I've just had 3 games now where someone admitted they haven't played the champ before and goes like 1/23/0 PLEASE practice in normals or even bot matches and get an understanding of the champ before you play it, DON'T test it out for the first time in ranked.
Shadow Hazard23 votesLets make it even better. Please read up on the champ before going into a game. If you know how to play league and don't know how to google, then make sure you wear a helmet in daily life.
SP Dodgecity19 votesI concur... Its like... "yeah first time Azir"
....really dude? Really...
[zombie-brand-facepalm]
Sariat125 votesWhats wrong? It's not like Azir is a really mechanically challenging champ with odd power spikes or anything.... (sarcasm)
Ariel the Cruel19 votesI think you got it backwards. Ranked is where you go to practice non-sense and new things. Normals is where people get serious.
Bow before the unranked master race!
SelflessTeammate4 votesCrap, I can't believe someone else just said what I've thought all this time, that it feels like Normals are where people are dead-serious and prideful and Ranked just feels like people are practicing. Just, I know everyone says the exact opposite, that some people play Normals only because Ranked is too uptight, but I just, I seriously can't tolerate how uptight "I only play Normals, so if you're bad here, you'll hear about it from me all game" people are in Normals. And heaven help me if I'm practicing a new champion or anything even the slightest bit off-meta (I just can't play Garen support anymore, because no matter how well I actually do as one, I still get screamed at with allchatted "report garen troll supp" for doing it long before we hit the lane, even in that mode), because that's totally intolerable for people who only play Normals.
elon wątroba3 votesWell to be honest I have 0 reason to play ranked games outside season rewards, because I'm mostly playing plat/diamond players in normals with occasionally master tier ones.
SelflessTeammate1 votesHonestly, I don't even care about season rewards at all. Truth be told, the entire reason I play Ranked is sibling rivalry. My younger brother, with whom I started the game to find something to play together two years ago, is ranked way, way higher than I am now, and it makes me crazy, because I used to kick his ass in every video game we ever played together before now.
SavingPirateRyan1 votesCause I'm cool
Glaedonx3 votesLast season it was common for people to only play normals because if you had 2-3 friends online that was the only real option to play together. It also allows people of drastically different elos to play together. This season is a lot better with Dynamic queue so I don't see as much a reason for people to play only norms, but to each their own.
Just because it's a normal doesn't mean it's ok to go in and screw around if it means ruining others' fun either.
SelflessTeammate6 votesSo long as you're playing to win and don't plan to lose, no one's fun is being ruined. Regardless, there's never any excuse to be a dick about doing something original in Normals. Being a jerk to anyone, regardless of reason or mode, is the fastest way to get suspended, and saying "report X troll pick" for going off-meta counts as, at best, unsportsmanlike. If someone wants a dead-serious game where everyone's there to play the meta and win normally, that's why Ranked exists.
Toying with new ideas that are far from non-viable (you shoulda seen me play Evelynn support, now that was a fun win) is very much not. Besides, I play a mean Garen support, particularly into Blitzcrank. Blitzcranks really don't wanna pull him.
Glaedonx1 votesYes I agree with you. There is a difference between trying a new strategy/champion in a different role, and intentionally going into a normal with no intention of winning. I think you know what I'm trying to say. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]
SelflessTeammate2 votesI apologize, I realize now it sounded like I was combating you. I was actually agreeing with you, but after re-reading it, I think I sounded argumentative. Seriously, my apologies, that came off much more argumentative than I intended to be.
No Skin No Win2 votesSo long as you're playing to win and don't plan to lose, no one's fun is being ruined. Regardless, there's never any excuse to be a dick about doing something original in Normals. Being a jerk to anyone, regardless of reason or mode, is the fastest way to get suspended, and saying "report X troll pick" for going off-meta counts as, at best, unsportsmanlike. If someone wants a dead-serious game where everyone's there to play the meta and win normally, that's why Ranked exists.
Toying with new ideas that are far from non-viable (you shoulda seen me play Evelynn support, now that was a fun win) is very much not. Besides, I play a mean Garen support, particularly into Blitzcrank. Blitzcranks really don't wanna pull him.
