General Discussion/Off-topic - Page 201

Warning: Understanding and accepting the facts of this article will cause you to become a better player and a wiser person, whether you like it or not. Unlike other guides, this guide will have no content on specific game knowledge; there are other guides covering that. If you dislike long and/or intelligent articles, this read is not for you.

Introduction:

After playing this game for 1.5 years and running 2 accounts up the elo ladder in ranked I believe I’ve experienced every type of bad player in ranked imaginable:

• Players you just beat last game, now that’s on your team who will then proceed to intentionally feed all game to the other team
• Players that will not leave the fountain from the start of the game and yet will chat politely with both teams
• Players that try really hard to do well, but constantly play at a level below what is expected of them and make many obvious mistakes
• Players that will rage at anyone making the smallest mistake or for having a poor game outside their norm

The 2 later player types are the ones that generally believe that they are “trapped in elo hell”.

Everyday I will have 1-2 players add me asking me: “I loved reading your threads, can you tell me how I get to high elo?” or “What do I do when there’s a feeder or a rager on my team?” The question that I never get; the one I’m always waiting for is “Camera, how do I become a better player?”

I observed from their questions and comments that these players have severe tunnel vision (no offence meant, that’s just the way I see it); “I’m a great player but I always get leavers or feeders on my team, that’s why I’m in low elo.” It surprised me at first the sheer volume of players that came to me with this problem, I was starting to think that maybe there is a statistical variance swing or some mathematical mumbo jumble that causes good players to be tossed into elo hell. Sure, there were leavers and feeders on my teams, but it never felt overwhelming to me. However when I looked more closely at these players, and even played a few normal games with them, it was quite clear what the problems were.

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Lack of Knowledge then Refusing to Learn:

I started looking at their recent matches and statistics, and started seeing the pattern games played with a poor build such as: Tri-force Nidalee or AD Sion. I tried telling them to look for better builds and try out builds that top players use, however I get these types of response a lot, “I know how to play Ashe; I’ve played a ton of normal games with her. The only reason I rushed a Banshee’s Veil was to hard counter that AP assassin that was killing me middle.” Or “I like get 3-4 Avarice Blades on Gangplank because it’s just so good on him and I do so much damage end-game”. Laugh all you want, but chances are if your elo is below 1500, any high elo player can point out several inefficiencies in your Build/Runes/Masteries for any commonly played character. When I get asked questions from these types of players, I tell them to watch Livestreams and search high elo profile rune pages for the most optimal build and playstyle. A lot of times I can tell if a player will improve, simply by their response, “Bro, thanks and all but I know how to play this character from my over 9000 normal games played, I don’t need a new build” meaning that they refuse to learn by acknowledging that they are wrong and by doing so, they refuse to improve themselves and will remain frustrated where they are, constantly blaming matchmaking and everything under the sun but themselves (see “I Hate Humans”). A player willing to admit he’s not perfect and opening his or her mind to new techniques is already on the correct path to achievement.



Always Assigning Blame and Refusing to Admit and Learn from Mistakes:

Every has played with that one player who is fuming mad before the game even starts. “Noob captain didn’t ban Rammus” or “/all Wow, first pick Swain, GG”. While creating a good team composition and assigning good lanes are important, they are often not the deciding factors in winning a game. I myself have been guilty of this on multiple occasions, particularly when I’m on a losing streak (or on a tilt) because it feels better to blame someone else for the loss rather than evaluate yourself.

The difference between a player that improves and a player that stays where they are is their ability to calm down and realize that sometimes it is you that is at fault, not the 5-2-3 team captain who didn’t ban Rammus. Once this is realized, strategies can be formulated to counter strong picks and next time you see a Rammus or Pantheon or Malphite on the other team, you can be 1 step ahead of him at every step of the game. This is something that is extremely challenging to do, and a lot of high elo players still struggle with this. They would rather call another player bad then say they made a mistake there because, of course, they are #1 and cannot be wrong.

