MOBAFire's first Mini Guide Contest of Season 14 is here! Create or update guides for the 30 featured champions and compete for up to $200 in prizes! š
If you really want to get better you probably should look at the games where you do badly. In games where you do good there are less mistakes to learn from, so those games end up fueling your anger rather than making you see your mistakes. You might be losing some games because you pick 
Malphite into an ap top so you're forcefully walking into a disadvantageous lane, for example, or maybe you got destroyed against an early game champion like Renekton because you don't know how to play passively.
On top of that, there are a bunch of games (especially lower elos) that are just lost cases. This also goes for some won games where you get carried and might get a good score as a collateral effect of the wreckt someone else did. You can't just use the defeat screen as an indicator of games you should learn from. As a rule of thumb, try to learn something whenever you die in the game, no matter how the game is going. Chances are, there was something you could have done (or should have avoided doing) that didn't do and that's why you died.
Lastly, some matchups are expected wins early that can snowball into a lost game if you don't properly shut down your matchup (like a Nasus you killed a couple of times but he still got lots of farm). Or you could be playing recklessly after getting kills and the thing about getting the kills is that the weight of your death starts getting bigger (i.e. you're more responsible for the game).
Malphite into an ap top so you're forcefully walking into a disadvantageous lane, for example, or maybe you got destroyed against an early game champion like Renekton because you don't know how to play passively.On top of that, there are a bunch of games (especially lower elos) that are just lost cases. This also goes for some won games where you get carried and might get a good score as a collateral effect of the wreckt someone else did. You can't just use the defeat screen as an indicator of games you should learn from. As a rule of thumb, try to learn something whenever you die in the game, no matter how the game is going. Chances are, there was something you could have done (or should have avoided doing) that didn't do and that's why you died.
Lastly, some matchups are expected wins early that can snowball into a lost game if you don't properly shut down your matchup (like a
Nasus you killed a couple of times but he still got lots of farm). Or you could be playing recklessly after getting kills and the thing about getting the kills is that the weight of your death starts getting bigger (i.e. you're more responsible for the game).
I am probably not the best person in here to answer a question on winning and climbing the ladder (after having taken a break for 1 year or so I am currently sitting at Silver I and prior to that I had never reached higher than low Gold). So, obviously, I am going to talk based on my own experience, which you shouldn't accept as a general truth unless some plat/diamond confirms it. Anyway, I hope I can help you.
Basically, do not try to force things when playing and keep in mind that everything you do past the early stages should lead to your winning the game. I am currently playing a fair share of my ranked games together with a couple of high gold friends and that has helped me come to the realization that I am (obviously!!!) not good enough in certain aspects of the game. While mechanically I am (almost) just as good as most of my opponents (I play only ADCs), I often notice that my decision making is terrible in many situations. For instance, I might keep farming on botlane instead of grouping up with my team even though I am already ahead, chase a kill instead of pushing a lane etc.
As far as I know, it's those things that ultimately determine whether you will snowball off an early lead or throw it in the garbage bag. And you really want to capitalize on early game advantages and finish games asap, especially when you're playing against team comps that scale well late.
Basically, do not try to force things when playing and keep in mind that everything you do past the early stages should lead to your winning the game. I am currently playing a fair share of my ranked games together with a couple of high gold friends and that has helped me come to the realization that I am (obviously!!!) not good enough in certain aspects of the game. While mechanically I am (almost) just as good as most of my opponents (I play only ADCs), I often notice that my decision making is terrible in many situations. For instance, I might keep farming on botlane instead of grouping up with my team even though I am already ahead, chase a kill instead of pushing a lane etc.
As far as I know, it's those things that ultimately determine whether you will snowball off an early lead or throw it in the garbage bag. And you really want to capitalize on early game advantages and finish games asap, especially when you're playing against team comps that scale well late.
phylol has a recent video roughly on this topic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6dNMnXRscs
Looking over your first game results since you've listed that one as a game where you did well throughout.
Your Azir had 18 deaths an is an item down on Zed. Guessing that meant Zed was able to roam and assist other lanes. Zed is better at that than Malphite since he has both a high amount of burst and not insignificant sustained damage. Tanky Malphite is better at setting up his team to do well, which isn't going to show that much if the rest of your team is significantly behind. So what that you nailed five of them with an ult, if your team can't follow up with enough CC and damage?
