4 TIPS TO GAIN ELO

The start of a new season beckons forth new aspirants who will attempt to reach the great heights of high ELO. While some will succeed in their daring endeavour, many will slump on their path to glory. However, little do those people know; it is always elementary mistakes and a lack of thinking that restricts them from reaching their true potential. Here are 4 steps to INSTANTLY improve your ranked game performances. 

1. Build SMARTLY 
We've all had those games where we would snowball heavily with a champion, only to find out that a burst AP mage from the opponent team has been racking up the creep score in the meantime. In the late game, all our effort would be for naught as the mage would burst us down every single time. In such a case, a good item build can go a long way. Suppose for instance, we are playing Master Yi jungle and we are faced with such a situation. Forgoing Guinsoo's Rageblade as the second item after Devourer, and building a Sterak's Gage would be most wise for us. Many people like to combo Sterak's with Maw of the Malmortius. The shield that you get from Sterak's when you're low combines with the magic shield provided by Maw and you become deceptively tanky. The AD from these items ensures your damage doesn't fall off that much either. Smart item builds such as these will always allow you to gain one up on your opponent as they will not be expecting it. Just, don't build tank Teemo. Please. 

2. Read the matchups
A lot of people spend the time on the loading screen gawking at the splash arts; time that can be utilized in analyzing the enemy. If you see a Fiora top matched up against a Malphite, you'll KNOW that the Fiora is going to struggle simply because Malphite's kit counters AD auto-attackers completely. As a jungler, this information is EXTREMELY important. If you're on Malphite's team, you can hope to snowball his lane by ganking once or you can leave him alone and keep him safe from BEING ganked. If the Fiora is on your team, you HAVE to camp Fiora's lane otherwise you will be dealing with a tanky menace in the mid to late game. Other laners need to do it as well. Suppose you're a Lucian playing with Braum against Vayne and Sona – champions who are weak and squishy early on – you have to completely shut the Vayne down by constantly hard-engaging on them. Often times, players wrongfully go into a fight they can't win. This would've been prevented if they knew it prior to the fight happening. 

3. Learn carry champions 
This one is self explanatory. While every champion can carry if the summoner is extremely skilled, it is best not to play certain champions in ranked simply because you cannot carry your team as easily as you would with a carry champion. Supports CAN carry, however they require a good marksman for that. Playing jungle Nautilus in Bronze is not a good idea because a majority of your lanes would be very less skilled and even if you snowball their lane, there is a high chance they might end up throwing the game. Examples of bad champions in solo queue: utility based tanks that have no damage in early to late game. Examples of champions who can carry solo queue: Graves, Kha'Zix, Master Yi, Jinx, Miss Fortune, Fiora, Zed; basically any champion who can snowball hard and not fall off late game. 

4. Stop blaming teammates
Okay, we all have that one potato who mucks things up at late game by getting caught in a silly position but even then, you have to stop looking at your teammates' mistakes. Why? Because it tunnel visions you from seeing your own mistakes; mistakes that, if you correct, will make you a MUCH better player. Be it botching a gank because you failed to land a stun or overextending too much when you know there's a Rengar on the prowl, fallacies in your gameplay will only become apparent when you focus on yourself only.  That's not to say you should not give advice to your teammates either. Tell your teammate if you think he'll be getting ganked soon. If he doesn't listen make sure you're there to protect him. If you can't get there and he dies, do not blame him. Instead, try to figure out how you can repair the damage. 

All in all, ranked in League of Legends is extremely dynamic. You never know what's going to happen and that's the fun part. Sure bad luck might prevent you from completing that last promo to Bronze 4 but remember this; you will get to high ELO if you play well. Good luck in the fields of justice.