the nightmare is duoing with hunnybadger   we have like a 25% win rate together.  I'm a glutton for punishment tho

So - ranked discussion time for anyone that is interested.  Feel free to chime in on any points.  I'll do a super quick recap re: my experience 1st - I did not play ranked in season 1.  Season 2 I duo'd up to gold pretty quickly (think I played like 15 games tops).  I wasn't really into it at the time and wanted the rewards.  Season 3 I'm super into it now that they created this league system. 

League system vs elo.  I guess I never really had much anxiety over re: playing ranked games.  I guess the only thing that was all that stressful was knowing that your 1st 10 games meant a heck of a lot to decide where you'd initial place.  I came up with several theories about what roles were best to duo queue with, etc.  At this point, I don't really care about the roles and just try to get myself a carry of some sort when possible. With elo, it just seemed like you somehow lost more when you take a loss.  Not really sure why it felt that way.

Anyway, I play my placement matches in season 3 (wrote about it a few pages back or so if interested) and end up placing pretty low.  I end up in tier 1 bronze (highest level of crappy bronze land).  Pretty quickly I qualify for my promotional series (you must win 3/5 games to move to a division tier (eg bronze/silver, etc).  If you are just moving up to a different tier within a division (ex silver tier 3, silver tier 2), you just need to win 2/3 games.

I really, really like the league system because it gives you clearly attainable goals.  For instance, I was just promoted to the bottom of silver.  If I win 4 games, I'll be up for a promotional series (I think they call it a diff name when its the best 2/3 games).  That means, if I stuck with it, I could likely promote to a new tier in a day.  Having goals that at least appear easily attainable really make playing more frequently exciting (eg just 1 more game!). 

That said, there's the oh so shitty downside of things.  Now, if I play a game with 5 of my pals in a normal, I generally know what I'm getting.  There's no real random variables.  In ranked, all you have are random variables.  I could solo queue and get 4 randoms and have a great game or get 2 idiots... or get 1 troll.  I'm convinced that with the ranked system as it is, I'll be able to progress through the ranks just fine, but I still personally feel like I've maybe blown in 2-3 times tops in a ranked game now.  I just wish there was a better way to ensure that the games were more consistently even.  There's not.  That's what I kind of dislike about ranked.  There's no real middle ground.  It's just a crap shoot.  All you can do is do your best and try to pick roles that can carry so you have to rely on your teammates less. The system sucks in that I could literally get X number of games in a row with awful teammates or folks that dc.  There's equally good odds that I wouldn't.  But its completely feasible that I could play like a champ and lose game after game.  I'll end up with a > 50% win rate due to my skill level when all is said and done, but seriously - I had to replay my promotion series to get out of bronze like 3 times.  That's just stupid.  Those promotion series are the worst when it comes to the way ranked works (odds of getting tardos could go either way).  If its not a promotion game, then I just bounce back after a loss.  If it is, well, you can get stuck in a loop when you know it should be incredibly easy to get that last win, etc. 

other flaws in the system - I don't think there is any way to tell when you'd be demoted.  I have no idea anyway.  When I got to silver, I lost my first 1-2 games. Then I won some.  Heck if I know if I could be demoted by losing 2 games out of the gates.  And AFAIK, we don't know how that formula works or have enough data to be able to calculate it.  On the plus side, I wasn't all that worried I'd get demoted and I'm not now either. 

Anywho - my thoughts re: ranked for now.

You can't get demoted right away when you join a new division.  You'll notice a little star like icon next to your name that signifies you're a "recruit" and means you can't be demoted... so I guess it's a great time to spam games to get a point cushion.

I'm stoked on this new system too, it feels more rewarding.  Also I really have enjoyed the two post placement games I played solo, but that could very well be a fluke.  Everyone communicated well and played as a team, so hopefully that continues for me.

Think you're going to have a much better time when you get up to the level that you belong in, since you don't thrive in games that are below your skill level sometimes.

ah - that's good to know.  Thanks.

I think my first 5 games once I was placed had nothing but nice players as well.  We won all 5 if I'm remembering it right.  Was certainly encouraging. 

yah, we did, but at least for me, I lost all interest once we hit that gold goal.  I don't think either of us played a ranked game after we knocked out those games and hit gold (I didn't anyway).  I feel like the goals are even more attainable because they happen much faster than from going from silver to gold (eg silver 5, silver 4, and so on). 

that blows - sorry to hear that bryff. 

