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How to *Actually* Improve at League Of Legends (Guide to Climbing Ranked)
This is going to be a long post. It's a comprehensive guide on how to turn yourself into a Challenger quality player.
The truth is, becoming a better player is simple, but it's not easy. It's like lifting an engine block out of a car: simple, but not easy.
To start off, there's an elephant in the room we need to acknowledge, and there are two processes that you need to be aware of and leveraging.
The Elephant: Three Types of Games
League of Legends is a team game. Due to the nature of team games, the outcome of individual games is not always under your control.
There are, in fact, three types of games:
The best example of this from my own match history: When I was a Wood V scrub, I was in a game with two dc's. It was 3v5, and I was completely clueless about the game, so I was useless. The other two member of the team were duo queue platinum smurfs. The first guy was a Teemo, and he 1v5'd the enemy team. I mean, he had like 50 kills by the end of the game. His partner, a Tryndamere, pushed towers all game. I was Master Yi, and I copied the Tryndamere. I just pushed all game, and watched in awe as Teemo rekt faces.
My impact that game was irrelevant. If I had dc'd or gone afk, I still would have won. The only way I could have lost that game was if I intentionally fed the enemy team and tried to lose. That's it. And you know what? I don't think it would have mattered to Teemo and Tryndamere one way or the other if I had fed.
Some games you just can't lose.
You see a lot of confusion on this point with people new to Summoner School. Threads like: "What do you do as Lee Sin when your Top feeds, your Mid feeds, your bot feeds, and all five members of the fed enemy team are counter jungling you?"
The answer is: You Lose.
The best player in the world, God (AKA Faker), loses games. He loses alot of games. Being the best in the world, being God, will not save you from losing some games.
How to Win Type 3 Games: Consistency, Consistency, Consistency
Now we get to the meat of the guide. There are two things you need to know:
The first is thehttp://kingpinlifestyle.com/how-to-be-good-at-anything-the-inchworm-concept/. The second is the competency model.
The Inchworm Concept is best explained in the article I linked. But the TL;DR version is:
The goal is to move the Bell Curve as Far to the right as you can. To do that, you need to eliminate your Terrible C-Game, and study to improve Your Best A-game.
The competency model states that there are four stages of competence.
Going from stage 1 to stage 2 is simple and easy. All you need to do is watch the excellenthttps://www.youtube.com/user/unswlolsocvideos on youtube and record your games. That's it.
Transitioning from stage 2 to stage 3 is simple, but it's not easy. This is what takes the most "effort" to do. This is a grind. But if you're willing to endure the grind, this is where you'll make the biggest gains. I'll outline the simple grinding process you'll want to follow later in the guide.
So, our goals here are two-fold. First, to eliminate your Terrible C-game, by increasing competency from stage 1 to stage 4. Second, to improve Your Best A-Game by studying and experimenting.
The Grind: How to Go From Stage 2 to Stage 4
Savvy?
Here's what you're going to do. You're going to record your games, and keep the last 5 games you played in the "Replays" folder. And your going to watch your last five games, from oldest to newest, before you play another game.
When you watch your replays, take notes on your Terrible C-game. How can you find your Terrible C-game? Simple. Riot, in their infinite wisdom, have given you 5 experts in every game that will cheerfully show you your C-game. These are your opponents, and their lessons are your deaths. Every time you die, make a note of why you died. What was the error in your decision making or error in micro play, that lead to your death. Then, think of something you could have done to prevent the death. Write it down.
This is "The Grind". Have you done The Grind? Good, now you can play a new game of ranked. Win, or Lose, the outcome doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that you record the game, and repeat The Grind before your next game.
Do this, and you will become the next League God (AKA Faker).
But That's A Lot of Work, and It's Boring
Yeah. It's simple, it's not easy. But, it's not hopeless either. Let's talk about ways to make The Grind more enjoyable.
Gold and Lower: Screw Team Comp, Screw Your Teammates, Master a Role, Master a Champion.
Go to Bestbans.com. Find your ranked tier. Pick one champion from your main role, and one champion from your off role. Go down the list, from highest impact to lowest impact, looking for the one champion that you would have fun playing for the next 200 games. It doesn't matter if the champion you enjoy playing is at the bottom of the list. What matters is that you make the grind more enjoyable (for now).
So, you have your champion(s). Next, go to champion.gg, find your two champions and create two rune pages and two mastery pages based on the highest win rate builds. Copy the highest win rate item builds also.
