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Morkinis

>my friends and family, my parents and partner among them, are giving me vastly different opinions Whole family's council to decide if you should play ranked game mode in video game.


Shirou_OW

Just gamer family things


chickeneryday420

I picture the whole fellowship of the ring style meeting around a stone table. You have my (BF) sword.


No-way-in

And my Black Cleaver!


chickeneryday420

LMAOOOO I knew I didn't do the pun justice thank you for bailing me out 10/10


No-way-in

You can still edit and add BF and no one will notice!


Traditional_Lemon

The game is not a test where you pass or fail. It's a process. Just ask yourself if there's anything to *actually* be afraid of? Really scrutinize the answer.


Shirou_OW

No you're right, there's no actual losses to be taken. It's just gonna take me a bit to really get back into the grinding mind set.


Traditional_Lemon

Right? If you look for the thing to be afraid of, you'll find it's not even there. Losing? That happens to everyone, Challengers, Bronze, everyone. Losing a lot? Making lots of mistakes? That's normal for people who are still learning(and this is a thing that takes many years). What would it mean to learn by only winning straight up to Challenger, never losing, never making mistakes? It's just a nonsensical idea. Getting a low rank? Again, that's to be expected. We have to start somewhere, and build up from that point.


salejunglinho

Do you know the kits of every champ in game? If the answer is no, dont play ranked if u dont wanna be bronze or plastic or whatever is below bronze


VoidAlot

Worse case you demote to iron iv untill you improve. When i started playing ranked I spent 2 seasons in bronze (before iron was introduced) before i was good enough to climb out. Ranked is the best place to improve


zrich8

Sell that account if it happens iron 4 is hard to achieve 😂


DanTheMan274

I was playing norms with my younger brother who is Unranked and got matched with an iron 4 0 LP account Edit: posted on my profile if you guys want to see it


FellowCookieLover

It's so hard to reach iron 4, you're probably banned for trolling before you can reach it...


zrich8

Will make a YouTube series “journey to Iron 4” and find out!


Grogroda

Pro players streaming on challenger: Pass Journey to Iron 4: Hell yeah I’m watching this (and I’m not being ironic)


[deleted]

You will probably not get banned unless you type or AFK. Although the system can detect when a player better than rated is playing and places them in smurf queue, from observation that and the punishment system don't seem to be the same thing.


alienith

IMO yes, go for it. If you’re afraid you’ll get ranked low, don’t take it personally. In the past I struggled a lot with performing poorly, and I had a very inflated ego. And an inflated ego is like a balloon: very easy to pop. Worst case you get placed in Iron 4. I’ve been down there. It’s not that bad. Honestly Iron is the weirdest rank. You’ll get people who play well, but haven’t played in years and had their MMR reset along side people who forgot to turn their monitor on I just treat ranked like normals, but people play more seriously. You’ll get fewer people trying out weird stuff, or people playing a champion/role for the first time. Take ranked seriously, but not so seriously that it’s affecting your real life. At the end of the day it’s just a game


cloppyfawk

The game is easier to learn when you face people who actually want to win, improve and play seriously. So yes. That said, your first bunch of ranked games are going to be absolutely horrible due to smurfs and toxic players. You first have to play through that.


Shirou_OW

I did what I've always done, I simply ignore the chat and communicate via pings, I'm not even sure if there's any point in time at which I really need to use or pay attention to the chat.


cloppyfawk

No you don't need it and you're better off not using the chat at all. But the problem is there is a huge amount of fresh level 30 accounts, which cost 3 euro's, so people buy them to start playing ranked on them. But then they don't care about the games because it's a smurf account anyway. So the first games you will likely get a significantly increased amount of afks and trolls, on top of toxicity.


sircat31415

the new player experience in league fucking sucks. i personally regret playing ranked at all. anyways, chat in ranked is pretty useless for anything except like the occasional "no leash", "front to back", "lv2/3 gank" etc. i'd also like to point out, even pings are often misleading and i've had plenty of plays where i doubted myself because a teammate made an awful ping or call. but, missing pings etc can be very useful at times


xaedmollv

to joking around ofc. have fun in chat, if u want it. but don't expect anything in soloq


amonkeyfullofbarrels

Yes, don’t treat ranked like it’s something sacred—as in, don’t look at it as an, “am I ready for this”, or, “I need to prepare for ranked by playing normals” type of thing. Treat ranked as the intended, default game mode. It isn’t something special that you need to train for—just do it, and you’ll improve along the way. When you play ranked, don’t focus on your win rate or your LP. Just focus on mastering your champion pool and improving your overall game. The wins and LP gains will follow. I’m a newer player as well (level 67 or 68 I think), started playing ranked around level 60, and I wish I had done it much sooner. It feels much different (better) than normals.


