Choosing the Right People for your Ranked 5v5's Team

There are many ways to build a good League of Legends Ranked 5's team. There are a few ways to build a GREAT League of Legends Ranked 5's team. Building a team is all about getting a group of people that are not only skilled but have communication skills and work well with others. What makes a great 5's team is the idea that you can do your job and be able to rely on your teammates to do the same. With that being said, it is not safe to assume that just because you have succesful Solo Queue players will insure your success on the Ranked 5's scene. 5 great players with great communication skills is just the building blocks for a succesful team.

 

1. Finding Members for your Team

Finding members for a team can be very difficult at times. People are hard to successfully pick out as potential team players and can only be truly pinpointed as the person you want for the team if you first allow them to play games with you and the team. Elo and history can only show so much granted there are truths laid within. Deep analysis and spectating potential players for your team can help tremendously if you are concerned about someone joining your team. 

Whining/Complaining: Whining is the most counter-productive thing for a team. People complain for various reasons, winning or losing it doesn't allow anyone to have a good time which is no matter what game mode, why we play League of Legends in the first place.

Ragers: Ragers are the worst, simply stated if a person cannot handle losing a game and learning from the experience by criticisms and productive help from the team, then they shouldn't be involved in your team at all. Which brings me to my next point.

Losing: Losing is not counter-productive at all as long as you learn from the mistakes made and work with your team in order to find a successful solution, saying it was someone's fault and then moving on doesn't do anything but can cause a drastic negative effect towards you and your teammates.

Trolls: Not to be confused with having a good time, someone that trolls your team consistently and doesn't play his role in the way it should be played should be an instant no vote and probably shouldn't be on your team. 

Non-committed individuals: A person who is on a team is dedicated to that team and should be there for the team when called upon. Showing up is the number one problem for people around the world today because they have a lack of focus and sense of duty to the team. If your tryout teammates can't commit to practice sessions or team meetings, they probably won't be a good fit. Having a 6-8 man roster could help as having substitutes can come in handy.

Lower-Elo Players: I personally think allowing Lower-Elo Players onto a team is a great idea! Teach someone in a normal game is great and all. It just doesnt give the same expierience as ranked, less chance of running into a troll enemy team. We allowed a bronze friend of ours into our Platinum Ranked team. I know it seems crazy but, we turned it into a teaching session for him. We would put him in the jungle to avoid feeding the enemy team and allowing him to AFK farm while explaining what each respective lane was doing and how it worked. Within just a few weeks of this the player reached Silver Elo and I can honestly say it is because of the lessons we would give him.

 

2. Practices

Practices should consist of strict time management. Get what needs to be done, done. There are many things you can do in practices to help better the team inevitably:
1. Analyze replays of livestream footage from last practice. Live streaming helps a lot because you can see what went wrong last game and fix it for the next game.
2. Make your teammates play characters they are struggling to master, more practice never hurts them.
3. Work on staying together and communicating on objectives, (Blue, Red, Dragon, Baron, etc.) talking and being able to communicate well is essential for a successful team.


3. In-Game

Champion Select is where all communication beings. I wouldn't necesarily say to ban out the 3 most OP champions. For instance at this current time I would ban out Sejuani and then then two laners that could potentially give one of your lanes a very hard time. Banning something just because it is "OP" is never a good idea. Just take one of your bans to do that. Play your best and don't ever give up a game you can remotely come back from. This will be discussed more in the next section as your Team Leaders/Shot callers will be making most of the decisions outside of lane.

4. Team Leaders

This is important for all of the team captains. If you can't maintain control of your team it is very difficult to get things done. As a leader you need to make sure they respect you enough to listen to your calls when they are made regardless if the call being made is good or not. If they don't respect you they will never listen to you, which brings up the point that you have to EARN respect through your actions and should not assume that they will listen to you automatically. Dedication to your team and committing to anything they need help with will get you to where you want to be. If you are having problems with an individual talk to them and if the decision comes where you have to remove someone from the team for various reasons, then you have to be the person who makes the call.

It sucks being the bearer of bad news and the face to be blamed but as a leader and someone who has the best interests for your team it needs to be done. You'll find success eventually, but it takes time. Just because you created the team doesn't necesarily mean you would be the best captain. Typically you want to have 2-3 shot callers. The Jungler should almost always have a role in shot calling as he has the biggest grasp on neutral objectives but also is prevelant on all points of the map. The support should as well be a shot caller as they makes plays around the map while also has the heavy weight of protecting their carry. Mid/Top also make good shot callers so pick between which player you think is the better leader. The ADC really shouldn't be calling shots as his main focus is just farming and throwing out damage per second from a safe distance and can become confusing for the player if he is in the back just throwing out auto attacks and trying not to die.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, now you know how to pick the right people for your ranked 5's team. Along with watching professional play try braching out and watching the NA and EU challenger series and even the Collegiate scene as well. These teams are no different than yours. They are striving to climb the ranked ladder and striving to be one of the top teams in their prespective regions. Once you have found the team you are happy with is when you should start going in and practicing. You can take your specific role and practice in Solo Queue. That's the beauty of Ranked 5's. You have more that you're playing for as you have two ladders to climb. Good luck finding the right team mates and your road to a high elo team. Remember, communcation is key!