I think you would be surprised how many people that cheats in silver, not saying silver1-3 but from silver 4 and up ive faced alot of hackers while smurfing.
Because getting out of silver alone is litterly hell if you are new to the game, and since alot of people get stuck in silver, people at silver elite-SEM are actually better then some novas. Again making it even harder to get out of silver. But thats pretty much just if u soloq, id say ranking up at higher ranks alone gets even harder.