Content archived from the OG Vainglory Forums - originally posted by Vorv on the 4th of October 2016 archived by @NinjaBryden
Elo is a rating system used for calculating the relative skill levels of players in multiplayer competitive games. This system was created by a Hungarian born Physics teacher, Arpad Elo.
The elo system was originally invented as an improved chess rating system but is now also used for a variety of competitive means, such as video games, like Overwatch, League of Legends, and Vainglory.
Elo hell, however, is the idea that your elo gets so low in comparison to your actual skill level, that you are only paired with people much lower than your actual, that youll never win enough matches to get your system elo back to where it should be.
There are three stances on ELO hell:
-elo hell is real, so it is impossible to get out of this and you would continue to lose, until you get a lucky break,
-elo hell is just an excuse for players who cannot accept their current rank
-vorv
There are some factors and outcomes that one needs to look at for one to truly understand as to why or why something doesn’t exist:
Since the outcome of a match depends on the player(s) own skill and the player(s) enemies, one must admit that there is a luck factor when it comes to teammates. Statistically speaking, the opposing team has a higher chance of getting players better than you, in comparison to your own team, as its 2:3.
You must also take into account two different positions,
-your current position
-your personal belief of what your true position should be
Mathematics show that the more you play, the closer youll be to your desired position
Looking at previous statements given out by SEMC, nearly 70% of the playerbase is equal to or below the Hotness skill level, at around Got Swagger, Credible Threat and Hotness, which happen to also be the tiers referred to Elo hell.
Saying that the majority of the player base is held back from their actual tier, and that the only possible way to get out is an improvement in one’s luck is an irrational conclusion.
There are multiple psychological causes of elo hell.
Negativity bias is the tendency within oneself to note or hold more weight to incidents or data that have a negative effect on the person in question. This means that whoever the speaker is, there is a large chance that he or she can easily recall bad moments from memories while forgetting about the matches where the person (s) stomped the enemy.
The Dunning Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which a low performing individual suffers from “illusory superiority,” causing the person to think that they are better than they really are.
By resigning to various errors in thinking, you resign yourself to your own self made hell causing stagnation and unskilled play.
Time and time again, it has been proven that there is no tier that is uncarriable. Players like Shinkaigan, for example, have carried themselves up to PoA - VG through solo queue alone.
A multitude of incidents like this prove that there is no physical tangible place on the elo ladder that is uncarriable. Elo hell has nothing to do with the elo system itself,but rather, it is a collection of flaws in one’s thinking that disallows them from actually improving.