Be ready for Season 3 ranked play!!!

 

With season 2 rapidly coming to a close in League of Legends, it’s time to look forward to the offseason, as well as season 3.

Congratulations to our higher elo player’s from Season 2, and to those aspiring to reach the highest ranks of League of Legends, I bid you success in your endeavors.

To those summoners who are looking to start Season 3 in ranked, I offer the following suggestions from a veteran player; as well as a couple of starter points for getting in and maintaining yourself in ranked play.

Are you new to ranked? Haven’t started a game? Then listen up…

-       The first question you must ask yourself is: “Is ranked for me?” Seems to be a simple question, but undoubtedly not asked by the majority of players. Are you competitive and looking to get better, then ranked play is for you. Do you love the game as is, and enjoy messing around and having tons of good times, you should maybe stick with normal games. Ranked is an environment to learn, to get better at the game, and usually the people who end up in the fictitious “Elo Hell” are either:

1)      Players who went into ranked early, without the proper runes, champion command, knowledge of the game, etc. Thus losing the majority of their early placement matches and ending up in the lower tier.

2)      People who love to mess around, and have fun at other people’s expense. Picture lower elo as a type of normal play (where everybody can be good, bad, etc), but a lot less fun because of the amount of value people place on elo. Remember, you can say you are the best and you don’t belong in any given low elo, but you are only comparing yourself to people of your equal skillset

-          Do you own at least 2-3 full runepages? Do you have at least 3 gp10 quints (in case you have to support)? Can you understand the switch of masteries and how to modify them according to your lane matchup? If you answered “yes”, congratulations, you have moved a step further in the right direction. Runes are important for providing extra stats in comparison to your lane counterparts (or jungle counterparts), and should never be overlooked.

-          Do you know 2 champions for each role well? And by well I mean the following:

1)      Know the itemization for different situations.

2)      Know the proper masteries

3)      Know and have the best runes for them

4)      Know the skill pick order

5)      Know the skills, and how to use them

6)      Knowing other champs than the obviously banned ones, because then your champion pool will be greatly reduced.

All these things are important for ranked play.

-          Get updated with the most current information about League of Legends. You have to stay up to date with the content of each patch, and modify your champion accordingly.

-          Test yourself out in a couple of draft normal games; you should play enough normal drafts that you can carry a team consistently. The transition from normal drafts to ranked drafts is effortless, and feels a lot more comfortable than an immediate jump from blind normal, or even worse, co-op games.

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By no means, is this the only way to start ranked, I just offer a suggestion to those new 30 level players that just want to jump in. That being said, ranked should never cause you to get angry, anxious, or manic; it is a competitive environment where you have to go in with a positive attitude, the ability and willingness to learn, and understand that you will not win 100% of your games. Take every match as an opportunity to learn your champ even better, and analyze your own gameplay. NEVER EVER blame your team for a loss, instead focus on what you could have done better to help your team win, that’s how you grow as a League of Legends summoner.