For some actual advice
The reasons you got smurfs or higher elo players is your 8 game winning streak.
If you got match MVP as well, that's also why the MM made you play against higher ranked players.
And why does the MM do that, especially when you're close to ranking up?
Cuz it treats your rank up game as a game happening in that higher elo, to see if you can fight against them.
I know this isn't exactly helpful, but usually lower elo matches tend to be a coin flip. One game you're stomping, the next one you're getting stomped.
It's unfortunate, but it's just what happens when there's a lot of players that play at very different skill levels depending on how they're feeling that day.
