No, I'm not trolling. Just having a massive losing streak in Ranked recently and I realized that every game I try to win instead of improving. I have no idea how to "play to improve", because to me the statement sounds extremely abstract. Please teach me your ways.
Sincerely, http://www.auplod.com/u/daulpo4ff88.png
Try to see if you can find your mistakes, then fix it.
If you cannot, watch replays and mark places where you could have done better.
Remember that just because you won doesn't mean you played perfectly.
Playing to improve means focusing more on your own gameplay and trying to fix your mistakes. When you play every game and focus mainly on what your allies do and the mistakes they make, you're not playing to improve. Paying attention to what your allies do doesn't help you improve your own gameplay nor mistakes.
well I guess I would start at the first thing. what lane do you main? who do you main that lane with? from there you can get into ok what are my strengths what are my weaknesses regarding champion match ups/counters.
I would watch youtube videos on how to manage someone who's counterpicked you. look at where people ward and how often they do it. look at how they CS and dont just look at how your champion CS but how your opponents do. You'll notice patterns on when they are about to go in on you. also keep in mind your positioning, from level 3 to 6 I will push the lane up but not stick around in the middle of the lane since you really wont do too much damage to the turret anyways; generally junglers will look for early ganks around that time as well so leaving yourself to far up in a lane will leave you susceptible if your champ doesnt have natural escapes or youve wasted flash.
another thing is map awareness which goes along with warding. if you're teammates arent warding tell them, 'please ward everyone'. if they dont just play defensively as to not get caught out. wards are extremely important.
I guess the checklist to focus improving is (1) positioning and CS (2) map awareness/warding (3) champion skills/counters, by this I mean truly getting to know the limits and ranges of your champions skills and abilities (4) item and Rune builds; which can be tied in with (3) and lastly one of the most important is (5) communication, learn to communicate with people through pings this will tie in just about all the above. communicating helps others with map awareness, helps set up ganks and early kills, helps with objective control and many other things.
Play the game and focus on making the correct decisions based on the situation you're in - even if there's something else you'd rather try doing, but your team wouldn't be able to keep up.
Once the game is over, try to remember what you did right and wrong, then use that knowledge and try to apply it to other games.
Where did you miss out on an objective? What was your map pressure like? CS-ing? How well did you work with your team? Was it because of the champion choices or someone (even you) was just being an ass? What parts of the role do you need to work on? Do you need to learn about another role's contributions and/or weaknesses?
It's just a matter of making your response to things that go wrong into "what could I have done differently" instead of "what did my teammates do wrong." Obviously you still play with the objective of winning, but it helps change your focus a little bit.
Leave anger and frustration at the door.
Mentally set a goal, and then try to reach it. Say, if I'm in mid and the lane is pushed, I tell myself to stay on the side my ward is on. It sounds obvious saying that, duh that's the side you've got gank protection on! But it takes a conscious acknowledgement to learn to do it without thinking about it. You wander over to the wrong side while positioning yourself in response to your opponent and out pops the jungler.
And it certainly helps to try new things. Keep an open mind, don't let your build or tactics grow stale.
