What is ELO Hell? - Definition and Explanation

Hell is what you make it...or I make it...

ELO Hell. You know what it is, I know what it is, and Reginald knows what it is. It's that place full of feeders, trolls, and sometimes, even leavers. But where is it, and what makes it ELO hell? 

As one top ranked player said it best, "Every level in Solo Queue is ELO Hell." What does this mean? It means that Reginald, at 1500 ELO is in ELO hell. Gold players, in 1200 are in ELO Hell, and 1200 players in 800 are in ELO Hell.

Saintvicious was once dropped to 1 ELO during a hacking fiasco, and placed into what many would consider "ELO Hell". Was it hell? Not really. He built Sword of the Occult, Mejal's Soulstealer on Alistar and Heimerdinger, and went 25-0 with Xin Zhao doing nothing but walking straight up to heroes and pressing buttons. Everyone ended with 60 CS, and he alone walked around with 2, sometimes even 3x as much as the second highest person.

"Elo Hell? More like ELO Heaven" as he put it.

Definitions:

Feeder: Someone far less skilled than their laning opponent, and thus "feeds" the enemy.

• Watching Bigfatjiji's stream early Season 2, I couldn't even figure out what his enemy was doing wrong, Jiji just happened to kill them repeatedly with raw skill.
• 0-3 mid. Is he a feeder? Yes. Can that same person who fed Jiji go 3-0 against me? Probably.

*Feeders* are everywhere. 

Troll: Someone who has actions in game specifically to annoy one or more people in the game, through either chat or in-game actions.

• Do people troll The Rain Man and HotshotGG in the top 20 ELO? Yes, we see it on their streams all the time. They're just skilled enough to win even when they're trolling. Jungle Twitch too strong? Yarly.

Leavers: Someone who leaves the game or DC's because of internet issues.

• The internet isn't perfect, this is understandable. It's also true that people with bad computers will have worse response times and thus perform worse than people with good computers.
• Present in high elo streams? Still yes, just less often.

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SO WHAT IS ELO HELL? (Minus the Feeders, Trolls, and Leavers)


Elo Hell is when you're forced to play at a level where you KNOW you can win and exactly how to beat the other team, but you and your team are not skilled enough or lucky enough to do so, and lose.


Does it exist? Of course it does.
Is it the same for every person? No.
Can you get out? Yes.
How long will it take? Quite long if you're past your placement matches.
What's the best way to get out? Be better than everyone you're playing with. ALL the time and play A LOT.


Just remember, someday when you get a lucky streak and get to an ELO above your play level, you'll be playing with people that stare at you and go OH GOD ELO HELL. You'll have no idea why they're mad, but just enjoy the ride back down.

One person's ELO Hell is another person's ELO Heaven.