Too often I see frustrated players take to reddit seeking help in climbing the solo queue ladder and too often they are given the same piece of misleading advice. In defense of the well-intentioned advice-givers, this particular item of wisdom is often solicited explicitly, which already reveals a flaw in the mindsets of those people asking. The advice is this: "play champions that can carry games without relying on teammates, like Fizz, Ahri, etc." Of course, they aren't totally wrong. If any of these (ostensibly higher-elo) advice-givers were dropped one day into Bronze, they could carry themselves out most efficiently playing champions like those. The problem is that their advice implicitly acknowledges the widely discredited idea of an "elo hell" – "if only I could carry my teammates, I would climb." Merely choosing a different champ is rarely a magical solution.

Still, in my experience, many people out there could be smarter about champ select. In fact, there are a number of simple changes low elo (and some high elo) players could make to their approach to solo queue that would help them squeeze out a few more wins over the course of many (30+) games. The idea here is to altogether stop being the liability. Obviously the best thing you can do in solo queue is to be amazing and carry yourself up, but improving yourself in this way requires much time and patience. It's hard to have great games, but with just a little forethought, you can stop yourself from having the very bad games.

Why am I an expert? Because I'm Plat IV and I'm really bad. Like really, really, Bronze V bad. Let's get started.

1. Know Your Champion Pool

There are many, many tools available to you that can help you see which champs work for you and which don't. The League of Legends client itself offers all of your champion statistics simply by clicking on Profile>Leagues>Your League>See More Stats. Use this information. You will probably notice that a champion's win rate and KDA correlate to some degree. Try to stick to champions you tend to win the most with - this is painfully simple advice that many people don't seem to take into account. Sites like lol.arenaonline.com (the very best one, in my opinion) even attempt to analyze your games and give you performance ratings on a per-champion-per-lane basis, helpfully excluding any games you might have played on ranked teams. If, for instance, you play Morgana as Top, Mid as well as Support, you can evaluate your solo queue Morgana play in those roles individually.

Yes these are my own stats.

2. "Main" Some Champions

You will almost certainly notice that your best stats belong to your most-played champions. This is the other painfully obvious thing that people like to ignore: you get better with champions the more you play them. Some people will tell you that you do not need to "main" a few champions, that you are fine to play as someone as long as you are basically proficient with them. The facts simply don't support this notion. Champion.gg, for instance, tracks champion win rates against the number of games played as that champion. There is some variance but the trend is clear: the more you play a champion, the more you win. It is almost always preferable to play a champion you are deeply familiar with, regardless of team comp and especially lane matchups.

"Pink Ward" takes it a little far…

Do not google "x champion counter" and pick a champion you've played a handful of times. Even if you feel competent using that champion's abilities and you think you understand the basic principles of why your champion might counter the one you're playing against, execution is another animal entirely. Experience is everything.

3. Practice

So how do you learn new champions? Normals, of course. Specifically, I prefer team builder. The queues are longer, but team builder guarantees that you will have the champion and role you intend to practice (and there's something to be said for playing a champion repeatedly, without interruption). Do it over and over. Really, over and over.

Choosing the right champion to learn is essential as well. If you play with a couple of friends, you know a guy who plays a lot of Yasuo or Riven or Vayne and his stats aren't really all that great. Easier is generally better, and that hasn't stopped being true up to the limit of my experience in Platinum IV. Brandon "Saintvicious" DiMarco said in April that if you don't know why Wukong sucks, your elo is so low that you are not capable of understanding. Maybe he's right, but this definition of low elo includes, at the very least, up to low Platinum, and I suspect probably also high Platinum and potentially some Diamond as well. So enjoy your Wukongs, your Annies and your Malphites. These straightforward champions are easy to learn and powerful climbers. Avoid nuanced champs like Riven and Shaco, where the risk of having a bad game is substantially higher. The especially smart champions to "main" are the safe laners whom you can take into almost any matchup: Ahri, Morgana, any AP Top (particularly Lulu and Vlad), any ADC with a dash, etc. The list goes on. Be aware of how well you're doing as you practice. "I got an awesome triple kill, but is this a ranked-ready KDA and CS?"

4. Have Good Teammate Relations

Nothing guarantees a loss quite like disgruntled teammates. One of the few things in this game that actually warrant a surrender are two or three bickering teammates. Once people start typing instead of playing, you can't capitalize on mistakes and comebacks are impossible. Good teammate relations begin in champion select, which I find to be especially important in Bronze and Silver. Be flexible. It's fine to main a role, but don't be one of those people who "can't" play something. If everybody has said what roles they prefer and you see a way that everybody could get something on their "pref" list, point out that arrangement. If somebody is silent, ask them if what's being left for them is OK. Diffuse conflict. If people are complaining before minions spawn, your chances of winning are significantly reduced.

5. Play Safe and Don't Surrender

This isn't about champ select but it fits along the theme of simple things you can do not to be the liability. Practice playing safe. If your team is winning, treat one-for-one exchanges like bad things. If you can harass your lane opponent(s) into backing, accept this as a victory and don't go in for dangerous kills – when you already have a CS lead, trading kills only evens up the gold. Don't linger past the halfway point in lane without ample vision. In general, think of not dying as preferable to getting kills. The best thing you can do in solo queue is limit yourself to 1 or 2 deaths.

Resist temptation!!

Lastly, exercise good judgment when considering surrender. Nobody likes dragging out a loss, but low elo games are rarely decided before 30 or 35 minutes. First ask yourself, "Can they still throw?". Don't underestimate a team's capacity to throw, especially if yours has a big AoE wombo combo that could feasibly win a teamfight if it goes right. Then ask yourself, "Are my teammates still capable of winning?". If everyone is bitching, see if you can calm them down. If not, a surrender is probably appropriate.

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