I mean. Only true Bleepblop fans played him before the buff, but good to see he is getting up there with characters like Bufflop and Dingledorf. Those guys are too OP
Yeah, but Bleepblop's going to get nerfed next patch, and Schmuggy's getting a massive shield buff, so it's going to be less a skill matchup and more a coin toss. Good thing I main Mekloaf like a true chad.
What's interesting is that after countless of hours playing competitive games, you barely remember any of it. Meanwhile, all the casual co-op/single-player games you play stays with you for a long time. Good video!
It's because those kind of games has their own plot unlike competitive ones. Think about competitive games like a chess. You'll never remember about chess as a whole game, but you can remember a thousand of variations of it and it would be still interesting and fun to think about or discuss. I really like when something has massive and united world, and a lot of different "if" in it. It's so satisfiying to dive into such kind of work either it a game, a story, or something else.
So you're just spamming games on autopilot, brain completely off. How is that the game's fault? I've never not related to a comment more in my entire life.
I stopped playing ranked just after akali's rework. It's an important memory for me because I feel that I need to remember it in order to protect myself, and never get to this point again. I was playing Aurelion sol mid against a freshly reworked akali. I got killed, again, and again, and again, it made me so mad that I hit my keyboard. It may not seem like much to some people, but it was a lot for me. I am not a violent person, and I take good care of my stuff because I don't have the money to replace it. So when i hit my poor little laptop, it made me so sad, and scared of my reaction. I didn't recognise myself, and i thought that this game made me violent and dangerous, for real ! So I quit. I didn't play the game for well over a year. Now I just play arams here and there and my life is better. Not just my gaming life, but my life as a whole ! I used to think about my rank way to much, and I only realised it when I stopped playing.
I will admit even though I mostly play ranked, arams feel more fun to play. It doesn't matter if you lose so it means you get to play around with random builds, maybe make risky plays you wouldn't do otherwise.
I mean yeah don't play ranked if you cant comprehend the game. I literally have no idea why is ranked the most popular game mode among normies that don't even bother learning the skillset of the champion. Whatever this cringy dude that I'm seeing for the first time thanks to youtube recommended says may be correct, that's on you for going outside of your comfort zone. We don't need you there, I'm already sick of 2/11 briar abusing toplaners hardstuck 50% wr barely making it to masters, if aram is what it takes for yall to stop go for it
I had a similar epiphany about 9 years ago. I was freshly married to my wife and I could tell she was actually scared when I suddenly started swearing and punching the table. I could see it in her eyes. I gave myself a pause from League, self reflected, and uninstalled a few days later. Best decision.It's not worth it.
I think a part about ranked games that really gets underrated is how badly the problems around the meta and players playing like their life depends on it bleeds into the non competitive modes of the game. I like playing the kinds of games that ranked games tend to be for the sake of what you can do in them, but I never like to take them super seriously because I didn't have as much fun when the pressure to win was on. For an example with League, I found it very common for people in normals to expect people to be playing at their very best, and to never deviate from the meta picks if you are good at them, despite the mode supposedly being more casual. I've been tempted to try games like Valorant, but one of the many reasons I never bothered was that I don't think I would simply have the space to just, be bad and learn how to get better in real games, even if the games were unranked
This is also a massive reason people don't get into League of Legends - even in casual games it's impossible to learn without being criticized for any MINOR mistake.
@@aisushitai2680Yeah that's because in ranked it's like "we are all trying to play exceptionally well to make a made up number go up so we can get praise for our big made up number and you are here ruining our chances". It's like treating your teammates as enemies lol it's even more apparent when players use terms like 1v9 or something not realizing that player wants to win as much as you do
@@aisushitai2680i mean that argument is bad now, because the game gives u(usually 3) runes to choose from so u dont accidentally troll, and items that even shows u why u should buy them
The one thing I hate about ranked. is when a game you enjoy turns into a ranked focus game. the fun dies extremely fast and you struggle with the mental debate of dealing with it or finding another game that could fill your fun void.
Tbh i dont get why everything has to be ranked now. I get it from the bussiness standpoint but for example overwatch is a very bad competetive game. I get like cs, rocket league, valorant. But most games arent built for competing.
@@somo4227 i think league initially was built for Comp. But with the balance team being hardstuck golds. Im not so sure anymore. I have around 2k hours just on duoq. And i decided to quit like 2 seasons ago
I never really got into ranked because of how terrified I would feel playing the game. To me, it felt like I had to do my very best because its ranked, so my anxiety would spike and that's not even mentioning how volatile teammates are when it comes to how the game is going (flaming, pinging, griefing, etc). I'd love to get into it but I can barely play the game on my own (LoL) let alone get into ranked. I play with friends and I have to get going to keep on playing by myself.
I can relate 100%, put me in an Aram or URF or nexus blits game and I play without any problems but if I start a normal SR alone my anxiety goes up like a rocket
I feel the exact same way as a jg main. I did placements once for season 11 and felt so pressured to perform well because I was the jungler that I didn't even finish them. I've played only 5 or 6 ranked games, and it's gameplay-wise the exact same as draft, but the fact that now winning matters for a funny number made it all the more anxiety inducing so I've never played it since.
I’m in the exact same spot! Good to know there’s others lol To be fair I keep watching my boyfriend play ranked in high elo (Masters and Grandmasters) and the shit he goes through is insane. I want to play ranked but I get so much anxiety since I’m newer to the game and every game feels more like a performance that I have to do good at or else I’ll be shamed by the team, plus I get bored playing summoner’s rift alone. I would only play duo but that’s not really a true ranked experience.
One good thing about competitive gaming is that it increase my toxicity tolerance in real life. When I encounter a toxic person in real life, my brain starts to analyze instead of reacting. That's something good imo. The bad thing about competitive gaming is addiction, health consequences, false sense of achievement.
Strangely enough, I didnt leave competitive games but rather changed the type. After a certain point, I moved to fighting games. And well, it's still same issues of meta and stuff, but it is also a huge new genre for me to explore. I found a lot of new friends in those games and communities in progress and I find a philosophy which helped me get back to idea of "losing can be fun". But.. to be completly honest, After a while, even those games which presented with way more fair fights, still made me burn out so i moved to coop and solo games slowly exploring things I didnt catch on. There are a lot of games out there, make some memories there, guys. After all, what is left of us is only memory.
I've found myself exploring my Steam library lately. A lot of games I have never touched because I was too focused on ELO or MMR or whatever fancy word a game used for the funny number they made go up sometimes. Turns out I've missed out on really great storywriting, engaging characters, and entire worlds that are just so fun but I was too busy wasting years on getting to be a top % on a bunch of lines of code.
Ranked fighting games really are just better. Each match takes a couple of minutes (or straight up a minute, if you're playing something like Strive), it's only you and the person you're against relying on skills and knowledge, and it's *way* more likely that the person you just fought against will be down to adding you and playing more so you can both improve. It can definitely get tiresome, especially if you make the *absolute worst mistake of your life* and start caring about tierliests rather than just choosing your favorite character, but I never burned out of them for more than a few weeks.
100% agree for fighting games, I've been playing guilty gear and going soon into street fighter 6 and losing here feels so much better than losing in league, mostly because you don't have 4 gorillas screeching about your mistakes in your ear 24/7 and games being short when you play league and lose a long game it often feels very bad
I never really got into ranked, but have been playing league consistently for about 5 years now. I keep coming back because I love the sense of constant improvement. I always feel like there is something I can improve at or learn. But Ive barely touched ranked and havent played a single ranked game for the past couple seasons because having that skill tied to a number that 9 other people every game have an impact on, just isnt satisfying to me. Im content knowing that if I look at a replay from myself a year ago, I will be a much better player now than I was back then. It honestly annoys me when people only care about what rank you are, instead of your actual gameplay. (side note: in most games the displayed rank is almost meaningless because the system actually uses a hidden mmr value to calculate your skill. so your displayed rank, especially in league, to me only shows how much of a masochist you are to play that many games to achieve a good rank)
pro players or academy league players can get AT LEAST master elo in 40 games lil bro, you don't need many games to get to a high rank. I am a total random and got dia in 40
@@daniboglut5120not from 0. If you're new and started playing ranked a few years ago when you were level 50 and then quit for a while, you have to grind that shit. 40 is almost impossible even if you won 100 percent of games
@@blutwirbel3180 i mean that's the point of the ranked ladder, this guy is talking about seeing himself improve while not touching ranked. He s not at 0, and my comment was about the fact that you can get high elo in very little games if you're not at 0
@@blutwirbel3180 also league is a strategy game at its core, much like chess. you have to study the details if you're onto getting better at the game. It's not like WoW or warframe where grinding is the only thing that will get you to be better. That "grinding" you're talking about is for the players who genuinely have no active interest into learning the game and lie to themselves that spamming ranked games is the only way to improve. I got from hardstuck silver 4 seasons in a row spamming ranked games and tryharding to mid plat in season 9 just by learning fundamentals and BASIC game knowledge
@@daniboglut5120If he starts a new account. That's the catch. MMR is always there in the background fudging the whole thing up. I know about where I am in skill level from normals. Hardstuck gold or low plat, which I'm fine with. That's about what I get matched with by MMR in normals. Ranked, bronze. Not even worth trying to get out. One loss is worth about one and a half wins in LP. Sometimes one loss is a full two games in LP I have to win to make up the difference. Climbing out of that is too aggravating to try. It's somewhere around a 70-80% winrate needed to get out of bronze on really old accounts. But I don't want a new account. All my stuff is on my old account. What I want is a reset button. Just clear all game history for matchmaking, all game history, so I can start MMR from 0.
.. this actually happened to me this week. I Decided to start playing ranked this year on my old 2010 account that has all the skins and had and insane 12 win streak, lost 2 and then went on another 7 game streak got to Silver 2.. and then it happened. Every game unwinnable odd stuff happening like top running it down 1-12-3 or getting a toxic ADC that hasn't won in 9 games. After the lose streak I ended up in some limbo where either my team completely stomps the enemy or we get stomped. The queue timers are also long compared to when I started. I also started to only gain +23 LP and lose -31 LP. The climb became a huge grind. I'm seriously considering stopping.. seems pointless, especially as support. It kinds sucks, cus years ago I was in silver as well, but back then I had no idea about wave management, roaming and so on. Not sure if I improved oat all or what I could do.. I don't have the time to grind many games a day to try and hit gold.
Scootch, this is why I love you. You are so introspective and so nice and I love the fact that you are spending time to shine a light on these important topic.
Ironic enough, I started playing league because of you and also stopped playing league around the time you started mentioning your thoughts on quitting league on your streams. I only really enjoyed playing league because it was a fun game, cool mechanics and it felt so great when you landed your abilities! Now the problem started when all of my draft games felt like ranked games all of a sudden. I needed to think about warding, objectives and all of the stuff that I was thinking of already but never took too seriously. The thing is that eventually these things did make me beat myself down for not being good enough. It actually made me feel depressed and I got some anger issues from it, but I kept on going because it was so addicting. Thankfully I just decided competitive gaming isn't for me. I prefer enjoying a random game I found on steam than fighting to be the best in a videogame without having any fun throughout that entire journey.
Im a fan of ranked queues because i find fun in competition. As a kid i wasnt much of a gamer and got that fix through organized sports. As a 30 year old with more responsibility, this is a quick and easy wasy for me and my buddies to scratch that competitive ich that we had when we were young. Even if all the ranked games we play arent truely competitive it doesnt really matter, it still gives me that same feel of competition with my friends even tho we are grown up and not playing basketball or baseball for our town leagues.
I've been thinking lately of quitting ranked for some time now, I've had experienced the mentioned rank team "rng" by being grouped with literal monkeys that go 0/5 in the first 6 minutes of the game after i had a win streak. Recently I've gotten into making steam workshop mods for games such as Barotrauma or Europa Universalis IV which i find very fun to do although time consuming. This video i believe is my turning point, I'll be doing more of what I enjoy and not play competitively in a multiplayer game for a long time, maybe forever if nothing changes to the way ranked manipulates a person like mentioned in this video, cheers.
Don't bother playing league anymore. Gigachad Europa Universalis 4 enjoyers such as ourselves now get mad that we get a 0/0/0 heir or bad rolls in combat
The reason I still play is because I want to see myself get better at playing the game with the champions and role I like playing the most, it's simple and motivating. Since this specific goal doesnt involve my team skill as much as a goal of gaining lp/rank/shiny border it's abit more rewarding (unless I see myself playing worse of course). It also allows me to appreciate good teammates more since they allow me to play better in the team. For context I love playing adc and it's one of the two roles with support that are the most team reliant.
trueee, I feel like ranked is the only game mode where you can really test your skills and see how good you are. When I stomp in a normal draft pick I'm not impressed because usually Im matched up with lower skilled players, hell a lot of the times these guys dont know the fundamentals, spacing, lane management, jg tracking, etc. but if I get into a ranked match my opponent usually knows how to punish my misplays and it makes the game more challenging.
