Bronze - Gold Players: Tell me why you think you can't climb solo queue

Mr Carbon··33 votes·12,219 views

I'm doing a fair bit of research into why bronze - gold players feel like they are stuck in the Elo they are in.

The Question... What is holding you back from climbing solo queue?

What is/are the biggest weaknesses you face in your or others gameplay? and why.

In other words... If I could change this... I would win more games...

Try to stay away from statements like "My team sucks" "Nothing but trolls" "5 AFK's in a row"

http://leaguetales.com/ is where you can find the majority of my work and thoughts, Thanks

305 Comments

Eedat27 votes

I'm Gold 5 sitting on a 43W-21L record and a ~Gold 2 MMR as a solo-only player. I really haven't noticed things like "DQ is holding me back" or "team always feeds". I probably could climb to high gold, maybe even low plat, but I'm under no illusion that I'm a high Plat/ low Diamond player. My problem is that I one-trick in ranked because I'm confident on my ability to carry with Wukong. But I get bored of playing the same champ so I end up playing a bunch of random shit in norms and ARAM because this is a game after all. You're supposed to have fun playing a game. Not be miserable trying to grind through ranks

Mr Carbon1 votes

Excellent, so anybody can climb to a decent elo if they simply master the ins and outs of one champion? That's a great synopsis

Eedat2 votes

Well it sure helps. You don't neccessarily need to one-trick, but having like 2 dedicated mains in the 2 roles you queue for helps a lot. I see sooooooooooooooooo many bronze/silver players with like 50 different champions played in a season and I don't know why. It's so much easier when you already know how to play a lane so you can focus on other things like the macro game. For example, if I'm playing Wukong top against a Darius, I already know I can't 1v1 him unless he massively fucks up. So I just farm under turret the best I can, wait for jungle help, or look for a TP roam somewhere. Someone wo has only played Wukong a few times might try to fight Darius and feed him because they don't know any better

AninLegions7773 votes

Wukong man. One of the most underrated champs in SQ. Especially with all the Olaf spams now.

Eedat5 votes

Enjoy it while you can. Wukong is one of the biggest abusers of flat AD pen, so the changes are gonna hurt him. Definitely won't be weak, but definitely wont be as strong as he is now.

Xavanic2 votes

lethality is stronger then armor pen, lol

Eedat5 votes

It's not lol. It's a straight up nerfed form of flat armor pen

Xavanic1 votes

It is, lol, lethality jhin and lucian are even more broke then they were when it was armor pen, they made it a bit weaker early on, but made it scale a whole lot better

WarlockLaw9 votes

The point of those armor pen builds on Jhin and Lucian is to snowball off of the huge early game power of armor pen. Lethality is taking that away in favor of a smoother power curve overall. This will likely push most pen adcs back towards crit builds.

Hrd2H1t19 votes

Its not that we can't climb, its just that this ELO is such a clown fiesta its a slow-ass climb. There's just too much RNG when it comes to bronze. Your team might be all players that belong in gold, all players that belong in bronze 5, all troll, all diamond smurfs, or some other weird shit.

Zaladin10 votes

I believe some of the problem is that the ranked system punishes the player for a mistakes that can be more "team based" (not including the player I just mentioned). So there could be a much broader sea of high ranking players but they cannot climb continuously do to losing. When I say this, I am in no way saying that "Dota isbetterthisiswhyiquitleaguelol" Dota has a MMR rating (not perfect) that scores partially the player, based on how well they perform. That is less stress than being brought down a rank because of your team and having to worry about "can I carry". If you think about it, and this may sound like something you hear in elementary and middle school, but there is no I in team. Everyone is supposed to pull their own and work together to win. So that when something is done competitively, rather it be a sport or non-sport, one person is not responsible for making sure that team succeeds. LCS players, don't generally have to worry about that, because they have a team. Right now, it's more of a "Yes there is an I in team" and that is pressure going into every game like that. And it also forces you not to be able to play champs that you want (outside of picks and bans and team competition).

Emerald Fang8 votes

As a Bronze III, I present my reasons:

  1. Ranked "mindset." You have this mentality that ranked is scary and such a high-pressure test of skill when in reality it's barely more than your average normal draft game (at least in Bronze).

