Views: 4342 Mechanics and How it Relates to Elo
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I practice my mechanics for League of Legends a lot. I consider myself to be very disciplined in that regard, but as we all know: "ain't nobody got time fo dat."
I read an opinion piece about getting to diamond on reddit today and how a "diamond player" can mean someone anyone that plays like diamond tier. I agree with that, but there is everything to indicate that there are also bad players in every tier and division. The main point being that if you play like a diamond, eventually your MMR, Tier Division and LP will eventually denote that. Maybe you only play mid and top lane at diamond level and have a hard time jungling. At the end of the day if you aren't able to get diamond, you are still not diamond. For the purpose of this discussion we will assume that every player has the potential to be diamond and will have different expected MMR/ELO outcomes for each role. Now what does this mean?
As mentioned in that thread, there was a big emphasis on players being able to play multiple roles. I may play like a diamond ad player, but my bad mid lane will hold me back. "What if my support and I don't get along," or aren't on the same page? My diamond level ad isn't able to shine properly and maybe we don't even win lane. If I'm not able to carry that game, then I have noone to blame but myself, because I can't mid lane well enough at that elo to try to carry to diamond. If you play every lane at a diamond level, you should eventually hit diamond no matter what. So what am I doing to try to better myself? I am working on my other lanes and the strategy behind the picks. If I can't play every lane confidently, I'm really only hurting myself in the long run. There are tons of other factors, which I won't go into here. Suffice it say that we are all subject to our own analysis first and that's the one that we should care about. Being honest is key, here.
If I somehow got to play on a challenger account and I had to support, I would get absolutely destroyed in lane and would probably cause my ad carry to rage quit because I have absolutely no understanding of the play that goes on at that level (huehue challenger plays like bronze hue). He would lose by 40 cs probably and we would get camped for a free win. Furthermore, I don't understand the interactions with the solo lanes and the jungler at that MMR/ELO and I don't know how to play against the popular picks for each lane. Basically, I would be a free loss in that elo on anything but ad, top or jungle. So if I want to get anywhere near challenger elo, I either have to be: A. Good and lucky OR B. Decent at every role and above average game knowledge.
So how does this relate to the rest of the ladder you might ask? Well you see, mechanics are so important because good mechanics or godlike awareness are required to get yourself to the next tier. It's the easiest way to get out of bronze and probably the second easiest way out of gold (the first is to play mid). If you know everything there is to know in your elo and can't seem to get out, fixing small mistakes and improving your cs is the quickest way to gain rating. Good mechanics are a PREREQUISITE for STAYING in the next tier. If you are honest with yourself and have high standards, you will become a better player. You could spend thousands of hours studying game footage, watching replays of yourself and tournaments in your spare time, but that will only help you so far as you are able to apply that in your games. For instance: knowing that tsm should have picked X hero in Y game isn't going to help you beat that gold top laner in your silver 1 promotion series. Figuring out what you play best IS. How do you do that? Well it may not seem fair to go off of stats, and in fact there are many good players with terrible stats because of bad games out of their control, but YOU are the one analyzing YOUR OWN PLAY, so why would you lie to yourself about it?
I thought for the longest time that I was a terrible jax player, and it took me forever to figure out that it was just bad luck whenever I play certain heros. The world is like that, and there is a lot of randomness out there, so get used to it. (Ever think about how you randomly met a boyfriend/girlfriend?) What analyzing my own stats did for me was to remind myself that certain heros that I play don't do that well in the current meta without a lead, and despite me being LEET with pantheon, picking him everytime I have to go mid, probably isn't the best idea. I am still a good panth player, but my 40% win rate doesn't show it, nor does my 2.6 kda.
What that tells me is that I should learn more mid heros and lanes that I am comfortable with before crippling my team comp at champ select in hopes of a snowball victory. There are tons of factors when deciding what champion to pick and when, (this is something that even the pros have a very hard time with) and admitting that your gut instinct pick could be wrong some of the time will do you some good. Does that mean you shouldn't pick x hero versus y hero? Of course not, it just means that if there is a reason why that hero isn't picked against the other, you should probably be aware of what that is at the very least and be able to foresee potential problems BEFORE they arrive.
