The Only Real Advice Low ELO Players Need to Climb
There's a lot of guides on how to get out of low ELO. Like, a lot. But It doesn't really matter because almost none of them mention the three most common mistakes in low ELO:
- Bad Positioning
- Griefing/Giving Up
- Bad Fights
The biggest mistake I see in my games is players in bad positioning. That Ashe who walked in front of the minion wave to fire a single arrow at the enemy, knowing Blitz's hook was up. That Jayce who wants to poke so he walks in front of his tanks. That Zyra who walks through the unwarded jungle to go ward Baron. You have to be able to know what range an opponent can kill you at and stay out of that range, even if you don't know for certain that they're there at all. If you don't, you're gonna get picked off, and you're gonna feed. This goes for global positioning as well. If you think they're going to dragon, it doesn't matter if you have enough for BF sword, or if you have no mana, or if you lost lane and need to farm to catch up. As long as you have health (or if you're the jg and you have Smite) you can help provide pressure. You're in low ELO; they're not going to take into account that Brand can't do anything without mana, they're just going to see the entire enemy team rolling up.
Griefing or giving up is the second one. DO NOT say something about how bad someone is. Complaining about a teammate solidifies in your team's mind that that person is bad, and once they know that they start playing stupidly. Every single time I see a top lane Yasuo on my team I know that he's going to get stomped in lane and be useless in mid game. Every time I know it will happen but I'm hopeful that maybe this guy is different, and every time that hope is crushed. But I also know that saying that won't stop him from picking it and will make my teammates jump on the bandwagon and be toxic as soon as he starts losing. And once the team loses morale and Yasuo leaves top to go fail ganking mid and bot leaving Darius to take his turret and feeding the other lanes as well it only starts a snowball effect. So I say nothing and focus on the other lanes. And if they're all losing I still say nothing. I don't start a surrender vote, I don't buy 5 Zeals and run around the map feeding as fast as possible. I just play. And in games where there isn't a top Yasuo and I apply that strategy I actually have a pretty good success rate in turning them around. In fact, if someone is being toxic just KINDLY tell them to chill out; and I don't mean 'KINDLY' in a sarcastic way. You need to tell your teammates that it's ok that this person isn't doing well because you can still win this game. Give the person who's losing some CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, as you've now established yourself as an ally and they're more likely to listen to your advice. You need to keep the team's morale up, because when someone is frustrated, angry, or dejected they make dumb decisions that they wouldn't have otherwise.
If you don't know you can win that fight, don't do it. If they're stronger than you and they engage, you disengage. And for the love of all that is holy if your teammate gets caught out of position LET THEM DIE. I can't tell you how many games I've seen swung around or how many sieges I've seen broken because one person makes one mistake and either their team goes "We have to save our nakama!!" or the other team goes "Thresh is charmed! It's a 3v5 but we need this pick so everyone go capitalize on this opportunity by going all in right now!!" If you have to leave a teammate behind to prevent losing the entire game, do it. If you have to lose a turret to prevent losing the entire game, do it. Getting aced while trying to save something is like drowning because you're trying to learn to swim. Let it go for now and try again at a better time.