The Struggle is Real: 7 Tips To Climb Ranked

We're about a month into the new ranked season of League of Legends and (for those who have been playing ranked at least) we are finally back into the swing of things. Around you are those who are steadily improving, those who are struggling to recapture their lightning or to capture any at all, and those who have exceeded their goals and results from last year already a month into the season. For the first and the last of the mentioned archetypes, I congratulate you - it's only onward and upward from here. But for those who didn't do so well in placements only to continue spiraling downward, you may be wondering, "Is there any hope for me?"

Well, the short answer to this question is yes. 

I've put together a list of 7 reasons I believe you might not be climbing. Seven is a pretty lucky number, so I'm hoping that by honestly reflecting upon how you approach these categories and making realistic strides at improving on them, your luck - and win rates - will improve. Let's dive in. 

Picking for The Part: The Champs You Play

Disclaimer: This is not to say that you can't main that Aatrox or that Tryndamere top all the way to Challenger (as I'm sure there are many people doing it). This is just to say that you should carefully evaluate your reasons for picking something. 

General rules of thumb when deciding to play something in ranked. Note that this isn't written in stone, just a helpful way of helping you to decide whether or it's worth it for you to play that champion in that role at that time: 

1. If you have at least 10 (being generous for the impatient) to 20 normal games played on X in Y role with at least a 50% win rate, then play the champion in that role in ranked. If not, you probably need more practice and shouldn't play it. This can extend across all of the accounts you own for the people who like to handle multiple accounts.  

2. If you have at least a 50% win rate ranked or higher on X champion at Y role after playing 10-20 games ranked, continue playing this champion. If not, repeat step 1 with 10-20 new sample games. 

3. If you're a one-trick (meaning you play one champion really well and generally don't play to that level on something else) and you cannot secure your role/champion for whatever reason (including getting autofilled), DODGE. It is not worth the time sink (unless you can perform at a similarly decent level somewhere else) to play the game out. Plus, you'll more than likely be a detriment to your team, as you aren't playing at your best on your best. Better to save yourself the MMR and just wait out the 5 minutes. There are plenty of other games you can play while waiting for a queue to pop. If you don't like this option, hit the norms and learn more champions. 

4. No one's going to argue with a winner. Meta or not, if you're smashing people with your pick consistently an picking up the LP, no one is going to have a problem with you picking it. It's only when you first time or pick a champion you historically have no success with that people will take issue. 

The general gist of this is to play to your strengths. Some people may play the game well enough to where they can afford to play more champions than the average person, some people may only be good at 3-5 champions, and some may only find that they can only climb on that one champion, regardless of the comp they play with/into. Ranked is an arena, not a playground- so don't treat it as an experimental setting. This includes flex. Play your best picks there and play to win, or don't play at all. Your teammates, LP, and MMR will thank you later. 

Playing champs you have no business or history playing in ranked is a surefire way to drop a few ranks and tank your MMR. Trust me. Been there, done that. 

Gold Is Power: Your Creep Score Per Minute

"Aurem est Potestas."

"Gold is Power", the family motto of the Fowl Family of the Artemis Fowl Series, and one of the mottos you should adapt when playing your ranked games. 

One of the first things you learn after mastering the many intricacies of champ select is how to take that champion and effectively farm minions for gold. In addition to the ward, the last hit is the single most (in my opinion) underappreciated and underused mechanic/feature of the game among struggling players. It's the easiest and most accessible way to earn an income in the game - no, it is your primary method for earning gold in the game, and it's almost guaranteed to you so long as you have the eyes to watch the health bars of the minions being farmed and you're alive to kill them. There is a reason professional players and analysts have so many statistics around CS differences at various times of the game. It is literally possible to earn a lead over your opponent without touching them at all during laning phase so long as you're coming as close as reasonably possible to perfect CS. This, in turn, affects whether or not your get key items quickly, which can make or break the game. 

Among top-tier players, 9-10 CS per minute is average and considered good. While solo queue is an entirely different beast than professional play altogether, this number alone should convey to you the importance of effectively farming and give you a spot to aim. In ranked play, 7-8 would probably be a more realistic average, so this is good also, but anything under this (at least consistently) would represent a problem. 

Remember, gold is power. 

Vision: Your Use of It, Respect for It, and Avoidance of a Lack of It

As I said in the previous section, the ward and vision is a historically overlooked part of gameplay among lower level players. The ward is one of the most gold-efficient ways to protect yourself (yes, even moreso than that Infinity Edge, Morellonomicon, or Black Cleaver you've been saving up for) as often times an enemy won't dare come near you if they know that you can see them coming. The risk is just too great. 

But not only is setting vision a must - so is denying it. This is especially important in the support role, where an Oracle Lens is most common in the trinket slot, allowing you the ability to detect and destroy enemy vision. Control Wards (which are available to everyone in the game) also serve the same purpose, so a general rule of thumb is to buy one every 1-2 recalls assuming you don't already have one in your inventory or on the map that you don't plan on immediately moving.

Moving the focus of your vision to cater to the objective you want to take or the side of the map you wish to dominate is also a skill not too many people employ. People are less likely to go where they can't see (and rightfully so, as facechecking is a common cause of death in League of Legends). It should also be noted that even if your wards aren't actively detecting someone, you can still gather information about someone's location, because ward will tell you where they aren't. Even this information is helpful. That being said, don't go where you can't see, don't hoard your ward trinkets, and don't blindly go for objectives and invades without making sure your opponent can't see you coming. 

The unseen blade is the deadliest, so make sure you can see theirs and that they can't see yours. Knowing and seeing is half the battle. 

