Hello players, I've recently hit diamont playing only support champions and I thought I could write a little guide with some tips and tricks. 1) Why Support If you main support you have to do it because you like to play support role. I see too many people playing support at low levels that plays it because they feel like can't go wrong playing it. They think they can't win trades on toplane or gank effectively with a midlaner or last-hit like they should while harassing their opponent, so they think about getting carried by their teammates playing a “useless roleâ€. That's wrong on so many levels. Supports define which botlane will came up stronger, protect their adc and start teamfights, they give vision for their team and DENY vision for the opposing team. They are an equally important asset to the team like an adc or a midlaner. Never forget that. 2) What Support As a support you can be an adc protector, a teamfight initiator, a zoning master, a stunner, an harasser, a disengager, etc... You can choose which role you like to fulfill the most and pick accordingly. Keep in mind that you have to pick something that fits with your team and works well against the opposing team, so learn how to play multiple champions before going through ranked queue. Example: I like stunners. I play janna (stunner/disengage/protect adc), leona (stuns/teamfight potential/adc buff/initiation/tank) and blitzcrank (stunner/initiation / aoe silence / monster in lane if you can play him). Lately I'm playing Nami a lot (stuns / lane bully / heal / team buff / initiation). Pick your favorites and master them! 3) Counterpicking Do you have championselect on your browser? Close it. I tried using it, but it didn't work. Why? Because countering someone on lane doesn't mean you will win the game. If you pick a champion or a botlane that don' work well during teamfights or the team strategy, you won't get anything out of it. Remember also that playing a champion that you know well will make you perform a lot better that a champion you picked 2-3 times even if it “counters†the opposing botlane. Esample: if my team needs a janna for disengage and/or adc protection, I pick it even if they have a blitzcrank. It took some times for me to understand how to play the matchup, but there is every time a way around. 4) Skills Vs. Strategy As a support player you can feel like having good mechanics doesn't help at all. WRONG! Watch madlife highlights, watch flash crescendo from sona, mad hooks from blitz players, death sentence + pull + lantern on bruiser/ganker, perfect ultimates from zyra that destroy the opposing team dive. Just because a support won't get kills and during streaming you can't really notice clutch plays, well... they can really make or loose a fight even if you can't see it! Regarding the strategy, you should focus on everything that is happening on the map and what is the enemy duo doing. More on that in the right section. 5) Don't flame. If you are doing it, you are just loosing the game by yourself. I'll give you 2 tips I got: one from a guide I was reading, the other one from Ocelote stream (I'm not an Ocelote fan, but that one was really a good advice). → If you see someone on you team going 0-10 toplane in the first 12 minutes, you should watch the game replay, because the opposing toplaner knows a way to carry his game pretty decently. Learn from it. → You can't improve your teammates, you can only get better yourself. Focus on your game and nothing more(Ocelote) I'll add: play only if you want to play, if you think you are gonna crash every enemy you are gonna face. If you feel down, or angry or just bored of the game don't play ranked, you will most likely loose 6) Elo Hell doesen't exist. If you are Silver 2, maybe you could be Silver 1, but nothing more. Learn from your mistakes and you will get better and climb the ladder. 7) Watch replays from your games. Not the entire game, that would be crazy, but if you get ganked 4 times and you can't understand why the opposing lee sin bypassed all your ward, check out why. Here we go, we start the game “match me with teammates†CHAMPION SELECT You made into Champion selection, probably you won't be affected by bans (beside from thresh). Say your teammates you would like to go support and if someone says the same ask them if there are some other role they can play. If there isn't let him playing support, play something else. It is so rare that you can play some jungle right?