4 More Things I Learned Demoting from Diamond 1 to Diamond 4 in a Month (Part II)

This article is a continuation of Picklepant’s 6 Things I Learned Demoting from Diamond 1 to Diamond 4 in a Month (Part I), be sure to check it out before reading on for more context. Enjoy!

Our Journey of Reflection Continues

In Part I, we talked about 6 things that I learned about my play style while we were demoting. While we are still low ELO and not Diamond 1 yet, I hope that we can get back to it very soon. If you didn’t read last week’s post, it would be beneficial if you checked that one out before reading on for more context.

1. ELO can mean a lot, but don’t worry TOO much

If you’re a competitive player, you play the game to win. People who say they don’t mind losing are lying to you and to themselves. When I lost 9 games in a row, it didn’t feel good playing at all – even when I did win, it didn’t feel great. It really only “feels good” when I climb.

There are some personal reasons why ELO means a lot to me, which is probably obvious because my job is to, in some respects, play the game and stay at a decent level. It’s important to obtain a high rank (and keep it) in order for me to continue to do what I love. If I was to de-rank and stay at a low level, then I would not be able to continue to do the job I do. I am truly thankful for the opportunity that I have been given, and I work hard every day to do my best. But the truth is, if I was to get worse at the game, my job would potentially be in jeopardy.

You may think, “Why would being D5 put your job on the line?”. League is a very competitive game and it has a very competitive industry behind it. When you get the opportunity to do something, others will seek to get the same opportunity as you, so it’s important to stay sharp.

How can we improve from this?

You shouldn’t worry TOO much about your rank or rating. Unless you do this thing as a job, or want to be a professional player, being Diamond doesn’t mean much in the big scheme of things outside of tracking your growth as a player. In 5 years’ time, will League of Legends still be popular? Maybe, maybe not. Despite the answer, you shouldn’t look at Ranked like a life or death situation.

Playing bad is okay, everybody naturally has bad games and sometimes you will be outclassed. League of Legends is a real coin flip game and it can be disheartening when you have trolls or AFK’s. Realistically speaking, you will win games because the enemy has trolls and you will win games because the enemy have AFK’s. Wins and losses due to trolls will eventually even themselves out.

When you are in a ranked game, however, you should take it seriously. Don’t play ranked if you’re going to troll or AFK, only play ranked if you’re wanting to win. It isn’t fair to the others in your game to do anything less than your best intentions.

If you’re still Bronze, Silver or Gold, don’t worry about your rank. Continue to play and have fun at the game and keep learning it!

2. You’ll need to take breaks once in a while

It’s a good idea to take breaks between games and not just keep on playing for the sake of it. While I was losing, I was continuing to queue up for games and not think about how many I’ve played. Usually I wouldn’t play much more than 2 or 3 games a day, and some days I wouldn’t play at all, but while I was losing, I was playing over 10 games a day. Naturally, I was playing more games lately to try and get back to D1.

As we can see, it’s a big difference between the two and of course, I am not really used to playing that many games a day. So it’s no surprise that there was definitely some fatigue going on there…

When you play multiple games over and over, you tend to think a lot about the previous game and what went wrong. So naturally, you would try to improve from the last game, which is good of course. But while focusing on improving on the mistakes from the previous game, you can tend to auto-pilot and only focus on the thing you did wrong. This made me make more mistakes and make me play worse as a whole.

How can we improve from this?

Taking breaks is important. Keep in mind that professional footballers don’t play 90 minutes and then play for another 90 minutes a couple hours later. It wouldn’t be good for their health and would probably have a high chance of injury.

Likewise, if you’re grinding 10 games a day of League, you may be playing on tilt or autopilot. Instead of playing 10 games needlessly, only play a few games a day and make those games count. Play when you’re mentally and physically prepared.

If you are losing many games in a row, consider taking a break or stop playing ranked for a while. Depending on the player, breaks should range between an hour, a day or even a week. League is a very emotional game and emotions can run high – especially if you’re losing. So instead of continue to play whilst you’re losing, just take a break and stop playing for a while.

