Escape from elo Hell

Episode 1
So some of you might have been wondering if I, Elementz’ infamous website bitch, played League of Legends or not. Well the answer is yes I do.

But I don’t play at anywhere near Elementz’ level. I play in something commonly referred to as ELO hell, and I’ve convinced Elementz to let me write about it.

So my rankings are 1413, 1068, 1262. They used to be all 1350+. About 2 months ago I decided to get a win with every hero, and that resulted in the ELO drop that has landed me here. I accomplished that goal, but now I can’t climb out of the hole it put me into. Do I think I belong in this ELO bracket? No. Do I think I belong above 1500? Hell no.

Now that that is all said, I’d like to write a bit about some of the issues that are plaguing this ELO bracket.

Today what I want to write about is the reporting system. When I play solo queue I’m ranked with players that are so low that they think they have nothing to lose, so first time things don’t go their way, they either AFK or mass feed. This ruins the fun of the other 9 players in the game, so their natural recourse is to report that person for their actions and go on to the next game. Issue closed. This is where my problem comes up. To me, after that report is filed the issue is not closed.


He wanted our Nunu to face check the bushes on bottom. When Nunu didn’t, the feeder(TF) pushed too far and they both got killed. The TF then raged and began fighting with the Nunu. After about 2 minutes of the fighting, TF decided he was fed (lol pun) up and began ulting into their ww in the jungle. 15 deaths later the game ended, I reported him (as I’m sure that the other 9 players did) and then left and went on to play one more game for the day.

I’m aware that Riot says they actively monitor the reports, great, but how do I know that the players I’ve had issues with get punished. I don’t get to play many games, and when 45 minutes of my time get wasted I want to know the result. I’m not saying that I expect every report I file to get someone punished, but I’d like to at least know that some of them do.

I think that Riot should send you a notification for each player they punished that you filed a report against. A simple follow up message would do two things.
Encourage positive behavior in some that situations that would lead to leaving/feeding. If a player reports someone, sees a punishment, and then later considers leaving/feeding, they will think twice knowing that the consequences are real.
Give the players who are affected by this behavior the encouragement to continue filing these reports, knowing they aren’t futile. Additionally, it would act as some sort of compensation for the 45 minutes of time lost to feeding/afking/leaving. Knowing that your report actually influenced the removal of this type of behavior makes the experience more palatable.

Let me know what you guys think about your feelings on the subject. Also, I’d like to know if people are even interested in reading about what someone stuck in ELO hell thinks.

Cheers

1 comment:

  1. Episode 2

    One of the things that annoys me the most about Solo Queue ELO Hell is champion select. There are several different issues that cause me to hate humanity during this phase of each 45 minute nightmare but I can only write about one at a time. Tonight I’m going to write about summoners who can only play only a few heroes.

    There is nothing more annoying then a summoner who joins a game, has 5th pick, says nothing until their turn, and then goes “OMG I CAN ONLY PLAY GANGPLANK!!!”. Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Gangplank, but whenever this situation comes up (which feels like at least 80% of my games) we invariably have Ashe, Sivir, and Two Tanks. The last thing we need on this team is Gangplank. I know this, the other three summoners on my team know this, and I’m sure the Gangplank knows it.

    This leaves two possible explanations for him choosing Gangplank. The first is that he’s just an asshole who desperately wanted to play Gangplank and doesn’t give a shit about the rest of his team. While this is possible, I’d really like to believe that most players want to win ranked games, so it’s hopefully not this. The second possibility is that he can genuinely only play Gangplank this game for WHATEVER reason. The fact that this is even a possibility is infuriating. I don’t think you should be playing ranked games until you have a solid grasp on enough heroes that you can be an asset to your team in any situation. How can you do this? Well, I’m glad you asked, let me present you with…
    Grump’s Suggested Heroes To Learn Before Playing Ranked

    In my opinion there are certain heroes that every summoner should know how to play before they subject others to playing ranked games with them. Knowing how to play these heroes (or at least heroes that fill their roles) will help you to make sure that you can fit into any team composition. I’m going to try to list two heroes for each hero role that I personally believe are easy to learn and play. So without further delay..

    Tanks: Rammus, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Sion

    Magic Damage: Vlad, Annie, Sion

    Jungler: Warwick, Rammus, Shen, Amumu

    Physical Damage: Ashe, Tristana

    Support: Janna, Taric

    That’s 12 out of 68 champions. To buy all these champions it will only cost you 26100 IP. Under 20% of the champions in the game that will certainly make you an asset to any team. These aren’t necessarily the best heroes in the game, but they are what I consider to be the easiest to learn and function effectively in their respective role. If you want to be effective in ranked play, I strongly recommend learning these heroes (or at least similar ones, sivir for trist, anivia for annie etc). If you’re looking for a new champ to learn, try to learning heroes who will help your teams win games!

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