Views: 755 Thoughts on Climbing
|
Report
Finally made it out of Silver and into Gold for the first time ever. I started playing late Season 2 - Started playing ranked Season 4. Silver 2 was the highest I've been ranked in any previous season.
Note this is my experience. The formula for you might be different.
Game knowledge (including mechanics)
Playing
Playing champions you click with
Short circuiting losing streaks
Focus
Luck
Every piece of knowledge about the game or game theory adds up to gestalt that lets you develop a formula that increases your odds of winning. The most mechanically sound player is going to struggle when they run into the limits of their knowledge.
It is a layer cake and the reason you experience so much variance in your games even when the participants are of roughly equal skill level is that they all have different and incomplete pieces of the puzzle that is League in their heads.
You've got the kickass laner that rotates to your lane only to dive your lane opponent under their turret while they are sitting in the middle of a minion wave and die giving your lane opponent shut down gold. You get flamed for not following up when your are on 20 hit points with no mana. They have the right idea in trying to take their advantages to another lane, but their execution was poor.
Or you've got the mid laner that is so passive that their lane opponent is free to shove and roam to terrorize the rest of the map. Yeah your Mid laner ends up with a good KDA, right up until the point where the enemy team hands them 5 deaths on their way to closing out the game from the snowball they created in the other lanes. You laner wasn't wrong and they weren't right either.
You need to learn about the game and then execute on what you know. When that falters you need to look at both the knowledge and execution aspects.
Failing tower dives like I outlined above? Look up Tower Crash Dives.
If you've got a working formula then you need to play. You will get rusty at the game if you take too much time off between games or your lack of knowledge about the current META will cause a higher degree of variance in your games even though your fundamentals are sound. WTF, why is
Ziggs Bot lane?
You need to play champions that help you execute on what you know about the game. They don't necessarily have to be the perfect fit for every match-up. I play Shyvana in the jungle because she clears fast, which allows me to nose around in the enemy jungle for intelligence on the enemy jungler and snatch and grab camp raids if I happen to be on the opposite side of the map when the enemy jungler puts in an appearance.
I also recommend duoing with some that is reasonably competent. They don't necessarily have to be amazing. You don't even have to be on voice comms. But having someone else on your team that you know has a decent grasp of the game and isn't inclined to rage will tend to smooth out some of the variance in your games because they can help carry you in games where your performance isn't stellar.
This is the point where op gg na comes in for me. I check my profile over there once in a while to see how I'm performing on a particular champion and with a particular duo partner. I may really love me some Kha'Zix but if I note that my win rate with him is 49% I probably need to rethink that choice or bone up on how other people are making him work at a level that enables them to climb.
And if I notice that my win rate with a particular duo partner has taken a nose dive I'll consider either taking a break from playing with that duo partner or if there is something I've noticed about their game play of late I'll ask if they are interested in advice (if the answer is no then break time it is). It may seem a little mercenary, but this is about what has helped me climb, not a morality play. Stepping away from your duo partner and playing by yourself will also help you understand if your formula for success enables you to climb without them. And the fact of the matter is your are probably going to have to play without them at certain times anyway given everyone has different schedules and you may not even live in the same time zones.
There is a certain level of focus/effort that goes into it for me. More awareness of the mini-map. Thinking more about where I am going and why. Thinking about where the enemy jungler might be. So more cogs a turning than I've invested (knew to invest? knew where to invest?) previously.
Luck does play a role. You can lose in champion select. You can lose because your entire team is tilted and probably shouldn't be playing right then. Both can also happen to the enemy team. Because of the luck factor you are just going to chalk some games up as unwinnable and take it in stride. Write down your mistakes or remember that X match-up ( Yasuo into Taliyah or Malzahar are UGLY match-ups for the Yasuo) is really horrible so know that you are going to have one lane that is likely going to be feeding terribly and if you see that happen again it may be worth a dodge. Your first dodge is -3LP and like a 6 min time penalty. Your second dodge within a game or two of the first is a 30 minute time penalty. Sometimes it is well worth incurring those penalties for your blood pressure if nothing else.
Note this is my experience. The formula for you might be different.
Game knowledge (including mechanics)
Playing
Playing champions you click with
Short circuiting losing streaks
Focus
Luck
Every piece of knowledge about the game or game theory adds up to gestalt that lets you develop a formula that increases your odds of winning. The most mechanically sound player is going to struggle when they run into the limits of their knowledge.
It is a layer cake and the reason you experience so much variance in your games even when the participants are of roughly equal skill level is that they all have different and incomplete pieces of the puzzle that is League in their heads.
You've got the kickass laner that rotates to your lane only to dive your lane opponent under their turret while they are sitting in the middle of a minion wave and die giving your lane opponent shut down gold. You get flamed for not following up when your are on 20 hit points with no mana. They have the right idea in trying to take their advantages to another lane, but their execution was poor.
