Out of curiosity, what percentage of players do they balance the game around? The top 25%? Is it higher or lower? In theory you should have fewer great players than average or low. So things are probably "balanced" for the minority of players. Honestly, that is fine for ranked play. However, things should be somewhat balanced around the majority for unranked. Unfortunately, this would require to much effort. But would it be reasonable to add modifiers to unranked that helps level the playing field in regards to damage received and crowd control duration. Basically slow the pace down slightly in order for people to have a chance at learning with the understanding that the game is harder in ranked. Getting chain crit for 3k-6k to die in the span of seconds isn't encouraging to new/learning players. Adding some training wheels might help boost the participation/retention of those players. (if these type of modifiers already exist for unranked, then they are poorly tuned)