I'm aiming for a serious discussion about ELO hell, and there's a lot of reading here. Sorry about that, but I'm really determined to disprove elo hell from those who believe in it. ELO Hell: The notion that you're stuck within the middle of the pack or lower due to having bad teammates holding you back every game due to the matchmaking when you believe you're better than where you currently are because they're not listening to you or trolling you and this occurs for each and every game you play. No matter how hard you try or how spectacular you perform based on your rubric, you believe it's someone on your team who didn't think of the same strategy in the beginning or don't care enough to win and you always run into these same people basically stating your the unluckiest player in the system. This was discussed at length in shoutbox, primarily because someone was in my completely honest opinion too stubborn to see the truth, but I feel like this should produce more quality discussion for people who have an actual belief that elo hell exists or try to put out there why it actually doesn't exist. This shouldn't be directed at people who say it ironically, it's at people who legitimately have experienced hardships within a ranking system for a competitive game and believe that elo hell exists. I wish with this thread to remove that notion with either my help or others. This thread hopefully will aim to improve people's motivation and confidence to be better teammates, players at their game, and individuals. This should start to spread as this elo hell attitude is quite toxic to the competitive gaming community, so to start anywhere should hopefully prove to be an improvement for many people who do game competitively and come across this thread and spread influences elsewhere. So I start it off with this coming from the Overwatch gaming community. People from CSGO, League, you name it, please pitch in as to why you believe you're in elo hell or why it doesn't exist. This post below was gotten from the overwatch thread in this sub-forum, but it should be used for an actual elo hell discussion too. Spoiler: Why ELO hell doesn't exist Tl;dr: Elo hell doesn't exist. @Skyrossm and I based on our outspoken results are the community's example of this. However, a more extensive test has been conducted below. An important discovery has been made by the proactive Overwatch scientist, Season 1 Top 100, Current Grand master, Future Team America Player, and relatable streamer boy Ster. The notion that ELO hell exists has been proven false by Ster as he has jumped from 1053 to 3076 putting his current standing at Diamond. It has unfortunately proven that the system is skill based and the system isn't rigged to keep you within the range of 2000 to 3000. He purposely placed himself on his season 1 smurf account to be in Bronze by losing 9 of his 10 placement matches. Some of these accounts are seen early within his document. He has won 18 games straight without a loss, including the one win from placement matches. Out of 19 official games he played outside of placements, two of them were draws. He implores players who believe ELO hell exists to friend players who you played with that you noticed played well and group up with them. Many people have commented on his research saying "If you're a grandmaster, clearly ELO hell won't happen for you. You're cheating the system so this experiment is invalid! This is true even more so since you're getting 150 points per win since you're on a winning streak! You're not actually experiencing ELO hell." Ster rebutted that ELO hell is alleged to keep players within the range of 2000 to 3000 regardless of your skill so if ELO hell exists, an active Grandmaster such as I, should be held back within the rank range like everyone else. He also believes that many people who claim to be great at the game, they get gold damage or elims every game, and that they should be placed much higher than 2000, are most likely overreacting and not realizing just what they're doing the moment they mention ELO hell. He states you must realize your limitations, and while you play at your current level you should critique your gameplay as much as possible in order to improve. He emphatically states that people who are one trick ponies will never rise, so you must play WELL at more than 1 character. Lastly, he states that players who are of a higher rank happen to help a friend out who are in the alleged ELO hell, witness that they cannot win any games they play on their friends account, points to the fact that it's again a skill based system and if you lack the amount of skill to even just carry the team (as he had to for the first 10 games he played) then of course you may believe that ELO hell exists. That concludes the start of this ground breaking discovery. If you wish to learn more about this research that's still on-going you can receive updates at his social media site:https://www.twitch.tv/ster/ as he attempts to go for Master sometime within the next few days. Side note: This experiment has also proven that maximum points (150) can be received if you happen to draw, but don't lose your winning streak (a streak where you do not lose). My personal example as to why ELO hell doesn't exist: In season one of Overwatch, Out of a ranking system from 30 - basically 85, I was placed at 47. I reached 60 by the end of the season. ELO hell didn't prevent me from getting there, I was just better over time after playing the game. This was 95% done solo queue. Now in season 2: I've lost my ability to use my mic or hear others, as well as be on medicine that hampers my mood and therefore my judgement. I've placed in a new ranking system from 1000 to 5000 at 2798. I've started to drop to 2512, which is 12 above gold. I was 202 from Diamond before the drop. I am currently at Platinum which is the 4th highest rank out of 7. I've realized my ability to play this game has diminished after I lost 15 out of 23 competitive games at a certain point. Was it elo hell? No, I believe it was because I couldn't actually play the game properly and calmly. Others who are outspoken about elo hell, for input if wanted: @hello my friend @Graze
To me, elohell feels like an excuse for baddies to blame the system on why they can't rank up. I've never once heard a person with a high rank that was actually good blame "elohell" for being stuck.
