In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility



One of the requirements for the tournaments is to maintain an active ranked LOL account. In this they mean you must play a minimum of 2 ranked solo/duo queue games a week. It makes sense that you should practice what you plan on playing, but there is a marked difference on playing with a group of people you that are your close teammates, and a bunch of anonymous players who only care about their personal ranking. The requirement is for 2 ranked solo/duo queue games, team ranked games do not count. So its time for us to all jump into the world of solo queue and see what we can find.

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood



We have all had to go through the provisional games, trying to find a suitable place for our beginnings. It is a quick roller coaster of matches with others of various levels of skill and scorn. There is some settling that occurs even after the placement, but soon you will be placed on a field with ranked equals.

Ranked is a good place to learn. Practicing in normal, or with bots, is nothing at all like the intensity of a ranked game. You will quickly learn the folly of making mistakes. It seems like others are their to give advice, and tips, since they are sometimes given freely and with malice. I can see why players avoid ranked since there is the occasional player who thinks non-constructive criticism is somehow going to make you better. The summoners code is a well defined in how to improve play in yourself and others. But from my experience not many people follow it let alone read it. I think it should be a little more front and center, every loading tip should be one of the nine summoners codes. Heck, I think League should be voice activated by reciting the codes!

Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage



Be assured, you will meet someone in the ranked games that will be an offender to the code. They may even be on your own team, there may be a pair of offenders. You may not recognize them at first but they usually show their colors once things are not going their way. Critical of builds, chosen spells, kill steals, arguments over buffs, when others lose a lane, when they lose a lane. It will happen. You, being of a fair nature and good heart, can easily fall for their taunting a baiting. You must be strong and resolved to not fall for it, don't take the bait. They feed off of your responses, and any retort will only escalate things.

Remember the third summoners code "Facilitate Civil Discussion", just state your side and exit the conversation gracefully rather than give them the opportunity to pick a fight. In many cases even replying will give them the opportunity, not replying maybe the best bet.
Quoted:
Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you.
What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream.
When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
(From the book LIVING THE FOUR AGREEMENTS)


It is hard to do sometimes. I know this. I am not a great player and I get this kind of treatment often in ranked games, just remember that MUTE is your friend. Use it when you see it escalating despite your best intentions.

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit



Despite this fear you must press on. Practice at the level your ranked and learn from your mistakes. Be honest with people about your abilities and ask advice, and take it. And if you can help others, give advice. Advice is not pointing out what people did wrong. This only makes people frustrated, they KNOW they did something wrong. They need to know what to do differently next time, or better. Getting them frustrated only stresses them out and makes it less likely they will recover. What they need is help. Talk is cheap, and this is a team game. What can you do to help them recover? Is that lane lost? Can they farm elsewhere or swap lanes? Need more wards? Hug the tower? The other side knows weakness and will exploit it. You should prepare for it, not just criticize it.

If you want to give someone advice you need to make an "Advice Sandwich", that is you wrap the advice with two slices of good things. As an example:

Quoted:
You did a good job pushing the lane and getting a good creep score, you should have warded river or not go to so close to the enemy tower which is why you got ganked and died, but you warded the dragon pit which is good.


See how the advice (in italics) is wrapped by two good points. It makes the advice much more digestible. It can happen that there is not enough good points, in that case make an "Advice Tostada" ;-)

For there is none of you so mean and base, that hath not noble lustre in your eyes.