Improving Your Rank!

So, how to improve your rank. Below are some points that have helped me improve my gameplay. Just know that this is a process and not something that can be done over a day. Just like any sport, practice makes perfect and LoL is no different so if you’re looking for instant success, get that out of your mind. Some of us have to work really hard to do really well while others just have the natural talent in games and they get high rank without any research or seeking out tips. Below are my tips which have personally helped me and I hope they will help you.

Bans

Bans are something that will always help you if you're first pick. Often the current meta will have certain champions you just do not want to face. These bans change from patch to patch but you can quickly see the trend when playing ranked or doing some research on the current patch, leading to me the next point.

 

Read patch notes.

This is to just keep you updated with changes in the game. Not knowing what has changed leaves you at a disadvantage as you won't know if champions are better or worse and if items are worth buying or not.

 

Watching the pros.

Some people may disagree with me on this but watching the pros play can help you.  They often stream and give tips and tricks about the game and champions. Watching the Leagues like the LCS will make you have a better understanding of the game. For instance: positioning, champions, builds and play style are something done to near perfection by these guys and you can learn from this. Watching the pros at first is overwhelming (it was for me) but I learned a lot whenever I watched, things you will not learn at a low rank especially.

Champions/consistency

This is where you can improve a lot. When playing ranked consistency is extremely important. What I mean by consistency is picking champions you are comfortable with. I sometimes get bored and start to try new champions in ranked and often it just goes horribly wrong. By picking champions you are very familiar with, you go into the game confident and knowledgeable about your champion rather than discovering things as you play. It's something I think a lot of players do and it hurts them badly, myself included.

Small things like last hitting or understanding how a spell works can make a huge difference in the game. We all have our main lane but the problem with ranked is that you sometimes don't get the lane you want. Communicating with your team in Pick/Ban phase will help but sometimes someone will take your lane no matter what. I recommend learning at least one champion per lane. I'm not telling you to know the champion from back to front but enough to go pick any champion for any lane.

Choose easy champions as well. Ones that aren't hard to learn or you need to be good mechanics. Also just a small tip, knowing a few supports will help you wonders when you're last pick as no one wants to play it generally.

Mindset

I'm sure we all know the rage in LoL. People screaming and yelling. Do not get sucked in this! You must worry about your game and not what some person is saying. Even if it isn't to you, don't distract yourself with meaningless banter. It will make you focus less and just make you angry.

Always go into a game in a confident mood rather than a hopeless one. When you start having a losing streak, take half an hour off or the day to cool off and reset your mind. Often when you're losing a lot you will try harder which will actually make you play worse because you're forcing the issue.

Set yourself goals in game

One thing which helped me hugely was setting myself a CS goal. I told myself, I will hit a 100 CS within 15 minutes. Getting kills and being fed is awesome but if you aren't killing your lane opposition by simply beating them in CS, you go into the mid game in much better state. I often now am the highest CS just because of this goal. It forces me to make sure I do not sacrifice CS for stupid trades or get lazy last hitting. Even if you have gotten killed, if you’re doing well in CS you can come back into the game.

This is one goal I used but there are so many more. Supports with heal can make a goal that they always trade better than their opposition. Goals can be anything, as long as it is to improve something in your game that you think needs improving.
So that is my 5 "IP" on what to do to improve your gameplay. Some of it you may know, some of it you haven't. The idea of this was not to make it complicated but simple enough so that anyone can use it. It helped me and surely it will help you!