At 1900 people are too focused on not dying so they forget to make high level decisions , which to climb out of ELO hell you need to fill that gap and direct your teammates with high level decisions . I fail to see how this proves elo hell . I ' ll give two scenarios . Scenario 1 Player is stuck at 1900 . He is incapable of making high level decisions that would impact the game enough to result in net wins . This player deserves to be at his rating as he does not have enough game knowledge to progress ie . not ELO hell . Scenario 2 Player is at 1900 . He learns enough about the game to be able to make high level decisions . He fills that gap and directs his team to making high level decision . This player is playing at a level above what his teammates and opponents are playing at and this resolves in net wins . His SR goes up according to his skill level not ELO hell . Overall player skill is based on both Micro and macro skill , as you detailed in your post . You are implying that if a player only has micro skill then he is stuck in elo hell , but if he has both he will climb out of elo hell . I would argue that both are two sides to the same coin , and if the player doesn ' t have sufficient skill on either side his SR will stay right where it belongs .