• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 07:17
CEST 13:17
KST 20:17
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO4 & Finals Preview5[ASL21] Ro4 Preview: On Course12Code S Season 1 - RO8 Preview7[ASL21] Ro8 Preview Pt2: Progenitors8Code S Season 1 - RO12 Group A: Rogue, Percival, Solar, Zoun13
Community News
Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double0Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO8 Results2Weekly Cups (May 4-10): Clem, MaxPax, herO win1Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule !16Weekly Cups (April 27-May 4): Clem takes triple0
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO4 & Finals Preview Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - The Finalists Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO8 Results Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO12 Results
Tourneys
$1,400 SEL Season 3 Ladder Invitational GSL Code S Season 2 (2026) GSL Code S Season 1 (2026) $5,000 WardiTV Spring Championship 2026 Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule !
Strategy
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 526 Rubber and Glue Mutation # 525 Wheel of Misfortune Mutation # 524 Death and Taxes
Brood War
General
25 Years Since Brood War Patch 1.08 BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Lights Ro.8 Review (asl s21) BW General Discussion vespene.gg — BW replays in browser
Tourneys
[ASL21] Semifinals B [BSL22] RO8 Bracket Stage + Another TieBreaker [ASL21] Ro8 Day 4 Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2
Strategy
Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Hydra ZvZ: An Introduction Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne ZeroSpace Megathread War of Dots, 2026 minimalst RTS Nintendo Switch Thread
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread US Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread UK Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
streaming software Strange computer issues (software) [G] How to Block Livestream Ads
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Why RTS gamers make better f…
gosubay
How EEG Data Can Predict Gam…
TrAiDoS
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1758 users

I don't understand how to get better at LoL

Blogs > IMoperator
Post a Reply
IMoperator
Profile Joined October 2011
4476 Posts
June 20 2013 12:28 GMT
#1
Right now I'm gold 5, and was silver for S2 up until about ~2 months ago. I've been fluctuating between gold 5 and gold 4, with insane win streaks and loss streaks. It's really hard to get steady improvement, which is one thing I'm really not used to since I was a SC2 player. In SC2, I started out in bronze. I liked the game and wanted to get better, so I just played more and more and eventually I got up into masters league. In League it's different. I got on a winstreak, and lucked into gold league. Now I can't get any higher than gold 4/gold 5. I don't feel like I'm any better then I was when I was silver. It feels like there's no real way to track progress in LoL compared to SC2. In SC2, I'd know "oh with this build order I should have ~100 supply @ 10 minutes optimally" and then I could practice that over and over until I could get that. When I was in bronze, I couldn't get close to the number, but gradually I worked up to it and could do the build perfectly. Same thing with APM or micro. I could SEE actual improvement happening.

In LoL, you get a lot of games that end before 20 mins for either team. Sometimes bot + mid feed really hard, and you're down 0-10 in kills and 2 dragons before 15 minutes. As a top laner, what are you supposed to do when their mid, adc and jungle are all fed and you're up there going even with their top lane? You just lose. Other times the same thing happens but you're on the winning side. It feels like, in solo queue at least, a great deal of the game is tied up in luck. Are your teammates going to play well and dominate their lane? Yeah, sometimes. Are your teammates going to feed hard and be useless from that point on? Also, yeah, sometimes. Now, I always hear from pros that the one thing you can be sure of, is yourself. And I agree with that. If I'm playing a champ I'm comfortable with, I can usually come out of lane ahead of the other guy. But since it's a team game, does it matter much? In the long run, the 30 cs or 1 kill I'm ahead of their mid laner isn't really going to impact the game much, is it? So in theory, I beat him in mid lane because I'm up in farm + a kill. But you have to look at the whole game in general too. Let's say my adc goes 0-3 to theirs in lane. Now that mid lane advantage is a lot less, right? What if since my bot lane lost so hard, the enemy jungler camps top lane and snowballs their top too. Now we have 2 lanes that lost, and even though I "won" my lane, I practically have zero advantage over their mid. That's just something I'm not used to I guess, since I came from a 1v1 game. Advantages in SC2 are huge. If I snipe his 3rd base and have mine up, I know that I'm way ahead. If I get more farm in lane on LoL, I'm ahead, but not by enough that it matters, you know?

