General Tips to Improve your gameplay

From my previous post I stated that climbing solo queue involves both skill and mindset. I play basketball and when I was in high school I aimed to be one of the top basketball player in the region. Was I the best? Not yet, but I always aimed to see what I can do improve my game. Whenever I lost a game in basketball I would reflect and see what I could do differently next time or copy what my opponents is doing, as a result I find myself improving at a rate where I could beat my opponents and not make the same mistakes again. Having the mindset of improving rather than thinking you are the best will make your journey of climbing the solo ladder easier.

1.)Maintain a positive attitude

The moment you have a negative attitude and focus on how bad your team is doing you have already lost half the battle. Maintaining a positive attitude helps you to learn from your mistakes and failures which will minimise the chance of it repeating over again. Part of staying positive is welcoming feedback and learning. The goal is to learn not win. Winning is a byproduct of learning. Do you expect to ace your math test without practicing and learning? In the same way if we focus on improving our game you'll find yourself winning at a faster rate. 

Having a positive attitude means flame less. Do not blame your team and the only time you should be using your chat is giving vital information such as flash timers, dragon timers , mias and so on. 

2.) Mute players

Ah, there is a reason why riot installed a mute button ingame. If you find people flaming you that is causing you to lose your concentration and make you tilt do yourself a favor and mute them. Doing so allows you to focus on your game and not let your team and opponents distract you. 

This is really underrated, I had so many cases where I had one of the occasional bad games and team started to flame me. I decided to mute them so I can focus on the game and not on the chat logs. This allowed me to focus all my attention on the game and as a result we won the game.

3.) Get carried

IT'S OKAY to get carried. I'll say it again. IT'S OKAY to get carried. Everyone has a bad game and instead of tilting and say 'I'm done', 'GG' minutes into the game, find ways on how you can contribute to the team. If your mid lane is dominating in his lane and you're feeding, let mid lane make the calls and follow him. Remember it's a team game. Michael Jordan the greatest basketball player of all time relied on this teammates to carry him occasionally. 

Here's an confession, I'm a crap laner. I'm not the best in 1v1 but solid at team fights, picks and utility. Before dynamic queue, I was forced into my worst role which is ADC. I just try to do my best and contribute in teamfights and let my team carry me. I don't try to go ham and knock my opponents.

4.) Never give up!

If there is one thing I've noticed in Bronze and Silver games. Players have problem closing out games. They have a substantial gold lead and is killing the map everywhere but they can't seem to close out and end the game. There are many instances I have won either a 4v5 or made a huge comeback because somebody decides to facecheck, throw at baron or just not work as a team. Especially in Bronze and Silver the chances of people throwing is really high. Some of you might have experienced that before , so if that has happened to your team why not the other?  

I understand some games are unwinnable but to be honest there aren't many especially in low elo. Even in those games I try to just do my best and learn what I can improve on rather than typing GG and go on to the next game. 

LOSING LANE DOES NOT MEAN LOSING THE GAME- Please get that out of your system!

5.) Watch replays and youtube

League of Legends have a replay function? No they don't but there are sites out there that allows you to capture and review your plays such as replay.gg or LSI. Watching replays is highly underrated, I'm glad I've learnt this back in my Warcraft 3/SC2 days. For those who don't see the value of replays try it and you'll see how important it really is. The little mistakes you did can add up to you losing the lane or the game. Find someone who is better than you, preferably diamond but I asked for help  from a high Plat when I was in Silver. 

There are also tons of resources online that can help you improve your overall micro/macro game. You could watch pro streamers to improve your game or youtube.

Or if you are serious in looking to improve your game I found two resources that you will benefit from. Are you really serious about improving your game because having a nice pair of Nike is NOT going to make you a better basketball player, having a coach and watching people play will help improve your game. Likewise,spending $$ in a project Zed skin does not make you a good zed player, but investing in improving your game is what is going to take you to the next level.

I found lolguides.com and lolbuilder.net to be the two that is best out there with quality guides that can help improve your game.

Next post I will talk briefly on why you lose your rank games

Hopefully you've picked up on something that may help. If there is a tip you would like to suggest feel free to comment! Good luck!