How can I win?

Niyumi·Sep 24, 2015·1 votes·1,046 views

I just can't win any ranked games lately. It doesn't matter how well I can play my champion, it doesn't matter how much I don't feed... it just doesn't matter what I do period. If my team is bad, I lose. If my team is good, I win.

Now, in norms, my teammates are so, so much better, and I can absolutely destroy in lame and carry the game. In ranked, my team seems to have a collective IQ that would make a stick look smart, while the enemy team is hyper coordinated and incredible at their champs -- not only that, they also use the most broken champs you can imagine.

I just want to reach gold for the season rewards, and then I can be done playing ranked l... but I've lost 9 S2>S1 series in a row, got demoted to S3 twice, and now I lost my S3>S2 series because of bad teammates and broken enemy comps.

I just don't know what I can do... how can I carry my games? How can I get teams that aren't made up of absolute morons? How can I beat champions who can delete me from level 2/3?

... Honestly, I go into matches expecting losses now.

20 Comments

Deep Terror NamiSep 24, 20151 votes

Try queueing with a friend you trust to play as well as you, especially if they compliment your play style.

JaymzIsUSSep 24, 20151 votes

get a duo partner and get good at out rotatating and catching people out,if you team mate is a higher rank than you, you're more likely to find higher ranked team mates (and enemies) and find the time period on your server that seems like noobs are there less, during school and at night usually.

NiyumiSep 24, 20151 votes

Where can I find a duo partner if I don't have any friends who play League?

And most of my playtime is through the morning and evening, but I still get a lot of little kids and whatnot. xD

JaymzIsUSSep 24, 20151 votes

First you can try the "Team Recruitment" board on this site. if that doesn't work out find some randos in normal you syergize well with.

Maru th UndrtkrSep 24, 20151 votes

when the season ends soon people try harder for gold so games will get harder. plus so many people have smurfs and sht so that takes up alot of the slots too -_- fk u smurfs get out of my elo leave me alone XD. seriously tho big problem

RaxxxusSep 24, 20151 votes

Yea im playing in Silver rank right now, im silver V trying to move up to silver IV been playing solo and just tried playing with a friend, but once in Promo series i manage to win 1 game but then the next 2 i lose cause the team i get has the IQ of bronze 5 well the enemy team is coordinated IQ of Gold I. like he said my team does good i win, my team does horrible i lose, no matter what i can or cant do doesn't seem to matter at all, most times i do decent but my team still refuses to listens get caught out and throws the game in multiple fights, mostly because they have to face check everything cause no one remembers how warding work outs. I just cant figure out how to get decent teams for playing ranked, cause i dont have 5 people just hanging around waiting to group, and being at the mercy of match making is just horrible, since it isn't being properly balanced.

Forsaken1Sep 24, 20151 votes

you can, have a bad run of teammates and lose a tier, or two but given how you been losing I think you should look inward.

haveing low/no deaths allows you to lead the team, that is a huge way to control your rate.

NiyumiSep 24, 20151 votes

See, at the end of a laning phase, I can be like 3/1 or X/0 while the rest of my team is like, 1/8 or something horrible like that. Once the enemy team is good and fed, there's just not much I can do, and my team continues to die to them. : /

GODSMITESep 24, 20151 votes

i was in bronze for a year just got to silver like a moth ago now am silver2.just play ur best champ over and over again thats what i did. i main Udyr and he helps me get out of bronze

NiyumiSep 24, 20151 votes

My favorite champs don't really have much carry potential. : /

In a game where auto attacks and targeted abilities are king, champs with more mechanics or skillshots and all that just really don't belong.

BluePolarizerSep 24, 20151 votes

Lux, Heimer, etc. have very high win rates. It is you that is the problem, not the champs.

NiyumiSep 24, 20151 votes

Well, a skillshot is very easy to dodge if you know the champion, whereas targeted abilities can't be dodged no matter how well you know the champ. So, in an equal skill scenario, the non-skillshot champ will win.

BluePolarizerSep 24, 20151 votes

this doesn't explain why there are many champions using skillshots who are highly picked in LCS and diamond with very high win rates.

NiyumiSep 24, 20151 votes

Well, in the LCS, it's not so much what YOU do, rather it's more about what your TEAM does -- same applies in higher ELO. In low ELO, it's all about how hard you carry and whatnot, since your team will rarely work together. : /

BluePolarizerSep 25, 20151 votes

the solution then is to get better or play champions that you think are OP. If they truly are OP, you should be able to climb. the game is not balanced for low elo.

