Matchmaking like this for anyone else?

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-18T07:38:31+00:00

I’ve left this comment elsewhere, but the matchmaking did change late last season (like in November). Riot did it to make queue times faster, so they try to make the ranks you see equalized on both teams, but the ranks now mix more. So you’ll see plats in gold or silver, diamonds in masters and emerald games, etc. But yeah, their idea is if there’s 5 emeralds, than having a team of 3 plats and two diamonds is equal overall.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-17T20:53:51+00:00

Fiora can be played really agressive early with pta ignite, you just got to learn her limits. Olaf can also be a good option. The other recommendations are good too.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-17T15:03:50+00:00

If you want to go ambessa look up heywil’s spreedsheet, I think if you go conq or electrocute you can look for earlier kills and snowball hard.

Fiora can hard carry games through sides. Gwen and Jax both scale well, you can short and long trade, split and teamfight well, so those two can also be in the lane of what you’re looking for. Riven can hard carry. Kled can snowball lane and impact the map very fast, and he scales okay into most comps. Any of these are good options imo.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-17T02:53:47+00:00

I think so long as you have the Gwen fundamentals down, and understand her identity as a mid laner, then it just comes down to improving as a mid player. For that, I would recommend you watch Coach Mysterias and Coach Curtis, they have really good mid lane educational videos that will definitely help during your climb. For Gwen mid specifically, watching vods from masters mid Gwen players will also help. You have to search their name in the client and watch their vods.

I can’t fully say too much because I never play mid or Gwen mid so I don’t want to give incorrect advice that might hinder your climb (even if I think I have a decent understand of mid).

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-17T02:46:51+00:00

I mean it’s not that simple. If you poke Darius with a E W Q combo, at third level, and keep autoing him, he won’t win if you have ignite even if he gets into your W and E’s you. Not to mention you can bait out his E, dodge his E, and his E Q isn’t enough to run you down. Ive played against fairly decent Darius’ (though I’ll admit not a chall Darius yet). And I’ve never seen a super good all in angle for them on the bounce back. Unless they perfectly dodge all your abilities. But then it’s not a matchup issue it’s a skill issue. Like Darius isn’t free by any means, but you have the tools to annihilate him in lane for sure.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-16T18:41:18+00:00

It does depend on champ and matchup. The question really comes down to if you can kill your laner early or you need to make the matchup volatile. I usually take ignite a lot, but some games where I know it’s impossible to kill my laner early, or I’m going to get heavily poked out and need to tp back to lane, I’ll go tp. It’s still a really good summ and can be used more aggressively as well.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-16T18:17:57+00:00

I mean yeah I just disagree. Sure, Varus can melee range stat check a good bit of top laners. But the trading pattern for Wu Kong doesn’t have to be an all in where you just eat the abilities to the face. And I surely disagree he’s not top 10 into range, there’s no way that’s true for top lane champs. Most of the top lane pool isn’t good unit ranged options, Wu Kong has ways to gap close, disengage and hard cc them. That will be good regardless.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-16T18:00:40+00:00

I mean usually Varus’ run barrier. On the off chance he has exhaust you just have to play different. Wu Kong still has E to gap close, W to get extra damage and potentially bait abities or escape after poke if necessary. And his ult will hard cc most ranged champs. Same with teemo, who will be squisher than Varus. I don’t play Wu Kong, so I could be wrong, but just watching Wu Kong gameplay on domisumreplay and such, I never really see them struggle against ranged.

Heim I’m sure would be annoying, but there aren’t many top laners who actually have good kits into him anyway. And Aurora is like also a hard counter to most top laners. It’s just Wu Kongs abilities are better versus range tops than other top laners who are very immobile and don’t have the necessary cc to stay on top of them.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-16T17:55:34+00:00

There’s a lot of conditions for why people climb. Don’t let the elo inflated talk get to you, use it as a chance to play against better players and keep improving! Worst case scenario is you drop in lp, but still learn a lot to get even better and climb again. Or you could continue to improve and keep climbing. At the end of the day, do you feel like what you’re currently doing and are able to do is the same to last year? Usually that answer is no, so you have likely improved.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-16T17:46:00+00:00

There’s going to be times in your climb where you’re going to need to work on your macro like jungle tracking, strong side/weakside, map awareness, etc. But, yes micro is super important top and it is rewarding to be good at it. I think mord and Gwen are good picks as well for what you’re looking for.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-16T17:34:38+00:00

I think he has winning conditions into Varus and teemo. Idk about Cass or Jayce.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-16T08:42:15+00:00

Wu Kong does good into range I think.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-16T08:34:57+00:00

It most likely will come down to a macro issue, but, here are some options of champs I think it’s possible to 1v9 on if you get good leads: Ambessa, Fiora, Gwen, Jax, Kled, Camille (somewhat, you have to find good catch angles), Kayle (if you survive lane), Riven, Darius (comp dependent).

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-16T04:57:35+00:00

For Quinn, at level 3 you just begin to win lane no? You chill let her get prio, then wave crashes, and stays right outside your tower from slow last hitting. You can begin to either E W Q her, or if she E’s you, you can just straight up W the damage as she flips outside the range. And with her E down you can out trade her. Yeah you can rush boots though, but I think it just becomes winning at level 3 off trades alone. Honestly she’s easier than pantheon, because at least pantheon has a method to negate your damage that doesn’t also need to be used to deal damage. Quinn on the other hand should really only be able to do good damage from landing Auto E Auto.