About Overwatch: I was stuck around where Robokiller was before I started to stop focusing on my teammates and just play the best I could, doesn't matter if I can't play DPS for a round, or if I have to heal for 10 games in a row. I would focus on how I was dying and not how my teammates were doing. The first time I started I climbed 200 points in a day, after that I got tilted (which is extremely bad, never play during this, you will lose) when we had a sniper-only picking level 400. After a few losses and wins I took a 4 day break and reset, then came back last night and went on a 14 winstreak, gaining upwards of 100 points per game, I don't think I gained any mechanical skill but more I was positive to my teammates, didn't get angry when they messed up and help lead them in the game with strategies and positions they should play at. Although this is much easier with a mic (hearing someone sound extremely happy and positive is going to brighten your mood) you can do this through text chat, even just using the Thanks voice line when you are healed or not spamming "Attack the objective" can help your team stay focused and motivated to win. Out of those 14 games I only played DPS twice, people seem to hate when you instalock DPS and don't be afraid to ask someone to switch you, it's proven that asking people small favors like switching heroes or to power you up are ways of gaining trust, and trust is extremely important when it comes to a team. When you can trust your teammates and when they can trust you, you are no longer 6 players but a mind made up from many expanding into the game to work together and beat the enemy team. Another problem I see (and that has happened to me) is that one player on the enemy team is causing trouble(usually a Genji or McCree, but it can be ANY hero). After they kill you a couple times you focus on them and the rest of their team has an easy path to stomp all over you and your team. I don't exactly know how to escape this because this is what happened last night when a 4K players smurf was on the enemy team twice in a row, he played an extremely good McCree then made our entire team focus on him, while we managed to kill him, the rest of their team stomped us while we were running around like headless chickens. I also play a lot of CS:GO but it seems the problems of "ELO Hell" there have much less effect, as everyone isn't assigned a single role to play for most of the match, and it is very possible for a good player to carry the team. TLDR - be positive, and refrain from tilting.
As an expert of people bitching about ELO Hell in League I will take this time to say my piece: League Of Legends ELO HELL. Part 1: Mentality and Playing as a Team It seems a popular belief that people have rank that they "should be" and the rank that they are. Most of the times the blame is on unlucky because you get bad teammates but you really have to wonder how the hell other people climb out of the same position when they're getting the same quality of teammates as you are. The truth hurts, you're not bronze 5 because your amumu top built triforce zz'rot, you're bronze 5 because you fucking suck. Now that you've realized you're garbage, the next step is distinguishing yourself as the slightly shinier garbage. The mentality you really have to have is "I'm going to do as much as I can this game, and that's what I'm going to focus on." A lot of times the mistakes people make get drowned out by the mistakes they see other people making. At the end of the game you're 20/2/0 and your top laner is 1/5/2. What you should be thinking is not: This top laner sucks if he did better we could've won! You should be asking yourself: "What could I have done to avoid those two deaths?", and "What could I have done to translate my lead into advantages for my team?" People get so caught up in getting their own high scores that they forget that it's a TEAM game and you have to help your team. You don't need twenty kills, dividing the kills up between your carries means more threats on the map which means when you're no longer able to 1v5 your teammates are able to pick up the slack. Another important aspect is acknowledging the fact that if your team lacks direction, BE THE DIRECTION. It's not hard to type "After dragon we rotate bot to get tower then back." Basic instructions can go a long way all it takes is someone to step up to the plate. Part 2.- next post
Part 2: Attitude and Positivity One thing I've learned from playing League is it will NEVER, EVER help you to flame your teammates. It might stroke your weiner for the two seconds you furiously beat off on your keyboard to come up with a "hot" roast but it's just going to drag you down further. What means a lot to people is positive reinforcement. Even the smallest things like "good job" after a good play or a solokill or taking advantage of their laner leaving and getting a tower can mean a lot to that random stranger behind a keyboard. Even for the 1/8 renekton that took your blue buff if he does something good acknowledge it and they will play better. "Principle 2: Give honest, sincere appreciation." - Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Nothing pumps me up like getting my ego stroked by the strangers in my game after making the enemy mid laner eat my ass while I'm playing Galio. Another thing is if someone fucks up, tell them it's okay. It makes me upset when people tell me what I should've done. "Oh you should've positioned 2.5 nanometers to the left to avoid the thresh hook." Well fuck you too buddy I'm not a psychic and I can't rewind time to do it over again. tl;dr: Focus on you and no one else, step up and take charge. Positive reinforcement, and forgive mistakes.
