The Truth about 'Elo Hell'

What exactly is "Elo Hell"?

The definition that seems to fit best with what a lot of players consider to be Elo Hell is this: "The lower tiers of the ranked ladder where all of the trolls/feeders/afks pool up and prevent people from escaping." A lot of people in these divisions (mostly Bronze and Silver) constantly complain about not being able to escape from the constant abuse of other players. 

But first, let's dive into some interesting info. Statistically speaking, you have a greater chance of winning a game than your enemy team. Provided you truly are as good as you think you are, there's one less person on your team that you have to worry about feeding or doing bad! YAY! That means, just by being a good player and not being toxic, you have an advantage over the enemy team. Isn't that neat?

The Truth about Elo Hell

The truth about Elo Hell is, it's all a mind game. You may not believe this quite yet, but stick with me here. It'll hopefully make sense soon if you read on. 

When I say Elo Hell is just a mind game, I mean it's all a contraption that your mind comes up with to justify your losses/inability to climb. Granted, there are a lot of trolls in Bronze and Silver, but that's only because the majority of the ranked players reside in those tiers. Every single Elo has toxic players, trolls, people that go AFK, and people that feed. You will NEVER escape from that, regardless of how high you climb the ladder.

It is completely possible to climb out of the lower tiers of ranked, regardless of other players. Sometimes games truly are unwinnable, I will admit that. But the majority of games that players deem "lost" still have the potential to turn into epic comebacks. The sooner you understand this, the sooner you'll begin your glorious climb out of the lower tiers of ranked.

 

How to conquer ranked

There are dozens of ways to start winning games in ranked, if not more. But for the sake of the readers, I'll just go over a few of them for you. Whether or not you choose to use them is up to you.

The first method is a simple one, and it's practice. It's really that simple, I promise. Play normals, practice every role until you consistently do well in that role, then practice some more. Same thing with champions. Play them until you're good with them, then keep playing them so you'll get better. This is one of the easiest ways to improve your game and gain all of that glorious LP.

The second method is motivation. When I say this, I mean be a motivational player. Don't harass your teammates for a mistake they make. That de-moralizes not just that player, but the other players on your team. Nobody wants to try to play better with the fear of being yelled at and insulted if they slip up. If they make a mistake, be polite and suggest how YOU would try to play given the situations. 

The third method is somewhat related to motivation, but I feel it's still different enough to deserve its own explanation. It's respect, and being nice. If your team does something well, congratulate them. Say "good job man, keep it up and we'll win in no time!" or something to boost their morale. I can't express how much of a difference this makes, especially if you're in a losing situation.

The last method is my personal favourite, criticism. And by criticism, I mean self-criticism. If you catch your mistakes in a game and fix it, you're more likely to do better and avoid making that same mistake. For example, if you chase somebody through the enemy jungle with no wards because they've got 100hp and you got baited and die, you should learn from that. You should realize their team is probably going to back up their low-hp members to keep them from dying.

Summary

For those of you rebels out there that aren't going to actually read this just because of how long this is, I'll provide you with a quick summary. 

1. There is no "Elo Hell"
2. Every Elo has players that ruin games.
3. Work on improving YOUR game if you want to do better. Practice makes perfect, and perfect practice makes you even more perfect.
4. Don't be rude and disrespectful towards teammates just because of a mistake. Mistakes happen, berating players for their slip-ups makes the game worse, not better.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!  If you guys agree/disagree, feel free to post below. I'd love to have a discussion about this to get different views on it, just be respectful about it!