  2. "____ Syndrome" : If you're fed, you think you can 1v5 the entire team and you'll start doing just that and making dumbass mistakes. Commonly known as Yi Syndrome, Yasuo Syndrome, Jax Syndrome etc. Happens with almost every champion.

  3. Anger towards others. Instead of focusing on what you did wrong you'll just get mad at another player on your team because you have such an inflated ego about your gameplay. "Oh, I should be in Gold right now." No you shouldn't; if you should be you WOULD be; that's how ranked works. I go by one simple rule: ALWAYS BLAME YOURSELF. Even if the ADC was 0/20, you have to deal with your gameplay EVERY ranked game, while your ADC is different each game.

  4. "Potatoes". Let's face it, sometimes you get those people who have NO idea what they're doing. It happens. But see #3 for how to deal with it.

  5. The matchmaking. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure LoL matches you with worse people the more wins you have, to try to balance your wins/losses to 50%. It's frustrating when your MMR is really high and you can go up 2/3 divisions, and then get matched with terrible players. BUT that is testing your ability to carry the team, so I guess it's fair.

  6. "Bitching". If there is ONE "broken" champion on the enemy team, everyone starts complaining in chat (including me). "Oh gg ff at 20". If a yasuo shows up (rarely b/c he's always banned) players go crazy. They subconsciously already surrendered; their mind will not be as sharp as it could because of the dread of facing an op champ (who they arbitrarily deem OP).

  7. This is the main reason, in my opinion, why bronzies can't climb. THEY DO NOT KNOW HOW TO COUNTER THESE "BROKEN" CHAMPS. If they see a Yasuo, they have absolutely no clue what to do except try to kill him before he kills you. If they see a Katarina you bet they'll be trying to dive her, and then realizing how fed she is after they're 0/3, proceed to be useless the whole game. The Bronze NEED to learn how to counter or at least PLAY against some of these champions. And there is ALWAYS one of these champs on the enemy team, so they're trapped in this state of fear and mental submission. Main "broken" champs in bronze: Akali Annie Blitzcrank Brand Darius Ekko Fizz Jax Katarina Kayle Malzahar MasterYi Rengar Riven Shaco Syndra Teemo Vayne XinZhao Yasuo Yasuo Yasuo Zed . Just the community's opinion based on games. (I personally don't think Yas is that bad but the rest I can see being somewhat "broken.")

Now, I've done all of these things above. I used to be Bronze 5. But I've climbed to Bronze 3 in about 20 games, which I find impressive. The trick to climbing is above.

And the rule of thumb: DO NOT RAGE AT ALL. DO NOT BE SALTY. I used to be a ridiculously toxic player, yelling in chat in all caps constantly. I'm surprised I didn't get reported / chat restricted, honestly. I lost every game, and I thought it was the enemy team. I was 0/10, 0/9, maybe 1/9 if lucky, every game. Then I tried to see what I could do to improve myself. I practiced constantly in norms, and customs (CS practice). Then I went into a ranked game a month later; it seemed just like a normal. I went 5/4, and I was so excited. I won my first ranked game! I realized I didn't rage at all, even when my team made dumb mistakes. And since then, EVERY SINGLE TIME I have raged in chat, we've lost. So don't do it. Spout curses in the safety of your room, but don't waste your time typing into chat.

That's all folks. Tales of a Bronze Player (Who stopped playing Ranked until S7).

Eedat2 votes

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure LoL matches you with worse people the more wins you have, to try to balance your wins/losses to 50%.

That is true.

http://imgur.com/PH8OvFv

but still not really a good excuse.

http://imgur.com/bDzI77T

I'll be the first to admit that I check ranks before every game. The difference I don't let it tilt me. I actually kind of enjoy being challenged. If you're going to let ranks tilt you before a game even starts, just don't check them lol

Zelorxon5 votes

-People that put their ego before the win -People that don't push after lv7 -People that don't press buttons (teamfights lost simply because no spells were casted) -The particular ability of bronzetards to fuck up no matter how you help them (no wards in seasons before trinkets>give them trinkets>people sit on 2 stacks for 30 minutes) -Idiots that have their ego so fragile that even a "X build Y item" is considered like a personal assault -The need to abuse tricks in order to climb (Graves, ego stroking, zzrots for days) rather than actual skill and teamwork -The fact that people would rather see the ship sink instead of listening to advices (top now that i took the turret for you push and go take mid turret): call that gets completely ignored -The fact that this game has a mathematical basis, and you can't carry if you're jungle and top and bot go 0/5 before your second buff, i'm skilled, not jesus. -Supports that don't build sightstone.

