While guides are a good way to get into a champion and itembuilding, they shouldn't be followed like the bible. Always try to understand why the guide recommends doing this and that. Once you've understood the why, you can apply that knowledge in every situation. Every game is unique and different situations require different approaches.
Solo queue isn't the same as the LCS. They have their reasons for obscure picks, be it for the teamcomp or countering the teamcomp of their opponent. Picks that work in the LCS don't neccessarly work in Solo queue and vice versa. Always think about it why they've picked X and don't be like "X is op because they were picked in the LCS"You don't have to play every role, imo it's perfectly fine to have preferences and sticking to two roles as long as you can at least hold your ground as your least favourite roles -> not horribly feeding as top or midlaner for example
Play champions you like and don't let them force you into FOTM picks or "counters". Just because you have picked a supposed "counter", that doesn't mean you will autowin the lane. In most cases, it will be unneccessarly hard since you don't have much experience with your champ while your opponent does. Like Sun Tzu said - “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
Try to stick with a small champ pool as experience is the key to victory. It goes hand in hand with the point above as you'll be able to win the matchup based on experience. You know what your champion is capable of and you also know what the opponent can do. It's hard to value and cherish but experience is very very important.
Keep also in mind, that playing other positions beside your main ones is also beneficial. If you're support main, you know the typical warding positions and that will help you with ganking as mid/jungler and vice versa.
You don't have to play every role, imo it's perfectly fine to have preferences and sticking to two roles as long as you can at least hold your ground as your least favourite roles -> not horribly feeding as top or midlaner for example
CC wins games. Never underestimate the power of crowd control as "Stun and burst their MVP" works pretty well, even when behind.
During the game
Try to stay cool and keep a calm attitude
Try to be a leader and get the team to take objectives and group - leading =/= being the most fed player on your team, a support can lead the team too
Try to win learn early, take tower and then help other lanes through roaming
(It at least worked for me) Play lane bullies and punish the opponent's mistakes (on my smurf it was Syndra and Caitlyn, once they were out of position, Q or AA to the face)
Try to focus on your own mistakes, not the ones of others since you are the only constant player in all of your games - bad team mates happen as often as bad opponents
Keep in mind that providing damage is not the only way to "carry" games - a good jungler landing the perfect engage on their MVP is just as good as a support peeling like a madman for their carry or a toplaner keeping three of their team busy
Pings, pings, pings and pings. NO, I don't mean pinging thousands of time that they should be careful and retreat. Ping that you are on your way to help them, ping dragon, ping when you see their jungler entering your jungle, ping your lane missing and so on and forth.
Don't argue with your team mates. You'll play less concentrated as it's quite distracting and they are annoyed because they were called out. Concentrate on the game and focus on your own mistakes.
Mindset - Before and after the game
Do. Not. Blame. Others. You are the only constant in all of your games and you're technically less like to have a "bad" team mate or troll in your team since your team has four possible trolls while the enemy team has five. So yeah... You are the only reason why you're not climbing in the long run. The first step of improving is realising that you're doing something wrong. Then finding out what is going wrong, finding ways of changing that, improving on it and keeping the improvement. Rinse and repeat.
Don't get discouraged by a rough start in your ranked carrier as single games matter less and less the more games you have overall - you may get a 5 game loss streak and be sad about it but a 10 game win streak might come right after that, giving you a +5 in total
Try to get a duo partner and play jungle or midlane and another lane (or jungle) to have the biggest influence (imagine you being mid with a jungle duo partner ganking bot together, killing them, taking tower and drake)
Play for improvement, not ranking. Nobody is perfect and there will always be something you can improve on.
Don't get discouraged if it takes a while until you see improvement. You have to break old habits and get into new ones. Rome wasn't built in a day.
Make small steps, set realistic objectives like "I want to improve my average CS with Caitlyn by 5 at the 10 minute mark" and reward yourself when you're able to reach and hold these goals. Buy yourself a skin, some chocolate or whatever floats your boat.
Play. As simple and stupid as it sounds, you won't get nowhere if you're not playing. You won't reach Gold if you're not playing. You won't improve if you're not playing. You need both, practice and theory, for climbing but
Don't overdo it. League should be fun and not a chore. If you have to force yourself to playing and don't enjoy the game in general, you should take a break, be it from ranked or the game itself. Games are ment to be fun, not stress.
