Reflections on Hitting Diamond + Solo Queue

Hey everyone, 

It's been a while since my last post so I figured I'd pause and reflect on a couple points running through solo queue on my way to Diamond that might help you in your own games.

Topics:

First up I'd like to address LP throttling. As most of you know, once you've played a decent number of games in solo queue, once you hit Division I, you'll notice a sudden drop in LP gains per win, generally from around 20 LP in Divisions V through II to around 3~6 LP per win in Division I.

While it doesn't really seem fair, and I certainly felt that way at first, just remember that for the most part, everyone has to deal with the same hidden match making Elo. If anything, it's just Riot's way to give us more motivation since we're "so close" by letting us get through the first 4 divisions faster.

The amount of wins necessary to get from Division I to the next Tier will unfortunately be about the same as getting from Divisions 5 through 2, and as long as you accept the fact before hand, you just have to go with the flow and keep winning.

To really "CARRY" a game, you can do a few things:

Outsmart: This means you might not have mechanics that are as good as the enemy, but you manage to make a play where they can't respond, such as 5v4 at a forced Baron, camping an unwarded bush, running the enemy team through a field of mushrooms, etc. These plays require foresight, but are things a "silver" can easily pull off against a "platinum".

Outcontrol: This leads to outsmarting, and means that by either warding well, or pushing hard enough to bring more than 1 person to stop you in lane (without dying yourself), you've given your team a 4v3 advantage. (See Teemo)

This means that there are lots of champions that can fit each role, and obviously stronger champions will have an easier time outplaying. For example, in mathematical terms, say one champion has 100 HP and deals 100 damage. Meanwhile, another champion has 100.5 HP and deals 100 damage. While the difference isn't that much, and this is a very simple illustration, even a small advantage can lead to victory.

I know those last two aren't really mindset/attitude, but they're still very helpful.

Ending Statement: This game's hard, since you'll generally need to cooperate to win, and eventually you'll run into people who are better than you. (Except you WildTurtle, you da best). Not only that, but sometimes you'll run into smurfs and/or underranked people who will absolutely smash someone else on your team and you as well. Happens. 

Even though I'm Diamond now, that doesn't mean I can play every champion at a decent level, and I'll even lose to gold and silver players on occasion. But remember, if you can outplay, outsmart, and outcontrol, even the bleakest situations can be turned into victories.