I have been Silver for 4 years.

Espurr VI·Dec 15, 2015·20 votes·10,775 views

I am Silver 2. Do I think I deserve to be higher? Probably. I wouldn't know, but I'm willing to improve. Over my 4 years of League gameplay, I've been stuck in Silver. Trying desperately for Gold. However it always seems out of my reach. So that makes me think: What am I missing? I ward very often, I very very very rarely get below a 2.5 KDA (IN RANKED), I can secure objectives, if I lose lane I play safe, I gank other lanes in need, and my overall champion pool in ranked is quite diverse, (Except support) and I only play champions I know I'm good at. (Rank 4-5 only) What am I missing? Because at this point I really think it's some team members that bring me down. A Master Yi that literally went 0/7 by 15 minutes. Support Trundle that went 3/7/0 at 14 minutes. Sometimes I can look past that, because shit happens. But when the champions that get fed are Volibear, Mundo, or some tanky champion that because practically unkillable when fed. I can't out play that. I can't carry that. Is it possible to carry that? A 3500HP monster with god like defenses that is coming for the booty to kill me.

I remember seeing a thread a while back about a Diamond player who made a smurf for silver, and said it was so much harder than Diamond. Because up there, team fights can be coordinated and thought out. Down here, it's a mess. No plannning, and everyone just goes in for themselves. I remember reading that in Diamond, most people don't die more than 3 times for the first 10 minutes, but down here, it's not uncommon that someone feeds 5+ kills in that time. Also... this: https://www.reddit.com/r/summonerschool/comments/3aqq14/diamond_player_cant_compete_in_silver/

So what is there for me to do to climb out? Is it just luck?

89 Comments

FjiordorDec 15, 20159 votes

While it is indeed annoying to have people in your team who are literally trying to solve world hunger (dammn those "bread for the world" activists in MOBA`s), you will never really be able to change the players you are playing with(even if it is you DuoQ m8) so the only way is to adapt your playstyle. One of of the thing which are working great in low elo are cheesy tactics(Rengo Donger Lux etc pp), also you have to try if possible to carry your Team, BUT this does not means you pick something like full AP Zyra supp(pls just buy an sightstone first and then go ap item 3092 gets build on midlane but the "support" prefers Rabadons? WTF). Juggernauts are a great thing for soloq as they can carry a game and offer some tankiness to the team.

As for now a good thing to abuse is DrMundo .

My experience is now that normals are usally way easier to carry than ranked games any thoughts on that?

Anyway gl in SoloQ and have fun

TacB VIPEREYEMay 15, 20161 votes

God he made an outstanding point. Selecting cheese champions. I can honestly say that pride could easily hold you back from gold. Honestly I can't understand how you could play Malphite and live with yourself lol. That's 30-40 minutes of watching the grass grow and then earning LP in my opinion. It takes a special kind of person to play Maokai . I however am not one of them. If you have played league for a couple years there will be champions that are quite powerful and can be abused to but after playing for so long you seek to want to make things....interesting. Playing Malphite top is the furthest thing from interesting even if you do win.

AHeroNamedHawkeDec 15, 20156 votes

Mastery rank has nothing to do with how good you are at a champion, it simply means you were in enough winning games as it

Stick to Shyvana, Talon and Kat, or get a duo partner if you want to carry from bot lane. You win low Elo games by snowballing and crushing the lack of coordination, and the first step to climbing is realizing you're the problem

I used to think I was doing everything right back in S2 and blamed my teams, calling it luck and making the excuse that high elo players just had more games than me. Then I had some coaching sessions with a diamond player and realized I was fucking awful. Since then I've hit Diamond twice and Master this season. Anyone saying it's all luck or that silver is impossible to carry, including your D5 sources, are just bad. Yes, people luck out and get higher/lower than they should be, but that isn't going to happen 4 seasons in a row. That's on you.

WeatheredDec 15, 20152 votes

See, this is how I feel. Just another silver scrub, and I know I'm not the best but I don't realize why. I don't know anyone above plat with time to coach tho xD

jaymc1130Dec 19, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Charles Barklius,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=AImdZFpe,comment-id=000d,timestamp=2015-12-15T12:09:02.035+0000)

Mastery rank has nothing to do with how good you are at a champion, it simply means you were in enough winning games as it

Stick to Shyvana, Talon and Kat, or get a duo partner if you want to carry from bot lane. You win low Elo games by snowballing and crushing the lack of coordination, and the first step to climbing is realizing you're the problem

I used to think I was doing everything right back in S2 and blamed my teams, calling it luck and making the excuse that high elo players just had more games than me. Then I had some coaching sessions with a diamond player and realized I was fucking awful. Since then I've hit Diamond twice and Master this season. Anyone saying it's all luck or that silver is impossible to carry, including your D5 sources, are just bad. Yes, people luck out and get higher/lower than they should be, but that isn't going to happen 4 seasons in a row. That's on you.

^ Good advice from a quality player/poster. Sure the system is flawed and sure your teammates suck and sure bad luck factors in.

But all these same things affect everyone else as well. Focus on you, focus on improving, and focus on understanding the game at a high level in a strategic sense. The number one thing most low level players are lacking that holds them back is game knowledge and in game sense.

