I finally got out of Silver, and I'd like to share some pointers.

Hi guys, I most recently climbed out of silver, alone. In the big picture, that isn't really a big deal, but to me it was a hard fought battle, a test of wit and nerve, and something I firmly believed I couldn't do alone for a very long time. I'd like to share my story and offer myself up to answer questions.

I started playing League a good while ago, sometime around Jarvan's release if I remember correctly. I have one account. This plays a huge factor as your normal MMR and past season rankings definitely have some say in where you land after you get placed each season. This was my first moba- meaning I never played Dota or any other game. I was fresh, I was bad. I played for a few seasons, on and off, only worried about climbing. I have close friends that are really good at the game, some have been to their Master Tier promos. Some are streamers with a few hundred regular viewers. I was pretty much the bottom of the barrel when we played together. There was so much that they needed to teach me and it got so frustrating for them that playing became unenjoyable. I eventually just started playing by myself and at the time, still only wanted to get lucky and climb so I could prove my worth. There's much more to it than just RNG, I would soon find.

I'm going to go over a list of things that I felt played a huge role in my recent successes.

I'm an ADC main. I have well over 1K adc games played over the years. My three main ADCs all have positive KDRs and winrates. If you main ADC and you're tryng to climb soloq ELO hell, here is my first bit of advice. Stop playing that shitty role, now. This advice was given to me by a Diamond 1 ADC main that's been to his Master promos. ADC is slowly being phased out. 2 patches ago riot introduced Mordekaiser bot and told the community to run 2 relic shields. There is a downward trend of ADC successes, it requires a ton of teamwork and coordination to be effective consistently throughout the game, and those are two things you seldom find in low elo solo q. Most importantly, as an AD main you can immediately tell at champ select how your teamfights are going to go.

Let's say for example that your teamcomp is as follows: Yasuo mid, Xin JG, Garen top, Ashe ad (you), Janna support. This is a pretty common set up, yasuo is a great mid APC counter, garen is a solid top lane, janna is a great disengage support and xin is a fast effective jungler. Looks great on paper, let's get this win! Well, there's a problem. Silver/bronze xin zhao rushes botrk with his jg item 9/10 times. Garen's first item in his suggested build is cleaver. Do you know what this leaves you with? A team of champs building DPS. I have played a LOT of ranked games. Peel does not exist. Tanking is seldom. These guys that are on your team are not worried about you, and half of the time winning isn't even in their best interest. They want to top the scoreboard and get a "Nice carry" at the end from the opposing team. Garen just wants to ult the first person he sees with low HP, and xin wants to dive the ADC and blow them up or die trying. You are alone, you're squishy, and MOST of the time you're going to fend for yourself.

I'm not talking out of my ass. This is real. Garen't won't silence the warwick that ults you. The Janna doesn't understand that she should spam E on you and let you decide when to use the AD buff to poke. You're getting 0 wards until she has sightstone and an upgraded coin, so don't think about crossing river unless you're spending the 75G on each back. You're going to buy your own pinks. She's going to build AP before CDR so she can do the most damage on the team.

When you start to realize that you're alone and squishy as a role that's being phased out of a game in general, then you're enlightenment can begin. Enough about AD.

Let's talk about champ select. I have a strong, strong theory that many games are won/lost at low elo before the game even starts. If you're first pick and taking Karthus mid, and I lolking to see that you have 1 ranked game played and you went 3/14, then there's a pretty good chance that you have no idea what you're doing and I can write that lane off as being lost. You don't believe me? Check this guy out. Played with him on Sept 15th and he did exactly what I said. I took one look at his lolking, saw that he has atleast one game played on pretty much every champ, and I knew he wasn't here to win. He just picks whoever, whenever, and I had to prepare for the worst. He ended up going 6/15 and getting absolutely steamrolled.

_People will tell you that you have to carry those guys if you want out. _ I will tell you that you have to write that game off and move on to the next one with a clear head. Don't waste your energy and frustration on people like that because, and I'm going to say it, Silver SoloQ has a lot more RNG than you think, the placement system is bad, and you will seldom end up on teams like this, not because of your skill, but because matchmaking is the way it is. That Soraka in that picture was placed in Silver 5 and that Kalista was a plat(? I can't remember.) smurf, btw.

Endrant. Where was I? Oh, champ select.

