Solo Queue: Snapping Losing Streaks, Keep Calm and Carry On!

Everyone has those days, whether it be a 3 game losing streak, 10 game losing streak, or even (god-forbid) the legendary Tier 1 to Tier 5 in a single day drop.

So how do you snap out of it? I personally don't have a concrete 100% answer, but here's what I usually do:

1. Stick To Your Guns:
Who are you good at? What roles do you usually play? Sometimes you get suckered into playing roles you're bad at for a few games in a row. If you do, play safe and always be on the way to help teammates.

But even if you win with a great score, don't suddenly believe that you're amazing at that position and should start maining it!

Hop aboard the Elo train!

If you got to the ranking you're at by playing something, you can be assured that that's the champion and role that will continue bringing you the most success. Always have a champion ready for each role, but the more you spread your cards, the slower you'll climb ranks.

2. Worry About Your Own Lane
We all know that solo queue is more often than not, decided by someone else's lane. Just think about it, 3 lanes, and you can only be in one. Unless you're the jungler or roaming, chances are 2/3 of the early game will be decided without you ever participating.

Since this is the case, never get upset at your teammate's failure. Here are some helpful things you CAN say:

• Jungler's camping you hard, should get a ward;
• Need to freeze lane, Ahri roaming hard, can't stop her push;
• Care, Rammus powerball too fast
• Jungler near red, care no ward

These are some UNHELPFUL things to say:

• Dude, stop dying.
• Again?
• Wow...
• Feeder
• GG S@20
• Stop pushing you'll just die over and over

The point is, understand why they're dying, they already know that they died. Also, focus on your own lane unless you're going to do something to help them. Meanwhile, this brings us to point #3:

3. Learn to Get Carried
You won't be the best player on your team every game, especially if you've gained a lot of Elo recently. This doesn't mean that you're not on the same level as everyone else, if not higher. However, there comes a time where you can't win by simply outplaying via mechanics, and you'll have to outsmart them using intelligent decisions.

This means that a good "big play" opportunity might not present itself in your lane. Don't force it!

It's easy to get into the mindset of "If I don't carry we lose" after a few losses, but face it, this isn't true at all. Sure, someone might feed and lose the game, but you towerdiving and flashing for max range skillshot CCs with low success rates is going to look pretty dumb when you miss and the enemy jungler pops out next to you. Keep calm and play your normal game!

4. Don't Die
This may or may not be obvious, but dying is the worst thing you can do in the game. It's a free 300 gold, and even if your lane is getting zoned and they're outcs'ing you, dying still isn't the answer. Of course if you're already 0-10 and the enemy has a kill spree, that's a different story.

Still, dying puts you behind on levels and map control, and even if you're carrying, going 1v3 against the enemy champion, killing 2, and feeding the enemy AD your godlike streak isn't a "worth it". In fact, it's a major psychological pick up for the enemy team, as now they've got the mindset of "We can kill him if we stay together" instead of "omg...he's so fed, he's unstoppable, this is dumb FF"

5. Don't Rely on Luck
You might already know this, but I'm asian and four is an unlucky number. So we can't exactly end on 4 different points can we?

Regardless, point #5 is, don't rely on luck. If you're a skillshot champion, if you can wait for someone to slow them down or use a more reliable CC before you throw yours out, wait for it. This goes hand-in-hand with the big-play mentality. Safe plays are better than big plays.

On the same note, I can't believe how many Sona ultimates I've missed lately...I should start taking my own advice.

Sorry XS3, I'm bad :(

Got tips of your own? What do you do when you're on a bad losing streak? Comment below!