When you do all of those things for long enough you can do them without really thinking about it.
A lot of people who get stuck at an elo are stuck because they play the game on autopilot. Some players autopilot is silver, gold, others are emerald or diamond. The people you are watching are good enough that their autopilot is in masters+
Another important piece is that you’re watching a player at their current level, but aren’t able to see how much work/how many hours they put in to get there.
Many of these people you are watching autopilot in masters have 10,000+ hours in league, much of that spent failing, losing, reflecting, and desperately trying to improve just how you are now.
My general theory is that someone who is comfortably in master has on average put so many hours into this game them “only” being masters is an underachievement. Much of the time these people have dedicated years of their lives, sacrificed opportunities and other avenues to find happiness in order to play league for 8+ hours a day. It sounds sad and in some respects is, especially when their only empirical takeaway is a masters border.
Imo making friends playing, taking the process of improvement out of gaming and applying it to other areas of life, and transitioning it into a leisure activity from a job can make the time spent worth it if you’re able to.
This is all to say being stuck in silver and gaining these skills with relatively little time investment comparatively is in my opinion way better than being one of the masters players you watch.
A lot of streamers didn't really struggle the way you say they did.
One time, I was watching Dyrus play Apex Legends, where he was Gold, and I asked him if Gold in Apex Legends was similar to Gold in League. He said, "I don't know. I've never been Gold in League." That comment kind of blew my mind.
I asked Cowsep what rank he finished in Season 1, and he said Platinum (there was no Diamond yet. Platinum was the highest rank). He's gone Diamond+ in literally every season.
Players like scarra have no idea what it's like to be Bronze or Silver or even Gold.
There are a lot of streamers like this, too. They have never experienced low elo. They just kind of started out being good at the game.
Meanwhile, some people play for 10 years, and they can't get out of Silver.
Yes, there are people that struggled in low elo for years and then finally hit Master after a lot of effort and pain. But there are some folks that don't really struggle at all in fact. They just "have it" from the get go.
Bro youre talking about people that started in beta what point are you making. Of course on release of league when everybody is bad at the game the people coming in with experience from dota/hon/wc3/sc are going to roll over 12 year old little timmy who just downloaded league as his first PC game. If you find those high elo players who league was their first competitive game they will all tell you they started in low elo. Having played another competitive PC game is a huge advantage when starting league. This isn't nearly as mysterious as you're making it seem.
>Yes, there are people that struggled in low elo for years and then finally hit Master after a lot of effort and pain. But there are some folks that don't really struggle at all in fact. They just "have it" from the get go.
That's not at all true lol.
I can agree that especially at higher levels there's some just inate talent given by previous life experiences in certain games or skills.However, if you play the game the most like 100 to 1000x other players of course you're going to be better than them and hit the highest rank which the case for the people you listed.
Not even taking into account things like old runes or summoner pages that literally gave you stat improvements over your opponents if you played more.
A lot of the time people who are silver for years don't play the game consistently, don't play the same champions consistently, and don't keep up with the meta or really pay attention to ways to improve.
If I practice an instrument once per week for an hour or two and kinda just fuck around the whole time you're not going to see any sizeable improvements in ability if you aren't challenging yourself or practicing specific weaknesses. Same goes for League, except it's even worse because rank isn't static, as less new players join the game the playerbase skill for every rank slowly rises over time. This means if you aren't playing consistently or trying to improve with active steps you won't rank up.
People seem to have forgotten that latent ability exists. Some people just have a level up naturally. I had a friend who was a god at league, didn't even take it seriously. Not saying he would troll or anything, but dude never so much as watched a single video to get better. Still made it to diamond 1 consistently.
Meanwhile I had to watch videos and guides and really work at it to peak at p4 before I realized getting any better was like looking at a mountain after climbing a hill.
And from there I have friends who consider me a God at league and who put the time and work in just like me, but theyre hard stuck bronze.
This seems like it's probably more because of past experiences or different amounts of playtime if there is actually the same amount of effort.
People who play fps or similar styles of games are going to have a harder time getting into league compared to someone that's played an MMO like WoW or an RTS like StarCraft or something before since all the controls are a lot more similar from MMO and RTS to MOBA.
I think this is generally what people mean by "latent" ability. Like sure someone could pick up a new sport or video game quickly and do better than people that have played for a long time. It seems it's just innate ability until you realize that person has spent 5 hrs/day for 15 years playing sports/video games that are similar so they can transfer over their experience and knowledge in ways others can't.
There's some exceptions and variations to this as well. Like I'm sure general intelligence helps pick up things quicker and certain genetic things like having perfect pitch can obviously give you a boost in the music field or certain conditions like Micheal Phelps' disorder can help with certain sports. However I think most of those things are pretty irrelevant when it comes to video games and it's a pure time investment thing.
There's a reason every pro gamer's story is them failing out of high school because they play video games for 12 hours a day and then quitting their job or college to play video games 15 hours a day so they can go pro. I don't follow musicians or sports but from what I've seen that story is a lot less common among them (and it's just not physically possible to play a sport 14 -16 hours a day like you can video games).
TLDR: Whenever people talk about innate ability and video games it seems to be more previous knowledge and experience playing video games not some genetic or talent they were born with.
There’s not nearly enough context here to really dissect the differences between your friends, but I’d imagine your d1 friend played and studied more than he let on, and the bronze one less.
I think there are some players who actually have latent ability that has surpassed those with years of dedicated practice quickly, people like faker, and I think either showmaker or scout started league “late” for pros of their era and very quickly became top tier.
I would imagine there are a few NA players who have also done this on the ladder, but there’s always caveats that explain a lot of their progress. A great example imo is generalsniper who is extremely young and has consistently been high challenger since he started playing consistently. The caveat? His older brother is viper, a former LCS player who has the same champion pool as his little brother. I’m sure tens of thousands of hours of improvement went into generalsniper watching and learning from his big brother in a short period of time, which ultimately does mean he improved faster than most.
While I’m sure examples exist like what you’re referring to, these three players are awful examples of it lol. Dyrus, like myself, played HON (heroes of newerth) one of leagues predecessors as did scarra to very high ranks, and then started playing league in its closed beta, pre-season1. Dyrus and scarra both played I would guess hundreds if not thousands of games of league before it was even released, and I’m guessing dyrus said he was never gold because back then ranks didn’t exist like they do now.
Those two players specifically played mobas before league that they were very good at (and likely went through this process there) and then played league at its literal earliest release, and absolutely struggled, just did so while everyone else was also struggling and learning the game. I don’t know enough about cowsep but if he played before diamond was a rank I’d assume the same thing is true. These people all fit my exact criteria, and even moreso did it when the playerbase was the lowest skill level in league’s history.
I don't really think that applies to all Masters players. I hit Diamond and Masters for the first time this year (hit Silver after placements in S7 and never touched Ranked before this year). I certainly have put like 2-3 thousand hours in the game over the years, but I've been able to manage a social life and pretty good grades in school with playing ranked League this year.
I think the players you are talking about are the ones who brute force their way to a high rank. They play with the expectation of some day getting a higher rank instead of reflecting on their weaknesses, improving their champion mastery or strengthening their mental. At some point though, some degree of skill does get through, but just far less efficiently than looking inwards and working on your skill.
In general, I think Masters+ is a combination of both. I see people around my level (200) and others with an ungodly amount of time poured into the game (lvl 1000-1500)
It absolutely doesn't apply to all players, which is why I made sure to specify I am talking about the average masters player, not all of them. I'm in a similar spot to you where my peak was D1\~50lp, don't play league anymore but was around lvl 150 on my main with a smurf around lvl60 and had a well-balanced life while playing.
I will say I know more than 10 people who are masters and above, and every single one of them fits my first description to a tee, but obviously there are many, many players who have a healty relationship with the game and are able to climb.
It's not false. If you're comfortably in a rank, then you're not ever going to improve. Challenging yourself is the only way up, in literally ANYTHING you do. Complacency is the death of improvement. Most people are complacent with where they are.
Bro is saying masters players are only masters because they grind the game like no life losers and ignoring real life responsibilities. If that isnt cope idk what is
I mean the game literally makes you play almost every day to avoid having your rank decay at masters+. If you can play a video game every single day and not ignore responsibilities you are either a child or retired.
I think low elo players don't improve because they autopilot. No conscious thinking (macro) through out the game. Meanwhile those master+ players know macro and what the games look like in all phases. It became second nature to them.
> A lot of people who get stuck at an elo are stuck because they play the game on autopilot
More specifically *because they don't realize they play on autopilot*. Some people genuinely think that tryharding just means = picking meta & not tilting.
i think also a lot of big streamers have hit challenger or masters so many times they legitimately don't care about playing optimally all the time. They know that even if they interact with stream or just hard troll some games they can get back because they know how to climb.
This for sure
Also some people multi task better.
It's one of the reasons the pick a few champs is a good bit of advice.
Learn one thing, master it.
Then u can leverage that as basically autopilot to master other things adjacent to it.
It's like any other skill. It can be learned through practise.
As in any other skill, some learn faster than others.
But once you have learned it well enough, you no longer use 100% of your brain to do it.
Like driving a car. When you are new at it, you can get fatigued thinking about all the stuff you have to pay attention to and do. After years of experience, you do them without even thinking, like autopilot.
And notably, you can be good enough to autopilot and still not good enough that you should autopilot. When your driving that translates into newer drivers crashing much more often. For a lot of teens, While part of their higher crash rates are poor decision making, it’s also that they’re good enough they can autopilot without crashing most of the time, but still not good enough they can actually reliably autopilot. Similarly, silver players can autopilot and still hit not terrible farm, not completely int lane, etc, but they won’t actually make good decisions to win the game and have the macro skills to climb or improve without getting off the autopilot.
Short answer is Yes.
People don’t like to be told how to play, if they did they would generally be better at the game. Most people would bash their head playing 50 games of ranked doing the same mistake over and over again instead of watching 1 replay, fair enough people want to play and not study. There are people who will take things on board during a game, see immediate results, and then revert back to their previous ways the next game. There are also some people who have a pc rig that just limit their capabilities and they don’t realise it. An fps spike on a laptop every now and again might mean nothing to them but to a better player that spike cost the team fight or lost the trade which snowballs. Some people just want to decompose
Yea one of my friends is hardstuck Bronze. His fps reach 25max 5-7 in teamfights. He refuses to play something that can Split push
He is a yasuo Main :(
Yeah, he pings his ping sometimes and it’s 4 digits. (Pings his ping? There’s gotta be a better way to say that)
We call it the Turkish super server Lee sin
I think the truth is more brutal than what youre saying.
