Hello fellow Immortals,
I do not play ranked often, but when I do I take certain precautions to prevent myself from losing. The following tips should greatly increase your chances of winning in any game, but in particular ranked solo/duo queue.
1) Queue with a partner when you can, more specifically a partner that is actually at a much higher ELO (rating) than his actual solo queue rating. This will lower the ELO of the two teams, while maintaining a higher skill level for your team.
2) If you are the leader of your team, ban champions with globals and Eve. Champions such as Shen, Twisted Fate, Nocturne, and Eve can dominate lanes through the addition of an unseen enemy to a fight. Amumu is often banned as well; however, I would recommend banning Shen and Eve currently. If someone really wants to play one of these champions on your team, do your best to take advantage of first pick (if it belongs to your team) and select the OP champion for him/her (swap with your teammate after - make sure you figure out which champion you're swapping with).
3) Focus on minion kills in the laning phase, while harassing the enemy in-between last hits. Auto-attacking minions results in a much lower minion score and thus much less gold. Creeps average around 20g each, while a champion kill is 300g. Every 15 minions will equal a champion kill. If your lane is heavily behind in CS (creep score = minion kills) because the enemy laners are harassing too much, ask for a gank - the enemy will likely be pushed toward your tower and thus gankable. I cannot stress enough how important minion kills are for any game. Even if you are a support champion, take minion kills as much as you can (especially in solo queue). A support with no gold is as worthless as a tank or carry with no gold.
4) Do not rely on your team, there is a wide range of skill in solo queue and the only factor that remains the same every game is you, take advantage of this through your role selection -
The Carry
Take mid or top if your team has a jungle if you can carry well. If you're playing a solo lane carry, gank early (level 6-7) and often, especially lanes that are overextended or for teammates that are struggling. You should aim for the highest minion score in the game, a goal of 100 CS by 15 minutes and around 200 CS by 30 minutes is achievable with practice. Do not worry only about your kill/death ratio - I have seen many normal games in which a team's carry achieved a great looking KD ratio only to lose because of cautious gameplay in team fights. As the carry you should deal as much damage as possible in a fight, this includes auto attacking for physical carries (I have seen strategies for Ezreal which involve only using Q, W, R at the very back of the group in team fights - you have to auto attack as a physical carry to be a good carry) and initiations from AP carries with an AOE stun (such as Annie). You may die with this strategy (try to survive if you can, but don't run if your team needs you), but the exchange should leave the other team in worse conditions than your own.
The Tank/Support/Jungle
Gank when possible (even support can help). Take Dragon as often as possible. Take advantage of wards, especially when there is a jungler or roamer on the other team (75g for protection is easily the best investment you can make). Team fights should be fought as a team unit. A five vs five in which one member of your team is instantly killed (4v5) can still be won by your team; however, your team will NOT win the fight if two of your team members instantly turn to run after seeing a slain comrade - the fight has just become a 2v5 and the remaining two players will be chased down and killed. Do not run from a team fight unless there really is no way to win the fight (carries can often produce huge initial burst and kill an enemy or two to turn the 4v5 into a 4v4 - judging whether or not to run varies greatly depending on the situation). Protect squishy teammates, if the team fight becomes scattered, turn around and attack/stun/slow the enemies attacking your carry/support rather than chasing a champion with half health.
*Note - The Rambo mentality for Team Fights is often heavily rewarded if all five players charge in.
4) Priorities make a huge difference in close games. If there are four/five enemy champions pushing a primary/secondary tower and you are not close-by, attack one of the enemies' towers even if you are alone, because your teammates will likely go to defend your tower or your tower will be unprotectable. Even if you lose the tower, you will have likely done much more by destroying an enemy tower rather than running to an ally tower you will probably not reach. Your priority is to net your team more gold and experience than the other team through ganks/dragons/towers, do so with every chance you can.
5) Communication - Do not rage at your team or ping too much. This can upset teammates, especially when the team is currently losing, and cause many unwanted distractions. Avoid all chat if it involves responding to trolling/raging. Ping AND type when you are initiating a gank/dragon/baron. Call out missing enemy champions as soon as possible, ESPECIALLY when enemies run into a bush. Many players take advantage at low-mid ELO of the bush by running into them constantly only to port or run out the other end - this is followed by a gank and your missed MIA call. There is no harm in calling a MIA that only lasts for two seconds (one reason why I use vent/skype for normal games).
6) I will leave this and following tips for any suggestions or anything I can think of at a later time.
Have fun and I hope this guide can raise some ELO's
-Klippo
Subject: Tips for Ranked Solo Queue 
Sun Jun 12, 2011 12:55 am
