How to Get Out of Bronze / Silver Guide

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/799/836/022.jpg (Remade the thread because a friendly user recommended that I move it here instead) Hello, i'm your average League of Legends player. Been a member since Season 5, so I am not entirely a pro player like those in Platinum or Diamond that started around Season 2-3. However, I have climbed out of Bronze and as of now, I am nearly one tier away from hitting Gold this season.

My short but simple Guide will provide the tips you will want to follow in order to have a chance in getting out of Bronze if you're stuck there.

1. Be ready to use another champion, whether it's for the role you main or otherwise. There are numerous times where I will get the lane / role I wanted, but someone either banned my best champion or stole picked my champion. Often times people will ask or flat out demand if they can take another person's role instead. This is not only unlikely to happen, but you're also hurting that person due to stealing their role and decreasing the chance of a victory. So with this in mind, always have at least 3 champions you're good at available for said role. That way, it is very likely you will be able to still play at your best. Keep in mind it's okay to be decent with a champion, so long as you know their kit and play cautiously.

2. Never solo que unless your champion is capable of carrying. Only a few champions I can think of (Lee Sin, Udyr, Talon, Zed, ect.) are good for solo que due to their insane ability to carry teams, but otherwise if you're say, a great Support player, it would be wise to duo with someone instead of relying on strangers. I am not saying that doing solo que that you'll lose for sure, but think of it this way. These strangers you end up with do not have Skype or Curse to communicate with. They may also have no respect for you or are downright unable to play effectively to hold out on their own. Also there tends to be AFKs / trolls that come up when you get paired up with strangers. Me and my good friend duoed and not only were able to handle our roles, but by doing so helped others out overcome their lanes. Partnering up with people you trust and can talk to definitely helps, especially when your teammates don't pick the champions to combat rival's picks.

3. Don't always pick your best champion if it isn't going to help your team. I'll always get people from time to time picking champions like Shaco, and even if they're really skilled at playing Shaco ... if said enemy team has over three tank-like champions, than it would be wiser to pick a champion to compete against the tanky team. Just because I love playing Soraka, I don't want to pick her if enemy team has over two assassins or a Blitzcrank bottom, for i'll end up hurting my team if I get caught out. Instead by picking say Leona or Braum, not only can I ensure my ADC is likely to avoid being grabbed but in the long run I can survive against the two assassins they have. I remember a time someone went top Quinn just to counter Darius, but their team had all burst which easily cc'd Quinn. Rather than going tank to help our squishy team, she fed off Darius but got easily shut down late game by the heavy cc which cost us the game. So again, look at your team comp and go with what would be best, along with seeing what your rival team's comp turns out to be.

4. If you lose a game, please take a break. The worst thing someone can do, is play right after a long stressful ranked but they ended up losing. Even if you aren't exactly tilted, you are jumping right into another match with that lost match on your mind. This may possibly hinder your skills, or thinking process to play efficiently. Instead, I suggest taking a short break. Maybe take a walk, watch a youtube video, listen to music- anything to ease your mind. Once you've relaxed, you can take the risk of playing again. If you lose a 2nd time in a row, I suggest to stop playing for the day and practice in normals until the next day. This can sharpen your skills, and certainly make you feel more confident to start winning your lane or win the game entirely.

5. Never do the same build over and over for every match. I was a victim of this, I admit. Although sites like LolKing, MobaFire, and so on provided excellent Guides in making great builds for your champion of choice, a lot of people tend to build the same items, in the same order for every match up. This is going to bite you in the @$$, trust me. Now certain items definitely are a must on particular champions, you should build what your champion is in desperate need of. Say for example, i'm a Jungler Vi whom has started out with Warrior path. However if their enemy comp is heavy on AP, instead of going with my usual build I should immediately build some MR, especially if i'm behind due to the enemy team slaying my team. Sometimes you have to sacrifice damage in order to survive team fights, or do the opposite to dish out more damage in order to put down that fed Vayne who's carrying their team. Build on what you need, without following the order of items you've been doing regardless of the situation.

6. Keep positive and inspire your team; don't tilt them. Perhaps the most vital tip I could provide, and the changing factor whether your team wins or loses. No matter how skilled you are, or how hard you can carry your lane / role ... this game revolves around teamwork. Too often will I get people fighting and arguing in the comment sections about who's fault is what, or you might at times bash someone for doing a poor job. This is going to tilt them, and hinder their performance. Not to mention that by doing this, you're also tilting yourself believe it or not. Instead, I would suggest motivating those who are struggling with the words like, "No worries, it happens. We can still win." or "We'll get them back man, keep doing your best!" Now while you may think this is blind optimism, it has done wonders for me in MOST of my ranked matches. Suddenly they do better, or are able to overcome a challenge even if it doesn't happen at first. There are times people will be too upset or toxic to care, so my advise would be to mute them if they're troubling you. Otherwise try to defuse a situation between angry members with optimism, or simply support them through praise.

But seriously, praise them even if they've lost a fight. "You were close, we'll get them next time!" or "We're getting there, don't give up!" can truly inspire people to play better. Trust me, it turned some of my near lost games to actual wins, thanks to players working together.