Solo queue is not for everyone. If you're not enjoying everything that goes with it because it's too stressing, stop with solo queue. You might consider playing in a ranked team or nothing ranking related at all. Like mentioned before, games are ment to be fun, don't force yourself to playing ranked if you're not enjoying it and it's just stressing for you.
Honorable mention - "Grow a pair of balls and just do it"
Do. Not. Blame. Others. You are the only constant in all of your games
^ Can't stress that one enough. Don't think it was mentioned: don't ever let others tell you which champion to play/force you into counterpicking, experience with a champion outweighs counterpicking at lower elos, by a LOT.
^ Can't stress that one enough. Don't think it was mentioned: don't ever let others tell you which champion to play/force you into counterpicking, experience with a champion outweighs counterpicking at lower elos, by a LOT.
Oh good that you're mentioning it, I knew I forgot something :D
Nice tread, many peoples come here to ask the same question over and over, this gave then many amazing tips to improve, low elo (bronze,silver, low gold) can be made with very, VERY little amount of things on your account, you just need a very basic rune set, good set of mastery pages (it's free :y ), 16 champions, just made my smurf account playing 2 champions (nami and freeloskarner) you just need to really knows how to play a champion, and play to rape your opponents improve every match, at some point, the peoples of you division will no longer be a problem.
Finally a sticky thread with information, so that we don't have to repeat ourselves.
As for the roles, you might wanna write 2 roles + support. Support is, at least in my case, my most played role, since people don't compromise, so I have to. Besides, by playing support you learn how to ward properly, peel/engage/protect, as well what to do with limited resources you are given as support (the lack of gold).
Also, practice, practice, practice.
Focus on a smaller champion pool.
Most important thing: don't rage, flame or afk. Treat your teammates/opponents the way you want them to treat you.
Always be flexible, don't have builds set in stone. Different situations need different approaches.
When ahead, act. When behind, try and farm, play more passive, don't give enemy unnecessary kills.
If you're having tough time in lane, build some defense, or buy extra regeneration to compensate. Spending some gold for easier time in lane phase will be good for you in the long run.
I feel I'm forgetting couple of things, I'll swing by later.
I stopped playing ranked and eventually got the skill level of a gold 4 player. Still haven't played ranked but I can keep up with my friends when we play ranked 5s, 3s, or normal draft. I hate when people say that games that aren't ranked don't count because "people don't try." Those same people probably use that same excuse when playing ranked. You just need to get into a habit of knowing what to do. Also doing it in a 5 man premade doesn't matter because we don't say our lanes until we are picking xD we also don't have any kind of shotcaller. We play like it's soloq and talk over skype, so it's ends up being the same as a soloq with curse voice.
I stopped playing ranked and eventually got the skill level of a gold 4 player. Still haven't played ranked but I can keep up with my friends when we play ranked 5s, 3s, or normal draft. I hate when people say that games that aren't ranked don't count because "people don't try." Those same people probably use that same excuse when playing ranked. You just need to get into a habit of knowing what to do. Also doing it in a 5 man premade doesn't matter because we don't say our lanes until we are picking xD we also don't have any kind of shotcaller. We play like it's soloq and talk over skype, so it's ends up being the same as a soloq with curse voice.
I feel I can improve more in normal games. Normal games are usually carefree. In that kind of environment you can focus on your mistakes. It's nothing like being flamed and called names in chat. Your focus goes on the wrong side.
Recognise your mistakes, write them down, don't repeat them.
Keep up to date on soloq trends, what works well, what to ban etc. (notice this isn't whats good in the LCS)
For example, amumu rammus blitz and akali are all really solid soloq champions. however when do you see these banned? some have a 55% win rate which is only stacking the odds in your favour.
Soloq and competitive are 2 different games. You gotta learn how to play soloq, how to get strangers to follow your tactics, and how you can do well independently without worrying about a strangers performance.
If you can get to a level where you will farm, put out more pressure and land more kills than your respective role on the enemy team then you're already ahead, it's hard to do this every game but if you focus on your mistakes and really improve you should see yourself getting leads on people the same rank as you and you'll climb.
One of the most important points is to play a lot of ranked, nothing teaches you more about soloq than playing it, watching streams helps very little it's entertainment generally and not used as a learning experience. The more you play the more you experience, the more you learn, the more you notice your mistakes, the more you rectify those mistakes, the more you climb.
