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How do you fight someone a higher rank than you?

Ralanr··3 votes·659 views

So some friends of a friend are pretty high ranking (somewhere in plats) and whenever I get stuck playing with them I end up fighting higher rank players (last night I fought a diamond, a plat, and a challenger over the course of three games).

Now I'm just an unranked whose skill level is most likely bronze. I'm vastly out of my league here and can end up dragging everything down. I got lucky fighting a diamond 3 player and winning (I got good ganks and he was kinda cocky. Other than that, I should have lost against Rumble as Yorick). But in fighting a play Vayne top (I got salty afterwards) a former gold 5 Vlad (though Poppy was probably a really bad match up) amd losing horrifically, well it gets frustrating.

I'm not even sure I can probably play safely under my tower. They'll either give a surprising amount of harass or freeze lane to deny exp because I don't want to fight them.

This is in blinds by the way.

So yeah, what would you tell someone to help them against a much more skilled and knowledgeable opponent?

Feel free to check my match history. I know I played poorly.

13 Comments

venomous frost2 votes

question everything they do, why they did it and what you should've done. learn from them

Umbral Regent2 votes

My advice is three things; confidence, caution, and knowledge.

As long as you're confident in your abilities, you aught to be able to execute things well; don't let knowing your opponent's rank get you down. Just because they're diamond doesn't mean you won't beat them.

However, of course confidence won't win you everything. In fact, there's a fine line between confidence and zeal, which can be crossed pretty quickly. Taking things slowly and being mindful of things around you is a good way to win - or at least minimize the damage of losing.

And lastly, knowledge. To quote the ever-constantly quoted "The Art of War" - "if you know the enemy as you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, then for every victory, you will suffer a defeat." With upwards of a hundred and twenty champions in League of Legends, it's up to you to prepare yourself for whatever you might get pitted against. And even if you're not able to counter-pick your opponent, you can at least play against their strengths when you know them well.

Although you may have heard this all before, I hope it helps you nevertheless.

ChaddyFantome1 votes

Git gudder. or, you know, just don't care? I have beaten Diamonds back when I was unranked and even bronze. Rank doesn't mean as much as you are telling yourself it is. Just play the opponent as you would anyone else and take them seriously.

Commit Sudoku1 votes

make the best of it treat the game as a learning experience understand why you are losing to these high rank players dont just say i lost because he is better than me identify how they are better than you and improve your gameplay

Ralanr1 votes

Well if I had to guess, they knew how to bully, how to harass, and they had supports that roamed (Janna ganks are rather terrifying).

Commit Sudoku2 votes

{quoted}

Well if I had to guess, they knew how to bully, how to harass, and they had supports that roamed (Janna ganks are rather terrifying).

there is more than that to pick up on you can realize when they decide to harrass is it when you are about to last hit a minion, is it when they have a larger wave so if you choose to trade you take more damage, is it when none of the minions they need to last hit are low enough to last hit?

what you need to do is broaden your understanding of why/when these players do the things they do

oSEXYPLATYPUSo1 votes

it dont matter. enjoy the game and have fun

Ralanr1 votes

I'll admit it gets pretty hard to enjoy it. I hate fighting Vladimir as is (hate his harass) and fighting one with knowledge of not to stand near walls is frustrating.

But I did learn that there isn't really much that I personally can do against him as poppy.

oSEXYPLATYPUSo1 votes

xin zhao is suppose to be a counter to vlad

Ralanr1 votes

That would make sense. His damage output along with sustain would make some fights more in his favor.

warpenguin5551 votes

Play champions that are still useful even if they dont win lane. Poppy, Malphite, Braum, etc are all champions who can still have some impact when playing from behind. Poppy gets pretty tank regardless for how she did, you can beat down a Malphite in lane as much as you want, but a 4 man ult is equally effective no matter how badly he did in lane, same goes for Braum.

GeminiRune1 votes

I've been in that situation before when I was still kind of trying to find my groove as a player back when I was a Taric/Soraka Metabreaker. It was about 2 years ago I played with a friend in a group of plats/diamonds who needed someone to play top. It was a Taric vs Maokai top lane matchup. I think my mind was just able to realize I was gonna be in the losing match up considering how meta Maokai was at the time. I took one death in a 1v1 turret dive and never died the rest of the game. Post game my friend told me I was holding my own against a diamond 5 player. It didn't really feel like it though.

I've even sentenced myself to crazier Taric lane matchups vs Vayne and even Teemo and won off of getting tanky (after going like 0/2/0 or something) and playmaking out of lane.

Sometimes just knowing your match up and having a Plan A and B (and sometimes C) does help you. But with me I play very edgy and sometimes (especially as of late) give my opponent the favor unless I know it's my lane to lose.

Rip Rengo 20161 votes

Have your friends get on smurf accounts so you can actually contribute xD

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