What to do when you feel stuck

Colman·12/19/2015, 4:28:39 AM·1 votes·468 views

Hi I have been playing LoL for a couple years now. I reached gold II earlier this season and then eventually dropped out of gold into silver II. I have been stuck in a rut at this same low rank for about 4 months now. I find that in my games I either do extremely well and go like 16-3 and carry or I play really meh. I find its easy to see what I did wrong in a game but I find when I try to change it I end up going back to my old habits again. I think my main problem is consistency in my play. Sometimes I am on my A game and I play like a diamond player and other times I am not and I play like a low silver player. I have played about 1000 ranked games this season. So besides playing more I dont really know what else I can do to improve. Has anyone been through the same thing? If so do you have any advice? Thanks

9 Comments

TehNACHO12/19/2015, 4:49:52 AM1 votes

Any specific habits you are looking for?

I mean, the very first thing you highlighted out of the games you do well in is your K:D ratio, so now that I'm pointing this out, I hope you understand what that statement says about your apparent play stye.

BluePolarizer12/19/2015, 5:51:18 AM1 votes

eh, you are fine.

I was plat 2 in May. I am currently plat 1. Every time I start to climb, the meta shifts drastically.

What I realized was that you have to adapt to different playstyles fast. The meta shifts alot in each patch, seemingly on purpose with certain champs designated to be good and other champs designated to be bad at any given time.

You also need to think about positioning more.

jaymc113012/19/2015, 9:37:06 AM1 votes

Took a look at your op.gg. Lets dissect some of the things that are apparent from it.

