The newest League of Legends season starts the week commencing January 5th, which is sadly the week when many are returning to work after the Christmas break. We hope you had time to spend with your family, friends and loved ones and weren’t grinding League all day, but hey, who are we to judge.
At the start of every season, Riot makes major changes to the game, and this year is no different. There are tons of changes to the map, objectives, items and champions. You must understand the changes to the game before heading into ranked in the new season. We will make a guide to all the changes in LoL for the new season very soon, so make sure you give it a read before heading into ranked, as some of our tips will not be helpful if you’re unaware of the changes.
In this article, we will discuss some tips and tricks to help you get the best start to the new ranked season and climb quickly once you step back on Summoners Rift.
1) Build the Right Items
There are some item changes in the new season, and some items are now more favourable than others. Each year, it feels like Riot makes a ton of changes which impact basically every champion in the game. Compared to last year, the items may have changed, so you must stay up to date with the latest builds.
One way you can do this is by downloading the Mobalytics App and having builds imported directly into your client. This will help you stay up to date with changes and ensure you're always buying the best items for your champion, regardless of buffs, nerfs and changes.
2) Solidify Your Champion Pool
Last year, Riot introduced several new champions, including Zaahen and Mel, and this year, we will get new champions and some major reworks. There are currently over 170 different champions you can play at the time of writing this article. My advice is not to play every single champion in ranked, but to keep a small pool of champions to pick from.
Let's face it, somebody who has a small champion pool or one-tricks a particular champion will win more compared to somebody who doesn't practice as much on the champions they play. When you have only three to five champions in your champion pool, you can spread your practice across them evenly compared to playing 20 or more champions in ranked.
The fewer champions you play, the better you will be, and the higher the chance you have of winning. Try to have a champion pool of three to five champions, and try to stick to two key roles that are somewhat similar. Stick to playing those champions in ranked, and don't pick anything else unless you have practised them beforehand.
3) The Best Bans for the New Season
Unless you're playing a champion that gets hard-counted by someone, your best bet is to ban the most OP champions in the game. Right now, the best bands are: Mel, Zaahen, Malphite, Zed, Morgana, Caitlyn, Blitzcrank, and Darius. These champions are all powerful and should be your go-to bans.
If the enemy gets one of these champions, it might be challenging for you to play the game, and you'll have a lower chance of winning the game. Right now, my go-to ban is Mel, as her kit is very OP and, as she is a flex pick, she is favoured by more players, increasing her chances of being picked.
4) Don’t Play All Ranked Games at Once
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you view it, every year there is a rank reset where you have to start at a lower rank than where you ended the season. This reset allows you to get higher LP gains at the start of the season, and it also puts you against people of similar rankings.
To get a proper rank, and not a provisional one- you need to play a certain number of games, and the more wins you get in your placement games, the higher rank you will start with. I suggest not playing all your placement games at once. If you have a bad start, you will not play as well in the following games, as you’ll still be thinking about the previous game.
Furthermore, playing lots of games in quick succession isn’t ideal, as you will get easily fatigued, especially if you’re playing a very skilled champion like Zed or Lee Sin, where you need to have your wits about you.
Try to play 2 or 3 games maximum, and then take a break. This will help you stay focused and give you the best chance of winning the game. This advice also holds throughout the season: it is better to play in small chunks rather than 10 games straight.
5) Mute All
Even though Riot has made tons of changes to reduce toxicity in the game, people still find ways of being toxic. At the start of the new season, a lot is on the line, and people coming back to the game might feel frustrated or upset. At the beginning of a new season, more players are toxic, trolling, and might go afk. While you can't necessarily prevent these, you can significantly reduce the likelihood that they negatively impact your mental health by muting all at the start of the game.
Avoid speaking to people who are toxic, and don't get drawn into their toxicity, such as spam pinging, toxicity in chat, or running it down. At the start of every single game, mute everyone so you don't hear your enemies or your allies speak.
6) Get Your Practice In
It is crucial not to treat your placement games as any other games. This is because having a great start will put you significantly higher compared to losing all five games. Before heading into ranked, make sure that you have practised quite a bit and understand all the new changes to the game.
You may have stopped playing over the Christmas break, but your opponents may not have. They will still play at the same quality as before, whereas you might need some time to regain full strength.
Furthermore, it is a good idea to play more practice games in the new season to quickly adapt to any major changes without being caught off guard. At the end of the day, there isn't a rush to complete your placement games, so take your time. If you don't think you are ready yet, play normals until you are comfortable.
Final Thoughts
We hope these tips and tricks will help you get off to the best start in the new season. Head over to our guides page for more guides to help you climb in the brand new season of LoL, or head over to the Mobalytics champion pages for tips and tricks on your favourite champions.