First off, I would like to welcome everyone to this build/guide to understanding Elo hell and how to get out of it, from my understanding, and how I think it should be.

My name is Qkyuu, same as it is here, on League and I am currently at 1039 Elo. By no means, am I anywhere near getting out of elo hell yet, but I have come to the conclusion, that every game I play will be ranked until I can get out of it. My elo has gone from 900 to 1110 and back down to 1039 now all within the past two months of hard-work. I've seen many a things that I have thought where good, and things that I have thought were bad and needs to be fixed so I would like to think that I know a little bit about how people's minds in this elo work.

But, I digress. Enough of my ramblings of introduction and trying to get you to read this guide all the way through by getting you hooked. Shall we?

Everything has rules, whether they be spoken, written, or unspoken that one does not want to violate without consequences. Elo hell, and this game in general, is no different. We have the ToS and User Agreement, in example. But there is another set of rules, deep down that need to start being enforced by us the players if we want out community's strength to continue to grow. Both in the quality of the players on our beloved game, and the quantity of the players.

Of course... This whole "Unspoken" rules thing might just be in my head... But I would like to think that others share my ideal game and so... On with the rules!

---- The Unspoken Rules ----
1) Do NOT get angry.
- Getting angry does nothing but makes one look like an idiot. Especially when one starts yelling at his or teammates and degrading them. It makes everyone angry as well, makes them hostile and unwilling to co-opporrate with the one yelling which is another bad thing. If you feel yourself getting angry, try to calm down. Use breathing techniques for example. Only if you absolutely must, should you leave a game. Sometimes, taking yourself out of the situation that is making you angry is the only way to go at it.

2) This is a team game! Use Teamwork!
- This being a team game, the next most imortant rule is this: Don't forget your not alone. A player should work with their teammates to help them better themselves, and in the long run, the whole team as well as the one helpping in the first place. When one works with his or her teammates, one can set up a beautiful trap to gank or surprise the enemy team which leads to victory if the team continues to work together. Don't forget them. They are your comrade in arms and if they succed, you succed. If they fall, you fall.

3) Do not get depressed if the game is going bad.
- Everyone has their off days. Even the pros can play a bad game once and awhile. Making mistakes over and over is part of what makes us human. We learn from those mistakes and then we can fix them so that the mistakes don't happen again. Each mistake is a learning experience. Take it instride and think of how one could've fixed the mistake instead of getting angry and yelling at others. Don't become withdrawn when someone starts to offer you advice. They are trying to help you.

4) Always Ward!
- It is not solely the job of the tank, jungler, or support to buy wards and place them. When I play I usually buy a ward every time I go back and have extra cash. Wards are what will help you and your team to win by allowing you all to have uptodate information of the movements of the enemy team.
-- Warding TIP: Remember to place your wards well. You want to get as many routes and important information from the range of the ward. Do not place a ward in the bush if it cuts off your view of more routs than the one with the bush. A good place to position wards are in crossroads such as the tri bushes at top and bottom and between Baron and Blue, and Dragon and Blue on each side of the river.

5) Always Call Mia!
- A quick Mia call can save a teammates life. Being aware of where your opponent is can help your team. Watch your lane and bushes and always try to give as much information to your team as fast as possible. I personally call Mia after about 3 to 5 seconds of not seeing the opponent and immediately type out my thoughts and intuitions to the team of his movements until they can be confirmed.

6) Be Aware!
- Sometimes a teammate is... slow on calling things such as Mia or if the enemy team is doing dragon or baron. Always be sure to glance at your minimap every few seconds, even if you don't fully get a good luck other than your lane and the bushes. Making sure that you personally know where everyone is makes it easier for everyone else to know as well.

