My Experience in Ranked

I am frankly quite new to this game. I have played since preseason 1, but I consider myself a new player. I started playing ranked in season 5 preseason. I did my provisionals and I will admit it, I was as toxic as Chernobyl. I swear, after a single bad game I started to nag my allies to let me go top, mid, or jungle since I was scared to go bot, and went so far as to think matchmaking had cursed me. I ended up winning 3 provisionals and getting Silver V. I proceeded to go on an 8 game losing streak, and then won my first real ranked game. I felt like I was on top of the world. I then went into another ranked game and lost, losing all of the LP I just got. I did a facedesk as we lost, and was AFK for the last 2 minutes of the game. I sucked at carrying. I had several amazing games on my main, Talon. A guy even gifted me Dragonblade Talon. In one, I lost after going 37/14/6. That game, I learned money isn't everything to carrying, nor is it the champion's "carry-ability." I stopped ranked and only played again once Season 5 started.

I did my 10 provisionals, and on 8/10 of them, I played Lee Sin jungle. The other 2 were both top lane, one as Kennen and the other as Jax, which I picked to counter Fiora. I won both of those, and won 6/8 of the Lee Sin games. In those games, I learned what won.

I have a terrible history of personality disorders, and get so salty and on tilt you could swear it was still DST at the neighborhood McDonald's. I probably ruined the games of several people in Preseason 5, telling them they suck and they are ruining the game for us, and it's freelo for the wrong team. Then, S5 started.

I have no clue what clicked. I played my first placement, it was a Lee Sin jungle game like most of the others. As with all of my other Lee games, I had 2nd most kills, 2nd most assists, and 2nd least deaths. I always camped one lane, forced them to carry. In one, it was our Fiora. Another, it was our Tristana. In drafting, I was nice to the other people, gave suggestions constructively on who to ban and listened to my teammates. I suggested counterpicks to each champion the enemy picked, but gave forewarnings that if you aren't good on a champion, it doesn't matter how hard it counters another champion. I usually picked the role nobody else wanted, like "I can't jungle" is why I almost always went jungle. It was some great practice for my Lee play. I was nice to people when they did badly. One game, we had a Graves that went 1/15/8 by the end, with under 100 cs at 43 minutes. That was one game that I kinda snapped by the end and stopped defending him when our Vi said he was doing badly, because he really did lose us the game. However, the enemy bot lane was REALLY good. I didn't blame him.

I have a policy. It's not that my team sucks, it's that the enemy team is good. This is what I expect myself to assume every time I lose a game because of my teammates doing badly. It keeps my outlook positive. Instead of believing that the community is of toxic scrubs, it's just that the side I don't see is the side with nice, cool, really good players and I have to work harder to improve myself so that I can stand amongst those people.

Anyway, back to the main thing. In these games, when I played placements, I made a point to force one person to carry because Lee's lategame is absolutely abhorrent. It was an Orianna, or a Fiora, or a Tristana, or someone in one of the 3 lanes who i always got fed. My first back was on 1100-1800 gold, and so I sometimes could instantly buy the stalker with warrior enchant. Sometimes, my teammates died a ton early. I just said "Don't worry about it, I'll help you get them back" and started to camp their lane so they didn't get mad, they got money. I made sure I had the 2nd most gold, 2nd most kills, highest kill participation rate, and the 2nd least deaths. I challenged myself to make at least one of my teammates do better than me. This was something that I was very happy to do because it got me wins. A few games, I was doing so well that my team said I was carrying, even though they were getting all the kills and winning our teamfights. These people said I was "really good at serving up kills" and some even went so far as to say "InSec is that you?" Of course, this tickled my ego, and I quite enjoyed that. One even referenced ShorterACE's clutch kick at the end of his previous game in day 2 of the NALCS.

Then, with positive KDAs in every game, even the losses, in ranked, I was placed... In bronze 3. Frankly, I think I deserved it. After turning the beta map into Chernobyl with my toxicity's heat coefficient, I was placed in bronze 3 for destroying my own MMR in the preseason. It's a learning experience.

Overall, ranked victories are a balance of 4 things. Your own skill, your cooperation with your teammates, your calmness, and your teammates' skill. I don't care how good you are, you can't carry every game. Hell, some people can be gods of mechanics and unable to carry on their own. Your own skill is required to outplay, outposition, and outskill your opponents. Ass-kissing doesn't win games. If you are hot-headed, or if you go into a game with your jimmies rustled, you're gonna feed, and you're gonna lose. If you're upset, you're gonna get t. If your teammates are bad or if you are bad with your teammates, you're screwed, period. Frankly, the second is worst, since if you end up verbally abused and viewed as "in the wrong" because of those other 3 guys who think majority rule decides fact in this world, it leads into your jimmies being rustled, leads into your skill being dampened, leads into your teammates being upset at you. Basically, if your relationships are bad, you lose.

Good luck in solo queue, thanks for reading this, and I hope it helps.