I know I'm going to sound extremely corny, but this is what I have to say.

When I first started ranked games, I treated it like normal games. I used it to practice new champions, try out new builds, build up my runes, etc. Fell like a stone.

Awoke to find myself in the low 1000s. Depressing. Told myself it was time to get my s***t together. Trimmed down my hero list to ones that I was good with. Focused on getting proper runes and buildsets. Ripped off a ton of ideas from other players. Improved minion farming ability significantly. Increased personal map awareness. Wards. Got better with twitch (not the champion) skills. More proper team communication. Blah blah blah.

Now I'm at 1560 rating. That was rising with 13 pts per game. Painful? Yes. Did I feel llike totally raging into a green monster sometimes? Yep. Did I duo queue to ease the pain? No. Was I a masochist? Definitely.

I noticed things on my rise up. The first thing I want to rebutt is the idea that you need to play a carry to rise. If you are saying that you need to play a carry to rise, this also assumes that people playing carries for your team must always suck. And that none of these carries are, surprise surprise, using that idea of playing carries to rise their own ELO. The thing is, EVERYONE is doing it. So to say that you have to use carries to rise is self-contradictory. What causes a team to lose more often than not is... team spirit! (I did mention I was going to be corny) But from what I've seen, teams that lose their spirit end up sh***ing all over themselves. That is where the illusion of carries come in. Nothing messes with team confidence faster than kills. Carries wins games by messing with players' minds with their kill scores. If an enemy carry starts racking up, your team falters and can't spam the surrender button fast enough. Likewise, if a team carry fails to start piling the corpses or starts to feed, that team will go all ballistic on him/her, and add infamous lines like 'gg noob [insert champ]'. Thereby discouraging their own carry and making them more sloppy instead of inspired. Teams that rally together and adapt to the way the game is rolling can and often do come out on top. Cause a team that loses their momentum is even more devasted than one being crushed by a carry.

The other big thing I noticed was when I went back to playing normal games. I was UTTERLY SHOCKED at how terrible that players were. Then I realized that was not the case. It was that my improvement was so significant that allowed me to get 18/0/13 scores easily. So yes, I am definitely behind Darkpsx when he says self-improvement is the best way to rise in ELO. Now I feel like a DEMI-GOD when I play normal games, and I have my ranked games to thank for that. Thank you Riot for putting me through some truly hellish ranked experience to improve my game!

On a side note, I'm planning to go past 1600 and maybe hit 1700. I personally feel like I'm slightly below the standard for 1750 (beaten some 1740s in solo lanes), and that there are many improvements to be made for my own skills. Time to 'nut up or shut up'.

Thank you DarkPsx

Okay, i've read this post and i can agree with a bit of what everone is saying, but here's what i think is the true problem with this elo system.

1: New players start at 1200, making anyone near 1200 have to play with people who are either new level 30s, people just trying ranked for the first time, trolls just trying to mess with people, or just bad players. This creates a HUGE problem with this elo system, as decent players that have been playing ranked for a very long time still have to play with people who just don't seem to care, are new and don't know what they are doing, or are just bad. I'm 1200 atm, i've been 1400 and i've been 1000, and the reason I can't seem to climb may be partly because I'm not good enough, but let's be logical here. This is a team game, and no matter how good you do in a game, 1 person can ruin it for you every time. Your team comp can be completely inferior, the other team can have a low level and a high level duo that are on vent together, making it imbalanced, etc. So many factors not under your control, you have VERY LITTLE control over the game, fact. What control you do have is limited and it's very frustrating.

2: Duo que. Players duo queing makes solo que ranked unfair. Low elo players paired with high elo players, low elo players paired and playing at higher rating then they should, etc. This is also a huge problem with this system. This is solo que and the majority of players ARE playing solo.

3: People just don't care, or they care so much that they will flame and harass or feed intentionally. Not only is this bad for team morale, and give the other team a HUGE advantage, but it's almost enough to make alot of players want to quit themselves afterwards.

These are the main 3 reasons why in solo que ranked, elo hell is so hard to get out of. I've been waiting all season for riot to change this system so its more fair, but its clear they wont so i am waiting for season 2 in hopes that this system will be changed.