I've had friendships ruined over competitive games. When I get into a game it's because it enjoy it and want to have a good time, but i've had friends coerce me to play certain games and focus too much on winning, optimization, meta, etc. It sucked, especially when it was something like an MMO or a survival game where the journey was so much more fun and more important than the destination- but the person was focused on optimizing their build choices or rushing to the end-game. I would end up resenting the person and would dread being asked to play with them, eventually getting to a point where i had to admit i didnt want to hang out with them anymore. Nowadays when it comes to PVP games like league or overwatch i tend to just play the unranked modes if i play them at all.
I had this exacted question asked to me once and I said “I don’t see why I should let numbers displayed on some leaderboard determine how much fun much fun I should have”
What you said at 11:35 perfectly lines up with what I started to feel nowadays. In the last couple of weeks, I didn't log on to League, only to play normals with friends, and I started playing Sea of Thieves with a friend, and let me tell you, it's amazing!
I've watched this channel for a while and mainly joined originally for the league content. I use to play ranked mainly for a sense of accomplishment. I've been playing league since 2012 and felt that I should be good considering how long I've been playing. It was also to prove to the people around me that even though they didn't seem to value me that I had some sense of value, I really struggled with self worth for a long time. Now working fulltime and being an adult leaves not a lot of time left for ranked.. I can either play 3 games at night and have fun with 4 friends or play 3 games and normally leave fustrated. I do still play ranked a bit but nothing like I had. I still do want to be better. I want to sit at a level where I can be proud of that and prove that I'm not a "shitter" but irl takes priority.
Not with EOMM, shitty match-making and shitty net negative LP gain. I've played since pre-season 1 too, quit ranked since S3. A game is really shitty if they start to even use one psychological tactic for the longevity of their game.
every modern live service game is using psych manipulation tactics to sustain their games, ever since machinezone made game of war and mobile games made billions it seems every company in the industry wants to prey on the consumers
I enjoy playing ranked, i like to see how I’m slowly getting better and better as the years pass. I come from a sports background so I see it as a sport not a game. I remember getting just as frustrated playing soccer, or basketball. I think the game isn’t the problem. It’s your perspective on it. You have to take a step back and remember that you are doing this activity because you enjoy it, and nothing else matters.
Yup, i come from a sports backround as well and have the same attitude. I started lol a few months ago an absolutely love it. The community itself though is by far the most toxic ive ever seen in my life. They jusy bash teammates instead of providing encouragement or advice. Its really quite aweful.
Im from a sport background too, I hate ranked tho, not because I don't like seeing myself get better or the competitive aspect but because of my teammates. Not because i think theyre bad or the reason i lose or whatever but because their attitude sucks and they just unload hate onto each other for the smallest things, the environment just seems unhealthy so I ended up avoiding it.
Your "slow" progression is an illusion since Riot wants to make it slow, so you will play the year after and the year after the year after, and so on. If you make a fresh account you probably get a free elo boost and reach your true rank way faster and without consuming that many hours and mental energy into a useless videogame that has just one purpose: milk your money. My life is better since I quit League, I started playing again during the summer after a year break but I uninstalled it again. The matchmaking sucks and the company doesn't care about what gamers say, no matter if they're veteran (started playing in Season 3, for reference). Trust me, these games are not worth your time. Best!
Easily one of your best vids. I used to play ranked Overwatch 1. I regret how much I cared about the game then, not only playing it to mixed results, but watching endless tutorials, seeking coaching, reviewing vods, etc. at an age where I should have been doing anything else with my time. And now that I'm older and nostalgic for the game, Overwatch 1 is completely gone. I have the disc on my shelf, but it's a nice coaster more than a playable videogame. The same is true of other live service games I used to play, if they didn't shut down entirely. And as someone who used to be involved with the smash community, it's depressing to see so many people grinding to be better at the game when they get neither enjoyment nor any tangible reward out of it. People frustrated and burnt out, hoping to get a good game on elite smash and the like. It's a total gambling machine, and it's made worse when devs like Blizzard, Riot, Valve, and Epic all glorify the few people who do make it at the top, as if grinding to get better will somehow get you closer to being a rich, famous gamer, as if it isn't the 0.00001% of players who make it that far, and everyone else is just wasting their time. Blizzard was by far the worst with this via some of their Overwatch League promo, like the "Whats in a name?" commercial. I think a lot of people are disenfranchised from modern gaming, myself included. Ranked queues are one of many reasons why; When a games entire purpose seems to be funneling you into a gambling machine with your own time, I lose the motivation to play at all.
I played League from S4-S11 (Started playing around Vel'Koz release, and uninstalled near Akshan's release). Over time the game just kept feeling worse and worse to play. For half of the Seasons I played ranked, I managed to get to Gold just for the Victorious skin and by that point felt burnt out everytime. Most of my time in LoL was spent in norms playing with friends. But when most of my games got more rage-inducing, either from losing too often to broken Yuumi combos, or whatever severely unbalanced champion(s) at the time, it got tiring. I was an ADC main too so that didn't help when Marksman was made the worst role to play for multiple seasons in a row... One of my biggest peeves was when more than half the matches I play end up with my team wanting to surrender as early as possible. I only want to play 2 or 3 matches! NOT 6 early surrenders!! I absolutely hated seeing how easily people gave up the moment ONE THING went wrong. AND AGAIN, I MOSTLY PLAYED NORMS! The surrender-meta was insane. I still have a couple friends who play it still. Not sure why, but one of them has almost convinced me to try the next season since Mythic items are being removed apparently...so maybe I'll try again for the next season and see how it goes. Probably won't be too into ranked, as a university student, there won't be enough time for me to be THAT masochistic.
I stopped playing ranked because I realized i'd only ever be happy if I was at the top, and I either didn't have the skill, dedication, patience or time to reach those levels. I'd get frustrated, and it became more about the end product than the journey; an arbitrary number that'd get reset every season, or after some months. Now, in league, I just play off-meta, and normals with friends. I can excuse my losses with "well, i'm playing for fun", and I get to experience other people's experiences with something that sticks out from what they're used to. Some laugh, others rage, and I just enjoy.
As someone who enjoys playing ranked games, I think a lot of what you have said mainly pertains to certain games. The ganes i play the most for ranked are fighting games, SF6, MK1 when it comes out, a bit of Skullgirls, and Eternal Return. For fighting games yes there are meta people but I still feel like I run into a large majority of variety and just have fun improving, currently at masters 1k mmr. In Eternal Return, if you have never heard of it I recommend trying it its so fucking fun, the same thing, yes there is meta but there is so much diversity in team building and build routes and just how fights play out that I love seeing it and it makes me want to improve. Honestly i just like playing games that I can genuinely see where i messed up and how to improve in them.
I play these types of games because I also play real life team sports, and like to be good at all of those. The type of quick plays that happen in higher ranks of these kinds of games tend to resemble real life sports situations, just without the whole body control aspect. However if I go out for a jog then that trains one thing... Playing in ranked queue trains another thing. I'm just trying to have a good amount of exercise of various types. Of course I have a day job too, so it's nothing like professional sports. But I like playing real life sports at the higher amateur levels too, and it takes many years of practice for anyone to get to even that level.
About a year ago I got a new computer that could play all the games I had been wanting to play for years but couldn't run. About the same time, I dropped LoL ranked as well as the eternal comfort games that still ran fine on my old laptop (Skyrim and Borderlands 2). The difference this has made on my relationship with gaming is unfathomable. I have witnessed so much artistry in the last year from games that are meant (like OG Mario) to be played once and put down. So many meaningful moments that were locked off to me by playing the same three games over and over. I still play Clash with the lads once a month, and the occasional ARAM, but I'm never going back to grinding ranked.
I play ranked league since 2016. As soon as i hit lvl 30, i was addicted. Its all I could think about. I even quit going to choir practice and gave up my chances of being in the all-region choir. My addiction was terrible. I noticed that the more i played, the worse I felt. As a girl, if I say im in silver, i feel like I am seen as weak. I have always felt that. something changed inside 16 year old me. I felt like I NEEDED to be high-elo to make a point. every single day this game took time away from my goals, dreams and my family even. im now almost 23 and i can say with so much confidence that I do not play ranked anymore. The last ranked game I played was about 2 months ago. Since I stopped playing I can focus on me, new hobbies, and my family and friends. League is a trap. a literal drug. Dont play it. especially ranked.
You should be fine playing League, ranked or otherwise, so long as you don't have any pre-disposition to become addicted. I assure you most people can enjoy ranked games and only play casually.
I am an rpg player to my core. I have played runescape for years. If i spend a 10 hour grind in runescape, or witcher, or elden ring or literally anywhere else outside of ranked queue, my numbers will only go one way. Up. If i spent 10 hours in league of tilt, not only theres a higher chance my numbers eouldnt go up, but go DOWN. And i despise negative progress. The only one reason i still play 3 or 4 games a week, ia because my friend is still trapped in that shithole
I can only agree with you. I dont even wanna imagine how much time this game took away from me and how hard it was to finally stop playing it for litteral hours each day
Why I play? I had a period when I got the worst teammates and no matter how well I did I could never win, until one day I figured out what made things fun for me, and since then I have improved, and also only about 5-10% of games I play I genuinely do not enjoy. These days I have fun no matter what. I don't really care about the grind, and I hate the system with a passion, but I have fun no matter who my teammates are or how well or bad I do.
I've seen the pursuit of becoming "e-sports" basically ruin quite a few games I used to love playing. Once you stop balancing a game for everyone's enjoyment, and start balancing it purely for the "elite", and the "best of the best", then you start alienating everyone else, until eventually, your audience is gone, and you've got nothing left to support your game. I genuinely wish that companies would stop desperately chasing the e-sports dream, and return to just focusing on making people have fun with their games instead. Screw being "the very best", I just want to have fun.
@Scooch After 5 years blaming teammates and stuck I found out League just use a variation of true skill 2 from Microsoft. The video from ascend league channel shows Josh Menke explaining. tLDr: the matchmaking is rigged. They make you lose yes, but, the system reads how you play and if understand you should climb they will give free wins. I started playing for stats and after 5 years I left from gold to diamond. Nuts.
So true I got a fuking 9 win streak that I could go afk and my team would win alone. This game is so Bs. Now that I climbed I want to quit because this shit is so not transparent that should be a crime.
I mean I knew for years that the ranking was based on performance and they place you there with wins or losses depending on whether you need to climb or go down the ladder. Anyone with 65iq plus should see it by now, no ??!!!
I used to be really into ranked scenes, watching myself improve and learn how to optimize things better was just really rewarding and the sense of accomplishment gave that sweet, sweet dopamine. Unfortunately, I hit a wall where I realized that it was just a vicious cycle: I'd get to this rank eventually, and then I'd have to do it again next season, and again, and again. The last time I did it, it was frustrating: this time doing it, it was even MORE frustrating. It was reaching a point where I just wasn't having fun and was slowly watching myself become even more toxic. I didn't find joy in it anymore, I didn't laugh at silly mistakes and misplays, I let other people's aggression get to me. So I quit, and don't regret it a bit. Years later I still get sorta angry at games when I shouldn't, but I'm a far better person than I used to be. My mental has healed and I've rediscovered the ability to just take everything like a grain of salt. Laughing everything off is so much better than ramming my head against a wall and getting angry when it hurts.
i’ve just never gotten into ranked cuz it’s too stressful! it’s rare to find teammates that don’t get mad at you for little things and i don’t play to be good i play to have fun and when there’s something on the line people don’t like having fun it seems
I am one of the rare people that stopped playing ranked and left pretty satisfied. I quite enjoyed ranked games, even the games with the griefers and inters. I stopped after 11 years because I simply didn't have anything else to prove. I casually hit my ranked goal using my favourite champions and my own off-meta picks. I had my fill of the wacky crap I played for fun and of the drive to win with it. I didn't get mad or frustrated with ranked, I just got bored and moved on to another game. I've been recently enjoying playing both the fighting game genre and Final Fantasy XIV with my friends who quit with me and it's been a pretty good time.
The only game I really play ranked for nowadays is TFT, but I usually stop somewhere in diamond, since hitting masters removes the ability to queue with friends. That said, I've been playing league normals more recently, and it's felt kind of flat. The thing I enjoy about that sort of game is the learning, improvement & strategising, which I can barely feel happening in these games. I think ranked can be healthy if you view it as a ground for self improvement, rather than a place to get a certificate. Acheiving a higher rank doesn't mean you are more skilled, being more skilled achieves a higher rank.
I've played LoL since 2014, and I've never played more than maybe 20-30 ranked games in a season. For me, I play league with my friends to have fun. Video games at the end of the day are a way for me to relieve stress from my day of work. Ranked doesn't feel fun, it feels like a job. I'm not playing to enjoy myself anymore, and that kills the fun and point of what video games are for me. I've never liked highly competitive games, and I don't think I ever will. The casual aspect of some of those games, though, can be quite enjoyable when you play em for what they are.
