The REALITY Of Climbing Through Silver

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Coaching Channel : / @midlaneacademy
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Podcast: / brokenbyconcept
Streaming: / coachcurtis
Say hi on Twitter: / coachcurtislol
00:00 - 04:22 // Introducing The Silver Player We Are Reviewing + His OPGG
04:22 - 18:46 // Game 1 - Malzahar vs. Kassadin
18:46 - 40:30 // Game 2 - Malzahar vs. Veigar
40:30 - 55:14 // Game 3 - Malzahar vs. Swain
55:14 - 01:00:19 // Game 4 - Malzahar vs. Veigar
01:00:19 - 01:04:24 // Key Learnings + What Can We Take Away?
#CoachCurtis #LeagueOfLegends
League of legends coaching, league coach, mid lane coach

[@josefernandohowerbarbosa]

Hi my friend Koggart here, Thanks for taking the time to review my games. As i said before i do appreciate the content and the comunity you have created around you. The time in your comunity was amazing and the people is very welcoming, the reason of my left was more a impulsive reaction and the result of my frustration. I was feeling i was not capable of see what i was doing wrong (this video was very eye opening) Despite of that i would like to say the feeling i have watching this games after 10 days is that now is very easy to see the mistakes, but to be honest is not that i don't have the knowledge about how to place a ward or how i should group to the fed member of my team, is more i struggle to being able to make the councios desition and bring this specific piece of knowledge to my game when I have the blood warm. I did watched all the content on the platform and i do understand the theory about wave management and warding, and i do try to execute it properly when i am able to remember, but i failed remember it in this games for sure. I think you talked about this part in another video. And i do agree the execution part is the hardest and i don't know how to make it work (more games? how many games? i am really lacking of champs mastery?). For example when you point the amount of gold i had in some of the deads/ poor recalls it was one of three cases: 1. for whaterver reason i had no memory of me having so much gold at that time XD. 2. It seems i was so tunneled vision recaping the dead in my mind that i forgot to buy (like when i came to lane with no buys. probable tilted there). 3. I was aware of the risk but i failed assessing this was a neccesary recall and thought with the current lane state the recall would be a bad recall. I am working on the threath assessment but is very hard since all come to experience (for example in the lvl 1 nunu kill I remember thinking there is no way they can kill me lvl1 and i didnt blow my flash bcs of this). Also It is not i dont respect or know veigars cage or swain Paw but is just i am still polishing the spacing and i fail assesing the safe distance. Learning to review games is probably the hardest. and is not only about reviewing the first 5-10 mins of the laning phase is more about going into the details. For whatever reason i got the idea the review process should take 5 mins when the main feedback i am getting here is the reviewing process has to be more in depth, the problem is there is a lot of mistakes that i am not getting in my review process even when i actively take the time to do it. Lastly i want to give some constructive feedback since I have learned from this video probably more than i learned in the last 3 months. It is true most of the stuff you are telling me here it is covered in the content you gave in the platform and the content is very valuable, i do believe from a very begginer perspective makes a lot of sense. But in my specyfic case is not i am not aware of the fundamentals since some of the concepts in the platform i had already before. The problem rely in not being able to apply this fundamentals consistently in game and this is not easy to achieve whit the current setup in the platform. Specially since the VOD approach in the discord is not really very helpful for the mayority of the mistakes you are pointing here, I did post some of my doubts about traidings or teamfigts. But Its hard to ask for an specyfic advice when you really dont see where is the game loosing mistake. Picking a VOD is having the student making the desition on which is the relevant snapshot to get feedback from. I would never pick for a VOD even 10% of the key moments you are showcasing in this Video and this are the moments that evidence the mistakes that i need to fix now and i believe are going to benefit me the most. Again don't take me wrong i do value the platform a lot is just i want to be as constructive as posible here. I do recommend the platform for any new player specially if is a very begginer, it helped me indeed polishing a lot of concepts but to be honest this video worth every second in gold. Thanks again and i will keep trying to achive my GOLD goal, and if i manage you can be sure this video is going to be one of the main reasons. Have a nice one

[@crazysnill]

You can start with a review process of 5 mins going over deaths for example I think Curtis/Nathan has said this before

[@remusciuciu2840]

I AM SOOOO HAPPY YOU DIDN'T GIVE UP MAN. MUCH SUCCESS ON THE RIFT

[@cupidok2768]

HOW do we get out . please save me

[@stockingfanboy]

Cheers mate thanks for sharing your experience. We all believe in you

[@CoachCurtis]

Thank you SO much for taking the time to watch the video and I'm glad to hear you won't be giving up! A few things here: - An 'oversimplified way' of viewing climbing in league can be seen as 2 parts: Part 1) Learning the concepts/theory both in relation to champion specifics and fundamentals AND Part 2) EXECUTION and developing the muscle memory/intuition over said concepts. From what we see in your play you need to both increase a little bit more of your understanding BUT mainly improve the consistency of the execution/muscle memory. It seems you likely played a lot without intention/autopilot and didn't take the time to review those pivotal concepts. MY suggestion is to really pick 1 or 2 things we covered here today and ONLY look for that inside the review, keeping the reviews simple and no longer then 5 minutes. For example, you might decide to improve upon resets. Go through the game and look for the quality of resets and if the resets could have been better and HOW you'd come to that conclusion in game.

