So, when I decided to close my previous thread, I was curious how many views we had.  Ended up being almost a million over a few years.  But - as we all know, there are only a few of us actually talking here and apparently quite a few lurker types (which is all well and good, but you are welcome to chime in if you like).  I expect it will take a little time for folks that followed the previous thread to make their way over here, but as it stands, we have 16 (including this) posts with 620 views in this new thread since it was created on June 6 (2 days ago).  I usually don't keep an eye on that sort of thing and doubt I will for some time again, but was really surprised to see so many hits on the previous thread, so I thought I might check this one out as well and share. 

Anyway, we seem to have a decent readership.  Thanks again to everyone that contributes and chimes in!

That said, here's what DanKnee had to say... who apparently follows this thread but can't be bothered to post here directly

[4:14] DanKnee: In response to your "Anyone know if you could hit plat after 10 games on SR in ranked 5's?"
Yeah it's possible
How Riot implemented it afaik is that they factor in solo queue mmr into the 5s ranked
those who are playing during the placements/provisionals anyway
Because when Obese was talking to you about the ranked 5s team yesterday
yeah we threw a 5s team together just for funsies
got placed in G1 after our first 5 games
[4:17] : prob could've place d Plat V if we were matched against diff peeps and our overall solo queue mmr averaged around high gold

/DanKnee

So, apparently it is possible to go higher than gold on SR in ranked 5's... maybe anyway. 

Grendel, finally someone else who has actually played in extremely low MMR games with an opinion on what it's like to play in them!  First of all I'm curious what your experience and skill level are.  What league/division is your main account in?

Just to make it clear, I feel my issue with bumping my buddies up to where I feel they belong is the mythical Smurf Detector Algorithms they supposedly have in place.  It feels like after I get fed my MMR goes up no matter what, win or lose... and yes you can get fed and lose against bad players who actually want to win when 3/5 of your team is completely atrocious and/or AFK.  If I was smurfing alone, I don't think I'd have a problem until I reached a point where my lack of runes and champions would become an issue.

There's an art form in duoing with a friend while playing a smurf account, and I still have a lot to learn.  For instance last night I learned that even if you get 28 kills while playing Graves, the Bronze Master Yi who has gotten fed off of your team is still terrifying cause he at least knows how to build Yi properly, who his target is, and has a tanky Renekton who follows him around to back him up.  That scenario is especially scary if the only thing standing between you and them is the Thresh who thinks he built tanky cause he rushed a Zhonya's, but usually that Thresh is most likely split pushing top alone without wards while Yi and Rene chase you around though.

To add to this: this is ONLY the case if you've NEVER been a part of a match for a Ranked Team for that map mode. The very first time you play, it sets your "ranked team MMR for map ___" to your current solo-queue MMR. This means if you create a team of people who have never played Ranked 3s/5s and are all high ranked, they will place very high if they do well in placements.

My main last season was on high gold (Gold I). Was often playing against low platinum, so I am around high gold/ low plat. This season I still couldn't bother enough to play ranked to get my placements done. As for the experience, it is difficult to describe, but I play since season one. There are times, when I go serious mode and am extremely competitive and there are relaxing times, when I don't care about wins at all. Also I enjoy trying out new things and new strategies (even if troll strategies), which can work to a certain degree in low MMR, but obviously not so often in a high one.

As for the bumping friends. I have a friend, who was bronze V-IV most of the time. Most would say that he belongs there after seeing his plays, but I helped him to get to the Silver III and he stays there now. He doesn't drop. Of course, he loses a bit, he wins a bit, but it basically is about 50%. Pretty much just like it was in that bronze V-IV. The problem with some players in low MMR is that like I previously mentioned, they don't know well what to do in a game as whole (like push and actually win instead of running around doing not so useful things). Weaker players have difficulties in climbing up, because if they go against the flow and try to do "the right things", they get destroyed, because team doesn't listen. They get blamed after and with team morale dropped it's even more difficult to win. Better players can pull off those things while worse cannot. If you put the same player in silver, he will do fine because team work is slightly different.

Overall, I still don't like the idea of helping friends and the new rule of being able to duo queue with one rank above or below will be just perfect to give an excuse to friends, when they ask for the help, hue.

As for the champs. Yeah, you are right. Fed Yi is a monster especially in low MMR. You really need friends to do something about him, if you are an adc. That's why some champs are easier to climb out of it. Graves would still eventually climb out of it, if he gets fed often enough.

eternalenvy sama

Mikasa Kamisama

Jasmina Lin

These are the people Karl, Bryff and I just played in twisted treeline. As you can see if you lolking them they are pretty heavy hitters. I am thoroughly enjoying playing vs this caliber of player. We actually won this game despite being a much weaker team as individual players. I think our team coordination is very very high especially with my shot calling. I think that listening to a single person for doing objectives with everyone giving information on players locations has been the key to our success. Bryff also dominated hard on Kassadin. 

well.. team coordination should certainly be a bit easier on that map with all objectives so close together and only having to coordinate 2 people instead of 4, etc.  Still, the game I watched of u fellas, you made really good calls while the enemy team made gambits here and there that cost them. 

also... those players you mentioned - high elo based on that map or on something else?  Makes quite a difference in my mind...