Or you've got the mid laner that is so passive that their lane opponent is free to shove and roam to terrorize the rest of the map. Yeah your Mid laner ends up with a good KDA, right up until the point where the enemy team hands them 5 deaths on their way to closing out the game from the snowball they created in the other lanes. You laner wasn't wrong and they weren't right either.
You need to learn about the game and then execute on what you know. When that falters you need to look at both the knowledge and execution aspects.
Failing tower dives like I outlined above? Look up Tower Crash Dives.
If you've got a working formula then you need to play. You will get rusty at the game if you take too much time off between games or your lack of knowledge about the current META will cause a higher degree of variance in your games even though your fundamentals are sound. WTF, why is
Ziggs Bot lane?You need to play champions that help you execute on what you know about the game. They don't necessarily have to be the perfect fit for every match-up. I play
Shyvana in the jungle because she clears fast, which allows me to nose around in the enemy jungle for intelligence on the enemy jungler and snatch and grab camp raids if I happen to be on the opposite side of the map when the enemy jungler puts in an appearance.I also recommend duoing with some that is reasonably competent. They don't necessarily have to be amazing. You don't even have to be on voice comms. But having someone else on your team that you know has a decent grasp of the game and isn't inclined to rage will tend to smooth out some of the variance in your games because they can help carry you in games where your performance isn't stellar.
This is the point where op gg na comes in for me. I check my profile over there once in a while to see how I'm performing on a particular champion and with a particular duo partner. I may really love me some
Kha'Zix but if I note that my win rate with him is 49% I probably need to rethink that choice or bone up on how other people are making him work at a level that enables them to climb.And if I notice that my win rate with a particular duo partner has taken a nose dive I'll consider either taking a break from playing with that duo partner or if there is something I've noticed about their game play of late I'll ask if they are interested in advice (if the answer is no then break time it is). It may seem a little mercenary, but this is about what has helped me climb, not a morality play. Stepping away from your duo partner and playing by yourself will also help you understand if your formula for success enables you to climb without them. And the fact of the matter is your are probably going to have to play without them at certain times anyway given everyone has different schedules and you may not even live in the same time zones.
There is a certain level of focus/effort that goes into it for me. More awareness of the mini-map. Thinking more about where I am going and why. Thinking about where the enemy jungler might be. So more cogs a turning than I've invested (knew to invest? knew where to invest?) previously.
Luck does play a role. You can lose in champion select. You can lose because your entire team is tilted and probably shouldn't be playing right then. Both can also happen to the enemy team. Because of the luck factor you are just going to chalk some games up as unwinnable and take it in stride. Write down your mistakes or remember that X match-up (
Yasuo into Taliyah or Malzahar are UGLY match-ups for the Yasuo) is really horrible so know that you are going to have one lane that is likely going to be feeding terribly and if you see that happen again it may be worth a dodge. Your first dodge is -3LP and like a 6 min time penalty. Your second dodge within a game or two of the first is a 30 minute time penalty. Sometimes it is well worth incurring those penalties for your blood pressure if nothing else.
Mute people that annoy you the first time they annoy you.
Limit typing in chat to: gj! nice! well done! Or very short informational: Jg Top Care!, No Smite!, Buying! Wait!
Ping the enemy jungler every time you seen them. Ping them even if they are standing on a ward that your laners should see them on.
Take a break after each game even if it is only 30 seconds. Take a longer break if the game was particularly stressful for you.
Get up from your chair. Go get some water. Go to the bathroom. Eat if you are hungry. Make some notes about the game that you just played.
E.g.
As jungler watch the lanes while you are farming camps by panning to them or cycling through the F keys. Laners will quite often forget to tell you if summoner's are used and it sure is handy to know if a mobility spell like
Laners:
Call-out summoner spell usage if you are not doing it already.
Don't expect your jungler to come straight to your lane if they have three camps to clear on your side of the map. Plan around their jungle route.
Play more safely if your jungler is on the other side of the map.
Jungler:
If your laners are in trouble and you are on that side of the map stop your jungle camp and head straight to the fight. No, don't finish the camp. That will put some of your abilties on cool down and potentially burn through resources like health and mana that you may need to help or clean-up.
Think of your camps in terms of proximity to your laners. If you know the enemy jungler is Bot side and you have a choice of doing Raptors or the Krugs and you can see that your Bot side has good ward coverage but your Mid laner does not then path toward your Raptors (you can always change course if their jungler shows up on a ward near Bot lane). Our you could consider taking their Raptors and then look to come in behind the enemy Mid laner and their jungler. That way you get a twofer. Enemy jungle camp + a countergank + gives your the option of going to take their Red or Krugs or doing Dragon.
Ward for your laners if they don't have wards around their lane. This can be huge early game.