10 Tips I used to go from Bronze to Platinum in a Year

Hello everyone! I am 45mice, newly minted Plat 5 jungle/mid main, and I thought now that I've finally reached Plat I would make an article about all the different tips and tricks that I found out that helped me climb a lot of divisions. If you want to climb elo, I recommend following these tips as they will help immensely and can help you break out of your division.

1. Accept that whatever division you are in, you likely belong there. A lot of people have an external locus of control when it comes to the game, and I know I used to be the exact same way. There is no elo hell. While bronze is defiantly the worst in terms of toxicity and AFKs, it is still easily carriable. When you are good enough, you will climb and get out of your division, until you settle where you belong. If you're in the same division for more than 2 weeks, you likely belong there. Once you do accept that, it makes the game less frustrating and you can focus on just getting better and getting out. Just focus on yourself and how you're playing and how you can improve. It doesn't matter if top is feeding their laner 4 kills, just have the mindset that you will carry harder.

2. Know that every death is your fault in some way. This is rampant in low elo, and people blame others for their deaths. Last time I checked, you had full control of your champion. If malphite flash ults in their front line, you back off. You do not die for no reason. The biggest way I would say that I improved myself was I asked myself every time after I died, what went wrong, why did I die, and what can I do differently next time. Focusing on YOUR mistakes is the best way to improve. Don't point out or get angry at others mistakes,as this will lead to arguments, and afks or trolls in bronze.

3. Control your temper. Do not rage. This is extremely important, especially in low elo. Many players there are prone to rage outbursts, and if you give them an opening they will troll your world. Just don't give them the opportunity. Don't talk back to them, talk everything out loud if you have to. Just don't fight them and play their game, and make them even angrier. You will run into trolls on your way to Diamond, just accept it and try to work with them, then rage all you want post game chat if you need to. Getting angry won't help anyone, and often it'll make things much worse. Just don't let them tilt you and move on after the game and be glad you'll never have to play with them again.

4. Play jungle. I may be slightly biased since I'm a jungle main, and I realize many people think the position is boring, but in my opinion it's the easiest position to carry from. The order from easiest to carry to hardest in my opinion is jungle, mid, support, top, then adc. Jungle you can babysit lanes and get them incredibly ahead and just control the map. If you're good enough, the other side will never get drags, herald, or any other map pressure. Jungle can just be everywhere, and put an incredible amount of pressure on the enemy team. Mid can do similar things, as they can roam to any lane once they hit 6. Support controls about 90% of bot lane at first, since adc's are extremely weak early and the support is responsible for starting fights and a lot of harass. Top can still carry quite hard, but is reliant on tp to likely make bot lane plays. And ADC is easily the hardest position to carry as, since they require so much protection on their team and a bad support can just destroy the whole lane.

5. Play champions for your elo. Do not play hard champions in bronze and likely most of silver. In bronze, your mechanics unfortunately aren't consistent enough to make champs like Lee Sin, Yasuo, Zed, or Vayne work consistently. So just don't. There are easier champions who can do similar things that would be much more worth your time. The amount of games it takes to be good at Lee Sin is way more than it is to play Skarner, and they do similar things. They can both have significant single target lockdown, but one is much much easier to play. Here are champions for each position that I would just not recommend be played in ranked in low elo. Feel free to play them in normals as they are a lot of fun, but there are better champions you can be using in this elo.

Top: Fiora, Riven, Ryze Jungle: Lee Sin, Rengar, Shaco, Nidalee Mid: Zed, Yasuo, Orianna, Ryze ADC: Vayne, Kalista Support: Bard, Janna

While these champs can be useful, they are some of the hardest champs to play and use effectively, and your time is best spent on easier champs that you can get much more out of without having insane mechanics. Here are a few that are always godlike in low elo, and I highly recommend you pick up if you haven't already.