The mundo was Diamond II solo Queue

The Karthus was Diamond IV solo Queue

The lulu was Challenger in 5's and also Diamond I solo queue with 90 something league points probably at one point was challenger in solo queue. 

We should not have won that game. 

Mikasa Kamisama

Challenger in Ranked 5's this season, Challenger in solo queue last season.

I am wondering, would anybody here like to play ranked team games with me for the ward skin rewards? Prefer Summoner's Rift ones as those give 3 points per win. Would be willing to join a team, if you like. Prefer to play them more for fun, not to achieve a high rank, but that would be a plus.

Super exciting pacov recap:

Currently in gold V solo queue.  Starting promo series again (2nd time I think in gold V - side note, I really don't give much of a rip about the tier to tier best of 3 matches).  I expect I'll be promoted to gold IV or gold III soon.  My mmr is currently about the same as hunny badger's gold 1 mmr (last I checked anyway).  Anyway, this means I'm getting matched up with gold II's and I's, which is good for me.  The level of competition is pretty low imo.  I've been running adc most games and haven't felt like I've been getting outplayed at any rate.  We'll see how this continues, but its still my experience that silver is substantially more difficult than gold. 

I've been duoing a bunch with a fellow I met a few weeks or so ago while I was playign solo ranked.  He went thresh support for me while I ran lucian and we just cleaned house.  So, now we duo on and off.  Eventually we realized our odds go up when he and I play in different lanes so often end up with 2 carry roles.  The guy is gold V with mmr that is lower than mine, so his presence actually brings down the level of competition a smidge (I'd normally be queued up with gold I/II with my mmr, with him its gold V-II typically).  He's a nice guy, but is really hit and miss as far as performance goes in solo lane.  Cost us a game the other night playing as jax but not wanting to group as often as he should.

Other ranked stuff - played a game against a support ww where we lost (that was the jax game I mentioned).  I went adc as lucian and played fine.   Made a pretty big mistake imo in not get a ga earlier though.  It was a mega bruiser team including warwick, but every single other fight ww was ulting someone else like a goof and I was cleaning up.  Anyway, bad on me.  If I had picked up a ga, pretty decent chance we would have won.  We would have won earlier if my bud had been a bit smarter with his jax, though.

Re: my ranked 5's team (the one I keep going on and on about quitting).... smeh.  I don't know.  I had fun with things last night.  Our support is fairly consistently missing practice of late.  Our mid is being a putz.  Talking on the phone during team practice and playing xin out of mid... 100% of the time he does this, he's fine early/mid, then smeh later as we have no nuke on the team.  So.... now I'm thinking, well, kids must not be serious and if I'm supposed to be "serious," I'd rather not play (serious means being team captain, getting these folks in line and busting balls on kids missing practice, choosing to talk on the phone instead of communicating with the team during practice, etc.  A bunch of really annoying things to sort.  So, now I'm thinking I can just be like IDGAF, show up and have fun (have you seen my mao jungle build setup?) and let someone else handle the serious part.  Not really sure how that's going to pan out,

Other stuff - haven't played a game with karl in like 20 years.  Let me give any of you a tip in case you'd actually like to get in some games with me.  At least with my usual crew, I'm not sending out invites as often as many have been declined/ignored either due to afk or folks having something else going on.  If you'd like to get a game in, shoot me a pm in LoL and I can join you.  I've been playing a bunch more solo/duo queue ranked and more frequently with madcast folks as a result of many of you being busy.  That's fine, but ping me sometime if you are looking for a game otherwise you will fall off my radar further.

So, continued discussion re: my thoughts on earning your rank/elo - with a focus on duo queuing. 

my entire ranked history in a paragraph

Duo'd up to gold in season 2 - I played about 10 games with brad wong.  We hit gold in 10 games.  I played 3-5 more games all season.  That's about it.  Season 3 - I tank my placement matches carelessly and end up bronze 1.  Season 3 - I duo here and there, but primarily play solo queue and hit plat IV.  Season 4 - I go 5/5 in my placements, get kicked down to silver 1 from plat IV.  Disgusted, I take a break and now and am back fairly actively climbing in rank (gold 5 promos to gold IV or gold III atm).

Season 2

So, that duo queue in season 2 I mentioned - that was absolute crap in my mind.  It did little more than get me and my bud some some season rewards.  I worked well enough to hit gold in 10 games with my duo queue and I vaguely recollect like 1-2 difficult games in all of my ranked games that season.  I personally think less of myself and also of others that duo queue their way up in rank.  I'm not even remotely proud of my gold standing in season 2 because I really don't feel like I worked for it or earned it. Getting a reward after so little work was a joke in my mind.