P.S stay away from duo, it doesn't matter if they are your friend, unless they are an incredibly solid and consistent player they are only going to make it slower for you to climb.
Watching streams helps if you watch to learn, not to have fun. If you focus on what the streamer is doing, you can learn a lot. After that you can go in game and try that stuff yourself. It only helps more if said streamer is actually talking about his decision making and playstyle while playing.
Some tips I have over my 2 seasons of ranked as someone who went from bronze to plat over time.
1. Be open to all roles but be strong at 1 or 2. Everyone is going to have a role they are simply better at than others. Its a fact. That isn't to say knowing the basics of all roles isn't good for your success but each role demands different playstyles that often contradict each other. Focus on refining the skill you think you are best at.
2. Avoid splitpush or other forms of high intensity play if you can. The unfortunate thing about a champion like Zed is that in solo queue no matter how good your mechanics are your optimal style of play is inherently sub optimal in a game without instant communication. Trying to orchestrate a complicated push- pull with your team is difficult and in lower elos someone is bound to screw up which ruins everything. If splitpush is all you have to work off of then so be it but in my experience the team that moves as a unit to take 1 objective wins more games than the team that tries to divide and conquer. Don't be a horror movie cliche, join or die.
3. Play conservatively. In the debate of I can take 2 turrets for little risk but we might be okay to take baron, take the turrets. The easiest way to throw games with a lead is to go for risky objectives instead of secure ones. That said a unified bad call is 3x better than a divided good one so if you don't want to baron but your team does looks like your doing baron and hoping for the best but make smart and safe objective calls whenever you have an advantage.
4. Ward deep whenever you get the opportunity. Whenever I take the bot lane turret as a support my next goal is to immediately light up that opponents jungle like a Christmas tree. Knowing where your enemies are going is a huge boon that wins games. It lets you take free objectives, grab free picks and creates an air of paranoia among the enemy team. On the flipside...
5. Oracles ASAP on defense. 475 gold for a massive increase in ward clearing effectiveness when behind prevents enemies from taking advantage of a lead. 2 players with an upgraded sweeper will do more than all 5 players with regular sweepers will. When your behind you have very small windows to stay in your jungle. The 1 minute cooldown on a sweeper isnt going to cut it when it comes to removing wards.
The absolute cheesiest way to climb is to duo with someone who's from a much lower division but you know is good. That way you get easier opponents for no cost.
Seriously apply that to everything that someone who is silver and below and they will see results.
This advice is solid.
From experience, growing a pair and going man-mode in the mid and jungle roles worked out exceptionally well for me, I learnt to watch the map and screen simultaneously, through teamfights and so on by getting experience, primarily in the jungle role with the strong teamfight jungler, I say the as there is only one strong teamfight jungler - Sejuani. All others are frail, cowardly poor excuses of champions that don't deserve to be called upon by summo--... That don't deserve to be called strong teamfight junglers, Sejuani is love, Sejuani is life. Open your heart to her magnificence and allow Bristle to carry you to prosperity.
Barph, sign my chest please? I can cosplay Ahri if I must.
The absolute cheesiest way to climb is to duo with someone who's from a much lower division but you know is good. That way you get easier opponents for no cost.
Doesn't teach you anything about the game though.
It teaches you how to carry. I know peoples with "high" ranking (D5) who struggles winning a gold game if their team is performing badly. Learning to make use of your lead to make your team win even though your teammates are way behind is also a skill to develop : being 5/0 on lane is useless if you aren't using it efficiently.
My personal contribution to the thread : don't let anyone tell you what you should play or not. Every champion can works, especially at lower elos, as long as you know what you are doing. Also, focus on a small pool of champions (let's say 2-3) and know them perfectly. It doesn't matter which champions, the only thing that counts is how well you play them. I achieved 4 seasons in a row a high ranking playing underplayed champions, but for each one I trained a lot before considering I know them well enough for ranked plays.
Meta is there to help you pick an "easy" champion in a role you aren't comfortable with. If you know your role well, try to counter the meta champions instead of picking them.
Added a few points~ Not sure if I prefer "short" advice or a longer one like the ones I've added
I think long ones are good. What convince people isn't the advice itself, it's the reasoning behind it : if you just say "don't pick FotM champions" it sounds a lot less convincing than "don't pick FotM champions because blah blah".