and i could keep going, but don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that's impossible to climb, it only takes a ridiculous amount of extra time and if you're not a teenager anymore you have to do boring stuff like cleaning the house, go grocery shopping, repair the broken sink and so on... I usually don't rank where i should because in season 3 and 4 i didn't played rankeds at all, in season 5 i played only the last 3 days, and this season i played only the last month... Next season i plan to play rankeds every time i have from the beginning, and see where it gets me.

Oh, just finished a promo where i went 10/5/6 and scored a quadra with 7.1 farm per minute on a jungler, lost because malph support pressed R once in 40 minutes (not kidding)

-edit- Lost my second promo because tp ashe bot started inting acting innocent and then starting to spam pings without typing any offensive word in chat, she went 1/14 with a full attack speed build, no boots with 70 farm at 27 mins (270) and walked into 5 people attacking them just to try to flash out not managing to do that obviously, and i fas hella fed the whole game, playing graves and not being able to land the damage that would have oneshotted anyone 1v1 since my teammates kept walking into unwarded areas we lost control of because they refused to push and started to chase kills in the fog of war, the only 2 turrets we took was my doing with red buff+youmu.

Below plat you can't consistently win games unless you cheat mathematically by adding to an equation a duo that's at least 40% of the skills required for the current elo that listens to your orders and doesn't let you go 1v5 at best 1v9 t worst, also in this cancerous season is needed in order to shield yourself from premades, a premade of 2 is carryable, 3+ means an instant lost not even worth of being played. (and maybe a x4 report since they're "just having fun as friends together")

"Legit." -Rush 2016

TequilaZombie5 votes

Over trusting my allies. Be it follow up on that dive, to know to run away when I dive in to buy them time, trusting that the FUCKING STUPID ASS SONA WILL STUN THAT FUCKING TRYND SPINNING AT ME WHEN I'M THE FUCKING FED ADC... ahem, that got a bit out of hand. Basicly I think that they will follow my thoughts as a default scenario, so I end up doing those massive fuck ups that had a small potential to be great plays.

And I am terrible at playing from behind. It's not a good combo.

Fieryfury33 votes

Same. I'm like "GO, SAVE YOURSELVES" then I go in to let 3 others live and they turn around and try to fight instead of run lol.

TequilaZombie4 votes

Hey, I'm tanky and worth little to no gold, I'll dive in so my team can run away. They will have to 5 man focus me or I'll kill their carry.

"You have been slain"

Good, now my team will escape and defen... Ohh fuck!

"An ally has been slain" "Enemy double kill" "Triple kill" "An enemy in unstoppable" "ACE"

Meanwhile in chat

Jungler: Fuck you Singed, why the fuck you went in?? Mid: Great fucking job baiting us to that, you fucking retard. kys Adc: /all report this fucking noob Singed Support: Guys? Can we calm down?

Mira Arya Enthe4 votes

I can, I just don't play much. Because it's a video game and I have two jobs and real friends waiting for me. Why do I need to climb(other than to gold for rewards)? It has little relevance unless you plan on being a streamer or pro player.

Mr Carbon2 votes

Fair point, so there's no reward/benefit for getting better? It basically stops at a certain point on the ladder?

Mira Arya Enthe2 votes

Getting better is fine. But having a higher rank isn't really an important goal unless again, streaming or trying to go pro. Otherwise it's just a title on a game that millions of people hold and provides few in game rewards.

You want my name1 votes

Well i guess it just depends. I dont think you should only try to get a higher rank if you just want to stream or go pro. It could just be to get into a higher elo to player against other people who match your skill level. So then you could get better. Although i understand what you mean about playing it for fun. Although if i play a game this much its only natural to want to get better at it

Mira Arya Enthe2 votes

Well yes, again, getting better is fine. Climbing is fine. But it isn't really a vital goal to anything. As in, the only accomplishment it gives, is itself. Which is cool, I think it's neat that some people just want to climb. But I've never been that interested in grinding for the sake of grinding. The only other 'benefit' is so people can go to the forums and insult everyone lower rank than them for some odd reason. Like, I was aiming for gold this season until I found out the skin is nothing I actually am interested in. Good for Moakai players btw, glad they get a skin. But, it does nothing for me. So I will bother climbing next season.

