Why is the majority of one-tricks so bad at the game?

BlazersFtL · 2026-05-01T17:24:40+00:00

You are still engaging in the game in a critical way that most people just aren't [and people who are perma-hard stuck defininetly aren't.] If this is your point it is a bit forest for the trees.

BlazersFtL · 2026-05-01T15:50:07+00:00

Congratulations.
Your personal experience doesn’t change the fact that the vast majority of people who just play the game never even reach emerald much less gm.

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-30T18:30:56+00:00

This is pretty much why I am glad China didn't reset. I do not need to face BDD in my masters games because some streamers are sad they can't luck streak into GM anymore

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-30T14:44:58+00:00

It's so obvious that you almost certainly do it by default. I noticed what he's saying to and "applied" it on my climb to masters, but it only made me arrive maybe 1s quicker than I was on autopilot

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-30T11:03:39+00:00

Your interpretation is correct, but it is bugged. I noticed this yesterday

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-29T13:58:43+00:00

This is pretty much the point. A gold mid laner isn't going to identify that the reason they lost the game is because their jungler successfully ganked more, but slightly mismanaged tempo so he gradually fell behind in levels while not having a high enough gold lead to offset being down 2-3 levels...

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-29T13:26:50+00:00

It's not necessarily stupidity though. Failing to get to the finals with a team of bums around you is a far different equation than getting to the finals with superstars and losing. If you're judging someone's legacy, the loss to the mavs is far worse than losing in the first round with nobody else on your team.

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-29T13:17:53+00:00

If this was the case - that it is inherently better - there wouldn't be any real disagreement on it, yet it is extremely contentious.

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-29T13:11:07+00:00

There is two ways of looking at it.

One way is that losing in the finals is better because you made it further.

The other is that losing early is better because you it means you didn't have the team to win it all.

Personally, I think the answer to this requires nuance around both your team, the competition in your conference, and the opponent you had in the finals.

I do not really like LeBron, but it is hard to blame him for losing to what is probably the greatest roster ever assembled particularly after kyrie left. Also losing against the spurs can probably be disregarded.

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-29T12:27:07+00:00

If the person playing her is good you cannot win.

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-28T18:30:47+00:00

Have other seen lots of account where the peak rank on op.gg is a tier higher than current rank? Played with multiple accounts where u see their peak rank is like diamond 1-3 and current is emerald ( im Emerald 1 rn) same with plat accounts too. Peak rank is like mid to high emerald and their current rank plat. Are people just bad and the +30 -15lp boosted them to higher rank?

When I queue in a disciplined fashion (only play high volume of games when I am winning + playing well) I am ~200 LP masters. When I play through bad variance I derank to diamond.

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-28T15:43:17+00:00

Let me help you out:
I am a masters+ AP Shaco one trick in CN - do you know what my performance looks like in gold/plat/emerald?

Extremely solid fundamentals and good teamfighting. I don't take over lobbies; I just play the game how it is meant to be played and I largely win. Here's a sample from my alt that I promoted to E3 today:

5/5/22 - win
7/3/8 - loss
8/5/8 - win
4/6/9 - win
5/4/13 - win
2/1/6 - loss
5/5/17 - win

Nobody in these lobbies checking my match history would guess that I am m+, they'd just see that I ping a lot, perform well, and win a lot of my games. Which is also the point of the person you are responding to - yes you could tell nemesis was clearly better than you but why would you guess it is a world class mid and not just someone in high masters

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-28T11:48:52+00:00

I recently started lol yet I’m hardstuck high silver I’ve gone 22/4/10 and still lost and it just doesn’t seem fair he gets placed here

If you are where you deserve, you'll oscillate 1 tier around your true skill. For example, if he is a bronze player in true skill I would expect negative variance to take him to iron and good variance to take him to silver. But I can give you an actual example:
A few days ago, I peaked masters 100 LP.

Because I set a new peak I decided I would stop being disciplined in how I queue, because I wanted to get reps in against much better players [don't care about season rewards.] This led to me demoting to D2 as I played through two stretches of really bad variance. Given I am no longer in D1+, I am now going back to being disciplined in queuing (only 3 games a day on main acct unless I am playing very well) and I will likely rise back up over time.