Teamcomp is everything. LEARN THE META You should be able to enter every queue with at least 3 different champions from every role that your extremely comfortable with, that scale differently. What do I mean by this? Let's say your team has a Zed mid, WW JG, and a passive peel support like Lulu. You need to have an AP/offtank champion that you can play comfortably top, let's say, Maokai. If you have an Amumu in place of the WW, you need to ask him if he's going to build AP (which he probably will) or full tank. If he's AP jg, then you can gauge whether or not you're going to play garen/gnar/maokai top given your opposition. I dare you to pick Yasuo and see how badly you get steamrolled late game without a tank. If your team is full DPS which you can easily tell by their first item they're starting to build, then DO NOT buy black cleaver first. Do not believe that the Amu is going to build tank after he finishes Liandry's, because there's a damn good chance that you won't make it that far into the game. Core items are expensive, and midgame determines damn near everything.

You should never, ever, ever, look at championselect.net and pick a counter that you do not play. If you're forced to pick mid, and you don't have any champs that you see on the counter list that you're comfortable with, you pick your BEST midlaner and you gauge the lane as it comes. Let your teammates know that you don't play any of this champ's counters, but you're a good, let's say, Lux. Your jungle may offer assistance, he may not. Who cares. You have 50 lux games under your belt, you know how/when to shield, you're buying pinks and know where to place them, and you're not going to leave the lane 0/3.

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There are more MUCH more than just 5 roles in this game

There isn't just a "Support" role. There is a gap on every team that needs filled. Check out this small example. Burst Support: Annie/Karma/Lux Disengage Support: Janna/Lulu Engage Support: Leona/Braum Peel Support: Lulu/Leona CC Support: Nautalis (Single target hard cc/AOE soft cc)/Leona (AOE and single target hard cc) Active Support: Leona/Braum/Annie/Lux Passive Support: Lulu/Janna/Soraka Sustain Support: Sona/Nami/Soraka Shield Support: Lux/Karma (AOE) -Lulu/Karma (Single target)

Do you see where I'm going with this? This list can be turned upside-down and inside-out at any point. They could have a super engage comp and your team have no tank/engage, so you have to play a passive/peel leona and then be able to engage at the perfect time when they blow their CDs. Also, if you're leona and you're the only tank on the team, good luck. Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but in my honest opinion, supports are not "Tanks". They can be tanky. They can cc. But to me, a tank requires very expensive items and a level advantage. Sorry but Sightstone and Face of the Mountain cost more than Randuins, take up two slots, and offer far less tank utility to teamfights. Telling the support that they also have to be the only tank is a slap in the face and a cop out for players that only want to play carries and not fill for what the team needs. Don't be that player.

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Warding Ok so I made you guys a very simple, laning phase, ward map. This is not wildly in depth and should be easy to memorize. There are pinks for each lane on each side, and where you should always have AT LEAST a trinket. Warding is obviously much more in depth, but this is a basic practice that people miss out on that I see very very often.

Let me explain it a bit from top to bottom. -Top side blue This side is a bit easier than top side red. I don't really need to ward much more than river ganks unless I'm playing extremely aggro, so here's my suggestion. Mid should have a pink on their left side river where I have marked. if they don't. Put one there. It will help both you AND your mid laner see any ganks from the topside of river. Most low elo jgs will not check that spot, and it often ends up there for a large portion of the game. Do not ever, ever cross your river without a ward down. Ever. If your trinket is on cd and your gank spots are blind and you die, guess whose fault it is? Not your JG, not your mid. Yours. -Top side red Tri bush is your enemy. That pink is hard to keep, and will almost always be taken down once or twice. It does not matter. You spent 100g to save yourself from feeding. It's always worth it. Always. Replace it once if it goes down, but don't waste hundreds of gold on pink wards. If you're having a ton of trouble keeping it, upgrade to pink trinket and save yourself the economy. Again, never cross over river without vision. -Mid blue side Pink the left side of river where I have marked. Just like I said above, it will be there most of the game. use your trinket to ward the other side of river on cooldown. -Mid red side See the pink on our right, near mid river, from this top-down perspective? It will be there for most of the game depending on if/when the other team does dragon and checks/wards that bush. Put the pink there, guard it if you can, and trinket the opposing side river bush on cooldown. -Bot blue side First and foremost. ADCs. Buy your own pink wards. Your support isn't going to do it. Period. Pink trinket in tri here is the same as top lane. Hard to defend, goes down alot, but necessary. Trinket should always be on dragon so you can see the jungle coming from a distance. The ONLY time you should have a the bush on the side of river warded, instead of dragon, is if: A. the support's trinket is down and the AD can't take the time to run up to dragon without missing xp/cs, or B. They have someone like a Vi jg who can jump the wall to get into that bush. Almost always you should choose to ward dragon/their jungle exit over that bush. This isn't an exaggeration. Too often I see supports thinking that one river ward in that bush is enough to stop a gank, but the vision is not that great, it offers nothing to mid, and if you're pushed up even a little bit, you're still going to get stomped by a jungle with a good gap closer. -Bot red side Pink trinket in dive spot in JG, and other warding stays the same. Don't put a pink in blue tri. It'll go down fast. The only time you need vision there is if you're pushing over river.

