As someone who jumped into ranked games right away there are some things I wish I had known before doing so. It would have saved me an entire season worth of running into a giant bronze wall. I now share with you some advice and tips that I have learned over the years and put it into a top 5 list.

1. Be familiar with all the roles in League of Legends: Having played a few games in each of the five roles will help you to understand the goal of each role better. This gives you a chance to be more in sync with the game and the other players filling those roles. This also gives you the chance to play the champions that most commonly go with that role, enabling you to know the limitations of that lane and champion. When everything is all pieced together you should be able to know what to expect from that role and know what to expect from the champion playing that role.

2. Specialize in a specific Role and or Champion: When I carried myself out of bronze in Season 4 I specialized in playing the role of ADC. Jinx, Miss Fortune and Caitlyn were my go to picks in season 4. Similarly I am using Graves, Caitlyn and Jinx on my way to Gold V. Specializing in a role and champion allows for a few things, one of them is having the confidence that you know that role and champion inside and out. Having the mental advantage is bigger than you think and when you go into a game confident, even when you fall behind, the game will most likely end in your favor. Another thing it does is it allows you to master the “little things” about your role and champion. It allows you to really understand, where and when you’re needed in team fights, it helps you understand the damage you do and whether or not you can make a risky play.

I will add that in lower elo such as bronze and silver it is much more difficult to carry yourself out if you only play support. As a support it is more difficult to carry, it can be done but when you are trying to climb out of solo queue as fast as possible, playing a carry champion is more efficient.

3. Know more than one Role: Although I want you to specialize in a role and champion, you will encounter not being able to play your “bread and butter” role. Either you’re last on champion select or you’re respecting call order. If you pigeonhole yourself into just playing one lane and champion, you run a very high risk of putting yourself and your team in a losing situation.

Now how many roles should you know? To start off I would say at least be extremely familiar with 3. When I started I chose to really focus on ADC, Mid and Support. The combination can be up to you! Be at least vaguely familiar with the other two roles as you may have to play them. I also find that when in champion select you can type the role you are weakest at, thus letting your team know that someone else should pick up that role. As you get better you can challenge yourself to know all the roles.

4. Practice champions before you bring them into ranked: I’ve seen all too often a player bringing in a newly released champion to ranked play, only to do terrible. Then admit it’s only their second or third time playing that champion. It’s not to say that they won’t be good with that champion eventually but they're clearly still learning the champion. Same goes to copying what you see in LCS, please practice it in normal games before you bring it in to ranked. Doing so will give you that experience in knowing what to do and not having to figure it out in a ranked high pressure game.

5. Be a student of the game: Not only does practicing your champion and role work wonders but watching videos and reading guides can make all the difference. Stay on top of patch notes because knowing which champions are the strongest can be a key factor in where and who you want to play. Reaching out and talking to other players in higher elo is also a good way to get a different perspective on your favorite champions.

Hopefully you consider a few of these things before you venture into Summoners Rift ranked matches! Best of luck and if you hit a losing streak, remember to take breaks!