I am making this list because there are too many people that think skill is the ONLY reason why people can’t climb out of Gold.
1.) Leavers. Leavers DO effect the team. Why? Because it is just as bad as a player being AFK in spawn and having no usefulness what so ever. A leaver has the same effect of a player being picked off on every team fight or every push. You are down a man and that is debilitating.
2.) Throwers. Some players INTENTIONALLY play poorly or disrupt the gameplay for other people and that in turn effects their PERFORMANCE which is what many people will tell you is the key to climbing. Like Mei walls, wasting their ults in spawn, a Lucio perpetually wallruning on clock towers in speed boost etc.
The last 2 days alone I have seen 20 leavers and 15 blatant throwers. Some matches there were sets of 2 or 3 stacked teams that left all at once after round 1, or sometimes its one player that says “F it I’m out. You are all bad.” then that causes another player to leave, and another and the game ends up a 6v1 because I will never choose to lose 50 SR. Ever.
3.) Feeders/Bad players: Sometimes people are just bad at the hero they have chosen to play or they keep make very bad decisions (bad game sense). Like when a Doomfist trying to 1v6 the whole enemy team and dying because he had no healer. Or a Genji or Tracer who plays into a Brig and gets smashed and killed during his ult because again they had no support from the rest of his team. While these players are not blatantly throwing, we do need to draw a line somewhere. Jeff said it. Where is the line between a bad player and blatant throwing? Jeff said that they do not want to force people into playing or not playing a hero. Well what about the rest of us who should not be forced into playing around the player who doesn’t want to cooperate with their team? We should not be forced to compensate for another players choice.
Earlier today, 3 games in a row we had leavers after round 1, players leaving after that minimum threshold where the game wont end, and Moiras and Anas focusing too much on DPS instead of healing during ongoing team fights on the objective.
4.) Toxic Players: Toxic players always cause coordination issues because they completely disrupt the team voice comms or the chat box. Their attitude effects how other people play because they know that they can’t be communicated with in a friendly manner and that takes away much needed synergy from the team. Toxicity has the same effect as bad ambiance or a poor environment at a restaurant. Would you want to eat at a restaurant with tattered wallpaper, uncomfortable chairs, an intolerable wait staff and a neglectful owner? Or what about sitting next to a table with a family of 7 and 3 rowdy pre-teens who cant sit still in their seats and that are not being corralled or reigned in by their parents? Of course not.
Toxic players are no better than unsupervised and loud children in a public place. It is disruptive to other peoples enjoyment of what is supposed to be a relaxing time with friends or family.
5.) MatchMaker is flawed: The MatchMaker system has so much wrong with it. It places players together based on how close it can get to a 50/50 chance at winning. It doesn’t have the ability to discern good or bad players. it is a total crapshoot.
Skill is not the ONLY factor for why people can’t climb. You could have 65 elims as a Sombra and still LOSE!!! If you aren’t WINNING you aren’t climbing!! Losing happens because people weren’t standing on a payload or a capture point, because your healers aren’t healing people on the payload or the objective, the DPS/Tanks aren’t helping their healers when they get dived on by various heros, tanks aren’t making room for their DPS or helers to move and get better positioning, and a bunch of other mechanical reasons.
So lets just STOP deluding ourselves!! A players skill is NOT the only reason for not climbing the SR ladder.
toxic teammates slow you down but there are things you can do to get better as a player