Last time, we covered what Bronze players should focus on to improve in League of Legends. We’re continuing the series by unpacking what Silver players should focus on to improve to Gold this time! We’re going to go lane by lane and give a key tip that’ll carry you to the next tier, so be sure you tune in to see what you need to know to make it LoL’s golden grounds!

Top - Keep It Simple. Play an Easy Champion, or Stay With Your Main

Last time, we suggested learning how to trade as a Bronze Top Laner. And honestly, that’ll take you a long way. But, as players start to improve, their egos start to grow. They start to think, “Man. I bet I’m a damn good Riven despite only playing Dr. Mundo to get through Bronze,” and then they’ll immediately derail their climb out of their desire to flex their rank-up. We’re here to dissuade you from those Riven-ideations and instead keep you on the straight and narrow of, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

First and foremost, we recommend playing easy Champions all the way up through Platinum to be frank. Champions like Garen and Malphite can carry you all the way to Emerald, and even beyond Emerald if you learn how to take advantage of them properly. So, grabbing a pick that is hyper-focused on a simple gameplan is a great way to keep your mental stack low and your mind clear to adjust to games as they evolve. Easier Champions truly let the game ‘come to you’, and for that, they are rewarding to those that can come to read the ebbs, flows, and evolving win condition in Solo-Queue

Secondarily, if you’ve chosen to make your climb on that infamous Riven pick, and you’ve carried yourself up from Bronze to Silver with it - Don’t drop it now. Despite our playful banter before, you can climb on anything, and harder Champions might be a more fun and rewarding experience for you as a player. So, don’t be afraid to stick with your pick if you’ve gotten this far. We, of course, think a simpler Champion will be easier since you’re going to spend less time worrying about your micro (how to play/execute your Champion) and more worried about how to win on a macro level (winning the map via objectives), which is where we think Gold players across the board should put their focus, but we’re never ones to fault dedication. Every LoL player has a Yasuo phase at some point after all.

Jungle - Counter-Jungling

As you climb the Jungle ladder, you’ve got to learn to adapt. That means learning multiple routes, understanding the motivations of each Jungle Champion, knowing how to play around evolving win-cons, and more. One of the best habits to get into as a Jungler in any ELO though, is thinking about when you can counter Jungle.

And when we say ‘counter-jungling’, what do we mean? Well, while most players think counter-jungling is taking camps out from under the enemy’s nose before they realize it, in truth, it’s that and more. For example, counter-jungling can be sneaking the enemy’s Red while they’re clearing Blue, but it can also mean taking Grubs while they take Dragon. Or taking their Botside camps, while they gank Top. It can be simply boiled down to, “What can I do on this side, now that I see my enemy over there?”

And this is a great question to start to ask yourself. Because what you don’t want to do is to be playing to the tempo of someone else’s gameplan. Unless you’ve

made a prediction that they’ll be in X spot at Y time, then you need to be thinking, “I want to be here at _ and I think I can take _ or _ at that moment.” You want to be playing your gameplan, basically. And as you set and establish your plan, as information on locations is exposed to you, you can adapt your gameplan further.

Your, “I want to clear from Red to Blue, and then gank Bot,” can evolve into, “I’m pathing Red to Blue, but I also see the enemy Jungler cross over vision heading Top Side, so now I can solo Dragon if they show.” So, keep your eyes on that minimap, use those F-Keys to peek around your lanes, take the information given to you, and think about what you can steal from the enemy Jungler in your immediate area without threat. Before long, you’ll come to recognize typical play patterns and do those cheeky “Steal red while they clear Raptors” style plays to add to your counter-jungling repertoire.

Mid Lane - Play Towards Your Champion’s Strengths and Towards the Primary Carry

We mentioned last time that playing with your Jungler is a huge aspect of climbing the ladder. Like a Support is to an ADC, laners are that to their Jungler, with Mid being the most flexible of those assistants. But we’re going to go at a more selfish angle for our Mid Lane tip and say that you should ultimately be playing towards your Champion’s identity and personal strengths.

Many low ELO Mids get caught up on who or what needs to die first in a fight, and they often fail to think about how their Champion should execute from moment to moment. A struggle as most Mids often have the potential to delete prime carries with some form of ability combo. This ability to slam down a massive amount of damage can cause a bit of tunnel vision to occur as when games start becoming stressful and varied, you can sometimes lose sight on how you should execute your Champion in favor of what play you’re attempting to make.

For example, while an Anivia with Electrocute could catch and pop an enemy squishy, it should not be her goal. Instead, as Anivia you should still be looking to control space with your kit, not just looking for the pick and burst opportunity. Setting up walls, establishing zone control with your ultimate and Q, threatening damage or poke with each setup - executing Anivia's kit in the correct way is going to have that full combo delete play come to you faster and with less risk in comparison to strictly bush camping and looking for that style of play from the go.

And the same could be flipped towards more one-note picks like Assassins too. You don’t always have to be diving the enemy Mid or AD. Like Tanks who can choose to act as engage, follow-up, or counter-engage for their teams, Assassins can aim to help delete the picks that dive their team versus hard sending it into the enemy team’s backline for disruption. Sometimes that fed Darius needs to go down before the fed Kog’Maw can be looked at, especially if the Darius is causing more fight disruption. So, be adaptive in your target selections while utilizing your kit in traditionally stronger play patterns.

Bot Lane - Play With Your Support

This one seems silly since you’re already doing that by virtue of laning with them, but any play your Support is looking for, at least early, should have your full commitment. Why? Well, when you’re both committing, even bad plays are more likely to work out in your favor.

I know it’s hard to say to commit to bad plays, but in Solo Queue, even in suboptimal situations, if all players are playing with and towards each other, things are more likely to work out. You want to be adding your damage into that of your teammates at every opportunity you can, otherwise you’re simply not taking advantage of the raw DPS that you can output. So, until your Support's aggressive positioning, trading, or looks start to outright fail and you’re in a losing state, play with them. In states where you’re ahead or even, taking suboptimal plays together will more likely net in a positive circumstance for you, even if you disagree with the initial call.

Support - Start Roaming

As you climb the ladder at Support, what separates the good from great Supports is their ability to roam. In Silver, lane fundamentals can take you far, but Silver’s also an ELO where players start to have awareness of how to play with their leads. So, as the next role capable of ganking and supplying pressure map-wide, you should be learning as a Support when your opportunities to roam are, and how to best go about the move.

Typically, windows to roam look like:

• After securing a kill in lane
• On a reset, roaming from base is always faster than from Bot
• After a death, same as the above reset
• When the lane is frozen in your favor/the ADC is safe
• On big objective spawns

And these windows present every game regardless of whether your Champion is a ‘roaming Support’ or not. Enchanters, Mages, and Melee Supports canall roam. You just have to recognize the windows and factor how long it’ll take to get you from one location to the next. Like our above ADC tip, even if your roam timing is suboptimal, simply being an extra body at a location can help create the opportunity for your team to secure whatever play was to be made around it.

Closing

So, there you have it! A tip for each lane for all our players in Silver ELO. We hope they serve you well, and we hope that you reach your goals by the end of the season! Stay tuned here at our website for more guides, discussions, and tips and tricks from our writing staff and our Pro Players!