User blog comment:Texas Snyper/Elo Hell and You: Part 2 - Skills That Pay the Bills/@comment-157.27.242.121-20110916114305

The entire explanation is founded on a base which is a little faulty at some points. What you say about "Joe" is absolutely true but then you extend the entire point of all the players in the same range as Joe, or if you prefer you assume everyone in "elo hell" are Joe-like... assuming this is true the good players you are talking about just started at 1600+ rating... hmmm, false. At some point they had to be in elo hell... and because they had 50/50 chance of victory because they were Joe-likes they shouldn't have been able to move from that range. But back to you first point in your first post there's actually a way they could pass that range. Let's say Joe skill is X and good player is Y=X+300 according to your example then he would be able to slowly move and finally get out from hello hell joining the other good players beyond the hell barrier (let's say is 1600 to stick to your example). At this point good news for you because your theory still resists. I mean I just have to improve my skill from X to Y in order to make a difference in games and be able to move in the next rating range I deserve as you say. Buuuuuut that's true only if the other 4 team mates all have X skill value. Buuuuuuuuut odds are that for an avarage match on 5 players in a team for each one who actually reached an improved skill level to move up in rating ranges there will be another that on the contrary is ready to move down because the system overrated his skills (you NEVER run out of trollers at certain ranges) taking back the average skill of the tam to X and back to the 50/50 chances of success. So back to the main question... how did those black wizards broke through elo barrier? Here's a list of assumptions we can make at this point: - The system works in higher ranges since having your skill improved is necessary!! (but not sufficient) - Moving up from elo hell is actually e combination of (improved skill)+(luck) - You don't need to be lucky though if you are moving down the ladder (screwing a game is a lot easier than making the difference for the good) - Finally, elo hell is made of A LOT of Joe-like buuut also of quite a number of good players who deserve a higher range. To kill the luck factor you actually need a skill improvement over 1000+ (at this point even with 4 other trollers you'll still win the game but this is a false statement since I'm assuming there's no limit at how much your higher skill can make a difference in a game. As you said there are matches you can't win even if your skill is over 9000)