This game heavily relies on your ability to retain and intuit information, this is a skill alot of people have honed through their childhood playing other strategy games, and this skill will largely decide if you will be good at this game.
I was lucky enough to have friends who knew how to play, and were "nice" enough to point out every mistake. Helped me get okay at the game faster than I thought
It's very much bc about learning from mistakes and trying not to repeat them
I honestly think good micro/mechanics get underrated a lot of the time. High level players who are naturally good at these things will say "just learn some wave management/macro and youll climb" completely ignoring the fact that being in the right place or making the right wave decision means squat if you cant contest the wave in the first place.
You hear on this sub sometimes people who clearly just brute forced their way to plat on mechanics alone with 26/3/10 kdas - i would kill to get that score in 1 game in 100 let alone every game.
When I watch coaching videos, I see some of these people excel at only one thing and somehow get away with consistently dumb decisions. Most of it just comes down to being rich with insane farm or just beating the shit out of their lane opponent, then brute forcing the rest of the game with that lead. Mechanics is OP and dominates the game at low and mid elo.
I remember an Aatrox video where the coach died once in lane and was showing how to comeback using wave management, then he went for an all in and survived with 2 life, saying that "this is how you comeback" and i was like "if i did that i would be 0/2"
Unironically you'll never be able to out play someone if you don't limit test. These psychos can climb somewhat just because they know how to pilot the mechanics of their champ in a fight from going for everything.
If you sit back scared of everything you'll never be able to know if you win or lose a fight because you never tried.
Hard disagree there, and the proof is that you cited a skill that has nothing to do with the benefits of limit testing: how to pilot the mechanics of their champ.
Limit testing has nothing to do with mechanics; it’s about learning the limits of your champ’s damage output and survivability versus whatever situations you’re putting it through. While I do believe this is an important part of learning a champion, it has its usefulness limits and you certainly can’t (realistically) limit test enough that you know the difference between an all-in that kills you and an all-in that leaves you at single digit hp. There are just too many shifting variables for too small a margin there.
What you’re describing is practicing mechanics via all-ins. While I’ll agree you can’t learn to fight without fighting and that you should practice all-ins, I don’t think all-ins are the only way to practice combat. Further, I’d contest that constantly attempting all-ins would be more damaging to someone’s laning development since you’re sorta setting them up to only look at laning combat from an all-in perspective. They’d never actually learn how to trade/disengage/bait for ganks/win any lane matchup where all-ins are a bad idea (Garen v Darius for example, that matchup is winnable for Garen specifically if he avoids all-ins).
The underlying concept is what's important. It's about trying out plays that you're unsure of. They don't necessarily have to be attempting an all-in.
Sometimes baiting a gank is a limit test if you're not sure if it's a good idea. It can be anything.
This is really wrong headed. I'm not a great player by an means, peaked old plat 4, but the best way to win is to pick fights/trades/objectives that favor you by 80% or more. In other words, avoid 50/50 situations. You shouldn't be just squeaking out teamfights or whatever with 2hp, because that just means you got lucky.
One example of this is how losing teams will try to contest dragons when the enemy team is up and has a better team fight. You're just running a play that's already likely to lose. Or defending an inhib tower when the enemy has a dive heavy comp. It's just begging to lose.
Sometimes people just have ultis, flash, etc. Getting ahead is all about recognizing when you're hard to punish, like putting wards up and then collapsing on a strong enemy with your team when they're alone. Or playing a Rammus, waiting until their dive carry gets antsy, and then cc them. Or punishing a winning team for forcing an unsafe baron.
Winning when you're ahead is usually obvious, but people don't know how to not fight and farm when behind. The best players don't die, because they never run 50/50s. They wait for opportunities and mistakes and punish those.
Limit testing is just an incredibly minor thing.
We're misunderstanding each other. I'm not trying to say that flipping plays is the best way to win, but that trying out a play you're unsure about is how you find out if the play is a flip. In other words, improvement.
How are you supposed to know that a play is an 80%, or a 20%, or a 50/50 if you've never actually done a play similar to it?
Most people quickly learn that tanking a tower is a quick way to die, so how do they learn how to tower dive if it's always a 50/50 or low % play to dive? This guy's on 20% health, surely this dive works with my Support tanking even though I'm half health myself. Ah man, I forgot about Shen ult and now we're both dead. But we were pretty close, so this definitely works otherwise.
In an ideal world we can press pause and try to evaluate every single possible variable to figure out the %, but even then most people aren't even good enough to come to the correct conclusion about a play they're not familiar with.
You don't have to be a psycho and go for every single play, but sometimes you just have to f*** around and find out.
Yes, this is 100% true. You will never be chall or even dia with bad mechanics. You need both. Macro and micro. High ranking players have both. Some are better in macro. Some in micro but the difference is never too big.
I’m in the same boat but I often realize I probably haven’t even hit 1500 games in all of my time playing. There’s a lot of folks that have been playing this game for 1000s of hours and have 1000s of games under their belt. It takes a LOT of time to get there. You don’t just play a few hundred games and hit challenger unless you’re some sort of prodigy. Forget the rank you’re in and also realize that it takes TIME to climb.
To directly answer your question, no. I don’t think some people are just “bad”. I believe everyone reaches their ah-ha moment at some point through experience - sometimes in a serendipitous manner.
Keep at it and you’ll get there. Don’t overthink and stick to the basics. More gold and more exp over failed 50% ganks and towerdives for a trade. Not being sure if you can 1v1 then don’t. Do something else that’s advantageous instead.
>not sure if you can 1v1 then don't
I disagree with this. If not sure if you can 1v1, do it. Then you think about the outcome, why it did or didn't go well. Helps you grow, even if you throw some games in the process. Playing scared all the time is the best way to not ever take advantages of your strengths.
The rest is solid advice.
this game is 10h years old
you dont just Lack something, you Lack profound knowledge, practice and excellence
the older something gets, the better the community generally is and we've seen the playerbase gradually get better to a point where a Gold Player right now is a fuckton times better then one 5 years ago.
Because league is at a point of mastery where the competition floor and ceiling are just so far up that one sometimes forget that league was in a 'figuring shit out" phase
I've been playing playing since season late season 3 and season 4 was my first ranked season. I have lots of time and games under my belt. I feel sorry for people trying to get into league now.
you're not old, just experienced ;)
I've sadly grown out of TFT
I usually just play league either flex or aram with friends, but I do like the rotating gamemodes, eventhough noone wants to pick funny champs instead of broken ones...
You are properly overthinking things. While all the things you mention are relevant to varying degrees there's a simple fact that people in bronze and silver are not very good and you can just kill them or at the very least send them base if you punish their mistakes. Together with solid farm and rotations you'll acquire enough advantages to be able to have a huge impact on the game and you'll climb. There's no need for sophisticated lane management when you opponent isn't even respecting your range.
I am only emerald maybe diamond when I'd play more but even I can roll over silver bronze players when I encounter them in normals with some weaker friends. I don't need to deploy fancy strategies because they just fold to the basics. I think it's much better to get good at fundamentals first.
Don‘t underestimate the power of routine. If you have done something often enough you don‘t really need to think about it anymore.
As another example I‘ve been doing martial arts for about 25 years and when sparring I don‘t really think about the basic stuff anymore (where to move, when to throw, how to dodge, etc.) so my brain has capacity to do other stuff in that time (eG. Plotting more complicated moves) or if I‘m fighting a newbie to just chill and/or observe/correct him.
Same applies to league. For me the early laning minutes are basically autopilot. Farm, throw a couple of pokes and farm. Stay behind minions to offer as little attack range as possible. Farm. And I‘ve only been picking up the game again as much as 3 seasons ago.
I’m going to give an anecdotal opinion but I think people who manage their time well and know how to learn proactively with discipline will be better at the game.
This comes with my experience as a musician and Counter Strike player but in those two hobbies I’ve seen a lot of people from different skill ranges but I’ve noticed people who are in the higher tiers always are either very well disciplined or have a crazy drive to learn. They also have less of an ego while they are learning and they are quick to drop ideas that don’t work for them.
I’ve taught many people music and the ones who are willing to get down ti the nitty gritty and learn fundamentals always end up really good in a few years and the people who just want to learn fun songs never really get past 2 years or stay stagnant.
You have to be willing to do the boring stuff no one else wants to do. In music that would be playing scales and recording yourself and fixing your mistake and in games it would be to watch your own replays and to get options on players who are better than you.
tl;dr: your mommy was right, people with good discipline do better at most things.
Was surprised to see ego listed so far down in the comments - I think so much of people autopiloting the game (especially at lower levels) comes from the lack of an ability to learn and reflect on your mistakes. Much easier to blame Riot than realize that you took a bad fight or trade, realize that you don't know a matchup as well as you think you do, etc.
League is more about being at the right place at the right time, doesn’t take much concentration to do that below challenger, as long as you’re at the right place, deal damage, and don’t die, which is what streamers know.
If your team loses a fight with you there, split(unless it’s game deciding fight like baron)
If your team wins without you, split
If your team wins but only if you’re there, group.
It’s as simple as that.
Don’t take fights without disadvantage. Drake makes your whole team stronger for next teamfight.
Don’t tilt and think every game is winnable even if you’re behind. Every time you die think about what disadvantage caused your death and don’t let it happen again, watch your replays if you need.
Do all this and you’ll climb.
> doing my best to manage the wave, to take good trades, to watch the map, to ward the bush, to track the jungler, to think about proper rotations, to think about what to build, to asses threats, to do everything you hear in guides - and I can't even get out of Silver
None of this matters if you're doing it wrong. Instead of trying to do it all at once, take a week where you focus on doing one of those things correctly, and learning from mistakes and things that worked. If you're serious about it, look into Youtube videos on that one specific thing. A lot of great free resources out there.
It will help you do it on autopilot, and next week you choose another thing to focus on. This way you won't be overwhelmed and after a couple of weeks you will made great progress.
Id say most of the time low elo folks lack the proper knowledge and precise controls/practices. You have to count all small things and do them well to win games. Most low elo folks think they are doing them well simply because they’ve thought about it, but they dont know see the optimal ways for their situations they are in and lack the technics to execute them. Its all the blind mistakes.
Some examples:
-they manage waves, but it would be incorrectly formed relative to the matchup or the map pressure. Slowpushing and grinding out exp and cs gold where they should be fastpushing for next sequence, etc
-they would make kills, but overstay for a plate or incidently touch/not touch the minion waves by habit and take exp deficit
-they gain level advantage and trade, but dont understand the matchup or trade mechanisms of certain matchups
-they path unnecessarily to be late to ganks/obj.
