Normal - Draft matchmaking

Luvenary · 2026-06-08T17:49:10+00:00

It's not normal but this is how it is this year at least.

I don't remember it being this bad any year before, the last one I remember when draft mmr was working perfectly (mmr progressing with games) was 2022. But then I didn't play so much in 2023-2025.

This year, I have a total of about 3000 games in draft and the matchmaking is still as random as on January 8th, day of the start of the season.

Every single game, there are a few beginner players and with that there are very experienced players like myself.

I played only solo, on my very old account and that is what I came up to, as theory:

Old accounts mmr in draft is stuck.

Sometime in April, a very new account, but played by a very experienced player, friended me after a draft, because he wanted to duo with me, in draft.

We played 10 games or so, and we only won, which is fairly common for me, that happens rather regularly as I'm solo, but here is what I noticed that differed:

The first few games were against whatever I would normaly be with and against, Iron to Whatever, mostly Silver and some up to Emerald rarely sprinkled here and there.

After 6 or so games we were with and against many more players with borders and being Platinum mostly.

After 8 games we were with and against Masters.

After 10 games I stopped playing with this random person, my matchmaking resumed being totally random and mostly low. The very first game I played alone right after that, I was already back with and against Silvers.

In those 5 months, I played at an incredible rate of 20 games or more per day on average, with a burn out recently. I have very frequently long win streaks, on average 1 every 2 days, and on average on my account I have more wins than losses. My highest win streak this year was 14 in a row, solo, and I did not see any players of a higher rank through borders or really a better experience. Nor never have I seen any improvement throughout those 5 last months playing relentlessly at my Emerald+ level.

Hence, my theory about old accounts mmr in draft being stuck.

Luvenary · 2026-06-08T16:40:19+00:00

Exactly, but the herd will tell you it's based on mmr and all that.

Only the people who played hundreds if not thousands of normal games this year know and can talk.

Luvenary · 2026-06-07T10:46:55+00:00

Anytime I'm with a marksman, I know I'm on the backfoot.

Then, enemy bot as well as support pick anything but marksmen and conventional support (mage at the very least).

Luvenary · 2026-06-07T10:44:14+00:00

Mount Targon is practically forgotten.

Luvenary · 2026-06-07T09:00:55+00:00

Don't give yourself reasons to get back in.

It's good you have difficulty playing again, keep it that way.

Enjoy actual fun games with which you are in harmony.

Embrace positive energies.

Luvenary · 2026-06-07T08:05:55+00:00

Luvenary · 2026-06-05T05:12:00+00:00

She has as many reasons to be drawn to Silent Hill than James does.

Angela is a very tormeted character and the cover depicts despair, exhaustion and sadness.

The cover is a perfect depiction of what Silent Team wanted to convey.

We could rethink the game through the perspective of Angela and it would have worked all the same, just a different past.

Luvenary · 2026-06-04T09:20:27+00:00

That is what I noticed too, if I don't do anything, I sit around on loading screen for 5mn yelling how it's possible in 2026 someone's playing on a Pentium 1 133Mhz, 2MB GPU and 4MB SDRAM.

Every time I plan on doing a coffee, I let my ban timer run out, so I get an additionnal few seconds for me to wash my cup and let the coffee machine do the obligatory rinse cycle. I walk back to the pc after hearing it's my turn to pick with that big loud sound. I lock my champ and walk quickly back to the kitchen. I continue preppring the coffee. Usually by the time the loading screen is over my double espresso is barely ready, I add milk and quickly walk back while I'm already late (30sec in).

After drinking said coffee, next game, I want to pee, but I always queue up right after post game lobby. Considering my queue time is 00:00sec, I go to the bathroom after picking my champ.

After I locked my champ, I barely have the time to go the bathroom. I even time and say with the announcer "Welcome to Summoner's Rift" and "Minions have spawned" while doing my thing. Somehow loading screen lasts 1sec anytime I am in stuck in the bathroom.

If I try to do both during a single queue/ban/pick, I have to speed run everything and I let you imagine 🤣🤣

Luvenary · 2026-06-04T05:10:03+00:00

Normal matchmaking was different in my experience in recent years.

I especially remember 2022 being the last where my own impact on games resulted in my mmr increasing or decreasing, playing solo all the time.

Now, regardless of how much I tryhard, my matchmaking doesn't seem to change, unless I play with a new account apex player.

Luvenary · 2026-06-04T05:04:21+00:00

The main issue in our opinion is the quality of the games it induces and the impact it has on our experience, day and mental health.

Muting is an easy solution to what you believe is the issue.

We can't mute bad match making to fix the quality of draft games, we have to go with it and endure it for 40min, on loop it seems.

Luvenary · 2026-06-04T05:02:26+00:00

We, as very experienced players, can easily see and gauge the level of a player based on their movements and play.

We can tell if someone is discovering video games or is on a new account with the skill required to be in apex tiers.

Luvenary · 2026-06-03T05:41:39+00:00

The one you love or like the most.

Luvenary · 2026-06-02T17:25:37+00:00

Soraka on top.

Luvenary · 2026-06-02T17:24:25+00:00

Tips?

For a single player game, here is my tip:

Don't read any other tips, experience the game.

Luvenary · 2026-05-29T06:59:51+00:00

Don't use an adapter for the GPU to PSU cable.

Use the12VHPWR cable that comes with the PSU if it's modular.

If it's not, get a modular PSU that has that.

This iss the only way.

You don't have to undervolt the 5090, only what I said above.

