Welcome to ELO Hell 101, I'm Nick and I'll be here to teach you how to get out of ELO Hell. Whether it takes two days or two months, I'll do my very best to walk you through my best tips and tricks for carrying yourself out of ELO Hell and into at least Bronze rating. I myself found that once I was at least Bronze I felt a lot less self conscious about my rating (not that you should care, its League of Legends) and was able to more enjoy the game. Do I still rage at ELO HELL TERROR and all that? Yes. That's not going to go away, however you can do a few things to significantly lower your raging.
So welcome to class, ELO Hell 101.
Have you read Lessons 1-3 yet? If not click How to Get out of ELO Hell 101.
Lesson 4: Be a Leader!
Quick story time, I recently got my 100th ranked win. (90 something in Solo Queue, I had a few 3v3 and 5v5 games) and I had a really awesome game as Graves. As you may well know, nerf after nerf after nerf, Graves is still one of the dominating ranged ADs. He's a killer, pusher, and has some of the best DPS and burst out of all the ranged ads. So doing well with him in a game, not that hard. Thus why I have a 14-5 record with him in Ranked.
Is it because I'm the best Graves ever? No way. I whiff my Q (the downsides of smartcasting) and I've overextended after getting Annie 6-0 syndrome before. But I ask you to look at this
I kept the Sivir game in there just so you know it was a direct copy paste from my records. This was 11PM-1AMish (I usually play at night, not really recommended though)
Now I ask you, which game do you think I carried the hardest? Was it the 2-0-6 game? The 15-3-8 game? Or the 10-0-11 game? The obvious answer would be the 10-0 or the 15-3, because I got a good K/D. Then the smartass "I'm not fooled by anyone" response would be that it was the 2-0-6. However here's the real answer: none of them and all of them.
Well dash bullshit DoubleWinning!
Yeah, yeah I got it. What do I mean by this though? It brings me to my lesson that you have to Be a Leader! Each one of these games had a leader, and while I might have been a carry the leader usually wasn't me. I wasn't making calls, I wasn't making big plays, I was instead focusing on carrying as hard as I could. So who really carried? The Leader or the Carry? The General or his greatest soldier? The coach or the MVP? It could go either way.
The 15-3-8 game came from a Dr. Mundo jungle game. In champ select I asked if he'd tried Shyvanna since in my opinion, she does things that Mundo can't and does a lot of things he can; but better. He said she is a good jungler, but he intends on taking dragon at 4:50, which Shyvanna can't. It was interesting and I'll admit I was skeptical, but instead of bitching and moaning I focused on my gameplay. That's something not a lot of people do.
The game starts and I ask if Sona and I can take Golems, he says no because it'll interfere with his route. I was a little bummed but again I didn't bitch. He had a plan and I was willing to go through with it. Why? " A good solution applied with vigor now is better than a perfect solution applied ten minutes later." - George S. Patton WW2 General. So like he'd planned he hit level 4 and went to Dragon. He made sure Sona warded dragon at 1:50 to check if they warded.
Why did he do that? He had a plan. In case you didn't catch it, if anyone knew he was taking dragon so early, he would be massacred and possibly give up a free dragon. So being a leader he took charge and asked for the ward, which Sona presented. Then around 4:30 he said he was going to go for Dragon and for me to push my lane. This way Sona could swing in and give him some heals and dragon. Why? Because Mundo taking dragon at level 4 is possible, just VERY dangerous. So we did this, Mundo didn't have to use his summoner heal but they did catch on! They caught vision of Sona outside the dragon nest and threw down a ward, Mundo immediatly pinged and told mid to come down. The teamfight was starting and I ran up as fast as I could.
We got dragon and we knew we couldn't kill them with an injured jungler so he retreated. We all got away and we had the dragon timer. This is how the whole game went, we played like we were a FIVES team against a bunch of Solo Queuers. Did the whole team cooperate all the time? No! Skarner had TP and botched it a few times up top and wasted it, so we did lose some fights. However, we had most of the advantages because we had a leader.
So yes, I had a lot of kills and was very very strong. Did I carry? Yes. I killed most of the enemy team and towers and such, but Mundo made the plays. I followed him because I trusted him and put my faith in him. He proved he knew what he was doing, and we were rewarded with some ELO for it. What was his score at the end of the game? Around 2-4-8. But he was easily MVP, and I made sure to let him know that. He deserved the praise. Plus, he was being a leader and a player at the same time, which is a hard feat.
My flawless 10 kill game? We had a Shaco orchestrating the plays. We had a quick 6-0 bottom lane spread among me Shaco and Sona within 10 minutes. Then it was immediate dragon after immediate dragon, blue buff control, all the beauties that bring a surrender. Did I carry that game? Shaco and I did, but was I the leader? Not the majority of the game.
My 2-0-6 game? That was a 20 minute surrender because we literally shut them down. We played like a team of fives, which if you're in ELO Hell: that is how you get out. Play like you're a ranked 5s team and its a surefire victory.
I know this sounds like bragging, and I'm sorry but I just had to paint the picture of what you want before I can explain how to attain it. I know a lot of you are already complaining about how "duh I know how to win Double, but all I get are $&%*$ bags and $$#( monglers!" trust me. I understand. Do all my games go perfect? Of course not. But ELO is a LOT like Baseball.
Here's something a lot of people don't realize or don't tell you.
TOP ELO PEOPLE ONLY HAVE AROUND 55% WIN/LOSS
What does that mean? 100 games, 55 wins and 45 losses. Or, win 11/20 games and your rating will grow. That means YES you will lose. There is literally nothing I can tell you or teach you to make sure you NEVER lose. If that was a secret I knew, you really think I'd be blogging about it? No way. I'd be knee-deep in trophies and checks from TSM and CLG.