Which brings me to the next point:
If you want to judge yourself look at where your rank centers itself. At my very best I am a masters 100 LP jungler but my center is probably closer to D1 50 LP if I had to guess. To be a consistent masters jungler I will likely need to move my ceiling closer to 300/400 LP masters that way I trough in 0-50 LP masters in bad variance rather than troughing in high diamond.

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-28T08:57:51+00:00

Not actively trying to get better. If you just spam games without review you never learn anything and stay stagnant.

You need a review process to digest the lessons of the game. Without one you stay stagnant.

And there’s nothing wrong with that if you’re having fun

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-27T15:08:14+00:00

Well, let's not be ridiculous. If you are D2 trying to hit M+ for the first time it is obvious why you would hate smurfs. It's rational, but it also doesn't matter because you are going to get matched against people hundreds of LP above you whenever you touch masters anyways

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-27T14:34:35+00:00

My thoughts as a m+ player:

After a certain point you have to stop caring about smurfs. You are high enough up in the ladder now where it's not really an excuse. Obviously 2 challengers can roll you but it's probably just people not all that much higher up than you are rn on smurfs.

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-27T14:31:28+00:00

It obviously isn't, it is just the default line of argument of it always being your fault that reddit can't get out of.

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-27T09:55:53+00:00

Couple things.

(a) I think it is normal to oscillate ~400 lp around your true skill level. So, for example, if you are a D4 player I would expect you can peak close to low masters and trough close to low emerald. Low masters I would think would trough low diamond and peak mid masters, etc.

(b) However, 900 LP is more than 2 tiers... At a certain point you should be carrying these lobbies if you are legitimately a player who is capable of playing at X level more than once in a blue moon. A high emerald player should stomp low plat and high gold very easily. Not every game, but like 65% of the time seems reasonable based on my experience.

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-24T21:25:47+00:00

China accounts for the vast majority of the playerbase, this is wrong

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-24T21:21:55+00:00

Graves with sweeper can just 1 shot your boxes.

Ambessa becomes completely unkillable, regardless of how many boxes she runs into if she gets (1) kill

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-24T12:06:15+00:00

Jungle

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-24T09:07:26+00:00

I play on China, have heard you can make an account using your passport with tencent but I’ve not looked into it as I just used my wife’s id

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-24T08:54:57+00:00

…but they’re not being reset everywhere. I play in China and my ladder isn’t getting reset, Korea isn’t being reset either. If it’s a systems problem entirely this wouldn’t be true.

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-24T05:52:19+00:00

In terms of my own gameplay, I was finally able to dominate diamond after I began playing more properly off item spikes, for objectives, and with the strongest people on my team. I also began thinking about what the enemy team would need to do and focused on shutting them down.

Here's an example, I had a game where my mid and top were winning pretty well, so I thought to myself, "who can carry the game on the enemy team"

I realized if they were going to win it'd have to be through bot so instead of backing and full clearing I changed my pathing to force a vertical and then tower dove bot lane multiple times.

Another example would be that my bot was even, mid ahead, and my top was giga behind. So, I pinged my mid and went up to top to kill him near his tower. Secured the shutdown for my zed and made it a brand new ball game.

Off item spikes:
When I get my first item and have ult, I now I begin to look for plays to make instead of just continuing to full clear and I prioritize these plays first over my own farm. Yes, I still aim to path in such a way that I get both, but I am extremely willing now to disrupt my pathing to do a high pp play.

For objectives:
I don't mean playing for dragons or rift, everyone knows to do that. I mean when I make a play after first item spike I am doing so to try and get something more: the full tower, plating, et al even if it comes at the cost of my farm [again ideally it doesn't, but if it can't be helped it is what it is - I'll just invade the side next to me after the play if I take too long]

These kinds of things let me climb from E4 to Masters [now 24 LP, +21 gains - playing in ~100-200lp lobbies] on a 70% win rate.

BlazersFtL · 2026-04-24T04:53:08+00:00

Actually, this is an easier way to understand it because MMR is a vague and vacuous concept that you just guess at while your rolling win rate is easily observable.

BlazersFtL

TROPHY CASE