I am infuriated by the state of Storm League these days. The possibility of countless trolls to just screw over your games without any form of reprecussion is just hideous. I’ve grown to be resistant to constant AFK-ers or inting butchers in QM, that’s just how it is, but I thought that Storm League is for players with at least a little bit of dedication. After having the privilege to witness the same AFK player twice in a row, who AFK drafts Butcher and then keeps AFKing every few minutes, I just can’t even. Especially after we all reported him the previous game multiple times. Shouldn’t the report system at least give players ANY form of feedback ever? Or is it just a stress-relief button you press to make yourself feel a bit better?
How is SL different than QM?
Whelp… for starters (ignoring the power/benefit of Draft), ppl who are Silenced are banned from SL. Ppl who get the Leaver Status are banned from SL.
So reports have a quicker effect on SL.
Also ppl fall deeper in Ranked then in QM.
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Despite how much people cry about the mode being bad, SL games are a lot harder to win than games in any other mode.
I have to put in full mental effort every time. I wouldn’t call it relaxing. The caliber of players is higher than in any of the other modes on average.
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Ranked games are harder to win, you have banns and you should know what heroes to bann
And most important the hero you, or your team are picking (this is a huge impact in the game kills) if you and your team pick the right heroes (depends on enemy heroes) you have 20% more chance to win…so instead 50-50% (skillshoot) you will have a bonus % win rate (chance) because you and your team picked heroes counter for your enemy heroes
when to have melee.when to have bruiser and when to have 2 bruisers…this is one important thing on Storm League
Good Luck!
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Drafting, banning, counterpicking is a skill of its’ own. Storm League players are generally more competent. Winning is harder in that mode.
As for your report issue, there is a trick to avoid those players: After you all reported him, open a whisper tab with him (but don’t type).
Now wait until the status says they are in a game again or offline.
Then you can safely queue and there is physically no way he can be in your next match.
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bonus xp, quest completion.
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Knowing who to ban isn’t that hard
You wouldn’t believe how many people even in diamond + will not ban obvious blinders when their team has AA heroes, or does not understand certain enemy picks leading to Cho’gall comps, Medivac cheese etc.
(No reaction to early bans of Tychus/Greymane/Malth -> Unopposed Cho’gall lock, does not understand why enemy first picks Tyrael/Sylvanas and have banned Zeratul+Falstad -> will not ban Lt Morales due to lack of knowledge of Medivac rush)
Not banning Abathur when certain melee heroes were chosen, not banning current overpowered releases (currently Gazlowe)
There are a lot of people who literally throw random bans without any in-depth understanding of why their Kerrigan or Malfurion ban is 100% useless and lowers the teams win chance.
Also, not banning as many high damage AA’s on Battlefield of Eternity (Lunara, Greymane, Valla, Zul’jin, even potentially Artanis) while locking as many as you can for your own team. Uses precious ban slots in a meaningless fashion for Kael’thas, Ragnaros or another non-issue on that map who can’t race the immortal
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the only difference is the availability of the draft. Well, maybe something else is that in quick matches, despite the lack of normal matchmaking by roles, the quality of matches is much higher, more interesting and more fun, and people, oddly enough, try harder.
Ranked is not for casual players.
Also match making works differently. SL basically has tighter matchmaking (players are closer to each others MMR). The gap between players in the same team can be extremely huge in QM (that means if you are above average, you will get the feeling of getting bad teammates more often).
You are wrong.
Ranked is for everyone because everyone has a place on the ladder no matter how good/bad they play.
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While you are right the draft is very powerful and can decide games before they start, but in low elo I would say there is really no difference to QM, because people can’t draft at all, it’s just an extended waiting time in most games in those leagues.
Draft (Bans) has power over the comps even when ppl don’t know how to fully utilise it.
So I think it’s still a big difference between QM.
Plus just because a potential is not utilised, it’s still there.
More fun when the player who has the ban just let the time runs out so his ban gets wasted.
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Fact: Shattered Hexagon is the most banned hero in the draft.
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Banning in low leagues dont have to make sense before plat or high gold. Bronze/silver is just like qm. People dont care about comp or bans. People even like to play 5vs5 dps teams with no tanks or healers in those leagues as they just play for fun and dont care what rank they have.
Bans are also straight forward in low leagues. Just ban Butcher, KT or other annoying heroes those low league players have ploblems dealing with.
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Well since tank belongs to the harder role and healers are basically not needed, because most players are bad and you can win with great positioning I can understand the logic behind playing with 5 assassines.
KT makes sense, because he is a noob stomper. I still agree with Fan’s old saying: “KT = SSS in all ranks below master” 
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