[@grimb8kn748]

Being a teacher now for over 15 years I can tell you that their is no faster way to lose a student than to tell them something is “easy”. To some it very well might be, but as soon as you classify something as “easy” and a student struggles with it, their anxiety and self-doubt about their ability sky rockets. I often use the term “manageable” or “workable” instead and have found that helps.

[@RadioactiveBlutonium]

I wish more instructors in all fields understood this.

[@ttv_zombiefetus1710]

I wish I had you as a teacher since you seem cool af since you watch league videos too😂

[@grimb8kn748]

@@ttv_zombiefetus1710 I play as well. Not very good but I enjoy the game - have no aspirations of going pro so I just enjoy the experience.

[@Motivation_dazly]

​@@ttv_zombiefetus1710what in the world were you thinking when you named your youtube channel like that haha

[@vanjamenadzer]

This is why I failed chemistry in primary school and had to take private classes. Whenever I asked my teacher to explain something to me, she'd say: But, this is so easy to understand, what's not clear about this? And would never explain to me. So after few times asking, I felt like dumb kid but when I took private lessons, I went from getting 1's to getting 3's and 4's (in my country grades are 1-5)

[@filipebackeszatta952]

Honestly this is the best low elo coach video I've seen. I love that you avoided completely saying "oh this is a low elo mistake" and actually said what were the mistakes or how to not make them or how you would do differently.

[@Roland8]

They say that kind of stuff because they want you to buy their coaching

[@samuelestes6034]

I myself am not low elo but have a lot of friends that are and I've tried to help them over the years with very limited success. Watching content like this is super interesting and something that I feel like is a huge gap in the edu content sphere. Low elo content tends to be some combination of "don't play hard champs" "learn to cs" and we cant forget "you are bad." but to my knowledge there aren't any high level edu content creators that actually spend time to look at gold and below games to help people. but you are right, getting someone from watching arcane to getting to gold is a monumental task and low elo players shouldnt be written off as idiots whole cloth.

[@KryticalError]

Such an amazing video. I haven't played League in a couple years I think, but it's so interesting to see someone roughly around my level of play and have such an articulate and analytical breakdown from an expert. Always love these types of videos, and strangely, I find it helps me learn how to analyze my own play in the games I do currently play.

[@CoachCurtis]

I appreciate you tuning in despite you not playing league for a while :)

[@KryticalError]

@@CoachCurtis Yeah cheers 🍷 the content is just universally helpful for comp/ PVP gaming. I never did much ranked anyway but you helped me learn how to analyze my gameplay and I've carried that over into other games. I don't recall if I mentioned you by name off the top of my head, but I have a small channel based around Guild Wars 2, and I mentioned a concept I learned from you, that my improvement is based on process / decisions, and not just immediate results. Wins are great but we can really learn and improve more from losses when viewed with the correct lens. Keep up the great content!

[@philbertius]

Similar boat here, at least a year for me but considering getting back into it. Appreciate the content!

[@crystalwater505]

@@KryticalError What made you stop playing League for so long? Just burnout and lost interest?

[@Tastingo117]

As someone who has never climbed past gold, since I never really invested the time into ranked, I can say that the quality of silver games over all has definitely increased over the past years. I still dont have problems getting through all of silver within a hundred games, but it has become a lot more common for people to actually attempt freezes, abuse lane priority to get objectives and consider recall timings. Having seen these replays also reminds me, that the variance in this elo is enormous. You'd never catch me forgetting to buy on a recall, cast my spells into the wrong direction or just blatantly misjudge available damage to the capacity that is shown here. YET, this player could still very well get matched with me, since I usually just stop playing ranked after comfortably reaching gold 4 for rewards. Ive been playing League again since season 7 and have previously played Dota2, HoN. Wc3 DotA and pre season 1 League. Matching us against each other would simply be unfair due to the difference in mechanical and macro experience. Keep that in mind, when you start out playing as a new player. Yes, getting to Gold is easy for people who can already play the game, but it is by no means what you should expect as a beginner. The community has raised the bar for what "average" skill is, year after year. Starting League right now and expecting to just get gold is like putting your 6 year old into grade 5 maths classes and expecting them to get straight As. Set realistic goals for yourself, rather than buying into the idea that anyone who cant reach gold in their first season is a mout breather. This is doubly true if you have no prior experience with controlling units from an isometric camera angle like you would have coming from SC2 or similar RTS games. Its even more true, if you have no experience with video games in general, so you are having a harder time evaluating what is and isnt efficient to put skill points into or how to layer CC chains. There are SO many concepts which are just natural to veteran gamers, so dont beat yourself up over them.

