How do you REALLY improve at this game?

Murl0ugh·3/5/2017, 8:04:31 PM·5 votes·3,483 views

Hello all, resident Bronze 4 player here. I realize that making a discussion post with my elo rating is basically a death sentence but I'm ok with that.

How do you actually improve in this game? Play a lot? Practice csing in training? What other ways are there?

I also play Smash 4 competitively and am pretty good for the areas I play in and when I decided to pick up league I thought some of my skills would naturally make their way to this game....nope.

Any advice is appreciated. Making fun of Smash is not but do you. And please don't reccommend a YT video unless that specific video has helped you too. Thanks.

24 Comments

ModKnightsKemplar3/6/2017, 1:20:02 AM3 votes

Just keep practicing. Every time you play a game, analyze your mistakes. Even if you win, figure out what you could have done better.

That goes for a lost lane, a thrown baron, a facecheck, etc. Figure out what you should have done instead of the bad play. If you keep doing that, you'll get better. That's been my experience.

You can't control your teammates. You can only control you. So focus on getting your skill better and better, and eventually, you will climb.

Zone of Endless3/6/2017, 1:18:42 AM3 votes

Practice by playing a lot. Maybe watch some streamer that explain what they're doing and such. Study the champs you're playing and playing against. Ideally you would want to have an idea of what every champ does, but for champ you often play against in lane you want to understand them completely. Knowing your limit and what you can do as well as your enemy will give you a huge advantage.

WitchQueen Annie3/5/2017, 11:01:20 PM2 votes

I recommend simple but highly effective champions like Lux Annie and Veigar ; they are very high return for the time invested.

There are a number of neat tricks you can do with these champs. For example...

As Annie , in late game, just wait to Flash Tibbers nuke half their team with the stun. They'll react by jumping on you, then you hit item 3157 while continuing to micro Tibbers to attack. They will be confused as the rest of your team counter engages. Once you come out of Zhonyas you just spam Qs and Ws.

Works EVERYTIME.

Baby Ghoul3/5/2017, 11:26:49 PM2 votes

I would just say don't give up. You'll eventually get where you're supposed to be no matter how your teammates preform.

You're going to have tons of frustrating moments where you lost promos because of a disconnect or a teammate feeding/refusing to group. You're gonna be at 99 LP after a 50 minute game you worked so hard to win. Etc.

Don't let that stuff tilt you.

I don't know if I can give you any gameplay advice other than the basics. I'm a Gold support main. I climbed late last year as support, and this year I just recently got into Gold 5 after an early start. However I did get to Gold playing top lane in Season 5 fairly quickly.

I don't think Bronze 4 is a death sentence. You can make it to at least Silver 3. I've never been to Bronze, but occasionally I'll get Bronze players in my normal games. There isn't really a big difference skill wise. What I tend to notice is people have more game knowledge.

They know they need to stick to a small pool of champions, and learn them well. Do not play 8-12 different champions in ranked. The fastest way to climb is to become a one trick, but if your main is someone like Yasuo, then you need to also realize he gets banned a lot. It's good to have like 2-3 other champions you can play comfortably.

My next tip to you would be to learn the support role because you're eventually going to get autofilled. Being a basic functioning support isn't difficult. You may not make any flashy plays, and you won't always save your carries from a close call that they got themselves into, but you can still do a lot for the team on a basic level.

As a support main I'm always paying attention to power spikes. You should work towards having a general idea of what champions do, and how you can outplay them. This pretty much just comes from experience. You need to play the game more to understand champion interactions.

As a final tip I would also say know your limitations. You can't play too safely at Bronze and low Silver I noticed. Sometimes people will just give you kills by diving you, or coming at you with very little HP after you've been farming well.

Don't overstay if you're fed ever. The bounty on your head will allow players to come back. My friends in Silver never pay attention to stuff like that, and I'm sure it's worse in Bronze. In fact, don't overstay period, but I know that's easier said than done.

Nahui3/5/2017, 8:09:37 PM2 votes

Gold 2. No diamond, but I figure I know enough to get you past Bronze 4. Add me, it's easier to discuss live than forum chat. If you'd like.

Fuh Queue3/5/2017, 8:22:27 PM2 votes

Improving at league isn't easy. The game itself has many dynamics, and improving requires that you understand what they are. I'll go over a few, mostly the ones that I'm working on now.

Map awareness and warding: An issue I had when I first started was that I was focused on the lane much more than he mini map. I didn't make sure my area was warded and I got ganked easily. When I adopted the "glance at your map once every 5 seconds" rule, I immediately improved. I was roaming better, I was reacting faster to ganks, and helping out the jungler when something was happening.

CSing: This is self explanatory. Farming is the best way to secure consistent gold. Work on learning how to CS with your main champions at every stage in the game.

Game knowledge and objective control: This one is something I'm still working on very carefully. League is the type of game where there is always something you could be doing. Learning where to be and when to rotate is an important skill.