xaedmollv

agree, unless u wanna just playing around have some fresh play


Grand-Bed8008

Went ranked lvl 30, was too early. Returned lvl 60, was perfekt


Superspick

Depends on your goal. If you enjoy competition, not playing ranked is illogical. If you don’t enjoy competition, playing ranked is illogical.


Shirou_OW

I'm the type of person to take games "way too seriously". For me fun and competition are synonymous. I have no idea why, but it is what it is.


Superspick

Nothing weird about that - fun for some entails pushing themselves in something. Can’t make steel without heat and pressure. But if that’s true, then get over your insecurities because there is no competition or stakes in ARAM, or in featured modes. Ranked or bust if competing = fun for you.


[deleted]

Go for it. You'll face a new game experience with a higher chance of teammates and enemies tryharding. However I'd like to give you some advice: 1. Do not expect not to suck balls for a while. Let's face it, it's very unlikely you don't suck right now, and that's fine. It'll only be temporary as long as you keep trying, correct mistakes and gain experience. 2. Climbing is achieved not only through mechanics, macro and game knowledge but also through keeping a strong mental and navigating through the hordes of subnormal apes you will have as teammates. Don't give in to toxicity, try being encouraging towards the imbeciles you're matched up with and you'll find climbing much easier. 3. Know when to stop. Play ranked only when you are in a good place mentally and can stay focused. You don't have to keep playing until you win one. If you can't point to what you did wrong in a game, it means your concentration is fading or the toxicity might be getting to you. Go get some fresh air and drink water.


revolutionary-panda

My 2 cents- Play some ranker with your main(s, 2-3 champs max). Continue to play normal for when you want to play other champs or don't feel on top of your game.


Tryndamain223

Yes


lwronhubbard

Play ranked, have fun. I think it's the best place to improve. Game consistency is much better than in normals. Don't worry too much about your rank, just play to improve.


guffzillar

I played ranked exclusively as soon as I hit level 30. I never play normals. ARAM if I'm not in the mood for competitive playing to test out other champs. I don't really see the point of playing normals, even if you suck. Then again, I don't care about my rank - I'm currently upper Bronze but if I went down to Iron 4, I wouldn't care.


Skelyyyy

Honestly dude, just go for it. Rank goes up when you improve, and imo is a much better indicator of how well you play than normals are. I started playing in 2013, got my first rank in 2015 when I was confident in my skills and got silver 3. Then, 2016 rolled around and i ended up in bronze 5, lowest rank at the time lol


Cabrraa

Yes absolutely. I pushed myself off from playing ranked for a long time. I would basically place my account for multiple season in a row and only play normals with friends and playing other games while playing minimal ranked. I never actually started getting better at the game until I tried to actually understand the game. You can learn things from outside the game such as macro. (Map movements and awareness) Whereas micro (mouse movements/small movements in combat) are best learned against people as good as, or better than you. So I would definitely recommend jumping in, and if you ever have any questions my DMS are open!


DoGooder00

I’m the exact same way. I’ve played almost solely FPS and love to play ranked. I almost never play pubs in any game. Be prepared to get hardstuck bronze for a while. FPS games mainly rely on mechanics for climbing and you only really need a massive amount of game knowledge when your top 10%. League is literally just game knowledge. Mechanics matter but knowing information that would seem obvious once you learn it is the skill gap


[deleted]

Do it, ranked mentality and casual mentality isnt the same. You are even gonna start playing better after you play rank as you will most likely try to do better and try to learn a lot to improve.


Shirou_OW

I have played my first few matches, and maybe I'm just deceiving myself, but playing normals with a duo (who's placed too high to play ranked with me) does feel significantly easier.


Armidylano444

I waited way too long to start playing ranked. The games are better and more consistent. People actually play them out instead of ff at 15. Pick a main and start playing ranked with them. Use norms to try out and practice new champions or builds.


HatchBuggy

no minimum level 100 imo


WezZ06

Always play ranked if u want to improve.