[@coolbrotherf127]

Very true, I was able to get gold II when I first started playing in season 11, but that's only because I had a high elo friend who coached me every day. Without that help, I would have barely gotten past low silver. The player skill between high gold and low silver is quite a bit and there is such a wide variety of skills in silver and gold. Like you said, there could be some new player in silver 4 who barely made it out of bronze, but the lane opponent is a long term player who used to be plat but took a break from ranked for a few seasons. The long term player then easily stomps the new player leaving the new player frustrated with their lack of skill. Without a growth based mindset, players will get too frustrated about their losses instead of what they can learn from those losses.

[@Nr4747]

What has skyrocketed the most, imho, is champion mastery. I'm currently (start of the first split of Season 14) getting back into playing League a bit more and it's not rare for me to run into 3+ level 7 mastery opponents while starting out in Bronze IV. I currently do not have the champion mastery to match that (still trying to find my champion, but I got some decent results on Mordekaiser top), but I can sometimes make up for it with macro plays, smart itemization and general game sense.

[@parafuegosarchive]

K to be fair i've seen a lot of people not just attempting to freeze lane but actually rock up a 5 mins freeze and not die in the process

[@wanyshu1671]

@@Nr4747Someone with a lvl 7 mastery on a champ isn't necessarily good. It can mean they got lucky on a few games over maybe a hundred or more, and long time players usually have random mastery 7 on champs they don't even really play (ie my Gnar mastery 7... but I'm an adc player? Aram probably). A small note: The Champ Mastery coaches or players usually refer to is your knowledge about your champion (Combos, Goals, Powerspikes etc...). And I'm only replying because it's a very important distinction, and if you're new and watching guides, you need to understand a virtual medal isn't what is going to give you Faker lvl micro. That's basically just muscle memory over time (with good habits).

[@anteiku0027]

Hey Coach your sincerity really comes through the video, and its really incredible to see someone with such passion and dedication not just to this game or their career, but to the success of others. I think you are truly becoming a great educator and mentor, love seeing your journey and the refinement of your views and ideas. And of course thanks for sharing these with us for free. Love your work and the BBC!

[@Halkem]

As a masters malz otp who was once silver, this was really interesting to watch. Thank you for putting the effort on these Curtis!

[@shiv_ring]

how long was it from Silver to Masters, if you don't mind me asking? :)

[@mysticflow467]

as a player whose never been below plat this was very enlightening.

[@bunkbeds3001]

​@@mysticflow467🙄🙄🙄 adding nothing to the conversation other than a rank brag. Thanks for the super important contribution, you're So good at league!

[@mysticflow467]

@@bunkbeds3001 i added that this was enlightening, you've added nothing but negativity

[@ejeuiej2989]

@@shiv_ringI got master the third season playing this game which is s11 I started this game in s9, Suhansh is my main it decayed to d1 from 617 lp gm .

[@eVill420]

Biggest mechanical issue I noticed: he keeps on ulting without using his spells first, he could stop them from dodging Q and force them to tank the void things and DoT with the space aids

[@johnfullker8986]

He also doesnt use his q properly. He uses it to start damage instead of using it as a refresh. And since he uses it to start damage he doesnt get the change to properly use the silence.

[@antipunt1]

Great video as always Coach. I 100% know where that Silver player is coming from. My opinion is there is a huge under-emphasis on natural talent with regards to preventing cognitive-stacks being overwhelmed. Since educational materials are ubiquitous nowadays, and everyone silver and above knows at least, to some degree, most of the fundamentals, the bottleneck now is APPLICATION of said fundamentals and mechanics. I became even more hyper-aware of this after watching some high elo streamers who vocally explained their thought processes out in real time (like PekinWolf); they just SEE things while IN GAME that happen too fast for me to even register, and I have to pause, and rewind. Despite technically knowing the concept, the lack of in-game awareness due to cognitive-overload is so detrimental and my biggest personal weakness/plateau. The removal of game-modes like Dominion was extremely frustrating, because there was no skirmish mode where I could practice mid-game mechanics with my main champ anymore. ARAM isn't good enough because obviously you don't get to play on your main. When you're in-game, it's incredibly hard to be actively thinking of everything that you may know subconsciously. My replays always show me dying to extremely stupid and obvious things; I objectively know and then 'learn' from these mistakes, but then next game, I make the exact same mistakes because there's WAY too many things I need to 'remember'. It's almost like being "an expert" on the knowledge of attraction or flirting, but the second you are out in the club, you freeze because you're genetically emotional, sensitive, and shy. It's incredibly discouraging and tilting, because it makes it feel like to play league at a higher level, you just have to have good genetics too.

[@pureintention9875]

Great video, would love to see you address late game in bronze to gold. Often time I find myself getting a massive lead early to mid game and then still losing late game. I'm sure others have this issue. Thanks so much for the educational content ❤️

[@ramy9103]

Like he was saying, shove mid and do objectives. Try and get the team together mid if you are ahead should be a win. Don’t stall cause it’ll just let the enemy team equal out in the late game.