Also, find a tutor. A high level player to play with on a daily or regular basis. The amount of knowledge that can be absorbed is astounding.

dEAdbUsDec 21, 20151 votes

My diamond 1 bro always was saying that to carry games you need to play champion that can solely carry low skill team.

Ppl who saying that other teammates don't affect us are very wrong.

manbearswineDec 15, 20155 votes

[{quoted}](name=Taco the Dragon,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=AImdZFpe,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-12-15T08:09:25.731+0000)

I remember seeing a thread a while back about a Diamond player who made a smurf for silver, and said it was so much harder than Diamond.

What you didn't notice was its let's say "sister thread" calling it bullshit,and instead of one diamond saying silver is hard,there was a group of us saying silver is easy as hell,and yes,I've made a smurf and got out of silver easily with complete disregard to what I was picking(I played things like support syndra(the kind with sightstone,lucidity boots and mikaels,locket/etc),got kinda stuck at plat 1 though,that place being hell due to proximity to diamond 5.),it just got downvoted to hell because people prefer convenient lies to the harsh truth.

Because up there, team fights can be coordinated and thought out. Down here, it's a mess. No plannning, and everyone just goes in for themselves.

It doesn't matter,a diamond is silver will just stomp the lane consistently and won't throw late(meaning one less person to throw on his team),you won't win every game,but you will win more than you'll lose.

I remember reading that in Diamond, most people don't die more than 3 times for the first 10 minutes, but down here, it's not uncommon that someone feeds 5+ kills in that time.

That's a lie too,there's plenty of feeders,trolls,flamer/etc at diamond,I guess most people really don't die 3 times in the first few minutes,but is that even true in silver?

Also... this: https://www.reddit.com/r/summonerschool/comments/3aqq14/diamond_player_cant_compete_in_silver/

So what is there for me to do to climb out? Is it just luck?

Depending on what you play it can be a grind,but it's mostly just a "git gud" scenario.

TheDeviceDec 15, 20151 votes

{quoted}

snip

Blows my mind man. you said all that and you main support. Like it BLOWS MY MIND. lol.

I just don't understand how you can deny any amount of luck in this game when you are in the MOST reliant position in the game. Support has to rely on the fact heir mid laner / top laner wins and knows what they're doing to roam/tp. You have to rely on your jungler to gank lanes. You have to rely on your adc being decent.

I mean this kindof stuff blows my freaking mindbrain.

T RexHasTinyArmsDec 20, 20152 votes

Support won't have super strong carry potential, but climbing isn't really about "solo carrying." If your team has a significant advantage every game then over enough games you will climb bc the balance of shitty teams will even out roughly on your team vs the other. A diamond level support should be able to absolutely crush a silver level support (even more so bc often in silver the person playing support is just "filling"), and if their ADC is terrible or looks like they will be terrible from early mechanics analysis, then a diamond level support gets other lanes fed by roaming. They make a big impact and the team gets ahead, so over time their average team has more strength than the enemy by a large amount and they win more games than they lose. A 55% win rate will make you climb reasonably fast, a 60-70% win rate is probably a smurf climbing.

jaymc1130Dec 20, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=T RexHasTinyArms,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=AImdZFpe,comment-id=000800000002,timestamp=2015-12-20T06:29:06.307+0000)

Support won't have super strong carry potential, but climbing isn't really about "solo carrying." If your team has a significant advantage every game then over enough games you will climb bc the balance of shitty teams will even out roughly on your team vs the other. A diamond level support should be able to absolutely crush a silver level support (even more so bc often in silver the person playing support is just "filling"), and if their ADC is terrible or looks like they will be terrible from early mechanics analysis, then a diamond level support gets other lanes fed by roaming. They make a big impact and the team gets ahead, so over time their average team has more strength than the enemy by a large amount and they win more games than they lose. A 55% win rate will make you climb reasonably fast, a 60-70% win rate is probably a smurf climbing.

Its not uncommon for us to manage 75 or 80% win rates until platinum and troll city mmr range. Truly good players manage to climbt to diamond in 50 some odd games and can manage 90% win rates although these players tend to be pros or other challenger tier players smurfing on streams. And truthfully, a lot of it is basically 1v5 hard solo carrying. One truly exceptional player can make all the terribly awful players on his team seem competent. One truly exceptional player can make decent players seem like excellent players. But its really still that one guy doing the vast majority of the heavy lifting.

