If you’re tired of being stuck in Elo hell, here are the best tips on how to climb in LoL solo queue and reach your desired rank.
Image Credits | Riot Games
Best tips to Climb in LoL Solo Queue
If you’re here, then you are probably someone who is struggling to climb the ranked ladder. At some point during the grind, we’ve all felt that we have been stuck in ELO hell and it feels like everything is going the wrong way. However, many players don’t actually what is the right way to tackle the solo queue ladder. A general mistake is to keep playing after grinding for many games. Not only does that lower your overall concentration and potential performance, but it also increases the risk of you tilting.
Image Credits | Riot Games
For this reason, we’re going to help you out with some tips and fixes, both from a mental and a gameplay perspective. I’ve been grinding League for years and went through many mistakes myself. Some issues are tougher to fix than others, but fixing them over time will make you a better player.
Of course, each player will have their own methodology to climb, so some of the tips might not be as helpful. That said, if you haven’t tried them out yet, it’s worth trying them and seeing how it goes. Here are our bits of advice on how to climb the solo queue ladder in LoL.
Key Takeaways on How to Climb in Solo Queue
Find a playstyle and champions that fit your strengths and what you enjoy
Have two champions as your mains, one for your secondary role
Improve your mechanics
Learn wave management
Improve your Macro – understand what your role is within the game
Play Duo occasionally – not at all times
Don’t play for long sessions
Mute players if they are negative
Use pings to communicate
Vod review your games
Focus on improving rather than looking at your Elo
Find a playstyle and champions that fit your strengths and what you enjoy
The first rule about climbing the solo queue ladder is finding your playstyle and the things that make you, well, you. Just like any talent in any other sport or discipline, finding the characteristics that make you different from others will always allow you to get better.
So the question is: how do you find a playstyle that works for you? Unfortunately, this cannot be summarized in a few sentences since it’s a personal process that requires time and that is always different and evolving.
The best thing, though, is always trying to enjoy the games you play. Find the champions or roles you like playing the most, and push those to the limits. Try to understand whether you have an aggressive playstyle or a more conservative one, and choose champions that allow you to take advantage of them. It’s a process that takes time, but it will also work in the long run.
Read also: Top 5 Champions to climb LoL SoloQ
Have two champions as your mains, one for your secondary role
Speaking of playing what you enjoy and finding a playstyle, one piece of advice most high Elo players will always tell you is to master a few champions for each role. Do not play different champions all the time, even if they might fit the team composition better.
If you’re wondering why, the answer is pretty straightforward. Mastering many champions is a time-consuming process that you do not have when you’re aiming to climb the ladder. Switching champions consistently will worsen your mechanics on average, which will negatively impact your games.
When playing a few champions, instead, you will always know the limits of said champions better, giving you an edge in close fights or skirmishes. You can change the champions played based on the meta, but always stick to those for a few days or weeks before making the switch.
Improve your mechanics
This is self-explanatory and it goes back to the point above. Train your champions’ mechanics and bring them to their maximum potential. One small tip is to train the combos in customs and practice tool: you can also do it before starting ranked games as a warm-up.
Learn wave management – an important aspect to climb solo queue
For players below platinum, learning proper wave management will make a huge difference when looking to improve and climb the solo queue ladder. Most players at these levels of play will play instinctively, but wave management is one of the most important aspects to master within the game. Whether it’s to win trades or make any sort of play, the minion wave will always be an impactful part of it.
Image Credits | Marie Magny
We suggest looking at some of the extensive guides on the internet. The one from Pro Guides is well-explained and will teach you the basics of wave management. Make sure to watch it even if you’re a jungler: you can save your teammates’ laning phase by helping them adjust the wave.
Read also: The 10 Best beginner champions in LoL for 2023
Improve your Macro – understand what your role is within the game
This, alongside wave management, is the fundamental that will allow you to make big improvements in a small amount of time. Learning how which objectives can be contested and not is crucial in solo queue. You would usually need to get to the objective prior to its spawn and make sure you have good push on the adjacent lanes to avoid getting collapsed on.