[@kristinl.7063]

Love this so much. I came into League with no background from any similar games and really had to fight from starting Bronze up to Gold over years. Lots of self confidence issues to battle through. This kind of conversation is understanding and legitimately helpful for bronze/silver players (and still me, since even with game knowledge I have, trying a new role or class/style sets me back noticeably)

[@wisdomandy9361]

The problem with Gold and lower is how big the skill gap tends to be. So many games where 1 role is gapped so far it can be nearly impossible to make the difference.

[@DoctorStrange01]

I came back to league previous season after a few years of not playing at all, i was in mid plat back then. After like 30 games i landed in S2 and let me tell you, it's an absolute disaster. I've lost many games with scores like 18-2 Samira, or very fed Akali/Yone, for the reason you've mentioned. You can have insane carry potential, you can roam, kill people, have highest dmg and most kills in the game, but if one or more teammates have absolutely no clue about even the basics, they WILL run it down and make it impossible. That's very demotivating to someone that knows more or less what makes sense and what not, but can't change anything and just wait to lose. I'll try again this season after a while and see how it goes, they've supposedly tweaked ranked matchmaking, we'll see about that 😅

[@rammbadedu1215]

Bro- this shit never stops. ImO getting even worse to some extend the higher you go. I rather have the 0-20 Bronze Nasus who stacks and doesnt give a shit, than the 0-10 Emerald Jax who gets a Mental Breakdown during game.

[@Pornaphobia1]

It never changes. I'm in diamond and frequently one person gets absolutely rolled on either team. Part of it might be as players get better they can utilize the lead harder. But holy shit if you see the enemy nidalee for example start off 2/0 you know they are about to absolutely dominate

[@angelolima9425]

Be the one with the gap.

[@Forgottinhope]

Great stuff Curtis, love watching all your vids and how you break everything down. Hopefully joining MLA soon as a low diamond player 💪🏼

[@bretts1646]

I don't play much mid, but These vods were very emblematic of my games in bronze/silver elo. I've basically stopped playing ranked because while I know for certain there are things I am doing wrong, the process stopped being fun. I really resonated with their initial email, and it was nice to see someone empathize on why someone might want to give up after a while of trying.

[@unrealistik2570]

Hey man I only just discovered you and this type of content helped my awareness in general. Would love too see more content in this format!

[@Maddenlegend4ever]

I would like to apologize and say that after reviewing your videos and actually hearing you out. In a month I went from Bronze 3 to Plat 4 and I played a total of 3 - 5 champions in jungle and support. I want to say that your approach to climbing really helped me out.

[@TheOfficialBobert]

I peaked silver 1 for several seasons only breaking into gold one time during preseason. Ive been playing for 6 years and I have quit several times. I just got back on after several months off and probably won't even get to high silver before the split ends. My issue and frustration (as an adc) is when i have a 54% winrate but still can't brake into gold. It's a lot of 2-1 and 1-2 mornings when I play so getting to gold is not easy. I think we as a region must treat it as a (E)sport, not just a game. Athletes exercise and eat right and yeah get coaching. Learning and getting criticism are critical in the growth process. I have yet to pay anyone for coaching but I do feel that it is a valid option for improvement. I'm going to try to focus on some different things this time around as I love competition and still have hope for the game. Stay strong and keep trying to learn. Thanks for the video!

[@emobean]

I actually laughed out loud around 47:54 watching this as a jungler. Paying attention to your videos to try and get out of iron because I've only played norms since 2017. love your content man, keep it up!

[@cupidok2768]

he warded top side. according to his coaching you should lane towards ur ward. how come he did'nt know this from his coaching

[@rft1076]

@@cupidok2768 maybe he forgot because he was last hitting/interacting with opponent/thinking about wave state. If it's not in your autopilot, then you have to consciously think about it every single time. That's why consciously focusing on 1 thing and getting it into your autopilot is important, so you can then have your mind on something else.

[@cupidok2768]

@@rft1076 basically its his fault. Thx for confirming

[@anniekujo]

Incredible video Curtis, you're doing to much for the community. It's sad to see you fight so hard for the community just for bigger creators to push a wrong narrative onto their viewers. You deserve way more attention but sadly not everyone wants the cold hard truth. You helped me and a lot of other people in your community a lot and I can't thank you enough for this because you didn't only help me with League but in real-life aswell. I try to implement what you say in your videos as much as possible.

[@CoachCurtis]

I appreciate the kind words

[@mauritshagedorn856]

Other bigger creators push a wrong narrative? Who and what are you talking about?

[@anniekujo]

@@mauritshagedorn856 I'm talking about basically every high elo streamer. They all push the narrative of something being broken, losersqueue existing etc. They tell their viewers a wrong image of what league actually is. Actively telling them exactly what Curtis and Nathan try to get out of the community, they try to teach self accountability, patience and consistency. High elo streamers don't care about teaching, they just say x champ or x item is broken. This change riot made ruined the game and it is in no way your fault that you're still stuck because riot is a bad company.

