Stay Bronze! Stay Silver! Stay cool...
I just want to take a moment, look back, and wave some people forward... onward to higher ranks.
Some background.
I started at the very end of season 4. Season 5 was my first real full season of the game, and I started ranked later that year but the season ended before I could go to far. Season 6 dyna Q was just a pile of bullshit. I found climbing to be just a total waste of time, and languished in Silver 3 hard stuck. So when this season started I was trying out a lot of different things, playing a lot of other games but one day I decided "Im going to do the things I know I should and hit Gold cause I want the rewards and just because I think I can."
It happened, I hit Gold 5 just now. Having been forced to climb out of... Bronze 4, to Gold 5 this season I learned some stuff along the way. I mean I knew a lot of this stuff, but knowing academically versus living, seeing, and experiencing it are different.
So what did I do to climb out of Bronze? I one tricked Brand mid and basically walked out of that division. I like Brand, but any champ youre good at and you can carry with or at least contribute to the team significantly with should be adequate. My marksman skills probably would have been sufficient to carry me out of Bronze, but I picked mid cause I could roam to top, bot, and jungle to aid those places more easily. It also meant I didnt have a feeding mid empowering the enemy to roam to top, bot, jungle as needed. I also never really said much to anyone. Not much more than group, or peel so I can get off more than one rotation. Mostly just avoided talking to bronzies cause emotional problems is a big reason theyre there to begin with and I just wasnt going to bother.
Once I hit about 40-50 LP into Silver 5 I picked my support game back up... you cant support in any traditional manner in Bronze, the team cant make use of it. If youre not contributing damage, they cant make up the difference with your utility. So things are still a bit rocky, supporting is still hit or miss. So I take a day or two to research the META, look at BestBans website, measure my options and whats being played and my matchups and potential bans. I have to give up Bard. Hes great, and I love him and have been called a Bard God more than once... here is the problem. His W requires your ADC/Team to use them wisely for the best effect... this puts part of that champs kit into the hands of your team.... Same for his E. When your jungler and any assassins are on the ball with your E it can be really devastating to the enemy team. Putting part of your champs kit into the hands of your team when theyre not that smart is bad though. After everything I was deciding to pick between Morgana, Thresh, Blitzcrank, Leona, Zyra, Lulu, and Zilean in roughly that order.
So Iv been one tricking Morgana, subing in Thresh when shes picked/banned. Morgana isnt some secret OP champ, but shes functional and I tend to favor skillshot based champs and as you can see my supports of choice are skillshot dependent. Special mention, I love Karma, but in many ways shes like Bard in that part of your kit goes into the hands of your team. If you shield someone its speeds them up... and they run right into the enemy team with that speed.
Silver is better overall though for supporting traditionally, as the players arent the bottom of the ladder either because of lack of skill/knowledge, or deviant choice. Still its best not to get entangled with people who probably arent very mature. They have some sort of entitled "BUT AT LEAST I AIN BRUNZ HURR DURR" self inflated concept that theyre a god and you definitely belong in Bronze. Best to just ignore these people and move on. Low Silver is also strange in that Iv had more skillful players in higher Bronze than in mid/low Silver. I honestly think thats because the players there are trying to play their best to leave Bronze, and many of the Silvers I played with/against just got placed there and are riding a cycle of 50% win rate playing with OTHER Silvers that were placed there. The toxicity in Silver was much worse, and the number of ADCs I had that were potatos and their match history showed insane feeding one game and crazy carrying the next was much higher in Silver. Silver had more support blaming than Bronze by a HUGE margin.
So the title of the thread. The number of times I heard "Stay Bronze" while climbing out was just dumb. Well I didnt stay Bronze. The number of times I heard "Stay Silver" while climbing out of Silver was just dumb. Why, cause the people saying it were dumb. I never fell below a 55% win rate on Morgana the whole time I decided to main her (up to this point). According to LoLKing (http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/62102265/Weasel%20Kensei) its 65% at this time. Despite this, every 3rd match or so in Silver the ADC would rant and bellyache that I was a trash support, or that I was literally the worst Morgana theyve ever seen. What did I do... I ignored it as much as it could be done. For the sake of the team not losing confidence in both of us bot lane I would qoute my current win % on Morg and tell them to untilt. Many of those matches I would finish with an S and they would end up with a negative KDA. They had given up, but we still won. They had become tilted out of their minds and lost focus of the match and how it was really going just because they died a few times early. Many mid and top laners did this too, not just the ADCs.
Now some of you may feel like youre in ELO hell. I do think that is a thing, but in many cases it really isnt the problem. Personally I think ELO hell is just a phenomenon preventing climbing that will eventually be overcome by playing "ENOUGH" matches. Some people are just stuck in a RNG loop of getting the worst people; a problem that would fix itself eventually. Now having enough patience to overcome that is the deciding factor of getting out of ELO hell. Skill determines your place, but ELO hell is just how long it will take for that skill to show through.
I find supporting in the high Silver to much easier as the ADCs are much better overall. Still prone to childishness, and tunnel vision, but the skill set is much more complete: wave managment, warding, awareness, not tilting, etc.
So this brings me to the most important thing I learned on my journey from Bronze 4 to Gold 5 this season so far.
#For those of you looking for the "too long didnt read" its right here below.
TL;DR:
Dont tilt.
I kid you not. Control your emotions, let your logic and critical thinking rule your actions; not your rage and frustration. Mute asshats, ignore derps and tards, report them when youre done, but until the match is done stay focused on what you can control. Dont tilt, DO SHIELD AND HEAL that asshat and clown. Play the match, use your team, but dont tilt.
Do what you have to do, but mute, ignore, dont engage them, just focus. You have to make a choice between feeding the trolls, and winning. Im telling you just focus on you and stay cool. Not tilting is THE thing that will win you more matches starting right now.
Ok, I know thats long, but I just wanted to show people where the de-greaser was so they can clean off the ladder and start climbing.
Good luck.
