Twice Into Silver

If you've read my other posts, I often wax prophetic about how to improve. I'm selfishly obsessed with becoming better at this game, but I feel I should share my observations. Moreover, I love the idea of a community of fellow nerds and upwardly-mobile Summoners chatting and sharing ideas.

So, I figured I should take a moment to say that I made it into Silver last night. For the second time. I was in Silver 2 at the end of the preseason, but catapulted back to Bronze 1 after my prelims. I figured I'd just make it back into Silver, no worries. I lost my cool when I got pushed down to Bronze 4 and I had to take a few days to clear my head. Of course, I vowed that I'd never play this dreadfully imbalanced game again.

After some space and perspective, I realized that I had lost my own strategy. The one that I touted so many times. Teamwork and Communication. In upper Silver, playing with those players and Gold, I didn't need to say, "Let's build a solid team, shall we?" because I knew they would. I was still polite, but often far quieter than I was before and far more likely to take whatever role was left open instead of saying, "I'm winning almost every game as Vi jungle so I'll play that if I can."

So, I readopted my old strategy of chatting and working together from the first second the team is formed. Unsurprisingly, I started climbing again immediately. People were more honest about their strengths and preferences, more willing to give advice and take it, and my teams instantly became stronger. Within a week from that moment, I landed myself in Silver.

I failed the first Promo Series, and then won myself straight back into it again. With the right attitude, even a game where our Nasus fed Jayce like he was a fast-food drive-thru, two of us being positive managed to keep one would-be rager from exploding and ruining the game. As it happened, Nasus came back in the long run (like he does), and we won that game thanks largely to his late-game contributions.

So, I've said it several times before, and now I've proven it twice. Teamwork and Communication are how you get out of Bronze. Don't stoop to the level of the Rager. Even if someone AFKs, play like they're still there. Never give up, because it's happened more than once that the AFK comes back, apologizes, and we go on to win. And don't listen to High ELO players who say, "Carry by yourself." Those guys aren't Bronze players. We had a Vayne in one game who probably could have carried all by herself (some High ELO dude was helping his friend out of Bronze). That's not something we Bronze/Silver players can do. Don't kid yourself. We might do it once in a while, but that's an exception. If you're Bronze, and you want to get out of Bronze, you need to play like a good Bronze Player, and that's different than a good Silver Player, or a good Gold Player.

In Bronze, you need to learn to lead. Start like this: "Greetings!" "Let's build a solid team, shall we?"

It's worked twice for me.