This is not optimal. But below Platinum, these choices are largely irrelevant. Take the same runes, the same masteries, and the same items every game. Yes, you're going to buy magic resist versus an all AD comp. Who gives a shit? That's B-game stuff, baby, and you're grinding out your Terrible C-game right now.
But, but that's terrible advice and I'll Lose Games
Yeah, but not a significant number. The important thing is that it frees up mental capacity to improve your Terrible C-game, which is the biggest factor in why you're losing at this tier.
But, but Last Game I Didn't Have Any Deaths
Cool, so your terrible C-game wasn't dying. What else did you screw up? Is your CS shit? Did you miss an opportunity to secure an objective? Did you waste a lot of time? Did you blow your summoner spells without taking an objective? Did you waste your ultimate before an important team fight? Did you engage a bad team fight? Did you get caught out of position? Where did you give up map pressure?
These problems are your new Terrible C-game. Congratulations, you're a much better player now.
Keep Grinding.
But, but I've played this champion for 200 games, and I'm no longer having fun
Go back to Bestbans.com and pick a secondary champion. Make sure to play a game on your first champ every day, but spam the new champion the rest of the time. Congratulations, your champion pool is increasing!
Platinum and Above: Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
You're pretty good at the game. But other people are better. Time to steal from them.
During your replays, identify the reason the other team won. What did they do right? Steal it. Make it your own. Theorycraft a counter to it.
Is the game stale? Time to experiment. Try shit that you think is garbage, have fun and fail gloriously. Do things you're pretty sure are bad, and see what happens.
You need to develop the ability to think two or three moves ahead of your opponent and force them into making bad decisions. This is where you're making bigger gains by improving Your Best A-game. Spend some time every day researching builds from pro players, watching challenger level streams, etcetra.
Best of luck.
This is going to be a long post. It's a comprehensive guide on how to turn yourself into a Challenger quality player.
The truth is, becoming a better player is simple, but it's not easy. It's like lifting an engine block out of a car: simple, but not easy.
To start off, there's an elephant in the room we need to acknowledge, and there are two processes that you need to be aware of and leveraging.
The Elephant: Three Types of Games
League of Legends is a team game. Due to the nature of team games, the outcome of individual games is not always under your control.
There are, in fact, three types of games:
Sometimes, no matter how badly you play (or if you even play at all), you will win. Your teammates will do so well (or your opponents will do so badly) that you are irrelevant.
The best example of this from my own match history: When I was a Wood V scrub, I was in a game with two dc's. It was 3v5, and I was completely clueless about the game, so I was useless. The other two member of the team were duo queue platinum smurfs. The first guy was a Teemo, and he 1v5'd the enemy team. I mean, he had like 50 kills by the end of the game. His partner, a Tryndamere, pushed towers all game. I was Master Yi, and I copied the Tryndamere. I just pushed all game, and watched in awe as Teemo rekt faces.
My impact that game was irrelevant. If I had dc'd or gone afk, I still would have won. The only way I could have lost that game was if I intentionally fed the enemy team and tried to lose. That's it. And you know what? I don't think it would have mattered to Teemo and Tryndamere one way or the other if I had fed.
Some games you just can't lose.
As a corollary, some games are the exact opposite. No matter what you do, no matter how great a player you are, you will lose.
You see a lot of confusion on this point with people new to Summoner School. Threads like: "What do you do as Lee Sin when your Top feeds, your Mid feeds, your bot feeds, and all five members of the fed enemy team are counter jungling you?"
The answer is: You Lose.
The best player in the world, God (AKA Faker), loses games. He loses alot of games. Being the best in the world, being God, will not save you from losing some games.
This is the largest percentage of games, and the reason why League of Legends is fun. Some people say the percentage between the three types is 25-25-50, or 33-33-33, or 10-10-80. The actual number doesn't matter, but converting Type 3 games into wins is the way to climb the ladder. God normally wins Type 3 Games, that's why people call him Faker.
How to Win Type 3 Games: Consistency, Consistency, Consistency
Now we get to the meat of the guide. There are two things you need to know:
The first is thehttp://kingpinlifestyle.com/how-to-be-good-at-anything-the-inchworm-concept/. The second is the competency model.
The Inchworm Concept is best explained in the article I linked. But the TL;DR version is:
Loading…
kingpinlifestyle.com
The competency model states that there are four stages of competence.
At this stage you are making mistakes, but you don't recognize them. This is a state of complete ignorance. This is your Terrible C-game.
At this stage you are aware that you are making mistakes, and you have identified the solution to the mistake, but you have not as yet been able to implement the solution reliably.
Going from stage 1 to stage 2 is simple and easy. All you need to do is watch the excellenthttps://www.youtube.com/user/unswlolsocvideos on youtube and record your games. That's it.