T RexHasTinyArmsDec 20, 20151 votes

A reasonably large gap (plat in silver, diamond in gold, or challenger in anything below diamond III or IV probably) is obviously going to have an insane win rate (80% plus), but I was just thinking of like when people get close to their real elo (gold in high silver, or diamond in high plat) and the rate drops down to more like 60-70% from what I've seen. Maybe I haven't seen enough people do it though and I'm wrong about that, or there are a ton of non smurf accounts that are over 60% overall win rate, but generally I see people between 50-60% win rate over all the games on their main account. So if the account is over 60% and more than 50 games, it's usually a second account for someone. Holy shit though it's scary watching really high elo players climb. Like fuck, I'm stuck in low gold scrub land and watching a diamond take a fresh account that just hit level 30 and place in gold after 10 games then shoot up through mid/high plat is just like "fuck I've got more to learn then I even realized."

jaymc1130Dec 20, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=T RexHasTinyArms,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=AImdZFpe,comment-id=00080000000200000000,timestamp=2015-12-20T07:16:45.268+0000)

A reasonably large gap (plat in silver, diamond in gold, or challenger in anything below diamond III or IV probably) is obviously going to have an insane win rate (80% plus), but I was just thinking of like when people get close to their real elo (gold in high silver, or diamond in high plat) and the rate drops down to more like 60-70% from what I've seen. Maybe I haven't seen enough people do it though and I'm wrong about that, or there are a ton of non smurf accounts that are over 60% overall win rate, but generally I see people between 50-60% win rate over all the games on their main account. So if the account is over 60% and more than 50 games, it's usually a second account for someone. Holy shit though it's scary watching really high elo players climb. Like fuck, I'm stuck in low gold scrub land and watching a diamond take a fresh account that just hit level 30 and place in gold after 10 games then shoot up through mid/high plat is just like "fuck I've got more to learn then I even realized."

Nope you pretty much have it accurately based on what you post here. I can typically manage a 70-80% win rate until I hit plat MMR and what is called "troll city". Unfortunately a lot of plat players have very bad mentalities and this makes platinum (along with silver) the hardest tiers to climb in because of the high variance from game to game. Once I hit that range I typically see that win rate drop closer to 60-65% as more often I have games against quality opponents when I have an unlucky pairing and catch a troll or afk on my team that I can't make up for because the talent I'm playing against is too good for me to just roll them over and 1v5. Once I hit diamond level mmr my win rate drops pretty dramatically and tends to stay in the 55% range plus or minus a few percentage points until I hit my wall near diamond 1 and master tier (which sadly I was demoted from 8 months ago. Its ok, I totally got carried there for the border at the end of last season, so it wasn't like I deserved the ranking) and my win rate maintains a break even pace. Naturally, I cannot do this with just any random champ, that is a common misconception about high level players. We are certainly NOT good at anything and everything. I play maybe 4 or 5 champs at a high diamond level and in just a pair of roles. I can play pretty much anything at a low gold level, even champs I've never touched before, but its the consistency of the champs in my wheelhouse that allow me to climb so your previous post nailed that bit of advice.

I make a new smurf every season (I'm up to 15 accounts now) and pick a new champ to learn and try to one trick to diamond every year. I've gotten pretty good at it and typically can manage it in about 200-300 games no matter who I choose to play or where, but the only part of my climb that's scary is the part where I tear through lower levels with ease. The worst feeling is taking a fresh smurf and having a ton of the placements be trolled so you cant achieve that mid gold initial ranking. This sucks because it usually adds about 30-40 games to the climb making it far more grindy and kills the quick climb potential since only your first 50 lifetime ranked matches have increased MMR gains and losses (Starting with the highest bonus in the first match and tapering down over the next 49 games) which are crucial.

dEAdbUsDec 21, 20151 votes

Wow, can you tell what you have to play to get 90% winrate? After 9 wins in a row, I started to meet guys with 1.5-2 tiers higher than me. Should I say that they crushed me and stopped my streak? 90% winrate in silver-gold is a myth unless you are top challenger abusing rengar/lb/fizz.

jaymc1130Dec 21, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Wow, can you tell what you have to play to get 90% winrate? After 9 wins in a row, I started to meet guys with 1.5-2 tiers higher than me. Should I say that they crushed me and stopped my streak? 90% winrate in silver-gold is a myth unless you are top challenger abusing rengar/lb/fizz.

Nah, its pretty doable. Even a lowly d1 like me can manage it for a short period of time. I just cant do it over 50 games, that's tough and also requires a little bit of luck.

https://i.gyazo.com/b2da23c6725b3a42ac068fd48b55eb30.jpg https://i.gyazo.com/67433fc025d2f826266cae7bc52103f0.jpg

IntoneDec 21, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Nah, its pretty doable. Even a lowly d1 like me can manage it for a short period of time. I just cant do it over 50 games, that's tough and also requires a little bit of luck.

https://i.gyazo.com/b2da23c6725b3a42ac068fd48b55eb30.jpg https://i.gyazo.com/67433fc025d2f826266cae7bc52103f0.jpg

I had a 100% winrate Darius and Ashe in low gold in season 3 or 4. 10 games. After that I lost a few. Also had a super high (95%~) Morgana win rate. 24 or so games. The stats are different because I got super tilted one day and started picking them into disadvantageous situations and lost a few games.

But yeah I had a 90% winrate lux last season (s5). Lost a few games in low plat with her. But 5.5 kda or something tells no lies

jaymc1130Dec 21, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I had a 100% winrate Darius and Ashe in low gold in season 3 or 4. 10 games. After that I lost a few. Also had a super high (95%~) Morgana win rate. 24 or so games. The stats are different because I got super tilted one day and started picking them into disadvantageous situations and lost a few games.