Baby Ghoul4 votes

I can climb, but I'm lazy.

Last year was my first year of League, and I got placed in Silver 2. It was relatively easy to climb up to Gold as a top/mid main. I didn't go further than Gold 5 because there was no reason for me to go further. All I care about are season rewards, and as I got matched with Platinum players more frequently this season, I don't feel any desire to really make an effort anymore.

I like the Gold border better than the Platinum one too.

This year I tried to challenge myself since I started earlier in the year than last, so I climbed only as support. It was nice and I've grown dedicated to the role, but I had to learn to play support and carry as support and it took so much more time, especially since I didn't play a high damage support.

I guess this year I don't feel any motivation to push myself any further. I mainly play this game for fun and ranked has just been a nice learning experience. I might try to go further next year, but I genuinely don't feel any desire to push past Gold at the moment.

ManiacalCoyote4 votes

Getting queued up against five Master smurfs whenever I get more than 50 LP.

Jazzyforcefield3 votes

Everyone, for the most part, does not know how to capitalize and get caught out.

it be lìke that3 votes

i wouldnt say its "why i cant climb" but it sure is unfortunate when i get silvers on my team but the enemy team has all gold 4 or better. the silver always gets dumpstered (see the 0-10 darius who rushed thornmail into titanic hydra) who did 3.7k damage in a 30 minute game whilst playing fervor of battle.

getting nonsense like this, was just all too common for me.

Simpumba2 votes

Well, because its not "solo" que this season.

Mr Carbon3 votes

So, you feel like people who team up in groups have an unfair advantage against the lone wolves basically? Is the gist I got, yeah?

Penns2 votes

http://euw.op.gg/summoner/userName=Fizz%20Akabane I only really wanted gold 5 this season, got placed in Silver 1. If I had to pick one, Id say the biggest reason why I didnt get there faster was dynamic q giving me top quite a lot... As you can see if you look at my win rate with Gnar lol.

RookPusher2 votes

Basically, I need to stop playing support.

But my main problem IMO is too many people chase in the jungle/think someone else should tank.

Bbayam2 votes

I don't have the time I'd like to put into the game, honestly. I know I'm decent, as I tend to get really fed every game, but I have little experience shot calling, or experience in how to convert my solo advantage to a team advantage, unless playing with friends. After all it's a team game. I think more time and games played would help correct these two issues.

Mr Carbon2 votes

This is a great comment because people under estimate decisive shot calling!

Taking your advantage in lane and immediately applying it to other areas of the map is the easiest way to snowball a win.

Look to roam early and focus early objectives after a advantages have been gained. Don't force them, but simply take them when they are available.

Depending on team compositions, you may need to neglect or thrive on risky plays at certain times.

Bbayam1 votes

That's some helpful advice, thank you! The advantage converting to team advantage depends on who I play. Immobile mages are hard to roam with I suppose, and I play a fair number of those. However, playing Ahri, I don't really find a problem with the conversion of lane advantage to team advantage. Normally as an immobile mage I try to draw attention to my lane if I have a huge advantage so team can focus other objectives. It's not always successful.

Mr Carbon2 votes

You'll find that grouping unexpectedly and taking a turret when the enemy has no way of responding to the rotation is a great way to get a big gold lead early.

SwiftKitten882 votes

1 there is no solo que this season so i dont didn't play ranked this season.

