Support main trapped in bronze. Seeking advice. (Or just a place to vent)

ChroniclerC·5/27/2014, 11:11:30 AM·5 votes·743 views

So, I just got into ranked play at the end of last season. Placed squarely in silver, didn't move much (generally up, just very slowly). I'm okay with that; I don't have delusions of being anything more than decent. Had a lot of fun, felt like I was contributing to games. Yeah, you get some games with obvious smurfs of various flavors, but outright blowouts were rare.

Start of this season? At least three of my placement matches had at least one missing teammate, several more with people who should not be allowed to interact with other human beings. I don't know what my sin was, but I was sent straight to the flaming pits of Hell Bronze. And I'm miserable. I can't do anything for these people, and they outnumber me. Even if I was the best player in the game, the types of supports I mainly play as can't carry four idiots. And even when, by some whim of the matchmaking system, I get a lucky enough streak to get out of Bronze 3, I can count on one hand the number of games I've won in Bronze 2.

I'm out of ideas. So I turn to you, internet. Thoughts/ideas? Find a "friend" with hours as crazy as mine? Join a ranked team? Beg/bribe Riot to let me redo my placement matches? Sacrifice a goat to Morello?

11 Comments

Sir ArmaMalum5/27/2014, 1:23:48 PM4 votes

Duo queing with a buddy would be a good start, so it brings the number of randos down to 3. The goat may help too, lol.

Above all though, if you haven't been already, try to be a leader. Don't micromanage, but throw out tips and give out calls very early. Things like "Hey drag is going to be up in a minute, if we push bot out and jungle is there we could take it easy". At times even in silver I've also had to call smartping mia's on all the lanes to stop roaming. The double danger ping showing where someone is coming from helps. You can't force someone to be more aware in most cases, but there are ways to take that burden onto yourself. Yes it's asking Gold/Plat level awareness for Bronze matches but hey, it'll make the silver climb much easier.

Hotkey1235/27/2014, 6:15:35 PM3 votes

You could try to main Zyra, its been pretty good for me.

Kaine5/27/2014, 10:52:28 PM2 votes

I learned Draven and Axed my way into Silver where I can comfortably support again.

Took me two seasons to figure out, as S3 I just spammed support games which went fine... until you get five bronze Vaynes in a row and tada 600 MMR

But don't worry, while it feels awkward and unwieldy to play a carry, especially unwillingly and ESPECIALLY in a ranked game, all carries in bronze are bad anyway and your support knowledge actually makes you better than most of the people calling ADC.

I think the first support I had that saw me place a ward shit a brick that could be used as a cornerstone for the Popes new cathedral.

I was in your situation last year - Placed in Silver, was at my 50% win loss, decayed out over exams and could. not. get. out. of. it.

There is hope ^_^, was placed Bronze 5 this year I tanked it so bad... S3 now.

Squirtroll5/27/2014, 11:32:18 PM2 votes

Main something, I climbed from bronze 5 to gold through jungle champs, eve, j4, ones that i could play over and over that were very versatile

personally, i believe zyra can melt, easily 1v3 if you know what youre doing. theres also thresh, he can single handedly carry the worst baddies through proper skills

but dont expect to carry a game as a soraka or a janna, nami, blitzcrank, etc

Rhyto5/27/2014, 10:30:32 PM1 votes

I'm pretty much in the same situation as you friend, I made Silver V as a Support main SIII however this season I was placed in BII but now in BIII due to some hard matches.

CaptainWednesday5/27/2014, 3:36:41 PM1 votes

I realized awhile back that in order to win Ranked games, you have a to have a play-caller/captain that is willing and able to take charge of a team, without being a total jerk about it. Tossing out tips, compliments for good plays, constructive criticism for the bad ones, asking about timers on objectives and ultimates, using the Smart Pings (call those mias Mid Lane), be sure proper warding is being performed (put the ward in the bush), and just facilitating discussion between your unit. That's how you win games.

MrBuffington5/28/2014, 4:06:51 AM1 votes

Same thing's happened to me, haha, support main, got placed in silver near the end of last season, had bad placement games, now I'm in bronze. I also mained supports like Sona/Janna, who don't really put out enough damage to hard-carry a game (I mean, you can do damage, I won Showdown 1v1s with both these champions, vs the likes of Lux and Kha'Zix, but you don't do that much damage when you're building as support). I've been playing mid or just filling now and learning how to hard-carry games. Honestly I'm a bit glad, been able to learn more about the game since I've been trying to get out of bronze (it is fantastic motivation to get better if nothing else), but it is a bit frustrating to crush your lane and then lose the game. I'm going to offer up some things I've learned, who knows if they're true cause hey, I'm in bronze too, but I've been finding this helpful.

