So i just hit level 30, and...

Don't play till you have runes for a few roles and a good champ pool. As for playing in preseason if you are good, it wouldn't hurt. Its a chance for you to play, get a feel for it all and climb a bit. If you climb higher you will get placed higher when the season starts. And if you tank your way to b5 well, in a few weeks you will get another shot at it.

I would advise against it. A lot of people aren't playing as competitively as they would during the season for one, and also you will be subject to the MMR soft reset when the new season starts and you'll have to do your placements again.

You can play Ranked, but there are more downsides to it right now than if you waited for the season to start in like 2-3 weeks.

Most importantly though, a fresh level 30 typically does not Rank well. If you start right when you hit 30 you might get stuck down in Bronze where it's harder to get out. I suggest practicing in Normals for a while, but it's up to you.

Not exactly, but you also shouldn't jump straight into ranked to begin with either. I made that mistake and it was quite the culture shock.

Edit: I'd recommend playing normal draft pick for a while and making certain you have no less than 2-3 champions in each role, because you might not get the one you want.

Well, preseason should only last no more than week now, so it's kind of moot. As for next preseason, it's actually a pretty good idea. Despite the fact that ranked is less serious in preseason than normal, it's more serious than normals. It's semi serious. That's a decent environment for practicing with the new items and preseason changes. All the people who don't play preseason will not be up to snuff with whose good to ban in a ranked environment, what works now and what doesn't, etc. Normals are honestly for fucking around and having fun. Ranked is for getting good. You don't get good playing football with your buddies; you get good by showing up to practice and actively working on things in a serious environment.

Yes, that means I advocate that you should jump right into ranked if you want to do it asap. There is no difference between starting off in bronze 4 and climbing you way to silver 1 as you accrue runes as opposed to grinding in normals for runes to fill out your pages before touching ranked and then being placed in silver 1. The point of ranked is to learn and attain your goals, not how many games you earn them in.

There is an advantage to playing in the preseason though: each season is a soft reset. That means your mmr from the previous season is averaged with the median mmr in the system. This includes the preseason. As such, getting a high mmr in the preseason will make it more likely you get placed higher after your placements.

i never play in preseason because nobody takes it seriously.

Season 4 was my first season i play league, i rushed into rank went 3-7 in my provisional and i got bronze 3, finished the season at bronze 5. I told myself and im just gonna keep playing ranked cuz i felt like i learned more from ranked than in normals. So all i played was ranked, and i finished with like a win percentage of 39%. Season 5 came and i went 6-4 in my provisional and got bronze 5 again. But i finished at Gold 5. Use the preseason to learn, im going to suggest you play as much ranked as you can because you will learn. By what some people would say "wasting" my season 4 rank i was able to develop skills and a strong mentality in every game. (Although i am upset i didnt get the Victorious Morgana skin, its my favorite one)

I would 100% reccomend playing ONLY ranked the rest of preseason. Since the ranks will all reset it lets you get used to playing the draft mode etc and you wont be as tense about it come your first placements

So I just hit level 30

Don't rank right away. Get time to chill in normals, coming into ranked is kinda harsh, notably because people flame all day. Once you're pretty confident, then you can go ranked. Yea I know it took a lot of time to get to lvl 30, but first focus on getting your full rune pages and be strong on a small pool of champions.

And in preseason, it's gonna affect slightly your MMR but in a negligible fashion (there's a soft reset coming up).

Advice from someone who got smashed in ranked when they first started.

1. Don't play ranked until you feel really comfortable with at least 2 champions in each role.
2. Don't play ranked unless you can average a KDA of 3 with the champions you feel comfortable with.
3. Don't play ranked unless you can average a bare minimum of 4 cs per minute when playing top, mid or ADC.
4. Don't play ranked unless you have enough tier 3 runes and rune pages to cover all your comfortable champions (an AD rune page and an AP rune page are a bare minimum.)
5. Don't play ranked if all you care about is your rank. Ranked is always a struggle at first and it can be very frustrating if you think you should be a higher rank than you are. You're brand new so expect to be placed in bronze. If you get placed in silver be happy but don't get a big head and assume you belong there. I've seen plenty of people get originally placed in silver and before long they are bronze 5 and all they do is blame their team when they are making tons of mistakes themselves and they legitimately deserve to be bronze.
6. Never forget this is a game and the goal is to have fun. Learn when you're on tilt and take breaks or you'll see your ranking plummet.

My friend playing ranked in the preseason wont really do too much for you, you should probably hold off until the season starts and even then I made a bad mistake by jumping straight into ranked and got placed b4