Upwardly Mobile Ranked Solo Player

I've played LoL off-and-on for about 8 years now. Before there were pros, before there were videos, guides, and builds online. Before there was even Ranked, in fact. Truth be told, I was awful for probably the first 3 years, but it was fun, anyway. As it was, my suckitude landed me in Bronze when Ranked play was born. Being competitive, I sought to get out of that cesspool.

Actually, being a sore loser, I quit LoL after Season 1 and didn't come back until Season 3. At that point, I decided I'd learn from the pros and try to get out of Bronze again. I succeeded, and you can read my old posts about how I did it. My strategy hasn't changed at all, and it's working again now.

In Season 3, I was faced with a sad reality: Galio wasn't the dominant force he had been in Bronze. Players in Silver knew enough to exploit his weaknesses and knew better than to let me catch them all in a group ult. Sad day. Season 3 ended with me still climbing, but not achieving much in Silver. In Season 4, I switched it up and broadened my lanes and my champions, but only slightly. Olaf, Malphite, and Leona helped me climb quickly through Silver. Alas, I failed my advancement series into Gold twice in Season 4.

I barely played at all in Season 5, which leads us to Season 6. It may be premature, but I'm climbing steadily after being stuck at 0 LP in Silver V for weeks. I'm just about to enter my advancement series to get into Silver III. Guess what? Same strategy I've been using.

So I want to share some tips for Silver level players especially, though I'm sure they apply everywhere.

#1 Team Comp When you join a lobby, the game begins there. I can't tell you how many games I've lost before we even set foot on Summoner's Rift, because our team comp sucks. When I join a lobby, I say, "Let's build a strong team." and most of the time other players will instantly become more open about their selection, and ask what the team needs. It's much harder to pull that off in Bronze, but Silver players understand more about LoL and most of them get the importance of comp.

#2 Counters Matter People tell me all the time that skill matters more than counters. Sorry, that's probably true if we're talking Me vs. Pro, but against similarly-skilled players, counters are vital. I get an evil smile when I see someone choose Teemo Top because I've never, ever lost to him if I play Olaf Top. In fact, I feel like it's unfair sometimes how badly I can beat Teemo with Olaf. This one ties in with #3.

#3 Become Well-Rounded But Stay Small Don't change champions too often. When you really get to know a champion, you can squeeze so much out of them. Choose strong champions to learn, not "specialty" champs who are amazing in the right conditions, but useless in the wrong. Choose champions for which there are no "wrong" times to play them. I just played Galio against Swain in my last game, and thankfully I got carried by my awesome team, because Swain won the lane without killing me even once. I was rusty and shouldn't have picked Galio, but I got Mid instead of Jungle and I knew my usual Ahri or Diana wouldn't be able to match up, and I used to destroy Swain with Galio when I was playing him all the time. Also my team needed something close to a tank and no one else wanted to do it. As for tying in to #2, focus on one or two roles and learn a few champs in those two roles, preferably broadly different champs so you can be ready to counter OR to play into your team comp. I currently choose Jungle/Mid when I play Ranked. Those two roles are important to the flow of the game, but I had to spend a lot of time finding and practicing a strong, consistent Jungle. It's been worth it.

#4 Focus on Objectives and Farming KDA doesn't win the game. Surely you've lost plenty of games where your team had more kills, but you just couldn't stop the other team from taking your turrets. KDA is important, of course, but never dive a turret and die to secure a kill. "Worth." is rarely true when people say it. Try to remember that the turret is your goal, not the kill. Drive the champion off, focus on the turret. BONUS Many times, champions who are pushed back like that stick around in a futile attempt to protect the turret you're destroying, so you may get the chance to kill them AFTER you take the turret or if they make a stupid mistake. Can't do that if you're dead. On the other hand, if you're the person pushed back, don't stick around. Giving the enemy a turret and your life is just plain silly. Let it go.

#5 Communicate Chatting in the lobby is a big part of my strategy. Talking about comp, about counters, and just about life is a great way to build unity very quickly. Don't underestimate the power of chatting.

I'm sure there's more that I'll think of in time. LoL is a deeply complex game as you know. Now, just a quick personal bit about what I'm doing exactly right now to win.

I basically sucked at Jungle going into Season 6. I avoided it like the plague. Like I avoid my mother-in-law. She's a plague. Anyway, I decided that Jungle was too important to let some other baddie play it and make me lose, so I practiced like mad. I looked at who the pros play, tried some different champs, and I settled on Zac. He's highly versatile, highly mobile, tanky as all hell, and so much fun to play. Hecarim is probably the best choice, but I find him less fun to play overall. If you were going to choose two Jungles to learn, I'd say choose those.

I looked up pro builds, and maybe this should be another tip: Silver is not Diamond. High-Ranked players typically use Runic Echos, and I've had Silver players tell me to use it, too. I tried it for a while, and my win rate with Zac tanked. Why? Because Runic Echos builds AP. Zac's AP scaling is kinda bad, but the bigger problem is that Silver players don't capitalize on ganks and initiates as fast or as well as higher-Ranked players. With Cinderhulk, I've got the HP I need to dive in and get beat up a bit while my team overcomes their slower reaction speed and joins me in the fight.

I'm currently around 60% wins with Zac, but it would be higher if you removed the Runic Echos games before I stopped using it. My overall win rate is right at 50% now, which is up from the dismal 36% it was when I started playing Ranked again. Support and Top just weren't cutting it for me in Season 6, even though that's where I lived in Season 4. I needed to take on the roles that were more important to the flow of the game, and get good enough at them to help my team, not hurt them. Viktor is apparently the dominant Mid, so I intend to learn him soon, but I much prefer Zac Jungle, and I rarely get Mid since it's my Secondary Role and everyone wants Mid. I pick it mostly so Jungle is assured, to be honest. That said, it happens often enough that it's time to learn Viktor so I can dominate Mid like I'm dominating the Jungle.

OH! A warning about Zac: Any Jungle worth their weight in hydrogen knows that Zac is a piss-poor duelist, so they will invade you non-stop. Make sure your team knows this, and ping when you need help. Watch out for Lee Sin, Vi, and Mundo especially, as they can invade you, destroy you, and take all your goodies any time they want. Don't expect help from your team, but ask for it. Just run away the second you encounter the enemy Jungle, because you cannot beat them.