You seem to be a bot lane, specifically an ADC main. This is fine, but it's difficult to climb the ladder from roles that exert less map influence. It's been standard for years that the go to roles for quick climbing are Jungle and Mid as they can affect the greatest portion of the map for the most amount of game time. Judging from your op.gg you show some skill as a bot lane player and really ought to stick to your comfort zone as you perform consistently from those roles, but be aware this will make you more dependent on your teammates to consistently win games. I suggest you find a good duo partner who plays Jungle and at the very least duo with said player for every promo match.
Basic fundamental mechanics. Yours aren't awful, they are certainly slightly better than average judging from the stats but also show you have obvious areas in which you can improve. A) Most obvious is your cs totals. They just aren't up to par for higher level play. You really want to be able to consistently manage at least 8 cs a minute (as a laner) to achieve a ranking much higher than gold (and really you want to be closer to 9+ as an ADC main since your role is so tied to income levels to be effective). Try warming up for 10 minutes on custom games at the start of every play session for a while until you can consistently last hit every minion in that time span, get last hitting to become second nature. B) Your KDA's and Kill contribtions are ok, not spectacular, but certainly good enough that your decision making process (tactically speaking, meaning in fights) is fairly good. You can always improve, but this is an area of strength you, so that's good news. C) I can see that you don't purchase wards every game, granted there were some changes this preseason to vision but still... Not good. Very, very, not good. This likely means your warding habits are shabby. Information is power and the team with the best information can make better strategic and tactical decisions. There is NEVER a game in diamond level play that I will NOT purchase pinks. Every game, every time, always, with whatever extra income I can spare it goes to vision control. D) Builds. They appear pretty static. Its ok to have a build you like, but try to remember each game presents different circumstances that need to be accounted for. Do I need a qss early to maintain relevance in fights this match? Do I really need that last whisper? Is more AS/Crit chance a better damage out put? Do you ALWAYS need ruunans? Try to consider the way the patch changes have affected itemization for ADC's and realize that the builds I am seeing are generally less than ideal given the current state of the meta and try to be more efficient with your income, particularly since you know that your income level is something that needs improvement.
Game knowledge and awareness. This is the thing that jumps out as most obvious in terms of relevant skills you seem to be lacking. It's apparent from the better than average marks you manage in most aspects of the game that fail to translate into wins. You have to understand the big picture, what's important, when, where, why, and then how to go about accomplishing achieving what needs to be done. I'll be honest, this is the number one thing most players lack that holds them back. Simple understanding of the game, map awareness, and in game sense. You can literally get to diamond just by understanding how to PLAY like a diamond without actually being able to do so. I've got shit tier mechanics and I honestly get by at that level of play just be knowing the game. What objective is next on our list to take? What do we need to do to prepare to take it? How can we create a situation that allows us to take it? How do I best organize my team to get us all on the same page? What is the enemy thinking, and what do they want to do to us? What is the enemy game plan leaving vulnerable and where? Who is showing on the map and where? How long has it been since "x" was last seen and what is "x" up to? How do I create a situation that forces "y" to deal with "z" allowing us to pick an advantageous fight without "y" showing up? Am I managing my minion waves correctly and pushing when they should push, freezing them when I need to do so? These are the elements of the game that seem to be most lacking in your play because you have better than average tactical skills, so it has to be the strategic elements that prevent you from winning games that could or should have been won. There's no easy way to gain the kind of insight high level players have, it comes from experience. We've seen it all and done it all, every inanely stupid thing and every crazy brilliant thing. Watch streams, discuss scenarios, save replays and talk about them with higher level players to dissect what should have been done when, where, and why. There's no way to get a grasp of the big picture except to start putting all the smaller pictures together to see how they fit into the whole like a jigsaw puzzle. With most people who show promise in terms of tactical and mechanical ability (and you do show some small amount) I tend to recommend finding a tutor to play with, some one who understands the game at a high level and play with them often. I take on students every season and work with them over the course of the year and the improvement they make is dramatic (Like silver to diamond in 1 season dramatic. This season's students, Zeretov and Mr. Trianglez both improved by leaps and bounds from the point I met them on some random smurf messing around 8 or 9 months back) so by all means attempt to find some one you can work with day in and day out to improve your understanding of the game at a strategic level.
Mentality and mental toughness. Its apparent from your slide and inability to reclimb to gold II that your mentality is not in the shape it needs to be in to achieve a high level ranking. This is probably the most difficult thing to work on. You HAVE to stay mentally tough in any sport to achieve any degree of success. You have to put in the work. You have to have the discipline. You have to put aside the mistakes and the successes and concentrate on what's important in the now. When you see a press conference for a football team you always see the players and coaches saying it's a one game at a time kind of thing. You don't worry about the last game, or the next game. You worry about this game. You can't let poor performances tilt you. You can't let great performances inflate your ego. You must remain humble and focused on improving every single day. As the saying goes, if you ain't moving forward, you're moving backwards. Always remember that this is a team game and that you need your teammates (to a degree) to achieve victory so working with them and not against them (even when you dislike them, or aren't directly participating with them) is vital. Always remember that you can only control what YOU can control. Your own actions, your own decisions, your own mistakes, and not theirs. No matter how much you beg and plead with the moron constantly pushing and overextending with no vision to stop you can't force him or her to play like a competent and worthwhile teammates. That's fine, because good players can and will still find ways to use this to their advantage. There's no reason that moron can't be bait while you accomplish something else that's actually important. And perhaps most importantly, you have to remember that climbing the ladder on any account that isn't fresh, as in having ZERO lifetime ranked matches at all, is going to be a grind. It's ok to take a step back as long as you take two forward.
Climbing technique and strategy. Part of climbing is understanding how the system (both matchmaking and the ranked system) work. You have to utilize third party tools like op.gg every match. You have to understand that the system is very poorly designed to do what it is attempting to do, what ways in which it is flawed, and how to avoid or use them to your advantage. Do you dodge often enough when you have a terrible team composition or an awful teammate that op.gg says is an obvious bad match? Do you manage your MMR inflation (MMR+, or how much above or below the division average you are) by ignoring LP and focusing on MMR, dodging at the right times, playing at the right times of day, in the right frames of mind, etc. The MMR displayed by op.gg is not always the most accurate, but the MMR+ it displays is usually very accurate indeed. Being able to calculate how much you stand to climb or fall from a given match can be a good motivator and an excellent way to set short term goals for a play session. Knowing how to avoid the dreaded promo handicap (and to a lesser extent the duo handicap) are important since the game will match you against tougher opponents and with weaker teammates in those situations. Do you make the most of your win streaks and use them to skip past promos with proper MMR+ management? Do you always duo in promos since you are handicapped any ways? Do you play in prime time gaming hours when many casuals will be on? Do you one trick, still to this day the single most effective climbing method around? In order to climb one must first learn HOW to climb and its important you understand the principles of Basic Climbing Technique.

Hope this all has helped you some and that you can find some one you can work with to tutor you further.

I'll give one parting recommendation: If all else fails, make a smurf and one trick pony jinx up ladder on it.