You just finished your placement matches in Rainbow Six Siege or maybe League of Legends. You’re sweating. Your heart is racing. Then, the screen flashes. So we're in copper. It’s a gut-punch. Honestly, it’s the kind of moment that makes you want to uninstall the game and go outside to touch some actual grass.
Copper is supposed to be the bottom. The basement. The place where people who play with their monitors turned off end up. But if you’ve actually spent time there lately, you know that’s a total lie. The "Copper" experience in modern competitive gaming—especially in titles like Siege with its "Ranked 2.0" system—is a chaotic, frustrating, and surprisingly complex psychological trap. It isn't just about being bad at the game. Often, it's about a fundamental misunderstanding of how modern matchmaking algorithms actually work.
The phrase itself has become a meme, popularized by creators like Jynxzi, but the reality behind the rank is anything but a joke for players trying to climb.
The Myth of the "Easy" Lobby
People think Copper lobbies are full of players who don't know which button shoots. That’s rarely true anymore.
Because of Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM) and "Hidden MMR," your visual rank (Copper) often has nothing to do with who you are playing against. You could be "in copper" visually while the game’s backend thinks you’re a Platinum-level player. This creates a "hidden sweat" effect. You are fighting for your life against former Diamonds who took a season off, smurfs on new accounts, and genuine beginners who are just chaotic enough to be unpredictable.
It’s the unpredictability that kills you.
In higher ranks, players follow "the meta." They hold standard angles. They use utility logically. In Copper? Someone might be sitting in a dark corner with a shotgun for three minutes straight without moving. You can't "read" a player who doesn't know what they’re doing themselves. It’s a different kind of difficulty.
Why Your MMR is Fighting You
Most modern games use a decoupled ranking system. Your Rank (the Copper icon) is just a progression bar. Your MMR (Matchmaking Rating) is the invisible number that determines your actual skill.
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If your MMR is high but your rank is Copper, the game will give you massive points for a win and take away very few for a loss. It’s trying to "pull" you to where you belong. But if you’ve hard-stuck yourself by losing fifty games in a row? The game decides you belong in the dirt. At that point, you might only gain 15 RP for a win and lose 30 for a loss. That’s the "hard-stuck" phenomenon.
It feels like swimming in molasses.
The "Jynxzi Effect" and the Rise of Copper Culture
We have to talk about how "so we're in copper" became a cultural staple. Nicholas "Jynxzi" Stewart transformed the way people view low-tier gameplay. By reacting to "Copper 5" clips, he turned bad gameplay into top-tier entertainment.
Suddenly, being in Copper wasn't just a failure—it was a brand.
But there’s a downside. This "clout" has led to an influx of "reverse boosters." These are players who intentionally throw matches to stay in Copper just so they can hit clips or get featured in a reaction video. If you’re a legitimate player trying to get out, having a teammate who is intentionally dying for a meme is infuriating. It’s a weird ecosystem. You have the "True Coppers," the "Memers," and the "Stuck Experts" all clashing in the same five-on-five matches.
Mechanics vs. Gamesense: The Great Divide
The biggest mistake I see? Players in Copper usually have "all aim, no brain."
I’ve seen Coppers with mechanical aim that looks like Shroud's. They can flick. They can headshot. But they have zero awareness of the clock. They don't understand map control. They’ll chase a kill across the map while the objective is being captured three rooms away.
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- Aim gets you kills.
- Gamesense gets you wins.
If you're stuck, it’s probably because you’re playing the game like a Team Deathmatch. In Siege, that means not droning. In League, that means ignoring wave states. In Valorant, it’s forgetting to use your utility to clear corners.
Basically, you’re playing a solo game in a team environment. That works in Bronze or Silver if you're talented. In Copper, where the variables are pure chaos, it’s a recipe for a 48% win rate.
The Psychological Trap of "Elo Hell"
Is Elo Hell real? Sort of.
Mathematically, if you are better than the average player in your lobby, you will eventually climb. It’s a numbers game. However, the "eventually" part is what breaks people. It might take 200 games to overcome the statistical noise of leavers, throwers, and smurfs.
Most people don't have that kind of patience. They get tilted.
Tilt is the real reason people stay in Copper. You lose one game because a teammate disconnected. You get mad. You queue up again immediately, but now you’re playing aggressively and making mistakes. You lose again. Now you’re "in the blender." Your brain is fried, your focus is gone, and you’re playing at a Bronze level despite having Silver skills.
Breaking the Cycle: How to Actually Leave Copper
If you’re tired of the "so we're in copper" jokes and actually want a different colored charm at the end of the season, you have to change your approach.
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Stop focusing on your teammates. Yes, they are bad. Yes, they are doing stupid things. But you cannot control them. You can only control your own "impact per minute."
First, stop solo-queuing if you can help it. Even one reliable duo partner cuts the "random idiot" factor of your team by 25%. It changes the math of the game. Second, start recording your deaths. Don't look at your kills; look at why you died. Usually, it wasn't because the other guy was better. It was because you were standing in a spot where you were exposed to three different angles.
Third, and this is the hard one, learn the "boring" stuff. Learn the site setups. Learn the callouts. In Copper, the team that actually talks—even just a little bit—wins 70% of the time.
The Checklist for the Climb
- Warm up for 15 minutes. Don't go into ranked cold. Use a trainer or a practice mode.
- Mute the toxicity. If someone starts screaming "So we're in copper" the moment you miss a shot, mute them. They aren't going to give you useful info anyway.
- Play high-impact roles. Don't play a support character if you don't trust your teammates to carry. Play someone who can open walls or get entry kills.
- Stop after two losses. If you lose two in a row, the tilt is real. Walk away. The game will be there tomorrow.
Copper is a grind, but it’s also a teacher. It forces you to deal with the most unpredictable scenarios possible. If you can learn to win in the chaos of a Copper lobby, you'll find that Gold and Platinum are actually much more "logical" and, in some ways, easier to manage.
The path out isn't about being a god-tier aimer. It's about being the most consistent person in a room full of inconsistency.
Actionable Insights for the Climb:
- Audit Your Sensitivity: Most low-rank players use a sensitivity that is way too high. Lower it. Your accuracy will skyrocket once you stop over-flicking.
- Focus on Survival: Stop taking 50/50 fights. If you don't have the advantage, rotate. Living for an extra 30 seconds often puts more pressure on the enemy than a risky trade.
- Review Your VODs: Watch one game a week where you lost. You will be shocked at how many "obvious" mistakes you made that you didn't notice in the heat of the moment.
- Master One Archetype: Don't try to play 20 different characters. Pick two or three and master them. Deep knowledge of a character's limits is better than surface knowledge of the whole roster.
The grind is slow, but the progress is permanent once the "gamesense" clicks. Stay disciplined. Stop tilting. Leave the memes behind.