How is it even possible to progress in solo ranked?

[Pixelmancer]

I recently came back after not playing since alpha and beta. In the old system it was easy to gain ELO since you could play in a full team all the time. Now it looks like it's pretty much just down to sheer dumb luck whether you can gain a rank or not. Last game I played I got the highest contribution on both teams by far, but my team lost the game and I lost a rank anyway. Your personal skill is absolutely meaningless. Only wins matter. But you can only get wins if the rest of your team aren't horrible and you can't pick your team. So to the people who have made it out of silver, how did you manage to do it? Do you just have to grind away at it until you get a lucky day of good teams? So far I've had statistically improbable luck with getting terrible teams over and over. I'm in the middle of the biggest losing streak I've ever had on any game in my life and it's all thanks to being stuck with randos. Can someone point me to a guide or something? How do I beat the true enemy, my own team? I've tried giving advice. Don't split up too bad, we need to focus fire. So of course someone immediately runs off to die 2 vs 1 and then everyone else scattered after that. I've tried pinging too. Nothing can herd the cats. Meanwhile we're facing teams where Helio black holes the Asana, who then dashes in and pulls us into a big one. Meanwhile I can't even get my own team to be in the same half of the map.

[KoyoteKamper]

You are correct that you are likely to find some games unwinnable. However, if you find a Lancer you can consistently deal 600 damage and not die in every single game then you're on your way to winning solo queue. Learning how to play at least 4 firepowers at that level while knowing how to do your job on 3 tanks and supports means you should have atleast a 55-60% winrate and youll climb eventually.

[Pixelmancer]

I just had a game where I outdamaged my team's Zuki and Gremolitions by about 150 AS ORION! I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

You are correct that you are likely to find some games unwinnable. However, if you find a Lancer you can consistently deal 600 damage and not die in every single game then you're on your way to winning solo queue. Learning how to play at least 4 firepowers at that level while knowing how to do your job on 3 tanks and supports means you should have atleast a 55-60% winrate and youll climb eventually.

Not some games. Literally 95% of them. Sadly, that's not hyperbole. You don't understand how bad these people are. That game I just mentioned the Titus immediately ran to the north end of the map to do little to nothing to the enemy Aurora for half the game. When he finally came back around turn 9ish she still had about 80% health. God knows what he was even doing up there. Meanwhile the aforementioned firepowers fled to the west edge of the map as I got chain CC'd and focused down by the other 3/4ths of the enemy team in the south near the spawn. They were there when the fight started. What am I supposed to do about that? Want to know how stupid these people were? Turn 20 big one with the score at 4-1. 'Nuff said. For the record I can play every character well with a half way decent team. The problem is that 99% of the time I'm solo for all intents and purposes. I don't know how to mitigate having a bad team, but obviously some people do.

[Nales]

I don't know why, but there's been a SHARP drop in average skill level in the last few days. In about half my recent games there's at least one player (not necessarily in my team, mind you) who doesn't even understand the basics. I had a Celeste fail to kill a Helio because she only hit him with one fist. The other fist? Straight into an adjacent wall.
Also had several Oz and Kaigins who didn't move after their dash. And a Nix who went into an open camo square where our Su-Ren had just acted.

Anyway, there needs to be a limit on the acceptable MMR difference between players on the same game. I don't mind playing with "mediocre" players, but there's a difference between mediocre and unacceptable. Players who don't bother trying to improve should be left to play among themselves.

[Pixelmancer]

In case anyone thinks I'm exaggerating here's a screenshot. Names have been censored to protect the mentally handicapped. I'm Bitskrieg.



133 more damage than Gremo and 169 more damage than Zuki. Yeah I died twice. Orion has no escapes and my team refused to stay with me. That's also why my healing is on the low side. You try healing while your team is trying their best to run away from you and break line of sight. Anyway, the point is I shouldn't be ~150 damage ahead of both firepowers on my team as a support, especially when I was out of the game for 4 turns. How am I supposed to win when these are the teams I keep getting stuck with? I had the highest contribution on both teams, but it didn't stop them from making me lose. Serious question, someone please tell me what I'm supposed to do about this.

I don't know why, but there's been a SHARP drop in average skill level in the last few days. In about half my recent games there's at least one player (not necessarily in my team, mind you) who doesn't even understand the basics. I had a Celeste fail to kill a Helio because she only hit him with one fist. The other fist? Straight into an adjacent wall.
Also had several Oz and Kaigins who didn't move after their dash. And a Nix who went into an open camo square where our Su-Ren had just acted.

Anyway, there needs to be a limit on the acceptable MMR difference between players on the same game. I don't mind playing with "mediocre" players, but there's a difference between mediocre and unacceptable. Players who don't bother trying to improve should be left to play among themselves.

Lessening the MMR gap is part of a solution, but what really needs to be done is fixing how MMR is calculated in the first place. It's absurd that your solo MMR is based on something you have no control over. Basing it on wins is fine for team ranked, but solo ranked needs to be based on average contribution or K/D or something. Anything as long as it's something the player actually has control over. Michael Jordan can't win basketball if his team is a bunch of midgets with peg legs.

[Kujo]

I think it was Kiwi that posted awhile back having had a similar experience in Season 1. I feel it is still the biggest problem with their system, especially in ranked, that you can fall into an MMR pit it is impossible to climb out of. Personal skill just isn't sufficient to guarantee a certain level of win/loss so that you will climb out--if a good person is grouped with three bad people, they will still lose and their MMR will still go down.

There's no individual metric that reliably measures all the ways you can play well in a match. And you wouldn't want people playing just for damage, for example. Many times it is better for someone do 15 and secure a kill than do 30*3 to the other three (full health) opponents.

What's your pvp win/loss like? Maybe there could be some way to rescue a bad solo ranked mmr if your pvp mmr is much better.

[atlasbroken]

you happen to be on my flist

i never really thought you were a good player tho

and didn't seem to understand some basics

i started rank only this season and got into gold currently

* how many games do you have played?

i wish i could see my rank win rate but doesn't seem like i can currenlty?

[Ecoclone]

I got to plat 5 in 53 games but it took over 300 to get to contender for me and thats with alot of heavy carrying but when you have peeps that run out into the wild and stand on the wrong side of cover and they die 3 to 4 times losses are bound to happen but if your ever teamed up with me ill give it my all like i do in 99% of my games

[Steely]

You have 3 chances to have a monkey in your team, for 4 chances to have a monkey in the ennemy team.

If yourself, you are not a bonobo, you will climb the ladder.

quod erat demonstrandum

[Catastrophe]

I don't think there's a magic bullet to slay the monster known as "It's hard to consistently win in Solo Ranked".
The convenience of having solo ranked matches is greatly offset by the randomness of skill level on both teams. And there is much less room for mistakes if you want a shot to win. But if you keep improving your own skills and get better at coaching run-of-the-mill teammates, you should win more than you lose.
Also, if it was easy to get to Platinum V, everyone would do it in 40 matches and then stop playing this wonderfully controlled chaos of a game. Don't let the mayhem stop!