There is a mentality to every game and opportunity. Sometimes it is just nice to feel accomplished doing things well. Ranked is a meta game but everything is a meta game really. There is a way to win and discovering that way or those reasons brings you back to explore the next season. I’m glad everyone’s valuing their time more though and I feel like there’s a collective coming together to critique the gaming sphere because games are becoming the norm post 2020. It’s exciting and fun and I can’t wait for what’s next.
as someone who plays ranked games allot the reason i play them is due to the drive i have to improve and perfect my craft. with that said i dont approach ranking up by a normal standpoint with LP or RR or whatever point system values i approach with improvement in mind how much can i improve after this game i just played regardless of result. a big part of why i play this way is because i love the team based side of the games aswell and the strategy and coordination involved i love meeting new people with unique takes on how the game should be played. another thing i enjoy and is just talking to people (it turns out that if you create a welcoming and enjoyable team enviroment through voice chat people will be pretty chill) results may vary please consult your doctor before assuming everyone is nice if you are. i mainly play valorant right now and ive been having a great time.
Back then, i cared about ranked alot (even almost going into the local or even national tournament if i wanted to) Nowadays, i just see rank system as like a rat race. You get the highest rank, then in the next 3-4 months it got reset and now you're trying to climb back the rank you got previously. I still play ranked games but at this point i do not give a rat's ass about the rank system. I do not give a shit if i'm low rank/elo or not, i just want to have fun and test myself and i don't invest as much time playing ranked games as much as i do back then. My competitive fire is dimly lit now because of all the burnout and how i became toxic to my other friends and how i basically drove them away from the ranked games i love to play back then. So that was an important point i saw.
I for one detest exclusivity in games, so when I see seasonal skins or awards that will be available only then and there, and never again once they're gone my thoughts aren't "oh no better go get that". My thoughts are "So what, I would have to grind that shit every season till the end of time to have everything? Screw that!" I'm a completions, if I can't get every single character, item, cosmetic, quest, whatever else because it was a seasonal event and it's gone - I will never give your game even a chance.
Amazing video Skooch! I never really got into ranked games when ever I played, I would do placements each season to see what I would get and then never touch rank for the rest of the season. Mostly because I like playing games in the dumbest way that I could and having fun with it.
I want to echo the sense of self improvement most people feel but specifically for me, I keep playing ranked league because I feel capable. It makes me feel like I am a competitor then in most other games. I can feel the muscle memory of champions I have mastered and play confident I know what I am doing. its hard to do new things and when you haven't felt truly accomplished you will try to climb higher. Maybe I am "bad" at other games but I will keep playing a game I think that I am good at until something makes me feel I have broken through better or have more to gain in. Its too late to play spreadsheets in space, or get the hands to play street or tekken. It would take a whole new system with another ladder and another skill tree to master that has even more reward.
I relate to this, this feeling makes it hard to put down the game once I feel somewhat competent in it. It's so much easier to continue being good or at least above average, than to start as a beginner in something new.
This is true, especially to some of the characters you don't expect that "oh shit, I have potential with them"; which is what happened to me with KoF with Ash, Chizuru and Angel, with the three of them considered to be the hardest KoF characters to control
I recently quit. I never played much ranked, but now that it takes 70%+ WR to actually rank up at a somewhat acceptable speed, reset 3 times per year it just doesn't make sense to play. I don't want to grind soloQ with people that dont want to climb anyways, if I want to waste my time I can do it in much less frustrating ways.
It should be noted that "meta" actually has two etymologies, one of them being an acronym for "most effective tactic available," but the other is the more traditional word root, which basically translates to "beyond." You could say that metagaming is gaming-gaming, much like metacogniscience is thinking about thinking, a metaverse is a universe of universes, and so on. It's taking a game and playing with it on an extra level, mechanically, in addition to playing it on the normal level. The point that I'd like to make is that metagaming can't just be wished away and shouldn't be hated as a universal evil. It doesn't just exist because 'some people put winning over everything else' and other derisive takes. Not everyone that investigates a game's meta is a "meta slave." Sometimes, we learn a metagame because we actually like a game enough to want to play it well. This is all to point out the fact that Skooch's criticisms of the ranked scene are exactly correct. In ranked mode, there is no differentiation between learning to play the game correctly for enjoyment and learning to play optimally for victory; they're the same thing for ranked games. Attempts to defy the metagame to feel like a special snowflake are shot down by the cold, hard reality that the meta exists on purpose, or the cold, hard reality that all that you did was find a new detail that revised the meta, which still exists on purpose. There is no room for variety, and there's no room for fun without victory, so they're just inferior experiences to so many other games.
I think the reason people is obsessed with the win is simple: ALMOST NO ONE plays to lose, no one wants to be a loser for good reason, because losers in the game of life stop existing. That being said the big reason for toxicity is that we don't realize properly the consecuences of losing aren't a big deal, and doesn't help that in school they teach us (Wrongly) that "everyone is a winner" thinking effort is the only way to win. If you can't handle losing after investing into something you SHOULDN'T play ranked. PS: Also, LoL is just a bad game that used to be better back in the day, and that's coming from someone who started in S5 AKA was not able to see those good days of no oneshots and actual strategy over pressing all buttons.
@@N12015 I certainly see how mortality plays a role in driving us toward the desire of success. It is true that it is a simple matter of chemistry, our brains releasing different chemicals that cause different emotional responses to positive and negative stimuli, but I believe that God designed our brain chemistry to work this way to help us put our mortal lives to good use. Though, don't miss the point that chasing a meta is not always simply about winning. It is in a ranked game, but in many other instances, it's about winning *correctly*, winning *in less time so that more gaming can happen*, winning *with less resource expenditure so that more gaming can happen*, and winning *with less stress and struggle than is appropriate to the task*. There are many reasons for metagames to exist, and they're not all just "because win." That's what makes ranked games so uniquely bad: There's no reason to play except "because win."
Coming from a competitive background (first game I ever played was Tekken 3 with my dad, which led me into the FGC scene, and we still play/watch Tekken sets together to this day when we are both free), I genuinely love competition. Competing in general is just fun as a whole for me personally, which is why I usually end up Ranking in games that have that option if I enjoy them enough.
I quit league of legends years ago because i realized i was only getting worse at it. After wasting years and years on it i was only regressing in ladder and my friend pointed out how i play like i was asleep. All of it was because i was so tired of the years of emotional abuse on the ladder that i just wanted the win and stopped learning anything new. I saw my mistakes but there was nothing i could do about them. I was just dead tired from minute 1 in the match. Hearing the announcer for the 3000th time and seeing the minions walk up the exact same way just didn't inspire me at all. There was no joy there, only "You are shit, and you should die". There was no pride in being in silver or gold or platinum. Only thing you hear everyday is how you are just human garbage if you don't reach the diamond or masters or whatever.
I personally like playing ranked games because I enjoy the idea of getting better at a character I feel like I’m very good at and seeing just how good I actually am, pushing myself to get better every game by putting me in an environment where people are also playing to win rather than to mess around. Take league as an example because im sure everyone here played it. I consider myself a pretty good Kled player, I can queue unranked and get matched against a top first timing tryndamere and hard win that lane but not only will I not really feel like I’ve learnt something that game or gotten better, I would have also ruined someone else’s fun by picking a character I have a vast collection of knowledge on vs their first time trying someone because they look funny. Meanwhile in ranked, people are expected to pick what they’re good at, the feeling of beating an aatrox main with 800k mastery will not only feel good because it justifies the feeling of “hey, I’m pretty good at this character!”, but I’m also learning how to play against that character because my opponent knows how to utilize them. And for the people that do metaslave, it also feels good knowing you’re skillful enough to outplay a character that is deemed “better” by the tier lists because you just know your character that well. I do genuinely think people would have more fun in ranked if they focused more on their own mistakes rather than always looking at their teammates in frustration but I understand that’s easier said than done, especially in moments of tilt.
Same here, these people crying about their teammates or losers queue or whatever are the biggest losers ever, if you're good you're gonna climb, you can't expect games to go perfectly every time, improving is the fun part of league not winning or losing, just knowing you played your best is good enough to make me queue for another one
I've been in both sides. I used to be toxic and get angry over games because of the ranked pressure. Now I play to win but I accept my loss. I mostly play ranked for the challenge. People know their champs better and they play meta. While in normal they play troll picks and go for risky (but fun) plays.
11:00 hit me the hardest. I used to play Dota 2, and a fair bit at that. Mainly as a way to spend time with my friends more than climbing ranked (Even though we did that, as well). But my love and interest in the game skyrocketed when Techies was first introduced. Yeah, yeah, I was a Techies man. Throw tomatoes at me, i deserve it. But I loved that hero. They played so differently to any other hero in the game. Everyone else was playing Dota 2, while I was preparing to recreate Apocalypse Now scenes with anyone who walked into the jungle. But, then he got nerfed. Which was understandable. Again and again, changed and beaten into something I just don't recognize anymore. A character that changed the game and brought me hours of fun, kicked into a box and forgotten. And I can never go back to how he was. I think that was what killed my interest in MOBAs from then on, honestly. I already saw what playing ranked consistently was doing to my friends in terms of mood and frustration. So letting me have a taste of fun and then dismantling it for the sake of balance just put the final nail in the coffin.
When I played ranked lol, I got as up to silver 3, and then I stopped. It was a struggle to get out of bronze with so many people actively throwing. But when I got out I realized something. It didn’t feel good to win or rank up. I though once I got out of bronze it would be less of that, i was wrong. It was an active struggle to salvage games from people who just quit on you or throw the biggest tantrums you ever seen. And when you win it would be so much frustration that i actively dread going to the next game. So I stopped.
Thanks for caring about video games making people happy, Skooch. Even if we use different tactics to accomplish it, the enjoyment really *is* all that matters. (Edit: clown move of commenting before finishing vid, here are some quick answers) There are some games I still play ranked in. There are so few things more satisfying to me than watching myself get better. Seeing how much more I've become by tracking the progress the game claims I've made, but also in the gameplay of how I'm performing. I prefer using ranked when seeking that experience because it means my opponents are also more likely to have an actively competitive mindset. I feel less awesome about my improvements when I'm displaying them on somebody who just wants to have fun after a bad day. The games I've quit ranked mostly have to do with time. I didn't have the time to play ranked League anymore, it just wasn't feasible, and wasn't worth the attempts for reasons listed in this vid. Apex Legends ranked I put a lot of time into and was SO proud, not only of my rank increasing but of my clear improvements as a player. But now the ranked system in that game fucking sucks, it takes forever to get anywhere, and it rewards a playstyle I don't enjoy.
For me, I used to play a lot of competitive games of various types mostly because my friends played them. Now don't get me wrong, I consider myself to be somewhat of a competitive person so it was still fun for me to self improve and the whole shebang with online comp environments. And because of this, I found extra incentive at getting good at games because there were a ton of people around me who also played these games and I could compare myself with them. There were times where I would get frustrated but I always came back because I knew people who kept playing. But overtime as my number of friends slowly started to diminish around me, I realized that I didn't really want to put up with a lot of those things anymore so I ended up virtually quitting a lot of the things I've played. Nowadays I only play SF6 and the CS2 beta as those are the only places I receive genuine enjoyment from comp games.
Everything you said are facts. I was so unhappy playing ranked games in league/wild rift. After I win continuously, I am just paired with monkeys who doesn't know what they are doing non-stop, so I'm forced to carry and be the only decent teammate. This happens over and over and over again and it's so frustrating, and that is why I took a break from ranked games for a while. Somehow this game let out the worst in me and I became toxic as well, even though I hate toxicity in games. The only reason why I wanna go to challenger or the highest rank anyways is to feel some sort of achievement in my miserable life. Even though that achievement isn't really a big deal. If you're reading this, let this be a warning and don't play or take ranked games too seriously in league of legends, because it's a huge waste of time, and it's ultimately unfun as you progress.
What's worse is EOMM existed since S3, I was a freshmen college in S3 so I gained new friends taught them the do's and don'ts in League, in one month after they became level 30, they were gold(Gold III i believe), it took me a year to even reach Gold. I had played since Alpha, the system probably thought I played for so long I could carry anyone team it throws at me, if it was a real compliment IRL I would be flattered but not by a robot in a game.
Everything so true, you even mention some psychological tricks I haven't heard of -- EOMM. I just recently heard of the psychological tactic that is they want you to spend more hours so you will one day realize you spent so much hours on the game that you are compelled to buy stuff.
I got to diamond and was climbing steadily. My mental wasn't that bad but I got tendonitis on my thumb (spacebar destroyed my finger). But to be honest, even though at first I wanted to come back to ranked league I realized I was happier. I got a job and actual responsibilities therefore playing league like that wasn't feasible. I didn't want to give up my IRL and I just quit. Now I play once every 3 months when my friends gather up for some games
okay i'm glad cuz i'm here after quitting rankeds and agreeing with you makes this decision even better, i quitted after looking how much time i was wasting by playing league, valorant and ranked stuff, and im now just having fun. amazing editing, fantastic storytelling, thanks for this video bro.
imagine if riot introduced 2 separate cues for normal draft pick--one that's labeled as practice and one that's labeled as norms. i have been both of those people; someone who just wants to mess around and have fun, and the person who wants to practice certain champs, builds, etc before taking them into ranked.
