Elo Hell? 5 Steps to Consistently Gain Elo in League of Legends
Learning how to gain Elo in League of Legends can be hard. I’m talking ‘I want to put my fist through the monitor hard.’ This is even more so if you’re in the proverbial sub 1200 ‘Elo Hell’ range. No matter what you do, it seems like you’re always the one that is stuck with the leavers, AFKers, and just bads in general. For you, no matter what you do, you will never be able to escape this sea of awful players. Sound right?
Wrong!
If you agreed with my initial statement, I can tell you right off the bat that the first thing you need to work on is your mindset. Gaining Elo and working your way out of ‘Elo Hell’ in League of Legends is just as much as a mental process as it is a mechanical and gameplay one. The moment you start blaming your teammates for all of your losses before you take a hard critical look at your own gameplay, is the moment you let luck and the 9 other players determine your game. The goal of this article is to get you to the point where you alone are the biggest contributor for your own Elo fate. Lets take a look at 5 steps you can do to start gaining Elo as fast as possible.
Step 1: Picking Your Main
In League of Legends, using the standard meta, there are 5 roles that you can play.
Those are AD Top, AP Middle, Ranged AD Carry Bottom, Support Bottom, and Jungle.
While it is certainly possible to gain Elo using any role, it is generally accepted that AD Top, and AP Middle are the best roles to pick in order to carry your team.
Jungle and ADC can often carry a team but with both of those roles you are more dependent on your team than you are when using Top or Middle.
For example, with a jungler, you often need to depend on your ganking lane in order to secure a kill. If that lane doesn’t follow through properly, it can not only mean your death, but theirs as well.
The same holds true if you play ADC. When going for a kill you often need to depend on your support in order to secure a kill, but if the two of you are not on the same page, it can easily be a double kill for the enemy.
At the end of season 2, when I made a conscious effort to raise my Elo, I solely played mid. For me, mid is the central part of the entire game. You have easy access to every lane and the jungle, and you have the most influence on the outcome of the game.
With all of that said, here is the most crucial and sometimes controversial factor in Step 1 – DO NOT play anything other than your main role, if you want to consistently improve your Elo.
I am not advocating that you go into a game and say “Mid or Feed.”
However, I am saying that in order to consistently gain Elo, you need to become proficient in that 1 role on the account that you want to raise Elo on.
If you watch any high Elo streamer, you will see that each of them are known for a certain role, and there is very good reasoning for this. You cannot reach a high level of play by being a jack of all trades. There is just too much knowledge that goes into each role to be consistent against a player who is a master of 1.
So, if you do not get your desired role, instead of raging and getting mad, move on to step 2.
Dodge.
Step 2: Dodging
As of now, there is no Elo penalty for dodging; however, it does lock you out from joining another game for a certain period of time depending on how often you dodge.
Since that is the case, you should absolutely use dodging to your benefit. For instance, if you are counter picked hard in lane, dodge. If your team is displaying incredibly toxic behavior in champ select, dodge. If you notice half your team is counter picked, dodge. And lastly, there are just those games that you just have a gut feeling that you will lose, dodge.
Sure, some of those games you may have won, but the reasoning is that you want to go into every game with either an advantage or equal footing, otherwise you are setting yourself up for failure. In order to raise Elo in league, you want all the advantages that you can take.
This brings us to step 3.
Step 3: Winning Champion Select
Champ select is one of the most, if not the most, critically overlooked aspect of the game for low Elo players. During this time, picks and counter picks are made, team communication starts, and you should start to get a feel for how the game will unfold.
I recommend all beginners of ranked to take a look at www.championselect.net.
This is a great website that you can quickly find out your champions counter and visa-versa.
There is actually a strategy involved in champ select that is often ignored even in mid level play, but you’ll see it often in tournament play, and that is leaving the Top and Mid picks for last.
The reasoning is simple. Since these are both solo lanes, they are incredibly easy to counter, which leads to snowballing, thereby giving you’re an opponent an very strong advantage. Just keep in mind that not all lane counters are game counters. So champions, like Ahri, who has many lane counters, can make up for this by being very mobile and opening up other opportunities. However, it is up to you to take advantage of these strengths when going into a game where you are lane countered.
A common remedy for countering if you are 1st to 3rd pick is to ask your 4th or 5th pick to pick for you, that way you can potentially avoid a counter, and instead counter their pick.
As long as you leave champion select at a general even matchup, you should proceed with the game; otherwise, again, you are just making things harder for yourself in your quest to gain Elo.
Step 4: Laning and Objectives
So, you made it into the game. You’re confident about your lane matchup and
everything seems legit. From this point on, your priorities are both simple and dynamic at the same time. Initially, your entire focus should be on last hitting, harassment, and mini-map attention.
As far as CS goes, 100 cs per 10 minutes is considered very very good, so doing your best to aim for those numbers, without ignoring your team, is what you should strive for.
All things being equal, you are generally winning your lane if at any given time you have more cs than your opponent.
During the laning phase, there are often times when you have to go back to buy or go help another lane. You should never do this unless you have pushed your creeps to the enemy tower, you have frozen the lane, or if you team is in DIRE need of your help. Failing to do this will result in you losing 1 or more creep waves as well as giving your lane opponent an opportunity to take your tower.
Objectives are another thing that seem to be less important to lower level Elo play. Securing objectives usually comes off the back of winning your lane, so that is why the laning phase is so crucial; however, even if you do happen to lose your lane, you can make this up by ensuring objective control.
Dragon and Baron both give global gold and experience, whereas Red and Blue buffs given to the right person will vastly improve their stats. All of these objectives should be taken at every opportunity and can help a team come back from a bad laning phase.
Step 5: Warding and Closing Out the Game
I could not even tell you the amount of times I’ve been on a team that dominated 30 minutes of play, just to lose in the last 10.
Knowing how to finish a game alone will vastly improve your Elo. Knowing this step will not only allow you to close out your games, but may even enable you to come back to chants of “Da Throws!”
First, in order to close out a generally even game you need proper ward coverage. Wards let you know where the enemy is and enables you to react. It is the job of everyone to ward. I like to buy 1 or 2 wards every time I go back.
Once the map is properly warded, your team has a few options. If you notice their team is out of position, you can do a quick baron, push a free tower, or catch an enemy champ who is out of position. This works whether you’re ahead or behind. If you’re ahead, it usually allows you to take even more objectives or flat out win, if you’re behind, this may allow you to catch up, or even make that incredible comeback. But, it all starts with wards.
If the map seems to be ending in a stalemate, one of the common things that tend to happen is that 1 team, or team member, will get impatient and try to force something. This is without a doubt the bane of the late game. Ironically, it’s usually the person who is super fed and thinks they’re invincible.
The safest way to close out a stalemated game, I kid you not, is to do things tutorial style.
Keep taking out the outermost turrets until they are gone and work your way in. Lead your team to ensure this is done so none of your Rambo teammates go and try to force their way to an inhib, just to have your team follow, get aced, and watch in disbelief as the enemy team gets baron and pushes down your nexus.
To recap, In order to Gain Elo you should do as many of the following as possible:
Step 1: Pick your main and stick with that role.
Step 2: Dodge games that are unfavorable.
Step 3: Win champion select
Step 4: Win your lane and secure objectives
Step 5: Know how to close out your game