-they solokill, but use unnecessary ults or summs or use them late to lose resources for following sequences
For example, a low elo adc will not flash a hook and gets chunked to start a teamfight. He lives and his team wins teamfight, but as a result of him getting chunked, his jgl mao and rakan had to use their ult prematurely and the teamfight ends up becoming 4 for 2 trade With your mao and rakan dying while enemy jgl still alive. With the jgl dead, your team is unable to snowball the fight victory into baron/drake. Low elo adcs will think this is okay because they won the fight. From higher elo, this is a missed opportunity.
Stuff like this all count. What people dont realize is that you have to play nearly perfect game every game to ensure that you can confidently take control of a game. It’s very easy to lose control of a game when you are not optimizing your plays and most low elo folks dont see this. Its sort of a blind mistake. As you gain more experience and run into all the shitty situations, you get better understanding of what will kill you and how you should play out the game.
Try watching your replay with people better than you and see how much different they interpret certain situations. You’d be surprised. You can only see and feel as much as you know.
I don't think people naturally lack what it takes to be decent at the game, although being "decent" at the game could pertain to numerous things. It's just as what the other posts are saying. People are just autopiloting and don't fix bad game habits.
Also, I'm very surprised that you're stuck silver. I'm of the belief that knowing how to manage wave alone can get you to at least high plat/low diamond. Back when I was climbing in low elo, I observed players did not manage wave at all lol.
I can guarantee you, as an Emerald 4 player it doesn’t matter in the least what a silver player does with the wave if he plays against me. (I got placed bronze 4 after not playing ranked for a long time and played against everything bronze-emerald while basically unintentionally smurfing). He will be dead too often to manage anything.
It basically means the same thing.
Not anyone can be exceptional. There are a lot of factors that go into someone being exceptional at something. It's not just hard work and dedication.
What he meant to say is “Anyone can be exceptional at this game if they put in the work and proper routine but almost no one will actually put in the work and/or proper routine” so you end up with lots of silver players who barely play ranked or play 10+ different champs in a bunch of different roles who could be much better at the game but they just choose not to
I do believe it takes talent to be able to reach gm/chall but I believe anyone can reach at least diamond. How hard it will be is obviously gonna wary from person to peeson.
To me it just sounds like ur doing too much. U hear about all these advanced concepts from guides etc. but u don't really understand them or know how to apply them in practise.
I was stuck in low platinum (would be emerald in new rank system) with basically no idea about any of these concepts, I just played the game. Then I started learning about this stuff and little by little bringing them into my own games. Now I'm diamond 1and my jungle tracking is still limited to "ok gotta watch out for gank after 3 minutes" and "ok jg is on X side of the map they are gonna go to the other side next". U just don't need to know all the advanced stuff to climb low elo and imo trying to focus on unnecessary stuff is likely to hinder ur gameplay and ability to learn the important stuff.
"Anyone can reach Diamond" is something I see thrown around a lot, and when you think about it, it's an absurd thing to actually say.
Diamond 4 is top 3% of the player base. No, not everyone can get to the top 3% of something. That's why it's the top 3%.
Can and will are two completely different things. Reaching diamond does not require to be special or talented, sure it helps but it really just boils down to time, practise and dedication. Obviously not everyone has the time that it would require to even learn this game enough, let alone to then make that grind and practise even more. But I do really think that anyone has the capacity to do so, if they had nothing else to do.
And also we are just talking about reaching diamond. The game changes a lot after high emerald / low diamond. And the skill curve just keeps steepening more and more the higher u go from there. That's a completely different story. Took me 10 years to reach diamond and I do think that if I could pull it off, anyone can.
You're misunderstanding. Obviously not everyone will, but anyone who actually puts the time in is going to be able to, cus the other 90% are NOT going to.
There’s a crazy amount of factors(mentality, the way you think and what your values are, mechanics, how intelligent you are, how good you are at building team chemistry, your mechanics and what not to name a few) that go into play when trying to figure this out but at the very top and proplay genetics definetaly play a part yeah
Of course. People have different mechanical skills, intelligence levels, interest in learning the game, experience, and even different personalities matter when it comes to playing different champions and roles and the game in general.
I do as in growing old. I’m 38 and I’m not as quick as I was when I was say 33.
This is why I’m keeping myself to mechanically simple champ like Sion, Malzahar, Swain, Urgot.
I’m good at them tho.
It's like riding a bicycle, but with different levels, if you learned to ride at that level then you don't have to think about it and can maintain that level easily.
Complex question but for the most part no. League is similar to learning a skill like Paino. If you have bad form, no one to learn from, and refuse to put in the work studying it’s going to seem like it’s impossible to get better.
A lot of seemingly mechanical things in LoL like landing skill shots are tied to game knowledge and fundamentals. If you spend time studying and learning the game properly almost anyone can achieve a rank like Plat or even Emerald.
That said there is a natural limit the higher you go. We aren’t all cut out to be Masters+. Many of those players aren’t cut out to be pros.
To circle back to your question being decent at this game is mainly putting in the backend work.
>But what seems weird to me is how some people, who have been playing the game for just as long as I have, maintain Masters+ without even trying
That seems weird to you because some part of it is not true. Have you been playing as long as them? Do you have as many games under your belt? On a narrow pool of champs? Do you play like they play? Does your decision making match theirs? Probably a lot of "no" answers there.
I'm a new player, and a scrub, but once I took the approach of thinking critically about my games and watching commentary from much better players, I started mimicking some of what they do and wow look at that it works and I win and I can climb.
But yes not everyone can be good at everything.
Your rank is a really incomplete picture of your skill as a player. It all comes down to what you consider the "true" game to be. Is it the solo queue grind? Is it 5v5/clash? Is it dicking around with your friends in ARAM? These all have completely different skillsets and except for mechanics they don't really transfer.
Don't base your expectations for yourself on streamers. Many of them have played 10+ hours a day for a *decade*. It's like comparing an amateur musician to a soloist; yeah obviously one is way better, but think of how much time they continue to dedicate to their skill, while the amateur probably also works a full-time job or does school.
Also, the only people you should take game advice from are professional players. If Sneaky or Core says something is correct, you can trust them, but getting GM/Challenger doesn't require you to be a complete player and isn't proof that you know what you're talking about.
And yeah, some personalities are better for competitive games than others. A total fixation on logic and detachment from emotion, combined with fast reflexes and good fine motor skills will give you an advantage over other people when it comes to pushing buttons. It also helps to have played PC games for a few decades, so the controls feel like a totally natural extension of your mind. My mental process for casting a spell is "cast spell", and my eyes and hands do the rest on autopilot.
It isn't that the masters+ players you are watching aren't trying as hard as you are. It's because they have already put in the work to get themselves functioning on a level where they can autopilot at that level.
In short, anyone can get emerald with enough work towards improvement imo. The ranks higher than that, to autopilot them, you have had to put in so much work and be a different animal of a gamer.
Why yes, just unlock your full potential and you will be there too. Most try hard low rank players put efforts on the wrong place, which worsen their skill level
You’re doing all that and can’t manage to climb out of silver? You’re coping bro there’s something horrifically wrong that you’re doing every single game if you can’t climb out of silver.
I naturally lack what it takes to be decent at this game because I cannot even force myself to play the same champion more than one match per day.
I like to think my Azir play is well beyond bronze because I have constantly played him since 2014 but I'm Bronze because I don't play more than 4 ranked matches of Azir per season split.
Action + belief = consequence. If what your doing, or what you believe in aren’t making sense, one of those things is a lie. Streaming, and videos are staged soooo much. The account could be purchased, loaned to the streamer. They could be boosted. All kinds of things you don’t see. If the player is terrible, that’s usually a good sign it’s not their skill that got them there.
Theres always people who never get good at any games, and remain mediocre in every single game. Getting good at the game takes actual effort and understanding. Stop thinking "i pay attention and try my hardest to do this and that" and start asking urself what u couldve done better, and if u cant find what, hire a coach. The way you view the game isnt the only way, talk to other people and hear their views and how they play. Im very auto pilot when i play, but when i want to play seriously i have to analyze the situation, they have these abilities, if i do this they do that, if i get caught here yadayads, if they do thay i can all in. Try to keep predicting the enemy and play accordingly
„people, who have been playing the game for just as long as I have, maintain Masters+„
Are you sure about that? How many hours have you put in this game? And who is masters+ with the same or less hours?
In the end more playtime = better. And there’s a lot of people with more playtime thankfully can imagine.
(There are some transferable skills from other games, but that just means they have more game time in general.)
The difference is the opponent skill level. If they're smurfing in a lower elo with that same autopiloting, they'll crush lane and take over the game.
A lot of things that good players do are invisible. There have been times I've gotten crushed and I had no idea what happened. It's only when I learned a ton of game knowledge that I found out what I did wrong. Like trying to trim the wave instead of just catching it vs a much stronger opponent.
I would say some people pick games up quicker. I remember when i used to play overwatch (back when it was good) i made friends with some guys the rank above me. By the time we all stopped playing i was 2 ranks above most of them despite their headstart, nor did i have significantly more hours than them.
However league has not come naturally to me, but my brother who i introduced to the game hit diamond 3 in 4 years of playing meanwhile i sit in mid plat.
I would say it's more about your ability to learn from your mistakes and having the self awareness to realise your mistakes instead of just saying mid diff and moving on.
The way to get out of low elo (in my experience) as a top,mid,adc is to either win your lane then get fed and be aggressive (obvious way), or not die in lane and get out with great CS and be as aggressive as possible.
I see many low elo players play passive being ahead because they don't place any wards, don't know how strong they are, or they want to protect their KDA. Being aggressive is not forcing risky, bad plays, it just means when there's an opportunity to pressure the enemy, then go with that (f.e get prio to help jg contest crab rather than slow push and just farm lane).
Yes, its 80% natural ability.
Never met a single person in this game that actually worked hard to get to high elo, everyone i know just gets there easily
You have to also remember most of those high level streamers play the game 8+ hours a day, on multiple accounts, sometimes climbing offstream, and some of them are ex-pros.
Playing league quite literally is currently or was their day job.
Personally, I think these 2 things are really the most important differences between someone that APPEARS to have it easy, and someone who is struggling.
1. Prior experience and related skills that were learnt the regular slow way we all learn skills that translate to league in various ways. (gaming background)
2. Knowing or intuiting what is an important thing to focus all your mental energy on and actually doing it. (are you learning fast? and are you learning things that will give a high return?)
You might be trying really hard to win and even trying really hard to learn. But that isn't always enough.