This is exactly why I firmly believe League of Legends ( and other competitive video games ) are just not for everyone. I'm surprised that so many people even play these games. The ones who truly enjoy the game are your Coach Curtis of the world and those are but a tiny fraction of the player base.
First time I've seen someone bring up the topic on how Balance Updates don't actually envision to "balance" out a game, but to instead shift the meta in a way that completelly ruins any form of character loyalty you can have.
9:50 I'm still grieving the loss of Battlerite. It's not truly "dead" since you can still go play the game right now, but the playerbase has dropped significantly, and the queue takes so long that I unfortunately find myself doing something else instead. It saddens me to know that it will never see another update or new character ever again
Back in 2017 I was a sad gamer, caught in monetization scams, stupid metas, hours of stupid grind, very unhappy. Then at the end of the holidays and I played a couple of awesome single player games, Ori and the Blind Forest, Hollow Knight, Hyper Light Drifter and a couple of other smaller less known titles. At the start of 2018 I bought a Switch, best purchase ever, got to play BotW and Mario Odyssey, it reminded me of why I loved gaming in the first place and what had led me to wherever I was in the previous years. I promised myself never to play a free to play game again and been much mentally healthier ever since.
The fun comes from the satisfaction of employing a tech for the first time, of winning knowing you had your merit and you were better than another human being. But there's indeed a requirement to be followed: only play 1v1 games (such as fighters).
I stopped playing ranked because I feel the matchmaking is biased. Over time, if you play enough, you'll reach your true elo. But I no longer find the grind fun and don't want to invest double the time to get where I believe I belong. With the season now divided and potentially splitting even more next year, ranked doesn't seem worth it. Nowadays, I mostly play blind pick, focusing on jungle/support roles. It feels more balanced, perhaps because champ select can't fully anticipate your lane choice, leading to skill-based matches. I also enjoy joining random custom games, connecting with friends on Discord to play. Voice chat enhances our games, and everyone aims to perform well, with less experienced players often heeding advice from their skilled teammates.
The only ranked games I enjoy these days are fighting games. One of if not the most fair genres out there, and the comp scene has existed for these games for much longer than League itself. One big factor to it is how small individual communities still are (outside of Mortal Kombat lol), it still feels nice and I don't feel like I just queue in and /mute all. I have some major anger issues whenever I play LoL and other games with similar toxicity, almost the complete opposite can be said when I play fighting games overall. I'll get salty I might even rage quit if I have a particularly bad day (though I beat myself up about it and even once found the guy I RQed on and rematched them to be fair). I am still quite new to the genre, I did play a bit of tekken and a tiny bit of sf back when I was like 11 but yeah. Maybe it's still just a honeymoon phase but at the same time, those other games I mentioned I got frustrated with them quite fast (Dead by Daylight is one, I put it on par with LoL on the toxicity scale). I saw Skooch play the new rouglike Blazblue game and honestly I seriously recommend trying fighting games to anyone that still has competitive spirit but is tired with the depressive and frustrating nature of LoL Ranked Queue and other similar games.
Back in the day I remember looking up enemy teams players to see their Elo that I was vs in normal's. Seeing as to how I would be able to play vs highly climbed competitive players, I too thought that I could reach their Ranks and destroy others in the same fashion. I then started my Ranked Journey... and it wasn't worth the time. The "UP" and "DOWN" of it all wasn't the problem... but the fact that players were. You get someone coming off a god game, and then they super feed thinking they were just as fed as they were in the game before. Or the kids that are Drunk/High and missclicked ults and flashes for no reason. People needing to find someone to blame for their bad performances, the slurs, flame, and just hate slung at anyone for any reason. It really brought down the experience for me as a player over the years. As of last year I told myself I wont dabble as much as I had in the years before in Ranked. And this last (what like half season thingy) year I have found myself with much fewer Ranked games, but plenty of Normal's. And here I am again as I was before all those years ago. Playing vs high ranked players just for fun... and not letting anything get to me because its just a game. As I fell in love with it before, and still find some enjoyment over it all over again. But this time, just for fun... leave ranked for the T1 wannabes LOL
I despise ranked play because whenever I go for a gaming session is about disconecting from the real world into a fantasy one and relax, while it can be either a singleplayer experience or playing Gmod with friends it always have the thing that is about having a good time and escaping society for a while.
i've been playing league for over 10 years now, on and off. i never played normals, only ranked, but i didnt take it THAT seriously - never cared to learn the meta, never tried to understand macro, i still dont even know how to attack move.... i really just logged on and did my casual best, usually finishing seasons in low diamond. it never felt like the miserable experience many people made it out to be. then, during S2021, i decided to set myself a goal: i wanted to finish in master tier, so that i would have at least something to show for it all... it was a horrible experience. i played nearly 400 games, more than any other season, and each game made me angrier than the last. i started running it down when i got behind early, something which i had never done before. i started flaming my teammates for not always helping me. eventually i stopped seeing a loss as a loss, but rather as one hour of my life wasted: 30 minutes for the game i lost, and another 30 for the win i need to get me back to where i was. i ended up finishing the season as diamond 1. wasnt worth it AT ALL... these days, i only play aram with my friends
I use to like ranked alot in LOL despite not climbing how i wanted to. However after finding out about the very concept of engagement based matchmaking it put the fear of god in me for seaom reason. It could just be me looking for an excuse to blame my lack of climbing on but the very idea made me never want to play particularly league of legends competitive game mode ever again.
I was 13 in 2011. Thats when I started playing league, within 6 months or so I picked up ranked. In 2023 I stopped, I could no longer bear the way the games were going. Patch after patch of overtuning certain champions and gutting other, broken items, tanks meta, adc meta, ardent censur meta (I really hated that season with a fucking passion). i just could not do it anymore. It was soul crushing
I played Brawlhalla from seasons 0-6 or 7, I can't remember which. I used to grind the game A LOT, hopped into practice tool to practice strings and combos, muscle memory inputs, etc. I used to watch my replays and go over what I could've done better. I climbed up to mid platinum as my peak, and then by that point, I quit the game. Now days, I can't even play it casually. The amount of tilting and joy killed from trying to climb and improve exhausted me and robbed me of all my fun. I've since started playing LoL, and I don't even touch ranked. I'm good, the game can be tilting enough, the last thing I need is some kind of "standard" to ruin what fun I have.
i stopped caring about ranked matches (i already wasn't caring for the rank, cause of the coin flip matchmaking) after watch this video last month, i started do analyze how i see the games and how i approach situations in different games.. 2 weeks before before i met a guy, super fun, i made a good new friend, just because i stopped to try hard and being the "solo player" trying to get better at the game all the time and responded his question for a few minutes... and for that i must thank YOU for the precious advice.
I quitted league ranked years ago because it was masking a lot of mental health issues and personal problems. I refuse to call it and "addiction" because it truly wasn't, but it was an escape from a reality that i wasn't facing. And i only realized what it was doing to me because one day i got really frustrated at the games and decided to time out for a few days. Everything that was repressed just hited me like truck.
I've been playing competitive games of different genres (fighting games, MOBAS, TCGs) for almost 10 years now, and the only thing that motivated me to continue was my own personal drive to get better and love of the game. Rank and competing does not have to be toxic and miserable, most people just don't have the mentality for it. What do I mean? Mostly the way people think about loses and "the meta". Have you noticed that when the majority of players when they lose IMMEDIATELY start looking for an excuse? "This character is broken", "My teammates sucked", "the sun was in my eyes", "They're probably smurfing", "This game is dumb and unbalanced", "I'm in loser queue", etc. It's almost never "I played that poorly", "My build should've been better", "I have to learn how to counter that strategy", or god forbid "The opponent was better than me". People will throw up excuse after excuse to protect their ego from a lose, to the point where they'd rather blame the balance of the game they're playing than reflect. As far as "the meta" goes, I feel people put too much stock into things like tier list and what's considered "meta". Things like tier list are usually only really relevant to players at the highest level of competition. At lower levels, things like decision making, games sense, and fundamentals are generally the deciding outcomes in game rather than character choice. For example, take Melee Fox, a character generally regarded as the best if you look at tier list. Fox in the hands of beginner or even intermediate player isn't that good, because the attributes that make Fox the best in the game (proper Shine usage, air speed, kill combos etc.) are things only advanced player can really exploit. Without them, Fox is just a short range, light weight, easy to juggle character that falls really fast. Players take tier list and "meta" as gospel, when in reality they can be ignored for the majority of players.
Still playing League after 9 years of being in the cycle. The thing is, I never grinded ranked games. Said I would, play the placements, and go back to playing normals. Just recently I had this itch to grind out for the free skin, got to gold about a week ago and I'm happy playing ranked. Nos gonna lie, tilt is my only company some games, but venting a bit is something I need so give and take I guess. And playing to have fun while winning is what keeps me playing. I don't know how to play a good Evelyn jg, doesn't matter, I know how to jungle, les see what happens. Next game I'm playing Jarvan, a friend of mine told me he's OP in wild rift (LoL mobile), let's see how he's doing in League. And so on. When I'm to tilted to even think about winning, I stop playing, I go see some videos, read something, play other games. So far so good. Loving to love gaming.
Thing is, the ranked system alone can't be pointed entirely as the cause of toxicity. Its a catalyst for sure, but as the years pass by you just see more unhinged people in any form of gaming. Mostly because even within a non-ranked scenario, people cannot cope with the concept of losing. A quick peek in an average game of normal draft, or any shooter that uses SBMM: "How dare the game match me against good people and I lose because of that, I want to win every game ever" is basically the mentality. And to answer the question: I still played rank because I genuinely enjoy a more at-level competition experience. Sure smurfs exist, but a lot of normal queues are much more likely to yank either high tier players or absolute bottom tier ones and leads to a very imbalanced experience: Such as having a pair of rando bot laners that are silver going against a premade duo of diamonds.
Last season, I struggled to make it to silver. I've started by getting silver in my first 10-15 games every other season. It was then that I decided never to play ranked again until it stops being absolutely not worth it
Back in the days I played too much ranked, it wasnt fun, winning meant nothing and losing was just tilting. I took a break,only played a lot of other great story games and sometimes normals with friends. What I learned from this was that it is just a game. Nowadays I play ranked again, but with no tilt (most of the time lol). I just play it for fun. Cause if you take it too seriously it loses every sense of playing a video game…the fun
I mean. Only true Bleepblop fans played him before the buff, but good to see he is getting up there with characters like Bufflop and Dingledorf. Those guys are too OP
I'm new and I main Bleepblop. So broken.
Yeah, but Bleepblop's going to get nerfed next patch, and Schmuggy's getting a massive shield buff, so it's going to be less a skill matchup and more a coin toss.
Good thing I main Mekloaf like a true chad.
@@merikksoleil5648I main Pooschmear because I’m a psychopath
Yea but Sparks Lazerbeam ultimate is now global.
Good thing they are nerfing the e of spacedrago that ability let him go across the map for free
i can proudly say i don't play ranked because even though i hate myself i know i deserve better
I've never felt a comment more than this one.
Im not so proudly to say my ego is so massive i have this necessity to always strive for the best ranks in whatever game i play
I wish the practice tool from lol was a standalone offline game, where I can beat the shit out of bots.
Proud of u fam
Blind pick is much funner because there is no counter and you can play any champ you want with getting flamed here at sea
What's interesting is that after countless of hours playing competitive games, you barely remember any of it. Meanwhile, all the casual co-op/single-player games you play stays with you for a long time. Good video!
It's because those kind of games has their own plot unlike competitive ones. Think about competitive games like a chess. You'll never remember about chess as a whole game, but you can remember a thousand of variations of it and it would be still interesting and fun to think about or discuss. I really like when something has massive and united world, and a lot of different "if" in it. It's so satisfiying to dive into such kind of work either it a game, a story, or something else.
Like I can tell you my first experience and all of the lore from Warframe but I can't even remember the past 5 games I had of League.
So you're just spamming games on autopilot, brain completely off. How is that the game's fault? I've never not related to a comment more in my entire life.
@@RocoPwnage Why bother comment if you can't relate? Also, who said autopilot? Who said the game is at fault? You sound presumptuous.
@@coreapostrophe How is relating a requirement to commenting?
I stopped playing ranked just after akali's rework. It's an important memory for me because I feel that I need to remember it in order to protect myself, and never get to this point again. I was playing Aurelion sol mid against a freshly reworked akali. I got killed, again, and again, and again, it made me so mad that I hit my keyboard. It may not seem like much to some people, but it was a lot for me. I am not a violent person, and I take good care of my stuff because I don't have the money to replace it. So when i hit my poor little laptop, it made me so sad, and scared of my reaction. I didn't recognise myself, and i thought that this game made me violent and dangerous, for real ! So I quit. I didn't play the game for well over a year. Now I just play arams here and there and my life is better. Not just my gaming life, but my life as a whole ! I used to think about my rank way to much, and I only realised it when I stopped playing.
