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PSA: You're not stuck in Silver/Bronze, you just aren't playing it right!

Fanny Forecast·2/29/2016, 6:55:35 AM·8 votes·863 views

No one is stuck in Bronze/Silver, no one. It's an illusion. If you think I'm one of those "ohmygod this guy again, says elo hell doesn't exist" look at the history of the threads I've made. In preseason and Season 5 I made NUMEROUS threads about it. I know it exists, I know people suck, but the ENTIRE issue with why you're in Bronze/Silver is YOU. Nothing else, just YOU.

Now, you all probably think I'm absolutely batshit crazy, right? I'm not. I've found the light and I found out how to climb out, and trust me, it works, even if you're the absolute worst player ever.

Okay, so if you're reading this, you're either a high elo player seeing what I have to say or a low elo player who has researched how to get out of bronze/silver. A LOT of guides recommend playing a simple champion, like Jax. This isn't 100% true, but for the most part, I recommend this. Go onto the LoL wikia, look at the champion list, sort by the champion skill, and pick one that is below a rank 6. These ones, typically, are going to be on the easier end to get the basics of and on the moderate end, at the max, to master.

Pick ONE champion, and if it's FOTM or potential FOTM, pick a new one. That means no Jax, no Udyr, none of that. Irelia is a good pick and it's what I've been using. Also the most important thing to remember with this champion is to MAKE SURE YOU ENJOY PLAYING THEM. You need to be able to play numerous games as them without getting bored, meaning don't play someone you don't enjoy playing.

Okay, I picked a champion, what now? Play AT LEAST 20 normal games as them. Make sure you know them for the most part and you know how the current common matchups go. If there's someone that you specifically hate going against, like me with Riven, try to find someone who plays them and ask them to help teach you the matchup. Chances are, they'll gain knowledge on the matchup too, so it will be good on both ends.

I'm good as this champion and I have their mechanics down and know their powerspikes! Can I do ranked now? No. Go into a custom, just yourself, no bots, aim for 70 CS by 10 mins. This will put you ahead of most Bronze/Silver players off CS alone. You get 70 CS at 10 mins? Do it again. Until you're confident in your CSing skills, do this.

Okay, I just hit 70 CS by 10 mins as my average! Can I PLEAAAAASE do ranked now?! Yes. Do ranked. You have your microplay down pat at this point, hopefully, and now you can practice what you truly need to practice in ranked, macroplay. Macroplay is basically taking objectives like turrets, dragons, baron/rift herald, TP ganks, etc. as well as team-fight and skirmishes.

You have your microplay down at this point, you shouldn't have to worry about your mechanics or how well you did in lane, because if you have the microplay down, you shouldn't die much, and if you do, it should be worth or at least an even trade. You should have plenty of CS meaning you'll have plenty of gold. You WILL have games where you're under turret constantly and get denied cs, which is fine, that happens, but overall, you should be ahead goldwise because you know how to CS better than a majority of Bronze/Silver players. If you can outplay them, go for it, especially if it's an easy matchup.

By doing this, you should be able to climb out of Bronze AND Silver within a month or two (minus the prep time of finding a champ and practicing them). I've noticed when I look at people who add me after games' match history, more often than not, they play a bunch of different champions. Sometimes they will play only 1 role, like ADC, but sometimes it's not even that good. They complain that they're still in Bronze 3 when I'm in Silver 5, then I get to Silver 1 and they're only Bronze 4. This is EXACTLY why you main a single champion.

TL;DR: To climb, main a single, non-FOTM champ that you enjoy playing. Practice CSing and Microplay, then use ranked to practice Macroplay. Only ever play the champion you main in ranked, and if you have a period where you get bored of them, go to norms to play others.

Side Notes from Comments:

  1. Ignore Chat. Unless it's healthy chat ("Hey, 45 seconds on dragon, let's fight then take it.") don't bother.
  2. You have to realize, if you're in Bronze or Silver, YOU'RE BAD. There's no easy way to say it, and there's no point sugar coating it. Following these tips will help you get better and get you out of Silver.
  3. There was another thread I saw a couple minutes ago, Bella Blue was the OP of it. I don't have the link, but her advice was... Don't play during summer, don't play on weekends, don't play during breaks (Christmas time, Spring Break season, etc.), don't play in the afternoon (4pm EST to 10pm PST [so 4pm-1am EST]). Best time is late at night (1-4am EST) because it's early in the night, no ones SUPER tired, but the kids are in bed for the most part.

