I think everyone should read this :
"ELO Hell" and You
‘Ello again,
This post is mostly directed at gamers who are stuck in a rut, so to speak. Those who find themselves in the proverbial “ELO Hell” that has become so popular to curse this past year (holy crap, has it been that long?). Here are a few things to consider when trying to climb out of the pit of soul-sucking despair that is the 1200-1400 ELO.
First off, you need to make sure of one thing. This is the most important part of this post, and if you get this wrong, the rest won’t matter. Are you truly “stuck in ELO hell” because of the actions of others, are do you actually belong there? This is an extremely touchy subject with most people, probably because everyone would rather blame others than admit that they frankly suck. I have seen so many horrendous players whine about how their teammates sucked and made them lose. Make certain you are not one of these players. Take a step back and look at your gameplay as objectively as you can. Do you truly deserve to be rated higher than you are? If so, then don’t worry about the rest of this post. Go back to playing your FotM Karthus/Morgana/Jax/whatever-the-hell-it-is-now and praying for less trolls. I wish you the best of luck, and hope you are correct in your beliefs about your abilities.
However, if you take a look at your skills and realize that some are lacking, let’s figure out what we can do to fix this.
There are several common areas where people fall below par which keep them from progressing competitively. The most common is successful laning. The first 10-20 minutes of a game are extremely important, because they are the foundation upon which the rest of the match is constructed. To take one of the parables of Jesus out of context, if you build your house on a strong foundation you will succeed, while those who build it on sand find it crashing down around them (Mat 7:24). On a side note, even if you aren’t interested in religion, there’s a ton of life lessons in the Bible, but this will be all I say about religion in order to keep this from being a “My God’s better than yours…There is no God…We’re all God!” type flame-war.
White rabbit successfully chased. Returning to base.
In order to succeed at laning, you need to focus on two key aspects: CS and XP. That’s it. The entire laning phase is, in the (again, completely out of context) words of the late, great George Carlin a giant “prick-waving dick-fight,” the goal of which is gaining gold and XP while denying your opponent the same. That’s it. CS? Gold and XP. Ganks? Gold, XP, and denying your opponents the same. Zoning? Denying opponents. Harass? Denying opponents.
This being the case, you should spend your time in lane constantly reminding yourself of these goals. I have seen so many people sit in the brush trying to get a gank while missing out on all the minions. This is completely counterproductive. Even if you get first blood, if you missed a couple dozen creeps you lost in the big scheme of things. You need to last hit as much as physically possible. Each minion counts. A BF Sword is only 50-80 minions, depending on type/game time (or about 10 waves, not counting trickle gold).
Is this the problem you have? If your CS is constantly below 100 at 15-20 minutes, you need to work on it. A good way to do this is to find a buddy and make a custom game with no bots. Both of you go to the same lane and just practice laning against each other. Get as many last hits as you can and try to keep him from getting them. This way you can work on your laning skills while not worrying about being embarrassed (as long as he’s not a dick…) or letting your team down. Granted, it’s not perfect, because it doesn’t take ganks into account, but it’ll help you work on your basics. If you don’t have any friends (foreveralone), just make a custom game against a single bot. And don’t abuse the AI – nobody’s watching you, and nobody cares how many times you kill Ryze Bot, so work on your CS skills!
Another area in which many people fail is map awareness. So you’re Nasus, farming top like you’re Johnny Effing Appleseed, and suddenly you’re ganked by their jungler and mid. You die like a dog (“No! We will fight like LIONS!”). Then (if you are like so many of the brain-dead sycophants who populate our servers), you yell about mid not calling MIA.
Listen closely.
You listening?
Good.
Shut. Up.
It is not their job to call MIA’s. It is your job to watch the gorram minimap and show a little bloody common sense. Oh look, their mid’s not on the map. Hmm. I also haven’t seen their jungler in a few minutes. Well, sounds like a good time to push!
No. Pay attention. If you don’t see them on the map, it means they are probably waiting in the bush, giggling like Japanese schoolgirls as they plot your untimely demise.
And on a similar note, buy some effin’ wards! They’re legal bloody map-hacks! They cost 3 minions and will save your life countless times. Put them in logical spots (great [if a little outdated] guide on it here) and they will help you win.
Another area in which many people fail is knowing when to push towers, when to baron/dragon, and when to gtfo. This is especially important later in the game, once the laning phase has dissolved. If you know where the enemy team is (and it’s far away from you), you can afford to push like crazy. If you just won a teamfight, you have a pretty decent chunk of time to accomplish a goal. Whatever you do, make sure you pick something quickly and do it, rather than everybody pinging like crazy and splitting the team between several objectives. Accomplishing something quickly is much better than retrospectively figuring out the best thing an hour later. If in doubt, push a tower. Towers are what stands between you and victory.
However, if you barely win a teamfight, and you’re all low with a couple of them still alive, it might be wiser to BP and get some health before you continue. By all means, if you have the upper hand, make sure that it’s a backhand to the face. However, if it’s close, it might be wiser to take your victory and leave rather than trying to fight under their turret at low health. If you find yourself in this situation, you can probably accomplish a smaller goal, such as stealing one of their buffs or picking up a free dragon.
One final area that keeps people in ELO Hell (at least in Solo Queue) is the fact that so many people are unwilling to learn multiple roles. So you play a kick-a$$ Annie. That’s great. But if your team already has Malzahar and Brand, you probably shouldn’t pick another bloody AP carry. Learn how to play each main role (AP Carry, AD Carry, Tank, Jungler, Support) and learn a few different champions for every role. Personally, I much prefer AP Carries and Junglers. Annie is by far my best, but I am also pretty decent with TF, Sion, and Morgana. I do a great Nocturne, but I can also jungle well with Fiddlesticks, Cho’Gath, GP, Shaco, and Amumu. Given the choice, I would much prefer to play one of these two roles, and I am competent with enough champions that I can’t be banned out.
However, I can also play passable AD Carry, Tank, and Support. My Corki and Ashe are decent. I play a pretty good solo-top Singed, Cho’Gath, or Nasus. I can faceroll Sona and play "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Alistar" as well as most other people. I am not nearly as competent in these roles as I am in the jungle or with a Needlessly Large Rod up my arse, but I can fill the role as needed. This is what you should shoot for. Once you get on a team, you can drop down to just one or two roles, because having a regular team will allow you to specialize. For instance, everyone knows that TheOddOne will always play the jungler. Elementz is always the support. This is because they play with the same people, so they know they will always be able to play that role.
tl;dr: Learn to CS, make quick decisions, and learn all the roles.
SOURCE :
http://rog.clgaming.net/blogs/the-ragequit-diaries/4269-elo-hell-and-youThis post was edited by Shadirrasda on Nov 14 2011 11:27am