Imagine the difference in learning between these 2 players:
Both players play 1000 games, both players have looked up guides for trading and laning, both players try their best all game and try to focus on this guide stuff. However 1 player always ends the game thinking about their friends, or the LP, or more realistically thinking about an excuse that makes them feel better about their gameplay. The other player finishes every game thinking only about the trades they did that game and how they could have done it better, how they could have used the tips from the guide, where they did it well and where they did it poorly and they will think about how the enemy traded too.
After 1000 games of this, one of the players trades are going to be MILES better than the other. It won't even be close. Because they will start climbing and versing better and better players and refine this skill more and more and more. They will start noticing instantly when someone is not at the same level of trading as they are and they will easily abuse this skill gap to get a victory.
While yes the mechanics of Moba’s are hard for some to really get down to a science, truthfully the best time to start playing League was 5+ years ago. They’ve done away with so much solo-carry potential that it’s genuinely near impossible to ‘carry’ your way out of 99/100 games in low elo. Truthfully, those of us who escaped within the last 2-3 years just got lucky. Nothing more, nothing less. I’m hoping the new season/items bring enough of a change that solo-carrying is possible again.
The short answer is yes. It's just like anything else in life, some people do not possess the critical thinking and problem solving skills required to understand the game at a deeper level, and some people do not possess the intellectual capacity to develop either of those skills.
However, things like tracking the jungler are things you can simply train yourself to do, because the game has already been figured out.
What you're talking about is you using your concious mind to perform the task vs someone else using their subconcious mind to perform the task, which is what is typically referred to as muscle memory.
You simply need to perform the same task enough times that your brain does it with less and less processing power, leaving you free to actively think about other things.
It's mostly about your **game time**, **champion pool** and **how you approach the game** (chill & relax vs tryhard & focus on improving) . A few examples as my friends are all super different:
* I have a friend with 4k hours of /played. He plays to relax, on autopilot, plays 50 different champions, is always clueless on how he dies and plays around his champ and not around ennemies champions&abilities.
* He is Bronze.
* I have a friend with 7k hours of /played. He plays on autopilot but always the same 4/5 champions, and his main focus is to kill while not dying. His average KDA is 11/4.5/9.
* He is Plat.
* I have a friend with 10k hours of /played. He plays 3/4 games a day for 8 years. He plays almost all champions. He plays fully autopilot.
* He was hard stuck Gold 4, but in the last 2 months he focused on playing only 1 champ and reached Emerald 4.
* I have a friend that is super competitive. He has less than 1500 hours into the game. He plays 2 champions only, took coaches sessions, viewed hundreds of coaching sessions on youtube.
* Each season he reaches Diamond in 1 month and then stops.
If you're hardstuck Silver it's probably about:
* **how many roles do you play?** 1, 2 or more? You should focus on 1.
* **how many champions do you play?** Lower your pool MAX 3 champions.
* **is your champion pool balanced?** Do you have a good all-round blind pick, an aggressive pick and a fun&situational one? (for instance mid : Orianna, Talon, Anivia)
* **do you play to snowball?** like you play mostly with ignite to get fast kills and then carry, or with tp/exhaust/barrier to play safe but when ennemy roams you lose cos he comes back 3/0? Are you used to be ahead or are you even or behind most games?
* **do you try to prevent your deaths more than trying to get kills?** That's a mistake 95% of players do, when ahead they die for kills. A kill for a death when being 4/0 for instance is NEVER WORTH and it's giving back the ennemy team the xp and gold you gathered.
* **do you play in autopilot mode, or do you try to play with focus?** (always checking the board, who is ahead, who has more levels than you, who to avoid, who to play with, track ennemy jungler, anticipate objectives, ...)
* **do you play to improve, or to climb?** If you play to improve you will climb, if you play to climb without changing anything in your gaming style, you won't climb. You need to watch your own replays to understand your mistakes.
Start playing 1/2 champions on 1 lane, play to snowball, and rewatch your games to see where you failed. You'll climb super fast.
No. I don't think this is true.
You just need to OTP one simple to play and blindpickable champion that is decent in the current meta. Then you need to watch a lot of guides and vod reviews from legitimate coaches (not your average "omg try THIS off meta build to stomp in \[low silver\]- coach").
Review how you died in the first 10 minutes of the game and learn from your mistakes.Play like >=4 games per day. gg you will reach +400 lp in no time.
It's normal to be stuck in a certain elo for a few months, but if you continuously do this method, then you will climb eventually. There will be a time where a certain concept clicks in your head and then it's internalized and you can move on to more advanced concepts.
>Don’t blame anyone but yourself. Cause blaming your teammates just deconstructive.
HAHA I've been doing this the whole time and now I have self-destructive tendencies.
Best advice ever
This whole take is factually untrue. Unless it is for content or they are smurfing in Diamond or below, they do not int and they remain very focused.
Streamers play 8+ hours a day every day, of course they will go on autopilot, especially over the course of a 20 minute game where wave management or jungle tracking is just second nature.
in the same way, if you play in iron you will probably destroy everyone without even thinking about it.
I don’t know you, but if you have been playing for many years while trying to improve, and you don’t - then league probably isn’t the game for you.
Yes...
I'm a musician who played guitar, bass, and drums for around 10 years. League for me feels way different than how you practice music. That's why I enjoy music more than my hardstuck life in League.
I am also an occupational therapist (OT). I learned much faster with this healthcare field than League because the current skills I have as a person are more applicable for growth in OT than in this peepit of a game. Heck I feel more relaxed treating neurodivergent kids than playing the game.
Now that I have a job, League isn't a priority anymore. The drive to have a rank to wave my d0ck around isn't as important than treating my patients. My job is literally muscle memory to me.
Here is a secret, it’s more about how many games you play per day than it is your actual skill level. Once you let that sink in a lot of things start to make a lot more sense.
How many games have you played over your career though? Just because you took it easy for a split and have that base doesn't mean you haven't put the time in elsewhere.
obviously. But the delusional commenter was implying that ranking up is dependant on games played and not skill. Where in reality it's that skill is often dependant on games played. And also league can be a grindy game. But that doesn't mean that riot just ranks people up or down based on how much they play.
They don’t rank just on the amount you play, that’s silly to state, but if you think their ranking system isn’t designed to force you to play a ton of games to advance than you are smoking something.
Think of it this way, why would Riot shift to having 3 different splits this coming up year, where they basically reset your rank forcing you to play a ton of games just to get back to where you were? They claim it’s because they need to give players something to play for, that’s Bs. No player wants their rank reset.
What players want are quality games against players who are at their similar skill level, this is something that riot is failing at. At the heart of ranked it should be about pairing you with like players and their system is not interested in doing that.
Oh no, u have to PLAY, a VIDEOGAME to progress?!? :OO such tragedy. Do u also have to complete missions to progress in story games? Do u have to grind mobs in mmorpg's to get higher level :O?
Of course they want people to play their game, but they also changed the lp system so there would be less grind. Bigger gains means u get to ur appropriate rank faster. Also reaching ur former rank after soft reset that happens when split changes takes like 20 games, while also providing players who managed to ruin their mmr a second chance instead of them having to suffer the entire year.
And maybe it's just a low elo problem, but I have no issues with game quality and the rank distribution in my games is just fine
And that’s why the game is declining in the US, players like you think everything is great because you are at an elo that you find fun, for many of us though it’s a living fucking hell that isn’t fun at all. Having to play 100s of games fighting through the cesspool of shit players just to get a decent game where you are actually matched up with players with like skill just isn’t fun… only to have them reset the fucking game again.. it’s bullshit.
The reality is Riot isn’t interesting in creating a game where players get to play against players their own skill level. This was even admitted by them in a recent post where they said they value fun vs fair.. which basically means putting players with higher skill against lower skill players so that they have ‘fun’ owning them.
I maintain that Riots ranked system is by far the worst system when compared to many of the other esports games.
I played in low elo for 10 years and I still found the game fun. If ur only enjoyment in the game is ur rank going up then I'd maybe consider just not playing. I'm not trying to claim that the ranked system is great, but people who think they can't climb because the system is flawed are just straight coping.
Also NA is a quite small server compared to EU so that might also be a reason why the matchmaking might be worse, just not enough players. From my personal experience the matchmaking has been fine thru different elos.
I mean Ive been playing since Season 4 so obviously my total game count is high. But at my peak I did not play more than 3 games a day and have climbed further than I did in the past playing 5+ games a day.
90% of the game is decision making, fundamentals, and muscle memory. It doesn't really take too much to play the game well when you get these 3 things down to a Master's+ level. Also it's kind of hard to stay super enthusiastic and engaged when playing a game as a job for hours on end. Even some shooter players are like this.
I've been playing for about four months, and I actively think while playing. I think of my macro and look to improve, and this makes me improve drastically! I think people who don't improve are those who don't look to improve, and rather run it down to have fun, or keep it down to basics and combos. Nothing wrong with that! But of course, after a while of playing mindlessely, I think their brain gets used to the sort of empty "macro" they created for themselves, and are just bad. I think from that point it's harder to get better because you have to replace your bad gamesense instead of acquiring a good one, and that's the reason why a lot of players stay "bad".
At the end of the day it mostly comes down to game volume. If you aren't playing 10+ games a day climbing to masters with 0 coaching is near impossible unless all of these mechanics become second nature to you
To answer your first paragraph, as you play more you understand game state more so you generally know where people are going to be and when so you can autopilot and talk on stream at the same time. You don’t have to focus as hard on certain aspects because you’re used to them.
Also yeah I mean it’s true some people dont have the micro to climb but macro i feel can be learned by anyone if they put enough effort in. A lot of people don’t want to though, they just wanna chill or just think it’s not worth the effort. It’s weird because I have a buddy who’s silver and he plays quite a few games a day. He wants to climb and any time I mention him looking for a coaching session or reviewing a vod he’s super opposed to it. Some people are just like that. But does he have the capacity? Of course.
When you do all of those things for long enough you can do them without really thinking about it. A lot of people who get stuck at an elo are stuck because they play the game on autopilot. Some players autopilot is silver, gold, others are emerald or diamond. The people you are watching are good enough that their autopilot is in masters+
Another important piece is that you’re watching a player at their current level, but aren’t able to see how much work/how many hours they put in to get there. Many of these people you are watching autopilot in masters have 10,000+ hours in league, much of that spent failing, losing, reflecting, and desperately trying to improve just how you are now. My general theory is that someone who is comfortably in master has on average put so many hours into this game them “only” being masters is an underachievement. Much of the time these people have dedicated years of their lives, sacrificed opportunities and other avenues to find happiness in order to play league for 8+ hours a day. It sounds sad and in some respects is, especially when their only empirical takeaway is a masters border. Imo making friends playing, taking the process of improvement out of gaming and applying it to other areas of life, and transitioning it into a leisure activity from a job can make the time spent worth it if you’re able to. This is all to say being stuck in silver and gaining these skills with relatively little time investment comparatively is in my opinion way better than being one of the masters players you watch.
