Trying hard to get to gold. Looking for advice.

Scarefish·10/23/2014, 2:50:06 AM·1 votes·1,237 views

Okay, I'm going to be downright honest here. I am not one of the best League of Legends players around, and I'm not the best at dealing with going on tilt, but I do feel like I should definitely be able to get to gold.

When I first started the game, I believed in "elo hell" and believed I was stuck in Bronze due to trolls and bad luck. Now I don't believe in elo hell. I believe those kinds of players exist everywhere in League, and although that's a bad thing, I understand now that it is simply something that effects everyone from time to time even as high up as Diamond I and it's a frustrating thing that everyone has to deal with. But, the thing is, is I don't believe you can get stuck in Bronze. I believe you can get "stuck" close where your actual skill level and be set back a bit by bad luck, because playing with my bronze friends in ranked teams has really shown me how much I've actually improved at the game because in those elos I can single handedly win most of the games because my skill level is an entire division above the other players.

In solo queue I managed to nab Silver 3 and got demoted to S4 and climbed up to S1 a few times now within the past week or so, on one occasion getting painfully close to Gold V with 93 LP, but going on a massive loss streak (8 losses) to get demoted again, the demotion match being only because a windstorm took out my internet, the only ranked match I've ever gotten a leave status in. Needless to say, I was really mad, and actually broke my laptop keyboard because really, most of those matches were unwinnable unless I was playing like a Diamond I player. I believed since I was playing good back when I was at the top of Silver I, that I deserved Gold V right now and a series of four trolly matches in a row set me back and then I started playing badly and losing more ground. I took a break, and in the morning I got a big win streak and got promoted to S1 again, and am playing really good again, but I'm at risk of demotion again because of five matches in a row where I just couldn't turn the game from a loss to a win and I just want to know some tips and stuff for getting to gold. Looking back, I've had pretty bad luck in ranked this season, having over 10 games with leavers and dc'ers, no loss prevented during small DDoS attacks, and literally drunk teammates, but I've still managed to climb up to S1 despite my constant bad luck with leavers. In comparison, there's been about 3 matches with leavers on the enemy team and two with leavers on both teams that evened out, and I've already mentioned when my power went out.

Now, there's a few things I've taken into consideration why ranked is so frustrating and it feels unfair at most times, and I think this is the biggest reason I have climbed so much in a short period of time without appreciating or noticing my efforts even. I am not the only person in Silver I trying hard to grind to gold. Sometimes matches are completely unbalanced because one team just has more people on it desperate to climb than the other team, and one team has to win and the other has to lose one way or another, regardless of the actual individual skill of the players. You have an effect on the match, but many matches will be unwinnable because you are only one player out of five on your team. 99% of people want to win and will try hard to win, so you have to always be playing your best and trying to guide your teammates instead of letting them lose and just insulting them, in any match, regardless of whether you're winning by a landslide or going to lose or even. I try my best to work with my teammates each match, not depend on them, and not abandon them either. Another thing is, you can get unlucky streaks of losses sometimes even if you're playing really well and helping your teams as much as you can, but win streaks only come if you try really really hard, and it seems loss streaks are punished more than what a winstreak will get you. as if the game thinks that people get lucky win streaks with no credit due to themselves and loss streaks due to their individual contributions. But the worst thing is that there is a luck aspect and there's a lot of things that can set you back and make you feel like your contributions are meaningless when they're not.

I feel I'm playing consistently well now, but my placement keeps bouncing around S2-S1 with me feeling like I'm just fighting constantly to resist being pushed back by losing matchups. I know for a fact that if I was a platinum level player I could easily climb to gold in spite of trolls, but I am probably Gold IV at best and since I'm feeling I'm only a moderate amount better than most people I'm matched with and against that I'm getting manhandled by the system and that luck plays a big part in bouncing me between S3-G5. I feel like after a thousand matches I would end up Gold IV or something unless I got a year's worth of improvement at the game right now, or if I smurfscummed duo queue with a platinum friend for an easy gold v, which would undoubtedly unbalance and ruin all the matches going to gold v, which is something I have strong negative opinions towards people doing.