One last thing I'll talk about is mechanics in general. I guess it's good for the game's popularity, and RIOT, but it feels like there's not enough of a mechanical gap between players. Or at least that's what I prefer, I guess. In SC2, if I have 250 apm and the guy I'm playing with has only 150, I can use that to my advantage by out-multitasking him. There's no such thing like that in LoL. All the pros themselves have pretty much even mechanics. They all can farm about the same level, they can't really do anything that really outplays the opponent hard, and so they're basically on the same playing field. The same thing happens in FPS games, too. Think about Counter Strike vs. CoD. In CS, an experienced player will completely and utterly destroy a new player because he has way better aim. In CoD, the new player will be a lot closer to the experienced player's level of skill, and the score in a 1v1 would be a lot closer. This is why CS has been a way better competitive game than Call of Duty. In League of Legends, is there really a big difference between a silver player and a gold player? Nah not really. You only really see huge divisions in player skill when you compare like bronze to plat, or silver to diamond.

So where am I going with all this? Well it feels like I've stagnated as a player for those reasons above. I feel like I'm not able to get a higher rank because of teammates (yes I know, dunning kruger, everyone feels the same way blah blah blah...), because of not being able to outplay my opponent enough, and because of no real way of tracking improvement. If there are some high level LoL players here that would give me tips, or just comment on what I think about the game, that would be really cool. Thanks.

*
Douillos
Profile Joined May 2010
France3195 Posts
June 20 2013 12:49 GMT
#2
The main difference between sc2 and LoL is that sc2 is 1v1, LoL is 5v5. By thinking of the game as a solo game, you will always be stuck at a certain level, because the truth is you need to progress as a team and not as an individual. 5 highly skill players with no coordination will almost always loose to less skilled players with excellent team play.

TBH I think your best shot is to look for a team/ clan, and learn to play with them, and progress as a team.
Look a giraffe! Look a fist!!
AsmodeusXI
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
United States15536 Posts
June 20 2013 12:55 GMT
#3
One thing I haven't noticed in your explanation is a lack of replays. Have you tried LoLRecorder? I'm finding that I'm learning a ton every time I watch myself play.
WriterTL > RL. BNet: Asmodeus#1187 - LoL: DJForeclosure - Steam: asmodeusxi | www.n3rddimension.com
CreationSoul
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
Romania231 Posts
June 20 2013 12:57 GMT
#4
As a (very bad) silver support main player I can tell you that people don't know how to play when they are a little bit behind. Some of them are too defensive and allow to opponent to farm without any harassment (and thus they increase their lead) or are very aggressive, in order to reclaim the lost advantage.

I think LoL is mostly about vision control and knowing how and when to land your abilities. In my case I usually play Thresh (when he is not banned), Sona, Nami or Janna. I found that picking supports that can get your team away from bad situations (all of the previous champs' ultimates) is the best thing to have aas a low level support.
Quitting is the easy way out...
Tobberoth
Profile Joined August 2010
Sweden6375 Posts
June 20 2013 13:02 GMT
#5
On June 20 2013 21:49 Douillos wrote:
The main difference between sc2 and LoL is that sc2 is 1v1, LoL is 5v5. By thinking of the game as a solo game, you will always be stuck at a certain level, because the truth is you need to progress as a team and not as an individual. 5 highly skill players with no coordination will almost always loose to less skilled players with excellent team play.

TBH I think your best shot is to look for a team/ clan, and learn to play with them, and progress as a team.

That's not really true. Take any really good LoL player and give them a new account, they will be top of the ladder in no-time.

As for how to do it, I agree it's pretty hard to track in LoL, there's less individual impact than Dota for example. However, the same basics apply: If you are better than you opponents, you should win your lane. The problem most players have is that they are satisfied with this and then blame the other lanes. That's NOT how you rise in rank. What you need to do is take it to the next step: Take your advantage to the other lanes. This is why mid is considered a good position to rise in rank: it's easier to gank from mid.

Basically, win your lane with great farm, then immediately turn around the other lanes. If bot is feeding, you WILL lose the game eventually if the opponents are decent, so you have to go down there and kill the opponents... over and over, until they are the ones feeding you + your bot.

