Now that we are 4 months into season 6 with the new solo queue game mode being somewhere around the corner...hopefully, I’d like to give my 2 cents on how to climb the ladder effectively. Whether or not you're looking to improve, gain elo, or a combination of both, as a player within the top 1% of players in NA, I feel as if I have some pretty good advice that can help any player at any elo gain a few more wins under their belt to secure the ranking they are striving to achieve. If you're just playing ranked for the fun of it and improving doesn't apply to you, then I suggest clicking away from this article right now because this information probably won't affect you; however, if you’ve read this introduction and these words relate to you then prepare to take notes because there’s a good bit of info headed your way!

I’d like to divide my tips to climbing into multiple articles due to having a lot to say about specific tips to winning solo queue. There’s a lot that goes into climbing and though I feel many of these tips have been touched on I’d like to go more in depth into each idea to give players a better understanding of what many high elo players mean when they say things such as “pressure the map” and “extend your leads”. With that being said let’s get into it!

Tip #1: Be aware of mentality.

First thing that everyone wanting to climb needs to be aware of is mentality. Now, I’m sure you’ve all seen this one before but it needs to be ingrained in everyone’s head if they are actively striving to rank up. Healthy mentality is key to success. This principle reigns supreme in every aspect of life. A healthy mindset will result in positive results in a timely fashion. Having a poor mentality in a competitive game will cause one to tilt faster which is never optimal. This will cause you to lose game after game and tank your mmr making it more difficult to climb.

Tip #2: Learn from each game instead of raging.

Take every game with a grain of salt. Win or lose, carry or be carried, there are lessons to learn from every single game. Do not approach each game with the mindset of “I have to win” or “I have to carry”. Do approach each game with the mindset of “I will focus on playing well”. Do not go for flashy plays or high risk high reward situations. Instead, focus on playing solid as a rock every game. The wins will come. If you consistently play well, that’s 1/5 of your team having some sort of a lead every game. If you feel you consistently play well and you still lose more games than you win, then there’s something else you could be doing. Whether it be pressuring a turret, warding more, or extending your lead to other lanes, League of Legends is a team game and if the rest of your team is failing, you have to try and facilitate their success. Also, if you consistently play well and lose games, do not flame your team and tilt. We all have been guilty of this in the past, but remember the setup of the ranking system.

The system is designed to match players of roughly the same skill level together. This means that regardless of if you feel like you're better than everyone around you, in fact even if you are, everyone else is roughly the same skill level. This means, whether or not the people around you win lane is a coin toss. If you always win lane, chances are you're better at laning than most people in your elo; however, everyone else in that elo is not and you shouldn’t flame them for losing a coin flip matchup.

We all rage. We all flame people on our teams when they make sub optimal plays and dumb mistakes. However, flaming, though it has proved to being effective on the Korean server, will not get you far on the western ladder. If you're wondering why, it’s due to egos and people getting their feelings hurt. No one likes to be flamed and people think they're better than they are. This means, there is no reason to flame if no one is going to listen and change their play style immediately.

Tip #3: Difference in flame.

Majority of people who flame tend to be lower elo players meaning that chances are, they don't even know what they're talking about. Even if someone says “hey stop running in and dying”, sure they are probably right, however what’s the next move? Solo queue games are filled with mistakes that are not capitalized on. The lower the elo, the more mistakes. This is the reason why a large portion of games in lower elo will be stalled out to 40+ minutes. Sure running into the enemy team and dying is incorrect, however, if you're stalling a game and not pushing any advantage then there might be something else you should be doing and someone needs to make that something happen sooner than later.

In higher elo, people tend to rage heavily at one another due to suboptimal mistakes. It might be ok if the flame went something like “Hey you died because you didn’t have a ward. Remember to ward next time.” However, people tend to constantly harass players which leads to sub optimal game play. Raging induces tilt and tilting causes slumps. Raging at teammates also takes time to type to them and they will probably stop to type back at you too. This leads to conversations and arguments that takes focus off the game and puts it on your teammates in a negative way. It’d be best to not say anything because now more than one person has less focus on the game which lowers the chances of a victory screen. Communicate with pings rather than words. This does not mean to spam ping and annoy your team. This will also lead to tilt and is seen as more immature. Just type less and play more.

Hopefully this gives a better understanding of having a good mentality when grinding through the ladder. Sometimes it’s better for people to take breaks in between games when they feel frustrated. Other people, such as myself, keep playing and try to access what we’re doing wrong. Either way, go into each game as a new game. Last game happened and cannot be changed. The only factor you can change is yourself and if you keep seeking progress, the wins will come. Good luck on the Rift!

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