When to start ranked play?

[quote=RobbyS13]I'd like to start playing ranked matches but I certainly don't want to embarrass myself or get flame-sprayed for not being ready, so I'm looking for some advice on what constitutes readiness for ranked competitive play. Currently I play Summoner's Rift almost exclusively and have 3 generic rune sets for AP, AD, and Jungler. I have a very limited array of champions and mostly play Morgana at mid or support (and have gotten lots of kudos for solid mid-lane play) as well as Ashe for ADC and Warwick for jungling. I've got Garen for a top-lane tank but haven't played him much so I wouldn't consider myself ready for that role yet. Any thoughts or advice on what constitutes readiness for ranked play would be appreciated.[/quote]

[quote=throatslasher]Just play. Season's almost over, nothing to lose.[/quote]

[quote=Jovy]^well yah, but otherwise you want to have about 4-500 wins before you start playing it.[/quote]

[quote=Vapora Dark]^ I told my friend the very same thing last season, but I didn't realize the Elo reset at the start of next season was only a soft reset, and would be affected by your previous season's Elo. My friend spammed ranked at the end of season 2 while he was still new to the game, then in season 3 he went 7/3 in placements but still ended up in bronze. In my opinion, don't play ranked until you're at least 10 wins positive in normal games, as in, you have 10 more wins than you do losses. If you're not at least even in wins and losses, I can guarantee you will end up in bronze or somewhere in silver, then drop down to silver 5 with bronze MMR.[/quote]

[quote=emoriam]Just test Ranked and you'll see how "good" your mates and opponents are and whether you can deal with it :p[/quote]

[quote=RobbyS13][quote=Vapora Dark] ^ I told my friend the very same thing last season, but I didn't realize the Elo reset at the start of next season was only a soft reset, and would be affected by your previous season's Elo. My friend spammed ranked at the end of season 2 while he was still new to the game, then in season 3 he went 7/3 in placements but still ended up in bronze. In my opinion, don't play ranked until you're at least 10 wins positive in normal games, as in, you have 10 more wins than you do losses. If you're not at least even in wins and losses, I can guarantee you will end up in bronze or somewhere in silver, then drop down to silver 5 with bronze MMR. [/quote] Thanks. I'll verify, but I'm fairly certain my wins exceed my losses by at least 10 games. Does your initial ELO rating include your stats from non-ranked pvp matches or just your ranked matches? My assumption is that only ranked matches influence your ELO, but I haven't really seen a good description of how ELO is calculated for new competitors.[/quote]

[quote=RobbyS13][quote=emoriam] Just test Ranked and you'll see how "good" your mates and opponents are and whether you can deal with it :p [/quote] Is this the "throw them into the pond to teach them to swim" method? I am trying to avoid this method, as drowning is bad but drowning publicly while everyone points, laughs, and makes derisive comments as your head goes under is worse.[/quote]

[quote=emoriam]What do you exactly mean?[/quote]

[quote=RobbyS13][quote=emoriam] Just test Ranked and you'll see how "good" your mates and opponents are and whether you can deal with it :p [/quote] I'm not sure what you mean by "test Ranked".[/quote]

[quote=Vapora Dark][quote=RobbyS13] [quote=Vapora Dark] ^ I told my friend the very same thing last season, but I didn't realize the Elo reset at the start of next season was only a soft reset, and would be affected by your previous season's Elo. My friend spammed ranked at the end of season 2 while he was still new to the game, then in season 3 he went 7/3 in placements but still ended up in bronze. In my opinion, don't play ranked until you're at least 10 wins positive in normal games, as in, you have 10 more wins than you do losses. If you're not at least even in wins and losses, I can guarantee you will end up in bronze or somewhere in silver, then drop down to silver 5 with bronze MMR. [/quote] Thanks. I'll verify, but I'm fairly certain my wins exceed my losses by at least 10 games. Does your initial ELO rating include your stats from non-ranked pvp matches or just your ranked matches? My assumption is that only ranked matches influence your ELO, but I haven't really seen a good description of how ELO is calculated for new competitors. [/quote] Only ranked matches. I recommend being at least 10 wins positive because normal games also use Elo ( a seperate Elo to ranked ) to determine who you play with, and being 10 wins positive generally means your elo isn't very bad, meaning you play against decent players, meaning you're a decent player. Normal wins / losses are usually a good indicator as to how good a player is. Most bronze players are negative in normal games, while I, a high platinum player, am nearly 200 wins positive in normals. Most other high plats / diamonds are the same or even better. If you're wanting to get into gold / platinum very fast after beginning ranked, I'd recommend being at least 50 / 80 wins positive in normal games, or your placements could end up placing you very far away from your goal because you're not as good as you need to be to get to your objective, and when you are actually good enough to reach that objective, getting there is going to be a very long grind because of how far off from your goal you are, as opposed to just playing ~20 / ~70 games and reaching it.[/quote]