5 Reasons Why You’re Not Climbing in League of Legends (Season 12)
There are a plethora of reasons why someone may not climb in League of Legends. Many factors can influence how well you’re playing and how you’ll perform in the game, such as your mood, how tired you are, factors outside of the game and much, much more.
While we cannot help you with things outside the game, we can list some things that you do or don’t do in LoL to help you get back on the climbing bandwagon. Before we begin, this guide is more aimed toward players who are new to League or who are Gold or lower. The tips are more aimed toward those players, but everyone can learn something from this article.
This article is brought to you in partnership with our friends from ONE Esports, check them out for more awesome LoL content!
5 Reasons Why You’re Not Climbing in League of Legends (Season 12)
- You Have a Large Champion Pool
- You Switch Lanes Frequently
- You’re Not Focused Enough
- You’re Not Practicing Enough
- You’re Playing Too Much
1. You Have a Large Champion Pool
There are five lanes in League of Legends, a dozen different champion archetypes and over 160 champions to date. It is very easy to see why some players have an extremely large champion pool. There are so many different champions that everyone likes more than one champion.
The issue arises when you have too many champions in your champion pool. Just because you like lots of champions, it doesn’t mean you should play them all in ranked. Let’s say you love 25 champions in the game. You will not be good on all those champions compared to someone who plays just 1 or 2 champions.
If you are fighting someone who is a one trick of their champion, such as a Riven one trick, you’re going to get outclassed by them in more ways than 1. Someone who has 100 games on a champion will be better than someone who only has 25 games.
It is better for you to have lots of experience playing the same champions as you will have a lot more time playing them. Having more experience with a champion means that you will be better on them. You’ll be used to their mechanics, combos and gameplay, which will heavily favour you and increase your chances of winning. Someone who has 5 games on Yasuo will be a lot worse compared to someone with 500 games on Yasuo.
Reduce your champion pool to only a handful of champions in ranked. Stick to those champions and only play them in ranked. When you’re not playing ranked, you can play who you like and what roles you like, but make sure you only play the champions you’re comfortable with and are good at in ranked.
2. You Switch Lanes Frequently
We briefly mentioned it in our last section, but sticking to the same roles is also important. You shouldn’t play all the roles in the game. You should prioritise playing your two best roles and just sticking to those in ranked. Don’t play fill as you will get outclassed by someone who mains that role.
As you can see, most of the games played are in the Support and Jungle role.
In Ranked, you should have a lane that you main and then a secondary role that you’re good at too. You should then queue up as only those two roles: selecting the role you’re best at first. Avoid picking a secondary role that you’re not very good at.
You need to realise that you will not perform well in a role when you either do not play that role or if you do not understand how it is played properly. If you’re facing someone who mains that role, you will struggle a lot, and they will win against you easily.
At the end of the day, many players call “jungle dif”, and that will be your lane dif if you first time a role or if you’re playing on your off role.
3. You’re Not Focused Enough
I think everyone doesn’t focus from time to time in League. Maybe your brain is elsewhere and not in the game. It’s very common, and everyone does it. However, if you’re not focused when you’re playing League, then you should probably not play League or queue up.
When you’re head isn’t in the game, you’re not going to be focused, and you’ll make mistakes that can cost you a lot in the long run. For instance, an early death, because you were not focused, will cost you gold, XP and the enemy will have an advantage over you.
Similarly, you may miss out on pings or seeing the enemy Jungler approaching your lane. If you miss them, then you will die when they gank your lane. It is very important that you learn that your actions have consequences, and things can quickly get out of control if you’re not focusing properly.
I know it can be hard, but if you’re thinking you may be distracted or know that you’re not in a mind frame to concentrate, I would avoid playing Ranked until you feel better. If you’re having an off day, it is possible that you will lose a lot of games and de-rank and demote.
Here’s a separate guide we wrote in the past that reflects on how you can become more focused in LoL!
4. You’re Not Practicing Enough
Not everyone can practice for 5 hours a day. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend anyone to play non-stop League of Legends. With that in mind, I do think that you should try to practice every day or as often as you can without going overboard.
You do not necessarily have to be playing the game to learn more about it. Checking sites like Mobalytics or watching streams of your favourite champions is very good. You can also read up on information such as combos, builds and anything to do with your champion to help you get better at them.
Naturally, some champions will not require a lot of experience to master such as Jax or Malphite, but at the end of the day, if you don’t practice or try to learn more information about your champion- you’re missing out. You will not learn everything about a champion by just playing them, but you can learn a lot by playing, researching and discussing different things for your fav champs.
5. You’re Playing Too Much
The final tip is something that we can all relate to in 1 form or another. It can be quite easy for some people to just play League and do nothing else when they’re off from work or it’s the weekend. However, it is important that you avoid doing nothing but playing League.
Playing ten games in a row or across the day isn’t a good idea because you’ll only be playing well or at an optimal level for a few of the games. When you’re not playing to your absolute best, you will decrease your chances of winning. You will become tired and fatigued and start making mistakes that you wouldn’t usually make.
As you can see, on this day I only played 5 games and no more.
When driving long distances, you need to take a break or else you’ll start to feel tired and start auto-piloting and potentially crash your car. While it’s just a video game and not that extreme, the same principle exists when playing the game. The longer you play, the worse you’ll be playing.
Closing Remarks
If you’re serious about climbing in League of Legends, you must take all of the advice we have presented in this guide and use it to the best of your ability. At the end of the day, someone else who is using this advice is climbing, and you will not be if you choose not to use it. Remember to check out our friends at ONE Esports for more awesome League content.