[@MiloThatch420]

This was exactly the video I wanted to find (based on the title, what I’m going through right now… as someone that has been at the silver-barely/ almost gold for 13 years..and currently trying to break free..)

[@dracuhl8342]

Thank you so much for this video! "Haha you seek approval from others yadayada." but it feels good to have someone respected in the community to say that the game is hard even below gold and that below gold you arent just walking forward and playing with your feet.

[@edgartonian-yy7oj]

just subscribed, great video, good content, taking a sensible realistic approach to league

[@NUSensei]

Going back to watch these low elo breakdowns has been interesting. I was that typical hardstuck Silver. Last split I easily hit Gold and figured I'd retire then. Reinstalled in November for this split and now reached Plat 1 and still climbing. The game _is_ different, and I feel that Curtis's observations and concessions about how people feel about below-Gold games are valid. Low elo games are more draining on your mental game because you're faced with so many errors. Most people haven't built mastery with their champion and don't know the objectives for their role, let alone play off-champ and off-role. They don't know what the win conditions are and play with the Team Deathmatch mindset. And when you don't win games by getting kills, you build those narratives - and those narratives are _never_ about the player making mistakes but their team's faults. The flaming happens in chat, and few people have the discipline to mute and play. Low elo games feel more like a relief when they're over as you speed-run your own team tilting. That's the low elo experience. As I climbed up past Silver and Gold, I noticed that the mental game changed. Firstly, I made the decisions to climb (one-tricking a champion that actually suited my play style and learning every single matchup), which meant I was goal-centered. But going through all of Gold and Plat, I only realised that I had only typed in anger in chat _once_ just today, when someone with weaker mental decided that a winning game wasn't worth winning we missed first turret by 10 seconds and trolled the rest of the game. We were together again next game, flamed each other, muted, and easily won it. One game out of 50 where I lost my mental. I thought about why it was such a clean run. Generally, the higher you climb, the more you find players who know what they're doing. When someone screws up, it feels heavier because they're punished harder. But the quality of play in Emerald/Plat is quite different from the slugfest in Silver. People in Silver are stuck for a reason, and you've identified them over and over again. Decision making and narrative building. Eagerness to shift the blame. And a lot of it is pure luck. Fights just break out and you coin flip the result, and if you pull off a clutch play and come out alive, you're the GOAT. But it could've the other way, but players conveniently shift the blame onto their teammates for not covering their mistakes. I feel that anyone who reaches the point where they are hardstuck becomes trapped in that mindset.

[@MrAv3rag3]

I'll be honest, In lane, when you died to Voli, I notice a pattern you have with malzahar that'll keep you alive if you don't fall into it. You should use your auto range indicator to stay at max range from the minions. Also, if you have future's market and a sapphire crystal, just base whenever you have enough gold and to back with the built item. Hopefully that helps

[@DomagojSavordh]

Again I say: even I don't play too often I learned more from 3 weeks watching this channel that 5 years of everything else and I think I will be able to reach gold first time on this split. Here you learn things which you are missing and you didn't know what that is.

[@CoachCurtis]

Good luck on your climb sir!

[@bensparrow3356]

I do wonder if maybe some changes to the champ pool would help. Being a Malzahar one trick even for low elo takes a really particular type of person and I wonder if supplementing his main with another champion that he could then cycle into the main slot later if he preferred it would work.

[@CoachCurtis]

Potentially yeah!

[@Halkem]

I think this video shows a lot of the most common Malzahar mistakes. If he improves on this he can climb really fast. Malzahar is very easy to play and climb with once you get him right.

[@DomagojSavordh]

Thing is also he probably plays what is adviced to climb to gold while I really like poke DoT mages and he's one of my fav so I actually ENJOY the game when playing with him.

[@bensparrow3356]

@@DomagojSavordh Fair, but he is also quite a unique experience and has never been very popular. Koggart may have developed a sunk cost fallacy with regards to the champion, and thats why I suggested adding a 2nd champion to mess around with, not outright replacing Malz. I personally start playing worse if I overindex on one single champ too much and I need to mess around with others to maximize my flow state. Cassio for example is quite mechanical and maybe not the best for silver but fits with a similar player fantasy and identity, and would help bolster other aspects of his play.

[@user-cd3rd6mw4f]

Thank you for doing content like this. I've been maining malzahar and really really trying to get better at the game. While I do consider my self better than the reviewed player, I have been ping ponging between silver/gold. You highlighted several mistakes that I am doing in my own games. Threat assessment, freezing vs pushing (so easy to just perma push on malz), playing off of strong teammates. Your a support mage, always position near teammates/someone who can contribute dmg during R, try not to fight alone unless your fed (your a support mage). One thing that I would like you to go into more detail on though. The first game, and where he gets ganked by voli. You mention that death is warding/threat assessment. What I am wondering is what should have been done different. He had a ward on top by chickens it expires just as the gank happens. Voli was top side earlier so he should have known the jungler was probably bot, and playing towards ward is better although ramus was bot. But where should he have warded? I often ward chickens like he does if I have time and know its safe to do so. If I don't have time I ward pixel opposite side of where I know the jungler is. I often try to cylce wards so im never stuck with out one, so since the first ward was just expiring I wouldn't have placed a new one yet. I ask this because scenarios like this have happened to me, and I guess I don't have the muscle memory/practice in to remember in that moment I should be playing top side re-warding soon etc. I would have probably made this same mistake.

