Greetings Summoners,

I'm assuming you're reading this thread because you want to learn some tips and tricks about ranked. Let me tell you, ranked sucks. It's full of bad players, trolls, and clueless individuals who ruin the game. But let me tell you, overcoming it all is an amazing feeling, and I know it personally. Last season around June, I was down to 1050 elo and realized I was doing something wrong. This guide will explain what changes I made and how they benefited me as a player. I ended up gaining about 600 elo by September. So in roughly 60 days, I gained 600 elo or 10 elo every day (games were 12 elo a win at this point.)


Anyways, this guide will help you gain knowledge that will ensure you improve as a player as well as your elo. If you have any additional questions, comments, concerns after reading, please post as a reply and I'll do my best to answer. Anyways, let's get started!


Section 1: Before Playing Ranked

I see far too many players jumping into ranked well before they're ready. This is the most common way I see people drop to low elo. Before you even try your hand at ranked, I suggest you meet the following requirements. They're not mandatory obviously, but I would recommend trying to meet all of them before your next ranked game!


1.1 Champions

Although the minimum requirement is only 16, you seriously need to own around 30-40 champions before touching ranked. This is for a few reasons. The first is you probably won't get the role you want always. Be prepared to play top, mid, ad or jungle. Know at least 2-3 champions extensively (50+ games on them) for each role. That equates to roughly 600 games of League.


1.2 Champion Builds

Too many times I see players with no clue how to properly build a champion. I've seen Leblanc with 4 blasting wands, Lee Sin with one of each doran's and veigar with a sunfire cape. Take the time to look up some guides on the internet and learn how to build champions. I'd highly suggest visiting http://www.solomid.net as they have the best and most guides for League. They show you runes, masteries, items, everything.


1.3 Games

I jumped into ranked after roughly 300 games of League. I now have over 1500. Let me tell you, this season's placements were far easier then last seasons because of experience. I'm not saying you need 1500 games before ranked but I'd say play atleast 600 - 700 games. I know you might have to play more normals but it'll help.


1.4 Normal Draft

I'd say the final step before even touching ranked would be playing normal draft. It has all the features of ranked except you don't gain or lose elo. You can see the draft feature, how picking works and all that stuff. Oh just wait till you see some of those trolls.



Section 2: Pre-Game

So now you're in your first ranked queue and hit accept. Damn you're excited! Follow these rules to help make it easier.


2.1: Role Selection

When you first get into the lobby, see what # you're picking. If you're 1, 2 or 3, chances are you can get your desired role. If you're 4 or 5 it's not likely. Sometimes you still will be able to but at low elo people just don't co-operate. You'll run into the 5th pick troll who says top or feed. It happens. This is why you're trained for 4 roles. DO NOT SUPPORT EVER. Not until the 1400's anyways. Just can't carry at low elo as a support. Call your role and pick your champ. At lower elo's, counter-picking doesn't matter to much but try not to take a melee champion vs. a ranged.


2.2 Dealing With Trolls

So some 5th pick says Mid or Feed. Now yes, the pick order does mean you can take mid if you want but it's just not worth it. Just give the guy his spot because he'probably bad as it is or he's good and will carry. If he's bad it was expected, and at least he's trying instead of trolling. If he's good it's just a bonus,



Section 3: In-Game

Now you're in-game. God help you.


3.1: Ganking / Map Awareness

- Don't push your lane. This means only last hit the creeps, don't continuously auto them.
- As a jungler, try to gank lanes that are over-extended instead of even lanes.
- Gank lanes that ask for help
- Don't gank a lane where someone has below 40% HP
- If your jungler comes to your lane and you have low HP ping him back and if he goes in, don't follow.
- Don't expect MIA's. Call yours.
- If you're over-extended, keep an eye on the other lanes. If mid goes MIA, back off.