But yeah I had a 90% winrate lux last season (s5). Lost a few games in low plat with her. But 5.5 kda or something tells no lies

Yeah, its not too tough to manage in a small sample size, the guys who can do it for 50 or 60 some odd games are really impressive though. That's tough as balls.

dEAdbUsDec 21, 20151 votes

I was playing on eune (3 years) - from bronze to plat, and no offense but players there do not abuse op and fotm picks, so you can climb there with unusual picks. Its much more difficult on Euw (1 year here), because every game I see same broken picks.

manbearswineDec 21, 20152 votes

{quoted}

I was playing on eune (3 years) - from bronze to plat, and no offense but players there do not abuse op and fotm picks,

You know that a simple scroll through lolking proves that to be a lie right? Eune abuses op picks and fotm picks like everyone else.

so you can climb there with unusual picks. Its much more difficult on Euw (1 year here), because every game I see same broken picks.

I have a euw smurf as well,it's harder because you need to deduct 2-3 divisions from one server to another,even when elo used to be a number gold in euw was 1500 and on eune was 1400(if i remember correctly).

But anyway you can always climb with unusual picks,you are just quite likely playing with a handicap,or worse.

TacB VIPEREYEMay 16, 20161 votes

God i would love to play in the world you live in item 3070

Melee FormDec 15, 20153 votes

Did you read the comments on the article you posted? A lot of high elo players commenting say they find his story hard to believe. There's also no proof that he is diamond.

You are probably stuck in silver because you can't figure out your weaknesses. If you keep repeating the same thing you'll get the same results.

TheDeviceDec 15, 20153 votes

it's mostly luck my friend. I've been in the same boat. Some of us just get stuck. We play well, we try hard, do all the things most plats do in many cases, and we get nowhere.

I'm able to play pretty well. I even started jungling as my main position for quite some time now from top so I can provide more to my team. I gank lanes, I farm decent, I try to secure objectives and all that jazz.

You just can't control your teammates.

It's like another post had pointed out a long time ago: The "statistical" balance theory is flawed because you'd have to play thousands of games to reach what would make sense as far as getting bad players/afkers equal to the amount of good players your get / opponent getting the bad players.

To put it simply, many plats will discuss this "statistical" part of game theory that would suggest it should all even out; you get bad players and then your opponent should get bad players just as often. But in reality, it doesn't work that way. If you were to use true statistics you'd have to play thousands upon thousands of games for those statistics to apply to you personally.

So, you can be getting FAR more trolls, afkers, feeders and just terrible players than somebody else who's just floating their way up to plat with little to no problem.

Then you have the guy who makes the "new account" with fresh mmr and says its EZ. It's much more difficult to get to that point using an older account with more games played in ranked.

Basically, just play for the enjoyment. I play ranked because there is this sortof added interest factor but really its a bunch of luck. Usually its people who don't get such terrible luck and float up to play easily who always say its skill.... I wonder why. lol

Critmaster GarenDec 15, 20152 votes

its probably the champions you play. play something that can carry hard when ahead.

assassins that are prone to snowballing out of control, tryndamere who requires the attention from the entire enemy team when ahead. broken cancer like vayne who has enough self peel and damage to kill the volibear with 1 attack speed item if you rotate you abilities well. you dont even need anything else thanks to silver bolts. lee sin who has the easiest ganks in the world.

further up, when you can start relying on your team you can carry with other champs that require more teamwork to be effective.

shabingiDec 15, 20152 votes

Pro players create new smurfs all the time. They frequently win the first 45 out of 50 games or so, usually going 10-0 or 9-1 in placement matches, hard carrying almost every game. I'm just a plat player, but my account started in silver 2 this season. It took me maybe 20 games to get to gold. I started off season 5 about 8-1 with nidalee and 8-0 with ezreal. Stats were something like 10-3-10 per game. If you are stuck in silver it is absolutely because you belong there.

Looking at your stats, you AVERAGE less than a 2.5 KDA with 4 of your top 5 champs, so you are bullshitting us. It looks like your shyvanna is by far your best champ (44-24), so if you actually want to climb you should try to play this champion as much as possible. You seem decent at jungling at so-so at midlane, so mid lane should be your backup when you cant get jungler. Stop playing champs that you suck with and you will climb.

dEAdbUsDec 21, 20151 votes

Let me guess: Ez with smite and Nid right after rework? So you were playing broken s#@t?

Mr VersatilityDec 19, 20152 votes

I understand everyone has different experiences, here is mine.

I started playing pre-Gnar release(Season 4) I remember trying to get to 30 as fast as I could so that I could try to get gold (hahaha) before the season ended. I hit lv 30 with about 11 days or so(something short of 2 weeks) remaining in the season. Well needless to say I did not make gold my first season.

I placed Silver 4, I finished silver 4. 11 days no movement. Season 5, I briefly was gold 5 (for about 5 games) I consistently stayed at Silver 2-3, would go on these tilt sprees of 20 or so losses and be right back where I started in season 4. Then an "event" happened. That changed the way I played the game. I got banned. for 2 weeks. I was in my gold promos, already lost a game mind you. We had a guy who refused to go adc, so when that was the only choice left ( I was playing Fiora top 2-0 in the first 3 minutes of the game) He auto locked Tahm Kench while 4th pick locked in Leona. (Face palm). I was instantly on tilt. Needless to say that we lost after the Tahm and Leona fed the enemy Vayne about 5 or 6 kills. I had also told the jungler to focus on mid and top(we were actually ahead even with a 5-0 Vayne.)