KingWanahakalugiSep 24, 20151 votes

NEVER GO INTO A RANKED GAME WITH THE MINDSET THAT YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE. I have friends that I stopped duoing with because they would enter with that attitude and often it would end with us losing. You have no idea how much difference a positive or even a neutral attitude can make. Instead, go into the match with a solely analytical attitude. Ask yourself, "At what point will my opponent be stronger than me? When do I need to play safe, or ask for help? What does our team have for strengths? What strengths does the enemy team have? Is there a point where we need to win or be ahead by?"

No matter what shape your team is in, NEVER SURRENDER. In elos like bronze-gold, people have no sense of how to extend their leads, and they can often be caught. If you're behind, extend the game as long as possible. If you can make it to the SUPER late game where everyone is full build, gold no longer has effect. It often comes down to a single teamfight once the death timers max out. That being said:

KNOW WHEN TO TAKE OBJECTIVES. If you can, gain a positional advantage on your opponent by taking a tower. DO IT. Towers are nearly always a better use of your time than taking dragon. Towers give global gold to the team which can sometimes be the difference between coming back to lane with a full item or not. The dragon buffs are nice, but as long as the enemy team has 3 dragons or less, towers will provide you with a stronger advantage.

LEARN TO BE THE SHOT CALLER. Your team won't always listen to you, but having someone making calls on whether or not to fight or when to take an objective can be the difference between winning and losing.

YOUR ENEMY MAY HAVE A STRONGER CHAMP. If you can avoid giving them kills early and farm under tower, you can often kill them with help and begin to give yourself an advantage. Most champions with an strong early game will fall off eventually. If you can build yourself a lead where you can safely farm in lane, you have a good chance that you can out-scale them and take control of the game where you can carry the game yourself.

FIND CHAMPS THAT SUIT YOUR PLAYSTYLE. I have a select few champs that I play in ranked. I feel comfortable playing them into their strongest counters because I know my champion that well. That is the comfort level you eventually have to reach with the champions you play if you truly want to improve. I have 2 champions in each lane that I feel comfortable playing in any situation. Don't just play champions because they counter an enemy. I would also suggest trying to find at least one champ that you can carry on in each lane just in case it is necessary.

You have probably heard most of this a million times, but this is really what it comes down to. Now you can say, "but you're only silver, why should I listen to you?!" You don't have to, but know that rank isn't everything. I choose not to play ranked because it brings out a much more competitive side in me that stops me from just enjoying this game that I love. Also I know what needs to be done, but even I sometimes struggle in executing. Higher elos will probably tell you most of the same things.

Best of luck on the Rift my friend,

King Wanahakalugi

NiyumiSep 24, 20151 votes

{quoted}

NEVER GO INTO A RANKED GAME WITH THE MINDSET THAT YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE...

Haha, after having so many horrible teams and bad matches, it's kind of hard to believe that I'll win. : / I do try my best though, but I can never really carry a game.

No matter what shape your team is in, NEVER SURRENDER. In elos like bronze-gold, people have no sense of how to extend their leads, and they can often be caught. If you're behind, extend the game as long as possible. If you can make it to the SUPER late game where everyone is full build, gold no longer has effect. It often comes down to a single teamfight once the death timers max out. That being said:

Oh I never surrender. Even when all our inhibs are down, I'll click no -- and I've come back from games where our Nexus was at 50 HP and won. ^^

KNOW WHEN TO TAKE OBJECTIVES. If you can, gain a positional advantage on your opponent by taking a tower. DO IT. Towers are nearly always a better use of your time than taking dragon. Towers give global gold to the team which can sometimes be the difference between coming back to lane with a full item or not. The dragon buffs are nice, but as long as the enemy team has 3 dragons or less, towers will provide you with a stronger advantage.

I usually focus on objectives before kills. I know that downing a tower gets you more map to move in, and it forces the enemy to play more defensively / passively. I usually don't worry tooooo much about drag and baron unless it's really easy to take, or the enemy team is going for it.

LEARN TO BE THE SHOT CALLER. Your team won't always listen to you, but having someone making calls on whether or not to fight or when to take an objective can be the difference between winning and losing.

I do try to call shots sometimes, but not a whole lot of the time. People generally don't really listen to me, or just get all upset because I'm telling them what to do.

YOUR ENEMY MAY HAVE A STRONGER CHAMP. If you can avoid giving them kills early and farm under tower, you can often kill them with help and begin to give yourself an advantage. Most champions with an strong early game will fall off eventually. If you can build yourself a lead where you can safely farm in lane, you have a good chance that you can out-scale them and take control of the game where you can carry the game yourself.