32 Comments

Hayaishi22/29/2016, 7:01:09 AM2 votes

You're start climbing the day you accept you are trash at this game.

La Barbotte2/29/2016, 7:26:03 AM2 votes

thats so true, but you forgot one thing, dont get on the salt train XD what i mean by that is when people flame, get toxic, etc dont go in the chat, stay in the game and focus, becasue tilt is your worst ennemy

weeaboomer2/29/2016, 8:17:05 AM2 votes

Just give up with the threads giving them advice, you will get down voted and they won't even bother reading it. For those that do and reply, the only thing they're going to be saying is how it's all luck, trash teams, elo gods etc...

The Queen Viper2/29/2016, 7:03:06 PM2 votes

Well, actually they can get stuck... if they belong there.

https://dwigif.appspot.com/static/images/logo.gif

Ralanr2/29/2016, 7:15:25 PM2 votes

Take normal game breaks in between ranked.

A buddy asked me to help him get his promos. Our group lost two games and we were getting salty with each other. We played a normal to reevaluate our mistakes and take it calmly. We destroyed the enemy and let the minions take the nexus for us.

I'm ready to help him again when he needs it. I don't like ranked. Not because it's hard, but because of the label you'll get stuck with if you're too low. Your opinions aren't taken with much seriousness if you're bronze.

I'm unranked because I fear that bias.

Weathered3/2/2016, 3:26:57 PM1 votes

Not gonna support either side, but I played solo for about a week, gained no LP, played in Dynamic with 4 others who were in same ELO and who were decent (just didn't feed), and immediately started climbing. Play with a group, it reduces variables like afk's or people who get mad.

Chatillon3/3/2016, 3:30:07 PM1 votes

I had a game yesterday where a wu invaded me and basically killed me four times in ten minutes because he pushed me so far behind. Ezreal instead of helping me just flamed and the top laner joined in too.

Next game: /mute all after saying im muting everyone, good luck, see you on the other side.

13/1/4 the legendary party bear carry

Moral of story: Mute People if you're upset and concentrate

My one death could have been avoided as well, because I tried to solo drag but lucian blue'd it then i decided to stay

Chatillon2/29/2016, 7:30:18 PM1 votes

And enter the support main....

Stephenizgod2/29/2016, 7:42:26 AM1 votes

There are games where we crush, there are games where we win, there are games where we lose, and there are games where one or two people on my team are uncontrollably feeding or AFK.

Its about 25%, 10%, 5%, and 60% respectively... Obviously this changes depending on how well i personally do but overall this is how it goes down. So I win just enough to not ever get Demoted, but never enough to get promoted because of that 60% where someone is almost on purpose losing the game for us. Yes sometimes we lose and sometimes it is my fault, we all have bad games, but most of the time I lose because a few teammates are just failing hard. There is nothing I can do about this, they give up 5 kills before 5 minutes and suddenly someone on their team is at our Inhib Turret and no one can stop them.

Vanic9982/29/2016, 8:20:18 PM1 votes

You are 100% right. I played mostly VELKOZ for 8 months after I turned level 30 in normals and because I specialised so much into VELKOZ, I know enough to play him in every role and my counters don't counter me at all, at least in my elo. Now I'm in silver 1 approaching gold.

Wyrmfyre2/29/2016, 9:57:04 AM1 votes

Hmm, time to chart my cs for the next 20 games. I'll mark what I had at 10 min, what they had, when I got to 70, and the champ I was facing. At this point, I know I am not that great at the game. I have games where I carry now and then, I have games where I just flat get beat now and then, but mostly I just try to do my job and not lose lane, and can be successful at that in bronze about 60%(+/-5) of the time. I know I have to do something different, though, if I am ever going to climb out of Bronze hell. I play Trundle most of the time, which fits your champ select criteria. He is not a popular pick, he is rarely banned, and I can take him top or jg with equal chance for success. I do play other champs now and then when I want a break for a few games, but I guess I should jump to normal when I do that from now on. I have played 66 ranked games with Trundle, and until a horrid W-L shift this weekend, was winning over 60% of them. Hopefully by taking a couple of these tips, I can increase that significantly.

One question I would like to ask, is do you have any pointers for keeping your cs up when facing a ranged champ with a melee top? i.e. Teemo and the like.

Also, would the cs target be different when jungling? Thanks