2 assuming everyone gets a hard reset after they all got boosted from dynamic que.. nothing

as a current silver player.. the hardest part about climbing is getting placed with people who placed directly INTO silver and not CLIMBED to sliver becuase in order to climb to silver from bronze (in season 1-5, because ne1 can get boosted in season 6) you need to BE silver and you need to PROVe you can climb out while carrying bronze teammates.

but people who place into silver directly (like i did myself season 3, i placed into silver 1) are NOT silver. they may have mechanical skills of a silver player just like i did.. but the complete lack of game knowledge, objectives and champion skills and matchups. those take MUCH more time to learn than it does to reach lvl 30. (obviously smurfs this wont matter because they got game knowledge on thier main account).

the highest ranked i have CLIMBED in silver 2 (in season 4), i was placed directly into silver 1 in season 3 after winning my first 8 and losing the next two. but WHEN i played into silver 1.. i was nowhere NEAR the skill level of a silver 1. granted i certainly and that and MORE now.. but i guarentee you i screw over every teammate in season 3 ranked i got. becuase i simple did not have the game knowledge that i do today.

idk how season 7 is going to work, chances are i will need to climb out of bronze and THEN climb all of silver to gold. and as long as my main Nidalee remains somewhat viable. (which there is a pretty good cance she wont be by the looks of it) i should be able to climb very fast. i do however have other champs i can play, and while i wont be able to climb as fast on them. i will still be ABLE to climb.

69469238DEL12 votes

G5 I know I can climb to Plat, but I had 8 ranked games in a row with an afk on my team so I'm scared to que up now. If no one afks I can prob carry.

Rakvir2 votes

I think it's a mix of several things.

  1. I can't guarantee, absolutely 100%, consistency of conditions (I live in a rural area so I have literally one ISP monopolizing quality of service, and I live with family so if they do ANYTHING bandwidth-hog heavy, I'm completely at the mercy of the enemy, though I generally only play when I'm the only one actually home or up at a ridiculous hour of the night).

  2. When I do go on anything resembling a SIGNIFICANT (that's the key word here) win streak, I am then teamed with people who I swear could (and probably WOULD) lose to AI bots. No sense of self-preservation (picking stupid fights all day long, not recalling when it's obvious the tiniest little auto-attack could kill them, forcing unnecessary ganks while severely behind, being baited into everything under the sun, etc.). No idea how to rotate/pressure objectives. The system picks people on losing streaks and crams as many of them as possible for me to force me into a 'carry or negate every inch of ground gained, THEN SOME' because "50% win rate" is the goal the system tries to implement.

  3. I don't have anyone to team up with to better my chances because I don't know any real-life friends who also play League outside of one guy who duo'd with his GF to hit Gold and they play side-by-side. Even if I wasn't restricted by who I could queue with, I would still need communication which would eff up the bandwidth as they live on literally the opposite side of the country, putting us at a disadvantage against more formal pre-mades, as in those who co-ordinate via voice communication.

  4. I find myself on teams of all solo vs 3+ premades far more often than is the reverse situation. Just last night, it was clear one team was smurfing as they had a 5-man jungle invade, and ended up a 1v5 as literally everyone else on my team fed super hard then afk'd simply from how badly they were out-maneuvering us.

  5. I don't play certain champions. Ever. I'm probably the one person in League who finds champions like Master Yi or Zed or Katarina (just to name a few, there's quite a lot of them) hard as fuck to play. My brain just freezes up trying to play these sort of cheesy (spelling?) champions. Maybe it's because I overthink them combined with the fact that I do have some genuine mental co-ordination problems that don't translate well to self-described "fancy moves". I find Fizz to be mechanically simple but if I were to play Zed, I'd feed all day long because there is way too much you technically CAN do with him but everything moves way too fast and is far too combo-oriented. Basically, it's the same reasoning why I can't play fighting games like Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat/Tekken/Soul Calibur/etc.

  6. I know I'm not a great player in the wider scope of things, but I play games far better in realistic team environments. Random people who you'll likely never see again apart from maybe one or two more queues immediately after a single given game and being rated solely on wins as opposed to play mechanics within the game makes me feel helpless because you can't force other people to do things. You can only change your own behaviour to suit the needs of the situation but by basic mathematical principles be able to always be able to "cover" for those who are just blatantly bad at the game and have absolutely NO DESIRE TO IMPROVE BUT STILL EXPECT TO WIN BECAUSE THEY FEEL THEY DESERVE IT WITHOUT PUTTING IN ANYWHERE REMOTELY CLOSE TO THE REQUIRED EFFORT.

I screw up a fair bit now and then and I know when a loss is to be pinned on me, not others. I accept that no one wins 100% of their games and it is folly to believe that I supposedly "deserve" to win. But with all of the pressure from every possible angle (and I'm sure I'm missing several key points I forgot to mention), I seriously don't know what I can do. I have lost basically all faith in a fair ranked experience. I don't know why I even try anymore. Maybe I'm just addicted at this point and too stubborn to move on and only play normals from now on? I wish I knew.

