07
June
guides
It's no secret that among each and every player grinding their way through ranked games in League of Legends, practically everyone and their grandma wants to hit Challenger rank at some point of their ranked career.
However, if you actually ask most challengers the question "how do you hit challenger in LoL?" - you'll probably be told to play lots, learn the mechanics and watch your replays. Not all too descriptive, huh?
This is exactly why we've gone ahead and put together our own comprehensive list of the three best tips to keep in mind if you want to hit Challenger rank in League of Legends.
Let's jump into our top 3 tips for hitting Challenger!
Stop Dying For No Reason
The first tip on our list is probably the most obvious and perhaps one of the most impactful ones, particularly for lower-ranked players (we're talking about everyone under Diamond 1).
Needless deaths are basically free gold in the enemy team's pockets. If you find that you're coming out with 6-10 deaths a game, you should sit down and download your replays to see why exactly you end up dying. Being challenger players ourselves, we still frequently find ourselves inting for absolutely no good reason.
Here are some examples:
· Are you walking too far up in lane to try and get CS while you're way behind the enemy laners?
· Are you dying to ganks because you're not paying attention or not warding your lane well?
· Are you trying to steal the first two dragons 1v5 as a jungler?
· Are you taking needless damage in lane resulting in an insta-kill once the enemy laner all-ins you?
· Are you positioning wrongly in teamfights in a way that leaves you open to soaking all of the enemy team's damaging abilities for no reason?
That list of examples can go on forever...
By catching your mistakes and learning to not give up free gold to the enemy when you don't stand to gain anything significant - you keep yourself alive longer to farm up, push your advantage or try to make plays after the enemy team makes mistakes. However, you also learn to play in a more logical manner where you start to analyze the opportunity benefit vs. the risk at hand.
Learn Every Champion That You Can Get Your Hands On
Undeniably, no matter how good your mechanics and macro-play are, if you've got little to no clue about what certain enemy champions do - you're basically left in the blind and will be taken by surprise once they pop off.
This is why it's incredibly important to at least develop a good understanding of every champion's kit, abilities, cooldowns, and intricacies.
But what if you are a one-trick?
Getting hands-on experience with each and every champion that you may encounter in your games allows you to develop a deep understanding of how they work, thus allowing you to figure out how to best play against them once they land on the enemy team.
Any way you spin it, it's a win-win situation for you. So, get learning!
We recommend that you get started with the most popular META champions in the current season. You can browse top-lists like our list of the best mid lane champions to get an idea of where you can get started.
But don't just stop at playing 2-3 games and saying, "Ok, good enough!" Hit a high mastery level with each champion by spamming that champion as much as possible until you do. Live, breathe, and play the living heck out of the champion!
Learn How To Create Pressure Across The Map
No, we're not talking about taking Teleport in every game and lane for no good reason here. What we're talking about is developing the correct understanding of the game's macro-play. This allows you to strategically play out your lane to establish a strong advantage and create lane pressure that opens up the opportunity for you to take objectives unpunished, gank other lanes to get them ahead, and maximize the advantage you're able to build.
By developing good macro, you'll be where you need to at all times. Whether that implies sneaking an easy rift herald while the enemy top laner is trying to deal with your slow push, or split pushing to turn a 5v4 mid-lane showdown in your teams favor by drawing the attention of 1 - 2 enemies to the top lane and then going for an uncontested objective like baron or dragon with your team.
No matter how good your mechanics are, and how little you die - if your decision making is not up to par, you just won't know when and how to push an advantage. And ultimately, being able to capitalize on the advantages created by you or your enemies' mistakes is what wins games.
Closing Thoughts
While there are countless other tips and tidbits that we can give you to help you rank up - the above list features the three most common areas of game-play that are holding most players back from achieving a higher rank and climbing to Challenger.
Take your time to apply our advice to your own games, and you'll quickly start to see results in the form of ELO-gain. Go get 'em!