“My MF completely dominated their Ashe mid and I tripled her CS and got a kill but all the other lanes fed, F matchmaking.”- Grackis. Yeah, you’re much more skilled than their Ashe, well done, but you still lost the game. Winning a 1v1 mid will not win you the game. If bottom lane is losing and pushed, grab red and gank it after pushing mid. Same with top lane; a gank will make instil fear upon your opponents and force them to buy wards and play conservatively. Ask your jungler to gank or ask your lanes to stop pushing or buy wards. If they don’t listen to your suggestions, they’re less knowledgeable than you but it’s still your responsibility to guard your lanes from ganks and it’s still your job to gank the pushed lanes.

A death is always your fault. Blaming someone else for you dying is the dumbest thing you can possibly do. If you followed someone to your death, it is completely your error in judgement. If someone initiates poorly and you are killed by an AP carry; they are to blame, but so are you for positioning so poorly in a fight. If you tried to play aggressive in a lane and die because your lane partner played fairly passively, it’s your fault for misjudging the situation or poorly communicating your intentions. If you die defending a tower 1v5, you should be able to see your team not coming and just walked away. When you realize this fact, you will learn to die less, position yourself better in teamfights and become a better player. Learning to not die, working as a team, and opening your ears and eyes to the advice of other players can significantly help to improve your game.



Show Your Game Knowledge by Carrying Through Leadership!

I believe this is the most important factor that differentiates high elo rank from low elo rank between 2 similarly skilled players. If you watch livestreams, you can often hear the streamer saying “this is a mistake” or “what a dumb move, this person sucks” but in many cases this message isn’t communicated to the team. Despite the common fallacy of dumb players who ignore everyone, it is usually not too difficult to take leadership and control your entire team. If you are sure of what you are doing and are perceived to be confident, your team will follow you. This is helped by the fact that you as an individual are playing well or outplaying your opponents. By doing so, you can effectively guide your team to victory by knowing when to dragon, when to roam, when to baron, when to push towers and when to back. Remember that if you’re a jungler and intend to do dragon or baron, let your lanes no ahead of time so they can buy or push the lanes and remember to tell them all to come by pinging. Pinging as well as reasonable words are great ways to reduce the effect of feeders and ragers.

As a corollary to this, if you are fairly low elo relative to your team, don’t fight another leader. Call mias and provide suggestions, but don’t hesitate to allow someone else to guide your team, particularly if they have more game knowledge and experience than you. Being a team player when you need to be is a vital part of being successful in this game. No one likes the player that tells everyone after a gank that “that was so obvious” or “you should have seen that coming.” If you saw that coming, let people know so they can take steps to avoid it. Remember, just because you see the bigger picture doesn’t mean the rest of your team does, go above and beyond to use communication to show them how to win.

One more thing that’s key, from a leadership and team scope, is to boost team morale (and try to lower the morale of your opponents in game, without verbally harassing them). If you are up 2-7 on kills and have taken a lot of dragons, the other team will likely be screaming at each other and going afk/surrendering, despite the fact that they have mainly hard-carries and would eventually win the game at 40 minutes. Remember that if you are on the side that’s behind, remind your team that you still have a very good chance to win if you just teamfight or ward/defend farm. Always counter the Negative Nellie on your team with logical and convincing points in a confident manner, and you will find your team playing better and making comebacks in “impossible” games.

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You are of inadequate skill or inconsistent

Take a look at some of the top players’ match history or livestreams to see how often they play. A lot of these top elo players also experienced years of DOTA and HON before switching to LOL. So why do you take it personally that they’re better than you? They worked harder than you to get where they are, they deserve to be there. You want to be more skilled; to have perfect last hitting, positioning, cooldown timing and to be able to know exactly when all jungle spawns. Play more; learn more.

Also, everyone has bad games; you probably have a lot of bad games if you’re under 1600 elo. If someone is pulling down your team they will feel like crap, don’t make them feel worse about it by flaming them, just tell them not to worry and continue playing their best. Rather than making the situation worse, you have just boosted your team’s morale and made the game so much more enjoyable for everyone and increased your chances of coming back. You never know when that 0-9-5 Shaco might steal baron and backdoor the inhibitors to turn the game completely around for you. This message is mainly aimed at lower elo players because generally at high elo (in most cases) you will not get flamed for having a bad game if it’s obvious you are trying unless you are unlucky enough to be paired with someone with poor sportsmanship (which is unfortunately the case in many high elo livestreams).

Play more and improve your learning curve noob! Remember, in order to carry your team to victory you have to be better and more knowledgeable than them.

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