Climbing Leagues: tips on improving and getting that promotion

Climbing Leagues can be a frustrating experience—everyone has experienced bad teammates, but blaming them doesn’t help anything. Everyone recognizes this fact, however, one of the biggest difference I’ve noticed between good players are bad players is how they choose to deal with these bad teammates. Good players are those who concentrate on improving their own play, regardless of how the game itself is going. Whether or not you win any given game doesn’t matter, it’s whether or not you learn something. You could always have played better, and learning to do that will make you climb, not winning any one game.

If you’re stuck in bronze, you typically must have below average game-skill. Whether that be poor map awareness, mechanics, or general understanding of the game, it can be improved. Just because you’re below-average now doesn’t mean that’s anything innate in you; everyone is below average at some point, people just learn at different speeds. There are a few ways to improve in all these subjects: I think the biggest problem in bronze is game knowledge.

There are lots of ways to improve game knowledge! Try watching the LCS, and watch what champions are played, how the pros build, and try to incorporate that into your own game. When I watch bronze games, I see so many players mis-building, and making games way harder then they need to be. Look up guides, watch LCS, and most importantly, keep playing. People talk about being nervous to play ranked out of fear of losing, but the best way to improve is to keep playing.

If you’re stuck in silver, the problem is often a mix of map awareness and mechanics, most people in Silver have decent game knowledge. One of the best ways of improving map awareness is to try and look at the mini-map every time you get three CS. You need looking at the map to become muscle memory. Another good idea is to, whenever you die, ask yourself why. If the reason is because you over-extended without vision, concentrate on warding more, or not pushing. If the reason is you got ganked while you DID have vision, concentrate on looking at the map more. If the reason is that you got outplayed, keep practicing. The best way to work on mechanics is practice, practice, practice.

Gold is the place for people who are taking the game seriously and trying to improve. I don’t think there is any excuse for being stuck in gold; gold is the home of inflated-egos, and those who want Platinum enough to leave those egos behind. At this point, your mechanics are decent, and you most likely have pretty good map awareness. The biggest issue here is decision making. You see so many people getting cocky and suiciding in gold that it’s ridiculous. I am being harsher about gold because these are the people who could be better if they kept trying. If you are in gold, don’t stop practicing, don’t blame others, just improve your game, play smart, and you’ll climb.

Platinum is the worst—I said earlier than gold in the home of inflated-egos; platinum is the home of people who think they are LCS players. When you get to about Plat 3, people start giving up when your team is down 1K gold and surrendering very winnable games. This is the hardest grind I’ve ever faced in league, including leveling my account to 30. Again, decision making is the most important aspect of the game to focus on here—you’re mechanics have got to be pretty good if you made it to Platinum, and you’ll well on your way to the dream—Diamond.

Diamond is the place of Gods. (Just kidding!) If you are good in diamond, you can stand out and reach the very top of the League of Legends. Teamwork is the thing you should try and work on here, but if you’ve made it to diamond, you know by now that you’ll never stop improving, that you’ll always have more to learn, and most importantly, that your game is about YOU. Never focus on your team, it will make you and them play worse.

Play for fun, play to win, enjoy the game, and you'll climb. Happy hunting, summoners!