The Fool's Adventures In Scrubdom

[quote=Foolamancer]A NOTE: The following post contains copious amounts of venting that will almost certainly make me sound like every other scrub out there. I still firmly believe that I can reach Gold. In fact, I [i]know[/i] that I can reach Gold. I have played with and against Platinum- and Gold-level teams and I have carried - not always through kills and raw damage, but with objective control, superior vision, timing, taking advantage of matchups, and general game knowledge. Not only have I done that, I have done it consistently. I do not, however, think that I can do it before this season is over, which sucks. But I am very, [i]very[/i] glad that Season 4 is introducing the ability to get demoted from Gold to Silver, or Silver to Bronze, or whatever, because my journey through ranked has let me see exactly how much this is needed. I have played against a lot of Gold-rated players, players who will be getting the Victorious Elise skin when this season is over, who have 50 more losses than wins and who fed horribly, demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of how to play the game, and who were incredibly toxic. I have had the displeasure of having them on my team. But because these people got lucky during their placement series, or were carried up to higher ELOs by friends who were better than they were, they get rated higher than I am. And because I don't have as much time to play League as a lot of other players, my chances of getting Gold have been botched simply by a few streaks of bad luck. I can carry most games. In fact, I [i]do[/i] carry most games. Even after the past two days' massive losing streaks, I am still positive (if just barely) in wins. And this is after the forty or so games I played before I was really ready for ranked. But I only get to play a handful of games a day. Because of this, I am extremely susceptible to streaks of bad luck which can completely screw up my ranked rating. I know I'm not the only one, though there definitely aren't as many as people say there are; there [i]are[/i] people who deserve to be ranked higher than they currently are, but who get unlucky with team assignments and find massive streaks of people who aren't just bad (though that definitely happens as well), but who are outright trolling. Four out of today's seven games had outright trolls in them, people who threw easily winnable games because they didn't get what they wanted. In the last game I played, we had two inhibitors exposed and I managed a blind Baron [[Smite]]-steal by [[Flash]]ing over the wall, which led to us going 1 for 3 in the following fight. But because [[Zed]] was upset that I had written his lane off as unsalvageable after he went 0/4 and never warded (which I at no point actually [i]said[/i], because I always attempt to be courteous and friendly), he refused to actually finish the game and instead ran around in the enemy jungle for several minutes without vision. Despite the fact that I had snowballed both top and bot, despite [[Rammus]]' best efforts to the contrary (he was taking all the kills from his ganks which left his laners behind), we couldn't win a 4v5. [[Jax]] and [[Renekton]], during the game where I ended up with a duo-top, were both incompetent and [[Jax]] spent the entire game taunting us in chat for not letting him go top alone, then refusing to take the tower when it was open. In the game that I forgot to screenshot, [[Nidalee]] fed two kills to [[Renekton]] in lane without any jungler intervention, then spent the rest of the game ranting about how it was my fault she had lost her lane in /all and deliberately doing things that would hurt me - attempting to steal red buff with a spear, or standing to one side and /dance-ing when I was under attack. And so on. The day before yesterday, I was also swamped with trolls - if I remember correctly, it was something like four out of six games. I realize that something like this is always going to be a problem with League. You can never get rid of all the troll players. But the fact that I am now pretty much guaranteed to not reach Gold by the end of the season just because I got a streak of trolls really chafes - even more so because I've lost a good chunk of the progress that I worked so hard to make. I know that I'm not a Diamond-level player in any role, even in jungling. I'm probably below-average even by Platinum standards and was just able to get by simply because my teammates were good enough. But I'm pretty confident that I can keep up with any Gold jungler of your choice. But I keep getting games where people pick [[Teleport]] [[Nidalee]] into [[Renekton]], rush for [[Tear of the Goddess]], and then complain when I don't gank for them, despite the fact that there is absolutely no kill pressure being applied in their lane, and the fact that [[Renekton]] already has a [[Giant's Belt]] means that I'd just be wasting time. I keep getting games where self-entitled midlaners shove their lane as hard as possible with no wards, get ganked, and purposefully throw the game because they're mad that I wasn't there to play babysitter for them at every moment. I keep getting games where people have duo'd with Bronze IV players who can't farm, don't understand how to trade, and spend all of their time on the opposite side of the map from the rest of the team because, obviously, we shouldn't need the team's main source of sustained damage to win. I keep getting games where idiotic [[Jax]] players think that they can 1v5, no matter how far behind they are or how far ahead the enemy team is. I know that I make mistakes. I gave up a free Baron during one game because I showed my face in bottom lane. I gave up First Blood during one game because I fell for an easily-predictable countergank. I miss occasional skillshots, I get tunnel vision during teamfights, I do all of these things wrong. But every single game, I improve. I pay attention to items and matchups and learn when I can and can't safely engage. I remember my mistakes and try not to repeat them. I always minimize my deaths while taking as many opportunities for kills and objectives as I can. I even brought in some of my Platinum buddies (and one Diamond) to offer comments and criticism. I do everything I can to improve as much as possible as fast as possible. It just feels like it doesn't matter because of my rotten luck. And that feeling sucks.[/quote]

[quote=Jovy]No, you don't sound like any other scrub :P What you said was correct but the [sad reality] is that there's really nothing you can do when one or more teammates choose to troll for luls or for any other petty reason. However I believe you have the right mindset and so long as you don't hold it off too much I'm sure you can achieve gold rating or higher in season 4.[/quote]

[quote=The_Nameless_Bard]thank god, it isn't just me.[/quote]

[quote=Kinen]Seeing a lot of my own thoughts laid out by somebody else has just made me notice the startling parallel between this and natural selection vs drift. You can have the strongest of Darwinian selection but get driven down by sampling error, or be utter crap at the game but still reach fixation (get into a higher league). The smaller the population size of games, the greater the influence of chance and the less your own skill contributes to your tier. Then the analogy kinda starts to get a little klunky. The player is the population, the actual skill level is the allele (although ideally actual skill level is constantly improving, spoiling the analogy), tier placement is allele frequency. Are matches generations or individuals? This is where my analogy falls apart, and then in some other areas too. Humorously enough, I now need to get back to rewriting an essay evaluating the role of chance (especially genetic drift) in evolution, an essay which is preventing me from getting onto league, playing some more games and diminishing the effect of drift on my own placement. My commiserations for your misfortune, hopefully getting into things early in season four will give you plenty of time to see your placement reflect your skill level more accurately.[/quote]