7) Know Your Champions.
- I have several characters that I play, all of which I know of at least two builds for depending on the character. Knowing the champions that one plays inside and out can change the outcome of fights against players who are using champions who are more powerful than others but have a lesser experience with that champion than you do using yours. In short, just because they have a bigger gun, if they don't know how to use it, its useless. Knowing how to use the gun can change the battle for even a small gun can change the tide. Knowing these things about your champions will allow you to help others who also play those champions.
- Memorize the skills of the more popular champions choosen. Singed's Poison trail for example. Memorize that Singed's Poison trail lasts for X Seconds behind him, costs X Mana to keep going, and does X Damage. Even if your guess on the damage or round it, you will then have a pretty good idea of how to counter that skill now.
- Memorize what each champion is. For example, Nasus can be a Tank, DPS, or Hybrid DPS/Tank and Taric can be a Jungler, Support, or Tanky Support, in short APj-Support.
- Memorize where each champion does best. Nida excells at laning top, mird, and bottom. Supporting, or DPSing. Nasus excells at Solo Top because of his Q farm but is an okay jungler and can mid if he absolutely has to.
- Memorize common tactics. If the enemy team traps you at dragon because of a ward, be aware that its happened before. Come prepared to learn the enemy team's thought process and the things the composition of the enemy team can do each and every game but make connections to previous games. AListar/Vayne Bot is a devistating duo. Its been done multiple times. Take your knowledge of how strong it is and what they can do and apply it to your own tactics to counter them.
- Memorize common Champion combos. Vayne and Alistar is a good example. Alistar has two hard disrupts/CC, Headbutt and Bash (I don't remember the exact name so we'll be calling it that for the moment), and Vayne has her own knock back. Imagen Ali Flashing to an enemy champion, bashing them into the air, quickly moving behind the champion and headbutting them to Vayne, who then tumbles behind the enemy champion again and knocks them further back and into the tower. Even if the enemy champion gets out of the tower range, he or she is essentially dead due to Vayne's damage output, and if they are level 18, Alistar's abilities are now off of CD, which gives him time to bash and headbutt again, which in turn allows Vayne to knock back. And then, it just repeats until (A) That champion dies, or (B) The champion's team somehow rescues him or her.

8) Know a champion of each 'role.'
- Knowing a champion for each role will greatly increase your experience, one, and two, your worth. Someone who doesn't know how to do ea role with at least one character, is limited to the characters they do know, which ruins the team's chances. If first pick knows everything, but decided to Mid, and last pick didn't speak up, but only knows how to mid with Anivia, the everyone else who has already picked has to adjust to the player. The First pick might now have to go bottom since he picked TF and TF can do either AD or AP, for example. I try to make it my mission to know as many champions as possible and at least one build for those champions as well as any tricks I see in-game from other players.

9) Its a game. Treat it like one.
- League of Legends is a game. It is meant to be played for fun, even if there is a 'competitive' side to the game. As with every game, if you get angry at the game, or are not happy or having fun with it anymore, take a break. Having a level head and remembering why you first started playing can change your whole attitude and be the difference between win and lose.

10) Speak up. We don't read minds!
- Always speak up about what you want to play, or think would work. We can't read minds and if we accidentally ban your favorite champion, its not our fault if you don't speak up. Now, that's not to say the champion won't still be banned if your last pick and a higher pick doesn't have the character you have the character the higher wants to be traded.

11) Always say "GG"
- Showing good sportsmanship is always appreciated and welcomed in any game. Whether it be baseball, or an online game. If you lost, even if its due to DC, Leavers, Trolls, or just bad players, say GG. Being rude and saying "BG" at the end of a game makes you look like an... Rather colorful word I am sure I can't say on this site. Do not say "GG" early either. The opposing team might just pull it around. And even if its clear they won't, wait till the end of the game. Its rude, and infuriating to see a person say "GG" or "BG" way early on in the game just because something goes wrong or the team is doing bad at an aspect. Don't brag about how a game was "Easy" either. You play this game to have fun. When you brag and rub something in someones face, it takes the fun out of the game for them. Try to keep your attitude respectful. Remember that on the other end of those tiny moving pixels is a real person.

12) Do NOT EVER play a champion the first two weeks he or she is released.
- I would suggest getting used to a champion before you use them in a Ranked game, even if you think you know them. It isn't worth being called a noob if you do bad due to teammates failing, or you just have a bad game. A champion you know how to play better is more suited for ranked games. I rarely buy new champions anymore, though I am working on buying them all, but when I do buy them, or want to try them out during free-week, I always play two games of bots before moving onto a normal game or two before I put him or her on the shelf until about two weeks later unless I feel that I am EXCEPTIONALLY good with that character, much like swain. During Swain's free-week I played 30 ranked games in total to buy him.

Now lets go through a quick introduction of the champions above, their builds and how I play them. Not an in-depth look mind you.

Nasus -
Playing currently as a jungler. Great power and staying to get more exp from the jungle from Nasus' massive lifesteal thanks to his passive and the power behind his Q hits. Minions are less likely to be killed by someone or something else, in the jungle. Nasus can really farm his Q steadily. Great ganks thanks to wither. Uses a lot of mana and must usually sacrifice using Spiritfire if Nasus does not have blue. Nasus, is easily the most OP character in the game beside Veigar. The reason for this? His Q, Siphoning Strike. With each minion kill or kill in general with it, the power behind it goes up 3 points with no cap on how high the damage can go. The longer the game, the more powerful Nasus is. Even if the game is not going well in the beginning, keep at it and remember to farm your Q.