I don't agree with this. I feel like this game's community has plummeted even farther. If you pick a champion you're good with people complain and whine "gg, your champ isn't meta" before the game starts. Then they report you if you lose for not picking an OP champion. This season has literally led to the same bans, the same picks. I mean it's just awful. There aren't enough bans to get rid of Yi, udyr and the rest of them, either way you ban there's going to be someone that can easily get fed and snowballs because a lane feeds them. This game is about having fun in whatever way suits the player, like all video games. Some people like the ranked played because you actually get something out of it. You're spending about 45 minutes of your time playing a singular match, it's only fair to let people play the champion they want. Unfortunately all the champions this season that are OP I don't play the same champion over and over. Its a game, people need to take it easy. I play competitive CSGO, and I can tell you even at MGE, the people still have time to enjoy themselves and laugh and have a good time and that game is just as competitive. 1 mistake can blow a game. Only difference is I don't notice people tilting in that game. League is a whole different story.
SelflessTeammate2 votesI agree with everything you just said. That said, I'm a little confused what part you didn't agree with, because I support you a hundred percent on everything you mentioned, and I read the whole thing.
I'd also sincerely hate to disagree with someone whose name appears to be referencing my favorite TV series of all time, the one that defined my adolescence and summarized most of my philosophical outlook on life.
No Skin No Win1 votesI agree with everything you just said. That said, I'm a little confused what part you didn't agree with, because I support you a hundred percent on everything you mentioned, and I read the whole thing.
I'd also sincerely hate to disagree with someone whose name appears to be referencing my favorite TV series of all time, the one that defined my adolescence and summarized most of my philosophical outlook on life.
Could it be? Someone who has seen Serial Experiments Lain and loved every second of it? My con with the post I mentioned was in the point that ranked is for playing a serious by the meta play style, it just isn't true. Maybe at a higher elo, but ranked should be for anyone who likes to take risks but also display their expertise in their favorite champion perhaps. I do not force anyone to play a champion they don't want to because that just makes the player do worse and not have fun while doing it. sure some champions definitely do another champions job, only better, but let's not forget the reason why league has 140 or so champions it's simple, to allow people to really be able to pick their favorite champion. The multiple kits and play styles is what people enjoy, that's the games bread and butter, the ability to really pick and choose champion you love above all the rest, there's a champion for everyone and that should be respected even in ranked. People can play a ranked game while playing off meta. You don't need to play by the meta to be playing seriously.
Also Lain is definitely probably in the top 3 of my favorite series. You should check out Texhnolyze
SelflessTeammate1 votesAll League commentary aside because it doesn't really matter that much to me, yeah, that would be the series I was referring to. DVD releases were very, very good, but the Blu-ray release was also seriously sweet. I'm glad they didn't force the full-screen like they sometimes do with 4:3 ratio shows, it can look odd. But anyway, yeah, just confirming that's the thing.
Xilixer2 votesi agreee with selfless teammate. ranked is for people who want to take it seriously. if you didnt take it seriously there really wouldnt be any point in ranked. all those people who play for fun and want to relax can stay in normals as they would just ruin the experience for the competitive gamers.
T RexHasTinyArms1 votesIntentionally feeding may be a problem, but normals are where you're supposed to be able to play off meta/weaker but fun champs/stuff you aren't comfortable with yet and be able to improve/enjoy yourself outside of the ranked environment. Legitimately anyone who is upset you're playing something weird should either be qued w/ friends who want to play the game their way, or just dodge and play with someone else who is being as serious as ranked. If you're not intentionally feeding it isn't a valid report to just report that someone played something weak in normals. Yes Heimerdinger support isn't a strong pick, but if I poke and build support items, it's not troll and not something bannable.
Demented Gag19 votes1/23/0 Feels like intentional feeding, to be honest.
Weasel Kensei17 votesI always get downvoted when I say this, and it sorta proves my point because the downvoters are the ones who get offended...
This game has lots of little self-absorbed, petty, selfish, asshat kiddies in it. Petulant tweens and teens that only think about themselves, poster children for the Dunning–Kruger effect, and honestly dont give a damn if they hurt you with their feeding, ITS YOUR FAULT YOU DIDNT HELP THEM MORE is how they feel about it.
I agree with you, thats what you should do. Thats what a normal, considerate, non-asshole would do. The problem is, the people who do it are self-absorbed assholes, and they read your plea and ignore it... cause thinking of other people is the last thing they do.
Its not all their fault, studies of the brain show that is just how adolescents are. Still, its not beyond them to admit that its a shitty thing to do, and most dont.
I hate to break it to you OP, less than 1% of the people who go to ranked with "First time X" will read your post and think "Yeah, I shouldnt do that, it is unfair to my team," and most who do it will simple ignore it.