No, you find an awesome duo queue partner and make sure you work with them on your promotion games.

There will never be a good solo ranking method for a team game.  You guys emphasis the drawbacks every time you talk about it.  I main support, so I'm at the mercy of my randomly chosen peers pretty much entirely.

completely agree.  I like the concept, but buttom line is that I will NEVER play in a game with or against the people in my league.  it's statistically improbable.  I like seeing that I'm top of the ladder or w/e, but it doesn't matter.

I only build that for Ryze or guys like Singed that charge it really fast.

Plenty of good carries languishing in bronze and silver...  You don't have to aim higher, just smarter.

ranked recap - I went 2/3 last night.  One completely ridiculous 40-50 minute game where the enemy mid and our jungler went afk.  We actually had our jungler for like 8 minutes, but the guy didn’t gank anything… just farmed the jungle and then dc’d.  Then another guy on my team says they have to dc and rejoin… so they afk for like 5 minutes… was a hoot.  Game goes on and on… anytime we kill someone, someone my team goes apeshit and decides we all need to run to the enemy base and try to kill an inhib… then they kill 1 or 2 of us off and then do the same thing to us.  It was pretty ridiculous.  Decision making processes = smeh.  I go along with all the stupid calls as I didn’t have a heck of a lot of choice (follow them or they all die or accomplish nothing).  We eventually lose the game.  Then 1 game, I carry the whole team completely going like 16/1/9 or something. The team really lacked any leadership, so I started making the calls and everyone fell into place.  That felt nice and was encouraging. 

 My last game, in particular, really stuck out to me, which was a loss.  Got me thinking about a few things.  Now 1^st off, my impression is that both my jungler and top laners were incompetent.  For example, my jungler managed to get herself killed within a few minutes by being a retard.  She (vi) grabs blue and then sets up for a gank on bot (im adc).  Now, she’s clearly standing on a ward in the enemy tri bush based on how the enemy is reacting.  I’ve got a large creep wave that is close to my tower.  So, I can move in for a 100% sure to fail gank (I’m not even level 2 and miss a ton of cs or just farm my lane.  I choose to farm as there’s no chance for anything.  So, my jungler, who clearly is on a ward, decides to head into the enemy jungle… where she gets picked off by the adc/support/jungler/mid.  My mid doesn’t even react and I at least reposition to try to help vi out… vi who didn’t even attempt to hop away through the baron pit.  Anyway, that set the stage.  The game goes on.  My top lane is complaining and asking for help, which vi never seems to give.  What vi does give, though, is awful setups over and over for ganks that do more harm than good.  She was the type of jungler that paid no attention to the state of the lane, enemy reactions, anything at all… least of all my early game damage output.  Side note – the enemy team has jax/taric/ww.   If you play adc – you know how much fun this will be late game.  Did I mention my top lane was health stacking, no damage zed? 

 So, onto what I’m really thinking about – 1^st – I think both my top and jungler were asshats.  They ran their mouth a little about me being too passive while I consider the vast majority of their decisions poorly thought out.  It does make me wonder if I am being too passive, though.  I’m not sure.  I think I’m pretty measured when I play adc.  I go in for trades when I’m confident I can get in some damage  safely – this happens pretty frequently during early game laning with cait.  My cs numbers are usually pretty solid.  I’m generally not running around like a maniac when things aren’t safe.   And I position myself in such a way where I won’t be the primary target when possible.  I feel like I play a pretty decent adc.  The only thing I’ve been trying to work on is getting a little more of a killing edge – and by that, I mean, being more spot on when there’s a chance to get a kill in during laning.  That’s really the only thing I’m thinking about being a smidge too passive on.  There I don’t think I’m always taking enough risk vs the reward.  Anywho, not really sure.

My old theory was that I'd play support in ranked or fill in where needed, thus giving my teammates the best chance to play the roles they were best at.

After getting busted down to Silver II, I'm throwing that method out the window.  The two games I've played ADC (arguably my worst non jungle role) in ranked I've done really well personally and actually carried the last game I played in where we had a Volibear who was disconnected on and off, what felt like 50% of the time.

tl;dr I'm done supporting.  Buy your own wards for now on.