Champion knowledge and trading in lane: This one requires alot of time. Learning the power spikes and strengths of different champions isn't easy. However once you know these things, you'll be able to identify when its a good time to fight. Which brings up trading in lane. Simply walking away from someone while eating damage isn't good. Whenever someone burns cool downs on you, it's important to deal damage back. Learning how your main trades and how the enemy trades will help you with laning.

There are many more, and the above can go into much greater detail. Hopefully it helps somewhat.

ahferroin73/6/2017, 1:27:27 AM2 votes

There are a bunch of things to consider, some of the most important

Figure out who you play the best. It doesn't matter if a champ is 'OP' if you can't play them well. If you game a lot, it gets easier, since certain types of character are pretty consistent between games. If you need some help, list who you're best at in Smash, I may be able to make some suggestions (although it's been awhile since I played Smash).
Try everyone. This fits in with the first point, but it has other benefits too. Quite often, it's a lot easier to see what a champion is good at and bad at by playing them than playing against them. It will also help avoid nasty situations where you suddenly get hit with something unexpected.
Remember that kills are a means to an end. Kills don't win games, objectives do. If you don't take advantage of killing your opponent, then it's almost not worth killing them (I say almost because the gold does help you outscale them (1 kill is roughly worth 15 CS, not including any CS they lose by being dead). CS falls into the same category, you need it to take objectives, but being good at that alone doesn't win you a game. Overall, this is one of the biggest issues I see among my friends who are lower MMR than me, they play for the kills (or CS), not the objectives.
How you approach the game has an impact. Assuming that you know how the game will end before it gets to that point makes it more likely that you'll lose (observer expectancy effect if you assume you're going to lose, overconfidence if you assume you're going to win).
Learn how to counter-build. This is one of the biggest things I have issues with myself, and one of the things I see many low ELO players not doing. Glass cannon builds only work if your enemy is stupid or you have lots of support from your team, which means you can't depend on them in solo queue.
Don't overspecialize. This is something I almost never see mentioned, but being a one-trick-wonder is pretty much impossible unless you can play that one champ anywhere. Ideally, find at least 3 champs you can play reasonably well in each role, and at least 7 in your preferred role.

GULAG 4 U3/5/2017, 10:00:04 PM1 votes

Understand the game. Not the champion. And put your knowledge to work.mmost important one.

Zyniya3/7/2019, 6:06:33 AM1 votes

Been playing for 2 years 4-8 hours avg everyday and have 0 improvement the more I play the worse I do.

Sir Fuzzi3/6/2017, 3:50:30 AM1 votes

I don't play ranked. I think ranked is a fucking atrocious waste of time, and as someone who is neither in high school nor unemployed, I have fantastically better things to do with my time like pick my butt, stare at a wall or lick a couch. Ranked play in League is the worst video game experience I have ever forced myself through and I played the whole first level of Castelian. Eat it.

There are just three tips for getting good at League. Bad news is, they're unavoidable. Good news is, they're simple (not easy).

Accept the responsibility for losses. What went wrong, and how could you change it?
Do not rely on your teammates. Become the relied-upon teammate.
Learn every single champion inside and out-- kit, damage types, cooldowns are fantastic starts. I personally have a pretty strong numeric handle on more champions than I care to admit.

I'd say something like 'have fun,' but don't. You encourage these little shits and they'll take the whole mile. Play for yourself, ignore your teammates' chattering and focus on the game itself-- the numbers, the details, where things are happening and when. In the end, you can only change the way you play. Don't try anything more than that.

Gulma3/6/2017, 3:58:31 AM1 votes

You really just need to get meta picks. Trust me, I've seen plenty of cases where bad players using Yasuo end up feeding in lane then dominating team fights because he's a good champ. Bottom line is to play the meta champs. This season heavily revolves around the top picks more than strategy/skill.

Edyr4203/6/2017, 4:34:59 AM1 votes

-learn to cs -learn how to manage creep waves (when you understand this you can roam better and have better exp/lvl) -knowing matchups -mechanics -knowing WHEN to use summoner spells -closing out games by abusing your lead for example when you stomp the enemy botlane you usually destroy their turret, push your lane out and destroy mid and stuff like that -knowing which calls are good or bad -map awareness/warding

and another tip: if you lose your lane (toplane for example) or getting harassed really hard by a ranged champ etc. dont force yourself to take that cs, its better to lose 3-4 minions instead of dying, giving your lane opponent 300gold, extra exp while you lose even more minions and exp and eventually your turret. sometimes its normal to lose 30-40cs in the laning phase just of that. and if you play extra safe your opponent gets vulnerable to ganks or he eventually gets frustrated and starts doing stupid mistakes by taking unnecessarily turretshots.

Joes3/5/2017, 10:15:07 PM1 votes

macro play>micro play do that