It's not so much champs that scale well early game, it's just champs that absolutely dominate at all points in the game -- Riven, Irelia, Diana, LB, Darius, Fizz, etc. I can't even farm when one of those champs are around, or I instantly die. I can even hug my tower and still die because they dove me. : /

FIND CHAMPS THAT SUIT YOUR PLAYSTYLE. I have a select few champs that I play in ranked. I feel comfortable playing them into their strongest counters because I know my champion that well. That is the comfort level you eventually have to reach with the champions you play if you truly want to improve. I have 2 champions in each lane that I feel comfortable playing in any situation. Don't just play champions because they counter an enemy. I would also suggest trying to find at least one champ that you can carry on in each lane just in case it is necessary.

Honestly, League as a whole doesn't really suit my style; I like games that have a lot of abilities and complex mechanics to play with (mostly MMOs), and most of the champs in League are incredibly simplistic and easy to play. All the strongest champs are even easier to play. : /

KingWanahakalugiSep 24, 20151 votes

Well, I can say that you should try to take control and be the shot caller more often. As for the champions, most of them are strong throughout the game if they have created a situation where they can begin to snowball. They often require help from your jungler very early in the game to either kill them or force them to back and gain you an advantage. It is necessary to build a level or gold advantage against them to succeed. That is one of those situations you need to insist on your jungler coming to help, but you have to make sure the lane is in a position that they can make a play. Too many times I'll watch someone push their lane early and then still expect a jungle to gank from the river. As for finding a champion. Many of the champions are simple in terms of kits and mechanics. But there are champions in the pool that are mechanically difficult often with kits that consist of many active items, and require a lot of coordination to play. Many of those champions end up carrying better than simple champions anyway. Also, if you need someone to play with I am on usually for 1-3 games a night if you just need someone to queue up with.

NiyumiSep 24, 20151 votes

Well, say I'm against a Riven. I'll ask for help and my jungler will come in and gank, but I'll be too low of HP to help out much, or she 2v1s us and wins despite her being at half health. And then after that, she proceeds to just 100-0 me instantly, even if I hug my turret, and my jungler won't gank for me anymore. Same thing happens with a handful of champs (Fizz, LB, Irelia, etc).

Which champs are mechanically difficult? People say Azir is one of the hardest (if not the most challenging outright), but I picked him up after a few games and did fine after that. : /

Feel free to add me if you like, I'm on quite a bit.

Matthias9119Sep 25, 20151 votes

I do try to call shots sometimes, but not a whole lot of the time. People generally don't really listen to me, or just get all upset because I'm telling them what to do.

People listen a lot more if you're doing well. If you're getting stomped in lane and barking orders, yeah, they're probably going to ignore you.
I always find it better to lead by example. I rarely type unless I need to explain something that can't be done with smart pings. Ping objectives that you think are vulnerable (or where your team needs to reinforce), use "on my way" to indicate where you're going, ping MIA/danger. Drop wards everywhere. If you start making successful things happen, people will start following your lead.

champs that absolutely dominate at all points in the game -- Riven, Irelia, Diana, LB, Darius, Fizz

None of those champs "absolutely dominate at all points in the game".

Well, maybe Darius after his last round of buffs and before the nerfs this week. He's pretty terrifying if he gets fed, and certain champs just cannot fight him 1v1 unless they have a level/item advantage. But he can't do anything if you kite him.

Riven, Diana, LB, and Fizz all fall off late game; none of them are great at teamfighting or taking objectives. Diana is rather weak pre-6, especially if you can kite her. Riven/LB/Fizz is a skill matchup against many champs. However, those are all champs that can snowball off of early kills to have a monstrously strong midgame, which can sometimes get their whole team so far ahead that the match is over before "late game" ever happens.

Irelia can snowball really hard, and has hypercarry potential. But she's also pretty useless until she has several completed items (and one of those is usually TF, which is the most expensive item in the game). Or if she's behind.

I like games that have a lot of abilities and complex mechanics to play with (mostly MMOs), and most of the champs in League are incredibly simplistic and easy to play.

Honestly, most MMOs (at least the ones in the WoW vein) don't have too many "complex mechanics" either. League has plenty of depth, but big parts of it are knowing the metagame and being able to make snap judgements about complex situations rather than, say, memorizing ability rotations or learning the ins and outs of a specific boss fight or having to coordinate with 10-20+ players.