I will admit even though I mostly play ranked, arams feel more fun to play. It doesn't matter if you lose so it means you get to play around with random builds, maybe make risky plays you wouldn't do otherwise.
I mean yeah don't play ranked if you cant comprehend the game. I literally have no idea why is ranked the most popular game mode among normies that don't even bother learning the skillset of the champion.
Whatever this cringy dude that I'm seeing for the first time thanks to youtube recommended says may be correct, that's on you for going outside of your comfort zone. We don't need you there, I'm already sick of 2/11 briar abusing toplaners hardstuck 50% wr barely making it to masters, if aram is what it takes for yall to stop go for it
@@noobgam6331dude, people play ranked even if it's not their comfort zone because _the game heavily incentivizes it_
I had a similar epiphany about 9 years ago. I was freshly married to my wife and I could tell she was actually scared when I suddenly started swearing and punching the table. I could see it in her eyes. I gave myself a pause from League, self reflected, and uninstalled a few days later. Best decision.It's not worth it.
I think a part about ranked games that really gets underrated is how badly the problems around the meta and players playing like their life depends on it bleeds into the non competitive modes of the game. I like playing the kinds of games that ranked games tend to be for the sake of what you can do in them, but I never like to take them super seriously because I didn't have as much fun when the pressure to win was on. For an example with League, I found it very common for people in normals to expect people to be playing at their very best, and to never deviate from the meta picks if you are good at them, despite the mode supposedly being more casual. I've been tempted to try games like Valorant, but one of the many reasons I never bothered was that I don't think I would simply have the space to just, be bad and learn how to get better in real games, even if the games were unranked
/mute all and you are fine
If you have friends to play valorant with, it is worth a try. Tons of fun to be had with people with a similiar mindset
This is also a massive reason people don't get into League of Legends - even in casual games it's impossible to learn without being criticized for any MINOR mistake.
@@aisushitai2680Yeah that's because in ranked it's like "we are all trying to play exceptionally well to make a made up number go up so we can get praise for our big made up number and you are here ruining our chances".
It's like treating your teammates as enemies lol it's even more apparent when players use terms like 1v9 or something not realizing that player wants to win as much as you do
@@aisushitai2680i mean that argument is bad now, because the game gives u(usually 3) runes to choose from so u dont accidentally troll, and items that even shows u why u should buy them
The one thing I hate about ranked. is when a game you enjoy turns into a ranked focus game. the fun dies extremely fast and you struggle with the mental debate of dealing with it or finding another game that could fill your fun void.
True
Tbh i dont get why everything has to be ranked now. I get it from the bussiness standpoint but for example overwatch is a very bad competetive game. I get like cs, rocket league, valorant. But most games arent built for competing.
@@strzelamcementemzlokcia1030 Money and "player engagement". Sweaty folks who enjoy ranked games also spend a lot of money.
@@strzelamcementemzlokcia1030league is build for comp play WITH A TEAM OF 5 PEOPLE YOU KNOW NOT STRANGERS
that's why soloq will never be good
@@somo4227 i think league initially was built for Comp. But with the balance team being hardstuck golds. Im not so sure anymore. I have around 2k hours just on duoq. And i decided to quit like 2 seasons ago
I never really got into ranked because of how terrified I would feel playing the game. To me, it felt like I had to do my very best because its ranked, so my anxiety would spike and that's not even mentioning how volatile teammates are when it comes to how the game is going (flaming, pinging, griefing, etc). I'd love to get into it but I can barely play the game on my own (LoL) let alone get into ranked. I play with friends and I have to get going to keep on playing by myself.
Mood asf, I'm barely playing anymore since my friends don't play, I enjoy the game but the social environment sucks
I can relate 100%, put me in an Aram or URF or nexus blits game and I play without any problems but if I start a normal SR alone my anxiety goes up like a rocket
I feel the exact same way as a jg main. I did placements once for season 11 and felt so pressured to perform well because I was the jungler that I didn't even finish them. I've played only 5 or 6 ranked games, and it's gameplay-wise the exact same as draft, but the fact that now winning matters for a funny number made it all the more anxiety inducing so I've never played it since.
I’m in the exact same spot! Good to know there’s others lol To be fair I keep watching my boyfriend play ranked in high elo (Masters and Grandmasters) and the shit he goes through is insane. I want to play ranked but I get so much anxiety since I’m newer to the game and every game feels more like a performance that I have to do good at or else I’ll be shamed by the team, plus I get bored playing summoner’s rift alone. I would only play duo but that’s not really a true ranked experience.
I never played ranked because I hate manchildren and that is exactly what you find if you queue in ranked.
Play normals with friends and have fun.
One good thing about competitive gaming is that it increase my toxicity tolerance in real life. When I encounter a toxic person in real life, my brain starts to analyze instead of reacting. That's something good imo. The bad thing about competitive gaming is addiction, health consequences, false sense of achievement.
Strangely enough, I didnt leave competitive games but rather changed the type. After a certain point, I moved to fighting games. And well, it's still same issues of meta and stuff, but it is also a huge new genre for me to explore. I found a lot of new friends in those games and communities in progress and I find a philosophy which helped me get back to idea of "losing can be fun". But.. to be completly honest, After a while, even those games which presented with way more fair fights, still made me burn out so i moved to coop and solo games slowly exploring things I didnt catch on. There are a lot of games out there, make some memories there, guys. After all, what is left of us is only memory.
I've found myself exploring my Steam library lately. A lot of games I have never touched because I was too focused on ELO or MMR or whatever fancy word a game used for the funny number they made go up sometimes. Turns out I've missed out on really great storywriting, engaging characters, and entire worlds that are just so fun but I was too busy wasting years on getting to be a top % on a bunch of lines of code.
Losing is fun until you get to fight the top characters with decent to good players. They wont let you even touch the ground.
Ranked fighting games really are just better. Each match takes a couple of minutes (or straight up a minute, if you're playing something like Strive), it's only you and the person you're against relying on skills and knowledge, and it's *way* more likely that the person you just fought against will be down to adding you and playing more so you can both improve.
It can definitely get tiresome, especially if you make the *absolute worst mistake of your life* and start caring about tierliests rather than just choosing your favorite character, but I never burned out of them for more than a few weeks.
@@arntry8072
Happens, at least it doesn't last too long
100% agree for fighting games, I've been playing guilty gear and going soon into street fighter 6 and losing here feels so much better than losing in league, mostly because you don't have 4 gorillas screeching about your mistakes in your ear 24/7 and games being short when you play league and lose a long game it often feels very bad
I never really got into ranked, but have been playing league consistently for about 5 years now. I keep coming back because I love the sense of constant improvement. I always feel like there is something I can improve at or learn. But Ive barely touched ranked and havent played a single ranked game for the past couple seasons because having that skill tied to a number that 9 other people every game have an impact on, just isnt satisfying to me. Im content knowing that if I look at a replay from myself a year ago, I will be a much better player now than I was back then. It honestly annoys me when people only care about what rank you are, instead of your actual gameplay. (side note: in most games the displayed rank is almost meaningless because the system actually uses a hidden mmr value to calculate your skill. so your displayed rank, especially in league, to me only shows how much of a masochist you are to play that many games to achieve a good rank)
pro players or academy league players can get AT LEAST master elo in 40 games lil bro, you don't need many games to get to a high rank. I am a total random and got dia in 40
@@daniboglut5120not from 0. If you're new and started playing ranked a few years ago when you were level 50 and then quit for a while, you have to grind that shit. 40 is almost impossible even if you won 100 percent of games
@@blutwirbel3180 i mean that's the point of the ranked ladder, this guy is talking about seeing himself improve while not touching ranked. He s not at 0, and my comment was about the fact that you can get high elo in very little games if you're not at 0
@@blutwirbel3180 also league is a strategy game at its core, much like chess. you have to study the details if you're onto getting better at the game. It's not like WoW or warframe where grinding is the only thing that will get you to be better. That "grinding" you're talking about is for the players who genuinely have no active interest into learning the game and lie to themselves that spamming ranked games is the only way to improve. I got from hardstuck silver 4 seasons in a row spamming ranked games and tryharding to mid plat in season 9 just by learning fundamentals and BASIC game knowledge
@@daniboglut5120If he starts a new account. That's the catch. MMR is always there in the background fudging the whole thing up. I know about where I am in skill level from normals. Hardstuck gold or low plat, which I'm fine with. That's about what I get matched with by MMR in normals. Ranked, bronze. Not even worth trying to get out. One loss is worth about one and a half wins in LP. Sometimes one loss is a full two games in LP I have to win to make up the difference. Climbing out of that is too aggravating to try. It's somewhere around a 70-80% winrate needed to get out of bronze on really old accounts. But I don't want a new account. All my stuff is on my old account. What I want is a reset button. Just clear all game history for matchmaking, all game history, so I can start MMR from 0.
"go ahead and open a zoo bc the monkeys are coming" made me wheeze so hard 😭
.. this actually happened to me this week. I Decided to start playing ranked this year on my old 2010 account that has all the skins and had and insane 12 win streak, lost 2 and then went on another 7 game streak got to Silver 2.. and then it happened. Every game unwinnable odd stuff happening like top running it down 1-12-3 or getting a toxic ADC that hasn't won in 9 games. After the lose streak I ended up in some limbo where either my team completely stomps the enemy or we get stomped. The queue timers are also long compared to when I started. I also started to only gain +23 LP and lose -31 LP. The climb became a huge grind. I'm seriously considering stopping.. seems pointless, especially as support. It kinds sucks, cus years ago I was in silver as well, but back then I had no idea about wave management, roaming and so on. Not sure if I improved oat all or what I could do.. I don't have the time to grind many games a day to try and hit gold.
the system does it in purpose so you play non stop.@@Brakka86
*lose a ranked game, gets angry
*open Skooch video
*Listen Chrono Trigger music
*Soul recovered, internal peace
Scootch, this is why I love you. You are so introspective and so nice and I love the fact that you are spending time to shine a light on these important topic.
That dad joke hit harder than I expected it would sheeeesh
Harder then his belt for sure
I legit laughed 🤣
Ironic enough, I started playing league because of you and also stopped playing league around the time you started mentioning your thoughts on quitting league on your streams. I only really enjoyed playing league because it was a fun game, cool mechanics and it felt so great when you landed your abilities!
Now the problem started when all of my draft games felt like ranked games all of a sudden. I needed to think about warding, objectives and all of the stuff that I was thinking of already but never took too seriously. The thing is that eventually these things did make me beat myself down for not being good enough. It actually made me feel depressed and I got some anger issues from it, but I kept on going because it was so addicting.
Thankfully I just decided competitive gaming isn't for me. I prefer enjoying a random game I found on steam than fighting to be the best in a videogame without having any fun throughout that entire journey.
Im a fan of ranked queues because i find fun in competition. As a kid i wasnt much of a gamer and got that fix through organized sports. As a 30 year old with more responsibility, this is a quick and easy wasy for me and my buddies to scratch that competitive ich that we had when we were young. Even if all the ranked games we play arent truely competitive it doesnt really matter, it still gives me that same feel of competition with my friends even tho we are grown up and not playing basketball or baseball for our town leagues.
A certified Skoochalicious classic. Even if this as close to League as Skooch will fly, I can die happy.
I've been thinking lately of quitting ranked for some time now, I've had experienced the mentioned rank team "rng" by being grouped with literal monkeys that go 0/5 in the first 6 minutes of the game after i had a win streak. Recently I've gotten into making steam workshop mods for games such as Barotrauma or Europa Universalis IV which i find very fun to do although time consuming. This video i believe is my turning point, I'll be doing more of what I enjoy and not play competitively in a multiplayer game for a long time, maybe forever if nothing changes to the way ranked manipulates a person like mentioned in this video, cheers.
Don't bother playing league anymore. Gigachad Europa Universalis 4 enjoyers such as ourselves now get mad that we get a 0/0/0 heir or bad rolls in combat
Yoo barotrauma tho, so underrated.
The reason I still play is because I want to see myself get better at playing the game with the champions and role I like playing the most, it's simple and motivating. Since this specific goal doesnt involve my team skill as much as a goal of gaining lp/rank/shiny border it's abit more rewarding (unless I see myself playing worse of course). It also allows me to appreciate good teammates more since they allow me to play better in the team. For context I love playing adc and it's one of the two roles with support that are the most team reliant.
trueee, I feel like ranked is the only game mode where you can really test your skills and see how good you are. When I stomp in a normal draft pick I'm not impressed because usually Im matched up with lower skilled players, hell a lot of the times these guys dont know the fundamentals, spacing, lane management, jg tracking, etc. but if I get into a ranked match my opponent usually knows how to punish my misplays and it makes the game more challenging.
the funny thing is, when you play your champion better you will automatically see your rank improve over the long term.