Maybe group advices by theme, for example : attitude, gameplay and picks.
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ModeratorChampion and role related~
During the game
Mindset - Before and after the game
Honorable mention - "Grow a pair of balls and just do it"
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Platinum^ Can't stress that one enough. Don't think it was mentioned: don't ever let others tell you which champion to play/force you into counterpicking, experience with a champion outweighs counterpicking at lower elos, by a LOT.
Do the impossible, see the invisible; Touch the untouchable, break the unbreakable; Row! Row! Fight the power!
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ModeratorOh good that you're mentioning it, I knew I forgot something :D
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PlatinumNice tread, many peoples come here to ask the same question over and over, this gave then many amazing tips to improve, low elo (bronze,silver, low gold) can be made with very, VERY little amount of things on your account, you just need a very basic rune set, good set of mastery pages (it's free :y ), 16 champions, just made my smurf account playing 2 champions (nami and
freeloskarner) you just need to really knows how to play a champion, and play torape your opponentsimprove every match, at some point, the peoples of you division will no longer be a problem.The lack of skarner on the tips tho...-
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Diamondi climb like a boss, 1 week 5divisions, from diamond 3 to plat 3 ._.
its pure luck based who get more afkers or teemo junglers so even if ur buddah its dont help xD
Finally a sticky thread with information, so that we don't have to repeat ourselves.
As for the roles, you might wanna write 2 roles + support. Support is, at least in my case, my most played role, since people don't compromise, so I have to. Besides, by playing support you learn how to ward properly, peel/engage/protect, as well what to do with limited resources you are given as support (the lack of gold).
Also, practice, practice, practice.
Focus on a smaller champion pool.
Most important thing: don't rage, flame or afk. Treat your teammates/opponents the way you want them to treat you.
Always be flexible, don't have builds set in stone. Different situations need different approaches.
When ahead, act. When behind, try and farm, play more passive, don't give enemy unnecessary kills.
If you're having tough time in lane, build some defense, or buy extra regeneration to compensate. Spending some gold for easier time in lane phase will be good for you in the long run.
I feel I'm forgetting couple of things, I'll swing by later.
I stopped playing ranked and eventually got the skill level of a gold 4 player. Still haven't played ranked but I can keep up with my friends when we play ranked 5s, 3s, or normal draft. I hate when people say that games that aren't ranked don't count because "people don't try." Those same people probably use that same excuse when playing ranked. You just need to get into a habit of knowing what to do. Also doing it in a 5 man premade doesn't matter because we don't say our lanes until we are picking xD we also don't have any kind of shotcaller. We play like it's soloq and talk over skype, so it's ends up being the same as a soloq with curse voice.
I feel I can improve more in normal games. Normal games are usually carefree. In that kind of environment you can focus on your mistakes. It's nothing like being flamed and called names in chat. Your focus goes on the wrong side.
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PlatinumJust do you.
Mute anyone who is remotely negative.
Recognise your mistakes, write them down, don't repeat them.
Keep up to date on soloq trends, what works well, what to ban etc. (notice this isn't whats good in the LCS)
For example, amumu rammus blitz and akali are all really solid soloq champions. however when do you see these banned? some have a 55% win rate which is only stacking the odds in your favour.
Soloq and competitive are 2 different games. You gotta learn how to play soloq, how to get strangers to follow your tactics, and how you can do well independently without worrying about a strangers performance.
If you can get to a level where you will farm, put out more pressure and land more kills than your respective role on the enemy team then you're already ahead, it's hard to do this every game but if you focus on your mistakes and really improve you should see yourself getting leads on people the same rank as you and you'll climb.
One of the most important points is to play a lot of ranked, nothing teaches you more about soloq than playing it, watching streams helps very little it's entertainment generally and not used as a learning experience. The more you play the more you experience, the more you learn, the more you notice your mistakes, the more you rectify those mistakes, the more you climb.
P.S stay away from duo, it doesn't matter if they are your friend, unless they are an incredibly solid and consistent player they are only going to make it slower for you to climb.
Watching streams helps if you watch to learn, not to have fun. If you focus on what the streamer is doing, you can learn a lot. After that you can go in game and try that stuff yourself. It only helps more if said streamer is actually talking about his decision making and playstyle while playing.
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PlatinumSome tips I have over my 2 seasons of ranked as someone who went from bronze to plat over time.