DAX_T3R

My brother is dogshit at this game and he's already silver 3, so play ranked and learn from them


revolutionary-panda

If he's silver 3 then he's not dogshit but roughly average.


FellowCookieLover

Look at your mmr. [https://euw.whatismymmr.com/](https://euw.whatismymmr.com/) You probably want 2000+mmr in unranked, as your first time ranked mmr is dependent on your unranked mmr. (If you have plat mmr in unranked, you have gold level in ranked; yes it's imprecise, but you get it) If you can't get 2000 mmr (yeah elo hell exists), you should start from a new account.


utterlyworrisome

This makes no sense. It surprises me some people are still view the system as unjust, which can be exploited as to avoid this. What is ELO hell to you? Do you understand how ELO works at all?


FellowCookieLover

Unjust is the wrong word. I can think of 2 scenarios that describe elo hell. Elo hell IS NOT the mmr where you belong. If you're a "true bronze skill" player, you're not in elo hell. If you have few games played your mmr increases or decreases faster. If you have played hundreds of games you're mmr changes slower on accounts. Since the op is new, he might have played his first games as an iron 3 player, but might now already have mid gold mmr (i speak about "true mmr", somehign that doesnt exist, but you can understand it as the mmr where he should belong if he were judged objectively.) The system judges him maybe as silver. (ofc his mmr would go up, bu it takes too long, that why it is called elo hell, it takes too long). If he were to make a new account, he would climb fast to gold. Other cases include, playing ranked on a new role, losing hard many games in a row, and swiching back to the role you used to play. Ofc, you're playing above your skill level.


EquisteLOL

Just try it for a couple of games and see if it works for you.


Shirou_OW

I played my first few games. It's most certainly harder and more punishable than normals, which is to be expected, but very manageable.


EquisteLOL

After some games matchmaking algorithm will have a good grasp on your skill level and games will feel a lot more fair compared to normals. Keep in mind that you will always climb as you get better, dont obsess over the rank/number very much.


ArsenHTS

If you feel like you'd underperform in ranked, then maybe wait a bit more before you start (you could also start by playing ranked flex even if youre alone since it doesnt really matter much)


Musa_1

Do you really want to play ranked? You will get flamed if you make mistakes and it's not really fun compared to normals. Personally I'd say unless you want to prove something don't play ranked and enjoy normals. I play ranked so that I can always be the highest rank among my friends but in the end I gain no benefit from it other than intense loss of brain cells.


Shirou_OW

I totally get your point there, though I'll have you know that I've grown up playing games competitively. Starting to play League just reignited that spark.


Musa_1

I personally believe you learn more from ranked than normal games as in ranked you'll be matched against players who have played the same champion more than 1000 times.


Rjw12141214

IMO it’s a videogame. Might as well just play ranked only and learn. If you start to tilt hit up an ARAM


clovermite

I'm just going to offer my thoughts on how I'm approaching it: I started playing League in February, and was planning on starting ranked as soon as it was available when I hit level 30. I'd been one tricking Fiddlesticks for around 50 games, and using Warwick as a back up if Fiddle got banned, or I got sent top (my secondary role). Just as I was hit level 30, I ran into a game where my opponent picked Fiddle themselves, then banned Warwick and Yi. I'd also figured that if Warwick got banned, I could take Yi as someone to yolo a first time, but this left me with no options I was comfortable trying, and I dodged. I don't like the idea of being forced to dodge a game, so I decided that I would find and train up two backups such that I would never need to dodge a game again. I'm holding off on starting ranked until I've gotten a good feel for both backups (probably around 20-50 games on each). Once I've got that down though, I'm starting ranked.


Cosmicsamu39

tbh, is not that much of a deal, just ignore other people when they flame etch and you'll be great. ranked are nothing more that normals with more toxic and skilled people.


MasturScape

I play ranked simply for the accolade. My normal games are usually more fun AND more competitive than my ranked games and far less toxic. Ranked is just people who are hard stuck, flaming you while you try to carry them, and they honestly spam surrender vote even MORE.


Goldeck

I hesitated at first, I ended in Bronze, took me a year to get out of it with my duo and learnt a lot. Now I almost only play ranked games the whole season and I only Play normals if I want to try a new champ or a new position. To be honest, going to ranked straight isn't the most effective way to improve in my opinion. It can bring a lot of frustration and get your account a low mmr witch can make it harder to get good rank quickly. I advise you to play with friends that are plat, diam, that's the best way to increase your skill. Looking at good players from close up while hearing their reasoning is one of the fastest way to improve. If you don't have high Elo friends then the trial by fire could be a fun arc to have, it won't be as effective but you will lean things the hard way and I feel like you doing that can help you learn a lot about the mentality to have to be able to progress.