I've had friendships ruined over competitive games. When I get into a game it's because it enjoy it and want to have a good time, but i've had friends coerce me to play certain games and focus too much on winning, optimization, meta, etc. It sucked, especially when it was something like an MMO or a survival game where the journey was so much more fun and more important than the destination- but the person was focused on optimizing their build choices or rushing to the end-game. I would end up resenting the person and would dread being asked to play with them, eventually getting to a point where i had to admit i didnt want to hang out with them anymore. Nowadays when it comes to PVP games like league or overwatch i tend to just play the unranked modes if i play them at all.
I had this exacted question asked to me once and I said “I don’t see why I should let numbers displayed on some leaderboard determine how much fun much fun I should have”
What you said at 11:35 perfectly lines up with what I started to feel nowadays. In the last couple of weeks, I didn't log on to League, only to play normals with friends, and I started playing Sea of Thieves with a friend, and let me tell you, it's amazing!
This is why I will always prefer the casual modes in online games. It‘s just a lot more fun to me..
I've watched this channel for a while and mainly joined originally for the league content. I use to play ranked mainly for a sense of accomplishment. I've been playing league since 2012 and felt that I should be good considering how long I've been playing. It was also to prove to the people around me that even though they didn't seem to value me that I had some sense of value, I really struggled with self worth for a long time. Now working fulltime and being an adult leaves not a lot of time left for ranked.. I can either play 3 games at night and have fun with 4 friends or play 3 games and normally leave fustrated. I do still play ranked a bit but nothing like I had. I still do want to be better. I want to sit at a level where I can be proud of that and prove that I'm not a "shitter" but irl takes priority.
Not with EOMM, shitty match-making and shitty net negative LP gain. I've played since pre-season 1 too, quit ranked since S3.
A game is really shitty if they start to even use one psychological tactic for the longevity of their game.
every modern live service game is using psych manipulation tactics to sustain their games, ever since machinezone made game of war and mobile games made billions it seems every company in the industry wants to prey on the consumers
I enjoy playing ranked, i like to see how I’m slowly getting better and better as the years pass. I come from a sports background so I see it as a sport not a game. I remember getting just as frustrated playing soccer, or basketball. I think the game isn’t the problem. It’s your perspective on it. You have to take a step back and remember that you are doing this activity because you enjoy it, and nothing else matters.
Yup, i come from a sports backround as well and have the same attitude. I started lol a few months ago an absolutely love it. The community itself though is by far the most toxic ive ever seen in my life. They jusy bash teammates instead of providing encouragement or advice. Its really quite aweful.
Im from a sport background too, I hate ranked tho, not because I don't like seeing myself get better or the competitive aspect but because of my teammates. Not because i think theyre bad or the reason i lose or whatever but because their attitude sucks and they just unload hate onto each other for the smallest things, the environment just seems unhealthy so I ended up avoiding it.
Exactly, it's the same grind. I totally am on your boat.
@@chrisreid4711 *plays a champ for the 3rd in norms* "You're dogshit pls uninstall"
Your "slow" progression is an illusion since Riot wants to make it slow, so you will play the year after and the year after the year after, and so on.
If you make a fresh account you probably get a free elo boost and reach your true rank way faster and without consuming that many hours and mental energy into a useless videogame that has just one purpose: milk your money.
My life is better since I quit League, I started playing again during the summer after a year break but I uninstalled it again. The matchmaking sucks and the company doesn't care about what gamers say, no matter if they're veteran (started playing in Season 3, for reference).
Trust me, these games are not worth your time.
Best!
Easily one of your best vids. I used to play ranked Overwatch 1. I regret how much I cared about the game then, not only playing it to mixed results, but watching endless tutorials, seeking coaching, reviewing vods, etc. at an age where I should have been doing anything else with my time. And now that I'm older and nostalgic for the game, Overwatch 1 is completely gone. I have the disc on my shelf, but it's a nice coaster more than a playable videogame. The same is true of other live service games I used to play, if they didn't shut down entirely.
And as someone who used to be involved with the smash community, it's depressing to see so many people grinding to be better at the game when they get neither enjoyment nor any tangible reward out of it. People frustrated and burnt out, hoping to get a good game on elite smash and the like. It's a total gambling machine, and it's made worse when devs like Blizzard, Riot, Valve, and Epic all glorify the few people who do make it at the top, as if grinding to get better will somehow get you closer to being a rich, famous gamer, as if it isn't the 0.00001% of players who make it that far, and everyone else is just wasting their time. Blizzard was by far the worst with this via some of their Overwatch League promo, like the "Whats in a name?" commercial.
I think a lot of people are disenfranchised from modern gaming, myself included. Ranked queues are one of many reasons why; When a games entire purpose seems to be funneling you into a gambling machine with your own time, I lose the motivation to play at all.
I played League from S4-S11 (Started playing around Vel'Koz release, and uninstalled near Akshan's release). Over time the game just kept feeling worse and worse to play. For half of the Seasons I played ranked, I managed to get to Gold just for the Victorious skin and by that point felt burnt out everytime. Most of my time in LoL was spent in norms playing with friends. But when most of my games got more rage-inducing, either from losing too often to broken Yuumi combos, or whatever severely unbalanced champion(s) at the time, it got tiring. I was an ADC main too so that didn't help when Marksman was made the worst role to play for multiple seasons in a row...
One of my biggest peeves was when more than half the matches I play end up with my team wanting to surrender as early as possible. I only want to play 2 or 3 matches! NOT 6 early surrenders!! I absolutely hated seeing how easily people gave up the moment ONE THING went wrong. AND AGAIN, I MOSTLY PLAYED NORMS! The surrender-meta was insane.
I still have a couple friends who play it still. Not sure why, but one of them has almost convinced me to try the next season since Mythic items are being removed apparently...so maybe I'll try again for the next season and see how it goes. Probably won't be too into ranked, as a university student, there won't be enough time for me to be THAT masochistic.
I stopped playing ranked because I realized i'd only ever be happy if I was at the top, and I either didn't have the skill, dedication, patience or time to reach those levels. I'd get frustrated, and it became more about the end product than the journey; an arbitrary number that'd get reset every season, or after some months. Now, in league, I just play off-meta, and normals with friends. I can excuse my losses with "well, i'm playing for fun", and I get to experience other people's experiences with something that sticks out from what they're used to. Some laugh, others rage, and I just enjoy.
I don't leave comments usually, but today I learned what meta stood for, and for that you are a legend skooch.
Meta does not stand for that btw. Its the prefix to metagaming, people just made it an acronym for some reason a few years ago.
As someone who enjoys playing ranked games, I think a lot of what you have said mainly pertains to certain games. The ganes i play the most for ranked are fighting games, SF6, MK1 when it comes out, a bit of Skullgirls, and Eternal Return. For fighting games yes there are meta people but I still feel like I run into a large majority of variety and just have fun improving, currently at masters 1k mmr. In Eternal Return, if you have never heard of it I recommend trying it its so fucking fun, the same thing, yes there is meta but there is so much diversity in team building and build routes and just how fights play out that I love seeing it and it makes me want to improve. Honestly i just like playing games that I can genuinely see where i messed up and how to improve in them.
I play these types of games because I also play real life team sports, and like to be good at all of those. The type of quick plays that happen in higher ranks of these kinds of games tend to resemble real life sports situations, just without the whole body control aspect. However if I go out for a jog then that trains one thing... Playing in ranked queue trains another thing. I'm just trying to have a good amount of exercise of various types. Of course I have a day job too, so it's nothing like professional sports. But I like playing real life sports at the higher amateur levels too, and it takes many years of practice for anyone to get to even that level.
About a year ago I got a new computer that could play all the games I had been wanting to play for years but couldn't run. About the same time, I dropped LoL ranked as well as the eternal comfort games that still ran fine on my old laptop (Skyrim and Borderlands 2). The difference this has made on my relationship with gaming is unfathomable. I have witnessed so much artistry in the last year from games that are meant (like OG Mario) to be played once and put down. So many meaningful moments that were locked off to me by playing the same three games over and over. I still play Clash with the lads once a month, and the occasional ARAM, but I'm never going back to grinding ranked.
I play ranked league since 2016. As soon as i hit lvl 30, i was addicted. Its all I could think about. I even quit going to choir practice and gave up my chances of being in the all-region choir. My addiction was terrible. I noticed that the more i played, the worse I felt. As a girl, if I say im in silver, i feel like I am seen as weak. I have always felt that. something changed inside 16 year old me. I felt like I NEEDED to be high-elo to make a point. every single day this game took time away from my goals, dreams and my family even. im now almost 23 and i can say with so much confidence that I do not play ranked anymore. The last ranked game I played was about 2 months ago. Since I stopped playing I can focus on me, new hobbies, and my family and friends. League is a trap. a literal drug. Dont play it. especially ranked.
You should be fine playing League, ranked or otherwise, so long as you don't have any pre-disposition to become addicted. I assure you most people can enjoy ranked games and only play casually.
Glad you are with us once again
I am an rpg player to my core. I have played runescape for years. If i spend a 10 hour grind in runescape, or witcher, or elden ring or literally anywhere else outside of ranked queue, my numbers will only go one way. Up. If i spent 10 hours in league of tilt, not only theres a higher chance my numbers eouldnt go up, but go DOWN. And i despise negative progress. The only one reason i still play 3 or 4 games a week, ia because my friend is still trapped in that shithole
I hope you still sing. Never stop singing or doing what u love to do.
I can only agree with you. I dont even wanna imagine how much time this game took away from me and how hard it was to finally stop playing it for litteral hours each day
Gonna save this for later when I get off work and fire up a ranked game, god bless. 🙏
Why I play? I had a period when I got the worst teammates and no matter how well I did I could never win, until one day I figured out what made things fun for me, and since then I have improved, and also only about 5-10% of games I play I genuinely do not enjoy. These days I have fun no matter what. I don't really care about the grind, and I hate the system with a passion, but I have fun no matter who my teammates are or how well or bad I do.
I've seen the pursuit of becoming "e-sports" basically ruin quite a few games I used to love playing. Once you stop balancing a game for everyone's enjoyment, and start balancing it purely for the "elite", and the "best of the best", then you start alienating everyone else, until eventually, your audience is gone, and you've got nothing left to support your game. I genuinely wish that companies would stop desperately chasing the e-sports dream, and return to just focusing on making people have fun with their games instead.
Screw being "the very best", I just want to have fun.
@Scooch After 5 years blaming teammates and stuck I found out League just use a variation of true skill 2 from Microsoft.
The video from ascend league channel shows Josh Menke explaining.
tLDr: the matchmaking is rigged. They make you lose yes, but, the system reads how you play and if understand you should climb they will give free wins.
I started playing for stats and after 5 years I left from gold to diamond.
Nuts.
So true I got a fuking 9 win streak that I could go afk and my team would win alone.
This game is so Bs. Now that I climbed I want to quit because this shit is so not transparent that should be a crime.
I mean I knew for years that the ranking was based on performance and they place you there with wins or losses depending on whether you need to climb or go down the ladder.
Anyone with 65iq plus should see it by now, no ??!!!
I used to be really into ranked scenes, watching myself improve and learn how to optimize things better was just really rewarding and the sense of accomplishment gave that sweet, sweet dopamine. Unfortunately, I hit a wall where I realized that it was just a vicious cycle: I'd get to this rank eventually, and then I'd have to do it again next season, and again, and again. The last time I did it, it was frustrating: this time doing it, it was even MORE frustrating. It was reaching a point where I just wasn't having fun and was slowly watching myself become even more toxic. I didn't find joy in it anymore, I didn't laugh at silly mistakes and misplays, I let other people's aggression get to me. So I quit, and don't regret it a bit.
Years later I still get sorta angry at games when I shouldn't, but I'm a far better person than I used to be. My mental has healed and I've rediscovered the ability to just take everything like a grain of salt. Laughing everything off is so much better than ramming my head against a wall and getting angry when it hurts.
I play league ranked game to ruin others day by thinking they're going to win then watch in despair as i sneak into their base to perform a backdoor
i’ve just never gotten into ranked cuz it’s too stressful! it’s rare to find teammates that don’t get mad at you for little things and i don’t play to be good i play to have fun and when there’s something on the line people don’t like having fun it seems
I’ve never seen any of your videos, but this was extremely well made. And I enjoyed every second of it.
I am one of the rare people that stopped playing ranked and left pretty satisfied. I quite enjoyed ranked games, even the games with the griefers and inters. I stopped after 11 years because I simply didn't have anything else to prove. I casually hit my ranked goal using my favourite champions and my own off-meta picks. I had my fill of the wacky crap I played for fun and of the drive to win with it. I didn't get mad or frustrated with ranked, I just got bored and moved on to another game. I've been recently enjoying playing both the fighting game genre and Final Fantasy XIV with my friends who quit with me and it's been a pretty good time.
The only game I really play ranked for nowadays is TFT, but I usually stop somewhere in diamond, since hitting masters removes the ability to queue with friends.
