There are many things that hold someone back from achieving greatness in the ranked ladder. Some of these things include: attitude, skill, and knowledge of matchups. In this article, I will be addressing these things as well as some tips to climb the ranked ladder.

First, let's address a few things that are important in the climbing process.

Attitude

Attitude is one thing that almost everyone has issues with. League of Legends sometimes is hard to deal with mentally. For example, you have a game where you have three teammates who just give up and have no intention of trying so they start feeding to make the game end quicker. A player with a good attitude asks, "What can I do to improve my gameplay?" A player with a bad attitude does not want to learn from their mistakes and puts all the blame on other players. It is important to see the positive side of each game and try to learn from every game, even the games that seem hopeless. Teammates also can influence your mentality. If there is a teammate that is being negative in chat, do not let it affect you. Just mute them and move on.

Skill

The term skill is very broad. There are different skill levels in each tier and division you enter. Usually when you have a losing streak in a certain division, it means that there is a significant skill difference between you and the players you are up against. It is important to keep improving your skills. A few ways to improve your skill are: watching educational videos about certain positions and matchups you are struggling with, watching educational streams, get coaching, practicing in Normals (draft pick specifically), and watching the LCS. A great educational YouTube channel is LolClass. A great website for finding a coach is League Coaching. Also, you can find the LCS schedule here.

Improving your Rank

There are several ways to improve you rank. First, select two positions you want to main. In ranked, it is important to be strict with yourself in maintaining two positions that you know in great detail. Second, knowing at least two champions for the roles chosen. It is important to have at least one or two champions that you know in great detail. Flip flopping around champions does not give you the chance to learn the matchups and the constraints of the champions you decide to play. Having one champion that you can play in both roles is great! This helps you master the champion quickly and allows you to learn multiple matchups so you know the potential and constraints of the champion!

I currently main ADC (Yes, that is Brand ADC) and Top, so I try to keep to my champion pool locked down in ranked.

Matchups

Knowing matchups is a crucial detail when it comes to the laning phase. It will either tell you to play passive or aggressive towards the champion. For example, if I were to first pick Yasuo and get counter picked by a Riven I would know to play passively due to how much early game pressure Riven has on her opponents. Some ways you can learn these is by practicing and taking mental notes of what a champion is capable of. Another tool you can use is Champion.gg. This source uses statistics gathered each patch and compares champions win/loss ratios when up against certain other champions. Sometimes, a matchup is not just based on the champion, but the player. You can use op.gg to look up your live game, and see how many games players have on a certain champion as well as their win/loss ration with them. If they have a lot of games played, and a high win/loss ratio with a certain champion, it can tell you to treat the opponent with respect.

Creep Score

I cannot stress how much this is important when it comes to the laning phase. This will either make or break your laning phase. It is great if you are two kills up on your laner, but if you do not keep up with your creep score you will easily fall in both level and gold. Improving your creep score is like an art, you have to practice a lot. At the start of your gaming day, start with one or two custom games and follow these steps. Try do this every day and you should be able to improve your creep score over time.

Conclusion

Do not give up. There is room always for improvement, even at the highest level! There is always a chance for the enemy team to throw their lead, even when the game is looking grim. As long as you look at every game as a chance to improve, you will take a lot out of each game and eventually with start the climb.

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