How to Get out Of ELO Hell 101: Part 3

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 Lesson 1 or 2 yet? If not click How to Get out of ELO Hell 101.

Lesson 3: ELO Hell Is NOT What You Think It Is

I feel like I'm going to get a lot of hate for this one, but it needs to be said.  When I hear people complain about ELO Hell, I hear a variety of responses.  However, I can't get a single definition of what ELO Hell truly is.  Because if its just players being bad, well then by all means life is hell!  I suppose that argument could be made also, but the truth is: What 90% of people think ELO is, only 10% are right. What do I mean by that?

* My jungler never ganked my lane and instead died twice trying to counter jungle.
* Fifth pick didn't pick support when we didn't have one.
* Our 4th pick says he can only pick AP Mid and will AFK if he doesn't get it.


Do these sound familiar? Is this ELO Hell? No. Why? Because this will not go away.  


#1: "Learn to play without a jungler."

* My jungler never ganked my lane and instead died twice trying to counter jungle. 

This is not ELO Hell, this is your jungler making a mistake.  Berating him, complaining, and therefore playing worse is the core of ELO Hell.  Instead, realize that your jungler is behind and play differently in your lane.  You have to be much more safe because it will essentially become a 1v2 (or 2v3) until your jungler can catch up.  If you get ganked 3 times in your lane and your jungler never ganks for your lane, most of the time: it is your fault. Now I know a lot of you guys are gonna throw your hands in the air and scream "DASH BULLSHIT!" or mutter to yourself "well in my case, it wasn't my fault" but let's be honest.  When you got ganked, were away from your tower?


Now wait.  Right now you're thinking idiot, no I was at my tower and they dove me! Or maybe you were away from your tower?  Wards are great.  Ward places that junglers could go to gank you.  When you see them, DO SOMETHING.  That means back up, or if you're positive they won't just jump your ass when you do it, type in chat that you see them or attack them.  Sometimes it worth more to show that you know they're there than letting your enemy know you have a ward.  That's sure a mouthful, what do I mean by that?


The enemy team will know you have a ward, but you either rushed their gank so hopefully their unprepared.  OR they will leave and come back later, buying you more time.  Its going to be hard, but you can do it. Yes, you may die anyway and you'll have to repeat this process: but don't throw a tantrum.


Also, when they dive you under tower and you have been playing safe you should have a decent amount of health.  So instead of just walking away, try and fight. Sometimes you won't get away, so at least get some damage in.  Sometimes the tower will screw you and choose the wrong target and you won't get a kill.  However, when they dive you and its not a instagib, fight your life. Exhaust the Physical target, kite them around the tower, dash back and forth, etc.  Towers hurt a LOT early game, and sometimes all it takes is one or two hits to turn a fight around, or at least make it even.  


#2: You should never lose 1v1.
There is also a type of player who I just love; "0 ganks top, thanks asshole" kind of players.  You're 0/3 top and the jungler hasn't ganked for you top.  That sucks.  Wait a second, their jungler hasn't ganked top either?  Then that is your fault. League of Legends was made so that cheesing is possible, but difficult if you take the right precautions.  A 5-man gank IS possible level 1.  How to stop it? Don't walk through the freaking jungle when they're all MIA at <2:30! 


Don't want to die in lane?  Suck it up and GO BACK!  You'll lose out on CS, but most of the time that's better than dying.  Then when you go back, counter buy your opponent. If you're in an explosive bot lane, buy Doran's Blades.  Why?  The health will allow you to survive, the damage allows you to trade, and the lifesteal gives a little bit of sustain.  If you're mid and its still early, 2 Dorans Rings is better than a Blasting Wand a lot of the time.  In case you didn't know, Doran's Ring is one of the most cost efficient items in the game, and seeing as how the average game lasts 33 minutes, you might not even make it to the point where you have to sell it back, making it hyper-efficient. What is the Dorans just aren't for you?  Asses your situation. Tell me if I didn't cover everything.


#3: "Know that you're losing and what to do"
"I can't farm": Buy gold per five items.  Especially Philosopher's Stone. It pays for itself in 26 minutes, helps you in Lane a LOT and makes up for some creep score you miss.  How to make it more efficient? Build it into a Eleisa's Miracle or Shurelyas Reverie. Are you a jungler? Going double GP/5 is a good strategy done by Dan Dinh quite lot. Philo + Heart of Gold.  Especially if your build works towards a Randuin's Omen since it is one of the best Anti-AD items in the game.  Now you don't have to worry as much about farming so you can be more safe.  That being said, you should still farm every chance you have.  That means grabbing your nearest jungle creeps if they're bullying you outta lane.  If they leave the lane and its pushed towards your side, freeze the lane and farm there.  OR if they're across the map or went b, push it hard and then go back to farming the jungle. Check your character, is there anything they can do to make up the gold? Gangplank's Parrley and his Ultimate make getting extra gold and assists easier.  Ashe's Hawk Shot gives her extra gold for last hitting.  TF's passive gives everyone extra gold.  


"They just one shot me": Buy some freaking resists!  If LeBlanc is just combo killing you, hold on the Pickaxe you were about to buy and get a Negatron.  If you're dead in 1 second, that 25 damage doesn't mean anything.  If you're top lane, be that guy and buy a Chain Vest. (If you're against an AD) Most likely they will keep building offensive, and thus hopefully make them gankable.


"My mid/bot/top just keeps dying.": Win your lane hard.  Push constantly, keep your lane on their toes.  Is it fair that you have to play twice as good to carry a player? No. But that's what you have to do to win.  If the other two lanes are winning and pushing and making plays, then the jungler has to respond. This takes pressure off mid.  This also allows your jungler to gank mid and thus recreate some balance.  


"X champion is 5-0,": Focus them and focus them hard.  If their kills aren't balanced, that is also a disadvantage.  If you have 3 team kills and your team has 8, but one of their champions owns 5 of those kills that means if you kill that champ, its 3-3 (well 4-3 after the kill) in team kills.  Losing one lane is easily recoverable.  That being said, there are some champions you really can't see snowball, so help that lane.  This is a lot easier as a jungler, but as other lanes like I said, push hard.  Be safe about that pushing though, ALWAYS ward.  Also don't push if your escape isn't up!  I've seen so many champions push without having any escapes so they just have to accept being killed, making all that CS that they starved their opponent MOOT!  


"X player is bringing down team morale" : Bring UP the team morale.  Become the team leader, is it fair? No.  You shouldn't have to carry these people, but that's how you win. (Seeing a pattern?) To gain ELO, you have to be better than the ELO you're at. Meaning you have to be able to lead them.  Jungler not keeping timers? Then keep timers. Jungler not warding river/lanes? Then ward river and lanes. Enemy team sweeping dragon before you can get in position? Rally your team a minute before dragon. If they know that dragon is up in a minute, it'll help them not to use TP to get back to lane, or to push if the enemy top has TP and you don't.  If one player in particular is being berated for being bad, be the bigger man and whisper to them. Encourage them, give them a solution.  Empathize.  


"X player AFK'd X minutes in" : It happens, this is one of the only times I can say surrendering at 20 is okay.  However, GIVING UP before 20 is not okay.  If you blitzkrieg them early, win all your lanes, you can still win.  You can't turtle though, and you have to be stellar in teamfights.  If you're down at 20 minutes by a lot, then yeah chalk it down as a loss and take a breather.  Don't queue up with those same people.


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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