1. Be open to all roles but be strong at 1 or 2. Everyone is going to have a role they are simply better at than others. Its a fact. That isn't to say knowing the basics of all roles isn't good for your success but each role demands different playstyles that often contradict each other. Focus on refining the skill you think you are best at.
2. Avoid splitpush or other forms of high intensity play if you can. The unfortunate thing about a champion like Zed is that in solo queue no matter how good your mechanics are your optimal style of play is inherently sub optimal in a game without instant communication. Trying to orchestrate a complicated push- pull with your team is difficult and in lower elos someone is bound to screw up which ruins everything. If splitpush is all you have to work off of then so be it but in my experience the team that moves as a unit to take 1 objective wins more games than the team that tries to divide and conquer. Don't be a horror movie cliche, join or die.
3. Play conservatively. In the debate of I can take 2 turrets for little risk but we might be okay to take baron, take the turrets. The easiest way to throw games with a lead is to go for risky objectives instead of secure ones. That said a unified bad call is 3x better than a divided good one so if you don't want to baron but your team does looks like your doing baron and hoping for the best but make smart and safe objective calls whenever you have an advantage.
4. Ward deep whenever you get the opportunity. Whenever I take the bot lane turret as a support my next goal is to immediately light up that opponents jungle like a Christmas tree. Knowing where your enemies are going is a huge boon that wins games. It lets you take free objectives, grab free picks and creates an air of paranoia among the enemy team. On the flipside...
5. Oracles ASAP on defense. 475 gold for a massive increase in ward clearing effectiveness when behind prevents enemies from taking advantage of a lead. 2 players with an upgraded sweeper will do more than all 5 players with regular sweepers will. When your behind you have very small windows to stay in your jungle. The 1 minute cooldown on a sweeper isnt going to cut it when it comes to removing wards.
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ModeratorOh and I'll add the new stuff tomorrow since I'm going to bed now~
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MasterGrow a pair of balls and just do it.
Seriously apply that to everything that someone who is silver and below and they will see results.
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PlatinumThe absolute cheesiest way to climb is to duo with someone who's from a much lower division but you know is good. That way you get easier opponents for no cost.
Doesn't teach you anything about the game though.
Connoisseur of shitchampions
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PlatinumThis advice is solid.
From experience, growing a pair and going man-mode in the mid and jungle roles worked out exceptionally well for me, I learnt to watch the map and screen simultaneously, through teamfights and so on by getting experience, primarily in the jungle role with the strong teamfight jungler, I say the as there is only one strong teamfight jungler - Sejuani. All others are frail, cowardly poor excuses of champions that don't deserve to be called upon by summo--... That don't deserve to be called strong teamfight junglers, Sejuani is love, Sejuani is life. Open your heart to her magnificence and allow Bristle to carry you to prosperity.
Barph, sign my chest please? I can cosplay Ahri if I must.
I am the lord of the vanilla-verse
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DiamondIt teaches you how to carry. I know peoples with "high" ranking (D5) who struggles winning a gold game if their team is performing badly. Learning to make use of your lead to make your team win even though your teammates are way behind is also a skill to develop : being 5/0 on lane is useless if you aren't using it efficiently.
My personal contribution to the thread : don't let anyone tell you what you should play or not. Every champion can works, especially at lower elos, as long as you know what you are doing. Also, focus on a small pool of champions (let's say 2-3) and know them perfectly. It doesn't matter which champions, the only thing that counts is how well you play them. I achieved 4 seasons in a row a high ranking playing underplayed champions, but for each one I trained a lot before considering I know them well enough for ranked plays.
Meta is there to help you pick an "easy" champion in a role you aren't comfortable with. If you know your role well, try to counter the meta champions instead of picking them.
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ModeratorAdded a few points~ Not sure if I prefer "short" advice or a longer one like the ones I've added
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PlatinumTypo
: ) nice post tho
Oak's words echoed... Keep it PG13!
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ModeratorAt least quote the whole sentence so I can find it :D I'll do some editing later, probably adding some kind of headings
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DiamondI think long ones are good. What convince people isn't the advice itself, it's the reasoning behind it : if you just say "don't pick FotM champions" it sounds a lot less convincing than "don't pick FotM champions because blah blah".
Maybe group advices by theme, for example : attitude, gameplay and picks.