I tend to go through bursts in League of Legends wherein I’ll play Ranked Solo for a while, tire of it, and go back to Normal for an extended period of time. I’ve been spending a lot of time in Ranked lately, mostly because I really don’t like blind pick, but I feel like I must be missing something. When I play ranked, I play to win above all else. When I enter that matchmaking queue, I put aside my desire to AP Trist or jungle TF or any of that nonsense and focus on doing what it takes to win the game. From what I’ve seen lately, not everyone plays ranked with winning in mind.

In the past two days, I’ve had teammates who refuse to jungle despite the fact that they’re the only viable jungler on the team, teammates who don’t know how to effectively build champions like Irelia or Ashe, and teammates who actively refuse to buy wards (seriously, I’ve asked people to help me ward and they’ve said no). If you’re going to rush Giant’s Belt on Ashe (yes, I’ve seen it done at 2200 ELO but that’s not what I’m talking about), why are you playing ranked?

I’ve heard the usual excuses – I don’t care about my rating, I’m trolling, I’m trying out a new champion, etc – but aside from the trolling excuse, it just doesn’t make sense. There’s a queue where all of that other stuff is perfectly acceptable. I try to be understanding when people in normal queue tell me they’re playing a champion for the first time. I had a Malzahar a couple weeks back take mid and feed his ass off, only to tell me he’s never played Malzahar. My response: Cool, say something next time and we won’t send you mid. I love trying silly builds and weird junglers in normal queue just as much as the next guy, but I keep it to normal. Call me crazy, but I think entering yourself in the ranked queue means you’re committing to the four other people on your team that you will try your damnedest to win the game, even if it means sacrificing a bit of fun.

What about you? Do you play ranked for the wins or do you just like to watch people squirm when you play AP Caitlyn?