7. Experiment with what works and doesn't work outside of ranked. Sometimes you'll find out that a particular champion suits your playstyle, and can even become your main. My friend on Skype tried this with multiple champions top lane, but one game he found out just how amazing he was at Darius. With practice, he was able to carry his games and even turn a gank into a triple kill thanks to practice. I used to only go with Support champions in ranked, but after multiple losses in a row ... I began to experiment in normals with what works with me. Turns out, Shyvana and Vi are my champion soul mates when it comes to jungling, and by using them- literally started earning me wins. At a certain point I won 9 ranked games in a row using them, back to back. So yeah try out different champions and see what works with you or what can be done to improve the champions you already own.

8. Please don't blame anyone or their champions for your loss. Now while I get the fact there are times people feed so badly, you lose the game thanks to them. There are times someone countered your champion hard so you weren't able to win your lane, and it cost you guys the game. But despite this, people begin making excuses as to why they've lost, and eventually it's all they will do whenever something goes wrong. The moment you lose a team fight, suddenly it's an automatic loss. Please, whatever you do, DON'T think like this. There are times the rival team can have 20 kills more than your team, but there's that chance your team can still win. Whenever something goes wrong, I advise to you ... to rethink what happened. What did you do wrong? What could of you've done to change the outcome? Was your timing off? Did you go in too early or arrive too late? Openly ask yourself questions and try to improve on your mistakes. The last thing you want to do is blame people because that also violates rule #6 which is not trying to tilt people. Once you learn from your mistakes, you can eventually correct other player's mistakes without tilting them and soon you guys are back on a winning track.

9. Objectives are your priority, not kills. Oh boy, this is a huge problem with most games. Even those you've befriended or qued up with fall into this issue at hand. So many games, people try to obtain kills and play team deathmatch instead of actually playing League of Legends. There's a reason why Dragon is there, Baron's there, Rift Herald is there, and why creeps spawn every 30 seconds. The point of the game is to destroy the enemy Nexus, and to do that- you must destroy their towers. Once you get to their base, destroying the inhibitors will cause Mega Minions to spawn. Your objective should never try to get kills, and despite the fact kills are important in order to buy items and get stronger ... by ignoring objectives you only allow the enemy team to get ahead. If your lanes are pushed out and your base is in constant harassment, good luck trying to win the game or get kills when the enemy team can easily invade and have a much greater chance at winning the game than you. Always consider objectives, always consider what will determine the fate of the game's outcome and what will help your team instead of charging in 1v4, getting a few kills but losing an objective in the process. Not worth it.

10. Wards are your best friend, no matter what role you have. People usually suspect Supports are in charge of warding. While it is their duty to ward the map, it is also your duty to provide as much help as possible when it comes to map control. Too often will I notice how it's 30 minutes in and almost 2-4 people (even the Support at times) will not have upgraded their trinket, or the Support didn't buy a Sightstone. Guys, I can't stress this enough ... wards win games. By having map awareness and seeing where enemies are at, not only will you be able to lane safely and avoid ganks, but this also allows you and your team to plan ahead. If you notice that the Dragon is available and you spotted their jungler at top lane, this can either give you the chance to push your lane or steal Dragon. Wards make a huge difference and despite that pink wards cost 75 gold, it never goes away unless someone destroys it. But knowing where people are at can make the difference between getting kills and completing objectives or getting caught and losing your game because you didn't have vision. You're just as responsible for wards than your Support. Only difference is Supports have more wards, but the logic is the same for all the players to help with getting vision.

11. Don't roam if you're behind CS or struggling in lane. I've noticed that players (unless they're ahead in CS / been fed) tend to roam since their laner is too much to deal with. Normally it could be seen as a good thing, since getting help with ganks can turn things around. But more often than not, the rival laner will either follow them and get one or more kills, or they'll push mid lane until tower is destroyed. In either case, this is a huge concern and the person roaming shouldn't be leaving their lane until they're able to catch up on CS or hold out against their rival laner. Depending on the circumstance, you can excuse them if they mange to help you get some kills bot / top lane or they certainly outfarm their rival laner. But in most cases, it ends up backfiring on them and it can cost you guys the game. Because once mid tower is destroyed, that laner will start roaming and more enemy ganks will occur which ends up hurting your team. So by all means, unless you're ahead in CS, you're quite fed or the gank is happening nearby like in river- don't leave your lane. Continue pushing and getting strong enough to eventually provide help. It's the jungler's job to help with ganks and not all lanes can be saved if said laners on your team are doing that poorly. This can also be said if you're farming and not doing anything else to help your team- that is also bad. Know when to roam, and know when you can't afford to roam.