RIOT, if you do nothing else then this, please do this. Change the fact that new players come in at 1200. WoW's arena system had its flaws, but it gave new players a chance to learn from the start. Starting them at 0 rating, making them gain rating for wins and lose nothing from losses, until they reached 1000. After that they would gain rating for wins and lose rating for losses, making 1000 the lowest they could ever be. Like i said this system isn't the best either, but its FAR for fair then the system you have implemented. The MOST frustrating thing i can think of is playing with players with sub 5 wins that feed 0-12, etc. when i have almost 1000 games played in ranked. You might say its sad and that i must suck not to be able to climb out of elo hell in this many games, and this might partly be true, but trust me in that in a large majority of these games there was factors completely out of my control that i could do nothing about. Anyone that has played in elo hell a while will understand this.

I rarely post on forums but the time has come for me to post my oppinion somewhere. Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read all of this, and sorry its so long.

Okay, i've read this post and i can agree with a bit of what everone is saying, but here's what i think is the true problem with this elo system.

1: New players start at 1200, making anyone near 1200 have to play with people who are either new level 30s, people just trying ranked for the first time, trolls just trying to mess with people, or just bad players. This creates a HUGE problem with this elo system, as decent players that have been playing ranked for a very long time still have to play with people who just don't seem to care, are new and don't know what they are doing, or are just bad. I'm 1200 atm, i've been 1400 and i've been 1000, and the reason I can't seem to climb may be partly because I'm not good enough, but let's be logical here. This is a team game, and no matter how good you do in a game, 1 person can ruin it for you every time. Your team comp can be completely inferior, the other team can have a low level and a high level duo that are on vent together, making it imbalanced, etc. So many factors not under your control, you have VERY LITTLE control over the game, fact. What control you do have is limited and it's very frustrating.

2: Duo que. Players duo queing makes solo que ranked unfair. Low elo players paired with high elo players, low elo players paired and playing at higher rating then they should, etc. This is also a huge problem with this system. This is solo que and the majority of players ARE playing solo.

3: People just don't care, or they care so much that they will flame and harass or feed intentionally. Not only is this bad for team morale, and give the other team a HUGE advantage, but it's almost enough to make alot of players want to quit themselves afterwards.

These are the main 3 reasons why in solo que ranked, elo hell is so hard to get out of. I've been waiting all season for riot to change this system so its more fair, but its clear they wont so i am waiting for season 2 in hopes that this system will be changed.

RIOT, if you do nothing else then this, please do this. Change the fact that new players come in at 1200. WoW's arena system had its flaws, but it gave new players a chance to learn from the start. Starting them at 0 rating, making them gain rating for wins and lose nothing from losses, until they reached 1000. After that they would gain rating for wins and lose rating for losses, making 1000 the lowest they could ever be. Like i said this system isn't the best either, but its FAR for fair then the system you have implemented. The MOST frustrating thing i can think of is playing with players with sub 5 wins that feed 0-12, etc. when i have almost 1000 games played in ranked. You might say its sad and that i must suck not to be able to climb out of elo hell in this many games, and this might partly be true, but trust me in that in a large majority of these games there was factors completely out of my control that i could do nothing about. Anyone that has played in elo hell a while will understand this.

I rarely post on forums but the time has come for me to post my oppinion somewhere. Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read all of this, and sorry its so long.

Okay, i've read this post and i can agree with a bit of what everone is saying, but here's what i think is the true problem with this elo system.

1: New players start at 1200, making anyone near 1200 have to play with people who are either new level 30s, people just trying ranked for the first time, trolls just trying to mess with people, or just bad players. This creates a HUGE problem with this elo system, as decent players that have been playing ranked for a very long time still have to play with people who just don't seem to care, are new and don't know what they are doing, or are just bad. I'm 1200 atm, i've been 1400 and i've been 1000, and the reason I can't seem to climb may be partly because I'm not good enough, but let's be logical here. This is a team game, and no matter how good you do in a game, 1 person can ruin it for you every time. Your team comp can be completely inferior, the other team can have a low level and a high level duo that are on vent together, making it imbalanced, etc. So many factors not under your control, you have VERY LITTLE control over the game, fact. What control you do have is limited and it's very frustrating.

