Why You're Not Winning Solo Queue - You're a Bad Gambler

When people play solo queue, they expect to win the game if they play well. Unfortunately, after a few games, it quickly becomes apparent that this isn't the case at all. Sometimes you can play awesome and still lose the game. Playing solo queue is more than playing well. It's playing well consistently with the hand you're dealt - namely your teammates and the enemy team. Once you start treating solo queue more like sitting down at a game of poker than sitting down at a game of chess, you'll start seeing your chances of winning increase dramatically.

Solo Queue Gambling Mentality

When people play solo queue, they expect to win the game if they play well. Unfortunately, after a few games, it quickly becomes apparent that this isn't the case at all. Sometimes you can play awesome and still lose the game.

Playing solo queue is more than playing well. It's playing well consistently with the hand you're dealt - namely your teammates and the enemy team.

Once you start treating solo queue more like sitting down at a game of poker than sitting down at a game of chess, you'll start seeing your chances of winning increase dramatically.

Solo Queue Randomness

Just like gambling, solo queue is a game of chance with factors outside of your control such as:

• How good is each player individually?
• What champions are picked?
• Do teams synergize with each other?
• How tilted are each of the players in the game?
• What decisions do each player take and how well does that contribute to victory/loss?

Meanwhile, certain things are within your control such as:

• What champion did YOU pick?
• What champion did YOU ban?
• What did YOU say to your teammates?
• How well did YOU play?

These end up being the "advantage" plays that gamblers refer to minimize their randomness and win more consistently.

Minimizing Randomness

Let's take a look at various advantage plays to see where a good solo queue gambler can minimize the randomness of winning/losing.

• What champion did you pick?
• Select your best champion and role in each game. If you have multiple champions that you can play, select the best champion that synergizes with your team composition and/or counters the enemy team.
• What champion did you ban?
• Look up your teammates before you start banning champions. If you ban your own team's one-trick Yasuo you've dropped your chances of winning instantly.
• What did you say to your teammates?
• Knowing what to say to your teammates that won't tilt them off the face of the Earth is an art form. Meanwhile, smart communications are always positive and good pings go a long way.
• How well did you play?
• This is an individual attribute and will, of course, vary from game to game depending on how good you are. The important thing here is to not make excuses, there's nothing League of Legends players like doing more than picking apart excuses mid-game.

Minimizing Tilt

The bane of all gambler's advantage play, tilt is the one thing that can ruin your grind after being dealt a few bad hands. You start playing without your advantage plays and end up losing even harder than you did when you were using them.

Minimizing tilt in League is largely the same as you'd think at the casino:

• Limit your losses;
• Accept that losing is inevitable;
• Avoid engaging trolls; and
• Play when you're feeling best.

Once you get into the right mindset, you should see your ranking improve by leaps and bounds.

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