Things You Should Do At The Beginning of the LoL Season

The new LoL season is right around the corner and everyone is excited to get back into pouring countless hours grinding solo queue. But before you dive right into the fun, you probably want to set yourself up towards having better having a better experience for the entirety of the 2021 Season by prepping yourself up for new challenges and gimmicks. Playing League of Legends doesn’t feel like you have a lot of options except for grinding games and waiting for events, but there are some things you can do to change it up.

Heading Into LoL Season 11

Season 11 is looking great already with the new items, champions, and meta that’s been introduced in the preseason. If you’re one of the people that took a break from the grind during the preseason, you’ll be enjoying the relearning the game, and experimenting on some brand new builds will help you reexperience a fresh take on League of Legends. Heading into Season 11 is sure to be a rollercoaster but it won’t take long until you get some footing in the game and be able to follow the latest changes in the meta and gain the knowledge you need to adapt to the game.

The biggest change in LoL Season 11 is the introduction of the brand new item shop. This massive change has introduced some Broken Item Builds that people have mixed opinions about and for good reason. The item changes have reshuffled the champion pool where some irrelevant champions have finally resurfaced and made a devastating impact on Summoner’s Rift while a lot of the champions that we’ve been familiarized with for quite a while have someone been buried deep beneath the tier lists. Who knows? One of your main champs might’ve also climbed up the rankings somehow!

Fun Things To Do On Season 11

Season 11 is a time of great opportunities to start doing some shenanigans that’ll help you regain some of that lost enthusiasm you once had when you first started the game. Unless you’re one of those competitive players that have no other interests other than getting Rank 1 Challenger, it might be worth trying these things out whether you’re planning to climb Ranked Games or simply enjoy some casual solo queue so that you won’t experience burn out.

1. Become a One-Trick

Becoming a one-trick is probably the most dedicated task in League of Legends as you need to stick with your choice regardless of the shifts in meta. For those that don’t know what a one-trick is, it means that you’ll be playing a single champion for 70-100% of your games (unless it gets banned). The main point of being a one-trick is that you’ll play that single champion until you’ve reached a level of mastery that not everyone can do on that specific champion so that you can dominate games.

Popular one-trick Youtubers like ChaseShaco and PinkWard, who are both Shaco one-tricks, are able to play extremely high-level Shaco mechanics that are simply mindblowing. The thought of only playing one champion the entire season might sound boring to some, but you don’t have to reach 70-100%. You can start out by playing a single champion on 50% of your games until you reach that powerspike that you just feel unstoppable on your chosen one-trick.

2. Start Streaming

While it’s true that almost 95% of streamers don’t pop off during their entire careers, there’s literally no reason for you not to do it. Streaming on Twitch is free and doesn’t cost you at all (unless you don’t have some streaming gear). You don’t have to start streaming for the purpose of earning money or making it a full time job. You can simply stream on your free time and get a few people drop by on your stream to watch 1 or 2 minutes of your content and the chance that somebody might enjoy it and leave a tip.

Streaming has other benefits too such as developing your self-confidence and public speaking ability. You don’t have to stream for the sake of others, you can do it for yourself. Besides, even if it’s a below 5% chance that you’ll make it as a successful streamer who’s earning a few couple bucks per day, why don’t you give it a try anyway? Set a realistic goal for yourself like having 100 followers in 3 months and watch yourself make it to the top in no time at all.

3. Make a Smurf Account

Time to start smurfin’ on Summoner’s Rift as you create a new account or Buy a LoL Account from legitimate sources online. Smurf accounts are a great way to begin the season since they offer a very fresh experience and don’t blindly queue you in matches using your hidden MMR. Buying a smurf account will most likely give you an account that has been leveled in away that it has neutral MMR so you won’t get paired with people on low or high ELOs.

The biggest advantage of using a smurf account is that you don’t have any realistic expectation for it except that you’ll probably be playing with players with a lower skill level. This is a good thing since it’ll give you some much-needed re-evaluation on the state of the game which will hopefully give you some insight on new strategies since you’ll be paired with people of contrasting MMR. Since it’s the beginning of the LoL season, you don’t have to worry too much about ranking this smurf up as long as you’re able to have fun.

4. Make a Drastic Change on Your Playstyle

Every player has a unique playstyle that dictates how they play the game. Most solo queue players like to play aggressive playstyles while others play a slow-paced, facilitative role for the team. This advice is most applicable for players that are getting stuck on the ranks without making any progress moving upwards. Look at your past 10 games on your Match History and recall how you played those games so that you’ll have a little insight on what your playstyle is.

Sticking with a playstyle that helped you climb to where you are in the rankings might be hard to stop doing but since you’ll be playing some lower standing games during and after your Provisional Series, you might as well try playing a different playstyle and determine if you’re seeing some improvement on your overall performance in the game. The best way to do this is to play a role that’s completely opposite to the one you’re playing now.

5. Setting a Goal and Realistic Milestones

The goal of most players is to reach the very top of the rankings in Challenger. There’s no doubt that you’ve probably thought about doing this too. But before you jump to making Challenger your main goal this season, set out some realistic Milestones for this season so that you’ll be able to push yourself towards climbing ladder. Milestones are a great way to get a sense of achievement on your progress playing League of Legends. Here’s an example:

• Provisional Rank: Gold II (Starting Point)
• February: Platinum IV
• March: Platinum I
• April: Diamond IV
• May: Diamond II
• June: Diamond I
• July: Master
• August: Grandmaster
• September: Challenger

The LoL Season will probably end sometime during November again so you’ll have another 2-3 months to fill in any lost time on the milestones you set for yourself. Looking at this list, you probably think that it’s developing too fast but it’s an average of 20-31 days for each attempt. Really talented players are able to climb the Challenger rankings in less than 3 months but for those of us with more humble skillsets, we can only rely on our hardwork and dedication to be good enough to make the cut.

Preparing For the Provisionary Games

Provisional Games compute your Hidden MMR in addition to your Win-Loss Ratio on the 10 Games that will be given to you. Winning Ranked games boost your MMR by a small percentage but you’ll need at least a dozen wins for every 1 loss to make a significant impact on your MMR. If you didn’t grind games during the preseason, you probably won’t have enough time to grind before the LoL Season starts. If you’re confident about your MMR, there’s no need to do anything to land you in the division you want.

Players that have a terrible MMR might want to consider making or purchasing a Smurf Account instead so that they don’t end up on Bronze or Iron games as their starting line. Once you land in these divisions, it can make your experience playing League of Legends a real hell since you can’t really smurf on your opponents when your teammates are dragging your down. Let those players take their time to develop while you start out in a division that you want for this LoL season.