I still play the same heroes and I don’t win anymore. It’s impossible.
Just had 3 games in a row where I played my heart out, tried to communicate, switch heroes when need and ended up with 4 gold medals in 2 games, and 3 gold medals in the last game and it didn’t matter. I lost all 3 games.
It just feels like it does not matter how good I play, I can’t carry a game.
Noone can carry a game no matter how well they play, it’s a myth. The only thing that matters is being better than the average player over a large number of matches, as that will mean your team is slightly better than the average team over the same series.
Instead of being slightly better than the average player over a large number of matches one can become good at building a reasonably good team in LFG. That eliminates a lot of team related random factors and can speed up climbing significantly. LFG works quite well in the silver-plat range where there are a lot of players. Team building is a skill and it is work, but it pays off really well for those who want to climb more effectively and/or want better average match quality.
My point is that bad teammates isn’t ever the reason that you lose more matches than you win, in the long run. Both teams have the same chances of getting bad players, so in the long run your teammates will be exactly as skilled as every player on the opposing team. The only difference is that where the opponents will all have the same average skill as your teammates, which is the average skill level at that SR, you may be better or worse than that. If you’re better than average, your team has a slight advantage over the opponents, while if you’re worse they will have an advantage.
So yeah, your individual skill is what decides if your SR is moving up or down, and how fast; aka your trend. Your teammates has no effect on your SR trend, at all, they only affect the volatility; how much your SR can swing during a small number of games.
This is true even when using LFG. It can only ever affect the volatility, making your SR converge faster on your actual skill level.
I agree but the average player has a different mindset. They want quick results and many of them don’t play enough ours and/or don’t actually improve their skills. In my opinion one needs 50-100 hours of gameplay per season in solo queue to get some results (given that the player has the skills to climb). With a good team it’s possible to climb 500SRs (a full rank) in 2-3 days (playing full-time) and I’m not talking about being carried by a high rank smurf, just a well composed team of players of the same rank.
I know from experience that keeping only compatible/good team mates (and kicking bad ones who commit trivial mistakes like overextending) is a huge factor in this game. It can affect climbing speed significantly. And that isn’t the only factor. I think better gaming experience can also be important even after one reached his/her actual rank.
The game is progressing aka everyone is getting better. You dont have 1-2 on each team randomly “trying” something but effectively doing nothing for 15s during a crucial fight.