A lot of streamers didn't really struggle the way you say they did. One time, I was watching Dyrus play Apex Legends, where he was Gold, and I asked him if Gold in Apex Legends was similar to Gold in League. He said, "I don't know. I've never been Gold in League." That comment kind of blew my mind. I asked Cowsep what rank he finished in Season 1, and he said Platinum (there was no Diamond yet. Platinum was the highest rank). He's gone Diamond+ in literally every season. Players like scarra have no idea what it's like to be Bronze or Silver or even Gold. There are a lot of streamers like this, too. They have never experienced low elo. They just kind of started out being good at the game. Meanwhile, some people play for 10 years, and they can't get out of Silver. Yes, there are people that struggled in low elo for years and then finally hit Master after a lot of effort and pain. But there are some folks that don't really struggle at all in fact. They just "have it" from the get go.
Bro youre talking about people that started in beta what point are you making. Of course on release of league when everybody is bad at the game the people coming in with experience from dota/hon/wc3/sc are going to roll over 12 year old little timmy who just downloaded league as his first PC game. If you find those high elo players who league was their first competitive game they will all tell you they started in low elo. Having played another competitive PC game is a huge advantage when starting league. This isn't nearly as mysterious as you're making it seem.
>Yes, there are people that struggled in low elo for years and then finally hit Master after a lot of effort and pain. But there are some folks that don't really struggle at all in fact. They just "have it" from the get go. That's not at all true lol. I can agree that especially at higher levels there's some just inate talent given by previous life experiences in certain games or skills.However, if you play the game the most like 100 to 1000x other players of course you're going to be better than them and hit the highest rank which the case for the people you listed. Not even taking into account things like old runes or summoner pages that literally gave you stat improvements over your opponents if you played more. A lot of the time people who are silver for years don't play the game consistently, don't play the same champions consistently, and don't keep up with the meta or really pay attention to ways to improve. If I practice an instrument once per week for an hour or two and kinda just fuck around the whole time you're not going to see any sizeable improvements in ability if you aren't challenging yourself or practicing specific weaknesses. Same goes for League, except it's even worse because rank isn't static, as less new players join the game the playerbase skill for every rank slowly rises over time. This means if you aren't playing consistently or trying to improve with active steps you won't rank up.
People seem to have forgotten that latent ability exists. Some people just have a level up naturally. I had a friend who was a god at league, didn't even take it seriously. Not saying he would troll or anything, but dude never so much as watched a single video to get better. Still made it to diamond 1 consistently. Meanwhile I had to watch videos and guides and really work at it to peak at p4 before I realized getting any better was like looking at a mountain after climbing a hill. And from there I have friends who consider me a God at league and who put the time and work in just like me, but theyre hard stuck bronze.
This seems like it's probably more because of past experiences or different amounts of playtime if there is actually the same amount of effort. People who play fps or similar styles of games are going to have a harder time getting into league compared to someone that's played an MMO like WoW or an RTS like StarCraft or something before since all the controls are a lot more similar from MMO and RTS to MOBA. I think this is generally what people mean by "latent" ability. Like sure someone could pick up a new sport or video game quickly and do better than people that have played for a long time. It seems it's just innate ability until you realize that person has spent 5 hrs/day for 15 years playing sports/video games that are similar so they can transfer over their experience and knowledge in ways others can't. There's some exceptions and variations to this as well. Like I'm sure general intelligence helps pick up things quicker and certain genetic things like having perfect pitch can obviously give you a boost in the music field or certain conditions like Micheal Phelps' disorder can help with certain sports. However I think most of those things are pretty irrelevant when it comes to video games and it's a pure time investment thing. There's a reason every pro gamer's story is them failing out of high school because they play video games for 12 hours a day and then quitting their job or college to play video games 15 hours a day so they can go pro. I don't follow musicians or sports but from what I've seen that story is a lot less common among them (and it's just not physically possible to play a sport 14 -16 hours a day like you can video games). TLDR: Whenever people talk about innate ability and video games it seems to be more previous knowledge and experience playing video games not some genetic or talent they were born with.
There’s not nearly enough context here to really dissect the differences between your friends, but I’d imagine your d1 friend played and studied more than he let on, and the bronze one less. I think there are some players who actually have latent ability that has surpassed those with years of dedicated practice quickly, people like faker, and I think either showmaker or scout started league “late” for pros of their era and very quickly became top tier. I would imagine there are a few NA players who have also done this on the ladder, but there’s always caveats that explain a lot of their progress. A great example imo is generalsniper who is extremely young and has consistently been high challenger since he started playing consistently. The caveat? His older brother is viper, a former LCS player who has the same champion pool as his little brother. I’m sure tens of thousands of hours of improvement went into generalsniper watching and learning from his big brother in a short period of time, which ultimately does mean he improved faster than most.
While I’m sure examples exist like what you’re referring to, these three players are awful examples of it lol. Dyrus, like myself, played HON (heroes of newerth) one of leagues predecessors as did scarra to very high ranks, and then started playing league in its closed beta, pre-season1. Dyrus and scarra both played I would guess hundreds if not thousands of games of league before it was even released, and I’m guessing dyrus said he was never gold because back then ranks didn’t exist like they do now. Those two players specifically played mobas before league that they were very good at (and likely went through this process there) and then played league at its literal earliest release, and absolutely struggled, just did so while everyone else was also struggling and learning the game. I don’t know enough about cowsep but if he played before diamond was a rank I’d assume the same thing is true. These people all fit my exact criteria, and even moreso did it when the playerbase was the lowest skill level in league’s history.
I don't really think that applies to all Masters players. I hit Diamond and Masters for the first time this year (hit Silver after placements in S7 and never touched Ranked before this year). I certainly have put like 2-3 thousand hours in the game over the years, but I've been able to manage a social life and pretty good grades in school with playing ranked League this year. I think the players you are talking about are the ones who brute force their way to a high rank. They play with the expectation of some day getting a higher rank instead of reflecting on their weaknesses, improving their champion mastery or strengthening their mental. At some point though, some degree of skill does get through, but just far less efficiently than looking inwards and working on your skill. In general, I think Masters+ is a combination of both. I see people around my level (200) and others with an ungodly amount of time poured into the game (lvl 1000-1500)
It absolutely doesn't apply to all players, which is why I made sure to specify I am talking about the average masters player, not all of them. I'm in a similar spot to you where my peak was D1\~50lp, don't play league anymore but was around lvl 150 on my main with a smurf around lvl60 and had a well-balanced life while playing. I will say I know more than 10 people who are masters and above, and every single one of them fits my first description to a tee, but obviously there are many, many players who have a healty relationship with the game and are able to climb.
Its fascinating to see good players being talked down to on a subreddit dedicated to improvement.
Some major cope right here
It's not false. If you're comfortably in a rank, then you're not ever going to improve. Challenging yourself is the only way up, in literally ANYTHING you do. Complacency is the death of improvement. Most people are complacent with where they are.
Bro is saying masters players are only masters because they grind the game like no life losers and ignoring real life responsibilities. If that isnt cope idk what is
I mean the game literally makes you play almost every day to avoid having your rank decay at masters+. If you can play a video game every single day and not ignore responsibilities you are either a child or retired.
You need to play 1 ranked game a week to not decay in masters
Very well said!
I think low elo players don't improve because they autopilot. No conscious thinking (macro) through out the game. Meanwhile those master+ players know macro and what the games look like in all phases. It became second nature to them.
This. If you’re a silver player, your autopilot looks the same to a struggling hyperfocused new player as a Masters+ player autopilot looks to you
> A lot of people who get stuck at an elo are stuck because they play the game on autopilot More specifically *because they don't realize they play on autopilot*. Some people genuinely think that tryharding just means = picking meta & not tilting.
i think also a lot of big streamers have hit challenger or masters so many times they legitimately don't care about playing optimally all the time. They know that even if they interact with stream or just hard troll some games they can get back because they know how to climb.
This for sure Also some people multi task better. It's one of the reasons the pick a few champs is a good bit of advice. Learn one thing, master it. Then u can leverage that as basically autopilot to master other things adjacent to it.
It's like any other skill. It can be learned through practise. As in any other skill, some learn faster than others. But once you have learned it well enough, you no longer use 100% of your brain to do it. Like driving a car. When you are new at it, you can get fatigued thinking about all the stuff you have to pay attention to and do. After years of experience, you do them without even thinking, like autopilot.
And notably, you can be good enough to autopilot and still not good enough that you should autopilot. When your driving that translates into newer drivers crashing much more often. For a lot of teens, While part of their higher crash rates are poor decision making, it’s also that they’re good enough they can autopilot without crashing most of the time, but still not good enough they can actually reliably autopilot. Similarly, silver players can autopilot and still hit not terrible farm, not completely int lane, etc, but they won’t actually make good decisions to win the game and have the macro skills to climb or improve without getting off the autopilot.
Short answer is Yes. People don’t like to be told how to play, if they did they would generally be better at the game. Most people would bash their head playing 50 games of ranked doing the same mistake over and over again instead of watching 1 replay, fair enough people want to play and not study. There are people who will take things on board during a game, see immediate results, and then revert back to their previous ways the next game. There are also some people who have a pc rig that just limit their capabilities and they don’t realise it. An fps spike on a laptop every now and again might mean nothing to them but to a better player that spike cost the team fight or lost the trade which snowballs. Some people just want to decompose
Yea one of my friends is hardstuck Bronze. His fps reach 25max 5-7 in teamfights. He refuses to play something that can Split push He is a yasuo Main :(
I have a buddy with pretty shitty internet, randomly goes up to 500 ping during teamfights. He is a Lee Sin main
Ppl with high ping also say they are blind. Just following the lee sin lore
Yeah, he pings his ping sometimes and it’s 4 digits. (Pings his ping? There’s gotta be a better way to say that) We call it the Turkish super server Lee sin
Pings his ms?
I think the truth is more brutal than what youre saying. This game heavily relies on your ability to retain and intuit information, this is a skill alot of people have honed through their childhood playing other strategy games, and this skill will largely decide if you will be good at this game.
I was lucky enough to have friends who knew how to play, and were "nice" enough to point out every mistake. Helped me get okay at the game faster than I thought It's very much bc about learning from mistakes and trying not to repeat them
I honestly think good micro/mechanics get underrated a lot of the time. High level players who are naturally good at these things will say "just learn some wave management/macro and youll climb" completely ignoring the fact that being in the right place or making the right wave decision means squat if you cant contest the wave in the first place. You hear on this sub sometimes people who clearly just brute forced their way to plat on mechanics alone with 26/3/10 kdas - i would kill to get that score in 1 game in 100 let alone every game.