[@VieneLea]

14:46 I love crossing the beams there XD

[@ZadenWoW]

I think a massive issue for people is just not knowing how to actually play their champ Malzahar to me is an anti dive champ, you should not be playing to carry but to protect your ADC (or whoever your carry is) at all cost. This is not specifically stated as much as the fundamentals are.

[@CiviGG]

Something I've also noticed a lot from watching a lot of coaching videos is that coaches don't really seem to teach how to learn to identify mistakes, even via reviewing vods, which is something that seems to have been an issue with this player and was something that he seemed to state was a problem, in that there are so many issues Curtis picked up that he would never be able to identify on his own. I don't play League, it's something I plan to get into when I have a new pc but I've been watching a lot of coaching content to try and give myself a head start. I have a background in amateur sports coaching and one of the biggest things I've always tried to teach my players is how to identify their own mistakes. It's great having coaches to point out that you're doing X and Y wrong, but especially in a game where you don't have coaches to give you feedback on everything you do, you need to have the capacity to identify the mistakes you're making. Obviously you're never going to be able to teach people how to identify and fix every single issue they make but I think there has to be some way to teach that skill to people in a systematic way that allows them to progressively free up their mental stack when vod reviewing, the same way you do in-game by progressively learning skills that become muscle memory or natural intuition.

[@silvereloking6149]

I once hit gold rank and once buy account on gold rank. For my experience, you can really see difference between gold players and silver/bronze/iron. I'm saying that from my perspective of Silver player. I know for Challenger player, there is no diff between bronze and diamond. In gold I was having problem in lane phase almost every game. I was every game behinds cs and useless. Eventually I drop back to silver where I stay and concluded that's my real rank and ello to play.

[@user-zw8qm9xt6p]

I play league since 2012, even reached gold in season 3 but that's it. I'm 27 now and it just feels physically impossible to get out of bronze-silver or at least keep up with my friends in a flex. This Really resonated with me man

[@michelveit8238]

I startet playing in s3, have been gold since season 5, plat since season 8 and have just this year hit diamond for the first time in my life. From my experience, even when I play in other Elos now, I feel like Silver might be one of the hardest Elos to climb out of, especially nowadays. I feel like the skill variance in Silver is so big, even when hard smurfing some of those people can't get carried and some games end up being so frustrating. But to a degree, this happens in every Elo. Still for me, Silver feels among the most random. Just behind Plat1/Dia4. Thats just straight up hell because everyone has such inflated egos and thats where all the boosted people end up.

[@MrDT2012]

Yep, it’s what I tell my friends who are frustrated down there. Especially in 2023, you have no idea what kind of silver player they are. Did they buy a new account? Did they duoQ or boost? So many things can allow anyone silver since it’s like the general entry area.

[@brokenfc]

We also have 1 million mastery point hardstuck silver 6 seasons Riven main. They will shit on you the whole laning phase and do the most insane combos. But just flip mid/late game macros

[@jaimais3527]

Hey coach curtis! This was a really good videon! probably ur most helpful video to me yet :)

[@chensgold]

Thank you so much, I’ve never played any games (at least not consistently) before playing lol, I started because I could play with my friends in college and it’s been hard to learn the mechanisms of it without any other experience, also I enjoy playing adc so you must imagine my suffering 😂 So many people tell me it’s not hard to get trough elos, but to me it is, this was a great class 💕

[@Supertoddy96]

I remember grinding through silver my first time, its a lot of macro and improving your fundamentals, like cs per min, wave management and when to gank etc, hitting plat is just your gold income honestly and not dying, then youre so strong nothing can stop you, the MOMENT i hit plat, everything goes out the window and its so weird how i have to get ahead because at that point idk what im doing apparently, the game randomly changes, people are better, windows are tighter, you have to be more consistent in your clear etc, and kindred is terrible in low elo but does get better, some games i have incredible teammates, but a lot of times i have a bunch of npcs who are just going through the motion of the game without being proactive

[@lewmano7367]

Great video. I’ve been in gold/high silver for years playing off/on since beta. I love playing a huge variety of champs I think that is definitely a cause of inconsistency. I never watch my vods maybe I should

[@faveology]

Your VODs won't matter much if you are still that low rank. Try to lower your champ pool and only play one role. I would only go back and review the VOD for your deaths if you are low rank. Otherwise, you should be able to recognize where you are messing up. 'Ahh I keep missing minions under my turret... why? Oh if I hit the casters once here, then the turret hits, I can then hit them again and get the last hit.' Or 'Why is my lane opponent playing differently all of a sudden? Either they have help near, or maybe they hit an item spike and know something I don't know in this matchup.' List goes on and on. The MOST important thing to remember when trying to climb, especially in NA, is to be greedy and selfish. Don't do ANY play where you will end up dying as the end result and the only possible positive outcome requires your teammates to make the right play. Also, keep track of bounties. You have no bounty but top is 5-0? Is there ANY chance you can potentially roam up there and get that shutdown, even if you die? Try it. That gold you gain from a shutdown can be the difference between you carrying or you losing. Keep track of your bounty as well. You are worth a big bounty? Play extra safe. Don't risk giving the enemy a huge shutdown.