Alright, back to the lower tiers: In my experiences, most silver players are decent. They have an above average knowledge of the game and I would say they play about 80% correct (for the most part). Gold players, conversely, seem to have slightly better mechanics and worse game knowledge overall. The difference is that the silver player will see the correct moves but be unable to make them. He is crippled. You are absolutely crippled in this game if you don't have good mechanics. It's just required that you either be insanely good at map awareness, coordination or cs like a god/position like jesus if you want to be higher elo.
I will be the first person to tell you that golds play really bad, and I would even go as far as to say there are tons of gold level players in platinum and above, but that is not the point I wish to discuss today. You see, gold players play overaggressive and have decent mechanics, but play very bad strategically. As stated, you may see some great strategical players in silver and gold and maybe even some with good mechanics, but most of them are lacking in one or both areas.
This is nothing to be ashamed of, but it's important to make sure you are finding what your problem is and being okay with that. It is just a game afterall, and it's here for you to enjoy. Why is this important? Well you see gold players are easy to take advantage of if you cs near perfectly. Even if you are losing early on in trades and cs, you let him "outlane" you and then call your silver jungler friend to come gank his ***. You are now up 1 kill and probably ahead in cs after he had to back. He's probably complaining to his team about how good he is and how bad you are for needing a gank. That's not what high elo players think like and you shouldn't either.
So how does this apply to ranked on the whole? As you play ranked, you should be coming to conclusions about your play and also notice your teammate's mistakes. That is not to say that you flame them or blame them for your losses, more like you want to maximize the flow of information to yourself and go into every game with the want to learn. If your teammate makes a mistake, don't bully him about it, just make sure you correct that mistake in your OWN mind and get better as a player, because if you want to improve in rating, then you should be trying to improve as a player. Don't talk to him for 10 minutes about how he could've played it better, that will lead you into a loss. You will lose at least 30% of the games you play regardless, so what's the point in going on tilt and probably losing more games? That's how most people end up getting "stuck" in the first place. Just because you are right and he's wrong, doesn't mean he's willing to admit it. Just see it from your perspective and move on, it's okay to disagree, it's NOT okay to flame when someone is just having a bad game.
I often see silver and gold players thinking they have good mechanics when in fact, they are atrocious. I can't stress enough how important mechanics are because as in the prior example: the silver player that sees all the moves, but doesn't have the skill to make them is holding himself back in some way. Whether it be bad mechanics or individual play, the way to fix it is to work on your cs and trading discipline, and if you aren't willing to try to improve every game, you really shouldn't be playing in the first place. No silver or bronze player is going to carry you to gold, it's just not going to happen, and you would be dumb to expect them to. If you are really that good, with that much potential, you would figure out what you do wrong and carry yourself out.
You can be a player with gold level mechanics and bronze tier awareness and make it to diamond. It just happens, because the system isn't perfect and there is also duo queue and elo boosting. What you should actually go by, though is MMR. Match-made rating is the only true measure of skill, and in fact, your LP gains are directly influenced by it. There really is no reason to fear playing promotion series, because you're in it for the long haul, and if you improve your level of play, it's only a matter of time before your "above average MMR" speeds up your LP gains. On the whole, the system is an illusion: The leagues do not exist, they are there to make ranked more glamorous and presentable. I used to be able to say I was a 2k player (which sounds a lot more impressive than platinum 1-5, admittedly), but what does 2k mean to someone outside of league? They have no idea what that is, so riot came up with the league system to make league more accessible. That's not the only reason, or even the main reason why that change was made, but rest assured, the system on the whole hasn't changed very much. Your MMR still goes up and down by 12 or 13 and in some cases it goes up a lot more, you just don't have the benefit of seeing that.
I really have nothing to say to anyone that is "stuck" in bronze elo. Your teammates have nothing to do with it, I could carry most 3v5's in bronze with one hand tied behind my back.
"Oh cloudcarry you're such a nub, not everyone can carry disconnects, ragers and feeders."
Well that may be true, but the system isn't perfect, and while you may deserve the chance to fair games and a more realistic shot at hitting silver, these things are all out of your control and that brings us back to square one: The Only Thing In The Game You Can Control Is Your Own Play, So Get Used To It, Stop Raging, And Become A Good Mechanical Player To Complement Your Leet Game Knowledge.
The easiest way to improve your elo is by figuring out what your biggest problems are (sounds simple, right). If you are bad at cs, then be honest with yourself and don't tell me you have good enough mechanics, because you don't.