The jungler said that he wouldn't focus on winning lanes and that he needed to "save" bot lane. Tilt. More tilt. The first thing I learned as a primarily jungle main is that you don't gank a losing lane. Nightblue3 was who I learned from and this Volibear was not doing anything correctly. I get outplayed after a lane swap by this 5-0 vayne ( I knew I shouldn't have dived her under the tower but it happens) Tilt. I started to try to go mid and push and group. But bot lane wasn't about grouping, just never alive long enough too. I get reported after we lose horribly. I immediately get 2 weeks banned, 100+ chat restriction plus 30 games of ranked restriction. Basically max sentence outside of perm banned.

I created a second account ( mr versatility). A fresh start and I was immediately seeing a difference in just the teammates that I was getting. I hit ranked and placed in silver 2, after less than 100 games I was gold 4( where I am currently, I only own 2 rune pages and 20 champions compared to my other account which has over 100 champions and multiple runes and pages) Basically It was easy to get to gold by 1) I had to stop being toxic. 2) I shrunk down my champion pool significantly. 3. I didn't talk in game only used pings. With this new found Gold status I was like surely when I get off ban I can make it to Gold now, I did it once and I can do it again. I came back to find my account was silver 5(rank decay) it's still in silver(mostly due to me playing a lot of normals in the preseason trying to get better at lee sin) But next season I feel like I will be Gold on both accounts. My aim is for Plat, then the world after that. This will be my second full season. So no I do not know what it is like to be stuck, but I do know that I performing well but losing games because of "teammates". It sucks but it's life , if you are consistent you climb, if you are inconsistent you drown.

There might be something to take from this, I don't really know but I am sharing my story so that maybe it will help you get over the silver 2 hump(which I agree is the hardest silver division to climb out of)

My issue was using my time in game to flame or talk to teammates about things, when I learned to just ignore them, play my part, and shot call. I climbed and winning games easily. I still get toxic from time to time (usually when my pings are ignored and bad things happen to bad players) but it's a work in progress. A ping is worth a thousand words, but flame is worth less than the time it takes for you to write it.

BluePolarizerDec 15, 20151 votes

damn, and I thought being stuck in plat for 6 months was bad.

My suggestion is to find a champion pool of ~5-10 champs that you spam every game.

Espurr VIDec 15, 20151 votes

Shyvana, Twitch, Gnar, Talon, Tristana, and Vel'koz.

What's next?

SteampunkFox999Jan 20, 20181 votes

[{quoted}](name=Espurr VI,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=AImdZFpe,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2015-12-15T08:51:36.261+0000)

Shyvana, Twitch, Gnar, Talon, Tristana, and Vel'koz.

What's next?

DONT PLAY GNAR HE CANNOT CARRY

VithDec 15, 20151 votes

Watch players that are much higher elo than yourself and see how they react to situations and how they play out their lane. (Note how ofter you see their eyes dart to the mini map if they have a face cam)

Also, be VERY cognizant of the enemy jungler. Know where he started, when he shows and where, what level, how fed; never commit to an all in if it is possible he is near by and if you do decide to commit don't get frustrated when they show up as YOU took the risk. Abuse wards.

Really you can learn a lot by watching higher elo players, preferably on you tube with very informative commentary.

There a loads of tips but a lot you have to learn for yourself.

dEAdbUsDec 21, 20151 votes

When I asked high Elo players how to carry yourself they said that I have to play rengar or riven - champs that can 1v3.

jaymc1130Dec 21, 20152 votes

{quoted}

When I asked high Elo players how to carry yourself they said that I have to play rengar or riven - champs that can 1v3.

This is pretty accurate. The problem with pubstompers is that they are fine for one tricking in low elo, but they are always only really effective in low elo games. You can stomp with an akali or kat or riven or rengar type of champ all the way through platinum, but once you hit diamond those picks can start to seriously gimp your team if your comp is designed to facilitate you playing it because you sure as hell won't be 1v3ing people even when hella fed 99 games out of 100 at that level. The players are moderately competent so its tough to play that selfish style. The things that work best in the highest levels of play are the same things that tend to be seen from pro play because they are more teamwork oriented styles and everyone is pretty capable of performing their role function as well as understanding what that function is in different game scenarios.

Truthfully though, almost any champ can 1v3 in low elo if you play them like they are an extension of your consciousness and will as opposed to a character you manipulate with buttons and a mouse. It can be tough to find a champ you get into that kind of zone with, but you'll know it pretty much the instant you find it. Everything about it just feels right, smooth, effortless, and it frees up your mental faculties to analyze the game as it progresses improving your strategic play and awareness which has the effect of also improving your decision making process and team organization.

dEAdbUsDec 21, 20151 votes

Riven and irelia were number 1 toplane picks in diamond in a second half of previous season (before juggers release), and rengar were in top three bans. For half of year! Don't know what are really talking about.

Almost every challenger toplaner had Riven in 5 main champions.

