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The TWO things you need to reach Diamond+ elo

Niqhtmare x·11/13/2014, 11:10:27 AM·10 votes·2,431 views

Hi my name is Niqhtmare x... I have 3 accounts in Master Tier solo queue, and I've played ranked in all divisions and ranked up smurfs multiple times.

There are simply 2 main things you need to have if you want to climb to Diamond or higher in solo queue (in my opinion).

  1. Know how to count
  2. Confidence

Knowing how to count: Now I know what you're thinking. Knowing how to count? Don't patronize us just because you're Master Tier. Well, I'm not patronizing you. This is literally the biggest mistake I've seen in all elos leading up to challenger. If you see the enemy team grouped up mid lane as 5 people, and you have your top laner farming top derping around, UNDERSTAND THAT IT IS A 4V5 IN THE MID LANE. Does this mean that you shouldn't fight? No. It simply means that it is a 4v5. You can fight, but if you do choose to fight, you MUST understand that it is a 4v5 and play accordingly. It is NOT the top laner's fault if all 4 of you decide to engage and you guys all die. It is YOUR fault for now knowing how to count and seeing that it's a 4v5, and failing to play accordingly. This applies to all uneven numbered fights, like 3v5s or 1v2s; etc.

Another related epigram that is on this topic is Murphy's law, which states that "everything that will go wrong, will go wrong". If the enemy is nowhere to be seen on the map except for 1 person, do not try to engage that person in a 1v1. According to Murphy's law, as soon as you try to 1v1 this guy, the rest of the 4 enemy players will appear and kill you. This is part of knowing how to count. You must always assume that enemy champions who have been missing for some time are coming to kill you.

The last thing I'm going to talk about in this section is the "itch". You guys know what I'm talking about. A lot of you even have this "itch". This itch is the yearning to fight all the time and always and continuously engage the enemy any time you see them. Well, STOP. A big part of knowing how to count is understanding how to play accordingly when you're outnumbered, as well as assuming missing enemies are near you and about to come to you. In order to stop the "itch" you need to count the numbers every time before you engage a fight, and stop going in even when your team isn't grouped and the enemy is missing.

Confidence: The second thing you need to master in order to achieve diamond or higher is CONFIDENCE, or understanding your limitations. This is how a lot of high elo players pull off clutch plays and cool turnarounds, as well as how a lot of high elo players win lane.

It is easier to have confidence, and to understand your limitations, if you master 1 lane or 1 champion, rather than be a jack of all trades obviously. If you want to improve quicker, you need to not only master a lane/champion, but you also need to have the guts to go balls deep in plays so that you know what you can get away with. Playing like a wimp at all times is the complete opposite of what you want. That is lack of confidence, and if you play like this and your sole goal is to "not feed", you will not get high elo, I guarantee that. The biggest mistake I saw when I laned with people in platinum and lower, was that they were afraid to trade with me in lane. Literally that was the only thing they needed to instantly lose lane to me.

Another thing about understanding your limitations, is not only understanding your limitiations in a 1v1 or a 2v2, but understanding whether or not you can turn around 1v2s or 2v3s. Again, you can't always play like a wimp. Whenever you get ganked, you can't just run away 100% of the time. You need to understand your limitations and understand whether or not you can turn around the gank, or whether you should just run.

There you have it. There is no secret to high elo. Literally all you need is two things to achieve Master Tier: know how to count, and have confidence. If you think you've mastered those two things and you can't get high elo, then you haven't mastered these two things yet.

12 Comments

Xtremey11/13/2014, 6:29:50 PM3 votes

tl:dr dont be a pussy

Konidias11/13/2014, 6:47:01 PM3 votes

Good advice though I have a few additional "knowing how to count" tricks:

  1. Keep track of the current level of yourself and the enemies around you. When you engage, you should go into the fight knowing your level advantage/disadvantage. I see it too often at low elo where my level 9 teammate will try to solo some level 11 enemy. It's always a lot easier/safer to target people who are lower level than you.

  2. Also keep track of the final items that you and your enemies have. Again, much like level, this can matter greatly. Obviously you also want to look at WHAT items the enemy has built... but to just glance at the total final items they have is also a good idea. For example, if you are level 13 and the enemy is level 13 and you have 2 final items built while the enemy only has 1... then guess what... you probably have an advantage in that fight.

It amazes me that people ignore this sort of crucial information when jumping into fights. Mechanical skill is nice to have, but you can literally win games without even trying because you only engage when you have a level/item advantage. Why do you think the pros focus so much on last hitting?

Because it gives them the gold and xp advantage. A lot of bronze/silver players are unaware of these advantages... They will hit level 2 before the enemy and do... nothing.... They will come back with a stronger item to lane first and then... do nothing. They will engage on an enemy who is 1-2 levels above them early on and die... and then keep dying as the enemy keeps leveling over them and buying better items.

LoL is literally a game about out scaling your opponents. That's it really in a nutshell. You are trying to level faster and get late game items faster. If you focus on this, you will be killing a lot more than dying... and that means you will be taking objectives easier, and fighting is a whole lot easier.

I can get so ahead of enemies that I can miss skill shots and still get the kills because it really doesn't matter at that point.

Crede77711/13/2014, 5:50:48 PM2 votes

And here I thought you were going to say wards and sweeping trinkets.

Sojs11/14/2014, 1:34:03 AM1 votes

u forgot actually trying to get cs instead of wave clearing and missing 50% of each wave

Blinkenmage11/17/2014, 2:35:37 PM1 votes

As a hyperaggresive ADC Main in plat I will now start to count. 1v3ing is the best plan

BastionKross11/17/2014, 3:09:18 PM1 votes

It is easier to have confidence, and to understand your limitations, if you master 1 lane or 1 champion, rather than be a jack of all trades obviously.

What happens in those games where you don't get your mastered champ/role and thus won't have as much confidence to play with?

insaiyanbacca11/19/2014, 3:39:54 AM1 votes

this is very helpful i'll work on this, ty

Tocosamuri11/13/2014, 5:57:45 PM1 votes

This is really good, and very true. Id say it takes a little more than just those two skills, but those are huge skills that 90% of players don't have. This is literally why I lose games I lose. People have this kill mentality and have no understanding of the objective.

Also an addition to your learning how to count, a tip for people is to press Tab after fights or around mid/late game, it shows how many of the enemy team is dead or not. This is a huge helper for letting you know if its a great time to push or not. For instance, there is a team fight and it breaks up a little bit with some people on both teams dying, you didn't quiet keep track of how many are still alive. You just press tab, see that 4 of the enemies are dead for 30+ seconds still except they have Soraka still alive, most likely this is a great time to take advantage of pushing some lane, buffs, drag anything to get you ahead. Personally would say clear some minions as hard as you can and recall to apply the pressure on the other team when they respawn. It will leave them scattered and left trying to defend turrets while your team gets a chance to regroup, get baron or even just apply more pressure.

Just my personal opinion. This Thread should get bumped to the top, and should be shown to every player who wants to play ranked this season. It should just be mandatory to read it.

Kingdom Hearts11/13/2014, 7:10:41 PM1 votes

This is really helpful for the lower elos, appreciate it.

Might start giving this to people to look at when they ask me for advice.

Couldn't put it any better.