My take on a failing lane, from one Bronze player to another

I definitely didn't mean for this post to get so long but it did, hahahaha. This is mainly aimed at Bronze players (as the title states) who are sad about their rank, so I'm sure if you're experienced a lot of this will be obvious mistakes to you.

TLDR; Don't blame your teammates, recognize the issues you have and try to fix them! These are some of my mistakes as a Bronze player, and perhaps mistakes you can recognize in your own gameplay, too. We can all climb that ladder (:

After finishing my placements as an ADC main with 4 wins and 6 losses, I was placed in Bronze 1. For two of these games I played support, probably one of my weaker roles but I was in a duo with my friend. We lost both games, oops!

I think a lot of people get discouraged after being placed in Bronze. Back in Season 5 when I was playing much more in general I was instantly placed in Silver, so for a minute I was upset about it not happening again! I didn't really "main" a role back then, and I think I generally did much worse, so I was surprised. But after looking at a few videos and reviewing the matches I did play this season, I understand.

It's too easy for us to blame our failures on our teammates. I definitely did this while playing, and I honestly think we are all victim to it from time to time. But here's what I learned about my gameplay that I was doing wrong, and they are things that if I changed, we totally could've won us the game. These are all going to be things I'm still struggling with.

A. CSing (and using the gold wisely)

"What to build..." [sg-lux-2]

If you main ADC you know how important CS is. The more CS you have the more you buy items, and if you out-CS your opponent you'll be stronger. It's that simple -- in concept. I can go in customs and last hit to almost 90 at 10 minutes, usually being about 10-15 off. With more practice I have no doubt I could actually get those pesky minions. However, it's obviously different than being in a lane where you are constantly being poked or punished whenever you try to last hit. This is often where I found myself being like, "Why isn't my tank support helping more? Why can't this maybe put up a few shields to block me? can you at least throw out a tongue lash or something?! REEEEEE--" Even if I do out-CS I will do dumb things like buy instead of which would counter the jungler who's ganked like 100 times. Also, isn't it super frustrating when you only have the gold to buy a when their ADC comes back with a ?! But really CS is all about practice and counterbuilding is about being strategic and making good decisions. The poking problem was it's own separate issue, being...

B. Aggressiveness (and ADC entitlement)

"I'm going to poke you down and you can't do anything about it." [sg-syndra]

In no way in these matches was I being aggressive enough, and I realized passively CSing and waiting for a tank initiate was just a silly way to play, and so so so entitled. How am I going to expect my support to initiate when I am playing so passively? Why am I not going in when we have LVL.2 advantage? If my positioning in team fights is so far back I'm BARELY in range how am I being useful to the team? My positioning and decision-making is kind of just shit (as alluded to in the last point). These are all things I did that put not only me, but my entire team really far behind. Also, kiting and attack moves are something I struggle with a lot. I would run and run but not deal any damage back, making me super easy to dive on because the enemy would still be able to take turret shots AND get the kill, especially if it's an assassin or an ADC like who can just jump in and jump out.

C. Play what you're good at

"Yo is it cool if I go first-time Lulu?" [sg-lulu]

This is kind of a short and obvious one. If your preferred roles go in this order 1. ADC, 2. Mid, 3. Jungle, 4. Support, and 5. Top, congratulations we are the same, but why are you going to play support or top lane? I have no idea why I played support in ranked matches. I honestly barely even own that many, and the ones I do own I'm not very good at, at least for ranked purposes...

This is really all the points I can think of right now. If you're also in Bronze, no matter what role you play, try to be conscious of your gameplay and your role and the tasks you need to carry out for your team to win. If you keep losing, the only thing consistent between matches is you, so you need to get on your own ass instead of your teammates. It's okay to admit you are the issue, but don't get sad about it, and be conscious of it and trying to improve instead of blaming everyone else for losing is the only way to get better. There are tons of guides out there by people who are much better, and watching in-depth analysis's of certain champions or games can be really beneficial.

Now that I know what to fix, I'm aiming for Gold this season (: ! You can get there too! Good luck!

[slayer-jinx-catface]