I lose a lot. It must be because I suck. I'd like to blame it on the matchmaking system or the leavers I constantly have on my team but to be honest, I MUST just suck.

HELP!!! How can i improve? I've done over 200 Normal games and now starting on Ranked games I am 13 wins and 19 loses. I like the game but guess I don't know it that well. Are there key stats you look at? Are there things to stay away from? I like to hop around to a bunch of champions but should I stick with just 2 or 3? I get bored though. Thanks for the help!

I'm in a similar situation where I like to hop between champions a lot. I own like 43, and play them all fairly regularly. However I do on occasion go on a huge losing streak, kind of like you. What I've found helps is just buckle down, don't get frustrated with your team, and find your best character. Think about what type of character you do best with (dps, tank, support) and find someone interesting that you can play for a while. Make it your goal to get better with them and learn from each game. You won't notice the losses as much, and eventually you will be good enough to push your team to victory. Alternatively, you can join the LFG channel and try to find a group, usually 3 people in a premade works for joining 5v5. Full 5 man premades are really tough opponents usually, and a longer queue. Set up a solid combo with the other 2, and you can get some good wins as well as great practice. Even if you do suck, it's better to acknowledge it and work on it than to deny it and keep playing like you're good ( we have enough of those players >_>). Best of luck (:

My problem with your advice, ithian, is this:

I play support and tank characters. I cannot carry a team as a support or a tank character. I have tried DPS. I have tried it over, and over, and over again, and I just _suck_ at it. However, I am really, really good at support/tank. It doesn't matter at all though, if the rest of the team is atrocious/ragers/griefers/noobs/etc.

What about someone like me?

As best I can tell, I should get used to never solo queueing or get really, really used to losing because my ELO is going to suck forever and I'll never be able to play in a game that's even remotely fun.

Why even bother playing at all?

Yeah I feel you guys' pain, I had a nice win record myself, was feeling pretty good about this game. Matches were close and it was never really one sided or anything, but overall I was winning more than I was losing.

I thought man, this game rocks, everyone gets a chance to play and enjoy themselves and in the end well the best team wins and everyone is mostly happy. When I lost I could see where I went wrong, and learned a little bit more.

Now I hit 11 and I seem to get matched all over the place, I'm seeing a lot of champions I've never seen before and I get matched against people that seem to really know their stuff.

And, while my stats tend to be pretty good and I feel I have a pretty decent grasp of the game (for a relative noob) I've been getting steamrolled for a lot of games. I know it's not a huge streak but it's just freaking depressing as hell. What am I supposed to learn from this? Click the "Play" button in a way that makes the match more fair?

I don't know what it's about, if I'm getting matched against premades and am "expected to lose" since we have lower ELO... Or if it's just a different pool of players and I'm supposed to "learn the hard way", but something is definitely different.

I was really singing the praises of this game to everyone I know, now I'm thinking of just quitting and saving myself the frustration.

I probably won't and I'll probably just keep bashing my head against the wall of defeats. But it really sucks.

200+ games? em, why are you in new players forum? lol

@Aleser

yep, lvl10-15 is a really big gap, this is when you start to see non-weekly rotation champions, it's okay to lose in this phase, but i suggest you to read all champions description and watch Riot Champion Spotlight and understand how they basically works and what to watch out for, ex. blitz's grab, Ezreal's skillshots, Alitair's knock in the air + knock back towards turrent combo, Shen Stand United etc, so you won't be surprised in an early 1v1 or 2v2 situation. knowing your enemies is the first step towards conquering them. And in 5v5s, don't feel bad to hug towers, as long as you don't feed, it's gonna be alright, leave the rest to your hopefully pro teammates, wait them to help you gank.

Knowing many champions is actually a very good thing for Ranked Games. You want to select champions based on what your team needs, not what you want to play. Team composition plays a big part in winning games.

It's best to have one tank, 2-3 DPS and 2-3 Mages. You want to have more than one stun on the team, some slows help, but hard CCs are the best (not roots, like Morgana's bind or Ryze's cage). Disables like silences and taunts are also very effective for crowd control. When you are in ranked games, look at your team's composition and figure out what your team needs to be better, and pick a champion that will best contribute to your team. Encourage your teammates to do so as well, let them know what the team needs and suggest they pick a champion that helps the team.

Seeing as you play a lot of champions, I think you should know all the champions quite well, and their strengths as well as weaknesses. If you don't, then I suggest you play them in normal games to understand what they can do better, so that you know how to pick to counter them in Ranked Games. While some champions might be OP before better balancing, they are not impossible to counter, and you have to take advantage of that.