Ranked matches at moment seem to be wildly random, with newbies running into exceptional players at odd Elos. There's a method to this madness, and it's the result of Elo compression combined with the wild swings of placement matches.
It's another case of simple math. Consider the formula used for the Elo reset:
Pre-Season 3 Elo = (Season 2 Elo - 1200) / 2 + 1200
The practical upshot of this formula is that the further you were from 1200 Elo, the greater your gain or loss. At the same time, early placement matches can swing Elo by as much as 50 points. In this situation one victory or loss can is worth the equivalent of 100 Elo at the end of Season 2. It doesn't take a psychic to see where this is going.
Take two hypothetical players, one a 1400 at the end of Season 2 and the other 1800, and they'll be at 1300 and 1500 Elo respectively at the start of Pre-Season 3. All it takes to bridge what was a 400 Elo gap in Season 2 are two lucky wins and two unlucky losses respectively. Given the luck of some players, bad or good, even greater gaps can occur with reasonable regularity. The result are games which are even more random than normal, which feeds into the process and sustains the insanity of it all.
As I've played the past few days I've run into players who were obviously platinum-level down in the 1300 range, as well as players who were obviously lucky to have achieved bronze in the very same game. It's an intriguing time to queue.
Over the next week or so the madness will die down, but for now you at least understand what brought it all about in the first place.
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