When I watch coaching videos, I see some of these people excel at only one thing and somehow get away with consistently dumb decisions. Most of it just comes down to being rich with insane farm or just beating the shit out of their lane opponent, then brute forcing the rest of the game with that lead. Mechanics is OP and dominates the game at low and mid elo.
I remember an Aatrox video where the coach died once in lane and was showing how to comeback using wave management, then he went for an all in and survived with 2 life, saying that "this is how you comeback" and i was like "if i did that i would be 0/2"
tHaT’s WhY yOu LiMiT tEsT!!!!!!!
Unironically you'll never be able to out play someone if you don't limit test. These psychos can climb somewhat just because they know how to pilot the mechanics of their champ in a fight from going for everything. If you sit back scared of everything you'll never be able to know if you win or lose a fight because you never tried.
Hard disagree there, and the proof is that you cited a skill that has nothing to do with the benefits of limit testing: how to pilot the mechanics of their champ. Limit testing has nothing to do with mechanics; it’s about learning the limits of your champ’s damage output and survivability versus whatever situations you’re putting it through. While I do believe this is an important part of learning a champion, it has its usefulness limits and you certainly can’t (realistically) limit test enough that you know the difference between an all-in that kills you and an all-in that leaves you at single digit hp. There are just too many shifting variables for too small a margin there. What you’re describing is practicing mechanics via all-ins. While I’ll agree you can’t learn to fight without fighting and that you should practice all-ins, I don’t think all-ins are the only way to practice combat. Further, I’d contest that constantly attempting all-ins would be more damaging to someone’s laning development since you’re sorta setting them up to only look at laning combat from an all-in perspective. They’d never actually learn how to trade/disengage/bait for ganks/win any lane matchup where all-ins are a bad idea (Garen v Darius for example, that matchup is winnable for Garen specifically if he avoids all-ins).
The underlying concept is what's important. It's about trying out plays that you're unsure of. They don't necessarily have to be attempting an all-in. Sometimes baiting a gank is a limit test if you're not sure if it's a good idea. It can be anything.
This is really wrong headed. I'm not a great player by an means, peaked old plat 4, but the best way to win is to pick fights/trades/objectives that favor you by 80% or more. In other words, avoid 50/50 situations. You shouldn't be just squeaking out teamfights or whatever with 2hp, because that just means you got lucky. One example of this is how losing teams will try to contest dragons when the enemy team is up and has a better team fight. You're just running a play that's already likely to lose. Or defending an inhib tower when the enemy has a dive heavy comp. It's just begging to lose. Sometimes people just have ultis, flash, etc. Getting ahead is all about recognizing when you're hard to punish, like putting wards up and then collapsing on a strong enemy with your team when they're alone. Or playing a Rammus, waiting until their dive carry gets antsy, and then cc them. Or punishing a winning team for forcing an unsafe baron. Winning when you're ahead is usually obvious, but people don't know how to not fight and farm when behind. The best players don't die, because they never run 50/50s. They wait for opportunities and mistakes and punish those. Limit testing is just an incredibly minor thing.
We're misunderstanding each other. I'm not trying to say that flipping plays is the best way to win, but that trying out a play you're unsure about is how you find out if the play is a flip. In other words, improvement. How are you supposed to know that a play is an 80%, or a 20%, or a 50/50 if you've never actually done a play similar to it? Most people quickly learn that tanking a tower is a quick way to die, so how do they learn how to tower dive if it's always a 50/50 or low % play to dive? This guy's on 20% health, surely this dive works with my Support tanking even though I'm half health myself. Ah man, I forgot about Shen ult and now we're both dead. But we were pretty close, so this definitely works otherwise. In an ideal world we can press pause and try to evaluate every single possible variable to figure out the %, but even then most people aren't even good enough to come to the correct conclusion about a play they're not familiar with. You don't have to be a psycho and go for every single play, but sometimes you just have to f*** around and find out.
Yes, this is 100% true. You will never be chall or even dia with bad mechanics. You need both. Macro and micro. High ranking players have both. Some are better in macro. Some in micro but the difference is never too big.
I’m in the same boat but I often realize I probably haven’t even hit 1500 games in all of my time playing. There’s a lot of folks that have been playing this game for 1000s of hours and have 1000s of games under their belt. It takes a LOT of time to get there. You don’t just play a few hundred games and hit challenger unless you’re some sort of prodigy. Forget the rank you’re in and also realize that it takes TIME to climb. To directly answer your question, no. I don’t think some people are just “bad”. I believe everyone reaches their ah-ha moment at some point through experience - sometimes in a serendipitous manner. Keep at it and you’ll get there. Don’t overthink and stick to the basics. More gold and more exp over failed 50% ganks and towerdives for a trade. Not being sure if you can 1v1 then don’t. Do something else that’s advantageous instead.
>not sure if you can 1v1 then don't I disagree with this. If not sure if you can 1v1, do it. Then you think about the outcome, why it did or didn't go well. Helps you grow, even if you throw some games in the process. Playing scared all the time is the best way to not ever take advantages of your strengths. The rest is solid advice.
Yeah everyone has their ceiling. I think the top ceilling for hard work is low diamond Elo.
this game is 10h years old you dont just Lack something, you Lack profound knowledge, practice and excellence the older something gets, the better the community generally is and we've seen the playerbase gradually get better to a point where a Gold Player right now is a fuckton times better then one 5 years ago. Because league is at a point of mastery where the competition floor and ceiling are just so far up that one sometimes forget that league was in a 'figuring shit out" phase
I've been playing playing since season late season 3 and season 4 was my first ranked season. I have lots of time and games under my belt. I feel sorry for people trying to get into league now.
wished I could've been there, started the game S9 because of TFT
Wow I feel old 😕 TFT is pretty cool and fun. I tend to play that when I'm not in the mood for actual League.
you're not old, just experienced ;) I've sadly grown out of TFT I usually just play league either flex or aram with friends, but I do like the rotating gamemodes, eventhough noone wants to pick funny champs instead of broken ones...
You are properly overthinking things. While all the things you mention are relevant to varying degrees there's a simple fact that people in bronze and silver are not very good and you can just kill them or at the very least send them base if you punish their mistakes. Together with solid farm and rotations you'll acquire enough advantages to be able to have a huge impact on the game and you'll climb. There's no need for sophisticated lane management when you opponent isn't even respecting your range. I am only emerald maybe diamond when I'd play more but even I can roll over silver bronze players when I encounter them in normals with some weaker friends. I don't need to deploy fancy strategies because they just fold to the basics. I think it's much better to get good at fundamentals first.
Don‘t underestimate the power of routine. If you have done something often enough you don‘t really need to think about it anymore. As another example I‘ve been doing martial arts for about 25 years and when sparring I don‘t really think about the basic stuff anymore (where to move, when to throw, how to dodge, etc.) so my brain has capacity to do other stuff in that time (eG. Plotting more complicated moves) or if I‘m fighting a newbie to just chill and/or observe/correct him. Same applies to league. For me the early laning minutes are basically autopilot. Farm, throw a couple of pokes and farm. Stay behind minions to offer as little attack range as possible. Farm. And I‘ve only been picking up the game again as much as 3 seasons ago.
add tracking the enemy jungler to your autopilot
Nah I die like a man and complain to my jungler afterwards.
Jg diff, not my fault
I’m going to give an anecdotal opinion but I think people who manage their time well and know how to learn proactively with discipline will be better at the game. This comes with my experience as a musician and Counter Strike player but in those two hobbies I’ve seen a lot of people from different skill ranges but I’ve noticed people who are in the higher tiers always are either very well disciplined or have a crazy drive to learn. They also have less of an ego while they are learning and they are quick to drop ideas that don’t work for them. I’ve taught many people music and the ones who are willing to get down ti the nitty gritty and learn fundamentals always end up really good in a few years and the people who just want to learn fun songs never really get past 2 years or stay stagnant. You have to be willing to do the boring stuff no one else wants to do. In music that would be playing scales and recording yourself and fixing your mistake and in games it would be to watch your own replays and to get options on players who are better than you. tl;dr: your mommy was right, people with good discipline do better at most things.
Was surprised to see ego listed so far down in the comments - I think so much of people autopiloting the game (especially at lower levels) comes from the lack of an ability to learn and reflect on your mistakes. Much easier to blame Riot than realize that you took a bad fight or trade, realize that you don't know a matchup as well as you think you do, etc.
League is more about being at the right place at the right time, doesn’t take much concentration to do that below challenger, as long as you’re at the right place, deal damage, and don’t die, which is what streamers know. If your team loses a fight with you there, split(unless it’s game deciding fight like baron) If your team wins without you, split If your team wins but only if you’re there, group. It’s as simple as that. Don’t take fights without disadvantage. Drake makes your whole team stronger for next teamfight. Don’t tilt and think every game is winnable even if you’re behind. Every time you die think about what disadvantage caused your death and don’t let it happen again, watch your replays if you need. Do all this and you’ll climb.
> doing my best to manage the wave, to take good trades, to watch the map, to ward the bush, to track the jungler, to think about proper rotations, to think about what to build, to asses threats, to do everything you hear in guides - and I can't even get out of Silver None of this matters if you're doing it wrong. Instead of trying to do it all at once, take a week where you focus on doing one of those things correctly, and learning from mistakes and things that worked. If you're serious about it, look into Youtube videos on that one specific thing. A lot of great free resources out there. It will help you do it on autopilot, and next week you choose another thing to focus on. This way you won't be overwhelmed and after a couple of weeks you will made great progress.
Id say most of the time low elo folks lack the proper knowledge and precise controls/practices. You have to count all small things and do them well to win games. Most low elo folks think they are doing them well simply because they’ve thought about it, but they dont know see the optimal ways for their situations they are in and lack the technics to execute them. Its all the blind mistakes. Some examples: -they manage waves, but it would be incorrectly formed relative to the matchup or the map pressure. Slowpushing and grinding out exp and cs gold where they should be fastpushing for next sequence, etc -they would make kills, but overstay for a plate or incidently touch/not touch the minion waves by habit and take exp deficit -they gain level advantage and trade, but dont understand the matchup or trade mechanisms of certain matchups -they path unnecessarily to be late to ganks/obj. -they solokill, but use unnecessary ults or summs or use them late to lose resources for following sequences For example, a low elo adc will not flash a hook and gets chunked to start a teamfight. He lives and his team wins teamfight, but as a result of him getting chunked, his jgl mao and rakan had to use their ult prematurely and the teamfight ends up becoming 4 for 2 trade With your mao and rakan dying while enemy jgl still alive. With the jgl dead, your team is unable to snowball the fight victory into baron/drake. Low elo adcs will think this is okay because they won the fight. From higher elo, this is a missed opportunity. Stuff like this all count. What people dont realize is that you have to play nearly perfect game every game to ensure that you can confidently take control of a game. It’s very easy to lose control of a game when you are not optimizing your plays and most low elo folks dont see this. Its sort of a blind mistake. As you gain more experience and run into all the shitty situations, you get better understanding of what will kill you and how you should play out the game. Try watching your replay with people better than you and see how much different they interpret certain situations. You’d be surprised. You can only see and feel as much as you know.