Focus on objectives, map control, and learn to carry (or at least go even) in every role, since you're probably not going to get support every game. Learning every role also makes you a better player in any role, this is a team game afterall. For example, my least preferred roles are jungle and ADC, but learning jungle has improved my map awareness tenfold at least, learning ADC has helped my positioning immensely, especially in teamfights. I'm by no means good at either role, but learning and continuing to learn each role is making me a better player. As an added bonus, most bronze players only ever play one role, if you take that from them they'll just be a potato on your team. If you're flexible and can play other roles, give them their preferred role and maybe they'll go even and you can carry, lol.

I suggest trying out some new champions if you still want to play support, someone that can deal a lot of damage. I played a game as LeBlanc mid, where I crushed lane early (because LeBlanc is the most balanced champion ever, lol) but started having framerate and lag issues midway through, not to mention our Jinx was D/C for the first fifteen minutes of the game. So our botlane Annie put her carry pants on and won lane 2v1. Later when I started having issues, I would basically just try to not lag for long enough to DFG their tank and let Annie kill everyone, and we won.

Annie and Zyra are pretty common supports, and also do a ton of damage even as supports. Lulu and Karma also have great damage and utility, also are played mid-lane in LCS (more Lulu than Karma) so they do have carry potential. Nidalee spears are still scary even from a support. Brand does a ton of damage, as does Vel'Koz, especially since his base damages are so high already.

Some advice from LemonNation: If your AD is a potato, go help your other lanes out and just let your AD farm (not verbatim).

Also Nightblue3 was telling a tale of the legend of BunnyFuFuu the other day on his stream. They met in Gold at some point and started duoing, and Nightblue was talking about how BunnyFuFuu was the greatest Janna player he'd met, to the point where he could "take a potato and make them a legendary potato".

Most games can be hard-carried by a single person, in any role. Even if that's not true, I think that's the sort of mentality you need to have to get better at the game. Sorry to sound harsh but if you can't carry your way out of bronze then maybe you deserve to be in bronze (this applies to me too). If I crush my lane and still lose the game, it just means I not good enough to carry yet (or maybe I should start playing Akali Kassadin , lol).

On a side note, I know bronze players get a lot of flak, but don't let it get to you. Everyone was a bronze level player at some point, it doesn't mean you suck, you just have more to learn (this applies to me too).

Some last pointers: If you're not playing well or if you're on tilt, take a break, maybe play normals and learn new champions, work on your mechanics and what not

I try to think of it this way: if you can hard carry your way out of bronze, with four flaming AFK potatoes on your team, think how easy silver will be?

Water of Eden5/27/2014, 11:35:25 PM1 votes

Definitely sacrifice a goat to Morello. That will occasionally send you up to B1 or S5.

Mellody5/28/2014, 12:50:20 AM1 votes

I have 3 accounts on this game from bronze to gold. And let me tell you the biggest thing about bronze is learning basically how to be a mother/father of evil children that want to kill each other. Rhetoric aside getting out of bronze is 20% skill and 80% communicative skills with a vast majority of people who will go off the deepened should anything.....winning happen lol. 40 kills ahead at their inhib but can't finish quite yet so everyone spreads to jungle takes red ADC didn't get it.....GG. Lol sometimes you encounter pretty much always in bronze people who will act like a 4 year old whos toy got played with by someone else even if he wasn't there to play with it. Or will want to play with it just becuase someone else is and then get mad when it wasn't his turn. Have a few kids you'll get out of Bronze lol xD

SpiderTeo5/27/2014, 8:35:00 PM1 votes

Trying to be the shot-caller doesn't always work, and there will usually be some noob trying to act as leader of the team by spouting off the usual nonsense like, "Stop feeding," or "push mid!!1!" There will be a class of egoes, and unfortunately too many players will rather be defiantly wrong than to humbly agree.

The suggestions here are good, but to actually play off on being a leader with a bunch of random players, you need to start small and specific so it can be easily understood in a mere 2-3 seconds. Affirmations are good ("nice work, great job"), but you shouldn't always be handing out cookies. When bad plays are made, see what caused them and "remind" the team rather than "tell" the team what should have been done. It also seems to greatly help if you can type "please" regularly in requests. Examples:

  • "We need more wards, please" (I don't know how many times I need to remind the support on this)
  • "We need a gank, enemy is pushing too far/overextending"
  • "Don't chase" (especially if there is no map vision)
  • "Her ult is down"
  • "b" (I am assuming most players understand this as "back" or to fall back. When in doubt, it is usually better to fall back and avoid an engage than to push ahead in a risky venture for an unknown gain)
  • Whenever someone calls to group up, then make sure the WHOLE team groups up. The noob leader will say, "group up" and start the charge before everyone can get to him, including the tank who is still 10 secs from respawning. If anything, typing "wait" will hopefully get everyone together.
  • "Lux, use your singularity to look into the bush." Reminding players of the utility of champ's abilities is a great way to give advice and improve another's gameplay.

Unfortunately, these are not guaranteed to always work. You will get the players from the toxic frail male ego ("stfu noon, you suck!") to the overconfident jackass who expects the whole team to revolve around him ("Don't worry, I carry the team w/ Jax"). For these players, there's no real solution to deal with them, other than to ignore them. And then afterwards, rant all about it on the Internet.