I didn't read through the entire thread since I'm a bit pressed for time right now, so I apologize if it's been said already, but Riot perpetuates the problem by setting the lowest possible elo that can be displayed as 1250, as though you are just terrible at the game unless you're in the top 25%.

Because when a platinum/diamond player is comparing themselves to 1700 and below players, the 1700 and below players appear to be very bad by comparison.

It's just a matter of perspective.

Because it isn't good enough for somebody to be good at something. You have to also be bad at it so they can feel a greater sense of satisfaction from pointing out the difference in level.

Yea cause you know, **** elo decay that **** never works. Lol Riot thought of this a loooong time ago.

Secondly I didn't play ranked in season 1 until I had almost 500 normal game wins. Even though I never played ranked I was still better than you could ever hope to be. My normal game elo was so high I faced gold and plat players all the time. When I finally decided to play ranked I shot straight to the mid 1400's and didn't really play much that season so I never climbed up much more than that. In season 2 I managed to hang around the 1600's and even then I still barely played ranked or tried. Yet I am and always was better than you and many other ranked tryhards.

Anyways rant aside and to the threads point, I have advocated this for over a year now. I always tell people who are 1250 that they are actually better than the norm and they should feel proud of themselves. I hate when I talk to other players and they either say, elo doesn't mean anything or 1500 is low elo. Guess what elo does mean something and 1500 is high elo not low. Just because the rating go up to 2600 doesn't mean the majority of the population is up there.

The high ELO (2300+) players I've talked to that I respect consider 1500 average or mediocre. At that point the player is a beginner in the sense that they understand basic mechanics and how to win the game, but they still have a lot of things to learn before they are competitive at a high level. I consider 1500 to be average, below 1500 I usually am not at all impressed by their play, above 1500 I usually say they are very solid (or great) players. In season 2 I was in the 1500s most of the time, though I hit 1600 a few times. I think that's about right because I think I'm an average but not a great player.

I thought anyone below 1200 is low elo

1700 is pretty low, and I feel like I'm terribad

Some people just don't have the time to play to get 2500 ELO.
I am sure there would of been more people at Diamond or Plat if they threw away their other responsibilities.

I found the competition in the 900-1k elo range quite challenging. Maybe my mechanics are bad and/or I'm slow but I certainly understand warding locations, map objectives, last hitting, meta roles and teamfighting. I find that many of the posters in this thread are full of ****, specifically the ones with the puffed up chests with no badge. I know tons of people who paly this game maybe 30 real people. Of those people I believe I know two that made silver. I'd say I wipe the floor with probably 20 of them. It seems unrealistic that 1200 is 50% since high level players generally have smurfs, Some people pay to ave their elo raised, dodgingfor most of the season was artificial elo loss. If one player got to 2400 elo another player was reduced to 0. Some players were at 2800 elo and many of the people around and under 1399 didn't play many games.

People only play people near their own elo as per the system but we saw a lot of people intentionally dropping their elo to farm lower elos. I beleive Riot made a post at one point this season stating that the majority of the playerbase was in the 700s. I totally get that around 1200 is a crapshoot so betwenn 1k and what about 1400 is probably no mans land. It also seems likely that a player of about 900 elo would be competitive up until about 1400 elo or so. We had several cases of streamers going down to the 800-1k mark and not being able to get themselves back out. I'm sure a great player can hurdle that wall but a good player may not. On top of all of this,it's a team game and if you don't get the team you don't get the win.

PS I'm not that slow.

I got gold in S2, 1546 top elo. Only played enough to get there, though. 55 games. Idk if I would have gotten higher or dropped. The end of season trolls just burned me out too much to continue. In normals, I'm often matched with entirely gold/plat teams, if that means anything. So, yeah, I do think I'm good. Mostly on knowledge, I know my mechanics and micro are behind what other players around me are capable of. I'm working on it.

However, in those normal games where I get a diamond rated player, or someone that's just insanely good and I believe could be diamond if they played ranked, well...It's just glaringly obvious how large the skill gap is between a lowly 1500 and a 2200. I think a lot of it is superior judgement, in every aspect.