Also Riot wrote a huge post about 14-16 years boy who reached challenger 1 on euw or na (I don't remember) playing only rengar. Now compare and check where sit other one trick ponies - for sure not in #1 on server.

jaymc1130Dec 21, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Riven and irelia were number 1 toplane picks in diamond in a second half of previous season (before juggers release), and rengar were in top three bans. For half of year! Don't know what are really talking about.

Almost every challenger toplaner had Riven in 5 main champions.

Also Riot wrote a huge post about 14-16 years boy who reached challenger 1 on euw or na (I don't remember) playing only rengar. Now compare and check where sit other one trick ponies - for sure not in #1 on server.

There are couple of things you might be forgetting in regards to riven as top lane this season. Shes a very solid pick to counter a lot of the most meta relevant champs from this season like Rumble, so its no surprise they have a large number of games on her. But also, a lot of those players used riven to one trick up the ladder for precisely the reasons I've stated already, shes pretty good at pubstomping her way up the ladder. The limitations she has a champ dictate that she and her team play a particular brand of league though and this can make it tough to just keep plugging her into top lane in any composition in high level play. Hell I one tricked her myself to diamond back in season 3, so I know why she sees a lot of play, but I also abandoned her as a pick in high level play for a number of reasons. You literally cannot pick her in high level play unless you're last pick or the enemy top laner already has picked and its not a flex pick that can move to another role because shes soooooo easy to counter pick. In any case, the moral is while she has some very clear reasons to be used shes also very limited in terms of the situations where she can be safely picked without hurting the team in some sense.

Irelia's always strong, but she doesn't really fit the pubstomper bill in the same sense that the other examples do.

Rengar, from my personal experience this season, was never a priority pick or ban and the vast majority of rengars I saw in game got trounced in high level play where teams are coordinated enough to prevent him from having an easy one shot on a carry but teams aren't coordinated enough to play a rengar comp and provide him with tools to be the primary team carry a la Samsung White style from season 4 worlds.

None of this is to say that 100% of the time this stuff will hold true. Various players will be exceptions because they've put in enough work to be exceptional players at a particular champ and this is where guys like Trick2GG, IreliaCarriesU, BoxBox, or Nightblue come in. But I've played with some of those dudes, and I'll be honest, its not always very pretty or a lot of fun. Especially with Trick and his style of Godyr. Selfish playstyles tend to be counterproductive a lot more often than not and usually aren't very flexible so if it doesn't get ahead and stay ahead it can cause players to give up and tilt, something ICU is so famous for its an actual strategy used against him in games, annoy him and get him down and talk some smack and he tilts and quits on the team.

dEAdbUsDec 21, 20151 votes

Can't agreed with your opinion except that rengar wasn't popular ban on na (one server where he wasn't hardly banned), but can't prove my point because all stats are gone. But you can check pro championships before juggers coming out - you'll see that riven was one of most popular picks for toplane, especially in asia (and she was very popular in SoloQ there). How it was possible if she was easy to counter? That's why I never believed in this "Riven-is-easy-counter" speeches. Only one real Riven counter that I remember - old Ryze, before rework and tons of nerfs. Riven is uber versatile champion, so she can't have clear counterpicks.

jaymc1130Dec 21, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Can't agreed with your opinion except that rengar wasn't popular ban on na (one server where he wasn't hardly banned), but can't prove my point because all stats are gone. But you can check pro championships before juggers coming out - you'll see that riven was one of most popular picks for toplane, especially in asia (and she was very popular in SoloQ there). How it was possible if she was easy to counter? That's why I never believed in this "Riven-is-easy-counter" speeches. Only one real Riven counter that I remember - old Ryze, before rework and tons of nerfs. Riven is uber versatile champion, so she can't have clear counterpicks.

Ryze, Vlad, Mao, Panth, Jax depending on the patch, Lissandra, Fiora, Garen, Hiemer, GP, and Renek all have good matchups vs Riven. Even Irelia is a 50/50. There's not only a lot of meta picks in that list, but plenty of lower priority hard counters as well that will definitely slip past ban phase. In asia she was actually a strong mid lane pick more so than a top lane pick as she has plenty of good matchups vs a number of popular mid laners (every AD mid lane assassin and any of the skill shot reliant mages).

Shes pretty much the epitome of high risk high reward. A lot of champ like Irelia offer similar rewards with a much lower level of risk and fit better into almost any composition.

dEAdbUsDec 21, 20151 votes

Not sure what patch do you mean. I'm talking about previous season. And before juggers were released.

Before rework Ryze sucked vs Riven (thx to nerfs), after rework he was godlike, and then nerfed and so-so, but definitely not counter.

Vlad... I guess I can talk about him because my d1 brother had 75% winrate after 100 games with him (all games in diamond). So I quote him "riven is one of hardest counterpicks for vlad".

Old Fiora was 50/50 pick, not sure about new one, but guess not counter to Riven.

As heimer main I can say that heimer can't do anything vs good riven. She dodges his stun, and he s dead.

Jax? Was he playable previous season at all?

New Gp was broken with his endless farm. Old gp wasn't a counter.