But we can dream.
DeloricVI4 votesA lot of these kids in solo queue could use a dose of humility, I'd wager. I do sometimes fly off the handle and rant about my teams on the forums a bit, but it usually comes down to "What do I do when people feed," not so much, "why is everyone else in bronze a total scrub." I make no claims to actually be good at this game, just better than some of these people that you can see are objectively wrong (when Garen goes full AD and feeds 10 kills to Teemo before I get any form of lane pressure... yeah, that's Garen's fault). Most of the time, I end up asking what I can improve, rather than wallowing in my self-delusion that it wasn't my fault, because at some point there has to be something I could have done, and I'm sure that I wasn't playing perfectly. I mean, I got whipped by some bronzies; I am not a perfect little diamond. I always am open to people who try to help me improve, and I feel like the community responds to it much better than anyone who claims to be stuck in ELO HELL
Dataless8 votesThis CANNOT be understated. BOT GAMES are for learning champions you have never played before. Don't fucking put your teammates through hell just because you think you can wing it. Because you can't.
Yes I am salty. This happened to me twice yesterday.
DU Baymax4 votesI would agree except I would say that you don't necessarily need to go to a bot game to learn a new champion. As long as you aren't in ranked, i don't really care. Normals, go for it. Normals is for crazy stuff like crittlesticks and ad-vel koz devourer jungle and full ap sejuani. No one really cares, or at least they shouldn't.
btw fairly recently played full ap 
mid. At one point I had 25 
stacks and over 1050 AP, it was the most fun I'd had in a long time. <3
DeloricVI6 votesI can't believe that you need to tell people this. When someone picks Garen into Teemo and proceeds to die 10 times in a row because this is "only his fourth game playing Garen" in his entire life... bruh, what the fuck were you thinking!?
rescued2 votesAnd they spam help even though they picked Garen into Teemo. -.- come on dude.
DeloricVI3 votesIt was kind of my fault; I said, if you play carefully enough and build magic resist, you can negate his poke with Garen passive. This Garen, did not know how to do that. And he died. A lot. There goes my last 18 lp in B4. Thanks Garen. -.-
DU Baymax4 votesyeah, I had a similar situation not too long ago - A malphite on our team ended up against a lissandra top, which could have been alright except. . . he was frankly garbage at malphite and had no idea how to play tanks. Like at all. I was probably around silver 4 at the time, and, while obviously that is not a very high ranking, how he ever got out of bronze 5 playing how he did is remarkable.
Anyway, let me explain. So, first thing he says in champion select is "im on tilt guys pls carry me" (not a good sign, amirite? Peeps, if you're tilting, take a break. Don't just keep playing, because you'll keep losing unless you change something about your attitude)
Anyway, so malph top against a lissandra, and he totally gets his ass kicked. Like super hard. And he won't stop whining about how he needs help and how he's tilting and about how op liss is. I, however, was doing quite well mid lane and our bot was kicking ass, with our jungler doing reasonably well too. We managed to carry him, but the specific part when I remember losing faith in humanity was when, around 25-30 minutes into the game (somewhere in there, don't remember for sure) I looked at malphite's items, and saw that he had built 3 armor items and NO magic resist items. Keep in mind that this dingus was losing hard to a LISSANDRA top and that lissandra was the ONLY legitimate threat posed by anyone on their team.
jesus christ malphite, that's not tilting, that's being a fucking idiot. Tilting is when you make rash decisions or mechanical errors because you're stressed about doing badly, which in turn makes you do more badly. This is called having a lack of common sense. Get your shit together you idiot -_-
DeloricVI3 votesAnd then there's the malphite with a build that looks like this at 30 minutes:
Like, what the fuck, man? I'm sure a few things might have tipped you off that you should build tank on Malphite. I swear, some of these people you get in soloqueue, man... they see, oh, we have no tanks so I'll pick Malphite. Then he builds full AP!? What the hell was the point of that!?
