The points system has loopholes; five-man teams can develop top-tier splits and continue to gain stars even after losing a race.

After the start of Season 42, I wonder what the ranking experience will be like? The biggest highlight of the version update is the algorithm upgrade, which displays the average rank. Combined with the adjustment of the points system and pre-selection of lanes, a series of changes seem to have started to realize strong vs. strong and weak vs. weak matchups. Unfortunately, the inheritance rules have changed. Unless you reach the rank of King 40 stars or above, you will only be able to return to Diamond IV. Simply put, after the reset, the low and mid ranks have become denser. As people say, there are many experts, and the ranking experience is hard to guarantee. It is really hard to guess the true identity of the opponent.

This algorithm is truly baffling. On the surface, it's supposed to make ranking up easier, but after participating, the environment remains unfriendly. From the very beginning, there's rampant cheating, boosting, professional players, and five-man teams—it's incredibly frustrating for solo players. After reading online comments, I realized the current MMR system is essentially a beautified version of the ELO system. Win rates are manipulated, hidden MMR remains unchanged, and even with high initial MMR, skilled players are still surrounded by low-skill teammates.

Top-tier lanes keep coming, making it impossible to climb the ranks!

It is precisely because of this environment that some players are forced to exploit loopholes to reach their desired rank. The once-popular Meng Tian "chicken claw" strategy has been nerfed. What kind of ranking strategies are popular now? The "pig farming" strategy and the "sacrifice" strategy are nothing new. They revolve around a single hero or specifically sacrifice others to lower the kill-to-earn bonus. But what really makes people furious is the epic bug in ranked matches themselves. Under certain circumstances, you can get the title of top laner. Even if you lose a series of matches, you can still get stars. It's like going against the grain and reaching another level. This is also thanks to the points system.

So how exactly does it work? Whether it's solo or five-player mode, as long as the lane rating meets the requirements, winning or losing is no longer important. What matters here is accumulating points. A screenshot circulating on the forum showed a score of 5-0-20. This insane KDA clearly indicates that the score was deliberately manipulated to cater to the system. The extensive discussion finally caught the attention of the developers, who quickly responded to the incident via live stream and announced their handling methods. The first step was to reclaim all stars and points obtained by exploiting the loophole. In serious cases, accounts would be banned.

From the official perspective, this is about maintaining order, but players believe it's a system problem. They think the gameplay makes reasonable use of the mechanism and there's nothing wrong with it. Some people also say that it's illogical to add stars when you lose the game. So, which side are you on?

Image source: Internet