. Even has Tier 2 runes (for future reference dont buy tier 2. Cost vs reward is horrible. I recommend tier one then get tier 3 at 20 or when you can afford them. Some dont bother with runes at all until tier 3.)