I told myself I would only post this when I reach Diamond (ranked up to Diamond 3 today). I was hard stuck Gold for a long time and I have been holding this in (In the grand scheme I know I still have a long way to go in learning this game). I completely agree with the sentiment that if you deserve a certain rank you will get there, eventually. The problem is the journey there is absolute torture for long stretches of time in low elo and playing ranked is taking 1 step forward and 3 steps back. It is up to you how much of this you can endure before you uninstall the game. The general hive-mind on reddit is always blaming the OP for shifting blame to their teammates but surely we can't just ignore the cesspool that is matchmaking in lower elo (Silver-Gold esp) either right? Can someone really admit that they love/loved group projects in school? Since when did that ever work out for any of us?

Why did I make this thread? Just to acknowledge the whiners that come here complaining that their teammates are throwing. Yes, this happens, a lot. AFK for no good reason, got to go downstairs for dinner real quick, someone purposefully trying to derank an account, the list goes on. THIS EXISTS and I just wanted to acknowledge it instead of just brushing it off in some toxic positivity way where it seems like everyone on reddit has ZERO problems grinding ranked. So if you come here sharing your frustration you get downvoted into oblivion because you didn't single-handedly kill all 5 enemies yourself every single round so it must be your fault. You feel like you and maybe one or two of your teammates worked double time to carry the slack of your other teammate who is clearly TRYING to lose (Not the people having a bad game - everyone has those)? You bring it to OT only to lose in the end? Yes, this frustration I am talking about gets better once you escape. Elo hell is real but I broke out of it so you can too. Feel free to be mad in the process and don't be gaslighted into thinking there was more you could have done or it was your fault even though your teammates repeatedly pushed out of site only to die within the first 5 seconds of the round. Best of luck.

Closing statement: My game sense and aim did progress BUT looking back I got out of Gold and lower Plat through luck of the draw. I literally had to grind the game until my lottery numbers were drawn allowing me to have competent teammates for a winning streak out of elo hell. This win streak consisted of most if not all team members using communication (whether that is voice, text, or pinging), coordinating with the team regarding utility usage, having the discipline to not play for kill satisfaction, adapting to plan B, C, D when shit hits the fan, and of course just overall half-decent mechanical skill that belongs in this elo. I was blessed by the Riot RNG gods like everything else in this damn RNG game.

Edit: I Solo q'd from Silver-Diamond 1. Found a duo towards the end of Dia 2 but didn't find it was necessary by that point because I already escaped the mental torture that is 'elo hell'. When I lose games now I can truly accept that we lost due to everyone not playing well enough as a collective.

BIG EDIT: /u/ElegantKittyVAL wrote up two very in-depth replies with exhibits and screenshots of their ranked experience (even from an alt account!). If I can delete my thread and just showcase it instead I would. See below or here https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/ujwyg6/you_cannot_blame_your_team_for_being_hardstuck/i7mgxvs/ https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/ujwyg6/you_cannot_blame_your_team_for_being_hardstuck/i7mym29/