I can't see your individual game play, but one thing I've noticed about Malphite players is that they quite commonly ult the wrong target. E.g. in this case it might have been ulting Nasus who is basically their tank. They also have Kindred so even if your team is able to follow-up on a good ult on your part the Kindred can mitigate the damage to some extent by preventing their team from actually dying.
With that setup, I'd probably try to force an engage when Kindred's ult was down or they are dead. It might even have been worth killing Kindred first if you can get a pick on them. Then you would probably need to focus on peeling Zed off your carries with your attack speed slow and the slow from your Q.
2nd game - the rest of your team got dumpstered. Probably not much you could have done.
3rd game - the rest of your team got dumpstered in this one too.
4th game - close. Guessing you all got outscaled.
It looks like your number of deaths in those games is relatively low. Good job on that. First key to climbing is to not dying. If you are dead you are off the map and can't influence the game. Worse the enemy team is a champion up so have more potential to influence the game than your team.
CS - Your CS isn't horrible by any means, but you could focus on stepping that up. IIRC 20ish CS is equivalent to a kill.
269 vs 236 40:33
222 vs 225 42:29
243 vs 120 41:43
177 vs 210 43:32
Take a look at your kill participation. If it 50% or lower think about ways to use your Teleport or roaming plays to bring that number up.
This may or may not apply to you (it is something I've noticed with myself), which is being behind what is going on around the map. E.g. my team is sieging their Mid turret and I'm getting Blue buff. Sometimes you just have to drop what you are doing and go be with your team. Even if it feels like the wrong thing to be doing (sieging Mid with no wards on your flanks and you can't see the entire enemy team).
Speaking of vision. Buy a pink ward every time you go back as long as you have room. Try to help your team keep vision in areas where they are wanting to go. Have the mid turrets and need to get either the Bot or Top turrets? Get vision in the enemy jungle on the side you want to work on. Vision lets you get picks and avoid being picked. All of which helps you extend a lead and prevents you from throwing a lead.
I even tell my team in chat where I want the vision. For example - Get vision in their Bot jungle.
If you see an enemy moving around the map, ping them out.
When I play with higher level players especially at the Diamond level, I notice that once they have an advantage they are constantly pushing it. They rarely mill about Mid lane unless there is a point to it. If they are stronger then they are on the enemy side of the map doing things there because that is where the objectives are at.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6dNMnXRscs
Looking over your first game results since you've listed that one as a game where you did well throughout.
Your
Azir had 18 deaths an is an item down on Zed. Guessing that meant Zed was able to roam and assist other lanes. Zed is better at that than Malphite since he has both a high amount of burst and not insignificant sustained damage. Tanky Malphite is better at setting up his team to do well, which isn't going to show that much if the rest of your team is significantly behind. So what that you nailed five of them with an ult, if your team can't follow up with enough CC and damage?I can't see your individual game play, but one thing I've noticed about Malphite players is that they quite commonly ult the wrong target. E.g. in this case it might have been ulting
Nasus who is basically their tank. They also have Kindred so even if your team is able to follow-up on a good ult on your part the Kindred can mitigate the damage to some extent by preventing their team from actually dying.With that setup, I'd probably try to force an engage when
Kindred's ult was down or they are dead. It might even have been worth killing Kindred first if you can get a pick on them. Then you would probably need to focus on peeling Zed off your carries with your attack speed slow and the slow from your Q.2nd game - the rest of your team got dumpstered. Probably not much you could have done.
3rd game - the rest of your team got dumpstered in this one too.
4th game - close. Guessing you all got outscaled.
It looks like your number of deaths in those games is relatively low. Good job on that. First key to climbing is to not dying. If you are dead you are off the map and can't influence the game. Worse the enemy team is a champion up so have more potential to influence the game than your team.
CS - Your CS isn't horrible by any means, but you could focus on stepping that up. IIRC 20ish CS is equivalent to a kill.
269 vs 236 40:33
222 vs 225 42:29
243 vs 120 41:43
177 vs 210 43:32
Take a look at your kill participation. If it 50% or lower think about ways to use your
Teleport or roaming plays to bring that number up.This may or may not apply to you (it is something I've noticed with myself), which is being behind what is going on around the map. E.g. my team is sieging their Mid turret and I'm getting Blue buff. Sometimes you just have to drop what you are doing and go be with your team. Even if it feels like the wrong thing to be doing (sieging Mid with no wards on your flanks and you can't see the entire enemy team).