Deaths: The Best CC in League of Legends

Try to keep your screen as colorful as possible as often as possible. You can't do much for your team when you're dead! 

There are often times where I'm watching a high-level player's Twitch stream and they offer the opportunity to review someone's match history and OP.GG report. They'll open the person's link and immediately one of the first things they'll notice is a double-digit number (or pretty close to it) in the "average deaths per game" column. Even in winning games, this is a no-no, as it reflects upon your decision-making process and shows that you have a tendency to end up on the losing end of the decisions you make. Plus, even if you're going even at say 10/10/2, what use are you to your team if your screen is gray for half the game? If professional players and analysts can consider a player "fed" upon getting around 3 consecutive kills and a person "feeding" upon dying at least 3 times (consecutively or without gaining anything from it), imagine what double-digit deaths on average is!

Let's face it - unless you're Karthus, Sion, or Kog'Maw, you can't do anything while dead except shop (or maybe cast Redemption if you have it). And if you're dying often without getting anything from it (even on these champions), it's only a matter of time before you only have the base gold regen rate as your income to shop with. At that point even buying wards is a luxury you might not be able to afford. 

The lesson here is simple - stop dying. Yes, it's not possible to have a perfect game every single game, but I'd bet my League account that a decent portion of your deaths each game are entirely preventable. You cut your influence on the game significantly by being dead, so minimize the number of times you find yourself respawning at home and you could potentially maximize your impact on your games. 

Trading: Doing The Most for the Least and How To Avoid It

Many people struggle simply with poor decision making and cost-benefit analysis. They think so long as someone is dying to their hand, anything they do, regardless of the outcome, is "worth". I'm sure you've seen this type in your games before. Don't be this guy/girl. 

No, that CS isn't worth you taking a potentially fatal trade. No, just because someone is trying to clear waves under the tower you are sieging doesn't mean you have to dive them. No, you don't play even more aggressive in lane to make up for the fact that you just got solo-killed. No, you do not have to throw your life away to jump into the dragon pit 4v1 to smite the Cloud Drake. No, chasing those kills isn't worth gaining pressure on the map or taking the free Baron. Do you see what I'm getting at here? 

Look at your actions through a longer lens and really truly try understand not only how your actions will affect both teams, but how the enemy team will respond to it. What you think might be a free lunch might be laced wiith rat poison. The step you think you might be taking forward could be into a trap. Carefully weigh your options. There's a time and place for everything. 

Teamplay: Identifying and Embracing the Win Condition

Every single comp has a win condition. Yes, even the poorly drafted ones. I stand by this 100%. That's not to say that I won't dodge a queue or two if the battle looks entirely uphill and I'm not willing to put in the time to try to haul out executing a draft that looks like it was randomly drawn, but in a majority of cases in low elo, every comp has a win condition and every game is winnable if you stick to it. Unless you're straight up smurfing (and you know who you are), the people you are playing with are at the same skill level as you in one way or another.

You just have to play as a team and exploit their weaknesses within their team. Sure, you can probably one-on-one the top laner but it won't matter if he's just doing his job by keeping you busy long enough for his team to secure the objective across the map or win the 4v4 against your remaining teammates. Yes, you win your lanes, but you never help pull your team up with your success, so you constantly experience the "win lane, lose game" phenomenon. Yes, your hypercarry ADC got fed early, but you didn't focus on keeping him/her alive in teamfights so they could do damage so now they've gone from 8/0 to 8/8 and your team is on the losing end of fights with no map pressure now. 

The purpose of solo/duo isn't to hard carry every single game on your own. It's to come together with the random players you're brought with to achieve a common goal- knocking down the enemy nexus. The people who consistently do this every game (the hard carrying part at least) At the end of the day, you need your team and they need you. So work with them. Bring them up. Play with and around them. Prosper together. 

Attitude: What You Bring To and Take Away From Your Games

I don't agree with the philosophy that every loss is your fault and that you should always take it as "you didn't carry hard enough". I don't agree with the idea that you shouldn't take anything away from the games you play either. Even in games where you may have gone 4/0 and lost because that one guy couldn't stop dying, there's ALWAYS something you could have done better - even if it has nothing to do with your teammates. Maybe you missed 3 CS in the first wave or underestimated a trade you took against your laner. Maybe your jungle pathing looked like a toddler's failed attempts to complete one of those mazes you find in children's activity books. Maybe you weren't as tanky as you needed to be because you stuck with a static build instead of adapting to the needs of the team at the time.

Always try to be better than you were in the game before. If you go into your next game with the mindset that "I'll do better this game than I did last game" and actually make the motions to do so consistently, your attitude towards the game will improve and both your teammates' attitudes towards you and your ranked gains will reflect that.

Communication works wonders, so be an effective and constructive communicator. If this really isn't an option, the mute button is a fantastic invention that I wholeheartedly encourage. You don't need to talk to ping. 

All-chat is used to tilt. I firmly believe that unless you're saying GG at the end of a game, almost everything you see in all chat in lower elo games is either a joke or jab at someone's expense, a bid for a report, or some sort of flame or complaint. Treat it like a museum when you can- look, but don't touch. You'll thank me later. 

Overall, play well, mean well, do well, and when you lose, lose graciously. Don't seek to tilt your teammates, ignore them when they are tilted already, and for the duration of the game, remember that your only enemies are the ones going after your Nexus. 


Conclusion

You don't have to be down in the dumps forever. I think that by giving thought to what I've shared with you here you'll improve drastically. Show me any high-level player and I can show you how they embody multiple positive aspects of what I wrote about here. I just hope that I can use you as an example somewhere down the line for someone else who may find climbing a bit hard. 

As always, best of luck. I'll see you on the rift. 

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