DU Baymax3 votesyeah, full ap malphite is fine in normals and can even be justified occasionally in ranked, but way too often I see malphites build full ap when they are being counted on to be the frontline for the team. [zombie-brand-facepalm]
rescued1 votesAgreed. Usually on Malphite if I'm doing really well I'll get an AP item after 2-3 tank items.. All AP items with no tank isn't proper for ranked. :/
DeloricVI2 votesAnd that's perfectly fine. A tank that's fed and scales with AP can be really hard to deal with, since some people can (very understandably) consider a RoA in the early laning phase. I could see maphite going something like RoA -> Dead Man's Plate -> Banshee's Veil -> Zhonia's if he's doing well. Except Zhonia's is pretty awful unless you've got tons of gold to just throw away on an item with a good active, but pretty damn terrible stats. -.-
At that point it wouldn't matter, though, because you would probably have your RoA fully stacked at that point. xD
What I cannot stand is when Malphite considers when he should buy a deathcap. If you buy deathcap on malphite, you have officially lost my respect, I'm sorry. That either means, 1) you're one of those degenerates that decides to go full AP, or 2) you wasted the AP boost on the item, because you probably don't have enough AP to use it effectively. XD
Like, get a Rylai's, get a Zhonia's, get an Iceborn Gauntlet. Even Luden's is better, because that way you can spread the damage out a little, and if you have RoA, that's not bad damage/AP. Just make sure you're tanky first.
Serika Zero1 votesIf your garen was that bae. There's very good odds the enemy team also had a crappy player you could have got feed from
DeloricVI1 votesI know; there were plenty of other mistakes made, but that was a big one. I believe I did very well in the early game against their mid laner, but when you start giving those sweet, sweet devourer stacks to an assassin jungler (referring to Garen again) you got problems. Like, hybrid chunk damage on your towers problems.
Serika Zero2 votesI totally understand that, since if an enemy gets feed, especially one that is difficult to stop and a late game monster like current tanky yi, shivana, xin, fizz, diana, draven, etc. You will have a very difficult time to win the game. I hope you take the next part as positive critique tho: The vast majority of bronze players lack game knowledge. Such as: power spikes, trading, which fights they can win and which they can't, when to play aggro and when not to. Personally I would stomp in bronze. I got a smurf on euw (not my main account that is also in euw). And I played Jungle Nida in high silver elo. Jungle being my worst role and Nida being one of the champions I'm bad with due to high mechanics needed. And I stomped games when I had just 1 winning lane. Going close to equal or slightly ahead is fine, if the difference between your skills and your opponent is similar. But for example, if you want to get out of bronze, and want to do that quick, you must be better than your enemy entirely (either in lane, or team fights, and so on).
Now, if you really want to improve. There's a series of "teachings" on youtube called league craft. A diamond player (I don't know from what server) tried to scientifically explain most mechanics that are present in league of legends. Also explaining most (if not all roles). Most of us at gold+ do those unconsciously, however, its a byproduct of the game knowledge we acquired from playing the game. In these videos you can gain that game knowledge just by listening and trying to understand. Most of it is regarding to season 3 or 4 however. But why its good? Because the same mechanics of "trading", "roaming", "how to play adc properly", "how to play mid properly" and so on have stayed the same as the game progressed though seasons. Yes, champions will be most likely different. Items will be most likely different. But the basis for it stayed the same.
Another thing you can learn are power spikes. Basically, knowing when your champion just became a lot stronger. Personally I didn't knew about this until late season 5. When I learned about this from LCS games listening to casters. Usually they make a lot of puns and so on, but sometimes they give up very valuable informations. Using that as a basis together with my own experiences, I was able to "understand" what other champions need to reach their power spike. As examples from LCS I've listened to were stuff like: Corki gets a power spike with Trinity Force. Caitlyn has a weak mid game due the fact that she needs 3+ items to power spike, her power relies on her long range for damage output in team fights, however for that she needs multiple items (IE, Static Shiv, Blood Thirster, this is just an example, not necessarily the 3 items you need since I don't remember exactly). Recent examples: Kog power spikes at 2 items, rageblade and runnans. Older Kog was power spiking at lv 11 with trinity and lv2 ult. As such I came up with things on my own like: Diana power spikes with 2 and 3 items the hardest. Akali power spikes at lv6. Tank Akali power spikes at 2 and 3 items. Tank Akali vs AD top lanes power spikes at half an item. Malzahar power spikes at 3 items (roa, rylays, lyandry).
Sadly, I can't tell you exactly what to watch in order to learn power spikes. However, they are important as they are telling you when you can win fights over your enemy. This includes stuff like rageblade junglers. For example. Since at just 2 items (rageblade and devourer) even if devourer is completed, a lot of champions can burst them down and kill them. Tho, I highly recommend league craft 101 for general league language. If you can understand at least the concept of trading, you should easily get to silver (I got from silver 1 to gold 3 when I learned trading, but I did it on my own without any help, just a guide that told me "Fiora's combo is Q aa Q aa E aa" and that was the revelation for me... old Fiora btw).