3.2 DONT

- Don't ***** or whine in all chat. No one cares. Only baddies rage in all chat
- Don't tell people about your 'main account.' If it exists, why are you in such a low elo
- Don't blame anyone.
- Don't reply to trolls
- Don't tell the others what they;re doing wrong. For some reason, people in LoL can't admit when they;re wrong
- Don't tell your mid to call a damn MIA, learn to watch your damn map.
- DONT CHASE 1 ENEMY. PLEASE.
- Don't Tower Dive unless its an obvious kill
- Don't split push like a hero when your teams mid (unless you're teemo, nid, or TF)
- Don't follow your team in if they're just gonna die
- Don't prioritize Dragon / Baron over towers. Towers win games.
- Don't experiment in ranked. Do it in normals


3.3 DO

- Ward
- Encourage your teammates
- Make calls such as baron, turrets etc.
- Ward
- WARD (got it yet?)



3.4 How to Win Games

This really isn't a secret. To escape elo hell, you simply need to be so damn good you can carry. Yes, some games are uncarriable but it is mathematically proven that the more games your K is positive, the more you win. You need to punish players for their mistakes. At low elo, players make a lot of mistakes. If you can recognize and punish them, you'll win a lot more then you lose. The higher you go the less mistakes are made because if they are, they die and its far more costly in higher elo games.


3.5 How to Carry

Just make plays. If you're playing mid, try to play Kat or Akali. Push your lane when top / mid is over-extended then go gank. Play a strong CC jungler (Maokai, Amumu) and gank often. Play AD Carries with escapes like Corki or Ezreal because chances are your positioning isn't the greatest. Focus the CLOSEST ENEMY TO YOU AS THE ADC. Games I went 24-2, 14-2 were wins. 9-9, 7-5 etc. isn't hard enough carrying. You need to snowball other lanes or snowball yourself.


Section 4: Conclusion

I'd suggest trying the steps above before your next ranked game. If you have any questions, comments, concerns etc. Feel free to ask!


TLR You're bad and that's why you're at a low elo. Get good.

Nice read! Section 2.2 I think is a little unfair. I know we should be compromising but giving in to somebody that is being immature to ruin the team because of their selfishness SHOULD NOT get their way.

On another note in role selection, people should really consider swapping champions to avoid counter picks. I'm thinking if you are 1400+ but that's just my opinion. Communication is one of your strongest tools!

Support can't win games? I hate you section 2.1!

If the enemy leaves lane, shouldn't you strategically auto-attack/ last hit the minions to their tower so they lose exp before recalling yourself?

Very nice guide, will deffinitly try to follow this guide in any upcoming ranked! ^^

I disagree with a number of your points on a fundamental level, but only under certain conditions. First " Don't push your lane. This means only last hit the creeps, don't continuously auto them." With good ward coverage, which you should have if you are attempting to be better, many champs do not farm well under towers, and this can reduce their cs in a lot of cases. The point of the laning phase is two-fold, do not die (this is super important), and get an advantage in CS. In lane you should attempt to do one of two things, depending on your vision, either freeze your wave just outside of your tower range, which is optimal when your opponent can be bullied, but could also cs freely under the tower (and you do not know where the jungler is), or push to the tower so they cannot cs freely (unless they can reliably get the lasthits within the towers cadence of shots). Nextly, while it is true that many player at lower elo are simply unable to effectively carry, this does not diminish the role of support in my opinion. Supports generally present their lane partner with better opportunities if they are skilled, and these opportunities on the bot lane can easily yield 2 objectives if you have a competent jungler. If we assume all things made equal, the likely hood of having you lane partner bad, and you opposing lane good is somewhat slim. While there are plenty of bad adc players out there, a support that feeds will almost assuredly lose your lane, and then you will be behind, even if you are good at your role. Better to try and snowball your lane and you team imo. All-told, your take on the attitude portion of it is spot-on. To hear more from Kubz, or myself, visit, http://www.onecastgaming.com
We have plenty of material like this.