2: Duo que. Players duo queing makes solo que ranked unfair. Low elo players paired with high elo players, low elo players paired and playing at higher rating then they should, etc. This is also a huge problem with this system. This is solo que and the majority of players ARE playing solo.

3: People just don't care, or they care so much that they will flame and harass or feed intentionally. Not only is this bad for team morale, and give the other team a HUGE advantage, but it's almost enough to make alot of players want to quit themselves afterwards.

These are the main 3 reasons why in solo que ranked, elo hell is so hard to get out of. I've been waiting all season for riot to change this system so its more fair, but its clear they wont so i am waiting for season 2 in hopes that this system will be changed.

Okay, i've read this post and i can agree with a bit of what everone is saying, but here's what i think is the true problem with this elo system.

1: New players start at 1200, making anyone near 1200 have to play with people who are either new level 30s, people just trying ranked for the first time, trolls just trying to mess with people, or just bad players. This creates a HUGE problem with this elo system, as decent players that have been playing ranked for a very long time still have to play with people who just don't seem to care, are new and don't know what they are doing, or are just bad. I'm 1200 atm, i've been 1400 and i've been 1000, and the reason I can't seem to climb may be partly because I'm not good enough, but let's be logical here. This is a team game, and no matter how good you do in a game, 1 person can ruin it for you every time. Your team comp can be completely inferior, the other team can have a low level and a high level duo that are on vent together, making it imbalanced, etc. So many factors not under your control, you have VERY LITTLE control over the game, fact. What control you do have is limited and it's very frustrating.

2: Duo que. Players duo queing makes solo que ranked unfair. Low elo players paired with high elo players, low elo players paired and playing at higher rating then they should, etc. This is also a huge problem with this system. This is solo que and the majority of players ARE playing solo.

3: People just don't care, or they care so much that they will flame and harass or feed intentionally. Not only is this bad for team morale, and give the other team a HUGE advantage, but it's almost enough to make alot of players want to quit themselves afterwards.

Okay, i've read this post and i can agree with a bit of what everone is saying, but here's what i think is the true problem with this elo system.

1: New players start at 1200, making anyone near 1200 have to play with people who are either new level 30s, people just trying ranked for the first time, trolls just trying to mess with people, or just bad players. This creates a HUGE problem with this elo system, as decent players that have been playing ranked for a very long time still have to play with people who just don't seem to care, are new and don't know what they are doing, or are just bad. I'm 1200 atm, i've been 1400 and i've been 1000, and the reason I can't seem to climb may be partly because I'm not good enough, but let's be logical here. This is a team game, and no matter how good you do in a game, 1 person can ruin it for you every time. Your team comp can be completely inferior, the other team can have a low level and a high level duo that are on vent together, making it imbalanced, etc. So many factors not under your control, you have VERY LITTLE control over the game, fact. What control you do have is limited and it's very frustrating.

2: Duo que. Players duo queing makes solo que ranked unfair. Low elo players paired with high elo players, low elo players paired and playing at higher rating then they should, etc. This is also a huge problem with this system. This is solo que and the majority of players ARE playing solo.

Okay, i've read this post and i can agree with a bit of what everone is saying, but here's what i think is the true problem with this elo system.

1: New players start at 1200, making anyone near 1200 have to play with people who are either new level 30s, people just trying ranked for the first time, trolls just trying to mess with people, or just bad players. This creates a HUGE problem with this elo system, as decent players that have been playing ranked for a very long time still have to play with people who just don't seem to care, are new and don't know what they are doing, or are just bad. I'm 1200 atm, i've been 1400 and i've been 1000, and the reason I can't seem to climb may be partly because I'm not good enough, but let's be logical here. This is a team game, and no matter how good you do in a game, 1 person can ruin it for you every time. Your team comp can be completely inferior, the other team can have a low level and a high level duo that are on vent together, making it imbalanced, etc. So many factors not under your control, you have VERY LITTLE control over the game, fact. What control you do have is limited and it's very frustrating.