5 LoL Tips That’ll Get You Out of ELO Hell

As a LoL coach, I get a lot of questions on League, not just on how to climb the ladder, but on how to improve in general, too. Most of my advice falls into one of 5 categories, so take a break from your latest battle and give these a quick read:

1. Mindset and mentality. Yes, how cliché. Everyone yaps about how attitude affects team play and you are just sick and tired of hearing it, aren’t you? Well, don’t let it go in one ear and out of the other, because it’s one of the most valuable tips for LoL. Do not play League of Legends after you have had a bad game. Instead, take a break, relax, get some food, get some fresh air and once you can no longer feel your blood boiling over your last battle blowout, sit back down and start a new game. Even if you win a game, but you can’t get over the slap in the face from someone flaming you, take a break. The happier you are when you are going into the game, the better you will play. Your mentality affects your performance, and the angrier or more upset you are, the worse your performance will be. Do yourself a favor and avoid a losing streak by simply avoiding the toxicity that is LoL when you are on a rampage.

2. Teamplay. League of Legends is heavily team reliant, whether you like that or not. If your whole team sucks, you will most likely lose, despite the fact that you might play like a god and pentakill the enemy team. Sometimes, no matter how hard you carry, your teammates will be like a ball of lead tied around your foot, and it will make you sink. What can you do about this? For once, if someone on your team is flaming, put them on ignore. Not only will it make it so much easier, it feels rewarding, too. Nothing is better than knowing that the teammate who is flaming you will either get angry because you can’t see a single word they are saying, give in to your supreme silence, or just shut up. Sometimes you just know one of your teammates is going to be a flamer (you know, when they start the game off with an expletive and a cocky statement saying, “I play this for myself, you all suck, I go mid or AFK.”)

   If you get one of these morons on your team, don’t argue with him, just ignore everything they say. On the rare occasion that you don’t get any flamers, take this opportunity to lead your team to victory. When someone does something good, praise the hell out of them. Even if it really wasn’t such a great play, throw in a compliment, or at least throw a “GJ” at them. If they make a mistake, ignore it. Don’t say a word. You know they are already angry and blaming themselves, they don’t need your judgment, too. Last, but most importantly, be a leader! If you know what you are doing, don’t be afraid to call dragon, baron, back, push, etc. Let them know how important it is to stick together and make sure they listen to you. Don’t ping constantly—one or two is enough per objective (unless they aren’t listening, in that case ping as much as you want).

3. Stick together. Once laning phase is over, be sure to roam as five. If one of your teammates has TP, then by all means, they can splitpush as long as their summoner spells are up. Mainly, you’ll want to walk with your team, talk with your team, and breathe with your team. So many games are lost because one or two people get caught by the enemy team and die before your team can do anything about it, so we can’t stress enough how important it is to stick to the group. In LoL coaching, this is one of the most common corrections we have to make for our customers.

4. Objectives are the Holy Grail. That’s right, push those towers, kill that dragon and slaughter that baron. Make sure you get your team behind you and push, push, push. Remember, pushing down a turret is critical. You should be happy to trade one death for an inhib turret. Drake is also extremely important these days, because he gives your whole team permanent buffs. Remember to follow tip number three and get your whole team to help you push, or gather at drake or baron. Team fights often happen because of objectives, so if you see one or more of the enemy players go botlane—especially if it is the jungler—rush that baron or tower.

5. Strategize and adapt. Simply put, build for the game you are playing and not for what you think is the best or ideal build. Let’s say you are playing Katarina mid and you have had great success beating the enemy team while rushing Death Cap. Suddenly in your next game you are up against Yasuo, and lo and behold, he is beating you. What should you do? Do not rush Death Cap. Build for the situation. You have an AD hero dominating you, so build armor. You still want to do some damage? Then build Zhonyas. Building both armor and AP puts you in stasis, and it is a great item against an AD hero. Adapting to the game you are playing is crucial, and it starts as early as champion select. If you are playing support and you see the enemy team is picking huge burst and assassin heroes, and their support is Blitzcrank, build your team accordingly (in this case, please don’t pick Sona as your hero). Go with someone like Leona, who can survive bursts, has lots of CC, and if Blitz pulls you, that’s a mistake on his end.

Ok, you’re done reading. Stop. Get a red sharpie, write these five things down, and put them on your wall next to your monitor. If you don’t have these points top-of-mind while you’re playing, you’re probably not going to be actually executing on them. Make sure you don’t just promise yourself that you’ll play this way, but that you’re taking time to think and act on it during your gameplay, because that’s what will make the difference. Happy hunting!