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Having some stereotypical difficulties and don't know really where to go from here (ranked)

LilYonsan·9/29/2013, 8:07:22 PM·5 votes·430 views

Hello there everyone. A couple of months ago, I really got serious about playing in Ranked queue's. I found that the more you play, the less stressful it is and the more you climb. Since starting ranked queueing, I've made it a point to stray as far as possible from the "toxic community" and the constant blaming that goes on in League of Legends and instead of listened to wiser people than me and their advice on the right kind of mindframe to climb. I've always looked to myself to improve, and have always blamed myself first whenever there was a loss and tried to see where I went wrong.

Lately, I've found myself in a jam, and I'm having difficulty trying to figure out what to do from here. I have managed to climb myself from Bronze 3 to Silver 4, and I seem to have stopped here, skipping from the top of Silver 4 to the bottom all in the matter of the last week and a half or so. I feel like I've been really unlucky lately, and that a single win will be followed by a couple of losses. I further feel (and here is where I'm really struggling) that my issues are not with myself, but instead with a lot of the calls that my teammates make and how well they do early game.

My biggest issue is the fact that whenever I seem to give my main role, which is mid, to someone that seems to really want it, they always seem to do terribly, in some cases to the point where I'm confused as to why i gave them mid. None the less I keep my mouth shut and I keep playing, despite feeling very regretful that I did not go to the role that I am most comfortable with.

In many other cases, it seems that the enemy team always possesses something that I can't seem to grasp. It's nothing mechanical, in the sense that they might have higher cs or a better grasp of how their champion works. Instead I've been feeling like I'm so vastly outskilled by every enemy team that I'm playing against that my confidence has been shaken to it's core.

I realize that one of my biggest downfalls is the fact that I don't record and watch myself play nearly enough games. But at the same time, I'm still at a loss as to what to do to get better. Is this a sign that perhaps I should take a break? Or is there some sort of method or acctivity that a player better than myself might advise me to do? (something that has really broken your lack of self esteem in times of trouble, and has really brought you back to a good frame of mind)? Thanks all for reading all of this text, and have a wonderful day.

18 Comments

NeoXStriker9/30/2013, 4:04:22 AM3 votes
  1. Watch Diamond players play. You'll pick up at least a thing or two.
  2. A single champion can carry 1v9 if it's maybe a hyper-carry and you know how to sacrifice your "teammates." AKA Nearly impossible.
  3. Everyone on your team is shit until proven otherwise. Assuming people will be good at this game is like assuming a baby knows calculus. League is an acquired skill. If these people want to think they're good, they're going to have to demonstrate their reasoning. With skill.
  4. During lanes, if you're the jungler, tell everyone they're responsible for their own lane. By definition, your contribution to the team as a jungler is to free up another solo lane, utilize the resources in the jungle, and/or cripple their jungler. Ganks are a bonus that they have to earn.

For example, top lane is Darius vs. Kayle. Bot lane is Sona+Ezreal vs. Cait+Jax. Darius, Sona, and Ezreal are on your team. Darius has given Kayle 3 kills in fifteen minutes. He has none. Sona has scored 1 kill and Ezreal has scored 3 kills. Sona has given one kill to Jax. Which lane are you going to spend time and resources on? The correct answer would be bot lane. It's not so much abandoning whichever lane is doing bad, but securing the lead for whichever lanes are winning. Even if your help manages to "fix" a broken lane, what are you going to do, babysit the lane? That would defeat the purpose of a jungler. The pressure you give as a jungler completely vanishes and now one lane is trying to support two champs. Meanwhile if you secure the lead for a lane that's already winning, all you have to do is just gank (Which is what most junglers are designed to do) and not babysit (Which no jungler is designed to do). You still have your pressure and the lane that's already winning wins their lane and also adds pressure and maybe a dragon (The last one is exclusive to bot lane. However, it's not more important than making sure whichever lane is winning continues to win).

5.. Try to be the initiator. Call the shots. Five people working together on a bad plan is better than five people not working together at all.

  1. Even then, the above might not work. I think know exactly what you're talking about. It's as if the enemy knows your every move and they're in absolute control. At this point, go absolutely meta. Re-examine the champions you play and the items you pick. Look at team compositions (Rule of thumb: If your team doesn't have a single hard CC, just leave) and lane match-ups. Some things just can't be helped and should really, really be avoided no matter what.