At this stage you are mindful and focusing on avoiding the mistakes. You generally avoid the mistake, but sometimes slip up if you aren't thinking about it.
Transitioning from stage 2 to stage 3 is simple, but it's not easy. This is what takes the most "effort" to do. This is a grind. But if you're willing to endure the grind, this is where you'll make the biggest gains. I'll outline the simple grinding process you'll want to follow later in the guide.
At this stage you are no longer actively thinking about avoiding the mistake. Avoiding it has become a natural part of your decision making process. This is the reward for all of your effort and your Elo will rise naturally because of it.
So, our goals here are two-fold. First, to eliminate your Terrible C-game, by increasing competency from stage 1 to stage 4. Second, to improve Your Best A-Game by studying and experimenting.
The Grind: How to Go From Stage 2 to Stage 4
- Go to your desktop, and find your League of Legends Launcher Shortcut. Create a new folder, called "Record the Game". Place the LoL shortcut in the new folder.
- Create a new folder, called "Replays". Put the "Record the Game" folder inside the "Replays" Folder.
- Create a new folder, called "League of Legends". Put the "Replays" folder inside the "League of Legends" folder.
Savvy?
Here's what you're going to do. You're going to record your games, and keep the last 5 games you played in the "Replays" folder. And your going to watch your last five games, from oldest to newest, before you play another game.
When you watch your replays, take notes on your Terrible C-game. How can you find your Terrible C-game? Simple. Riot, in their infinite wisdom, have given you 5 experts in every game that will cheerfully show you your C-game. These are your opponents, and their lessons are your deaths. Every time you die, make a note of why you died. What was the error in your decision making or error in micro play, that lead to your death. Then, think of something you could have done to prevent the death. Write it down.
This is "The Grind". Have you done The Grind? Good, now you can play a new game of ranked. Win, or Lose, the outcome doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that you record the game, and repeat The Grind before your next game.
Do this, and you will become the next League God (AKA Faker).
But That's A Lot of Work, and It's Boring
Yeah. It's simple, it's not easy. But, it's not hopeless either. Let's talk about ways to make The Grind more enjoyable.
Gold and Lower: Screw Team Comp, Screw Your Teammates, Master a Role, Master a Champion.
Go to Bestbans.com. Find your ranked tier. Pick one champion from your main role, and one champion from your off role. Go down the list, from highest impact to lowest impact, looking for the one champion that you would have fun playing for the next 200 games. It doesn't matter if the champion you enjoy playing is at the bottom of the list. What matters is that you make the grind more enjoyable (for now).
So, you have your champion(s). Next, go to champion.gg, find your two champions and create two rune pages and two mastery pages based on the highest win rate builds. Copy the highest win rate item builds also.
This is not optimal. But below Platinum, these choices are largely irrelevant. Take the same runes, the same masteries, and the same items every game. Yes, you're going to buy magic resist versus an all AD comp. Who gives a shit? That's B-game stuff, baby, and you're grinding out your Terrible C-game right now.
But, but that's terrible advice and I'll Lose Games
Yeah, but not a significant number. The important thing is that it frees up mental capacity to improve your Terrible C-game, which is the biggest factor in why you're losing at this tier.
But, but Last Game I Didn't Have Any Deaths
Cool, so your terrible C-game wasn't dying. What else did you screw up? Is your CS shit? Did you miss an opportunity to secure an objective? Did you waste a lot of time? Did you blow your summoner spells without taking an objective? Did you waste your ultimate before an important team fight? Did you engage a bad team fight? Did you get caught out of position? Where did you give up map pressure?
These problems are your new Terrible C-game. Congratulations, you're a much better player now.
Keep Grinding.
But, but I've played this champion for 200 games, and I'm no longer having fun
Go back to Bestbans.com and pick a secondary champion. Make sure to play a game on your first champ every day, but spam the new champion the rest of the time. Congratulations, your champion pool is increasing!
Platinum and Above: Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
You're pretty good at the game. But other people are better. Time to steal from them.
During your replays, identify the reason the other team won. What did they do right? Steal it. Make it your own. Theorycraft a counter to it.
Is the game stale? Time to experiment. Try shit that you think is garbage, have fun and fail gloriously. Do things you're pretty sure are bad, and see what happens.
You need to develop the ability to think two or three moves ahead of your opponent and force them into making bad decisions. This is where you're making bigger gains by improving Your Best A-game. Spend some time every day researching builds from pro players, watching challenger level streams, etcetra.
Best of luck.