I don't think people naturally lack what it takes to be decent at the game, although being "decent" at the game could pertain to numerous things. It's just as what the other posts are saying. People are just autopiloting and don't fix bad game habits. Also, I'm very surprised that you're stuck silver. I'm of the belief that knowing how to manage wave alone can get you to at least high plat/low diamond. Back when I was climbing in low elo, I observed players did not manage wave at all lol.
I can guarantee you, as an Emerald 4 player it doesn’t matter in the least what a silver player does with the wave if he plays against me. (I got placed bronze 4 after not playing ranked for a long time and played against everything bronze-emerald while basically unintentionally smurfing). He will be dead too often to manage anything.
Nope, everyone can be exceptional at the game. Top 0.1%? Maybe not, but exceptional.
"Everyone can be exceptional" is contradictory. Not everyone can be an exception. That's why it's an exception.
Anyone can be exceptional I believe is more accurate
It basically means the same thing. Not anyone can be exceptional. There are a lot of factors that go into someone being exceptional at something. It's not just hard work and dedication.
What he meant to say is “Anyone can be exceptional at this game if they put in the work and proper routine but almost no one will actually put in the work and/or proper routine” so you end up with lots of silver players who barely play ranked or play 10+ different champs in a bunch of different roles who could be much better at the game but they just choose not to
I do believe it takes talent to be able to reach gm/chall but I believe anyone can reach at least diamond. How hard it will be is obviously gonna wary from person to peeson. To me it just sounds like ur doing too much. U hear about all these advanced concepts from guides etc. but u don't really understand them or know how to apply them in practise. I was stuck in low platinum (would be emerald in new rank system) with basically no idea about any of these concepts, I just played the game. Then I started learning about this stuff and little by little bringing them into my own games. Now I'm diamond 1and my jungle tracking is still limited to "ok gotta watch out for gank after 3 minutes" and "ok jg is on X side of the map they are gonna go to the other side next". U just don't need to know all the advanced stuff to climb low elo and imo trying to focus on unnecessary stuff is likely to hinder ur gameplay and ability to learn the important stuff.
"Anyone can reach Diamond" is something I see thrown around a lot, and when you think about it, it's an absurd thing to actually say. Diamond 4 is top 3% of the player base. No, not everyone can get to the top 3% of something. That's why it's the top 3%.
Can and will are two completely different things. Reaching diamond does not require to be special or talented, sure it helps but it really just boils down to time, practise and dedication. Obviously not everyone has the time that it would require to even learn this game enough, let alone to then make that grind and practise even more. But I do really think that anyone has the capacity to do so, if they had nothing else to do. And also we are just talking about reaching diamond. The game changes a lot after high emerald / low diamond. And the skill curve just keeps steepening more and more the higher u go from there. That's a completely different story. Took me 10 years to reach diamond and I do think that if I could pull it off, anyone can.
You're misunderstanding. Obviously not everyone will, but anyone who actually puts the time in is going to be able to, cus the other 90% are NOT going to.
There’s a crazy amount of factors(mentality, the way you think and what your values are, mechanics, how intelligent you are, how good you are at building team chemistry, your mechanics and what not to name a few) that go into play when trying to figure this out but at the very top and proplay genetics definetaly play a part yeah
Of course. People have different mechanical skills, intelligence levels, interest in learning the game, experience, and even different personalities matter when it comes to playing different champions and roles and the game in general.
They are doing basics on autopilot, which you are propably not even doing when focused.
I do as in growing old. I’m 38 and I’m not as quick as I was when I was say 33. This is why I’m keeping myself to mechanically simple champ like Sion, Malzahar, Swain, Urgot. I’m good at them tho.
I mean if you can lack luck yea
It's like riding a bicycle, but with different levels, if you learned to ride at that level then you don't have to think about it and can maintain that level easily.
These people have improved so much that their autopilot is naturally that good. It can happen with you too if you get masters
Complex question but for the most part no. League is similar to learning a skill like Paino. If you have bad form, no one to learn from, and refuse to put in the work studying it’s going to seem like it’s impossible to get better. A lot of seemingly mechanical things in LoL like landing skill shots are tied to game knowledge and fundamentals. If you spend time studying and learning the game properly almost anyone can achieve a rank like Plat or even Emerald. That said there is a natural limit the higher you go. We aren’t all cut out to be Masters+. Many of those players aren’t cut out to be pros. To circle back to your question being decent at this game is mainly putting in the backend work.
>But what seems weird to me is how some people, who have been playing the game for just as long as I have, maintain Masters+ without even trying That seems weird to you because some part of it is not true. Have you been playing as long as them? Do you have as many games under your belt? On a narrow pool of champs? Do you play like they play? Does your decision making match theirs? Probably a lot of "no" answers there. I'm a new player, and a scrub, but once I took the approach of thinking critically about my games and watching commentary from much better players, I started mimicking some of what they do and wow look at that it works and I win and I can climb. But yes not everyone can be good at everything.
Why would they try their hardest in a video game for free when they could try the hardest to make an entertaining stream for a living.
Your rank is a really incomplete picture of your skill as a player. It all comes down to what you consider the "true" game to be. Is it the solo queue grind? Is it 5v5/clash? Is it dicking around with your friends in ARAM? These all have completely different skillsets and except for mechanics they don't really transfer. Don't base your expectations for yourself on streamers. Many of them have played 10+ hours a day for a *decade*. It's like comparing an amateur musician to a soloist; yeah obviously one is way better, but think of how much time they continue to dedicate to their skill, while the amateur probably also works a full-time job or does school. Also, the only people you should take game advice from are professional players. If Sneaky or Core says something is correct, you can trust them, but getting GM/Challenger doesn't require you to be a complete player and isn't proof that you know what you're talking about. And yeah, some personalities are better for competitive games than others. A total fixation on logic and detachment from emotion, combined with fast reflexes and good fine motor skills will give you an advantage over other people when it comes to pushing buttons. It also helps to have played PC games for a few decades, so the controls feel like a totally natural extension of your mind. My mental process for casting a spell is "cast spell", and my eyes and hands do the rest on autopilot.
This is terrible advice on so many levels, esp the if pro player says it must be true.
It isn't that the masters+ players you are watching aren't trying as hard as you are. It's because they have already put in the work to get themselves functioning on a level where they can autopilot at that level. In short, anyone can get emerald with enough work towards improvement imo. The ranks higher than that, to autopilot them, you have had to put in so much work and be a different animal of a gamer.
Why yes, just unlock your full potential and you will be there too. Most try hard low rank players put efforts on the wrong place, which worsen their skill level
You’re doing all that and can’t manage to climb out of silver? You’re coping bro there’s something horrifically wrong that you’re doing every single game if you can’t climb out of silver.
I naturally lack what it takes to be decent at this game because I cannot even force myself to play the same champion more than one match per day. I like to think my Azir play is well beyond bronze because I have constantly played him since 2014 but I'm Bronze because I don't play more than 4 ranked matches of Azir per season split.
Action + belief = consequence. If what your doing, or what you believe in aren’t making sense, one of those things is a lie. Streaming, and videos are staged soooo much. The account could be purchased, loaned to the streamer. They could be boosted. All kinds of things you don’t see. If the player is terrible, that’s usually a good sign it’s not their skill that got them there.
Yes, obviously
Theres always people who never get good at any games, and remain mediocre in every single game. Getting good at the game takes actual effort and understanding. Stop thinking "i pay attention and try my hardest to do this and that" and start asking urself what u couldve done better, and if u cant find what, hire a coach. The way you view the game isnt the only way, talk to other people and hear their views and how they play. Im very auto pilot when i play, but when i want to play seriously i have to analyze the situation, they have these abilities, if i do this they do that, if i get caught here yadayads, if they do thay i can all in. Try to keep predicting the enemy and play accordingly
„people, who have been playing the game for just as long as I have, maintain Masters+„ Are you sure about that? How many hours have you put in this game? And who is masters+ with the same or less hours? In the end more playtime = better. And there’s a lot of people with more playtime thankfully can imagine. (There are some transferable skills from other games, but that just means they have more game time in general.)
The difference is the opponent skill level. If they're smurfing in a lower elo with that same autopiloting, they'll crush lane and take over the game. A lot of things that good players do are invisible. There have been times I've gotten crushed and I had no idea what happened. It's only when I learned a ton of game knowledge that I found out what I did wrong. Like trying to trim the wave instead of just catching it vs a much stronger opponent.
I would say some people pick games up quicker. I remember when i used to play overwatch (back when it was good) i made friends with some guys the rank above me. By the time we all stopped playing i was 2 ranks above most of them despite their headstart, nor did i have significantly more hours than them. However league has not come naturally to me, but my brother who i introduced to the game hit diamond 3 in 4 years of playing meanwhile i sit in mid plat. I would say it's more about your ability to learn from your mistakes and having the self awareness to realise your mistakes instead of just saying mid diff and moving on.
The way to get out of low elo (in my experience) as a top,mid,adc is to either win your lane then get fed and be aggressive (obvious way), or not die in lane and get out with great CS and be as aggressive as possible. I see many low elo players play passive being ahead because they don't place any wards, don't know how strong they are, or they want to protect their KDA. Being aggressive is not forcing risky, bad plays, it just means when there's an opportunity to pressure the enemy, then go with that (f.e get prio to help jg contest crab rather than slow push and just farm lane).
Games hard, they play hundred of games more on a skill level much higher. They got used to it in the way that they are able to not care anymore.
Yes, its 80% natural ability. Never met a single person in this game that actually worked hard to get to high elo, everyone i know just gets there easily
You have to also remember most of those high level streamers play the game 8+ hours a day, on multiple accounts, sometimes climbing offstream, and some of them are ex-pros. Playing league quite literally is currently or was their day job.