Speaking of vision. Buy a pink ward every time you go back as long as you have room. Try to help your team keep vision in areas where they are wanting to go. Have the mid turrets and need to get either the Bot or Top turrets? Get vision in the enemy jungle on the side you want to work on. Vision lets you get picks and avoid being picked. All of which helps you extend a lead and prevents you from throwing a lead.
I even tell my team in chat where I want the vision. For example - Get vision in their Bot jungle.
If you see an enemy moving around the map, ping them out.
When I play with higher level players especially at the Diamond level, I notice that once they have an advantage they are constantly pushing it. They rarely mill about Mid lane unless there is a point to it. If they are stronger then they are on the enemy side of the map doing things there because that is where the objectives are at.
Ekki wrote:
If you really want to get better you probably should look at the games where you do badly. In games where you do good there are less mistakes to learn from, so those games end up fueling your anger rather than making you see your mistakes. You might be losing some games because you pick Malphite into an ap top so you're forcefully walking into a disadvantageous lane, for example, or maybe you got destroyed against an early game champion like Renekton because you don't know how to play passively.
Malphite into an ap top so you're forcefully walking into a disadvantageous lane, for example, or maybe you got destroyed against an early game champion like Renekton because you don't know how to play passively.First off, thanks for the reply. I'm going to ask about/question a couple of the things you're saying, but please don't take that as disrespect, I'm just trying to understand better.
So I've heard that advice before and it's definitely something I do. I generally have a goal of never having truly "bad" games, but being at least ok every (ranked) game (I use normals to learn new champs); it went well for a while but recently I did screw up a few. Usually though I can identify why games went badly (often playing too aggressively and paying for it when ganked), while I've had more trouble understanding lost games were I did well.
Ekki wrote:
On top of that, there are a bunch of games (especially lower elos) that are just lost cases. This also goes for some won games where you get carried and might get a good score as a collateral effect of the wreckt someone else did. You can't just use the defeat screen as an indicator of games you should learn from. As a rule of thumb, try to learn something whenever you die in the game, no matter how the game is going. Chances are, there was something you could have done (or should have avoided doing) that didn't do and that's why you died.
While I'm sure there are some lost causes, I'm told that high elo players can win %90+ of their games in bronze by having only good games. Obviously I'm nowhere near as capable as them, but this does at least mean that not all of the games I'm talking about are truly impossible, I'm just not doing enough to help my team. As to not just looking at the stat screens, I tried to pick games that I remember actually doing well (to the extent that I can judge that as a Bronze player...), since you're right that there are definitely games where I get carried into a high score (those are usually wins though, it's hard to be carried when losing).
Ekki wrote:
Lastly, some matchups are expected wins early that can snowball into a lost game if you don't properly shut down your matchup (like a
Nasus you killed a couple of times but he still got lots of farm). Or you could be playing recklessly after getting kills and the thing about getting the kills is that the weight of your death starts getting bigger (i.e. you're more responsible for the game).A couple of questions about this part. First, how important would you say counterpicking is in low elos? All the advice I've had up to now has said to not even try doing it and just play champs I'm better with (though I will counterpick to some extent, e.g. I prefer Kayle over Malph against Darius), though that's mainly been directed at people who play champs they have no idea how to use, which I don't.
Second, a question somewhat specific to playing against Nasus: in the first game above, we killed the Nasus 6 times in lane but he still got a ton (700-some) stacks by the end of that game (though I don't believe it's why we lost; he didn't even participate in teamfights until we were already really, really far behind). I know that's on me, but I find it really hard to push Nasus out of lane as Malph, who has fairly low kill potential and far less sustain (note: he picked after me). I did my best to keep him under his turret where farming is harder, but that was the best I could do. Any advice on how to better shut him down?
tl;dr to carrying is
1) Win your lane - fundamental thing to carrying. Damage champions are better than full tanks as tanks often rely on their teams.
2) Don't die - do not give your shutdown gold by dying 1v1 or getting caught out of position or something.
3) Transfer your advantage to other lanes - help other lanes after taking enemy tower or if your laner is freezing lane, giving you a free roam
4) Be relevant - just be in team fights and do something with your lead.
5) Build properly - 3000 gold lead means nothing if your item build is garbage
It's also kinda the mindset. I always join a game with mindset that my teammates are monkeys on a boat and I need to be the one to row the boat to the finish line. Relying on your teammates is the worst thing you can do in ranked as you don't know if the ally champion is being played by a monkey or not.
image demonstration
I try to never pick a champion that relis on my teammatess like jungler or adc to do something. I just looked at one of the links and you had Malphite with 14/4 stats I think. Obviously you have won your lane but you rely on your team too much to do damage.
