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How to Overcome Ranked Anxiety in League of Legends

Being afraid to play ranked matches is a common struggle for many League of Legends players just starting out their ranked careers. However, diving straight into the chaos of ranked play without proper preparation is a surefire way to experience frustration and defeat. This guide will walk you through practical steps to gradually expose yourself to human opponents, reflect on mistakes, and fully understand the dynamic nature of competitive play—ultimately helping you conquer ranked anxiety for good.

Warm Up with ARAM Teamfights

Focus on Mechanics without Lane Pressure

All Random All Mid (ARAM) is the perfect low-stress mode to get comfortable with spontaneous teamfights. Spawning directly in a side lane with no laning phase means you can practice your teamfighting skills without worrying about CS, rotating, or objectives. With random champions each game, ARAM lets you quickly experience different abilities and playstyles. Even if your team loses, individual performance matters less, taking the pressure off. Spend a few days spamming ARAM to warm up your mechanics in a chaotic, non-stop brawl environment that closely resembles later stages of Summoner’s Rift games.

Get Familiar with Human Opponents in Normals

Treat Your First Normals Like Your First Games Ever

Once you feel more at ease in teamfights, it’s time to take the training wheels off and face real opponents in normal draft pick. Mentally reset as if you’ve never played before - bad habits learned from co-op vs AI will be brutally exposed. Focus on basics like last hitting, trading stance, and avoiding ganks. Expect to feed and die frequently as the sheer unpredictability of players will catch you off guard. See every death as a learning experience rather than something to tilt over. Play enough normals to get used to the ups and downs of playing against intelligent, aggressive opponents.

Learn from Mistakes Instead of Getting Angry

It’s natural to feel frustration after being outplayed, but getting mad won’t make you better. During or after losses, take 10 minutes to cool off before queuing up again. Then, watch the replay focusing only on your own decisions and movements. Identify exactly where and why you died without blaming teammates. Ask yourself what a better player in that same situation would have done differently. By keeping a learning mindset, every failed game contributes to improvingyour understanding of matchup and macro play.

Accept that Losing and Feeding Are Part of the Process

Everybody Starts Out Making Plenty of Mistakes

No matter your skill level, there will be games where you get completely stomped. Great players still have bad games too - the difference is how they respond. Do not get emotionally invested in your rank or win/loss record when you’re just beginning. Focus instead on small victories like securing a solo kill, hitting a big ult, or making the right rotation. Study opponents who dominate you to see how an experienced top laner plays matchups. Losing is the best way to learn because it highlights weaknesses to address. Going 0-5 in lane may feel awful, but each death teaches a lesson if reviewed properly.

Learn from Better Players by Watching Their Choices

When an enemy outplays you so hard it’s depressing, take a break but then re-watch the play-by-play later without judgment. really focus on what tiny actions or decisions gave them an advantage you didn’t see originally. For example, a jungler might have warded perfectly or known your summoners were down based on recent trades. Paying close attention to details is how you begin to think like a higher elo player, avoiding similar mistakes in the future. The games where you get stomped hold the most valuable lessons if analyzed with an open mind.

Take Breaks to Avoid Tilt

Tilt Only Makes You Play Worse, So Walk Away

It’s normal to feel frustrated or disappointed after a string of losses, especially when trying to learn. But allowing emotions like anger or anxiety to build up unmanaged will inevitably lead to making even worse decisions in your next game due to tilt. If a match goes very poorly, commit to taking a 15-30 minute break before queuing up again - go for a walk, do chores, or watch an educational video. Use this downtime to let negative feelings subside so you return to summoners rift with a calm, analytical mindset.

Review Past Games During Your Break

While on your break, re-watch earlier replays you were previously involved in using a VOD software like OPGG Recorder. Look past results to study your own decision making and mechanics. Note specific things you could have done better like trading stance, spacing, or ability usage. These mini reviews between losses will help refine your play without the emotional distraction of being in an active game. Come back to ranked feeling refreshed and focused on improvement rather than Wins/Losses.

Get Help from Friends

Duo with More Experienced Players for Guidance

There’s no better way to accelerate your learning than by duo’ing in normals or even flex queue with a friend who has much higher mastery of the game. Watching them play gives live examples of wave management, objective focusing, vision control, and teamfighting that you can immediately try to model. They can also talk you through builds, summoner spell usage, important item powerspikes and provide targeted advice based on YOUR champion and playstyle. Having an ally takes some pressure off solo queue anxiety as well, since you have backup if you make risky plays as part of the learning process.

Learn Macro Thinking by Playing with Communication

While in voice chat with your duo partner or team, have them verbally explain everything they’re focusing on so you can pick up macro habits. Things like tracking summoner spells, jungler position, objectives timings, efficient recalls, and when to look for picks vs. peel are extremely difficult to internalize without guidance. Use voice to your advantage so even if you have an off game individually, you still learn high-level strategizing that will serve you for many seasons to come. Playing in a communicative environment is indispensable for developing the whole-map perspective required for ranked.

Final Thoughts

Overcoming ranked anxiety requires treating your early ranked journey as a marathon, not a sprint. Have confidence that as long as you constantly seek to learn from losses rather than get mad, your understanding and skill will steadily improve over time. Try new champions, modes, watch educational streams - exposure to different strategies will help you develop well-rounded mechanics and flexibility. Keep an open and positive mindset, and remember even great players were once in the same shoes as you, afraid to start out in ranked. With dedicated practice applying lessons learned from every game, you’ll soon look back realizing how much better you’ve become since facing that initial fear. So take the first step towards your ranked potential - the opportunities to grow are unlimited once you hit that “Play” button.

This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.

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