Going for the Gold Part VI: The Clamps

After playing League of Legends for over two years and accumulating over a thousand normal games, I finally entered ranked play. In my own, totally objective, assessment, I am skilled enough for Gold. My placement matches disagreed, and threw me into Bronze II. This is the story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.

Since my last update, I've played seven games, spread out over, well, however long it's been. The first four were wins and the last three were losses. I won as Malphite, then Karthus, Karthus again, and Sivir. I lost as Malphite, then Sivir, and finally Karthus. Yes, I only played three champions. I don't really have much else to say about the games in particular. The losses were generally made unwinnable by my teammates.

When I was winning, I encountered something I'd heard about, but not actually experienced. In Division I of each league, LP gains decrease dramatically toward the top of the ladder. This is called clamping. Without clamping, people would eventually have lucky streaks that would promote them out of Bronze I and into Silver V. Since they couldn't be demoted back into Bronze by losing games, they would stay there. Eventually, Division V in every league would grow much larger than all other divisions. Clamping is the system's way of making sure that only players who are ready actually make it out of Division I.

Right now, I have 30 wins and 31 losses. I'll eventually win enough games to overcome clamping, but it may take a long time. And I've come to terms with that. The end of Season 3 is coming up, and I'll probably still be in Bronze when that happens. If I had thought about how close the end of the season was, I would definitely not have started Ranked yet. I was hesitant to already, but this would have been a dealbreaker. Now, though? I don't mind so much. The reward for being Gold now would be an Elise skin, and I already have an Elise skin that is one of my favorite skins in the game (Death Blossom Elise). If I make it to Silver before the season ends, which is unlikely, the reward will be a ward skin, and I've never really bothered with those. The thing that would have left me balking before I started this is that the "reward" for being in Bronze is a border. So if I make it to Silver or even Gold in Season 4, I'll still be branded as a "bronze baddie." And that possibility would have been enough to keep me out of Ranked for the remainder of the season. But I've already expounded on my view that Bronze players are underrated.

Well, that's it. This is a short one. Oh, I was at 86 LP and now I'm down to 66, but I hope to climb back to the top and update this series soon.