@Karl

LoL is an E-Sport as well as a game, and like it or not they are trying to give us a taste of that experience when we play ranked.  In any sort of sport there is usually a playoff type setting at the end of the season, which makes those games feel more important and meaningful.  Seems like if they wanted to bring more of a sense of excitement and accomplishment to ranked, they succeeded on both accounts.  I'm kinda digging this whole system and it seems like a lot of other people are too, even if it is flawed and some accuracy has been sacrificed.  

You say that you move more slowly to your correct elo this way, and I see how that is true if you have bad luck on your promotion games.  However, maybe you progress faster to where you should be if something doesn't go wrong when you're trying to go up a level?

tl;dr Did you hear they're wanting to buff WW?  Incoming werewolf bans in our in house games.

@Pacov

I'd say you err on the side of over aggression in lane, if anything.  With the exception of Draven, you tend to play pokey, grinder style champs.  Ez and Cait are strong early game, and when you play them well will successfully ruin other peoples laning experience by zoning them and sending them back to base.  They can get kills of course, but that seems more predicated on people stubbornly trying to stay in lane when you've harassed them down and also forgetting about your long distance ults.  That's my take on it at least. 

tl;pacovdr No listen to asshats.

yeah - that's pretty much my conclusion.  If you are actually a solid player, make someone else play support.  You simply do not have as much influence as other roles in carrying.  Supports an incredibly valuable role - unless I ask you to do 1500 dmg in 2 seconds. At best you can keep alive the guy that might do that... and if he's rubbish... well - that's that.  Anyway, I always call a preferred role immediately.  If my queue position allows me to take it, I will. 

There's a program I used for a little while in season 2 that allows you to see your everyone in the queues best characters, etc.  I stopped using it after 2-3 games because I didn't think it was fair.  That said, its just an efficient way of looking up lolking stats.  It's pretty easy to say.. uh - no, you are a terrible adc.  I'll take it based on knowing peoples stats and sharing that info (the prog I used gave you an html link that you could paste that would clearly show who's good at what.  I wish we had info like that available to everyone automatically, because its good info to know. The real reason its not a good program to use is that it allows you to easily ban a players best character. For instance, my best adc is cait.  If you use this program, you could see that and make a targeted ban. 

We'll see.  I'd actually prefer dealing with ww over xin/udyr/chog in some instances.  Just a matter of comp.

see - I don't know. Maybe you are right.  The game you are talking about was an exception.  I change my play style based on a few different things.  1 (sad to say) is karl being negative as fuck.  I still think that silly annie adc would have worked fine.  But karl ran his mouth when things were going good and refused to take shots at baron.... so I started playing like a tard and made a more silly build.  In the game you are talking about, bryff - we saw our top die at < 10 minutes in.  And we clearly saw our jungler was rubbish.  My aggression was more of a mad dive for money before we'd be dealing with 4 bot than anything else.  I'm still amazed we won that game... but it required me to do more silly stuff like farm a smidge when I should be somewhere else (not giving up anything major, ofc, but I should have been with the team PROBABLY).  Anyway, that was a magical game that we both expected to lose.  Happy we won it, but it was silly as fug.  to that crappy jungler diana though.  Smart enough to get us smites on baron.  God awful at knowing how to use diana in the slightest. 

Anyway, I'd honestly appreciate more feedback about my adc.  My real confusion comes from ranked, sadly.  In the past 2 days, I've played like 7 or so games of ranked.  In 2 of those games, I've literally carried my entire team to victory.  As in you lose the game without me.  I don't often do that.  In games like those, I think I'm doing pretty much everything exceptionally well... stats say I am anyway.  Other times, I just do ok, but honestly, in ranked, all of those instances have to do with what's going on in other lanes.  What I'm trying to figure out is what I'm doing right and wrong.  If every game I had stats like 17/1, well.. you'd have to say - holy shit - I'd like to be doing whatever you are doing wrong. 

Anyway, Bryff says I'm being overaggressive.  I'd like to hear more feedback if anyone has observed me playing adc recently.  I personally think I'm evenly measured with a tendency towards over aggression. 

Well, League just patched for me, but I haven't been on in a day or two so I can't say for sure if it is 3.02.

Edit: Top of my screen says 3.02 so I would say it is live.