I'm telling you that for every five shittiest team of all time, worst players in the GAME, if you can win with 6 decently organized teammates, you'll grow ELO. I know that is crazy, but its true.
I'm sorry for rambling, but I'll try and get to the goods. Like I stated before Be a LEADER! If I wouldn't have had a leader those games, I might not have won. We wouldn't have a outrageous advantage that allowed us to control the pace of the game. So how do you be a leader? Here's a quick guide to being a good leader in League of Legends.
* Be respectful and supportive, EVEN to baddies. I had an EMBARRASSING loss to Riven up top as Gangplank and my team was wonderful to me. Udyr tried his best to gank, but he wasn't too great either, so our mid helped out. What happened? I farmed and farmed and as most GPs know, you become a pretty damn fine carry. I knew that if I collected Assists from my Ult, stopped getting caught, and farmed with my Parrley and GP/5 items (Philo Stone + Heart of Gold) that I would make up the gold I'd missed out on. What happened after that? We turned it around. Malzahar and I carried the game. Would I have been able to do that with asshole teammates? No. They were respectful and supportive and carried me all the way to late game, because they followed that rule.
* Make educated decisions and big plays. Jungler ganking top while your jungler is bot? No TP top? Bam swing for dragon and possibly their blue buff. No Alistar or other SUPER level 1 champion on enemy team? Try invading. Don't get greedy and make educated plays. You have to play HIGHER than your ELO to RAISE your ELO. Dragon timer coming up? MAKE A GAME PLAN! Maybe that's ganking bot or mid lane and then taking dragon. Or telling top to head down so it's a 5v3/4/5. Either way, if your whole team runs around like idiots, you flip a coin. You'll win 10/20 times, maybe. But you need to win 11/20 times.
* TIMERS. TIMERS. TIMERS. I don't know if you watched IEM Kiev and M5 sweep through everyone, but if you didn't I suggest checking it out. What did they do? They DOMINATED the jungle and all timers. What does this mean, warding within a minute of a buff coming up and then ganking them. Securing all your buffs, getting them on the right people OR making the decision to starve the enemy of the buff even if it means on a less beneficial character. (MOST good junglers don't need the 2nd/3rd blue)
Blue/Red spawns at 1:55. Judging by how good their leash is, you can decide whether it took them 10 seconds or 30 seconds to kill it. Blue/Red spawns every 5 minutes if all creeps in the camp are killed. What does that mean? In an unorganized team, you can usually grab their first buff they grabbed at around 7:30. Make sure your team knows this so that the respective lane can either respond in an emergency, or just come and sweep.
Starving small camps is not really worth it anymore except very early game. Its better to supplement your gold/EXP since you're going out of your way already. However, if you've got a lot of pressure on your team (bad lanes, etc) then a good trick is to leave 1 small minion at their buff, AND WARD IT. This way it'll delay their buff timer quite a bit and 9/10 they'll kill that small minion within the 3 minute ward timer. Then time the buff. This helps a lot if your buffs and their buffs are spawning at the same time and you want some more leeway.
Dragon spawns at 2:30, though its not recommended to grab it then unless you have some serious team comp. If you're on purple side, PULL the dragon out. This will stop blue side from jumping the wall and stealing. Always try and make plays before dragon to try and secure an advantage. Even if its just a quick 3-5 man gank to secure 1 kill. That will make the possible dragon fight 4v5. Also, suiciding to secure a dragon steal is worth it most of the time before 25 minutes. Even better if you can get away though. Dragon then spawns after 6 minutes of it being dead. KEEP A TIMER and prepare at least a minute before. This means pink wards, wards, etc.
Baron Nashor spawns at 15:00 and then 7:00 minutes after death. Think of the above dragon tips, but amplify by a lot. Knowing when to Baron and when to push is a big thing that you can only get through experience in League of Legends. I can't list every situation, but in general I find that Free Towers in the Base > Baron > Outer Towers > Dragon > Buffs.
The best times to get Baron is when you've netted a kill or two, but you're still waiting on some pressure from lanes. This is because if the enemy team comes to contest you, their base will be barraged. However if you chose to push, it might just be a standstill, and thus the Baron buff would have helped a lot. Also it gives you 300 global gold and 900 experience which early/mid game is huge. The buff is also crazy good.
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Exalted_with_Baron_Nashor
That is what will win teamfights. If you prolong fights around towers then eventually your team will advantage. (Unless you're against a poke heal comp)
*Accept when you made a bad play, THEN discuss what could have been done to fix it. Sometimes you make a play, expecting 100% from your teammates and they give you 70%. Most of the time it is better to say "my bad, bad play" and THEN say what would have made it work. Say you went for dragon, with your Ranged, Support and Jungler.
You guys get ganked 4v3 and lose dragon.
This is how you should go.
"Sorry my bad, bad play. Next dragon mid can you come down if mid leaves lane?"
"Dragon timer"
That way you've taken the blame (while maybe you really don't deserve it) and you've still given a way to help improve your odds. Its MUCH more effective than this.
"WHAT THE **** MID? WHERE WERE YOU?"
It makes them feel stupid and they get frustrated. Frustration loses games and just gives the game a bad rap.
If there is stuff I missed (which I'm sure I did) then please comment or message me. I have all my contact details at the end of this post. I know this one was a longer one, but I hope you enjoyed the read. I'd really love to hear what you guys have to say about this all. That's all for this post, I hope you guys learned some! If you have any questions or comments, please comment here or contact me through Facebook or Twitter! If you want to see some full gameplays be sure to check out my Youtube. I'll be posting a lot of full game plays pretty soon, so be sure to subscribe! In an unrelated note though, click here to see my full gameplays on Youtube.
- Stay Classy and Keep Winning!
Nick "DoubleWinning" Gustafson
doublewinningg@gmail.com
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