Hey guys, it's me Josephlittle, and I am here to present you a newbie guide to Ranked Games. Now, when I was in ELO Hell, I saw so many mistakes that I wanted to chop off my balls and give it to my dog, because I was raging so hard. And those mistakes can be EASILY avoided if you read my guide.

NOTE:

This is NOT a TL;DR guide. Make sure you read every chapter thoroughly and understand what I am trying to get across.

Before going into a ranked game, you must know what you like to play. Sometimes it is easier to just play a carry to get out of ELO Hell, but that won't prepare you for future games will it?

As we all know, there are many types of roles you can play, some requiring more skill than other . There is:

AD Carry ([[Vayne])
AP Carry ([Brand])
Jungle ([Amumu])
Babysitter Support (Can also Roam) ([Taric])
Solo Top (Sometimes tanks too) ([Irelia])


For the current Meta-game, it's usually Solo top, AD carry bot with a babysitter, and AP carry mid (Of course the Jungler is in the Jungle :S) You can always switch these up, but this is EU style and its the most common I've seen.
Before even thinking about going into a ranked game, you MUST know how to play each role where you don't feed. There can be moments when champions are picked that you have to fill in a role, so be prepared for that. By knowing each role, you are able to enhance your skill level due to extra experience in the Fields of Justice. We don't want a Caitlyn and an Ashe bot do we :S?

After you learn how to play each role, including jungle, then you can specialize in a role. In my opinion, the best roles to start off with are usually carries who snowball easily (Annie, Akali) by choosing a strong carry, you can always carry your team if your team is doing extremely bad (which sometimes happens) If you want to specialize in Support or AD carry (Caitlin, Ashe, Corki etc) You always want your lane partner to be your friend or someone you play often with. If you know how your friend plays, then you know whether he is going in for the kill or just the occasional harass.


In Conclusion, learn each role in case of an emergency, and try to specialize in only one role.

You go into a ranked game, and your team captain has no idea who to ban. He decides to ban Evelynn because he says that she is SOOOO OP, and for some reason he also bans <insert really useless champion here>. Don't be this guy, learn who to ban first

ALWAYS:

☻ Ask your teammates if you can ban <insert champion name here>

☻ Keep up with the current patch notes, as they can tell you if a champion was nerfed or buffed.

☻ Ban strong carries who are hard to counter (Morgana, Akali, Gangplank etc)

☻ Ban a champion that you KNOW someone could switch with you (If you have first pick)

NEVER:

☻ Ban a champion because of one single game. Even though you might think that 5-0 Dr. Mundo is OP, it might be because of the game conditions. So always make sure your teammates agree with your choice

☻ Ban instantly. Wait until you have about 10 seconds to ban, that usually gives your teammates time to discuss and think.

Picking:

Now some of you might think first picking a Kassadin is good. WRONG, because Kassadin can be countered in so many ways. You usually want to first pick champions that are deemed OverPowered by the community so the enemy team can not pick them, or a champion that you KNOW can not be countered very easily.

Also, it's always a good idea to switch with your teammates, but make sure communication is present.

Before you begin a ranked game, make sure you have EVERY, and I mean every freaking space you have in your rune page filled with Tier 3 runes. Make sure you have a FULL build for your champion before you even press Play in the main menu. Some people don't understand the power of the runes, but god how they can change games so quickly. If you are not sure what runes to get, then you must be utterly ******ed. Why? Well I'll tell you why. You are reading this where? Right, Mobafire, the #1 website for builds and guides. You are either very lazy, or you were knocked your head on something when you were a child.

Make sure you also have the right masteries for your champion, you don't want to go AP Caitlyn and try to kill people with your traps do you?

ALWAYS:

Communicate, communicate, communicate. Did I say communicate? Oh well, one more communicate to be sure. The more you talk, the better your chances will be at winning the game. Talk during champion selection, talk during the game (skype) and talk after the game (if you are playing with a friend, discuss what went right or what went wrong).

