Ranked solo queue can be rough sometimes. It's stressful to have to worry about your LP gains/losses, your MMR, your champions, and the enemies champions. That's not even including the darker side of it including the ragers, the afkers, and the trolls. But there are ways to reduce the stress that is solo queue. I've written up a few pro tips that I've found have helped me in my solo queue ventures.

1. Communicate in champ select.

When you go into champ select, state your preferred roles. If there are champions that you REALLY don't want to play against, make sure to say "ban ____". If there's a role that you feel like you cannot play at all, make sure to communicate to your team and say "Hey, I can't play [insert role here]." More often than not, people are willing to work around you. Try to communicate earlier on in the draft rather than later though so people don't panic pick or get frustrated.

2. Be a positive player in-game.

It doesn't matter if the game's looking grim. Be a positive player in your games. Try your best to encourage your teammates, even if they're doing poorly. It's very common, especially in lower elos, to throw in the mid to late game. Even if the score is 1 kill to 10 in their favor, you can still win if the enemy misplays later in the game.

3. Don't play to win. Play to improve.

That's not to say you shouldn't try to win each and every single one of your games. You should try your best. Just don't let it bother you too much if you end up losing a game. Look back at the game and look at everything you did. Look at any and all mistakes that you made and try to improve on those. Eventually, you'll become a better player and climb up.

4. Take a break after losing a few games.

If you lose 2 or 3 games in a row, don't keep going at it. Most people are negatively affected when they lose multiple games in a row. If you're in that situation, take a break for a day or go play some normals or ARAM. Don't slam your head against the wall or you might tilt out of control.

Lost three games. Went into a normal instead.

5. Communicate in-game.

This is critical. One of the best ways to win games in League of Legends is to be a vocal member of your team. Make sure to be communicating where you think players are, not necessarily via typing but even with pings. Inform your team about summoners that are used. Discuss different strategies or plays that you could make. Keep timers for neutral objectives. Just make sure you're talking because it's better to be the shepherd than the sheep.

6. Focus on one or two roles but have experience on all of them.

No one expects you to master every single role in the game. However, you should have some basic knowledge on every role in case you're forced into playing it. More often than not, people are forced into support so it's best to have some knowledge on effective warding. That being said, make sure that you still focus on your main roles to perfect them. Then, referring back to the first tip, make sure to communicate that you main that role in champ select.

7. Main champions that are flex picks.

Try to play champions that can work very effectively in multiple roles. As an example, I play a lot of Nidalee. Nidalee can go top, middle, or jungle. Since I know the champions mechanics, I can effectively play her in all those roles. If I don't get jungle, I can just go mid or top instead and play the same champion. There are plenty of champions in the game that can work in at least two roles.

Morgana and Annie are both examples of very powerful flex picks.

8. Take care of yourself in real life before you go into ranked.

Make sure you're feeling up to par before you go into ranked because it'll affect your judgement in game. By this, I mean make sure that you're well rested and you've had some food for energy. Personally, I like to grab a bite to eat and take a shower before I go into ranked. It makes me feel fresh and I feel that I perform better in those circumstances.

9. Do NOT blindly follow what professional players are playing.

Just because some pro player picked up full AP Corki and it worked out for him in-game doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work out for you or work out in your team composition. A lot of the picks by pro players are calculated in the sense that they're picked with a team composition in mind. Not only that but it's highly likely that they've experimented quite a bit on those respective champions. Make sure to try those champions out in bots or normals before bringing them in ranked.

10. Ward.

Wards provide vision. Vision provides a potential for plays, safety, and prevents anxiety on a lack of knowledge on the enemies whereabouts. Make sure to be consistently placing wards by either purchasing stealth wards, using a sightstone, or upgrading your trinket at level 9 for the upgraded stealth totem. The vision is incredibly valuable and can turn the tide on the team, especially if you can force them into unfavorable situations (e.g. setting up a pick).

These tips were spread out and in no particular order. Some tips were more mental whereas others were more game focused. For the most part though, solo queue is a mental game more than anything. Do your best to follow these tips and you'll be sure to find that your ventures into solo queue will be more pleasant. Thanks for reading!