Singed -
Playing currently as a Solo top. Very nice passive which works well with the cost of his poison trail and other abilities. Singed's Passive is to turn every X point of mana into 1 Health which gives him staying power and higher health than other tanks. The more mana, also means the longer Singed can use his poison trail which usually translates to how long he can stay in lane before he has to go back for mana or HP since he can't harass the enemy team or farm w/o poison trail really.

Swain -
I play Swain as a mid. I've seen him played as a support, and have personally played him as a support character, however, he excels at going mid. Swain's ultimate lets him heal very quickly for a lot if minions or enemy champions are around due to the ultimate's spell vamp. Coupled with a Will of the Ancients, the spell vamp can completely heal Swain with only the sacrifice of half of his mana which he can quickly regain from Chalice, Blue, or even his passive if he last hits a lot.

Tryndamere -
I play Tryndamere as a jungler. I take smite and ghost, as with most if not all of my junglers. I usually start off with a cloth armor and 5 health potions. With Tryndmere I forgo the usual route and start off at the enemy's Wraiths. I walk through our jungle and the river, staying out of sight as much as possible. Check the two bushes and then stand in the bush closest to the lane, near the middle of the bush so that your vision range is enough for early warning. Since I get Bloodlust first, I have to be really careful of the gank here since I have abandoned flash as much as possible. The range of flash was small before, but now its even smaller with a longer cooldown. Tryndamere can also be a strong champion on top though. I've seen him played in multiple ways, and each way, he rapes if the game goes on long enough.

Riven -
I fell in love with Riven, just like I did with Swain, during her free week. I logged something like 25 games in total with her, just as I did Swain. Her high mobility and damage, as well as the tankiness if she buys a Warmog's makes her a tough opponent to go against. Riven's passive is very helpful when trying to burn down players. Remember that you have to autoattack for her passive to be effective. Don't just spam your skills. Time them. Her Q resets her Autoattack timer. AA - Q - AA - Q - AA - Q - AA - E - W - AA - AA is usually the sequence that I use when I am going against monsters or just generally harassing the enemy team. Depending on the situation I will stay for the full sequence or using my last Q and E to dash away before I can get hit. Riven can jungle, solo top, and tank. Though I have never personally tanked with her, her damage as a tank is still high and can change the fight if she isn't taken into consideration. I usually play Riven as a lane character as she does best there in my opinion. The farm in the jungle might be better, but the chance at kills constantly means she can grow stronger, fast.

Shaco -
I play shaco as a hybrid Jungler with focus on AD. I'll usually start off with cloth armor and 5 Hp and start at blue. Since Shaco's boxes are so strong I usually don't need a leash, but I prefer one. As with all of my junglers now, I start off at wolves. Shaco's boxes are strong, as I have said, and should be powered up, which is why I play Shaco as a hybrid. The massive damage that two or three boxes stacked or put in a trap formation can do to an enemy champion is stupidly huge.

Sona (Or Support characters in general) -
Whenever I play a support character, I usually always use this build. Whether it be Alistar, Sona, Soraka, Taric, Janna(whom I don't own)... They all get the same build. Soul SHroud for the DPS and Aura for mana regen which helps allied Casters. Aegis which gives allied melee higher damage and all allies armor and MR. Shurelliya's for the activation. The on use for shurelliya can let a team win a fight by letting them engage fast, or disperse and reform. I usually get Will and Scepter for some extra damage and more Auras. The build ends up making the support character rather tanky in terms of health, but lacking in DPS output. The max amount of CD one player can have is 40%. Lucidity boots and Shurelliya plus Soul Shroud is enough in my opinion.

---- WIP ----

A/N: This is still currently a work in progress. I wanted to go ahead and publish this guide to get the 'rules' out there. Maybe if more people read them and just take those to heart, we can have a higher quality of players.

What is Elo Hell, in reality?

Is it a hell that we cannot escape?

How do you know if one is in what is considered "Elo Hell"?

Elo Hell, is a figure of speech. On your ranking, it doesn't say "elo hell" under your rank, or anywhere on that score card. Elo Hell is simply a ranking of below 1,300. Below this line is considered to be "Elo Hell" where players who are bad are gathering, especially at the lower tier yet of Elo Hell. Remember, at the end of the day, these are just numbers. You play this game, not for ranking, unless of course your a professional, and in which case, you shouldn't be reading this guide, but for fun. Each game, you should always try to have your fill of fun. Don't let it get you down in the dumps or angry and frustrated. Doing so depresses you and gives you headaches and in the long run, makes you play worse.