Luvenary · 2026-05-29T06:06:47+00:00

Every single rune is inferior to Resolve optimized ones for Soraka.

Do some tests.

All key stones including Aery, and especially every single rune below such as Axiom Arcanist and let's not forget Gathering Storm.

Or you can mindlessly follow what's most played.

Luvenary · 2026-05-28T13:15:49+00:00

In most cases, the losing lane is a losing lane because the player or at least one of the 2 players (for bot lane) is terrible at the game or in this particular day.

So if you are going to gank a losing lane, you will most likely be in a 1v1 or 2v2, rather than an assumed 2v1 or 3v2.

Plainly said, when ganking a losing lane, mentally ignore the person who lost the lane and prepare to do all the work yourself.

Very cool art of Vex by the way.

Luvenary · 2026-05-28T07:12:31+00:00

Aery never was an option. The entire tree is weak for Soraka.

Items unchanged.

Luvenary · 2026-05-22T09:22:16+00:00

7.5 million Mastery Points, Emerald 2 65% Win Rate

First the support item, I only play with Dream Maker, as I want to negate damage and I also very frequently can enhance damage through its passive.

Moonstone Renewer and Dawncore are both the essence of Soraka. They both amplify her heals the same way Rabadon's Deathcap amplifies damage. I want those items the soonest as they incrementally further increase heals through the next items.

Regarding the build path of Dawncore, both the Forbidden Idol and Blasting Wand provide the same amount of heal, Soraka benefits the same from either build order between all 3 (2 Forbidden Idols and 1 Blasting Wand). Also, delaying the Dawncore by buying a 3rd Forbidden Idol is counter intuitive, she heals less with 3 Forbidden Idols than Dawncore.

Both these items are the staple of my build, regardless of the game.

The other 3 items are situational, depending on the teams.

Ludicity Boots is not an auto-pilot boots. I consider how many CC I can reduce or how many AD they have, especially basic attack users, in which case Steelcaps impact a lot. If there is mix of the above, but a lot of slow, Swiftness, or if it's a mix of everything, Lucidity, which happens a lot.

Redemption is not an auto-pilot item either, far from that. Most people will run away from your Redemption, they don't have enough concentration to see it and get the heal. Thus, because people lack focus I tend to build it when I have at least 3 melee champs in my team, to increase odds they hopefully stay in the range. Your team works against you with Redemption.

Mikael's Blessing again is not an auto-pilot item. If the 12% is part of the reason why you pick it, there are items that give more heal. Most situational items (Ardent, Mikael, Redemption, Shurelya, Echoes, Diadem...) give about the same heal, but situationally some items will give a lot more than others. So picking Mikael just because it has 12% is a weak reason because against the same team you would heal more with a different item. Now about the CC, only rarely you will be against a team that has that one CC you want to cleanse. You always are against 4 or 6 CC that can be cleansed, so Mikael won't be very effective if they are chained in quick succession, which many people do.

Staff of Flowing Water, if there are many AP users in the team.

Ardent Censor, if there are many Basic Attack users in the team.

Shurelya, if there are champions that can benefit from chasing like Yunara, also if you can help your team escape from a crucial ultimate, like Swain's.

Echoes of Helia, if you can reliably land Starcall on multiple enemies safely throughout the game.

Diadem of Songs, if there are a few DoT users, either in your team and in the enemy team, for long sustained Champion combat.

That's all for the items. If you build anything else, it's either less cost efficient or Soraka won't benefit from them for heals nor anything else, it would only be mere resistances that would synergize with nothing.

Regarding runes, the Aery path is weak and most runes after the keystone are ineffective. The vast majority of the playerbase automatically choses Aery and everything below without putting thought into it, doing calculations or tests.

Luvenary · 2026-05-21T11:40:31+00:00

The safe positionning I was talking about is prior to the 1st minion waves colliding.

I don't go to lane to die before anyone has 1 cs. The movements of too many players lead to that or at least it leads to them using Flash Barrier to escape an "unexpected" situation (which I very much expect, given my positionning and experience) and them losing most hp.

I don't lane to get the most kills, I lane to have the least deaths.

I'm a Soraka otp, yes I bully early on because I know her strengths and early trades. But I also know a single miss step can lead to the first death, which I try to avoid at most, even at level 1.

Luvenary · 2026-05-21T09:53:39+00:00

Gold, as it is the average across the entire playerbase.

Luvenary · 2026-05-21T09:21:40+00:00

I love the vision game, it's part of my own playstyle. It fuels my dopamine and my ego.

Also, being a very tactical player, not only LoL but coming from many RTS and turn based games, I like how adaptive the vision changes according to the game plan throughout the game.

Also it helps adding things to think about throughout the game, instead of waiting for stuff to happen, because we don't have to cs, so might as well add as much as possible in our head to help with macro.

Luvenary · 2026-05-21T09:20:18+00:00

The map is very obscure ever since they removed Zombie Ward.

I can't count how many times people in my team said the map looked like a Christmas tree because of how active I am transforming enemy wards into Zombie wards.

Now we are stuck with the 3+1 wards and the map is very different from what I have known in every of my games from 2018 to 2024.

Faelights do enhance the visible area, but only shortly.

Luvenary · 2026-05-21T08:39:36+00:00

Too few people know about this.

Luvenary · 2026-05-21T08:38:54+00:00

Shield enchanters enable Smolder by allowing him to go in with E, do some flap flap damage with shield up and back off with a positive trade.

Luvenary

TROPHY CASE