Why Is Climbing In League Of Legends So Difficult?
How many times have you had that grueling 36 minute defeat, saw the defeat sign and asked yourself “What do I even take away from this game?”
I mean, where do you even begin? Do you decide to look at…
1) That skirmish you misplayed at 14 minutes outside the dragon?
OR
2) The early laning phase to see why you missed so many CS?
OR
3) The time your team got engaged upon while you were split pushing in mid game?
OR
4) The time your jungler invaded and gave your mid laner double buffs at 5 minutes?
Do you just screw it and review all of it?
The funny thing is, this isn't even the difficult part...
Let’s say we were somehow able to highlight exactly WHAT the most optimal decisions were at every point within the game, WHY this was the case and knew exactly what to do next time…
– How do we know if these problems will even occur in the next game?
– How do we set actionable learning objectives from these games given my rank and current level of play?
– How do we know if we are wasting time worrying about one area of the game when it might not even guarantee results?
– Was it a champion mastery problem OR a map awareness problem?
– Was it a mechanics/micro problem OR a game understanding problem?
The list goes on…
I’ve seen first hand how frustrating this can be for a player trying to achieve their ranked goals.
Over the past 14 months I have made it my mission to help people reach their ranked goals. The Mid Lane Academy is centered around getting results for people that are sick and tired of going around in circles, sitting at the same rank for years.
But during this process, I have realized how many potential problems are out there. I have had to learn the hard way that for some people it’s not a simple gameplay fix…
So yes, it does get even trickier...
Even if we were able to review the VOD, knew exactly where we had to direct our attention and even set actionable learning objectives that were compatible with our current rank and level of play…
What about the mental part of the game?
You can have the most flawless game knowledge, beautiful micro ability and perfect champion pool, but STILL be held back due to a lack of understanding of the importance of the mental game.
Because League inherently requires a bulk amount of hours played on the same map, with the same champions, at the same rank, we are bound to come across one or even a combination of the following…
– Toxic invisible narratives that inhibit you from climbing
– Toxic beliefs about the solo queue system which prevent you from coming into games with an open mind
– Tilt problems which prevent you from playing at your level of play
– Ego problems & false confidence as a result of the toxic league community
– Incorrect beliefs held about a champion due to negative experiences in the past
These are the most difficult to catch because you don’t even see them at play.
This is just one of the many challenges we have to overcome so that we don’t have this sort of result… The ‘HARDSTUCK’ phenomenon.
Last but not least...
The average level of play is getting higher and higher due to the accessibility to content and coaches, this means that if you aren’t improving each season you will fall in rank. We only have a certain period of time each season to make our climb.
On top of this, the League community itself is making it harder to climb by confusing and distracting you with gimmicks, quick tips and tricks… Telling you it’s not your fault you aren’t climbing. It’s the…
– ‘Jungle diff’
– ‘Unbalanced’ match making system & MMR
– ‘Champion pool’
– Riots poor champion design & balance issues
We are never told the cold hard truth that, YOU ARE THE SOLE REASON FOR YOUR RANK.