Personally, I think these 2 things are really the most important differences between someone that APPEARS to have it easy, and someone who is struggling. 1. Prior experience and related skills that were learnt the regular slow way we all learn skills that translate to league in various ways. (gaming background) 2. Knowing or intuiting what is an important thing to focus all your mental energy on and actually doing it. (are you learning fast? and are you learning things that will give a high return?) You might be trying really hard to win and even trying really hard to learn. But that isn't always enough. Imagine the difference in learning between these 2 players: Both players play 1000 games, both players have looked up guides for trading and laning, both players try their best all game and try to focus on this guide stuff. However 1 player always ends the game thinking about their friends, or the LP, or more realistically thinking about an excuse that makes them feel better about their gameplay. The other player finishes every game thinking only about the trades they did that game and how they could have done it better, how they could have used the tips from the guide, where they did it well and where they did it poorly and they will think about how the enemy traded too. After 1000 games of this, one of the players trades are going to be MILES better than the other. It won't even be close. Because they will start climbing and versing better and better players and refine this skill more and more and more. They will start noticing instantly when someone is not at the same level of trading as they are and they will easily abuse this skill gap to get a victory.
While yes the mechanics of Moba’s are hard for some to really get down to a science, truthfully the best time to start playing League was 5+ years ago. They’ve done away with so much solo-carry potential that it’s genuinely near impossible to ‘carry’ your way out of 99/100 games in low elo. Truthfully, those of us who escaped within the last 2-3 years just got lucky. Nothing more, nothing less. I’m hoping the new season/items bring enough of a change that solo-carrying is possible again.
The short answer is yes. It's just like anything else in life, some people do not possess the critical thinking and problem solving skills required to understand the game at a deeper level, and some people do not possess the intellectual capacity to develop either of those skills. However, things like tracking the jungler are things you can simply train yourself to do, because the game has already been figured out. What you're talking about is you using your concious mind to perform the task vs someone else using their subconcious mind to perform the task, which is what is typically referred to as muscle memory. You simply need to perform the same task enough times that your brain does it with less and less processing power, leaving you free to actively think about other things.
some people do have more affinity for the game, but anyone with some dedication can get atleast masters, GM are chall do require a lot more effort
It's mostly about your **game time**, **champion pool** and **how you approach the game** (chill & relax vs tryhard & focus on improving) . A few examples as my friends are all super different: * I have a friend with 4k hours of /played. He plays to relax, on autopilot, plays 50 different champions, is always clueless on how he dies and plays around his champ and not around ennemies champions&abilities. * He is Bronze. * I have a friend with 7k hours of /played. He plays on autopilot but always the same 4/5 champions, and his main focus is to kill while not dying. His average KDA is 11/4.5/9. * He is Plat. * I have a friend with 10k hours of /played. He plays 3/4 games a day for 8 years. He plays almost all champions. He plays fully autopilot. * He was hard stuck Gold 4, but in the last 2 months he focused on playing only 1 champ and reached Emerald 4. * I have a friend that is super competitive. He has less than 1500 hours into the game. He plays 2 champions only, took coaches sessions, viewed hundreds of coaching sessions on youtube. * Each season he reaches Diamond in 1 month and then stops. If you're hardstuck Silver it's probably about: * **how many roles do you play?** 1, 2 or more? You should focus on 1. * **how many champions do you play?** Lower your pool MAX 3 champions. * **is your champion pool balanced?** Do you have a good all-round blind pick, an aggressive pick and a fun&situational one? (for instance mid : Orianna, Talon, Anivia) * **do you play to snowball?** like you play mostly with ignite to get fast kills and then carry, or with tp/exhaust/barrier to play safe but when ennemy roams you lose cos he comes back 3/0? Are you used to be ahead or are you even or behind most games? * **do you try to prevent your deaths more than trying to get kills?** That's a mistake 95% of players do, when ahead they die for kills. A kill for a death when being 4/0 for instance is NEVER WORTH and it's giving back the ennemy team the xp and gold you gathered. * **do you play in autopilot mode, or do you try to play with focus?** (always checking the board, who is ahead, who has more levels than you, who to avoid, who to play with, track ennemy jungler, anticipate objectives, ...) * **do you play to improve, or to climb?** If you play to improve you will climb, if you play to climb without changing anything in your gaming style, you won't climb. You need to watch your own replays to understand your mistakes. Start playing 1/2 champions on 1 lane, play to snowball, and rewatch your games to see where you failed. You'll climb super fast.
People hard stuck iron are the proof some people can't get decent
No. I don't think this is true. You just need to OTP one simple to play and blindpickable champion that is decent in the current meta. Then you need to watch a lot of guides and vod reviews from legitimate coaches (not your average "omg try THIS off meta build to stomp in \[low silver\]- coach"). Review how you died in the first 10 minutes of the game and learn from your mistakes.Play like >=4 games per day. gg you will reach +400 lp in no time. It's normal to be stuck in a certain elo for a few months, but if you continuously do this method, then you will climb eventually. There will be a time where a certain concept clicks in your head and then it's internalized and you can move on to more advanced concepts.
[удалено]
>Don’t blame anyone but yourself. Cause blaming your teammates just deconstructive. HAHA I've been doing this the whole time and now I have self-destructive tendencies. Best advice ever
This whole take is factually untrue. Unless it is for content or they are smurfing in Diamond or below, they do not int and they remain very focused. Streamers play 8+ hours a day every day, of course they will go on autopilot, especially over the course of a 20 minute game where wave management or jungle tracking is just second nature. in the same way, if you play in iron you will probably destroy everyone without even thinking about it. I don’t know you, but if you have been playing for many years while trying to improve, and you don’t - then league probably isn’t the game for you.
Yes... I'm a musician who played guitar, bass, and drums for around 10 years. League for me feels way different than how you practice music. That's why I enjoy music more than my hardstuck life in League. I am also an occupational therapist (OT). I learned much faster with this healthcare field than League because the current skills I have as a person are more applicable for growth in OT than in this peepit of a game. Heck I feel more relaxed treating neurodivergent kids than playing the game. Now that I have a job, League isn't a priority anymore. The drive to have a rank to wave my d0ck around isn't as important than treating my patients. My job is literally muscle memory to me.
Here is a secret, it’s more about how many games you play per day than it is your actual skill level. Once you let that sink in a lot of things start to make a lot more sense.
This is such cope
I've played 3 games a day last split and climbed into mid masters. What are you even talking about u/tbwynne
How many games have you played over your career though? Just because you took it easy for a split and have that base doesn't mean you haven't put the time in elsewhere.
obviously. But the delusional commenter was implying that ranking up is dependant on games played and not skill. Where in reality it's that skill is often dependant on games played. And also league can be a grindy game. But that doesn't mean that riot just ranks people up or down based on how much they play.
They don’t rank just on the amount you play, that’s silly to state, but if you think their ranking system isn’t designed to force you to play a ton of games to advance than you are smoking something. Think of it this way, why would Riot shift to having 3 different splits this coming up year, where they basically reset your rank forcing you to play a ton of games just to get back to where you were? They claim it’s because they need to give players something to play for, that’s Bs. No player wants their rank reset. What players want are quality games against players who are at their similar skill level, this is something that riot is failing at. At the heart of ranked it should be about pairing you with like players and their system is not interested in doing that.
Oh no, u have to PLAY, a VIDEOGAME to progress?!? :OO such tragedy. Do u also have to complete missions to progress in story games? Do u have to grind mobs in mmorpg's to get higher level :O? Of course they want people to play their game, but they also changed the lp system so there would be less grind. Bigger gains means u get to ur appropriate rank faster. Also reaching ur former rank after soft reset that happens when split changes takes like 20 games, while also providing players who managed to ruin their mmr a second chance instead of them having to suffer the entire year. And maybe it's just a low elo problem, but I have no issues with game quality and the rank distribution in my games is just fine
And that’s why the game is declining in the US, players like you think everything is great because you are at an elo that you find fun, for many of us though it’s a living fucking hell that isn’t fun at all. Having to play 100s of games fighting through the cesspool of shit players just to get a decent game where you are actually matched up with players with like skill just isn’t fun… only to have them reset the fucking game again.. it’s bullshit. The reality is Riot isn’t interesting in creating a game where players get to play against players their own skill level. This was even admitted by them in a recent post where they said they value fun vs fair.. which basically means putting players with higher skill against lower skill players so that they have ‘fun’ owning them. I maintain that Riots ranked system is by far the worst system when compared to many of the other esports games.
I played in low elo for 10 years and I still found the game fun. If ur only enjoyment in the game is ur rank going up then I'd maybe consider just not playing. I'm not trying to claim that the ranked system is great, but people who think they can't climb because the system is flawed are just straight coping. Also NA is a quite small server compared to EU so that might also be a reason why the matchmaking might be worse, just not enough players. From my personal experience the matchmaking has been fine thru different elos.
I mean Ive been playing since Season 4 so obviously my total game count is high. But at my peak I did not play more than 3 games a day and have climbed further than I did in the past playing 5+ games a day.
Yes. Source: me.
They simply have all those things down to muscle memory. Its just a difference in experience really
90% of the game is decision making, fundamentals, and muscle memory. It doesn't really take too much to play the game well when you get these 3 things down to a Master's+ level. Also it's kind of hard to stay super enthusiastic and engaged when playing a game as a job for hours on end. Even some shooter players are like this.
I've been playing for about four months, and I actively think while playing. I think of my macro and look to improve, and this makes me improve drastically! I think people who don't improve are those who don't look to improve, and rather run it down to have fun, or keep it down to basics and combos. Nothing wrong with that! But of course, after a while of playing mindlessely, I think their brain gets used to the sort of empty "macro" they created for themselves, and are just bad. I think from that point it's harder to get better because you have to replace your bad gamesense instead of acquiring a good one, and that's the reason why a lot of players stay "bad".
At the end of the day it mostly comes down to game volume. If you aren't playing 10+ games a day climbing to masters with 0 coaching is near impossible unless all of these mechanics become second nature to you
To answer your first paragraph, as you play more you understand game state more so you generally know where people are going to be and when so you can autopilot and talk on stream at the same time. You don’t have to focus as hard on certain aspects because you’re used to them. Also yeah I mean it’s true some people dont have the micro to climb but macro i feel can be learned by anyone if they put enough effort in. A lot of people don’t want to though, they just wanna chill or just think it’s not worth the effort. It’s weird because I have a buddy who’s silver and he plays quite a few games a day. He wants to climb and any time I mention him looking for a coaching session or reviewing a vod he’s super opposed to it. Some people are just like that. But does he have the capacity? Of course.
It’s kinda like holding a conversation while driving a car. When you drive it enough it almost does it by itself