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Any Advice?

Meiyu·6/21/2015, 3:01:27 PM·1 votes·829 views

Hey guys, I'm feeling pretty down right now and I need some kind of pick me up.

I started playing league around October of last year when my friends got me into it, and right before the season ended I got placed in ranked just to see what I would get and I got Silver 2, something way higher than I thought I was capable of. Naturally when season 5 started I went right away with getting ranked and again I got placed in Silver 2. However, I haven't tried to improve my rank/play ranked regularly until about a month ago, I usually just play normals with my friends or by myself.

I wanted so badly to just get to Gold, I could literally taste it. I got to the point where I was up for promos for Silver 1, and that's when it all went bad. I lost continuous games all the way until I got demoted to Silver 3 and that literally crushed me. I took some time to shake it off and start fresh again, but things only got worse from there. Ever since then I've been losing way more games than I've been winning and at this moment I have been demoted through to SIlver 5 and I'm still losing LP. It just hurts my motivation a hell of a lot because I thought I was a better player than this. I'm not the type of person who flames at my teammates or AFKs the second things look bleak, everyone makes mistakes and I'm sure as hell not perfect either. But it feels like I've tried literally everything to win my games and nothing seems to be working.

Do you guys think I should just take a break from ranked for a while? I'm really scared of getting demoted into Bronze and I don't know what to do. I'm not even thinking about getting Gold now; and it's pretty clear I don't belong there yet. I just want to get back to Silver 2.

3 Comments

Alljoy6/21/2015, 3:32:42 PM1 votes

You've hit a plateau so take a break, try something new.

Randomonium6/21/2015, 3:43:04 PM1 votes

I started playing ranked with season 5, though I've been playing League casually since season 1. I got placed in Bronze 1, which I was a little upset about. I wanted to get Silver so bad that I vowed to only play ranked game. It seemed like every game I had a rager or a troll or an afker. I'd lose and lose and lose again but I kept playing because I was convinced my play was fine and that if everyone else pulled their weight on my team that I would win. After a couple weeks I was in Bronze IV and looking to get demoted to Bronze V.

A little background on me: I was a Diamond level Starcraft II player for a long time before I switched to League. I also played random which was incredibly rare at that high level of play. After every game I played I would watch the replay (because Starcraft has built in replay review) and I would learn from my mistakes, allowing me to climb higher and higher in the Diamond ladder. I also watched the pros play every chance I could and copied their strategies to great success.

On the verge of getting demoted to Bronze V I had a Eureka moment. All the things I had done that made me successful in Starcraft I wasn't doing in league. I was just expecting to win and assuming my play was better than everyone else. I was not reflecting on my play or putting in the effort to identify my mistakes or improve my mechanics. I DESERVED TO BE EXACTLY WHERE I WAS.

Since that time I downloaded a third party League replay program (SkinSpotlights Replay) and started watching every game I played. I also started watching LCS and studied the builds, tactics and strategies the pros employ. This has resulted in my KDA in ranked games doubling from 2 to 4 and my win percentage in ranked games increasing 25%. Since that time my win rate in ranked has been around 65% and I'm clawing my way out of bronze. My play has improved so much that a team of higher ranked players (gold-diamond) chose me to be their jungler and recently they promoted me to team captain and shotcaller. I even started casting our team games and have gotten nothing but positive feedback from them ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2EZm50wNGmfJal7IHM_b8Q )

My advice: take a break. Play normals. Watch your replays. Watch the pros. Find duo partners that you trust. If you put the effort in I'm sure you'll see the same improvement I have.

T RexHasTinyArms6/21/2015, 10:49:45 PM1 votes

The two biggest things to climbing are finding ways to stay positive through the climb (ie a champ or two you enjoy playing even if you lose, and for me duo with someone positive so I don't feed into teammates who rage), and being specific with focusing on your improvement. I like using op.gg to record my games and thenwatching them to look for things to improve. I went from bronze III to silver one this season and hit S Silver one a week or two ago and have hit promos for the second time this week, so I feel confident that within a week or so I will be gold V.If you record some of your games on op.gg or anything else I don't have to download stuff to watch I can look over your games and try to give advice. My mechanics are bad but I understand stuff well and have a background coaching and teaching (Basketball,swimming,yoga all paid, psychoeducational interventions during my internship)