A Low Elo Guide to League of Legends by Kaptain Kaster



League of legends is a world renowned game with millions of players in its player base. We all start out the same; confused and fumbling trying to understand the idea of a moba, items and specific champion abilities and its always a journey. There so much to learn and after you start improving even a little its an incredibly rewarding feeling. We get a little confident after we win some games and decide to take on the monster that is ranked, and a lot of us get stuck at the very bottom. We get frustrated and don’t understand why. More times than not we blame the people around us and League of Legends has become known as a toxic community because of it. I've been playing this game for a good four years, and have got 4k (ranked and normals) games under my belt and I've learned a lot. This guide is a general outline for climbing ranked solo q based on all the information I've gathered from the countless and sometimes misleading resources about League of Legends. My genuine hope is to relieve some of the pressure knowing how much time and energy this game takes. I hope I can save you some stress and help you see the big picture.

Efficiency and average of games
So before anything in game specific I want to address some broad mindset stuff like an average of games. I see it all the time in bronze/silver tier and I've even done it myself for a while. You play one or two ranked games and unfortunate things happen and you quit playing ranked for months. We focus on specific games and performances rather than our own growth, so we tilt and never get to experience real improvement and don’t understand why. Any coach or higher elo player will be confused that your actually trying to rank up if you only have 50 ranked games(even if you have 200 that's still not a lot). Everything I'm about to tell you is to increase efficiency if you discipline yourself and strive to achieve efficiency then even if the results aren't immediately apparent, over a large average of games you'll become more consistent and show improvement overall and eventually start gaining momentum on the ranked ladder. So don’t focus on that one bad game that you had a Aatrox that fed. Focus on yourself, your awareness, and your stats. This is one of the hardest and most healthy ideas to get your head around.

Champion Pool
There's a strange stigma in low levels of gaming on "low skillcap" characters. In any game that’s competitive there's someone bashing another player for using a "no skill" or "braindead" character. So in League newer players are scared off of playing easier and more efficient champions. This is really bad because if your climbing why would you ever make your job harder? I also understand if you just like a certain champion but if your not willing to do what's best then your not serious about climbing and your not good for the player base. There's so much to pay attention to in league. The big picture objectives and the moment to moment decisions so there is nothing to gain from putting yourself or your team at risk by playing something you have a higher chance of failing on. You'll be so focused on the champion specific mechanics  that you won't be effectively learning them or the core mechanics of the game itself.



This is a tier list especially made for climbing in ranked by LS or Last Shadow whom is a valuable resource for this game. He even explains why these picks are good and what kind of play they promote.

The art of "Dodging"
We all know lower elo can be a  chaotic place and even if someone knows their and your rank is on the line they will feel content in picking Teemo top in your promo because "they promise they're a good Teemo". The idea that you can "win with anything in low elo" is misleading because while technically yes it is possible but YOU as a player trying to improve, and/or climb the ranked ladder are trying your best to increase your chances of having a stable game. Luckily in case you didn’t know it only cost 3lp and five minutes of your time to save yourself from that headache altogether. Second dodge is 10lp and 25 minutes. If you dodge during a promo it counts as a loss. However the kicker here is that you don’t lose MMR and MMR is many times  more important than lp. Your MMR or "matchmaking rating" is the value that determines who you get on your team in a ranked game. Higher MMR means better players and better chances at gaining momentum and winning games. So if you see something that’s really a death sentence in champ select just X out and go grab a snack or a nice warm drink, take a deep breath and maybe toss some of either into a lit hearth to Tyche.

The "Carry Mentality" and "Going Even"
There's this idea that's been passed down by more skilled mid-higher tier players to the lower tier players that in lower elo you can just play high damage and carry the game. This is true for someone who belongs in a high rank, not the thousands of player who actively inhabit the lower tiers. Players with this kind of "carry mentality" tend to be unstable because of the amount of pressure they place on themselves and are just that much more likely to tilt. Please don’t do this to yourself, not for anyone else but the sake of your own sanity. Going even is the first goal you should have especially in the laning roles (adc, mid, top) because what your trying to emphasize on is your ability to identify and punish mistakes by your opponent. Even though its true that you can in fact do well and carry, it almost entirely relies on things that are out of your control which makes them suboptimal and less likely to work over your average of games. It's like gambling you have a chance to hit the jackpot but in the end the house always wins.

Patience
Being patient is one of the hardest things to do in league of legends because the idea of "being patient" in league of legends is somewhat obscure and depends on the situation. A lack of patience can however lead you to take risks and make mistakes that you don’t ever need to make. For example: if your side of the map has waves pushing into it and jungle camps up, why would you ever go face check a cloud drake? In a broader sense cs is everything, and the amount of resources that are simply left on the table in low elo games is astonishing sometimes. Even if your already winning how does more gold and experience in a game hurt you? Even when there are objectives like important drakes, rift herald or baron on the map they should all be pathed to and approached in an opportunistic manor (i.e. the enemy jungler dying or being on the opposing side of the map or when your team controls the side with vision and tower pressure).

"The Second Torch"
If your ever losing or in a situation where you don’t know how to close the game there's a rule of thumb that will help you keep getting cs and more importantly give you less of a chance to make the mistakes that will make you lose.



In the lane there are torches on the walls and the second one in mid lane marks the limit of where you should go because all that matters if your losing (and to be honest if your winning too) is gold, so you cs your lanes and jungle while protecting your base.  The idea is to stabilize the game while keeping your gold income steady, and wait for the enemy team to come to your side to fight. In this way you'll wait for the enemy team to "hang themselves". By fighting on the side of the map you control where they'll likely make mistakes you can capitalize on, eventually letting you just push for game.


The big picture here is that you want to manipulate as much of the game as you can while staying focused on yourself and your own growth. I hope these ideas will help you on your way to becoming a better player and more importantly helps relieve some of the mental stress that comes from dedicating the time that it takes to play this game. And remember you cant win them all but you can reflect and be better next time. Gl Hf in your games guys.

P.S. if you want to expand on these ideas and learn role specific stuff i recommend ls because he's blunt, factual and entertaining.
Ls Youtube
Ls Twitch
https://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/

Also pro builds if your picking up something new and don't know the build path.
ProBuilds

Oh and my op.gg so that you can see that this advice works.
Kaptain Kaster

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