[@ilyVincible]

As someone who started in s 11 and is now hovering in d1 as an assasin bruiser player i could very much understand the mindset why he might strugle with with a champ that is fundementaly easy and a style of character people recommend mostly . I got told to play annie malzahar multiple times in my first season when i got to gold but because my mentality and below optimal understanding of a class and just not fitting how i play the game i opted to play diana wich was perfect to learn game itself while also having enough space in my head to be able and focus on micro aspect of the game ... so if you are reading this i would suggest you to watch his older diana mid lane videos wich helped me a lot on the climb in my first season of starting and reaching gold.

[@AmonForatto]

He doesn't play locked screen. That's AWSOME! I've been seeing a lot of people (even on higher elo) playing full locked screen and it sickens me a bit. So props to him!

[@uehara7973]

Bro, i have this issue. Ive got used to play full locked screen, like for so, so long... i mean, i know every champion skill range in locked screen and at least for me, it really helps in terms of laning and dodging skills. Every time i try to play without locked screen, i look like a football goalkeeper, and get hit by every skill, my positioning gets worse. I got a lil bit better alternating between locked and unlocked screen, but i cant play fully unlocked screen.

[@AmonForatto]

@@uehara7973 i can actually help, if you're realy interested.

[@The_oli4]

​@@uehara7973space is a button that temporary locks screen. Most people with unlocked screen hold space for the locked screen moments in the game and the let go of space for the loose camera.

[@mmorkinism]

If you're not playing 100% of the time with locked camera then there is nothing wrong with it. What matters is being able to gather enough info.

[@eVill420]

Once you get used to unlocked screen dodging and hitting your skillshots becomes 10x easier. Especially in long range like Xerath, Velkoz, Lux, cait etc Because you can actually see them on your screen

[@edwardelric2213]

Hi curtis! love your unique videos as always,i really love your content and i wanna more of these. At the end you said sth about a video you have on neutral objectives,where can i find it?

[@johnnytryin9953]

one of your best video : so relevant. Good job

[@mozkuthehermit5909]

I had this kind of climb at s4 I changed how i played totally when i droped to Bronze 2 at s5, At end of S6, i just decided to climb to gold within a week just with pure determination and fustration I succeeded That climb alone was my hardest games i ever faced when i compare how i have climbed to Masters to S10-S13 Later seasons it was more easier to get diamond than Bronze to Gold When comparing me to past me, im more effient, have better champ pool, i have years of knowledge of match ups and skillset to pack me up with 5 confort picks, macro is getting top notch Those who are at lower ranks it is hard to climb when there is too many factors that effect your games alone, to climb higher and higher you need be like sponge who can absord new information in high speed and adapt in new meta set every 2 weeks but there is also one thing what many coaches dont take in account Sometimes your hardest enemies are your own teammates who already gives up at 5 mins in of the game Like at higher ranks, yea you will meet as5holes who sometimes just ruin your day just for funs or wintrades but people can actually play there so it comes down to game execution At lower ranks, even if you play well, your team can throw game because they dont see game as winnable because they arent carrying the game so they give up and say FF all time and press surr when ever it is open Sometimes when you get stuck at certain rank i have noticed when i created new account and played best of my ability and win many games as possible Your ranked start is decided between lvls 5-25, you only have in current system 20 levels to prove you can get higher and play around real smurfs or even meet few pro players/high elo streamers In S13 first split, i stared on new account and landed on my placements to emerald 3 with only few wins, plus i have 39-45 lp per win to 9-13 lp per loss so i get HUGE climbing boost Like i manually created "riot account" that has set amount of mmr on get go but i needed grind my as5 off for to get that kind of mmr Im happy that i hit last time to master so i decided to retire from leagues ranked play and play normals/arams with my friends for fun I always root for newcomers try get to high ranks for they might bring new mind sets and new wacky things

[@LuffyL-ch1ku]

Perhaps this has to do with the LP changes, but I started LoL during worlds 2020, by the start of 2021 I started playing ranked and got placed in bronze, after a month I got out of bronze to silver by playing Ekko and Akali mid. After that I swapped roles and started playing a lot of jungle and found myself 2-tricking Lillia and Evelynn, and I got stuck in silver for the rest of season 11 and the entirety of season 12 and mind you I played a lot, probably around 1.5k games in both seasons. I finally hit gold 4 in preseason 13 and now, I reached plat 4 around 2 months ago, now I'm hovering plat 2-plat 3. Silver really has been the worst experience to climb for me. Although plat 4 was also really bad because it felt like it was filled with smurfs and now I'm taking a break from League.