There's a limit to how much impact you can make, especially in Lol, and it depends on the game... but rising in rank is all about the long run. If you win your lane every game, you might still lose more than 50% of all games, but if you always make a huge impact in other lanes, you will win more than 50% since teams are balanced. Your team might be shit compared to the opponents next game, but in a hundred games, chances are your team will be the OP team just as often as the opposing team, and most of the time, the teams will probably be quite equal.
spinesheath
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Germany8679 Posts
June 20 2013 13:12 GMT
#6
Chat is the most powerful tool available in LoL. Learn how to work with your team. All you really need to do is to plant a seed of motivation and coordination, and if you're successful the rest will hopefully follow. Also remember that you will and should not always be the one calling/making the plays.
If you have a good reason to disagree with the above, please tell me. Thank you.
gaymon
Profile Blog Joined April 2011
Germany1023 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-06-20 13:43:57
June 20 2013 13:42 GMT
#7
After having played ~500 games of LOL in 2011 (before dota2 was released) i felt the exact same thing you did, my rating flucturated between 2050 and 1750 constantly.

Without trying to flame LOL i dont know how to answer it, but imho the impact of one player is far less than in dota/hon and the room to outplay your opponent is also smaller.

edit: oh you already said something like that, so i guess i can simply agree
spinesheath
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Germany8679 Posts
June 20 2013 16:07 GMT
#8
On June 20 2013 22:42 gaymon wrote:
Without trying to flame LOL i dont know how to answer it, but imho the impact of one player is far less than in dota/hon and the room to outplay your opponent is also smaller.

Think of it the other way round: it's much harder for a single person to make an impact/outplay the opponent. You just have to be that much closer to perfection.
If you have a good reason to disagree with the above, please tell me. Thank you.
Taktik
Profile Joined January 2011
Poland680 Posts
June 20 2013 16:28 GMT
#9
Im only gold I but by watching streams i realized how people in gold dont value enough objectives like dragon and tower and over value the baron buff. When i was starting playing LoL I asked some questions on this forum. One of the answer I got was "lol is all about experience and decisions" and its very true. Also I feel like (in my league at least) people dont communicate enough. Im most of the time the most active in chat (maybe because I play mostly jungle ;d ). All lanes can influence the state of other lanes. If u win top u already did something for the team because U are stronger then other top laner however u should try to gank mid / get mid tower or try dragon. The same with mid lane and bottom. When im playing support and we crushed our opponents i try to gank mid or get wards farther away to help the team.
Gryffes
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United Kingdom763 Posts
June 20 2013 18:32 GMT
#10
Gold 1 fwiw.

Objectives and solid teamfights win games, winning lane means little if you fail to convert it into any meaningful objectives.

Eg you go 2/0 top, but you fail to push the turret afterwards and you dont contribute towards winning mid or the jungle by pressuring reds/blues. You don't walk down for dragons before the respawn timer is up.

What did you actually do to help the team win? Nothing.

Someone who goes 0/2 but kills the enemy turret and walked down for the dragon fight > pushing mid over, did a shitload more.

Converting your lead into map pressure and objectives wins games. Waving your dick around killing the same guy for diminishing returns of gold and little map pressure achieves nothing.
www.youtube.com/gryffes - Random Gaming Videos.
Carnivorous Sheep
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
Baa?21244 Posts
June 20 2013 18:50 GMT
#11
always kill never not kill

always not die never not not die
TranslatorBaa!
Xenocide_Knight
Profile Blog Joined January 2008
Korea (South)2625 Posts
June 20 2013 18:59 GMT
#12
On June 21 2013 03:50 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
always kill never not kill

always not die never not not die

You could probably equate this to a build order equivalent! 10 minutes = have X items and be 10-0 with 100 cs. 20 minutes, 20-0 200cs etc.
Then every loss is just "oh I messed up my build"
Shine[Kal] #1 fan
Frolossus
Profile Joined February 2010
United States4779 Posts
June 20 2013 22:35 GMT
#13
you get above gold by staring at the minimap and playing your best role
true story
ZERG_RUSSIAN
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
10417 Posts
June 20 2013 22:45 GMT
#14
I wrote this in 2011 but it's still true today:

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=452151
I'm on GOLD CHAIN
docvoc
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
United States5491 Posts
June 21 2013 00:44 GMT
#15
On June 20 2013 22:02 Tobberoth wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 20 2013 21:49 Douillos wrote:
The main difference between sc2 and LoL is that sc2 is 1v1, LoL is 5v5. By thinking of the game as a solo game, you will always be stuck at a certain level, because the truth is you need to progress as a team and not as an individual. 5 highly skill players with no coordination will almost always loose to less skilled players with excellent team play.