I have 2 thoughts here:  1 - I don't think much of folks being proud of their duo queue rank in general (I'm sure there are some exceptions, ofc) and 2 - I am in no way impressed by people playing a few games and getting a high rating.  I believe its how you do consistently that shows the caliber of you as a player - not that you could play some games, place in gold, then over time be revealed to be smeh.  I respect players that work to get their elo and put their time in. 

Season 3

That said, season 3 - I feel like I earned plat IV. I'm confident I could have gone higher than that, but I lost a bit of steam when I hit my goal of plat and only started to get back into things near the end of the season.  To be fair, I'm not really sure how far I could have gotten, but more than plat IV I'd say. 

Anyway, season 3 felt like a huge accomplishment because I didn't get as far as I did by duo queuing (eg I earned what I got).  Sure, I played a duo queue game here and there, but they were few and far between my solo games.  And I wanted it that way - not because the people I could queue with would hold me back, ofc, but because it meant more to do it myself because, again, I feel like its more of an accomplishment. 

Season 4

Man - f ranked placements matches.  I end season 3 at plat IV.  I play my placements matches - 3 of those games are losses due to afk dc'd people.  1 loss due to an outright troll intentionally feeding.  So, I go 5/5 (with 4 games that can't be won really) and place in silver 1.  Kind of disgusting imo.  And that disgust kept me from playing much ranked for a bit.  That said, eventually I snapped out of it and got back to work.  I feel like I'm good enough to hit plat again without issue.  I continued to find the hardest elo to be at as silver for whatever reason.  In season 3, it was a pain to go from silver to gold and relatively easy to go from gold to plat for me.  We'll see if that trend continues.  Currently, I don't really care with regards to myself if I duo or solo because I kind of think this elo is a bit of a joke and I don't really encounter that many highly skilled people.  I will probably stop duoing after a bit and will likely try to climb solo when I hit plat again.  Kind of a personal challenge for me. 

other jibba jabba

Regarding why I found silver to be the most difficult - I think karl actually had some pretty good insight regarding this and it plays out.  You can't do some things in silver that you can at other elos.  For instance, back prior to the feral flare nerf, udyr was a nightmare if he was able to farm up a feral flare to the 11 min marker (he's still ok after the nerf, but nowhere near as good).  Now, if you do this sort of thing, you are really counting on your teammates to hold off and keep their lanes in ok shape with no jungle support for about 7 extra minutes (compared to when you'd normally start getting ganks). It's actually really unreasonable to assume your team can do that going into a game as there are really, really good odds the other team will have the jungler ganking lanes during that time.  Anyway, at lower elo's, you are better off going with the meta in my experience.  Even a split pushing, heavy ganking shaco can be a problem because the team generally needs a strong initiator so they clearly know when a fight is on.  At higher elos, you see to need less of that and individual players can shine more. 

fast recap

1 ranked game - duo'd w/ my bud bark.  1 win.  I'm 1/0 in my promo series to gold III or gold IV.  Hopefully will finish that out tomorrow... I THINK I may have made a contest re: that.  Gl finding that in the old thread if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Got to play some awful games with karls at least.    Good to catch up with you at any rate. 

Night all!

Worth looking at to get the idea - item changes on pbe:  http://imgur.com/Vl9c0QJ

Well, we got to put in some reps with the ranked 5's team yesterday.  I got in 3 games anyway - 2 wins 1 loss. 

re: that discussion/difference of opinion bryff was having with karl/cow re: teleport.  Let me share some thoughts from my experience and more specifically my other ranked team's top laner.  My team's top laner always wants to run ignite and I typically want him to run TP.  I eventually decided it was best to run with what my top laner wanted to do regardless of the benefits of running TP. 

It's my experience that ignite is much more useful for winning a lane than tp.  The added dmg results in greater kill potential during solo laning.   

As TP stands now, I agree its better, IN GENERAL, for the top laner to have it for the same reasons you all would likely agree with (split pushing potential, etc).  But, let's say I kill the enemy top laner that is running tp by using ignite.  He decides to tp back to lane.  This means he is not able to use his tp at that point to go in for a gank, tp to drag if needed, etc.  Ignite can neutralize that tp early/mid. 

Anyway, I'd always like the team to have TP on a top laner at the end of the game.  I also would prefer to have my top laner win and destroy his lane, which unless you are playing some no aggressive top laner that just wants to farm, ignite is always better on early/mid.  I just decide to leave that decision to my top laner all said and done and factor whatever spell he has into our team strategy with how we play mid/late. 

Anyone else in our little crew actively putting time into solo/duo queue ranked?  Curious pacov