1) Win your lane - fundamental thing to carrying. Damage champions are better than full tanks as tanks often rely on their teams.
2) Don't die - do not give your shutdown gold by dying 1v1 or getting caught out of position or something.
3) Transfer your advantage to other lanes - help other lanes after taking enemy tower or if your laner is freezing lane, giving you a free roam
4) Be relevant - just be in team fights and do something with your lead.
5) Build properly - 3000 gold lead means nothing if your item build is garbage
It's also kinda the mindset. I always join a game with mindset that my teammates are monkeys on a boat and I need to be the one to row the boat to the finish line. Relying on your teammates is the worst thing you can do in ranked as you don't know if the ally champion is being played by a monkey or not.
image demonstrationI try to never pick a champion that relis on my teammatess like jungler or adc to do something. I just looked at one of the links and you had
Malphite with 14/4 stats I think. Obviously you have won your lane but you rely on your team too much to do damage.
"A person giving you advice isn't perfect and has their own shortcomings but they may give you the piece that you're missing."
VexRoth wrote:
Thanks for the link, and the reply as a whole. Like in my response above, I'm going to question a few things but that's just because I want to understand better, I'm sure you know what you're talking about much better than I do.
Based on the link, I think I can say more confidently that what I really want to better understand is 1) how to roam early and 2) how to do more to help with objectives in mid-game.
VexRoth wrote:
I can't see your individual game play, but one thing I've noticed about Malphite players is that they quite commonly ult the wrong target. E.g. in this case it might have been ulting
Nasus who is basically their tank. They also have Kindred so even if your team is able to follow-up on a good ult on your part the Kindred can mitigate the damage to some extent by preventing their team from actually dying.With that setup, I'd probably try to force an engage when
Kindred's ult was down or they are dead. It might even have been worth killing Kindred first if you can get a pick on them. Then you would probably need to focus on peeling Zed off your carries with your attack speed slow and the slow from your Q.I don't think that I was ulting Nasus during teamfights; even I know that would be really dumb. However, if I remember correctly, I also wasn't always ulting Kindred that game, instead often choosing to ult Zed + at least one other person because Zed seemed more dangerous (and stats show that he did in fact do more damage, though that could be misleading) and because Kindred was often inaccessible (really far back). Is this something I should change, i.e. should I always focus the ADC even if they're not doing nearly as well as a mid-laner (8/12 vs 14/6 at the end, in this case, though in hindsight I see that Kindred had ~80 extra CS to compensate)?
VexRoth wrote:
CS - Your CS isn't horrible by any means, but you could focus on stepping that up. IIRC 20ish CS is equivalent to a kill.
Thank you, actually. I try to focus on getting as much CS as possible and I occasionally run CS drills in custom games, but I tend to still think of my CS as being horrible. It's nice to hear that maybe it isn't :D. Speaking of CS, however, could you comment on balancing roaming vs. getting CS? It's great if you've taken a tower and can just push the lane up really far, of course, but if taking tower is still too difficult (because it would take a long time + risk of ganks, for example), is it still worth roaming (especially if tele is down)?
VexRoth wrote:
Take a look at your kill participation. If it 50% or lower think about ways to use your
Teleport or roaming plays to bring that number up.OK. I average about 47% and the games above are 49%, 74%, 66%, and 58%, respectively, so I guess that shows that I didn't actually do enough in the first game (and perhaps the last) but that the others really may have been fairly hopeless cases.
VexRoth wrote:
This may or may not apply to you (it is something I've noticed with myself), which is being behind what is going on around the map. E.g. my team is sieging their Mid turret and I'm getting Blue buff. Sometimes you just have to drop what you are doing and go be with your team. Even if it feels like the wrong thing to be doing (sieging Mid with no wards on your flanks and you can't see the entire enemy team).
Could you actually give a couple examples of situations I should go help with? If I'm top and I see my team sieging mid, for example, I don't think I would go mid unless the other top was going mid, I was already pushed up quite far, or it looked like my team was about to lose a teamfight without me, so I'm interested in whether that's a poor decision.
VexRoth wrote:
Speaking of vision. Buy a pink ward every time you go back as long as you have room. Try to help your team keep vision in areas where they are wanting to go. Have the mid turrets and need to get either the Bot or Top turrets? Get vision in the enemy jungle on the side you want to work on. Vision lets you get picks and avoid being picked. All of which helps you extend a lead and prevents you from throwing a lead.