The rest isn't true counter either. Mb you 're not understanding me? Hard counter it's when you can zone your enemy and do not let him farm. Mb renek and garen, but I 've seen how diamond rivens beat both.

jaymc1130Dec 21, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Not sure what patch do you mean. I'm talking about previous season. And before juggers were released.

Before rework Ryze sucked vs Riven (thx to nerfs), after rework he was godlike, and then nerfed and so-so, but definitely not counter.

Vlad... I guess I can talk about him because my d1 brother had 75% winrate after 100 games with him (all games in diamond). So I quote him "riven is one of hardest counterpicks for vlad".

Old Fiora was 50/50 pick, not sure about new one, but guess not counter to Riven.

As heimer main I can say that heimer can't do anything vs good riven. She dodges his stun, and he s dead.

Jax? Was he playable previous season at all?

New Gp was broken with his endless farm. Old gp wasn't a counter.

The rest isn't true counter either. Mb you 're not understanding me? Hard counter it's when you can zone your enemy and do not let him farm. Mb renek and garen, but I 've seen how diamond rivens beat both.

Each champion I named, if played correctly, can do exactly what you describe and zone and control the lane. Pre and post rework in each case.

Source: I'm a diamond ex Riven Main.

Almost all of these are champs with point and click ranged harass that riven cannot dodge and at best can shield aside from a handful like renek, garen, and jax. Point and click ranged harass, particularly when paired with point and click hard cc is Riven's biggest nightmare. I didn't like facing any of these very much 3 season back, or two seasons, or this season. At pretty much any point in the season. Those are not matchups I could easily get ahead in and a Riven that does not get ahead is a useless Riven come coordinated team effort time.

dEAdbUsDec 21, 20151 votes

I was talking about players of same skill level. If bad Riven will meet godlike Heimer - she will suck, but on same skill level its totally different game. If writing "playing correctly" you meant enemy is 1k games and 2 tiers ahead then we're talking about different things.

Riven was able to zone Vlad early and kill him non stop. Vlad had to play super safe to get farm at least. She had much more options: early CDR from black cleaver/brutalizer or tankiness from hexdrinker or insane damage from tiamat. What options Vlad did have? He needed to finish at least 2 items to be able to fight Riven.

Heimer is super easy peasy if you can dodge his stun (can you diamond ex Riven?). Hexdrinker always was doing miracles vs Heimer, tiamat was aoeing his turrets.

Old Fiora was 50/50 vs Riven, should I write it again?

jaymc1130Dec 21, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I was talking about players of same skill level. If bad Riven will meet godlike Heimer - she will suck, but on same skill level its totally different game. If writing "playing correctly" you meant enemy is 1k games and 2 tiers ahead then we're talking about different things.

Riven was able to zone Vlad early and kill him non stop. Vlad had to play super safe to get farm at least. She had much more options: early CDR from black cleaver/brutalizer or tankiness from hexdrinker or insane damage from tiamat. What options Vlad did have? He needed to finish at least 2 items to be able to fight Riven.

Heimer is super easy peasy if you can dodge his stun (can you diamond ex Riven?). Hexdrinker always was doing miracles vs Heimer, tiamat was aoeing his turrets.

Old Fiora was 50/50 vs Riven, should I write it again?

You can write whatever you want mate. Its your right to present your opinions no matter how incorrect many of them may be. If a diamond 1 player can't convince you based on his personal experience that comes from playing the exact champ you are talking about I don't know what to tell ya mate. You could make the argument I wasn't a very good Riven player. I don't know if I would disagree, the evidence might just support it. But I got there playing her, and failed playing her at that level vs most of champs I specified on a regular basis. I was zoned, unable to farm or fight, and basically useless later in the game because I couldn't acquire the income to be effective and this was diamonds vs diamonds.

If you refuse to accept what I say then you refuse, and hey, that's your right too. Do what you will mate. I only offered advice because you asked for it. If you won't accept it when I tell it to you that's on you man.

SHlTBUGDec 22, 20151 votes

I'm really late, but as someone who just got to gold 2 after being silver for season 3, season 4, and most of season 5 here's my two cents

A single winstreak of 7 games will promote you a division. Many players have thousands of ranked games per seasons. For myself at least, 75% of my progress comes off of these winstreaks so you just have to consistently play well enough that you get as many of these streaks as possible for climbing out. It's about luck, but you can use the law of large numbers to tilt it heavily in your favor. There is no easy, non-grindy way unless you are vastly above silver level. How much ranked do you play?

ModKnightsKemplarDec 22, 20151 votes

Time. Statistics are on the side of ppl that play a lot. How much do you play?

GeorgeKnightRTDec 22, 20151 votes

Warding and playing safe is good but if you really want to get elo you have to able to 1v1 people and win lane, not only you can get your self ahead by abusing a defeated enemy laner but you can get the enemy laner super behind creating 2 advantages for your team. I'd recommend you play lots of first blood 1v1 customs against people with higher skill than you, even if you lose you will still learn a lot from those short but intense fights, you can then use all that lane winning knowledge in ranked 5v5.