12. Sharing is caring, but it also helps your team win too. This is mostly directed as junglers overall, but can apply to certain champions. If say, your mid laner is an AP mage like Ahri or Kassadin who heavily relies on mana, please do consider giving them the blue buff. You don't have to hand them it three minutes within the game, since blue buff helps you clear out the jungle faster ... but if they have blue buff, it can surely help them overcome their rival laner and start snowballing (even if they don't get kills, they can easily surpass them in CS which is also sufficient). Think of how good your ADC can do if you hand them the red buff, or letting certain champions get Krugs / Raptors due to their special buffs. I've won a lot of games from simply letting a champion have a buff, and with this stomp their lane due to this advantage. While it can end up biting you in the tush if said rival team kills your ally and steals the buff ... unless they're dying a lot, consider sharing with them. It'll really help in the long run and they'll most likely pay you back by assisting in getting Dragon or roaming to save you if said rival jungler invades.

13. SAVE YOUR JUNGLER IF HE / SHE IS INVADED. Oh my god, this. This is a serious problem that is often overlooked for some reason even outside of Bronze. Unless your jungler is invaded from across the map and you're bot lane, there is really no excuse in not lending a hand. There were points in my history, that my top laner would be too busy farming than coming down to stop their jungler from stealing a buff or downright killing our jungler. This not only tilts said jungler, but it ends up making the rival jungler start to invade more or possibly continue to invade / kill your jungler. Have some decency and go save your jungler if you're close by. That way you guys scare em off, or secure a kill to help your jungler start to snowball. Before you say to me, "But what if my laner follows?" Doesn't matter if your jungler gets screwed over, do what you can to save em and if done right- it'll be you two vs the laner that followed you guys.

14. Let others have the kill, besides you. Now this is a weird concept but hear me out. There are games where the Support will secure multiple kills while the ADC is 0 / 2 or say the jungler that ganks will get 4 / 0 but your ADC ends up with no kills past 20 minutes. While it is good and important to get fed and secure kills, consider how impacting it would be to have a fed ADC or that mid / top laner to get some kills going thanks to you not last hitting said dying enemies. Not only will this be crucial in team fights but it will allow more people to survive team fights / ganks and complete objectives. Unless you're certain rival laner will escape, resist trying to hog all the kills and let your ally team mates who need the kills, actually get the kills. Again this isn't "who can earn the biggest amount of kills" but "Who's team can survive to end up destroying the enemy Nexus".

15. Play ARAM. You must be thinking, "What? I'm trying to get out of Bronze! Why would I play ARAM for?!" Well my friend, ARAM is perfect for understanding champions and trying out builds. Whether you end up believing me or not, I have learned so much from ARAM due to the random champions I end up getting (whom I haven't unlocked by the way) or getting champions I own, but want to test new builds. Since you get a lot of gold to begin with, and a fast amount of income which is 2-3x faster than you would in normals ... you can totally see how things play out. Perhaps you'll end up loving the champion you got to try out, or understand their kit so when you face them in an actual rank- you'll know how they work. Thanks to ARAM, I fully understood how powerful certain champions could be and their usefulness. Not to mention, ARAM is always 5 v 5 throughout the game so you'll know how to use / play said champions in team fights. Laning is important, but team fights will happen and by exactly understand how to survive / play out a team fight gives you a much bigger advantage and there's no better gamemode to improving than ARAM.

16. Know when to group up. Split pushing is quite important and can apply pressure to the enemy team, but if they're always grouped ... good luck winning the game. Every time (literally) my team tries to split push while 4-5 rival players team up to do an objective or kill someone, they are going to win. That's just the truth, and unless you're a pro at split pushing while using someone like Udyr, you are only hurting your team. Please advise your team to group up when the time seems appropriate, and work together to win objectives / secure kills to get objectives done. You may think you can totally handle a team fight when it's 4v5, but it makes all the difference when that one person is missing and because they have an extra player on the fight, it can entirely screw you and your team over. Group up when the time is right, and you'll know when it's time believe me.

17. Patience my friend, patience. I'm not just talking about when it's right to jump in and go ham or when to wait things out... i'm talking about ranked in general. There are moments when people want to give up on ranked, or they feel they're unable to escape Bronze because they're "unskilled". This is not true. It took me an entire month and 1 week to get out of Bronze, and I started out in Bronze II!! I keep hearing people say "You can get out of Bronze easily if you can carry" but there's so much more to a match than simply getting a lot of kills. Whether you lose because your team fed or the enemy team outplayed you, just don't give up. Don't let your friends or strangers make you feel crappy because you didn't reach a division before they did. You literally have ALL SUMMER (half of a year) to climb out from one division to the next, so stay determined (yea I know, Undertale reference) and continue playing. Taking a month's break could hinder your skills, but it is understandable if life comes first (which should come first mind you). Still, keep trying your best and through hard work and a positive attitude, I can ensure you that you WILL get out of Bronze and possibly to Gold. Hell, even higher if you keep trying and never letting losses get to you.

Well that's all the tips I can provide, and while I am open for criticism since there could be flaws with my tips- these are what I used to climb out of Bronze. They're actually what I use to this day and it's getting me a few wins away from reaching Gold which I dare say, seems like a great trade for taking the time to look into advise or remembering such tips. If you have any tips yourself or have questions, feel free to ask!! Best of luck to you and I pray you guys have the most success in your future games.

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