Edit: 6 shows up as a new 1. Oh well.

Silver Raven9/30/2013, 12:32:48 AM1 votes

Hey!

First of all ,congratulations on having left Bronze! Not that you ain't gonna see those guys ever again, because you'll have them in every single game until your reach, at least, Gold.

I'm also trying to climb the Elo Ladder,and believe me, it's not always you, or not in the traditional sense at least.

You see...In ranked games of our level of skill, most of the times, it is you the one who has to carry the game, and let me tell you, Mid and Jungle are the best roles to carry, so you are on the right path. The thing is, having to single handedly turn a loss into a win puts a lot of pressure on your shoulders, as you have to play to your best and make as less mistakes as possible.

Take my example for instance: I was playing Hecarim jungle. My team sucked, but sucked hard, and I had to put body and soul into ganking, farming, pushing, coordinating. I was doing the best I could, and we were turning the game and winning but, in the moment where we reached a stalemate, I took a bad desicion, and charged with my ult into the enemy team at a bad time. My team, being 100% unskilled players, followed me without hesitation, and we all died and lost the game.

What I mean is, when a single mistake you make can make you lose, there is a lot of pressure going around.

Now, here's what I've done to become a better player:

  • Make a Champion Roster/Pool: In a word document, write down the 5 roles and take 6 champions for each role. Practice those champs a lot, and only take to ranked those with which you feel totally comfortable.

  • Take note of Wins and Losses: In the same document, note Wins and losses with each champion and a total for each role. That will give you a more accurate vision of your strongest roles and those in which you need to practice or should not play at all. Also, it's a fairly reliable way to track your improvement.

  • Take Notes of your Mistakes and Observations: Note every single thing you learn in a game. For example: I took note of the relevance of not misusing Hecarim's ult in low CC comps.

Apart from that, whenever you feel tired of LoL, take long breaks of not less than a week. Do not rage unless it's impossible not to, try to keep focused, and if possible, pull unexpected plays, that always breaks the enemy morale!

And last of all: There will be better players than you, and that's a blessing, because you can take notes of the things they did right with their champions, or as a team, and be ready for the next time you face a good, solid team which uses that same strat or mechanic.

Extra: Useful Bans

a) Amumu: Mandatory, that ult turns games around. b) Master Yi: If possible, ban him, he is a menace to low level players. c) Kassadin: That guy wrecks most common picks mid. d) Malphite: He can get really scary lategame and thwart your attempts at carrying.

Hope it helps you! Eventually, if you practice, you'll get so good that you will be able to carry almost anything.

Do not despair, Riot's ladder system is broken, it's not always you, it's sometimes them, because in no game a player should carry lesser skilled players in order to advance himself, only here does this happen.

If you want to play sometime, add me!

Best of Lucks!

One or Two Dimes9/30/2013, 12:33:17 AM1 votes

With LOL I've learned that the minutia is really what changes the gameplay. Honestly there isn't much of a difference between a gold 4 and a silver 4 other than very, very tiny game play changes coupled with experience.

It helps to learn as many roles as you can in the game, and allow everyone to play what they are best at. If there is an issue over who goes mid (or any role), then always default to pick order to resolve the problem. It also helps to look up someones score on lolking.com to see how they match up in their role (but don't use that in chat to argue that you deserve the position if you can help it). If they are a jerk and take it anyway even though you are the pick before, just report them at the end of game and ask your teammates to do the same.

Recording yourself is a great way to learn, but even better is to watch a diamond player stream, or watch the top 5v5 matches. This is because it's not so much about playing good or bad, or learning from mistakes. It's all about executing a good choice, or the best choice in every situation.

Example: buying a few wards as a jungler throughout the game, or rushing another DPS item. Both are good choices, but helping ward will give you more map coverage and possibly be what helps you win the game.

Also realize that the enemy team may be better players than you, but it's no big deal. There's always going to be someone better than you, but even more important than individual skill is teamwork. Teamwork really is OP.

Don't play a new champion in ranked until you have practiced it to the point that you are comfortable. Sounds straightforward, but I've seen too many game thrown because someone picked Kassadin/thresh/blitz just cause he wasn't banned and got trashed cause they had never played him before.