That said, I've been playing league normals more recently, and it's felt kind of flat. The thing I enjoy about that sort of game is the learning, improvement & strategising, which I can barely feel happening in these games. I think ranked can be healthy if you view it as a ground for self improvement, rather than a place to get a certificate. Acheiving a higher rank doesn't mean you are more skilled, being more skilled achieves a higher rank.
I've played LoL since 2014, and I've never played more than maybe 20-30 ranked games in a season. For me, I play league with my friends to have fun. Video games at the end of the day are a way for me to relieve stress from my day of work. Ranked doesn't feel fun, it feels like a job. I'm not playing to enjoy myself anymore, and that kills the fun and point of what video games are for me. I've never liked highly competitive games, and I don't think I ever will. The casual aspect of some of those games, though, can be quite enjoyable when you play em for what they are.
There is a mentality to every game and opportunity. Sometimes it is just nice to feel accomplished doing things well. Ranked is a meta game but everything is a meta game really. There is a way to win and discovering that way or those reasons brings you back to explore the next season. I’m glad everyone’s valuing their time more though and I feel like there’s a collective coming together to critique the gaming sphere because games are becoming the norm post 2020. It’s exciting and fun and I can’t wait for what’s next.
as someone who plays ranked games allot the reason i play them is due to the drive i have to improve and perfect my craft. with that said i dont approach ranking up by a normal standpoint with LP or RR or whatever point system values i approach with improvement in mind how much can i improve after this game i just played regardless of result. a big part of why i play this way is because i love the team based side of the games aswell and the strategy and coordination involved i love meeting new people with unique takes on how the game should be played. another thing i enjoy and is just talking to people (it turns out that if you create a welcoming and enjoyable team enviroment through voice chat people will be pretty chill) results may vary please consult your doctor before assuming everyone is nice if you are. i mainly play valorant right now and ive been having a great time.
Back then, i cared about ranked alot (even almost going into the local or even national tournament if i wanted to)
Nowadays, i just see rank system as like a rat race. You get the highest rank, then in the next 3-4 months it got reset and now you're trying to climb back the rank you got previously.
I still play ranked games but at this point i do not give a rat's ass about the rank system. I do not give a shit if i'm low rank/elo or not, i just want to have fun and test myself and i don't invest as much time playing ranked games as much as i do back then. My competitive fire is dimly lit now because of all the burnout and how i became toxic to my other friends and how i basically drove them away from the ranked games i love to play back then. So that was an important point i saw.
I for one detest exclusivity in games, so when I see seasonal skins or awards that will be available only then and there, and never again once they're gone my thoughts aren't "oh no better go get that". My thoughts are "So what, I would have to grind that shit every season till the end of time to have everything? Screw that!"
I'm a completions, if I can't get every single character, item, cosmetic, quest, whatever else because it was a seasonal event and it's gone - I will never give your game even a chance.
Amazing video Skooch! I never really got into ranked games when ever I played, I would do placements each season to see what I would get and then never touch rank for the rest of the season. Mostly because I like playing games in the dumbest way that I could and having fun with it.
I want to echo the sense of self improvement most people feel but specifically for me, I keep playing ranked league because I feel capable. It makes me feel like I am a competitor then in most other games. I can feel the muscle memory of champions I have mastered and play confident I know what I am doing. its hard to do new things and when you haven't felt truly accomplished you will try to climb higher. Maybe I am "bad" at other games but I will keep playing a game I think that I am good at until something makes me feel I have broken through better or have more to gain in. Its too late to play spreadsheets in space, or get the hands to play street or tekken. It would take a whole new system with another ladder and another skill tree to master that has even more reward.
I relate to this, this feeling makes it hard to put down the game once I feel somewhat competent in it.
It's so much easier to continue being good or at least above average, than to start as a beginner in something new.
This is true, especially to some of the characters you don't expect that "oh shit, I have potential with them"; which is what happened to me with KoF with Ash, Chizuru and Angel, with the three of them considered to be the hardest KoF characters to control
@@theolanderdilag3872idk which angry god we offended to receive the move set of angel like how do you even pilot that shit
I recently quit. I never played much ranked, but now that it takes 70%+ WR to actually rank up at a somewhat acceptable speed, reset 3 times per year it just doesn't make sense to play. I don't want to grind soloQ with people that dont want to climb anyways, if I want to waste my time I can do it in much less frustrating ways.
It should be noted that "meta" actually has two etymologies, one of them being an acronym for "most effective tactic available," but the other is the more traditional word root, which basically translates to "beyond."
You could say that metagaming is gaming-gaming, much like metacogniscience is thinking about thinking, a metaverse is a universe of universes, and so on. It's taking a game and playing with it on an extra level, mechanically, in addition to playing it on the normal level.
The point that I'd like to make is that metagaming can't just be wished away and shouldn't be hated as a universal evil. It doesn't just exist because 'some people put winning over everything else' and other derisive takes. Not everyone that investigates a game's meta is a "meta slave." Sometimes, we learn a metagame because we actually like a game enough to want to play it well.
This is all to point out the fact that Skooch's criticisms of the ranked scene are exactly correct. In ranked mode, there is no differentiation between learning to play the game correctly for enjoyment and learning to play optimally for victory; they're the same thing for ranked games. Attempts to defy the metagame to feel like a special snowflake are shot down by the cold, hard reality that the meta exists on purpose, or the cold, hard reality that all that you did was find a new detail that revised the meta, which still exists on purpose. There is no room for variety, and there's no room for fun without victory, so they're just inferior experiences to so many other games.
I think the reason people is obsessed with the win is simple: ALMOST NO ONE plays to lose, no one wants to be a loser for good reason, because losers in the game of life stop existing.
That being said the big reason for toxicity is that we don't realize properly the consecuences of losing aren't a big deal, and doesn't help that in school they teach us (Wrongly) that "everyone is a winner" thinking effort is the only way to win. If you can't handle losing after investing into something you SHOULDN'T play ranked.
PS: Also, LoL is just a bad game that used to be better back in the day, and that's coming from someone who started in S5 AKA was not able to see those good days of no oneshots and actual strategy over pressing all buttons.
@@N12015 I certainly see how mortality plays a role in driving us toward the desire of success. It is true that it is a simple matter of chemistry, our brains releasing different chemicals that cause different emotional responses to positive and negative stimuli, but I believe that God designed our brain chemistry to work this way to help us put our mortal lives to good use.
Though, don't miss the point that chasing a meta is not always simply about winning. It is in a ranked game, but in many other instances, it's about winning *correctly*, winning *in less time so that more gaming can happen*, winning *with less resource expenditure so that more gaming can happen*, and winning *with less stress and struggle than is appropriate to the task*. There are many reasons for metagames to exist, and they're not all just "because win." That's what makes ranked games so uniquely bad: There's no reason to play except "because win."
Coming from a competitive background (first game I ever played was Tekken 3 with my dad, which led me into the FGC scene, and we still play/watch Tekken sets together to this day when we are both free), I genuinely love competition. Competing in general is just fun as a whole for me personally, which is why I usually end up Ranking in games that have that option if I enjoy them enough.
I'm unranked and I'm Proud
I quit league of legends years ago because i realized i was only getting worse at it. After wasting years and years on it i was only regressing in ladder and my friend pointed out how i play like i was asleep. All of it was because i was so tired of the years of emotional abuse on the ladder that i just wanted the win and stopped learning anything new. I saw my mistakes but there was nothing i could do about them.
I was just dead tired from minute 1 in the match. Hearing the announcer for the 3000th time and seeing the minions walk up the exact same way just didn't inspire me at all. There was no joy there, only "You are shit, and you should die".
There was no pride in being in silver or gold or platinum. Only thing you hear everyday is how you are just human garbage if you don't reach the diamond or masters or whatever.
For me is that I don't care about my rank at all, I just wanna get into an even match, and i feel like in ranked everyone tries a bit harder.
I personally like playing ranked games because I enjoy the idea of getting better at a character I feel like I’m very good at and seeing just how good I actually am, pushing myself to get better every game by putting me in an environment where people are also playing to win rather than to mess around.
Take league as an example because im sure everyone here played it.
I consider myself a pretty good Kled player, I can queue unranked and get matched against a top first timing tryndamere and hard win that lane but not only will I not really feel like I’ve learnt something that game or gotten better, I would have also ruined someone else’s fun by picking a character I have a vast collection of knowledge on vs their first time trying someone because they look funny.
Meanwhile in ranked, people are expected to pick what they’re good at, the feeling of beating an aatrox main with 800k mastery will not only feel good because it justifies the feeling of “hey, I’m pretty good at this character!”, but I’m also learning how to play against that character because my opponent knows how to utilize them.
And for the people that do metaslave, it also feels good knowing you’re skillful enough to outplay a character that is deemed “better” by the tier lists because you just know your character that well.
I do genuinely think people would have more fun in ranked if they focused more on their own mistakes rather than always looking at their teammates in frustration but I understand that’s easier said than done, especially in moments of tilt.
No no! Blame the game system not the players! 😂 the game breeds toxicity!! The players are victims!! /s
Same here, these people crying about their teammates or losers queue or whatever are the biggest losers ever, if you're good you're gonna climb, you can't expect games to go perfectly every time, improving is the fun part of league not winning or losing, just knowing you played your best is good enough to make me queue for another one
I've been in both sides.
I used to be toxic and get angry over games because of the ranked pressure.
Now I play to win but I accept my loss. I mostly play ranked for the challenge. People know their champs better and they play meta. While in normal they play troll picks and go for risky (but fun) plays.
11:00 hit me the hardest. I used to play Dota 2, and a fair bit at that. Mainly as a way to spend time with my friends more than climbing ranked (Even though we did that, as well). But my love and interest in the game skyrocketed when Techies was first introduced. Yeah, yeah, I was a Techies man. Throw tomatoes at me, i deserve it. But I loved that hero. They played so differently to any other hero in the game. Everyone else was playing Dota 2, while I was preparing to recreate Apocalypse Now scenes with anyone who walked into the jungle. But, then he got nerfed. Which was understandable. Again and again, changed and beaten into something I just don't recognize anymore. A character that changed the game and brought me hours of fun, kicked into a box and forgotten.
And I can never go back to how he was. I think that was what killed my interest in MOBAs from then on, honestly. I already saw what playing ranked consistently was doing to my friends in terms of mood and frustration. So letting me have a taste of fun and then dismantling it for the sake of balance just put the final nail in the coffin.
Aram is king
Real
Real
Real
Checking in to say, glad to see you're doing okay Skooch!
When I played ranked lol, I got as up to silver 3, and then I stopped. It was a struggle to get out of bronze with so many people actively throwing. But when I got out I realized something. It didn’t feel good to win or rank up. I though once I got out of bronze it would be less of that, i was wrong. It was an active struggle to salvage games from people who just quit on you or throw the biggest tantrums you ever seen. And when you win it would be so much frustration that i actively dread going to the next game. So I stopped.
i escaped the prison of league. im never going back.
Thanks for caring about video games making people happy, Skooch. Even if we use different tactics to accomplish it, the enjoyment really *is* all that matters.
(Edit: clown move of commenting before finishing vid, here are some quick answers)
There are some games I still play ranked in. There are so few things more satisfying to me than watching myself get better. Seeing how much more I've become by tracking the progress the game claims I've made, but also in the gameplay of how I'm performing. I prefer using ranked when seeking that experience because it means my opponents are also more likely to have an actively competitive mindset. I feel less awesome about my improvements when I'm displaying them on somebody who just wants to have fun after a bad day.
The games I've quit ranked mostly have to do with time. I didn't have the time to play ranked League anymore, it just wasn't feasible, and wasn't worth the attempts for reasons listed in this vid. Apex Legends ranked I put a lot of time into and was SO proud, not only of my rank increasing but of my clear improvements as a player. But now the ranked system in that game fucking sucks, it takes forever to get anywhere, and it rewards a playstyle I don't enjoy.
Skooch really deserves 3x the amount of subs he has because he’s actually trying to help us and teach us while making us laugh
Truly the GOAT
One aspect about why I like ranked is because most people try. Pubs can be fun but it also ruins your fun if they just troll you.
For me, I used to play a lot of competitive games of various types mostly because my friends played them. Now don't get me wrong, I consider myself to be somewhat of a competitive person so it was still fun for me to self improve and the whole shebang with online comp environments. And because of this, I found extra incentive at getting good at games because there were a ton of people around me who also played these games and I could compare myself with them. There were times where I would get frustrated but I always came back because I knew people who kept playing. But overtime as my number of friends slowly started to diminish around me, I realized that I didn't really want to put up with a lot of those things anymore so I ended up virtually quitting a lot of the things I've played. Nowadays I only play SF6 and the CS2 beta as those are the only places I receive genuine enjoyment from comp games.
