Still want gold this season? Here are some tips!
So I recently came back to League of Legends after not playing for 3-6 months and found I was silver 3, I was silver 1 at one point but I was never really serious about it, but for some reason I wanted the victorious skin for a champion I dislike, but more because I missed playing. So I set a goal to get gold, to prepare I rolled through the forums reading tips, watched streams (Mostly TRM and Bynight), and practicing my own play in custom games. Throughout my research I learned a few things that had I not known I do not believe I would have been successful in my journey, which as of now has me at Gold 3, an entire division above where I started 2 days later.
http://imgur.com/WaQueW6 I main as support which I was previously told it was impossible to climb as, according to my friends and people I played with. It seems they were wrong. I did play other roles when support was unavailable but overall Janna and Alistar were my go to. I have loved Janna since I picked her up in season 3 and Im glad that my play has gotten to the point where I can consistantly do well in ranked. Her being very usefull in the current meta doesnt hurt either of course. http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/34309604 for those wondering how I did each match
Now for the actual tips I would say for those of you looking to get gold before end of season, as one who just did it;
-
Ban champions you do not want people on your team playing when you are the banner. No this doesn't mean ban what your team wants to play, for me it means ban Yasuo and Azir, because unless you are Bjiergson(spelling?) you probably aren't good at Azir. Sorry. Yasuo players are always a wildcard as well, I've seen some do great, others feed the most kills I've ever seen. I also ban Morgana because even as Janna I can't stop an adc from being in every q and the q/w combo does more damage alone than shield early game can protect, let alone the enemy adc hitting as well.
-
If you see an opportunity to do an objective ping it. Don't wait for someone else to do it for you, lead your team but don't tell them what to do for example: "guys we have to do baron now" is not a good way to get your team to do baron, if anything it'll make the 2 baron sucks heroes say no baron loses games. Use something like this, pings baron "Baron, no vision 2 dead vi bot" most people will see the common sense in your call instead of assuming you are trying to be the big boss man, which many people seem to resent for one reason or another.
-
Vision! It doesn't matter what role you are, you need to actually ward, and as a newsflash support isn't the only one that can buy a pink ward. Mines at baron, maybe you can throw one at drag etc. Use your trinkets to ward your lanes if you are so stingy that you wont buy any. Don't let the trinket go unused after the first ward, like I see many games.
-
If you are on tilt stop playing, you wont win if you end up tilting for 10 games in a row, the 11th game isn't going to be a win, its you being demoted.
-
No matter how bad your team is doing don't be toxic, it doesn't help at all. For example: http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/1610355030/48554577 we were behind 12k gold at one point. Did I tell the azir who got through as I wasn't banning "you suck uninstall"? No, I kept my mouth shut, warded, peeled in fights and we won the game.
-
Counter to my game shown above, not every game is winnable, if the enemy team is up 30 kills and you have gotten nothing it may be time to surrender.
-
Don't play while stressed, league can be the hardest game for the points or you can steamroll. If you are stressed during a hard match the chances of you winning go way down.
-
Most importantly don't play champions you have never played or don't so well at, ranked is not the place to practice Azir.
Thanks for reading, hope this helps and have fun out there on The Rift! -Dem Swoops