Bettering your play with the help of others

The concept of elo hell seems to be a very touchy and tricky subject. Most people will confirm that in modern League of Legends, there is no elo, mmr and ranking hells, though if you scan the forums or YouTube, these thoughts may be negated. The first question that everyone asks and most people know, is what constitutes elo hell?

The Problem

Elo hell is mostly defined by a player being stuck in a certain bracket or division of the game, typically in bronze or silver divisions, and the blame is pushed to the team-mates that the individual is "stuck" with, holding them back from their full potential. With that definition, most guides and such that do not believe in the concept will tell you the most important thing to do is to change your mindset to start improving your play and their right but are simple about the idea.

You're given the odds, statistics and everything under the sun about why the trolls and feeders may be more likely on the opposing team but that's never enough to hear. As somebody who was stuck in a rut for most of season 2 and a hefty chunk of season 3, I read all about it. I'd go into my games with the mindset that today is the day I'll worry about me, I wont get upset when my team gives a first blood, throws a game, etc. To my dismay, it never worked, and doesn't for most people. You still might get that guy whose had an awful day and decides to rage all game, feed or whatever the problem may be.

Fixing The Issue

You don't. At least its not as simple as reading a guide or article about it, and the problem being solved. For myself, the rut was between silver and gold like most people and it wasn't until I was watching a stream of The Rain Man where he gave the best advice about the game I could ever pass along. He was playing a game, slightly behind, as a jungle Shaco.

Nothing out of the ordinary for him but the team was playing sub-par and unlike most of us, he was remaining calm. As he played with his normal style, he decided to add some helpful commentary just by saying, "When you're behind, you just need to carry harder." He went on to continue playing and, as he enjoys doing, Shaco split pushing, and doing his best to carry the team from behind for a win which in the end he was able to turn about. This isn't something you need to be a pro streamer to do. If you're getting upset at the performance at others in the game your in than your play needs to be better than the rest of your team's play. Not diamond, platinum or challenger play, just better.

Carry harder? But I do carry!

Again, you don't. You might in the standard LCS version way of carrying, most kills, being the only one making plays and being the teams everything, but that's not always the best way to go about it in solo queue. The best example I have is a friend of mine. He's an excellent player and we are real life friends and played together on a ranked fives team of friends for quite some time, with him being our top laner and occasional jungler. As a Lee-Sin main, to this day, I don't know of too many people better than him between silver to plat that can play Lee Sin as well as him, without exaggerating. With his go to champion in hand, he would go into ranked week after week and get nowhere. Achieving scores that would be "carry worthy", typically getting anywhere from 8-20 kills and not dying more than 5 times a game.

He played well and certainly better than his teams and would still have trouble acquiring wins. He would come back to me and explain what is happening when I came to one conclusion, he's doing it wrong. I don't mean wrong in the sense where he's playing too well, more of he needs to allow his teams to perform better based on his play. Seeing as how he plays Lee in the jungle most of the time, the best thing he could do is to ensure he isn't the one getting most of the kills.

In my case, my go to jungler is Maokai, and when using this practice, I'd perform typical ganks but never take the kill unless it was 100% necessary. At first its more difficult to do than it lets on, primarily because kills look so tasty and nobody wants to chance letting a kill or something escape but it does work. The last thing you need in a game where you have 4 people you don't know, one of which had an awful day at work and is already upset, another who may be an immature kid who is demanding a role because he got a new champ and so forth, is to further upset these people by making them think you may be stealing all of the kills or have them depend more on you then they already were.

Too long, didn't read.

Long story short, dependency is bad and team work is good. It seems simple enough but no matter how many times most people read it, it doesn't sink in. There is a little bit of a support player in all of us, we just need some help finding it. Players need to have a healthy balance between playing skillfully, and allowing the people they are playing alongside of, to at least feel they are contributing, creating an all around better atmosphere for the game and bettering chances of a W for your entire team. The more you win based off of doing this simple technique of play, the more comfortable you'll feel and the positive attitude will be payed forward and pay off when you achieve that new division you've been busting your butt of for in LoL, Dota, Smite, or any other moba style game.