Oh, and when I was climbing silver I usually ended up muting one or two people each game. If they are not cooperative and just distracting I'll mute them. I've seen people lose game because they were too busy trying to get their lost cause of a teammate to help them instead of focusing on objectives (like a master yi that just pushes top all day and nothing else but will flame and troll the whole team.)

If you are still frustrated. Try playing modes that are not as competitive like ARAMs. it wasn't until this season (after playing since beta) that I really tried ranked because I didn't like the high pressure. Now that I've chilled out I really enjoy them. Plus when you are gold there are much fewer trolls and flamers. All in all, if you aren't having fun then just play a different game or mode and come back to it another time. No big deal.

GundayMonday9/30/2013, 4:32:31 PM1 votes

Just took a look at you on LoLKing and have some suggestions.

Stonewall has some nice thoughts on rising in solo queue here: http://www.reignofgaming.net/blogs/stonewall/25740-cheese-tactics-for-solo-queue

He did an experiment with smurfs that acted diferent ways. One was selfish, and one always did what the team needed. The selfish smurf rose faster in solo queue (You might not want to give up your mid so easily).

It looks like you know what you're doing on mid and a few top laners, but you definitely want to learn the other positions better (jungling and adc looks like a weak point for you). Best practice is to have 3 go to champs for each role that you feel at least comfortable with in case you get stuck somewhere that's not your preferred roles.

Gold and lower, if you learn how to farm/cs like a boss, that's often enough to carry a game. Mainly because everyone else is so bad at it. Practice cs'ing for ten mins against bots in a custom game. See if you can break 80 then 100 then 120. If you get really good at that, it carries over to solo queue and helps a lot.

Ultimately the more you play the better you get. Keep doing what you're doing where you ask yourself "What could I do better?" after every game, learn from it, and do it. Keep it up and I'm sure I'll see you in matchmaking eventually :D

LilYonsan9/30/2013, 4:37:25 PM1 votes

Wow everyone, I didn't really expect many people to take the time and read all of this! This means so much to me to read all of your suggestions and to kind of reflect on which of them I'm doing already, which of them I could be doing better, and which of them I'm neglecting entirely and should really think about in my future games!

I also have a couple of other questions. One of my biggest questions is what to do when you start playing a new champion that you're really confident with. With me, whenever I play a new champion, once I get a hold of their base damages, last hitting with them, and how to make plays with them during mid-late game (which doesn't take long depending on the champ really), I can become a very good player. On average, with some of these champs, just looking at stats alone I've had a four:one kill ratio and have even once carried a four versus five in our favor.

My issue is when I play enough of a champion, I go through these stages: Unfamiliar: Where I'm just learning them

Familiar: where I know how to play them but not quite well enough to consider it competitive yet

Skilled: Where I generally do very well and win many games with this champion

to all of the sudden

throwtastic: Where I seem to assume "hey I've done this before and it worked, why not try it now?" And then I end up dying/feeding/losing lane.

This process happens with almost every champion I play, and it seems to end with "Throwtastic" because I can never seem to get out of that stage. Every now and again, I take a break from a champion, and then go through these stages again, but I'm wondering if this happens to other people and if maybe I'm handling this right, or if there are methods that I can practice that will make me almost unstoppable.

Does this happen to many of you? What do you do about it?

LilYonsan10/4/2013, 4:10:36 PM1 votes

Hello again everybody, sorry it's been a while since I've posted on this thread. I've been catching up with a few other stuff and I've been trying a lot of the suggestions posted on here. I did have one question. While I feel more confident about myself in general while playing in this league (and it seems my mmr agrees with me too), I still feel like my biggest frustration, and the biggest reason that my teams keeps losing is because of two things:

1.) Everyone constantly bickers at each other and always resorts to the "blame game" where nothing gets done and everybody continues to put themselves into a worse mood.

and 2.) My team never organizes when I know it's the right time, and because of that we suffer from the generic issues of playing soloq and thusly lose because we do not know when to organize together and we end up losing because we get caught out/ don't focus on objectives or are not aggressive enough, and just in general lose a winning match because of early game throws.

Now, while I realize that the early game throws (in which I mean we get an advantage, then lose it by being over confident), I continue to be frustrated even further by the fact that my team always fails to realize that this is a team game and will constantly either argue or fight with each other, or will not communicate right leading to a defeat.

Is there anything I can do to remedy this issue?