@damsonwhufndthiswell what's the difference then between following cases:
1. you are "late" to the game and have to play in lobbies where there are more than usual smurfs
2. you are "early" to the party, rank up a bit say ex diamond 4 demoted to gold 2 and now ranked to platinum 4 <- lobby that initially will contain ex masters and preds almost exclusively with some high diamond players
3. ex diamond 4 ranked down to gold 2 playing in lobbies that contain all kind of players given season 9 change = gold lobbies contain pretty much every level exept diamond+...
Either way, there will be a period of time when there will be a mix of players involved. The same as the level of difficulty differs between daytime or server you play in. The same as your enjoyment will be ruined on regular basis by hackers.
In my opinion (getting back to my post) people who are playing ranked should not think about stuff like this, just focus on doing their best and improve. And when you do that you stop caring which level are you on B4 or Predator, it is all relative and noone said that people from lower rank than Pred can't make it to competitive gaming and prove to be outstanding or whatever your goal is.
In the meantime, if you want to flex a badge or level to your friends and that's all - don't waste your time, just play a bit, pretend to do it regularly and ask someone to boost you for free or money. Will save a ton of time, even more than in the scenario suggested by you.
Also, I do not agree with the statement that it is impossible to rank up with smurfs in the lobby - as bad as SBMM looks to be it still does not put you into a lobby of only smurfs, there will still be some your level and weaker level players, so is true pretty much in all lobbies.
