Low Elo- Strategy and mind > Mechanics (for those interested in improving at lol)
So hello, my name is Phantom, and I am going to tell you my thoughts on low elo, elo hell, and what I learned after my first legit season in lol as i go into my new one.
So I joined near the end of season four, right when Samsung white won the world championships. I do not really count season four as the season I started lol because this was the time when I was just goofing off and takeing legitimately nothing seriously. However eventually just playing the game was no longer satisfying for me, so at the start of season five I looked at the game with much excitement to learn and to grow. I had this naive idea that I was gold quality the moment season five started and that I was going to be diamond toward the end of season five.
Much a blow to my ego, I barely ended the season in gold only to learn I can only play a few champions at plat quality. The end of season five was a very humbling experience where I had to accept my mechanics were only gold quality and that only a few champions I could play at plat quality and no further. This was indeed a humbling experience, but eventually I did get to gold at the end of season five.
So now that it is season six, I fell into the same trap I did at the start of season five, believing I could just instantly get gold again and then climb to plat. I felt if I did it once, I could easily do it again. This was when I learned two valuable lessons in league as the game evolves.
1-If you can't repeat the success, the first time does not matter, in a game like league, being able to repeat success means everything.
2-Mechanics only get you so far, you need a game plan
3-You have to stay humble and aware of your emotions, thoughts and actions
Now some of you probably have some things to say about my three point's and that is respectable, I understand it. To clarify my first point
1-if you cant repeat success, it does not matter
Is me saying in a game where if your goal is to win and to climb ranks, it is simply the truth, if you were plat last season, guess what, it does not matter if you can't climb out of gold to get into plat, and same for me who is in silver, if I can't get back into gold, then none of it mattered. It was simply a lucky result, a result that lacks data or proof that I really did deserve it. To answer the question "did I carry myself or did I get carried?" The best way to prove you deserved it is to repetitively reclaim your throne. Look at most high elo diamonds to challengers, they make smurfs all the time, and almost instantly get back in their elo with flawless win streeks. The fact they can do this at such a consistent repetition on multiple accounts every year, is proof that they deserve to be where they are.
2-Mechanics only get you so far
To clarify this point, I will say first hand in my journey last season from bronze to silver to gold that I met many people in all elos, and all with unique mind sets, and I will say the majority of them had ok or decent mechanics. Some were even good. However fact is, unless you have god tier mechanics, they will only get you so far, and even if you do have god tier mechanics, eventually you will find yourself in a elo or in a tornamant, where mechanics are no longer good enough.
Mechanics get you gold Strategy wins you games
In my jorney to try to climb back to gold I came to a realization in why I often have a positive kda, or a mediocore kda yet lost a majority of my games. Their was two major reasons that led to my recent losing streak and I realized what that was. For most players who have a clear mind and a solid game plan, they can go hard core into the negatives but still win games, simply because they had a plan in how to win and followed through with it correctly. Being in a decent KDA score simply makes this easier. If you were to look at the kda in all my loses you would probably think "wonder where things went wrong, his scores were not that bad, his kda was even good in some of them" and I came to the conclusion that mechanics have limits. That if you play with only mechanics but no goal or plan, you will simply be a wondering raid boss who is out to occasionally kill people and nothing more, wondering aimlessly without direction. And that is simply what I was doing.
TLDR-if you want to win, you need a plan and a good one Note-The plan should be thought out, but subjective to change upon the game state
3-You have to be humble, aware of your emotions, aware of your actions
I am not looking for any pity likes but I will say this right now, I am majorly depressive, events have happened in my life that led to me being quite traumatized. At the same time I am a bright young mind who is quite talented at a variety of things who is aware of his talents. Because of this I get cocky and very depressive, these two emotions are not a good mix if you plan on competing in any sport.
To win you have to stay HUMBLE
Being humble prevents you from getting cocky, it keeps you aware of the skill of your opponents and the situation of your surroundings. When we are cocky we focus only on ourselves and look less at the surrounding big picture.
To win you have to be aware of your EMOTIONS
It is well known fact that if you are depressed or angry you are at risk of making dumb plays and no longer performing at your 100 percent potential. However many times we will get depressed or angry without even realize it and will continue to play until we reach a satisfactory feeling. However since a negative emotion still clouds your judgement you are still playing poorly and still losing games. This is known as TILTING Recognize your tilting and stop immediately to find out what the problem is and to fix it.
To win you have to be aware of your ACTIONS
Going somewhat into point one and two, many times we will make mistakes and not know the cause of it. We will push to far and get assassinated, we will force a bad team fight and pressure our teammates to go in with us. We fail to recognize the cause effect of our actions. Every time something goes wrong in a game, instead of just blaming your teammates, analyze "what could I have done to prevent this" for believe me, their is almost always something you could have done to prevent it. But you do not realize it, for you do not recognize the cause effect of what you are doing.
Anyways This is some thoughts I had when I had to look at my match history to realize why i was loseing.
Hope this helps my peers
Happy climbing summoners
~Phantom
