Journeying into the Depths of "Elo Hell"

League of legends has been one of the most played MOBA's of this time. Millions of players queue up and play matches against each other every day, but what is widely know throughout all league players that play ranked queues is the term, “Elo Hell.” This topic has been prevalent in the community for years now and a lot of people can't seem to climb the rankings list because of it.

Before I give any advice on the subject, I'd like to give my standpoint on where I am at currently in league. I am nowhere near what is defined as “Good” at the game. I am a player who just enjoys playing every day. I've climbed to Gold II as my highest thus far and am currently Gold V Season 6. Statistically speaking, Gold V is the top 24-25% of players in ranked. That means roughly 75% of league players that play ranked queues are Silver I and below which is the depths of “Elo Hell.”

What exactly is “Elo Hell?” It is being stuck within a specific elo/rating and being unable to climb out even if you are “better” then that elo but get stuck with bad players on your team. I'm sure most of you cringed at the thought of what I said above because you understand exactly what I mean. Some games it seems impossible to win, no matter what you do.

There are a few irritating things that happen in the lower portion of matches I played as I slowly climbed to Gold.

- Afker's
- Feeders
- Agressive/Toxic chat
- Bad shot calling
- Lack of experience
- many more....

In my time of playing League of Legends thus far, these seem to be a lot worse in Bronze and Silver then in my time in Gold. No, I am not saying it's completely gone. There will always be some of these concepts happening no matter what elo you're in but it gets minimized the farther up you go.

Afker's:

Starting off with Afker's, I used to get so mad at people that would accept a match, go through champion select and then just sit in spawn and ruin a game for 4 other people and not care. That was one of my pet-peeves about Bronze when I was there. There's also when someone gets frustrated with the enemy or his/her own team and decides to Afk because of it. These people deserve to never play ranked in my opinion. The only way to win these games it seems is to try to win as early as possible. If your team is by far better then the other team, you can win if you take objectives and stay ahead. Late game the other team will out scale you with having 1 extra player 9 times out of 10.

 

Feeders:

Feeders is something we all know and hate. The longer you play, the better you will know that this just happens. It is impossible to stop sometimes but you can minimize it. Even you have fed someone on the enemy team before and have been flamed for it. (Don't lie, it happens to everyone). If someone feeds, don't rage at them, simply ask them what's happening and try to help fix the problem without losing your lane/jungle doing so.

Aggressive/Toxic Chat:

Aggressive/Toxic chat is by far, the most prevalent in Bronze. I see people continuously talking and “tilting” their teammates for one mistake even if it didn't matter so much. On average, games are 16% more likely to be lost with passive aggressive chat. There is this feature called, “The mute button.” You guys should try it sometime. It helps prevent anything from starting up and keeps you from getting mad yourself and start raging at other players. Simply report the person at the end of the game and move on with your life.

Bad Shot Calling:

Bad shot calling and experience kind of go hand and hand. If you have a lack in experience, your shot calling on objectives and team fights may not be up to par with the players you're playing with. It can also work the other way, if you have the most experience and someone is calling shots, don't be afraid to step up and voice your opinion in the matches to turn the tides to your calls. Pinging baron a billion times when they have 5 people down and an open Nexus is probably the biggest throw call I have ever seen before. Don't be that person.

Experience:

With experience, some people just lose their laning phases because the other player is simply better than them. There is no control of these, it's just simply put out there that you need to play more is all. Having a lack of experience in winning games or playing a specific champion or rune sets is just not the best for ranked queues. Especially the people that pick a champion for the first time and play ranked with them instead of a normal or bots... I'm sure some of you know that feeling. Just keep playing the game, learn new champions as you go and get better with the ones you enjoy now, that's the real way you're going to improve.

So there it is, the vast basis of points that have been apart of my struggles along the way out of “Elo Hell” or at least Bronze and Silver. There are many game related tips on ganking, warding, ability rotations, counter champions, builds, and much, much more. All of that can be watched on Youtube and read from other places/websites but no matter how many times people tell you what to do, you have to do things yourself and learn what's best for you to get out of “Elo Hell.” Experience is key and I hope you all find success in the future. Thanks for reading and I'll be sure to catch you guys on the Rift some time.

Tweet me if you'd like to play sometime :) @Volt_sB

Are you into fantasy leagues? Then check out AlphaDraft and put together your allstar lineup!