MakatoKunDec 23, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Taco the Dragon,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=AImdZFpe,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-12-15T08:09:25.731+0000)

I am Silver 2. Do I think I deserve to be higher? Probably. I wouldn't know, but I'm willing to improve. Over my 4 years of League gameplay, I've been stuck in Silver. Trying desperately for Gold. However it always seems out of my reach. So that makes me think: What am I missing? I ward very often, I very very very rarely get below a 2.5 KDA (IN RANKED), I can secure objectives, if I lose lane I play safe, I gank other lanes in need, and my overall champion pool in ranked is quite diverse, (Except support) and I only play champions I know I'm good at. (Rank 4-5 only) What am I missing? Because at this point I really think it's some team members that bring me down. A Master Yi that literally went 0/7 by 15 minutes. Support Trundle that went 3/7/0 at 14 minutes. Sometimes I can look past that, because shit happens. But when the champions that get fed are Volibear, Mundo, or some tanky champion that because practically unkillable when fed. I can't out play that. I can't carry that. Is it possible to carry that? A 3500HP monster with god like defenses that is coming for the booty to kill me.

I remember seeing a thread a while back about a Diamond player who made a smurf for silver, and said it was so much harder than Diamond. Because up there, team fights can be coordinated and thought out. Down here, it's a mess. No plannning, and everyone just goes in for themselves. I remember reading that in Diamond, most people don't die more than 3 times for the first 10 minutes, but down here, it's not uncommon that someone feeds 5+ kills in that time. Also... this: https://www.reddit.com/r/summonerschool/comments/3aqq14/diamond_player_cant_compete_in_silver/

So what is there for me to do to climb out? Is it just luck?

OKAY, after looking at your match history, the advice from some newly lv 30 kid has come in: YOU SIR, TILT HARD!

Seriously, I've seen from time and time again that you'll lose a match, then go straight into a new one. The main thing you need to do is what I agreed with myself to do once I start ranked: STOP FOR THE DAY IF YOU LOSE A MATCH! This will seriously improve your gameplay and probably help you win alot more matches, and if you dont really want to stop, just go play some normals, but don't play ranked no matter what you do. But what do I know, I'm just some unranked pleb.

d4rkshockJan 2, 20161 votes

Remember no surrender. Remember tiling figure out who the degenerate is. You need to help them(as jg or mid). Let them get the kill but don't let the enemy get away. Abuse op and super high Wingate champions like brand flakes, Mf,mundo,rammus,talon,Kat, amumu, malzahar, trundle, nami, malphite, volibear, Janna, zyra, taric, and broken champions. Remember teamwork. If you have a few silver friends, use Skype and use ranked teams. At least duo Que. It's you just eliminated 25% which is almost 50% which is almost 75% which is almost 100% of the every man for himself. Bad team fights lose games. Adjust your build accordingly to their team and also help teammates get fed. There's no I in team like this. Teaim. Remember what happens when you do the master. Basics are your best weapon in terms of mechanical skill. Even Annie is good in challenger and rammus is good in diamond. Don't pick zed just because you want to turn yourself into Faker. Learn counters to champions. This will help you win. You can get an early advantage.

TacB VIPEREYEMay 16, 20161 votes

I'm not so sure how your CS is OP but this is one that is probably holding me back (especially as an ADC)

I almost got gold last year and i'm probably going to straddle it again this year. But one thing i know for sure is that i cannot CS as well as a plat player does. Not by a long shot. I have played quite a fair share of plat vs silver games in customs. I cannot fkin out CS them. I might even kill them a couple times but that cs lead snowballs out of control and it becomes a real problem.

Also Ranked loves to chuck a "lose spree" on top of your "win spree" Maybe it's random chance but if you can detect that it's happening and get serious about it and do everything in your power to break the upcoming pattern then you might just get what you are looking for. Also if you make good call's and you really want to win then you should "shot call" It's exhausting to type or strategize with randoms. Some people just need that healthy reminder that they should back off from over extending. They might be stoned who knows and just trying to RPG the CS and not thinking of death timers. Some people might only have 200-400 hours and may not have the built in instinct to know when to back or push turrets.

Fuck knows. But it is a grind through and through no matter what level of player you are.

RèvengeApr 11, 20171 votes

It honestly means you're bad. Hate to break it to you. I'm not better but i've been only playing for half a season

Espurr VIApr 12, 20172 votes

Jokes on you, I'm gold now.

So, go take your comment and shove it in your ass.

AD champs onlyJul 3, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Espurr VI,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=AImdZFpe,comment-id=00290000,timestamp=2017-04-12T00:02:22.882+0000)

Jokes on you, I'm gold now.

So, go take your comment and shove it in your ass.

And you're Silver 3 again. Now you can shove your Gold 5 flex q rank in your ass since playing with 5 people doesnt mean that ure better

Espurr VIJul 4, 20171 votes

I was actually playing with 1 other person.

BLACK REALM GODJul 4, 20171 votes

play with a team, change champions, buy better runes, get better internet, create a strategy with your team, and dont suck.

edit*

knowing how much damage you can do at any given time is also a plus. i've played a few mobas and to be honest if you can figure out exactly what your damage is and what your opponents potential damage/combos are then you can always be one step ahead of your enemies. it keeps you from guessing whether or not to go all in.