The prerequisite for getting into ranked Solo and Duo queue is to have a minimum of 20 characters unlocked and reach level 30 on your account. As someone who has played thousands of hours of Super Smash Brothers and Streetfighter, I see the value in this requirement. 

You as a player must be forced to put in the effort to get the levels and get the blue essence used to unlock characters. By putting in that effort you are gaining the necessary skills needed to actually have game mechanics and the ability to communicate with your team. In Smash and Streetfighter, you can just get onto ranked battles the moment you get the game and get stomped by people with far more experience than you do. 

I am especially glad that a requirement to get into ranked is in place as when I look back at my first few games I definitely would have given up or moved onto a different game by now. But the matchmaking pairs you with similarly skilled teammates and adversaries so you can learn and get better at a more approachable rate. 

If I were to compare the feeling of stepping into ranked right away in Streetfighter or Smash compared to the feeling of earning the right to play ranked in League of Legends, The former would be being told to climb a mountain with one hand tied behind my back and fifty pounds being tied onto my legs. You wouldn’t get much out of the experience other than dread and rage. But in League, it feels like you have been given the same mountain to climb but you have the proper gear and intelligence to use the tools too. It is a far more rewarding learning experience and allows more growth. 

But there still have been games even in unranked games where I get absolutely destroyed in my own lane or by the other team. Where yes smurfing (someone with far more skill pretending to be weaker), does occur occasionally I find the cause to be a lot more manageable, meaning the importance of Champion choice.

Each champion plays and handles differently from the rest. For example, Thresh is a slow but defensibly strong champion that can pull and trap enemies with his Q, towards a damage-dealing character to secure a takedown. However, Pyke also has a Q that lets him pull enemies in for a takedown. But mostly he will be the one to take down the opponent as Pyke has a much higher damage output. 

The sheer variety of characters keeps the game fresh even with a free champion rotation that lets you test the champions out before purchasing them with in-game currency. In fact, only recently I was a bot lane one trick with Ezreal until I decided to test out Kai’sa. Then I tried Thresh, Sett and Talon. The Character I have found the most success and enjoyment out of is none other than Wukong. This character has the play style that I enjoy the most despite his kit being slightly outdated. Which is why I cannot wait for his rework to be released as I go into the Rift, In Ranked Solo Queue.  

Coming to my third week as a new player in League of Legends I have been able to learn and understand ways to improve my play and become more consistent and sometimes even bring my team to victory. This came first in the form of beginning to stay behind the minions that spawn and move through the Top, Middle, and Bottom lane. By staying within or behind these minions you protect your self from an enemy champions attacks in the lane. 

Another rather simple thing I learned as I played and watched people play either on stream or on youtube, is that warding an area that you could be attacked from gives you much needed time to escape if an enemy tries to “Gank” or hide their presence. This goes hand in hand with pinging on the minimap when you see an enemy champion running through a zone you warded to alert your teammates to a potential threat. 

There is also the case of not falling into the same pattern. I’ve found that switching positions or champions, lets me learn about the behaviours and mindsets of the opponents I am facing. Like how In the bottom lane, a support champion will be prioritizing warding and protecting their bot lane damage dealer, (called an ADC). with some champions like Thresh or Blitzcrank, they have an ability that pulls an opponent towards themselves, letting the ADC finish the job and getting the gold and experience lead.

Yet the Top lane champion will be wanting to be getting a lead on minion kills or creep score (CS). this gives them time to build their items up and help them be a valuable tank or damage dealer when team fights occur. 

Builds are very important as they dictate more or less the effectiveness of your Q, W, E, and R against other champions. A great resource for these suggested builds can be found on OP.GG or Mobafire.com.

But the biggest key to success I have found in League of Legends is communication. 

Being able to ping and ward is one thing but actually communicating to your team through chat or league voice is the most efficient way to express what you want or need your team to do in addition to pings. Yet, most players are inclined to be salty and toxic, calling players that are losing to other champions hateful things and being genuinely rude. Luckily you can report these players after a game for their behaviour but during the game, they tend to bring the team’s spirits down. The key to actually winning with your team instead of one or two champions carrying the game is talking and being calm, even with those who are calling you very rude and mean names. By not giving in to this hateful attitude you can lead the team and even promote communication. After all League of Legends is a 5v5 battle, and even in videogames, there is no I in team.       

At the beginning of this week, I had downloaded and created an account on Riot’s League of Legends. This is a game I have always heard about through word of mouth and ads on Youtube but have never decided to “enter the rift” myself. However, I was spurred to play by just how interesting and deep the game sounded. If the viewing numbers had reached almost 100 million in 2018 according to the numbers provided by Riot themselves(https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2018/12/2018-events-by-the-numbers/). Then why not let me dip my toes in? The first thing that I can appreciate about the game is when it its first launched you are put into a few games against the computer opponents to learn the basics. The basics consisting of;

Learning how to move your character called a Champion around on the map

Learning about different Champions and their abilities in combat

Generating gold by defeating enemies

Spending said gold on items that power up your Champion

And finally learning how to use your skills, that are attached to the Q W E and R keys

I stepped into my first game on unranked and form a team with 4 other random people I have not met before and began the fight. I figured as a courtesy I would let my teammates know this was my first match and that I was excited to play. That was my first mistake of that game.

My team instantly labelled me as a liability and stole any chances at generating gold away from me. I was being called crude and demeaning things over the in-game chat. And once I had fallen to an enemy champion I was called a #@$! Feeder. After looking this term up, it refers to a player who gets themselves defeated by the enemy giving them more gold and levels each time they are defeated. And once we had lost the game I was told that I was useless and should stop playing.

Most people would stop there but I knew what I was getting myself into. 

In any competitive sphere whether its soccer, hockey, or ESports, people get very heated about the teams they like their favourite players and winning. Winning is everything in any competition. 

NO ONE EVER WANTS TO LOSE

Yet in League of Legends, it is a 5 vs 5 team fight. The keyword being TEAM 

If you lose, you can blame it on someone who was just plain bad, or in my case, new to the game.

League of Legends (a.k.a. LoL or just simply League) has been perceived as a toxic game even three years ago as seen on the League community boards in 2017(https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/player-behavior-moderation/io2VaEMR-why-is-the-league-community-so-toxic). 

But instead of being deterred by the negativity, I am instead motivated by it to become even better and stronger in the game to show that anyone can go from a complete novice to a powerful asset in any game. I have much to learn so please join me in my adventure to go from N00b to Pro.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.