Banuvan6 votesSo funny that Riot could solve this problem by making people have a specific mastery level required to play a champ in ranked. Too bad they won't. They already have a system in place to measure how much you play a champ.
Mama Soraka4 votesThat system doesn't have any idea how much Lulu I played in Season 4, so no thanks. Everyone who started playing after the mastery update may appreciate this idea but us long time players (specifically I've been here since the beta) don't really like being told some arbitrary number from last season defines our knowledge of the champions we love.
EndlessSorcerer4 votes"But X counters Y according to this website!"
theArtifacts2 votes"But X counters Y according to this website!"
I think you meant to write this with an accent.
"But X counter Y according to Z website!"
Laisenberg4 votesim a aurelooonagienaopngoaein sol main, will play him in ranked first day just because i can
Eric Senpai2 votesNo, you can't stahp me, wheeeeee.
Feeding Kog2 votesThis account has been around since S1. I have never played a normal since i was lvl 30. 129 champs are in the game, and i can play most of them. You are a pussy for learning a champ in a norm against bronze idiots, that teaches you nothing. Dont be a bitch and go learn zed in ranked.
MrHaZeYo7 votesLol, I didn't know only Brzies played normals. I prolly just tell all those Plats, Golds and Silvers I play agasn't that their Brz, shit I guess I'm brz, oh wait...
MrHaZeYo2 votesI don't play ranked often, enough to get Gold. I basically pick random champs over and over again, 20 diff champs in my last 20 games, so at this point I'm pretty proficient at adapting to my champ(I also have years and thousands of games worth of knowledge and practice). I do agree though, nothing grinds my gears more than playing a ranked game and having a teammate tell us its his 1st time on -Whoever- than proceeding to get shit pounded lol.
Personally with champ mastery, if your not at least lvl 2 or 3 on a champ you shouldn't be allowed to pick them in ranked.
Morticianjohn2 votespeople take the game too seriously.
While I agree that ranked "should" be more serious than normal which means that you "should" play champions that you're more practiced in, in the end it doesn't really matter one way or another. From my perspective most gold and above players have a general familiarity with every champion and in bronze and silver (really even gold and platinum) what difference does it make if you win or lose You're going to win 45% to 55% of your games unless you're at the bottom of bronze ELO like me and have a 35% win percentage. One person (or even a few people) making a bad decision in champ select here and there isn't going to make or break you and it's just them having fun in the way that they can. It will all even out over time. Eventually I'll get those 40 games back too and get back to a 50/50 win percentage.
YuGiHo1 votesBefore i played ranked I Purchased every champion(with ip) and created a list of champion i wanted to play in every roll and practiced them for a few months. then i created an alt account and lv'd it to 30 so i can play ranked account to get over my anxiety of playing ranked. when i finally feel comfortable playing ranked on my main( this account) i will, till them im just trying to improve and learn everything i can.
Billy VoHagen2 votesAnd you have ten fucking seconds before the season ends.
Chivie2 votesI recommend you use four easy to play champs for your main role, and four other easy to play champs for your sub role and just play them until you hit gold.
Top:
Garen
Darius
Malphite
Pantheon
Jungle:
Yi
Warwick
Amumu
Shyvana
Mid:
Annie
Orianna (harder but worth the effort)
Talon
Lux
ADC:
Ashe
Caitlyn
Miss Fortune
Jinx
Support:
Janna
Soraka
Sona
Morgana
Most of these champs are very cheap, and let you focus on learning the other parts of the game while keeping the mechanics low.
Personally this is what I'm doing on a new account I'm leveling. I chose 16 champs to unlock on the account but I am limiting myself to 8 until I get into gold then expand a few more. Don't waste your time in normals. They are a joke.
Unstoppable Monk4 votesThis list is horrible for newbs.
Some are not easy at all, non-premade unfriendly, and are not beginner friendly.
Shy / Jinx / Janna / Caitlyn / Orianna / Darius shouldn't be anywhere near a new ranked player unless they are entirely mentally focusing them as a main on their own part. Not mentioning the obvious decision based or less forgiving champions.
And no tank supports, lel.
BlackxHokage2 votesDarius (my main) is not a pick up and play champ. You can tell between a Darius who is bad and good.