At the end of the day, League of Legends is just a game. You shouldn’t keep playing if you have other stuff to do such as work or school. Only continue to play if you’re having fun, it’s a game after all and games should be fun!

3. Game’s not over until the games over

The easier option is to open the game when things are going sour, and unfortunately, this is very prominent in Diamond on EUW. As soon as somebody wants to leave, they will start to troll in hopes for their team to surrender quickly. While I’ve never called for an early open, a lot of players do.

It’s common for players to talk about coin flip bot, and while it can be true to some extent, I feel it’s more valid for solo laners. As a Support, you will be useful even when you’re behind, because you still have (some) peel potential for your allies, whereas if you’re Mid or Top and playing from behind you can be utterly useless. This is because you will lack any form of damage. It feels like the majority of carry roles want to solo carry and feed rather than go even in lane and grow stronger.

There has been plenty of games I’ve played lately where the game looks hopeless because of a laner losing hard. However, since I know how to play my role efficiently and effectively, I have a higher chance of carrying these players even if somebody is behind.

There has been plenty of games I’ve played lately where the game looks hopeless because of a laner losing hard. I know how to play my role efficiently and effectively, I have a higher chance of carrying these players even if somebody is behind. Just remember, games not over until it’s over! xPeke wouldn’t have been able to pull off his legendary backdoor if FNC didn’t have the tenacity to keep fighting on.

How can we improve from this?

Please do not ever surrender for the sake of it. Just because you’re losing at 10 minutes, doesn’t mean the game is lost, and just because you’re winning doesn’t mean you’ve won. There’s a saying on my stream *cough*, “games not over until it’s over.” You should be saying this to yourself too! If you’re winning, make sure to end the game and not troll around.

I’ve had too many games where the game was “won” but we lost because somebody wants to troll. If you’re playing a less of a carry role, consistently do your job and ping your team to get objectives and end the game. League is a very snowbally game, if you decide to throw and give an inch to the enemy- they will take a meter and make you regret trolling.

In short, remember that if the enemy still is playing, then they still have a good chance of winning. The game is not over until it’s over, push your advantage and end the game.

4. You are just as bad as everyone else

After being in Diamond 1 and sitting on the borders of Masters, you frequently meet Challengers, pros, and really good players. The fact that you got this far in the first place is a real achievement anyway. Once you start playing with these players frequently, you realize that you’re quite good at the game and better than most players.

When you start thinking like this, you get cocky and a lot of what makes you as a player gets thrown out of the window. This is where stuff goes wrong. Once you get in the mindset that you’re better than other players, you will soon feel the wrath and it will hit you like a brick wall that you’re actually garbage at the game.

Every person deserves the rank that they are (which sometimes can be quite questionable when you look at specific players). If a player got Diamond 1 before, they should be able to get Diamond 1 again once they fix their mindset.

How can we improve from this?

If you are a certain rank and not climbing, then there is something you’re doing wrong. If you’re in Bronze, you need to come to terms with why you’re Bronze and not what your team is doing or has done. If you’re Bronze, then you’re Bronze for a reason- period.

You need to realize you’re nothing special and you’re not some saint. If you are a certain rank, there must be something you’re doing wrong, or something you’re doing right to be that rating. Finding out what you’re doing wrong is Step 1. Step 2 is to improve on it. If you do both of these things and minimize your mistakes, then you will see yourself climbing in no time.

One way of improving to become a better player is by watching what pros do and then comparing them to what you do. A lot of pros stream and you can watch what they do and try to mimic it. I wouldn’t recommend watching LCS to improve because Pro Play is way different compared to Solo Queue. Hey, Mobalytics even does FREE profile reviews which are on Thursdays and Fridays at 1pm PST, 9pm BST, 10pm CEST. Why don’t you stop by and get some coaching?

Closing Thoughts

While writing this two-part tale, I am still not very close to Diamond 1. Writing this has made me realize that I was, and still am making a lot of mistakes that can be straightforward to fix. The biggest issue that is holding me back right now is my mentality. We will keep grinding.

If you have any questions or want to learn more, check out PicklePants stream.

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Thanks for reading! To discuss, or to find Picklepants, as always join us at our Discord community server. Keep grinding and good luck in your climbs.