Everything you said are facts. I was so unhappy playing ranked games in league/wild rift. After I win continuously, I am just paired with monkeys who doesn't know what they are doing non-stop, so I'm forced to carry and be the only decent teammate. This happens over and over and over again and it's so frustrating, and that is why I took a break from ranked games for a while. Somehow this game let out the worst in me and I became toxic as well, even though I hate toxicity in games. The only reason why I wanna go to challenger or the highest rank anyways is to feel some sort of achievement in my miserable life. Even though that achievement isn't really a big deal. If you're reading this, let this be a warning and don't play or take ranked games too seriously in league of legends, because it's a huge waste of time, and it's ultimately unfun as you progress.
What's worse is EOMM existed since S3, I was a freshmen college in S3 so I gained new friends taught them the do's and don'ts in League, in one month after they became level 30, they were gold(Gold III i believe), it took me a year to even reach Gold. I had played since Alpha, the system probably thought I played for so long I could carry anyone team it throws at me, if it was a real compliment IRL I would be flattered but not by a robot in a game.
Thank you bro i needed this.
Monkeys? ...Frieza is this you?
great video. very interesting points made, and done so in an entertaining and thought provoking way. you earned my sub, keep the good work up.
Everything so true, you even mention some psychological tricks I haven't heard of -- EOMM.
I just recently heard of the psychological tactic that is they want you to spend more hours so you will one day realize you spent so much hours on the game that you are compelled to buy stuff.
I got to diamond and was climbing steadily. My mental wasn't that bad but I got tendonitis on my thumb (spacebar destroyed my finger). But to be honest, even though at first I wanted to come back to ranked league I realized I was happier. I got a job and actual responsibilities therefore playing league like that wasn't feasible. I didn't want to give up my IRL and I just quit. Now I play once every 3 months when my friends gather up for some games
okay i'm glad cuz i'm here after quitting rankeds and agreeing with you makes this decision even better, i quitted after looking how much time i was wasting by playing league, valorant and ranked stuff, and im now just having fun. amazing editing, fantastic storytelling, thanks for this video bro.
I love you skooch. Not much else to say, just want you to know some random person on the internet values you and your time. Keep being awesome homie!
imagine if riot introduced 2 separate cues for normal draft pick--one that's labeled as practice and one that's labeled as norms. i have been both of those people; someone who just wants to mess around and have fun, and the person who wants to practice certain champs, builds, etc before taking them into ranked.
This is exactly why I firmly believe League of Legends ( and other competitive video games ) are just not for everyone. I'm surprised that so many people even play these games.
The ones who truly enjoy the game are your Coach Curtis of the world and those are but a tiny fraction of the player base.
First time I've seen someone bring up the topic on how Balance Updates don't actually envision to "balance" out a game, but to instead shift the meta in a way that completelly ruins any form of character loyalty you can have.
ranked junkies will hate. Chads will accept reality. Based skooch
9:50 I'm still grieving the loss of Battlerite. It's not truly "dead" since you can still go play the game right now, but the playerbase has dropped significantly, and the queue takes so long that I unfortunately find myself doing something else instead. It saddens me to know that it will never see another update or new character ever again
Back in 2017 I was a sad gamer, caught in monetization scams, stupid metas, hours of stupid grind, very unhappy. Then at the end of the holidays and I played a couple of awesome single player games, Ori and the Blind Forest, Hollow Knight, Hyper Light Drifter and a couple of other smaller less known titles. At the start of 2018 I bought a Switch, best purchase ever, got to play BotW and Mario Odyssey, it reminded me of why I loved gaming in the first place and what had led me to wherever I was in the previous years. I promised myself never to play a free to play game again and been much mentally healthier ever since.
The fun comes from the satisfaction of employing a tech for the first time, of winning knowing you had your merit and you were better than another human being. But there's indeed a requirement to be followed: only play 1v1 games (such as fighters).
I stopped playing ranked because I feel the matchmaking is biased. Over time, if you play enough, you'll reach your true elo. But I no longer find the grind fun and don't want to invest double the time to get where I believe I belong. With the season now divided and potentially splitting even more next year, ranked doesn't seem worth it. Nowadays, I mostly play blind pick, focusing on jungle/support roles. It feels more balanced, perhaps because champ select can't fully anticipate your lane choice, leading to skill-based matches. I also enjoy joining random custom games, connecting with friends on Discord to play. Voice chat enhances our games, and everyone aims to perform well, with less experienced players often heeding advice from their skilled teammates.
The only ranked games I enjoy these days are fighting games. One of if not the most fair genres out there, and the comp scene has existed for these games for much longer than League itself. One big factor to it is how small individual communities still are (outside of Mortal Kombat lol), it still feels nice and I don't feel like I just queue in and /mute all. I have some major anger issues whenever I play LoL and other games with similar toxicity, almost the complete opposite can be said when I play fighting games overall. I'll get salty I might even rage quit if I have a particularly bad day (though I beat myself up about it and even once found the guy I RQed on and rematched them to be fair).
I am still quite new to the genre, I did play a bit of tekken and a tiny bit of sf back when I was like 11 but yeah. Maybe it's still just a honeymoon phase but at the same time, those other games I mentioned I got frustrated with them quite fast (Dead by Daylight is one, I put it on par with LoL on the toxicity scale). I saw Skooch play the new rouglike Blazblue game and honestly I seriously recommend trying fighting games to anyone that still has competitive spirit but is tired with the depressive and frustrating nature of LoL Ranked Queue and other similar games.
Back in the day I remember looking up enemy teams players to see their Elo that I was vs in normal's. Seeing as to how I would be able to play vs highly climbed competitive players, I too thought that I could reach their Ranks and destroy others in the same fashion. I then started my Ranked Journey... and it wasn't worth the time.
The "UP" and "DOWN" of it all wasn't the problem... but the fact that players were. You get someone coming off a god game, and then they super feed thinking they were just as fed as they were in the game before. Or the kids that are Drunk/High and missclicked ults and flashes for no reason. People needing to find someone to blame for their bad performances, the slurs, flame, and just hate slung at anyone for any reason. It really brought down the experience for me as a player over the years.
As of last year I told myself I wont dabble as much as I had in the years before in Ranked. And this last (what like half season thingy) year I have found myself with much fewer Ranked games, but plenty of Normal's. And here I am again as I was before all those years ago. Playing vs high ranked players just for fun... and not letting anything get to me because its just a game. As I fell in love with it before, and still find some enjoyment over it all over again. But this time, just for fun... leave ranked for the T1 wannabes LOL
I despise ranked play because whenever I go for a gaming session is about disconecting from the real world into a fantasy one and relax, while it can be either a singleplayer experience or playing Gmod with friends it always have the thing that is about having a good time and escaping society for a while.
Wow, didn't expect to see Paladins ranked borders in a Skooch video.
the timing of Chrono Trigger's OST while showing the old consoles at 10:26 is just 👌👌
i've been playing league for over 10 years now, on and off. i never played normals, only ranked, but i didnt take it THAT seriously - never cared to learn the meta, never tried to understand macro, i still dont even know how to attack move.... i really just logged on and did my casual best, usually finishing seasons in low diamond. it never felt like the miserable experience many people made it out to be.
then, during S2021, i decided to set myself a goal: i wanted to finish in master tier, so that i would have at least something to show for it all... it was a horrible experience. i played nearly 400 games, more than any other season, and each game made me angrier than the last. i started running it down when i got behind early, something which i had never done before. i started flaming my teammates for not always helping me. eventually i stopped seeing a loss as a loss, but rather as one hour of my life wasted: 30 minutes for the game i lost, and another 30 for the win i need to get me back to where i was.
i ended up finishing the season as diamond 1. wasnt worth it AT ALL... these days, i only play aram with my friends
I miss knockout city so much dude, it was my favorite game and its just gone now and its never coming back ever...
I use to like ranked alot in LOL despite not climbing how i wanted to. However after finding out about the very concept of engagement based matchmaking it put the fear of god in me for seaom reason. It could just be me looking for an excuse to blame my lack of climbing on but the very idea made me never want to play particularly league of legends competitive game mode ever again.
I was 13 in 2011. Thats when I started playing league, within 6 months or so I picked up ranked. In 2023 I stopped, I could no longer bear the way the games were going. Patch after patch of overtuning certain champions and gutting other, broken items, tanks meta, adc meta, ardent censur meta (I really hated that season with a fucking passion). i just could not do it anymore. It was soul crushing
Agree 100%. Next time I play shortstop in baseball, I'm running off to right field because ain't nobody gonna ruin my fun with their "meta."
I played Brawlhalla from seasons 0-6 or 7, I can't remember which. I used to grind the game A LOT, hopped into practice tool to practice strings and combos, muscle memory inputs, etc. I used to watch my replays and go over what I could've done better. I climbed up to mid platinum as my peak, and then by that point, I quit the game. Now days, I can't even play it casually. The amount of tilting and joy killed from trying to climb and improve exhausted me and robbed me of all my fun.
I've since started playing LoL, and I don't even touch ranked. I'm good, the game can be tilting enough, the last thing I need is some kind of "standard" to ruin what fun I have.
Ah yes, the obligatory "don't play ranked" video right before a league channel reaches its end.
i stopped caring about ranked matches (i already wasn't caring for the rank, cause of the coin flip matchmaking) after watch this video last month, i started do analyze how i see the games and how i approach situations in different games.. 2 weeks before before i met a guy, super fun, i made a good new friend, just because i stopped to try hard and being the "solo player" trying to get better at the game all the time and responded his question for a few minutes... and for that i must thank YOU for the precious advice.
I quitted league ranked years ago because it was masking a lot of mental health issues and personal problems.
I refuse to call it and "addiction" because it truly wasn't, but it was an escape from a reality that i wasn't facing.
And i only realized what it was doing to me because one day i got really frustrated at the games and decided to time out for a few days. Everything that was repressed just hited me like truck.
I've been playing competitive games of different genres (fighting games, MOBAS, TCGs) for almost 10 years now, and the only thing that motivated me to continue was my own personal drive to get better and love of the game. Rank and competing does not have to be toxic and miserable, most people just don't have the mentality for it. What do I mean? Mostly the way people think about loses and "the meta".
Have you noticed that when the majority of players when they lose IMMEDIATELY start looking for an excuse? "This character is broken", "My teammates sucked", "the sun was in my eyes", "They're probably smurfing", "This game is dumb and unbalanced", "I'm in loser queue", etc.
It's almost never "I played that poorly", "My build should've been better", "I have to learn how to counter that strategy", or god forbid "The opponent was better than me". People will throw up excuse after excuse to protect their ego from a lose, to the point where they'd rather blame the balance of the game they're playing than reflect.
As far as "the meta" goes, I feel people put too much stock into things like tier list and what's considered "meta". Things like tier list are usually only really relevant to players at the highest level of competition. At lower levels, things like decision making, games sense, and fundamentals are generally the deciding outcomes in game rather than character choice. For example, take Melee Fox, a character generally regarded as the best if you look at tier list. Fox in the hands of beginner or even intermediate player isn't that good, because the attributes that make Fox the best in the game (proper Shine usage, air speed, kill combos etc.) are things only advanced player can really exploit. Without them, Fox is just a short range, light weight, easy to juggle character that falls really fast.
Players take tier list and "meta" as gospel, when in reality they can be ignored for the majority of players.
Still playing League after 9 years of being in the cycle. The thing is, I never grinded ranked games. Said I would, play the placements, and go back to playing normals. Just recently I had this itch to grind out for the free skin, got to gold about a week ago and I'm happy playing ranked. Nos gonna lie, tilt is my only company some games, but venting a bit is something I need so give and take I guess. And playing to have fun while winning is what keeps me playing. I don't know how to play a good Evelyn jg, doesn't matter, I know how to jungle, les see what happens. Next game I'm playing Jarvan, a friend of mine told me he's OP in wild rift (LoL mobile), let's see how he's doing in League. And so on. When I'm to tilted to even think about winning, I stop playing, I go see some videos, read something, play other games.
So far so good. Loving to love gaming.
Thing is, the ranked system alone can't be pointed entirely as the cause of toxicity. Its a catalyst for sure, but as the years pass by you just see more unhinged people in any form of gaming. Mostly because even within a non-ranked scenario, people cannot cope with the concept of losing. A quick peek in an average game of normal draft, or any shooter that uses SBMM: "How dare the game match me against good people and I lose because of that, I want to win every game ever" is basically the mentality.
And to answer the question: I still played rank because I genuinely enjoy a more at-level competition experience. Sure smurfs exist, but a lot of normal queues are much more likely to yank either high tier players or absolute bottom tier ones and leads to a very imbalanced experience: Such as having a pair of rando bot laners that are silver going against a premade duo of diamonds.
Last season, I struggled to make it to silver. I've started by getting silver in my first 10-15 games every other season. It was then that I decided never to play ranked again until it stops being absolutely not worth it
Back in the days I played too much ranked, it wasnt fun, winning meant nothing and losing was just tilting. I took a break,only played a lot of other great story games and sometimes normals with friends.
What I learned from this was that it is just a game.
Nowadays I play ranked again, but with no tilt (most of the time lol). I just play it for fun. Cause if you take it too seriously it loses every sense of playing a video game…the fun