It’s no secret that ranked matches in League of Legends are competitive, and players are tired of people not taking ranked seriously by picking toxic off-meta or pocket picks, running it down, and ruining everyone’s matches and ranks.
Many players, like Lucri from the League subreddit, have found that people just don’t care about ranked League anymore. Their teammates are more than willing to try new-to-them-champions and run it down, and it’s gotten to the point where players are fed up with people not taking ranked games seriously.
For the most part, players agree you’re supposed to try hard in your ranked games because it’s literally called ranked for a reason, and they believe it’s possible to have fun even if you are trying to win. When you play ranked, you’re there because you have a specific role and a pool of champions you excel with and want to get better at playing. But there are cases where you may need to pull a pocket pick or take an off-meta route. If this happens, it should be a champion you’re familiar with and have experience playing, not a first-time pick or a random champion you saw a YouTube video or stream about because it looked fun.
While all of these points are valid, some players believe it doesn’t matter what champion you play because if they have the same MMR as you, they must be mechanically gifted enough to pull off whatever champion they choose. However, one player pointed out that a player’s MMR is centered around their win rate. It doesn’t judge players based on their decision to goof off or their attitude. So, you can never tell if someone is choosing one of these pocket picks or obscure champions because they know they can pull it off or because they’ve had a bad day and want to cause chaos. It’s these types of picks where players are running it down that many have a problem with because they feel it’s just trolling.
This post and the debate among players have raised good points about what’s considered toxic, trolling, and inting in ranked matches. Some players believe we shouldn’t be slaves to the meta and should have the freedom to choose whatever we want to play, so long as we have a good mindset and aren’t just griefing and inting. Other players think the real problem here is getting angry with each other for not taking ranked seriously enough and using their passion as an excuse to justify flaming their teammates and being toxic.
My two cents: I don’t mind having an off-meta teammate, particularly if they have a good mindset, communicate, and are willing to dive in and give it their all. Even if we lose, I don’t mind because they tried, and that’s enough for me, and I’ll move on to my next match. It’s just those who choose off-meta picks and run it down causing problems for everyone else.
The reality is that if you want to climb in ranked games, you have to focus on improving your gameplay and performance and learn to adapt. If you can handle whatever shenanigans come your way, you’ll be better for it. And if you get a troll match, many players believe you just need to accept it and not let it affect you because one bad game isn’t the end of the world.
As much as it stinks, you can’t control everything that happens in your League games. All you can do is learn, improve, adapt, and take a deep breath when things go south.