There was a huge assumption made in the reddit thread I read today, by a diamond player no less, that I believe to be wrong. The assumption was that you can become godlike mechanically and then all of a sudden you don't have to practice anymore and just work on your gamesense. That's total garbage. It may work for some people, but that's because they already have a high level of mechanical skill and they DO practice those mechanics by having discipline. If they are csing badly in a game, you had better believe they are hard on themselves about it and start to pick it up. This game isn't easy, noone is entitled to any certain elo, it's a constant battle being waged by each region within their own to see who is the best of the best. If you already don't cs perfectly, and have a bad game cs-wise on top of that, well that's probably a free loss.
You don't move up divisions by complaining that your team is uncarryable and *****ing to them in chat, you move up by figuring out what your problem is (it's probably csing tbh), and addressing your own play. Sometimes you are better off coordinating with your team and other games that will end up contributing to a loss, because your jungler just afk farms all game or you actually had a better split push team, or they have a good hard engage against your poke team, or your poke team hard engages for no reason at dragon. The list goes on and on. This is something you have to understand and it's all part of the climb to diamond.
For reference: I am platinum 3 currently and have been in the 1900-2000 mmr bracket since last season.
Please keep all feedback constructive. If you wish to have a discussion with me about why I'm wrong I would encourage you to message my inbox instead of leaving a comment below. I dream of a comments section with positive discussion that I can interact with, but until there is better moderation on this site, or less **** talking silvers, I won't be checking them.
I read an opinion piece about getting to diamond on reddit today and how a "diamond player" can mean someone anyone that plays like diamond tier. I agree with that, but there is everything to indicate that there are also bad players in every tier and division. The main point being that if you play like a diamond, eventually your MMR, Tier Division and LP will eventually denote that. Maybe you only play mid and top lane at diamond level and have a hard time jungling. At the end of the day if you aren't able to get diamond, you are still not diamond. For the purpose of this discussion we will assume that every player has the potential to be diamond and will have different expected MMR/ELO outcomes for each role. Now what does this mean?
As mentioned in that thread, there was a big emphasis on players being able to play multiple roles. I may play like a diamond ad player, but my bad mid lane will hold me back. "What if my support and I don't get along," or aren't on the same page? My diamond level ad isn't able to shine properly and maybe we don't even win lane. If I'm not able to carry that game, then I have noone to blame but myself, because I can't mid lane well enough at that elo to try to carry to diamond. If you play every lane at a diamond level, you should eventually hit diamond no matter what. So what am I doing to try to better myself? I am working on my other lanes and the strategy behind the picks. If I can't play every lane confidently, I'm really only hurting myself in the long run. There are tons of other factors, which I won't go into here. Suffice it say that we are all subject to our own analysis first and that's the one that we should care about. Being honest is key, here.
If I somehow got to play on a challenger account and I had to support, I would get absolutely destroyed in lane and would probably cause my ad carry to rage quit because I have absolutely no understanding of the play that goes on at that level (huehue challenger plays like bronze hue). He would lose by 40 cs probably and we would get camped for a free win. Furthermore, I don't understand the interactions with the solo lanes and the jungler at that MMR/ELO and I don't know how to play against the popular picks for each lane. Basically, I would be a free loss in that elo on anything but ad, top or jungle. So if I want to get anywhere near challenger elo, I either have to be: A. Good and lucky OR B. Decent at every role and above average game knowledge.
So how does this relate to the rest of the ladder you might ask? Well you see, mechanics are so important because good mechanics or godlike awareness are required to get yourself to the next tier. It's the easiest way to get out of bronze and probably the second easiest way out of gold (the first is to play mid). If you know everything there is to know in your elo and can't seem to get out, fixing small mistakes and improving your cs is the quickest way to gain rating. Good mechanics are a PREREQUISITE for STAYING in the next tier. If you are honest with yourself and have high standards, you will become a better player. You could spend thousands of hours studying game footage, watching replays of yourself and tournaments in your spare time, but that will only help you so far as you are able to apply that in your games. For instance: knowing that tsm should have picked X hero in Y game isn't going to help you beat that gold top laner in your silver 1 promotion series. Figuring out what you play best IS. How do you do that? Well it may not seem fair to go off of stats, and in fact there are many good players with terrible stats because of bad games out of their control, but YOU are the one analyzing YOUR OWN PLAY, so why would you lie to yourself about it?
