My experience playing ranked for the first time.
I am relatively new to LoL, played a little bit back in 2017/8 but recently got back into it.
Have been enjoying playing mainly Kindred jungle with some Mordekaiser top and Vex mid, and was excited to get to level 30 to start climbing ranked solo.
My normal games have been ok, sometimes I go 5/3 have good vision and objective control and we win, sometimes I go 13/2 and we stomp and of course sometimes I just get absolutely bodied but it always feels like there’s an even balance between good and bad games.
I hit 30 and went straight into Iron 4 and I haven’t had a winning game for about 10 games straight.
I’m not the best player in the world but I can pick up macro ideas pretty quickly but it feels crazy that all the positives from the normal games are just gone. No lane freezing, hardly any warding, very little cohesion with tempo. I’m guessing Iron is difficult to get out of as you really need those 4 other team mates to work together.
Anyway, I have been still enjoying seeing how my mistakes impact the game now that I don’t have better players around me to smooth out my errors and I feel like it’s making me a better player so I can focus on not making those mistakes again. I guess I just wanted to share my thoughts for those people that complain they are hard stuck in low ELO to say that it’s a good opportunity to learn what you do well and what you do not.
TL:DR - Low ELO is rough but it definitely helps you realise your weaknesses without having better players around you to carry you.