Silver to Gold

I wrote on my previous post on how to get from Bronze to Silver.

Here are some tips on how to get from Silver to Gold in League of Legends.

If you are in Silver congrats, you've gotten out of Bronze and hopefully never have to deal with Bronzies again. Silver is where you feel 'average' as a player but who wants to be average right? You have the drive to get to Gold and be better. Like bronze you get a lot of silver players trying different champion and weird picks that are not in meta.

In Silver you will find most of the time the lane that snowballs first will dominate the game. How do these people snowball? You will find that in Silver a lot of players value kills and tries to get as much kill as possible. For example, you are being harassed by Lux, you are losing lane you don't just try to fight her and feed the opponent.

So what do you do in that scenario? Sometimes we just have to fall back, farm and be passive to get your CS up or wait for your jungle to g
ank. Ever heard that knowledge is power? Having this knowledge can help you win games, many times I have seen players with good mechanics but their in-game knowledge is poor which results in losing the game.

So here are a few tips to get you from Silver to Gold.

1.) Don't lose lane
What that means is not play aggressively and win by the number of kills. Sure these are important but if you watched the pros play they rarely try to win their lanes rather they focus on CS and punish their opponent mistakes. Don't have the mindset of just winning the lane by killing. Good players can come back even when they are behind in kills because they are focused on CSing their lane.

2.) Map Awareness
In Bronze people rarely pay attention to the minimap, in Silver start to have the habit of looking at the minimap. CSing and and warding should be something you are already doing well since you are in Silver. Learn to look at the minimap and make plays. If an enemy is missing from a lane ping and let your team know, follow them if necessary. If your jungler is being invaded go help him.

Support- Usually you do most of the pinging to make sure your team does not get ganked or do something silly. Your goal is to set up vision control for your team.

Jungler- Have a lance presence, don't just farm all game. If an enemy uses an aggressive jungler like Lee Sin , it's highly likely he will invade or set a gank at level 3. You'll have to decide to ask your team to play safe as you farm or try to counter gank him. Try to snowball the lanes, gank the lanes that has no SS (summoner spell), they're easy kills. If an enemy is pushing the lane, try ganking them and even though you don't get the kill and a flash is burnt it's wurf. Getting your Katarina 2 kills early will allow her to snowball and win the game.

3.) Play around objectives
This is really important, playing around objectives allows you to apply map pressure and have gold and item leads. In general objective should be the 1st Tier Turret, Dragon, 2nd Tier Turret, Inhibitor, Baron and then Nexus. Of course depending on how the game is going objectives might change , and this comes through experience playing.

An example of playing around objectives is you have a huge fight bot, the jungler ganks, Top Lane tps and you guys won the fight. What's next is quickly push the turret then get the dragon (or the other way round) . Once the turret is down this gives you the luxury to roam and gank.

OR if the enemy is taking dragon and you're too far away from dragon what do you do? Instead of walking to the dragon , leave it and start pushing the turrets. This is a term called 'Trade objectives'

And lastly keep practicing and improve on your last hitting. Once that becomes second nature, you can focus on other things such as harassing or capitalizing on your opponent mistakes.

Hope this helps! If there are any questions feel free to comment and ask away or if there us anything you would like to see on this site please comment below :)

How to choose your Duo Partner

Part of climbing the ladder in League of Legends is to pick a good duo partner. Having a good duo will help minimise trolls in the team and the synergy you both have can carry the team. But what are some things do we look for in a Duo Partner?

1.) Synergy
Synergy is basically the combined effect of the two will be greater than the sum of individual. In other words 1 + 1 should equal a number more than 2. You have to work well well together as a team. As a support main I usually pick my support to complement my duo. For example if my ADC is aggressive I'll go for supports like Leona or Naut,

2.) Does not rage
Other than your Duo partner having the skills to play but make sure he is not a rager as well. I would never play duo with someone who is a rager because either they tilt themselves or they create a negative environment within the team thus making people lose focus. You don't want a duo partner that would blame you and the team if nothing goes his way.

3.) Same Drive/Goals
Duo with someone has the same drive to achieve the same rank as you. If you are a player that plays 4-5 games a day don't duo with that person who plays a game a day or spends 80% of their time in normals, clearly the drive isn't there. Don't find that player that gives up the instant the team gives first blood, calls GG in 10minutes and goes AFK.

4.) Bonus: Easy going
What I mean is someone that you can talk to easily and makes you laugh. Someone that helps you stay lighthearted.

Bottom line is that you will find success with duos that you actually want to play the game with (and you duo wants to play with you too :) )

How to get out of ELO HELL- Noob team!

