So you want to get to Gold

I was stuck in bronze until I decided to stop blaming my team for everything and accepted that I was terrible at the game. Now I'm improving, currently Gold 5 and here are a couple of things that I learned to get to gold and somethings I’m still learning to keep climbing.

Recklessness: The best way to lose a lead or give one to the opponent, simply because you have a gold advantage doesn’t mean you should 1 vs 2+ or simply fight under an enemy tower or group of minions

**Indecisiveness: **Spending too much time thinking about what to do and not actually doing anything or being late is time you’re giving the opponent to get ahead, for example a late teleport. Make a decision and commit to it.

**Uncomfortable Counters: **Picking a champion you don’t know how to play or haven’t used much simply for the sake of countering the opponent is a terrible idea. Your pretty much shooting yourself in the foot if the opponent has a comfort pick and you don’t.

Jack of all trades Master of none: Playing all roles is fun but in ranked is better to pick two roles you really like and properly learn 2 or 3 champions for each of those roles. Nobody will be impress if you play a lot of different champions and mostly lose instead of playing a few champions and mostly win.

#LCSBigPlay Champions: In low elo your mechanics are more than likely below average so use simple champions that allow you to be consistent. You don’t want to be that that surfs his way straight into a combo, the who is not only blind but has the reflexes of a dead cat or the who always saves the enemy with her “Condemn” instead of stunning them.

CS, Wards and you: At this level of play you’re not consistently getting that 8+ CS per minute. Instead your letting gold go by harassing instead of last hitting and chances are you don’t know how to properly execute the trading stance so the harass is not doing much either. You might also think about not wasting 75 gold for a pink ward because you will need that 75 gold for another item or simply not want to leave lane to place a ward but when the enemy jungle decides to come for your booty don’t blame anyone else for your lack of wards.

Invariable build paths and full builds: Build paths and full builds are not set in stone, those who don’t adapt don’t survive in most cases. Sometimes you simply can’t afford to get that offensive item first because you’re getting wrecked in lane and desperately need to get a defensive item first even if it was not part of your intended build.

Overconfidence and self-doubt: Thinking everyone else is garbage and not respecting their skills is a good way to tilt if suddenly you find yourself in a losing match since you will probably think that you need to kill them twice for each of your deaths in order to get ahead but all that does is lead to more feeding. It’s perfectly acceptable to help someone carry you if you’re not doing well. On the opposite side of the spectrum is self-doubt and this pretty much just makes you play super defensively for fear of feeding and allows the enemy to get easy leads through CS or objectives which is worse than feeding since you granting advantages to the entire team instead of just one player.

Flaming: We all get mad sometimes and that’s a fact, but that time that you’re wasting by telling a teammate that he or she is garbage is time you could have spent doing something that will actually help you win. Typing useless things in chat only helps to distract your teammates and yourself which can lead to the enemy getting an easy kill so if you just can’t resist the urge to insult someone then say it verbally instead of typing it and remember that you will probably not play with them again.