Placement Match (1)
Placement exams—also known as placement tests—are the first exams taken after enrolling in middle or high school. They're used to gauge a student's skill level and divvy up the classes accordingly. Pretty much every middle and high school in Korea runs one, so if you went through school here, you've probably taken it at least once. Not that it's a big deal despite the fancy name. The difficulty is super easy, and while it's supposed to evaluate your level, it doesn't really factor into anything major. Middle school or high school, you have to study harder than before just to maintain your grades anyway. The only semi-meaningful part is class assignment, but even that's mostly luck. Sure, they sort classes by scores, but students have no clue about the exact rules or exceptions. Class placement is pure RNG. So yeah, real-life placement tests aren't important at all.
But in WoL, the ranked placement match? Or any game with tiers, really? Those are a huge deal. A placement match is basically the game figuring out your "true tier" before you start normal ranked games. That's why the LP gains are massive compared to regular ranked—way bigger swings. In a normal game, you get about 20 LP per win on average, but placement gives a generous 40. And you don't lose LP on losses. Low risk, high reward—the perfect setup.
That said, losses aren't ideal. Each defeat shrinks your window for explosive gains, and future wins start giving less LP. So where do placement matches start? Two cases. First-timers from last season start a bit below their previous tier—soft demotion, they call it. Second are total ranked newbies. They use your normal game Elo score (the hidden MMR that matches you even in normals) to set the tier. Crush normals? You start higher. For most newbies, it's average Silver low to Bronze high—they lose a ton and rarely snowball hard even in wins.
Jung Yunho was different, though. Two factors jacked up his Elo beyond newbie norms. First: 5-stacks. Weekends, he'd queue with the loser squad—average tier way too high for a newbie. Diamond peak, Plat mid-low, Gold high, Silver high... averages out to low Plat. Queueing with them mismatched him against non-newbie normals. Losses there would've normalized his Elo, but the second factor kicked in: raw talent. In those 5-stacks, his lane should've been a mismatch nightmare—one enemy snowballing the game. But Yunho flipped it. From his first PVP, he crushed Danbi (Bronze 5, but experienced)—then wrecked Jade (Plat high, Diamond 5 peak) last game. His losses? Only the unavoidable "feed" games where the other four bombed it. Those variables skyrocketed his normal Elo to insane levels. Unaware, the loser squad's KakaoTalk group was exploding with placement predictions.
*After cram school, I was rolling around in bed when my KakaoTalk blew up. Obviously the loser 5-stack group chat. But the vibe...
Why the hell are they betting on my placement? I fired off a message right away.
Taek-jun's the only sane one. Knows enough to call out braindead bets.
The guy I trusted most was organizing it like a pro. Nope. Can't handle sober KakaoTalk anymore. I muted it and queued a game. 10:30 PM—shutdown hits at 11 for minors, so one game max.
Naturally...
"Time for ranked."
Curious about my tier, wanted ranked anyway... mostly to end these morons' bet ASAP. Why gamble on my LP? Heart pounding, I hit 1/2 Player Ranked instead of Normals.
Lobby looked the same. Hit start. Fewer players? Queue took longer—30-40 seconds extra. But entering...
> Entering game lobby...
...I nearly typed "no way" in chat. Pick/ban and chat vibes screamed ranked. Good thing I caught myself.
I was 2nd pick. Not 1st, but golden. Red side too—faster picks. Key was 1st pick's lane.
Waiting on bans, heart racing. Blue banned Diana, Blanca, Karadin. Red—us—Raven, Darius, Maoent. Bans screamed lanes: theirs mid assassins, ours top champs.
As predicted, enemy 1st mid: Tiez, frog dude with trident.
Tiez: classic mid melee AP assassin. Passive Agile Brawler cuts auto-attack damage taken—huge early. Q Poke Prod pierces targets, procs "on-hit effects." Low base damage, but those effects are the star. W Deep Trident: passive DoT on autos for 3s, active adds magic damage to next auto. Kills refund mana—minion last-hits galore. E Trickster: 0.75s untargetable, then smash AoE. First skill untargetable? Infamous—"fucking Trickster" for a reason. Ult Jaws: hurl fish (sticks, slows), shark bursts after 2s—1s airborne AoE. Nasty if it lands.
TL;DR: Tiez zips with E/Q, harasses, ult-combos for kills. Glass cannon pre-skills, no poke/range even at 6—weak early lane. Strong bullies crush him. First-picking Tiez? Either god or braindead. Either way, cocky af—thinks he wins any matchup.
Our 1st: new champ Kench. Support origin, but tanky stats make him top-viable.
No hesitation: Raizir. Faced Tiez once—counter mastered.
Picks locked. Game on.
Kill: Enemy Tiez
Victim: Allied Lucius (ADC)
Just 1 minute in. Enemy Tiez got the kill—our ADC Lucius fed it. Full enemy icons? Classic invade—jungle gank at start. Their Blitzcrank (hook champ) confirmed it, no minimap needed.
That "got it" for me? Tiez with 400g heads home for pots? Disaster. Tri-pots already tough—add Moran's Ring? GG early. Could cry. (Flask buffs nerfed it—now 2 flasks + pot, not 3.)
...And Tiez bought exactly that nightmare build.
Moran's Ring, Tri-Flux, three pots. Tiez's inventory glowed like a horror show.
How tf do you beat that? First ranked, first placement... bad feeling. Real bad.