Image Credits | Riot Games
Another underrated aspect that can be abused in solo queue is to take advantage of side lane pushes in the mid-late game. You can make enemies lose loads of experience by playing the waves correctly, while also creating pressure on the map without having to fight. Understanding what your role is within the game is vital to your game plan and victory.
Play Duo occasionally – not at all times
Duo queue is a great way to play with friends while you’re looking to climb the ladder together. While it’s no longer a thing above Diamond 1, there are many players who take advantage of duo queue to win more games.
That said, duo’ing is not always the best thing, especially if your main goal is to get better and get to your desired rank. Having communication and coordination with a teammate will make you more and more dependent on them, but it won’t improve your individual aspects as much, especially your mechanics.
On top of that, Riot is usually trying to make duos match up with duos, which means that you won’t have as much of an advantage if your enemies are also having voice chat to help them out.
You can obviously play with friends, but don’t abuse duo queue just to get to your rank: once you start climbing solo, you will struggle a lot more than you might expect.
Read also: Best supports to play with Jinx in League
Don’t play for long sessions to climb solo queue
League is a taxing game, both physically and mentally. Even playing two games in a row can amount to more than 1 hour of concentration. While there are people who can manage long gaming sessions, it’s inevitable to see a drop in performance after playing a few games in fast succession. Take breaks whenever you feel like you’re mentally drained and your gameplay is getting worse.
Even the best have to take breaks – Image Credits | Riot Games
If you cannot recognize the right moments, we recommend taking a 15 to 30-minute break once every two or three games. Avoid going for more than 3 games in a row, or the chances of losing games due to fatigue will be much higher.
Mute players if they are negative
This is super important, especially if you’re prone to get tilted. If an ally is toxic or is not useful when it comes to communicating, make sure to mute him. It doesn’t matter if they are pings or chatting, just get rid of all the possible negativity that might affect you.
In a game like LoL, negative and toxic communication is worse than having no communication.
Use pings to communicate
Speaking of communication, always try to use your pings to tell your allies where the enemies might be or what you want to do. They might not follow what you say all the time, but it’s always better than nothing.
For example, if you ping to fight and they don’t, don’t sweat it too much: think about what you can do immediately after. On the other hand, make sure to not spam pings too often: it’s annoying and it can tilt your allies, which is something you want to avoid.
Read more: Best ADCs to play with Milio in LoL
Vod review your games – the underrated method
Vod review is a very underrated method to climb the solo queue ladder in League. Learning from your mistakes is the best and quickest way to improve, and there are always mistakes that you can fix, even Challenger players do make some of them every game.
So what is the main difference between you and them? They are way more consistent and make way smaller mistakes.
Always look to review your games whenever you can to see what you could’ve done better. It might be a struggle to know what you could’ve done better initially, so it might be a good idea to find or hire a coach to help you out. He can give you great insights, improve your critical thinking when playing the game, and hone your fundamentals.
“Those who think they know it all have no way of finding out they don’t.”
Focus on improving rather than looking at your Elo
This is more of a reminder rather than advice. Even though your Elo can be direct proof of your level of play, focusing on improving is the more important aspect: the better you get, the faster you will climb and reach your deserved rank.
Image Credits | Riot Games
There are people who might obsess about reaching Diamond or Master: the mental trick is to just play each game with a winner’s mentality. If you manage to win more games because you are stronger than your enemies, the climb in solo queue just becomes the end result. Don’t stress too much if you cannot reach your Elo within a specific time window: you have an entire season to get to where you belong.
These were the tips and advice I have for you solo queue players! If you’re still struggling to climb the solo queue ladder for other reasons, you can always contact me privately: I’m always available to give guidance to those who are grinding.
Playing solo queue in League is a stressful process and sometimes, taking a step back is the solution to make two steps forward. Work hard to improve: that will be the difference-maker in the long run.
Read also: League of Legends Clash 2023 – Everything you need to know
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