Most importantly with warding is to actually pay attention to them. If you see their JG anywhere, spam ping where he is, where he's probably going, the lanes that need to be careful, and where they should have their vision. Plain and simple. If you're adc and you see that their jungle nocturne bumped into top lane's ward on river, then you'd better be spamming mid's topside bush so they know to be careful. Mid dying to the JG is just as much your problem as it is theirs. There's obviously a lot more to warding than just this, such as warding in bushes during fights so you don't lose dps to fog of war, pinking for cloaks like rengar/eve, scanning, which trinket you upgrade to and why, etc, but this is very basic stuff that often gets overlooked. Here is a pretty good video that covers some decent ward stuff.

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Potions Well, this is hands down one of my biggest pet peeves. It drives me absolutely insane to see people not buy potions throughout the game. They absolutely, ABSOLUTELY are op and seldom get used in low elo. The actual 'when/what' for potions can get complicated. I'm not even kidding. People overlook them as being 'whatever' because they're so cheap (I think? Hell if I know) but I'll be damned if they aren't important. Whether you buy cloth armor + 5 potions to start the lane or dorans shield + 1 pot as Garen is a HUGE argument you should have with yourself at the beginning of every game.

If I can simplify this as best I can, I'm going to say this. Never, ever leave your nexus. Never. Without buying 2 health potions and 2 mana potions. I don't care what your role is, I don't care what you're saving for, I don't care. 90% of the time you need the potions and the ward(s) more than you need boots for laning phase. I'm not a fan of flask by the way. Never have been, haven't learned its proper application and advantages, and seldom buy it, but that's just me and something I need to dig into in the future. (Note: Don't buy mana potions on Shen please. Smartass)

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Item Builds This is it. This is the pinnacle and bane of low elo games. I don't know what's worse, playing a champion you don't know at all or building your champion completely incorrectly. Like I said above, building an AP Amumu in a teamcomp where it isn't needed at all drives me insane. If the team is all AD, you probably don't need Aegis or Banshees. No team should have 4 DPS champs and a support. I don't care if you saw it i the LCS. You aren't LCS, you aren't challenger, you aren't master, and probably not even diamond/plat if you're still reading this. Balance the team within the meta and build accordingly.

If you're not completely confident that you know all of the item's passives and actives, their applications, and when you should use them, then put some time into learning them. There's a big difference between Randuins and Frozen Heart, and an even bigger difference between Triforce and Warmogs. Most of the items in the game are the best item in the game given the scenario. Do you know how Banner of Command can stall a team with baron pushing midlane?!

For those of you that play FPS games, let me use this Quake analogy: At long range, using a shotgun instead of a railgun/rockets is the equivalent of using Banshees Veil instead of Randuins/Frozen Heart vs a fed ADC.

If you're the ADC and the other team's top lane is fed beyond words and building tank, then you really need to consider getting Last Whisper before upgrading your Zeale to Phantom Dancer/Shiv. You need to learn the difference in application between Phantom Dancer and Shiv. Figure out why BOTRK can destroy anyone with warmogs. Figure out when you need to go cinderhulk or push for sated. Know when it's time to switch from building Ludens to Zohnya's.

There is a seemingly infinite number of builds and when you figure out just how much proper item application can change the game for you and your team, then you're already pushing yourself in the right direction.

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In closing guys/gals, I'd like to wish you the best of luck on your climbs. I'll take questions as best I can, but I honestly don't know everything. I'm still learning and the game is still changing. Some of the strongest advice I can give is to actually put time into this game to learn it before you queue ranked. Watch streams. If you lose a tough game, take a break and go find a high elo player on twitch that doesn't have a billion people watching, and ask him/her questions. Most of the time they're watching chat and they'll get back to you. Watch youtube videos on specific matchups. You can find a video from a challenger player in almost any matchup. Try it. Youtube "Volibear vs renekton top" and you'll find it. Sometimes they even have the runes and masteries listed too, as well as commentary.

Sure, there is a lot of luck and a lot of uncontrollables involved in climbing, but it's possible. I'm telling you fresh out of the gate as somebody who just did it yesterday. Climbing out of Silver/bronze by yourself is possible.

Lastly, for my obligatory stream plug: Check me out! I play a lot of different games, stream fairly often, like to talk to viewers, and occasionally feed because I'm not the best player in the world!

Cheers, kfR