Are you sick of being in silver or bronze because your teammates keep you there? It might be a team game but that doesn't change the fact that you're the constant factor in each game and you can only climb if you improve yourself. This guide is going to go over the things I think are important if you're seriously looking to climb the ranked ladder and/or improve.

'Tilt'

A huge factor that affects the majority of League of Legends players in ranked, is 'tilting'. This is best described as frustration, maybe if things aren't going your way, or your teammate decides it's feeding time at the zoo. There aren't many things I could say that could stop you tilting, but I've thought of some methods you can use to deal with the situation. I wanted to go over this first as I think that it's one of the biggest factors holding lower elo players back.

First of all, if you've just lost 2 ranked games in a row, give it a break. Either go on a different game for a while, play a normal draft mode game or go do some exercises to get your mindset back on track, as no doubt you'd be tilting at this point. If you've just lost 2 and you're in a bad mindset, chances are you're going to lose the next one, and the next.

Speaking of exercising, make sure you're ready for ranked. You're going to play your best if you feel your best, so eat healthy, have some water instead of that energy drink, make sure you're feeling happy and ready to win games. Another example is don't drink alcohol before playing ranked, as chances are you'll make some misplays and frustrate your team.

I've found that I tilt way easier on my own than when I duo with a friend, so if things aren't going your way, why not ask for a duo partner for a couple of games? This will also give you a better chance of winning, as you can communicate throughout the game (and there will be one less person flaming you for missing that Rocket Grab).

Micro and Macro Play

Fancy words for two simple concepts. Clean micro and intelligent macro play wins games, simple as that.

• Micro - Individual mechanical play. This includes things like CSing, trading, ability to hit skillshots, positioning, dodging enemy skills.
• Macro - Map-wide decision making. Keeping track of ability timers, map awareness, rotational play, objective focus (dragon/baron/towers), teleport plays, jungle pathing.

- Micro

The only way you'll improve micro is with practice. You can watch videos on how to farm or trade, but they don't make a difference if you don't put them into practice. This means playing more games and using previous games to improve your next.

A huge part of games is farming. For some reason, all Silver and Bronze's want to do is fight, but while they're all in mid waiting around for someone to make a mistake, there's creeps just dying to towers top and bot lane, which is just wasting potential gold for your team. If you improve on how and when to farm correctly, you will definitely improve.

- Macro

To improve your macro play, look at your minimap as often as you possibly can. You can see laners missing as soon as they leave lane, and you might be able to spot the jungler if they walk over some of your vision.

If you think you struggle with macro play, I recommend playing support for a couple of games as you don't have to concentrate as much on CSing and can instead look at the minimap a lot more often to help make decisions. If you see the enemy jungler top then ping the Dragon, or ping the enemy bot lane. By supporting you also control vision, meaning you have the most information possible to make the best decisions at the time, such as whether to try Baron, or if it's a good time to splitpush a lane.

If you're looking to improve, the minimap is your best friend. Always keep one eye on it.

Play more games

The only way you're going to improve is to practice, and the only way to practice properly in League is to play more games. Probably the biggest factor in improving yourself as a League of Legends player is just by playing more games. However, you can't just mindlessly play more and expect to become better! Watch replays of your losses and look at why and how you lost, see what you could have done better in the game, and put that into practice in the next game.

Narrow your champion pool into maybe 2 roles, with 3 champions for each, that way you'll be very proficient on those champions so you know their matchups and have a better chance of carrying if some of your team is failing. Never go into ranked on a champion for the first time, as you're nearly guaranteed to do badly and could be the cause of a loss. Only play mechanically difficult champions if you're really good on them, as especially in lower elo, easier champs can carry quite hard (Amumu, Sona) with less of the technical strain. This also means that rather than focusing on how to play your champion, you can look at the minimap and work on your macro/micro. Another tip for lower elos (Gold, Silver and Bronze) is to play less team reliant champions like Sivir or Ivern, and simply play champions you can carry on, as everyone will be looking to carry, teamwork will be at the minimum, and your pick will go to waste.

Always remember the 40-40-20 rule. 40% of games your team will stomp, whether you get carried or you help carry. At some point, you will have to learn to be carried. Even if your laning phase isn't going well, try your best to not die and feed the enemy laner more, as maybe another laner on your team is ahead and can pull you back into the game. 40% of games you will get stomped and there's sometimes nothing you can do about it, however fed you are. If you feel a game is lost and there's nothing you can do about it, try to brush up on some techniques like last hitting or warding. 20% of the games are up to you to personally carry. This can even be done from the support role, by force feeding your carries kills and keeping them alive.

Final Tips

- Stay Alive. Even if you're struggling in lane, try your best just to stay alive so that you don't feed your laner. If you're getting completely zoned off your CS don't keep taking poke trying to get one or two, just wait for a gank or an opportunity to kill them, rather than making a 'Sick Play'. If you don't feed your laner, the rest of your team has a chance to pull you back into the game

- Game of Throws. Especially in lower elo, people don't know how to finish off games. Even if you're 20 kills, 6 towers and 3 inhibs down, one lucky ace or a misplay by the enemy team can win you that game.

- Dodgeball, the way you win is dodging the ball. In League terms, this means don't get killed, as staying alive allows you to metaphorically throw the ball back at the enemy team, because you're alive and not on a 20 second death timer.

- Become a farmer. Anyone can play badly early, give 2 or 3 kills to the enemy laner, but if you're farming a lot better than they are, that gold lead is non-existent. The only way to get better at farming is practice, whether in a normal game or against AI. Keep practicing and eventually you'll get it down to a tee. I tend to see a lot of games where people are losing farm because they keep trying to trade; If you don't have a significant advantage than the trade is just a waste of time, you really need to focus on getting those creeps, especially early!

- PTFO. The objective is to destroy the enemy nexus, it's not a team deathmatch. Too many times, I have seen people chasing Singed kills for literally a minute and they don't even get the kill. A minute is an hour in League of Legends; in that minute the team could have pushed a tower or two, taken a Dragon or Baron. There are so many better things to do than chase kills.

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