I thought for the longest time that I was a terrible jax player, and it took me forever to figure out that it was just bad luck whenever I play certain heros. The world is like that, and there is a lot of randomness out there, so get used to it. (Ever think about how you randomly met a boyfriend/girlfriend?) What analyzing my own stats did for me was to remind myself that certain heros that I play don't do that well in the current meta without a lead, and despite me being LEET with pantheon, picking him everytime I have to go mid, probably isn't the best idea. I am still a good panth player, but my 40% win rate doesn't show it, nor does my 2.6 kda.
What that tells me is that I should learn more mid heros and lanes that I am comfortable with before crippling my team comp at champ select in hopes of a snowball victory. There are tons of factors when deciding what champion to pick and when, (this is something that even the pros have a very hard time with) and admitting that your gut instinct pick could be wrong some of the time will do you some good. Does that mean you shouldn't pick x hero versus y hero? Of course not, it just means that if there is a reason why that hero isn't picked against the other, you should probably be aware of what that is at the very least and be able to foresee potential problems BEFORE they arrive.
Alright, back to the lower tiers: In my experiences, most silver players are decent. They have an above average knowledge of the game and I would say they play about 80% correct (for the most part). Gold players, conversely, seem to have slightly better mechanics and worse game knowledge overall. The difference is that the silver player will see the correct moves but be unable to make them. He is crippled. You are absolutely crippled in this game if you don't have good mechanics. It's just required that you either be insanely good at map awareness, coordination or cs like a god/position like jesus if you want to be higher elo.
I will be the first person to tell you that golds play really bad, and I would even go as far as to say there are tons of gold level players in platinum and above, but that is not the point I wish to discuss today. You see, gold players play overaggressive and have decent mechanics, but play very bad strategically. As stated, you may see some great strategical players in silver and gold and maybe even some with good mechanics, but most of them are lacking in one or both areas.
This is nothing to be ashamed of, but it's important to make sure you are finding what your problem is and being okay with that. It is just a game afterall, and it's here for you to enjoy. Why is this important? Well you see gold players are easy to take advantage of if you cs near perfectly. Even if you are losing early on in trades and cs, you let him "outlane" you and then call your silver jungler friend to come gank his ***. You are now up 1 kill and probably ahead in cs after he had to back. He's probably complaining to his team about how good he is and how bad you are for needing a gank. That's not what high elo players think like and you shouldn't either.
So how does this apply to ranked on the whole? As you play ranked, you should be coming to conclusions about your play and also notice your teammate's mistakes. That is not to say that you flame them or blame them for your losses, more like you want to maximize the flow of information to yourself and go into every game with the want to learn. If your teammate makes a mistake, don't bully him about it, just make sure you correct that mistake in your OWN mind and get better as a player, because if you want to improve in rating, then you should be trying to improve as a player. Don't talk to him for 10 minutes about how he could've played it better, that will lead you into a loss. You will lose at least 30% of the games you play regardless, so what's the point in going on tilt and probably losing more games? That's how most people end up getting "stuck" in the first place. Just because you are right and he's wrong, doesn't mean he's willing to admit it. Just see it from your perspective and move on, it's okay to disagree, it's NOT okay to flame when someone is just having a bad game.
I often see silver and gold players thinking they have good mechanics when in fact, they are atrocious. I can't stress enough how important mechanics are because as in the prior example: the silver player that sees all the moves, but doesn't have the skill to make them is holding himself back in some way. Whether it be bad mechanics or individual play, the way to fix it is to work on your cs and trading discipline, and if you aren't willing to try to improve every game, you really shouldn't be playing in the first place. No silver or bronze player is going to carry you to gold, it's just not going to happen, and you would be dumb to expect them to. If you are really that good, with that much potential, you would figure out what you do wrong and carry yourself out.
You can be a player with gold level mechanics and bronze tier awareness and make it to diamond. It just happens, because the system isn't perfect and there is also duo queue and elo boosting. What you should actually go by, though is MMR. Match-made rating is the only true measure of skill, and in fact, your LP gains are directly influenced by it. There really is no reason to fear playing promotion series, because you're in it for the long haul, and if you improve your level of play, it's only a matter of time before your "above average MMR" speeds up your LP gains. On the whole, the system is an illusion: The leagues do not exist, they are there to make ranked more glamorous and presentable. I used to be able to say I was a 2k player (which sounds a lot more impressive than platinum 1-5, admittedly), but what does 2k mean to someone outside of league? They have no idea what that is, so riot came up with the league system to make league more accessible. That's not the only reason, or even the main reason why that change was made, but rest assured, the system on the whole hasn't changed very much. Your MMR still goes up and down by 12 or 13 and in some cases it goes up a lot more, you just don't have the benefit of seeing that.
