League of Learning #10 - Ranked prerequisites

League of Learning #10 – Prerequisites for Ranked.

The ranked queue is a funny thing, it’s full of people who seem to believe they deserve more than what they have and the only people holding them back are…well…everyone else. Often you will see people demanding lanes or becoming irate when their chosen role is taken by someone higher in the pick order (The only real rule about draft pick is that whoever picks first picks what they want, you don’t get ownership of a role by yelling about it) From what I’ve seen there needs to be a set of rules on what knowledge and skills you need to have to play ranked effectively. In this article I will describe what I think is the MINIMUM you need to have achieved to be able to play ranked.

 

Playing all Roles

This is the biggest problem with low ELO solo q, if you can’t confidently play all the roles then DON’T QUEUE FOR RANKED, if you don’t have the runes for every role then DON’T QUEUE FOR RANKED. This is such a simple thing that can be learned in normal games with ease, so what excuse do you have?

 

Knowledge of a variety of lane combos

Too many times I have seen people accused of trolling with perfectly legitimate picks like Leona Jarvan bot, Heimer mid, Janna/Soraka mid. Just because something isn’t in your approved Meta category don’t immediately dismiss it, let the game play out. It is your responsibility to have a working knowledge of combos that can work and have interesting lane synergy

 

Acceptance of a variety of styles

This goes hand in hand with the previous point, you need to let people play what they are best at, even if that lane doesn’t fit with your style. People will yell and scream at people who attempt kill lanes or who try to play things they aren’t used too, give everyone a chance to prove they aren’t actually bad, and don’t force them to play what you want.

 

Normal Wins

350-400 is generally what people say is the amount of normal wins requires to be successful in solo q, it gives you a good foundation of mechanics and game situations, it allows you to become very familiar with the champions you want to main and what you can and can’t do. From that foundation you can build a solid mechanical skill base and from that, you can attempt ranked games. Without said mechanical base you will come up against matchups that you don't understand and have never seen, usually leading to your defeat. The better your decision making foundation is the more you will win games.

Map Awareness

This is one of the most important things you need to be trying to learn while building up a strong mechanical foundation, predictionary game knowledge. Vlad has left lane, where is he going? Are there enough wards to sufficiently warn them hes coming, do I need to respond with a gank of my own? These kinds of questions can only really be answered when you have the game knowledge and experience to make solid predictions. Map awareness being so important and requiring in-game practice to learn is one of the main reasons for the high number of normal wins reccomended for ranked play.

 

I feel that if you can get all of the above down then your play will be more about mechanics and performace than just being ignorant of the game. You need to build yourself a base of all the generic game knowledge to build upon in your ranked games. You can, of course, jump in blind like I and many others did, but you may find yourself in an uphill struggle from the on in. 

Gl and HF

@Neonhowl (dSonny - EUW)