Have you ever found yourself playing a game surrounded by noobs? You may be winning your lane with a 12/1/3 Vayne but the rest of your team are feeding. They refuse to group, refuse to work as a team and wants to go ham. You feel like your feets are grabbed and you are dragged to the pits of Elo Hell. Leaving you frustrated and probably feel like raging or trolling.

Let's be honest you face this same issue whether you are in Bronze or a higher tier like Diamond.
So how do you actually climb out if your team is constantly feeding and not at the level you're at? I've mentioned before to not blame your teammates and just do your best. People have bad games, we're not perfect. people do have bad games, you have bad games.

Here are a few tips for you to get out of Elo Hell Noob Team edition

1.) Carry the game
Especially in low elo even if your team is feeding , learn to carry the game. Your teammates would probably either be negative, lost hope and wants to GG FF. Have a winning mindset and encourage your team not to give up and you guys have a chance to win. Now some people might ignore you , some will take on the challenge and try their hardest. LEAD THE TEAM! The games that gives you a high chance of comeback are the games where the team tries their best even if the team are down in gold and kills.

Storytime: I once was in a game where our Zed Dc'd making the game 4v5 mid game, but we were still able to win because our Jax was carrying us by netting kills and got to lvl 17 while the rest where 3-4 levels behind. Moral of the story, You can be carrying or let others carry you.

You'll have to understand ......
Team compostition- Some champions dominate early but they fall off late. Some champions sucks early but they're a beast late game. If you have a team with multiple AOE CC then do not give up. Teams takes time to gel together, and if you can land that perfect wombo in that one fight, it could turn your defeat into victory.

2.) Make use of dynamic queue 
I hated dynamic queue the day it was announced but now I actually like it. Here are a few reasons why.
You are able to team up with like-minded players and the chance of having a troll in the team is less. You'll have a decent team that allows you to focus on the game and less raging/typing. Queue with players that are good AND they have a positive attitude. I would rather have a teammate who is good and have a positive attitude than a teammate who is good but negative all the time. Players who are negative tends to tilt themselves and the team.

3.) Where am I going to find like minded players? 
People wants to queue with you if you perform well in game. They see that you are good they would want to queue with you (so you can climb together) or take the initiative and add the person up and ask if they want to queue with you to climb together.

4.) Be the bigger man
As you notice in lower elos people would rage after the first blood or when someone makes a horrible play. So if jungle makes a terrible play, turret dive and gives double buff. Someone would probably say 'Why did you dive you noob, now I'm behind zomg! GG'. Be the mediator and respond with something like 'it's okay we can win this, we can get it back, we got this'. Believe me, I would probably be frustrated just as everyone else with that person who constantly feeds because he hasn't got a clue but it comes back to the first point, learn to lead and make good calls, encourage the team and carry the team.

Hope this helps! If there are any questions feel free to comment and ask away or if there us anything you would like to see on this site please comment below :)

How to carry as a jungler tips

No matter what tier you're in the role of a jungler is important and jungler is one of those roles you can really carry your team with.

Here are some simple tips on how to carry as a jungler to help if you are struggling or have just picked up a jungler role.

1.) Pressure lanes early
Gank so you and your lane can snowball. Especially in lower elos people do not ward their lanes or jungle so it's easy to counter jungle or gank in bronze. So it's safe to say assume lanes are not warded (at least in bronze anyway)

Learn to gank early and often. Especially gank lanes that are overextended, those are free kills.
You can powerfarm to 6 but you have less control on the outcome of the game.

2.) Counter Jungle
Learn to counter jungle, in low elos the risk is low whereas in higher elos their jungle will be warded and team will respond to counter junglers. If you're succesful in invading and counter jungling you have put the other teams jungler to a tilt.

3.) Gank top or mid lvl 3
Depending how extended the lanes try gank top or mid lanes level 3.

4.) Gank when you have level 6!
I have seen players that do not gank but continue to farm even when they hit 6. What's the point of having an ultimate if you don't use it? Turn off the mindset of just farming.

5.) Pick smart and pick a champ that is easy to play
Why is that important? Playing a simple champion lessens the chance of making simple mechanical mistakes. *Lee sin *coughs*  .  Simple carry champions can be but not limited to Amumu, J4 and Rammus.

6.) Go for a level 2 invade
IF you have a champion that has a strong early game like Lee Sin, Rengar or Nid.

7.) Knowing when NOT TO GANK

• Your teams health is low
• Sitting in the brush for too long, waiting too long without a gank can result in you falling behind in levels. 
• When you are low in health

8.) Knowing when to gank

• When enemies flash or both summoners are down (BIG YES!)
• Enemy is low in mana or health
• They are extended
• If you didn't get a kill but burnt the flash it's still wurf!

Hope this helps! If there are any questions feel free to comment and ask away or if there us anything you would like to see on this site please comment below :)