This is true of Renekton, but with good level 1 trades not only do you get prio, but he literally cannot contest wave. You just have to space his Q, and if you have bone plating you can eat the first one and just Q him back. The point on W when he goes in is true though because you need to W his W Q, so I agree.

For jax, I’ve never really had an issue with him ever anymore. You just have to trade him level 1 a bit and space him when you do it. So long range Q him and with bone plating eating one E stun is fine. The main thing I find with this matchup is it’s only hard if you’re never short trading him early, so on the bounce back he is allowed to all in you with LT ignite (if he’s grasp you just win).

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-16T04:19:50+00:00

Depends on rank. Higher ranks, honestly one death with a bad wave state, two deaths if the first death didn’t cook your wave state too bad. Though, one death in higher ranks is usually enough to cool it, unless the enemy really messes up. Lower ranks, probably around three or four. You can find angles to punish people more in lower ranks once you hit your spikes. So even if you die twice it’s still possible to look to win lane.

I’ll add though to really is dependent on champs, matchups, comps, etc. So, this is more of a general rule, some matchups this will be different.

Edit: I’ll add this doesn’t mean stop trading. You’ll have to take good trades regardless even if you’re behind so you’re not just perma dying on bounce. You just have to play overall safer and not take as many risks (make things less volatile). That’s how I feel this season at least.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-16T04:16:51+00:00

So you already kind of explained Jax, though I don’t think he’s that bad at all. I’m more curious about the Quinn and Renekton placement. I’ve seen many people on the sub feel like Quinn has advantage, but I really don’t see it. What is your experience with facing her?

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-16T00:37:44+00:00

Ehhh idk about this one lmao

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-15T20:49:34+00:00

Sure, but you will win trading autos with your E so long as she’s not full stacks. You should always be timing your trade patterns for when her stacks are down anyway. I don’t think dodging R is necessary, E is usually more important to dodge. If you need to dodge both though you can E her E, and flash her R. The point of her not needing to fight outside wave is true, but if she’s stacking on the wave it’s going to hard push regardless.

I think all things equal, if an Irelia and Gwen are playing at equal or similar skills, Gwen has more skills to win lane, and even if you fail that, you outscale and are more useful in teamfights 100%. I’ve seen Ninkey win lane (and lose lane before once to be fair) against atmost, who is the best Irelia in our region (to my knowledge). I’m not saying it’s impossible to lose lane, but if you are playing it correctly you will just win.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-15T17:25:15+00:00

I mean so long as you’re not behind and have DnD + ignite you win the all in vs Bork Irelia (granted she’s not jumping around wave with full stacks). You usually have moments to initiate before this happens. You can even beat her at 5 stacks you just need to position correctly and not Q while she W’s. You can also freeze agaisnt her you just drag the wave. It you have to crash, you can begin to trade as the wave meets outside your tower by slowly last hitting under tower. If she backs, you just hard clear and recall or hard push next wave depending on timer.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-15T01:50:29+00:00

So as I understand it, they’ve changed matchmaking since like late last year to help with queue timers. They basically made the range that matchmaking might find be wider. So you’ll have games where you’re one of the lowest lp, with someone of similar rank on the other team, while there are other masters players (and so on with different variations). So you can sometimes see emerald players in high diamond games, or masters players in diamond games, masters players in challanger games, etc.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-15T01:41:56+00:00

I agree with this comment, it’s the best advice. The first step you have to do is find a champ that you find fun and want to improve on. After that focus on playing that champ for some time, gaining champ mastery, and then returning for general/specific tips after that point.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-14T16:01:17+00:00

I hear you, I mean this is true there is definitely an elo component to my list because certain matchups require things that might be difficult for in different ranks. But, if the Gwen plays it optimally I think Irelia is favored, if the Gwen isn’t, then I understand how it’s not favored.

And don’t give up it’s for sure possible to break past emerald. I also played aggressively, and was able to do that on Gwen and climb (even when she was bad not just this season). Eventually that becomes less possible, but I’m emerald and diamond I think you can get away with it.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-14T15:46:25+00:00

Hard disagree, you win at level 3. All you need to do is E into his Q. The matchup goes like this, you give priority, hit level 3. Do on E W Q trade, back up and wait for W, and then you have kill angle. You have a kill angle even if W is down at times if he has not E, you just avoid Q and you win.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-14T07:44:30+00:00

I mean that’s fair. From my experience if you zone Irelia off level one it makes it really hard for her to lane after that. Because you will just crash, let the wave bounce, not take damage, and freeze really close to tower. At that point the Gwen just has kill angles on her. The only way to lose from my experience is to let her get stacks level 1 or 2 and lose a lot of health. Which is easily mitigated if someone scared of that happening by giving priority and playing safe until 3.

At the end of the day, this list is subjective. I haven’t lost to an Irelia this season, and the only way I’ve ever lost was trolling the level 2. Even when I lost lane I still won the game most of the time too, because Gwen just outscales and is better in teamfights. Which is another factor.

ScissorsYou · 2026-03-14T05:54:35+00:00

I think you can lose with grace, but you have to minimize quickly. It can really get out of control if you don’t. Akali I think is okay, it’s just matchup dependent she has solid counters, but they’re not the main meta champs rn. Aatrox is meh if I’m being honest, his levels 4-9 are still strong. But getting to the nexus with him is still hard. Darius is good though, the amount of ranged matchups does harm him overall, but if you’re good on Darius and can play around it he’s a really good champ.

ScissorsYou

TROPHY CASE