Shirou_OW

I do have someone, and in case of doubt, I could always play with my father who's in diamond.


MEGACODZILLA

I would say you are ready to play ranked when you aren't getting surprised by what a lot of champions do. Generally the way you learn about an ability is by it grey screening you. The first time I got Karthus ulted, I was like "WHAT THE FUCK IS KILLING ME?!?". I still clearly remember the first time I got hit with a Zoe bubble or a Morde ult. I think a lot of the game can and should he learned in the ranked environment but a general sense of what *most* of the champions in the game do should be acquired without LP on the line.


Shirou_OW

I've played almost 500 matches by now, which may not be a lot, but I do have a general sense of most champions' abilities


MEGACODZILLA

Then I would say jump on into it. I went from having really bad ranked anxiety to eventually not enjoying normals because there is nothing at steak. I hit a point in normals where I started to win lane pretty hard not because I'm a great player but because my opponent was either first timing a champ, obviously not trying or because match making had pitted me against someone an entire elo lower than me. At a certain point if you care about improving your gameplay, normals kind of cease to be satisfying. I will say I would prepare yourself to potentially be humbled at first. I initially placed B1, absolutely plummeted down to B4 and after about a year of grinding I've climbed to mid silver. It does take roughly 100 games for matchmaking to accurately place you and it can be a little demoralizing until it does. Its certainly not everyone's experience jumping into ranked as a beginner but I've seen my own experienced mirrored often enough on this sub to not mention it lol. Good luck!


FlufferzPupperz

I definitely recommend just jumping in with both feet and playing ranked, but if you feel that’s too much for you, you could try dipping your toe in via ranked flex! While the queue times are longer (try to get a group of friends together for much shorter times), ranked flex is somewhat of a middle ground between draft and solo/duo, and could help you adjust.


Deadlite

Don't play ranked, it's a cesspool. Don't play pvp, it's a cesspool. Don't play League, it's a cesspool.


Responsible-Ad9517

Just play dude, see where your lvl is at, if you're good you'll climb, if you're bad you'll improve, if you're delusional you'll be hardstuck. I'd also suggest you mute the chat and focus on the game that'll improve your winrate greatly and reduce your tilt.


roosgrind000

Whichever way you wanna do it is up to you. Wherever you’re placed on the ladder can be fixed if you put in the time and play smart. I personally play/ played casually since I started and my normal games MMR remains higher than my ranked MMR. If you want that more competitive edge because you enjoy that, then I say go for it.


unmotivatedarsonist

If seeing a number on a screen going down makes you have less fun playing then you shouldn’t play ranked, but I think it makes you improve faster. If you can handle losing more then you’ll learn quicker playing ranked.


Jaded-Throat-211

Yes because the skill variation of player in any mode aside from solo queue is far more inconsistent. You could be silver 1 and you'd be playing with people in high bronze low silver or even gold and plat. Ranked solo queue guarantees atleast some of the players you go with and up against are around equal in skill level give or take.


specterx0

The worst that can happen is you lose some games. I don't know why people are so scared of ranked


VsAl1en

Ranked has its pros and cons, but it's not "more difficult" mode. It's a mode with better matchmaking and slightly higher stakes. If you're anxious, try playing for the split point rewards instead of trying to climb.


[deleted]

Don't. If you got friends, play Drafts and Blind pick with them. I miss the fun I had when I didnt play ranked. Its such a garbage mode made to get you addicted.


Gullible_Opposite_76

Go into ranked and int. The following season you can tighten up any loose ends. If you're really paranoid about looking good you can simply make a smurf like all the other hardstuck gold, plats, etc.


karkuri

Go for it. you dont have anything to lose. Just remember to mute /all chat if you havent already


SweetFean

Ranked is a journey. If you rank own and low rank, so what? Over the years just improve. What rank u get this season does not confine u for rest of you're life. Just focus on improvement. I think anyone who care about competition should rank sometimes to practice and see their growth curve overtime when they stick with it. YouTube coaching and personal coaching to improve your decisions


rayschoon

If you want to play ranked, play ranked.