Tips to Climbing - How to Play Around the Meta and Tips to Improve Your Play

Climbing the ranked ladder in League of Legends can be extremely frustrating, as we all know. This guide provides tips to hopefully help you reduce that frustration, as well as provide some information on how to get the most out of the meta. The game of League of Legends is constantly changing through patches changing what is strong, in turn changing the meta. This is one of the components that can make climbing very difficult for players. It is important to keep in mind that although the meta is every changing, the objective of the game remains the same. Because of this one of the first big tips would be to learn the game. Understanding and mastering the basics of the game can and will get you to start climbing farther and faster than you think.

When I say, “mastering the basics”, I am talking about understanding wave control, where and how to pressure the map, the importance of vision, and your Champion’s strengths and weaknesses. A big thing people do when they see different Champions get buffs during a patch is take them straight into a ranked game even if they have not played them at all before. I do not recommend doing this. Yes, that Champion is now stronger but that Champion’s strength means nothing if you do not know how to utilize it. People may also just pick a role that a Champion got buffed in, so they can try it out in a ranked game as well. This puts you at an even bigger disadvantage as you have put yourself off-role and likely cannot play it as well as your main role. If you want to climb, either ban the Champion so no players on the enemy team get it or play a few normal games to try and gain an understanding of how that Champion works, then take your new Champion into ranked.

Now if you want to climb and for the most part you only play one or two Champions, or are a “one trick”, you can still go really far without picking the “flavor of the month” Champions. When you only play a few Champions, you in a way have a pretty strong advantage over those who will always change their Champion Pool according to the meta, as you already really know your Champions. The way to get the most out of the meta when you only play a few Champions is still to learn the Champions that are strong in the meta, as they will likely be in almost every game you play. This does not mean you have to play them, but you should look up their abilities and learn their cooldowns, so you know how to play around these Champions and when to trade with them. As an example, let’s look at Fiora.

In Patch 8.18, Fiora got a buff to her healing on hitting an enemy’s Vital Points. This makes it difficult to trade with her in lane especially when her Riposte is up. However, if you know that the cooldown on this ability is 24 seconds at level 1 (without any Cooldown Reduction), when you see her use this ability, you will know you have about a 24 second window that you can trade with her and not have to worry about her reflecting any Crowd Control abilities back onto you or negating all damage dealt.

Now let’s look at the psychological aspect of climbing the ladder. As I stated early, climbing the ladder can be quite frustrating, especially if you have toxic players in the game and, unfortunately, toxicity is a part of the game sometimes. A way to avoid this and keep your mind on the game rather than what your teammates or the enemy team are spouting at you is to mute these players. I know everyone suggests muting these players, but really, mute them. Many people might suggest that the toxic comments do not get to them and for some this may be true, but for the majority of us, our eyes will be drawn to the chat only to be met with the next demeaning things these players have to spout. In my experience, muting these unhelpful players, or muting their incessant ping spamming, helps you focus on the game substantially more and allows you to think clearly about your next moves in the game.

Another tip is to stop playing when your tilted. This is another thing many people might ignore, as they will again insist that they are not tilted and they will not realize they really are until something negative happens in their next game and they lose all motivation to play it out. This helps players avoid burnout as well. By consistently spamming games, you will likely play worse each consecutive game as your in-game decision making and mechanics start to deteriorate. It is important to take breaks and pace yourself, especially when you notice you are not playing as well as you were earlier. This reduces your chances of burnout and will allow you to play at your highest potential every game.

Another important tip to help you get better at the game and to climb the ladder is to watch your replays, especially of games that you lost but you are not sure how or why you lost. Watching your replays will show you where you made mistakes, reducing your chances of making the same mistakes in future games. By doing this you are refining how you play, and to become a better player and to climb, minimizing the number of mistakes you make is an integral piece to growing as a player. Hopefully these tips help you to improve your play and help you the next time you take to Summoner’s Rift!

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