I really have nothing to say to anyone that is "stuck" in bronze elo. Your teammates have nothing to do with it, I could carry most 3v5's in bronze with one hand tied behind my back.
"Oh cloudcarry you're such a nub, not everyone can carry disconnects, ragers and feeders."
Well that may be true, but the system isn't perfect, and while you may deserve the chance to fair games and a more realistic shot at hitting silver, these things are all out of your control and that brings us back to square one: The Only Thing In The Game You Can Control Is Your Own Play, So Get Used To It, Stop Raging, And Become A Good Mechanical Player To Complement Your Leet Game Knowledge.
The easiest way to improve your elo is by figuring out what your biggest problems are (sounds simple, right). If you are bad at cs, then be honest with yourself and don't tell me you have good enough mechanics, because you don't.
There was a huge assumption made in the reddit thread I read today, by a diamond player no less, that I believe to be wrong. The assumption was that you can become godlike mechanically and then all of a sudden you don't have to practice anymore and just work on your gamesense. That's total garbage. It may work for some people, but that's because they already have a high level of mechanical skill and they DO practice those mechanics by having discipline. If they are csing badly in a game, you had better believe they are hard on themselves about it and start to pick it up. This game isn't easy, noone is entitled to any certain elo, it's a constant battle being waged by each region within their own to see who is the best of the best. If you already don't cs perfectly, and have a bad game cs-wise on top of that, well that's probably a free loss.
You don't move up divisions by complaining that your team is uncarryable and *****ing to them in chat, you move up by figuring out what your problem is (it's probably csing tbh), and addressing your own play. Sometimes you are better off coordinating with your team and other games that will end up contributing to a loss, because your jungler just afk farms all game or you actually had a better split push team, or they have a good hard engage against your poke team, or your poke team hard engages for no reason at dragon. The list goes on and on. This is something you have to understand and it's all part of the climb to diamond.
For reference: I am platinum 3 currently and have been in the 1900-2000 mmr bracket since last season.
Please keep all feedback constructive. If you wish to have a discussion with me about why I'm wrong I would encourage you to message my inbox instead of leaving a comment below. I dream of a comments section with positive discussion that I can interact with, but until there is better moderation on this site, or less **** talking silvers, I won't be checking them.
Why would you write such a long blog for the simple creatures of MobaFire? D:
Because I care. If there is at least one person out there that gains benefit from this, then it was all worth it. I also link my favorite blog posts on my twitch channel, so it's very much a case of mobafire being a host. I like the layout well enough, so it's a no brainer. I feel stupid crossposting my idealogies to random forums and it's even harder to keep up with. :D
I think you get the idea of what I meant. I was obviously a new player at one time and having nowhere to turn to learn, I had to turn to myself. At some point I realized it wasn't my teammate's fault and that I could do better. For me, I had a good understanding of the game from a fundamental point of view, and needed to work on my cs and knowledge of matchups and team compositions.
I wasn't saying so much that good mechanics alone will carry you up, more that improving your mechanics is the easiest way to improve your elo in the short term. Of course you want to keep strategy in mind as well. :D
I actually disagee with some of your statements on mechanics, I don't think you can carry yourself up with mechanics alone: you will hit a death point at some moment in which you just make the wrong calls all the time.
I actually believe that there is only a very slight difference in mechanics from the tiers plat 5 up to challenger. The difference is how they notice every slight mistake and punish it directly. If you stay to freeze a lane at diamond, they will push down your mid. On the other hand, at platinum tiers you can get away with that.
Yes, mechanics are necessary to become a better player, and you should always try to improve your mechanics, but don't overrate it.
CS'ing is not the main problem low rated players deal with. Huge problems are overconfidence, overstaying and bad trades. Some of these things are counted as 'mechanics' and some as 'experience/knowledge'.
Overall I completely agree on having to address your own play. I have once been at 950 elo (bronze 3) and I actually started climbing once I realized how I can't keep on blaming my team.