So maybe this is specific to low elos where people don't clear wards, but I often find that I place one pink defensively (usually in a tri-bush) early and then have little incentive to place another until late game (when I might put one in one of the jungles). Should I try to ward more offensively, i.e. warding their jungle instead of my rear/flank?
Joxuu wrote:
tl;dr to carrying is
1) Win your lane - fundamental thing to carrying. Damage champions are better than full tanks as tanks often rely on their teams.
2) Don't die - do not give your shutdown gold by dying 1v1 or getting caught out of position or something.
3) Transfer your advantage to other lanes - help other lanes after taking enemy tower or if your laner is freezing lane, giving you a free roam
4) Be relevant - just be in team fights and do something with your lead.
5) Build properly - 3000 gold lead means nothing if your item build is garbage
It's also kinda the mindset. I always join a game with mindset that my teammates are monkeys on a boat and I need to be the one to row the boat to the finish line. Relying on your teammates is the worst thing you can do in ranked as you don't know if the ally champion is being played by a monkey or not.
I try to never pick a champion that doesn't rely on teammates like jungler for example. I just looked at one of the links and you had Malphite with 14/4 stats I think. Obviously you have won your lane but you rely on your team too much to do damage.
1) Win your lane - fundamental thing to carrying. Damage champions are better than full tanks as tanks often rely on their teams.
2) Don't die - do not give your shutdown gold by dying 1v1 or getting caught out of position or something.
3) Transfer your advantage to other lanes - help other lanes after taking enemy tower or if your laner is freezing lane, giving you a free roam
4) Be relevant - just be in team fights and do something with your lead.
5) Build properly - 3000 gold lead means nothing if your item build is garbage
It's also kinda the mindset. I always join a game with mindset that my teammates are monkeys on a boat and I need to be the one to row the boat to the finish line. Relying on your teammates is the worst thing you can do in ranked as you don't know if the ally champion is being played by a monkey or not.
I try to never pick a champion that doesn't rely on teammates like jungler for example. I just looked at one of the links and you had
Malphite with 14/4 stats I think. Obviously you have won your lane but you rely on your team too much to do damage.Thank you to you too for the response, I really appreciate it. Just one question for you (at least for now). You mention that you would avoid picking team-reliant champions, and that probably makes sense if you're smurfing and know that you'll always win lane. I *think* I win lane more than 50% of the time, but definitely not every time, so is it still worth it to take someone like Gangplank (who is great if ahead, not so much if behind) over someone like Malphite who can definitely do well when ahead (deleting ADCs as the tank is nice) but is still less snowball-y? Also, how much would this depend on whether my team has another tank? (I guess that's two questions actually, but they're related.)
I wouldn't bother with hard champions like Gangplank. I would pick a simple and strong champion that is easy to learn. Like I could spend a year to learn Yasuo and I'd still not play him well enough to carry games but a champion like Darius is relatively easy and you can carry games with him after a few games of practice.
You said you think you win your lane over 50% of the times which means you will climb if you just play if we assume winning lane = winning game. Winning your lane is often not enough but it gives you a lot better chances to win the game than if you had lost your lane.
I edited the post as I meant to say "I never pick a champion that relies on my team".
Gangplank. I would pick a simple and strong champion that is easy to learn. Like I could spend a year to learn Yasuo and I'd still not play him well enough to carry games but a champion like Darius is relatively easy and you can carry games with him after a few games of practice.You said you think you win your lane over 50% of the times which means you will climb if you just play if we assume winning lane = winning game. Winning your lane is often not enough but it gives you a lot better chances to win the game than if you had lost your lane.
I edited the post as I meant to say "I never pick a champion that relies on my team".
"A person giving you advice isn't perfect and has their own shortcomings but they may give you the piece that you're missing."
You need to log in before commenting.
http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2249584764/217383522?tab=overview
http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2248507694/217383522?tab=overview
http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2248433222/217383522?tab=overview
http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2243881618/217383522?tab=overview
In some of these cases (e.g. the last example) I eventually started doing worse, while in others (e.g. the first) I did fairly well throughout but just couldn't do enough. Note that I queue mid/top and main Ahri mid (Galio in a fairly close second place) and Malphite top.
Could anyone offer some advice on how to get more out of an early advantage? Obviously there are things like "help other lanes," for example, but I never know how much I should wander vs. stay in lane to get cs and take towers, so I'm looking for slightly more specific comments.