Banuvan2 votes

I am climbing though. Lost games honestly come down to having 1 or 2 ( sometimes more ) people who have no clue how to play the game. It's not stopping me from climbing, albeit slowly, but every game that is lost is due to 1 or 2 people usually. I'll admit sometimes it's me that has a bad game as well.

Rem Was Here2 votes

It can probably be because I play support, but I dont know it just seems that top and mid always lose lane while we in bot lane do fine, so I can probably change roles but I dont want to sit for 40 mins waiting for a match, if you go and see my match history you can see that, i do ward just fine but wards dont win games, you can also see that me and the ad do fine but the rest of the lanes just suck.. So I dont know... There has to be something wrong. And I have a 1612 wardscore and i ward more than 92% of players... So I dont know .. http://wardscore.loltools.net/?name=remdotexe&region=na

It Hertz When IP2 votes

Harambe died.

Zerenza2 votes

I'm silver 5 4 w and 12 losses i can't win because i don't play the champions that are good in my ELO and i have a severe aversion to some of them. I also might not even be good enough despite game knowledge, I'm really bad at the team fight stage even if i can stomp in lane rather easily i don't know what to do with my lead.

Overall i need to play more and i'll get better, stick with the champs i know i'm good at and figure out how to play against the ones i can't deal with but i won't play ranked until i gain more knowledge about the game as a whole that way i don't get disheartened and can continue to look at my 25% winrate without getting pressured.

Edit: I ended up in silver after winning 4 games against high gold and platinum players in my placements then i lost all of the ones after that, i know i'm not good enough for gold and platinum yet so i'm working to be.

Maiziea2 votes

My suggestion would be to find a high diamond player to talk to and maybe play with in normals and have him check if you actually know what you're talking about. It's very common for low elo players to think they know what they're doing but they're just not as good at the games mechanics, while in fact they're bad at both and then relying on what you know can make you worse because you're no longer trying to improve your knowledge (as much).

I realize not everyone has high diamond friends though :P so it might not be an option but who knows. Either way I wish you the best of luck on your league adventures :).

CrazedPorcupine2 votes

Inconsistent Teammates means that as a support player, i'm at the mercy of matchmaking to give me a team that when I support them can take advantage of the things I give them, from the massive shielding of Karma, the Disengage/engage of Nami, or Sheer sustain from SOraka, or the peel from a tank support or the catch potential of Morg.

It's not that I feel like I should be in Diamond, but I shouldn't be stuck in gold 5-4. I know I'm barely good enough to even barely qualify for plat and that's if I got lucky with some really solid teams. It's just that matchmaking makes it so hard to get consistent teams to support and help carry.

Keìron2 votes

Unstable ping (60-500)

Reiyalin2 votes

Ranked anxiety! And uh, never playing ranked because various reasons including but not limited to: get distracted playing normals with friends; fear of feeding or raging teammates; fear of the ranked game I decide to play being the one I end up feeding in.

Also rip my feel of being able to carry by murdering things because my role preference is Top>>Support>>>Everything else which results in me getting support in 85% of games. And then the taunting "you filled or played support in your last game so you are guaranteed one of your roles". As if I wasn't guaranteed anyways since support is my secondary T.T. Time to ward and ping like mad...

I guess I should stop caring and just play and be like whatever...

Weight of Law2 votes

My simple answer to this is I have really bad ranked anxiety and play less than 100 ranked games every season

SangreDeNoche1 votes

Promos exist. If it was pure win rates I would've gotten gold eons ago back when I had an 86% win rate with Lux after several hundred games on her. Instead, it was always during my promos where teams would intentionally say "fuck everyone" and have their 'vengeance' upon the league community by running it down in my games or picking tahm and eating allies so they could run into the enemy with 2 people.

PopcornBunni1 votes

I play exclusively noncarry characters and roles and suck complete ass at carry champions thus have to rely on my team being good, which they aren't, because it's bronze-gold.

L Rayquaza1 votes

In my experience people think they can solo carry a team game and dont group, so there is this perpetual cycle of the person is alone so the group cant fight off as well, they die, the person is alone

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