Behave. Now many of you ignore this rule, and some people you just can't reach, but if you see that you have a troll in your team, don't argue with them. You loose if you argue with them, because that is what they are trying to do. The best thing is to usually ignore the troll and just talk to him when needed.

Motivate. Sometimes people are having really bad days, and it is usually not their fault. Saying just a simple phrase such as "Its okay" helps them a LOT. The more you complain about your bad player, the worse he does. Period.

Ignore /all chat. Whenever I go in a game, I ALWAYS press tab and ignore every enemy player. If they have something so say, it is usually bad, so why would you want to hear it? /all chat is usually for bragging, and don't you just hate it when the enemy carry is on a spree, and brags about it? Even though they are SUPPOSED to be on a spree? Well yeah that happens, so just stay calm and ignore any bad influences

Ping, V-Ping, Ping. Ping is also a type of communication, and it can help a team set up ganks, initiate a team fight, retreat, a command to attack or get the blue buff the jungler doesnt need. The ping is the most USEFUL tool in League of Legends, use it wisely.

SEX!!!!!

Now that I have your attention, I want to point out a VERY important thing. In ranked games, there are no "MIA's". If you get ganked for overpushing, that is YOUR fault and only YOUR fault. You are either very dumb for over-extending if you know the enemy jungler is MIA, or you are just trolling. Did you also know that an item that costs 75 gold can keep from giving your enemy 300 gold? Yep, it's a new thing, it's called a Vision Ward. If I see you playing solo top without a ward, I swear to god I will come to your house and rape you with a freaking green stick that has an eye on it, and I'll even bring a pink stick so you can learn your lesson.

So, keep one eye on the main screen and another at the minimap. If you have map awareness, you are guaranteed to win your lane (if the enemy in your lane is worst than you)

Farm farm farm farm. The more you farm, the better you do (with the exclusion of the support role of course) If you have more farm than your enemy, a better map awareness than your enemy, and a little help from your jungler, you WILL win your lane. Farm is what makes you a good player or not, it's what makes the difference between you geting owned by the Karthus ult or having enough money to have that Banshee's Veil block that for you. Also, do you know why you kill champions in your lane? Not for the 300 gold, not for a moment of peace, but to farm and get better items. Let's say that you are solo top, and you have 10 less farm than your enemy. You kill him, and you go gank somewhere else. That is the most stupid thing I've ever heard. If you are able to kill your enemy, don't stand still. Use every advantage on your side to become better than your opponent.

Remember, it is not about who has a stronger champion or who had more kills. It's all about the items, the items will grant you the advantage to successfully win your lane

Now, I really don't want to go over this basic stuff. I don't want to teach you about positioning and how important the dragon or the baron is. You should learn this WAY before you even start thinking about ranked game. I'm not going to explain to you what last hitting is, or how to jungle effectively or where to be in Team fights. This is a guide to get newbies started in the complex world of ELO. This guide is also reserved for the really bad players I come across who are getting counter-jungled and refuse to get wards >.<

So if you want to learn how to comeback from a stomp or what you did wrong in a ranked game, this is not the place. So please, for the love of god, don't post in the comments that you lost the last game because you couldn't ward baron effectively. If you really want to enhance your skill, I recommend watching tournaments of SUPER high ELO (around 2000). The best way to learn? Copy the pros ;)

Well, I will include a TL;DR chapter, because I feel bad for the lazy people in the interwebz (such as me!)

So, what we learned today:

Golden Rules:

Specialize in a role

Ban and Pick effectively

Motivate and do not punish the ones who are doing badly in your team

Farm

Buy wards and/or keep your eye on the map

Have a complete build for the champion you are playing

Well guys Thank you for reading it all the way, It really helps if you guys can just press the Thumbs Up button, it might motivate me for doing another guide on ranked games! I hope this helped people who want to learn how to play ranked games but are scared about it.

BYEEEEEE