Elo Hell, in my opinion, is easily escaped. The way I am doing it now is playing all games, no matter what, ranked. I usually solo que or duo que with my long-time friend, and figurative brother. I never play normals anymore. Simply going about getting out this way is almost guaranteed. You just have to wait, pray, and get lucky. I went from 850 to 1,110 and then back down to 850 in a two month period. But, that isn't what I am trying to teach you. I am trying to teach you to be a better player all the while teaching others these pieces of advice. If everyone followed the rules, eventually, there wouldn't be an "Elo Hell." To really get out of Elo Hell, you have to be willing to work together with your teammates, compromise on what you want to play, have the knowledge of your characters and a basic knowledge of tactics that are used in the game, and be willing to learn. Each day is a learning experience, such is the saying "Learn something new everyday." League, is no different. If you learn one thing about League everyday, even if the lessons start repeating themselves, you will become better which you then can take your knowledge and teach others.

Another tip on getting out of Elo hell is to pick tanky, yet high damage characters, with at least one CC. Survivability is key. League is a game of tactics, quick thinking, reactions, and most of all? Survivability. If one can out last the enemy team, while doing at least an average damage constantly, eventually your team shall come out on top of the hill, so to speak. Having a CC on each champion helps. Fiddle's Fear and Silence can take an EHDD (Enemy Heavy Damage Dealer) or Tank for a few seconds allowing the team to focus another HVT (High-Value Target) such as a squishier, higher damage dealer.

I'll give you a perfect scenario:

Team 1 (The team I shall have winning the fight) has Fiddlesticks, Vayne, Alistar, Jarvan, and Swain, w/ Fiddlesticks in the jungle.

Team 2 has Ashe, Annie, Soraka, Lee Sin and Mordekaiser, with Lee Sin in the jungle.

A team fight breaks out between top blue and Baron. Jarvan, the tank for team 1, initiates by Standard and Pulling, knocking up Ashe and Soraka before jumping on Mordekaiser, who is away from his team a bit. Fiddle comes in with Vayne and fears Soraka, throwing his crow to silence both Soraka and Annie after the fear wears off of Soraka, focusing down Annie who gets knocked up by Alistar's flash+bash and knocking her into Vayne's range better. Vayne and Fiddle after focusing Annie, turn to Ashe, vayne hitting Soraka with her knock back to take her out of the fight for a second and Alistar bashing both Soraka and Lee into the air before headbutting Soraka back out of the fight. Focusing Ashe down while Fearing, and then silencing Lee after fear wears off, they turn to Lee. By this time, or a little before, Morde and jarvan have come back into the fight. Jarvan Standard/Pull's the remaining enemy team into air before slowing them all w/ his shield allowing Alistar to once more get a good bash and headbutt onto both Lee Sin and Soraka, taking Soraka out of the fight yet again. Focusing down Lee Sin, they turn to Soraka, taking her out quickly with a few shots from Vayne's arrow and Fid's drain. Mordekaiser, now alone, tries to run. Jarvan quickly Shields, slowing him which allows Vayne to tumble and knock him into a wall, giving Alistar time to get to him, bash him up and knock him into fiddle who fears him into Swain's (Forgot him till the very end of this scenario O_O!) Nevermore. Bout two or three seconds after this, depending on his survivability, he's dead. Team 1 goes on to win the game with the time they have from winning the team fight. They all were all tanky, with high damage skills/regen skills. Vayne can get Warmog and Atmog's for some extra HP, and Damage. Fiddle can get Zonya for armor and Chalice for MR/MP5regen. Swain's Ultimate allows him to have massive regen, especially in the middle of a team fight. Give swain Rod, will of the ancients, and a warmog's so he has a higher HP pool, and he can be very tanky w/ his ultimate turned on.

In Short? Tanky, High Damage, w/ CC Characters are your friends. You should learn each champion that fits this description, even if you only know the first two items of a build and the general masteries/runes to use with said champions.

I would like to thank everyone for reading this guide, knowing it isn't finished. Taking time out of your schedule to read a guide, even if its one that isn't even that good, shows that you have the will and drive to get better. Remember that drive on those days you have bad games.

I haven't finished this guide. No where near it. I still want to say, again, some tips about items, masteries, and teamwork, while touching base on Summoner Spells, Skill Sequencing, and Runes. I also want to compile a list of links to guides that I personally used in my rise.

I also know that there are some glaring issues in this guide, and I would love if you put comments down! I always read them. One of the comments said I didn't need to put the champions in. You are right, commenteer, however, I was afraid if I didn't I wouldn't have enough to write about, but it looks like I did. I am going to fill the champions up though. I like sharing how I play my preferred characters. Maybe the way I play them will help someone else in the long run.

Now, its currently 7 am and I have been up for near 48 hours. I am going to go to sleep now. GOOD NIGHT... World!?

~Signed Q

-Note to Self: Next Rule is about Communication!