I also very rarely dodge, and only in extreme cases, (in fact, I didn't even dodge my last match, which had the adc Tryndamere who got destroyed by a Vayne/Leona and was constantly trash talking the team) and was wondering if dodging more often to spare my mmr in bad situations would be a worthwhile thing to consider. I see no reason to chance a match I feel is a 10% win chance judging on the attitudes of the players in the lobby and the team composition (Eg. Having an all AD team with the enemy having a Taric and Rammus combo, or an all AP team with an AP carry Galio on the enemy team.)

My mains, who I feel I've specifically learned all the ins and outs and fancy tricks with are Wukong, Galio, Fizz, Taric, Veigar, Warwick, Twitch, and my best roles are top, support, and mid and my worst role is adc (I play like a Bronze I adc, no exaggeration. Haven't played it competitively since last season when I was bronze). I know that's a weird array of champions that most people hate seeing in a ranked match, but I really am pretty good with each of them compared to most that people end up seeing. I excel at tricking enemies and at engaging in teamfights

I want to know what advice you guys have for me. I'm constantly trying to get better at the game, but I feel at this point there must be something I'm doing horribly wrong that's got me stuck in S1-S2 and if that's the case I'd like to change it.

3 Comments

ScarPirate10/23/2014, 2:54:50 AM2 votes

my honest advice: get good a few champions, and fine a duo buddy. if you control 40% of your teams power you can influence a win much easier and remove one more troll from your side

Happy Bagel10/23/2014, 5:14:05 AM1 votes

2 things that you need to get to gold and beyond. (This is general info, i'll give you more specific stuff in the next post)

Team work, and understanding of team comp.

Skill is ok, but there is always that one feeder that will drag you down every game no matter what.

You always hear of the salty players who always say: oh but I won my lane, but everyone on my team is trash, but when you inquire further you find that they never help other lanes, they dont push their advantage and get turret gold for their team. Understand that it is entirely possible (and probable) that you will win if your team knows how to listen to each other. People are blind, they wont see enemies on the minimap all the time. Sometimes you have to spam the words "Run" 5 times to make a point. Some people don't know how to win their lane, so they struggle. People don't respond well to criticism down in silver-gold, they usually rage and start intentionally feeding if you push them too far, but you still want to get your point across. People don't have manners anymore, a simple "Please just camp turret please" is much effective at getting the point across than a "Omg stop feeding". Learn to be a shot caller, yes it makes you seem like an asshole if you are too forceful about it, but its better then having 5 directionless players all doing their own thing. Telling 1 person to go defend top, while 3 go do dragon (especially helpful if you are the only one with map awareness on the team)

When a lane is losing, and you're the jungler, don't gank the losing lane. Gank the even-ish lanes to get some carry material on your side, then 2 man gank the losing lane.

Team comp- understand that grouping and fighting is not always the best idea. It seems to be the default tactic all goldies like to use when their losing "Omg guys, just group and we'll win". It might be true in some cases, but when the other team has an amumu, orianna, and a braum, that's usually a terrible idea. Explore other tactics, like split pushing to the death (yes it sounds incredibly stupid, but when you're behind, it puts pressure on the enemy team to send at least 1 person to squash the split pusher, buying your team precious time to recover), desperation barons, or the good o' camp in a bush in their jungle just to kill 1 person. This also stems into understanding the needs of your team mates. Bot lane should not venture mid and stay there in early game just because they won/lost their lane. It guts the mid laners farm/xp and leaves bot lane time to recover.

Mechanics wise, low gold isnt much different from low diamond, the communication is just horrible.

Remember that in gold, it doesnt matter how far behind you are, the other team can and will throw, if you give them the opportunity to.

(Just ranked a smurf from 30 to gold 2 days ago)