TBH I think your best shot is to look for a team/ clan, and learn to play with them, and progress as a team.

That's not really true. Take any really good LoL player and give them a new account, they will be top of the ladder in no-time.

As for how to do it, I agree it's pretty hard to track in LoL, there's less individual impact than Dota for example. However, the same basics apply: If you are better than you opponents, you should win your lane. The problem most players have is that they are satisfied with this and then blame the other lanes. That's NOT how you rise in rank. What you need to do is take it to the next step: Take your advantage to the other lanes. This is why mid is considered a good position to rise in rank: it's easier to gank from mid.

Basically, win your lane with great farm, then immediately turn around the other lanes. If bot is feeding, you WILL lose the game eventually if the opponents are decent, so you have to go down there and kill the opponents... over and over, until they are the ones feeding you + your bot.

There's a limit to how much impact you can make, especially in Lol, and it depends on the game... but rising in rank is all about the long run. If you win your lane every game, you might still lose more than 50% of all games, but if you always make a huge impact in other lanes, you will win more than 50% since teams are balanced. Your team might be shit compared to the opponents next game, but in a hundred games, chances are your team will be the OP team just as often as the opposing team, and most of the time, the teams will probably be quite equal.

At a certain point people can carry really hard, but for most its best to learn how to carry as a team, rather than to try to 1 man it. Even those best players don't attempt to 1 man it when they are down, they play as a team. I see what you are saying though.
User was warned for too many mimes.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Kung Fu Cup
11:00
#8
IntoTheiNu 313
RotterdaM244
WardiTV173
Rex47
SteadfastSC40
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Ryung 459
RotterdaM 220
Lowko191
Rex 45
SteadfastSC 32
StarCraft: Brood War
Bisu 1079
Horang2 842
Jaedong 814
Nal_rA 507
Mini 329
Hyuk 321
actioN 260
Larva 256
Soma 213
Rush 200
[ Show more ]
EffOrt 179
BeSt 166
Light 153
Soulkey 134
ToSsGirL 118
ggaemo 102
Pusan 99
Liquid`Ret 71
Mind 66
ZerO 50
Mong 40
hero 35
Hyun 35
JulyZerg 27
Bale 24
Shinee 23
Sharp 19
910 18
sorry 16
HiyA 14
soO 13
Barracks 13
Sea.KH 13
GoRush 12
ajuk12(nOOB) 12
Movie 11
Terrorterran 10
Noble 10
Sexy 9
Icarus 3
Dota 2
Gorgc4804
XaKoH 509
Dendi328
XcaliburYe70
Counter-Strike
olofmeister2173
shoxiejesuss1157
x6flipin255
allub231
markeloff97
edward49
Other Games
singsing1620
B2W.Neo511
byalli510
crisheroes233
Trikslyr20
ZerO(Twitch)15
Organizations
Counter-Strike
PGL988
StarCraft: Brood War
lovetv 22
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Gemini_19 18
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 6
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Nemesis2453
• Jankos1323
Upcoming Events
WardiTV Qualifier
2h 43m
GSL
22h 13m
Cure vs sOs
SHIN vs ByuN
Replay Cast
1d 12h
GSL
1d 22h
Classic vs Solar
GuMiho vs Zoun
WardiTV Spring Champion…
1d 23h
Replay Cast
2 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
WardiTV Spring Champion…
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
RSL Revival
3 days
Classic vs SHIN
Rogue vs Bunny
[ Show More ]
BSL
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
Flash vs Soma
RSL Revival
4 days
BSL
5 days
Patches Events
5 days
Universe Titan Cup
5 days
Rogue vs Percival
Wardi Open
6 days
Monday Night Weeklies
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
The PondCast
6 days
Kung Fu Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Escore Tournament S2: W7
2026 GSL S1
Nations Cup 2026

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
ASL Season 21
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
Acropolis #4
KK 2v2 League Season 1
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
YSL S3
SCTL 2026 Spring
RSL Revival: Season 5
Heroes Pulsing #1
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S2: W8
CSCL: Masked Kings S4
CSLAN 4
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Maestros of the Game 2
WardiTV Spring 2026
2026 GSL S2
Bounty Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.