Top: Nasus, Pantheon, Maokai, Swain Jungle: Amumu, Volibear, Skarner, Warwick, Wukong Mid: Ziggs, Lux, Swain, Cho'Gath, Anivia, Karthus ADC: Tristana, Lucian, Corki Support: Sona, Taric, Leona, Morgana, Blitzcrank

All of these champions are strong and can be very useful in climbing. They are all relatively easy to understand and their kits can be fairly forgiving, and if you make a mechanical mistake its far less punishing than a Riven or a Lee Sin.

6. Play scaling champs. This is why also I just recommend never play early game champs like Shaco or Lee Sin (just don't play Lee in low elo, period), since teams in low elo struggle with ending games properly, and teams will outscale frequently. If you have a team of Pantheon, Elise, Zed, Tristana and Sona vs a team of Nasus, Amuumu, Karthus, Jinx, and Braum, the 2nd team will way outscale the other team and even if they're ahead by a good amount, they will likely lose just due to outscaling. You will get better at ending games as you rise, but in low elo teams often just struggle to know what to do after they ace a team, and it can lead to some throws. Good examples of scaling champs are Jinx, Anivia, Karthus, Nasus, Amumu, Swain, or Maokai. Play these champs, and you likely will have more comebacks and will win more often.

7. Play only a few different champions. You will get a larger champion pool the more you climb, but when you're just starting out it's best if you only play a few champions. You will master these champs and have a great advantage over someone who is still learning a champion. I would recommend being a mastery level 3 with a champ before you take them into ranked, just so you really know them well. You will feel more confident on them, and likely do better with them. When I was climbing, I played Ekko, Amumu, and Ziggs almost exclusively for awhile. And it worked. I was super confident on these champions and even if I got a bad match up, I knew I could play my champion better than they could just due to comfort level. Now you can pick your position, I'd recommend in ranked at least, you hard master a position, and have a backup that you're quite confident in. And likely just stick to those 2 for awhile. You'll master these positions better than your competition, and you will start to climb just because of that.

8. Do surprise barons. Low elo is really bad about keeping objectives warded, especially since the ward changes. Now, if it's past 25 minutes, buy a pink and see if baron is warded. If not, try to convince your team to go for baron. You'd be surprised how often it works, and how often games can swing just by sneaking a baron. Once I figured this out, this alone almost got me out of bronze. Baron is incredibly useful, and if you sneak it you will win some games you might not have won otherwise.

9. For the love of god, practice farming. This alone also almost got me out of bronze. Farming is essential in league. There is no excuse for poor farm. If you have a bad match up, just passively farm and be useful later in the game. If you can last hit better than your enemy laner, more often times than not you'll just win lane since you have more gold. Create a custom, go into an empty game with just you, and just practice last hitting, pushing waves, and freezing lanes. This alone with massively help your gold in game, and make you more powerful late game. You'd be surprised at the results. Just the simple act of farming better can make a huge difference. And get the cannon minion. Use an ability if you have to, it's worth it. It's over 2 minions in gold, so you better make sure you get that.

10. Focus the enemy ADC in all parts of the game. Bot lane is the key to victory a lot of times in games, so if you get your botlane massively ahead, you'll win a lot of games. This is why if I'm jungle, I'm likely camping bot, or getting my mid ahead so we can 4 man gank bot. Get your ADC ahead, and enjoy the carry the rest of the way. Even if they're not that great, if they just get insanely fed it doesn't matter anymore. For team fights, you want to focus the **** out of the enemy ADC. In most games, even if the enemy ADC is way behind, they can be the most consistent form of damage for their team. This is why I recommend playing engage champs like Amumu, Blitzcrank or Maokai. You pick off the enemy ADC (or another player if they're insanely fed), and just clean up the rest of their team. Blitzcrank himself is a god of low elo. ADCs in bronze or silver usually have horrible positioning. You land a hook on them, you can win the game yourself. Focus on engaging well and picking good fights where you can catch out carries easily, and you'll win games.

I thank you for taking the time to read my guide, and hope this may help you. Let me know of any questions you may have or more tips to climb elo. You can do it!