Bronze and Silver Attitudes

I spent Season 3 in Bronze. I made it to Silver 2 during the pre-season (probably because the only people playing Ranked in the pre-season were people who actually enjoy the game). After the prelims, I got placed in Bronze I. Fine. I'll work my way back up.

Or so I thought. Bronze players in Season 3 were better than the Bronze players in Season 4, and I can't figure out why. Maybe people who quit playing because they were stuck in "Bronze Hell" came back for Season 4. Either way, I'll figure out what it takes to get out again. I enjoyed LoL when I was playing in high Silver because even games we lost were good games. People knew what they were doing far more often than Bronze in Season 4 seems to.

So, if you're a Bronze player, let me give you some advice about what I see as the differences between skill in Bronze and Silver. But first, accept where you are that you belong there until you prove otherwise. I will prove I belong where I was, when I had a 60% win ratio and was playing against Gold players with no trouble. I'll get back there, but for the time being, I'm a Bronze player.

So, here's the key difference: Bronze players think only about their role, and Silver players think about the whole team. This is a team game. Far too often I see Bronze players say, "This champion counters theirs, so I should play it." Counters are a great thing, but you have to look beyond the lane phase at what the champion will do during the team phase. Take Wukong, for example. He has a weak lane phase against lots of Top lane champs, but his ult is so useful in team fights that he's worth playing even if you might have a weak lane phase.

Bronze players also think that they will "carry" if we only let them play their "main". Yeah, Leblanc can be terrifying if she gets ahead. Fizz as well. But here's the thing: if they don't get ahead, they are useless. This is one thing that holds my best friend back. "I went 17/4 with Fizz and we lost." That's because Fizz can't carry a team into the late game by himself. He's not always the best choice for a team.

Silver players have a much better idea of when to play specific champions. Nasus is strong, but it doesn't matter if the rest of his team can't hold the game while he farms. Further, if Nasus gets countered, he'll never recover. A Nasus with a weak Q is nothing but an easy kill. He's a risky champion, but Bronze players think that someone must play him if he doesn't get banned. Much as I hate him, Mundo is a far better choice this season.

Finally, Bronze players adapt to changes much more slowly than Silver players. Season 4 put new champions at the top of the heap, but many Bronze players are still playing Season 3's top champions. I was sad to give up Shyvana, but she doesn't work as well as she did in the pre-season. Galio, my beloved gargoyle who helped me escape Bronze the first time, can't compete with these high-HP champions in Season 4. Things have changed, but Bronze players take too long to catch up.

This is not criticism, it's strategy. If you're in Bronze with me, pay attention to what the high-ranked players are doing. Copy them. Stop this foolish "meta-breaking" gameplay--it doesn't work. If the meta could be broken, the pros would have done it already. Stop choosing champions you want to play; choose the champions that your team needs. Just because you had a good game with Katarina in the game before, when you were against a Mid champ that Kat can dominate, don't choose her against just because of that. Choose what's best for the team, always. The hardest teams to play against are the teams that have multiple sources of high-damage coupled with beefy champions who can charge in and take a beating.

The one team comp that I've seen work a lot in Bronze is the high-damage early game. Champions like Eve, Kha'Zix, Rengar, Riven, etc. But these teams only work if you hit hard early and keep the pressure up the whole time. If you back off and let the other team get momentum, the standard team comp will win in the end. In Bronze, though, it seems like players lose their wits when they get killed a few times and just dive into bad situations and feed the enemy team to a point where there's no coming back, which brings me to my final point:

Always play it safe A kill for a death is not a good trade, ever. A turret for a death is far more advantageous, but I wouldn't recommend that, either. Don't turret dive unless you know for sure you can get back out after. If your team engages a stupid fight, don't go in. They'll get mad, but having 3 of them die stupidly while 2 of you can defend until they're alive is a much better plan. If you watch the pros, they are often really good at knowing when to engage and when to disengage. Don't die for nothing. Don't try to save your teammates by attacking the enemy if your teammate does something stupid. Just run. If you have abilities that can help your enemy escape, use them, but never go into a fight to save someone who's going to die if you're just going to join them.

TLDR Watch the high-ranked players and copy them. Think of what's best for the team and not just what you want to play or a champion that will get a lot of kills. Kills don't always mean wins. Always, always, always play it safe.