[@Thedoctorr5]

I just watched your "What EVERY Bronze & Silver Player NEEDS To Know for Climbing To GOLD" video. It seems between that one and this one you've changed your opinion on coaching for these lower levels. I haven't watched your other videos yet to see if this was a gradual or sudden change but it was weird watching them back to back.

[@CoachCurtis]

I had a massive change on my philosophy/approach towards below gold. Will explain in the coming videos

[@tbhgodrick6120]

A former Malz main here. It’s definitely a fundamentals problem and a poor understanding of champion identity. I don’t think I’ve seen a Malz be pushed in so much before, especially against scaling champs he should have significant push advantage against. Malz excels at shoving and roaming to get kills, secure objectives, make 2v1 invades with your jungler, etc. Being stuck under your turret as Malz feels extremely bad. Also things like I’m seeing a lot of poor timing on W where there’s no E on minions or no wave to combo with the minions so they don’t have focus and get killed easily. It’s much better to EW while you also have a wave so that the minions get a lot of benefit. Random Qs also don’t deal a lot of damage either. The best use of your Q outside of the obvious silence feature is to reset your E on the target. Ideally you let an E tick a few ticks and then hit a Q. Fundamental things like backing for tempo and wave state management are just things that you develop over time as you’re conscious of them. Making sure to shove before roaming or backing, realizing when you have to back to maintain tempo, etc. will just come with time. Just try your best to be cognizant of them. What a lot of other people have said that may be helpful in my experience is to take 10 games where you’re focusing on improving just 1 weakness. For example, tell yourself “for the next 10 games I’m gonna focus on CSing” and try for those 10 games to get the highest CS count possible. For 10 more you might say “I’m gonna focus for these next 10 on dying as little as possible” or “I’m gonna focus on making sure I shove before I roam or back” etc. This process is how I improved my fundamentals to escape Silver. Best of luck friend. 😊

[@JoopieSmid707]

Fundementals don't really come with time (atleast to a certain extent), if you don't actively focus on improving them. I think improving fundementals is the best way to improve win rate though. Agreeing with you btw on being concious of them.

[@huathebard]

Yo Curtis, this is going to be a long reply, this one kind of got to me. I've been lurking for a long time and really enjoy your content. I don't play mid (jungle), so no MLA for me, that being said, I do invest in regular coaching and play in 3 blocks (I also have Saltu Academy membership) and am currently climbing through silver. I'm currently sitting on about a 70% winrate on my main (only one). I'm not saying this to brag, just to set up some context as I have relatively little to complain about right now from a climbing perspective. Despite having a winrate I'm pretty happy with, I could easily see myself getting to a rank where I'm no longer playing as well relative to the rank and I end up in the position in this video. I'm aware of the notion of a "solo queue contract" that you and Nathan like to talk about, and I'm mostly on board with it. That being said, I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say that I don't occasionally wonder whether the contract is worth it or not. I went through my match history today, and I don't think I would be exaggerating if I said that there was something seriously wrong with 30-40% of my games. Either someone is running it (not just having a bad game,) AFK, or getting boosted (half the time it's in my favor, I'm aware that this doesn't stop climbing.) Given the percentage of games that are seriously defective, it definitely makes me wonder sometimes whether this is a good use of my time especially given that I'm pretty busy with IRL stuff (busy career etc...). If I wasn't having a masters+ player review my game play multiple times a month I would probably also be sitting on a ~54% win rate. Combined with the fact that I have +19 -29 because I started playing last year from Iron, I would also probably want to quit if I was sitting on a similar win rate (which could definitely happen.) It's not that I have a problem with losing, but given the absurdly high percentage of "defective" games, it's very easy to feel that the game is overly random. It would feel a lot better on a slightly positive win rate if more of the games were "fair". For context, in my last 2 two blocks (6 games) I have had a game where there has been a booster on the enemy team, a game where I had 2 people on my team running it down 0/14 (actually running it, not having a bad game), and a game where I had a ridiculous 100% win rate Katarina smurf on my team (I won the lottery on this one.) Even though one of these was in my favor, half my games were very messed up in some way. I was able to win the other three, so 60% win rate for the last two blocks. So, I really only had agency in 50% of my games the last 2 days. While I crushed that 50%, if I was playing less well, I could have easily dropped 1 of these games. If we were closer to an ideal world, dropping 1/3 games where you have agency should land you close to a 60% win rate. Unfortunately, because some 30-40% of games are messed up one way or the other and pretty low agency (in either direction), it will push you closer to 50 than 60. Sorry for the screed, but I'm still really not sure if a game where 30-40% of games are low/0 agency if you're playing a bit above your rank is worth it to me. The other 60-70% of games are amazing and tons of fun, but 30-40% is a steep cost. I'm aware that this is an unbelievably difficult problem to solve at scale, but I also don't think that should factor into anyone's decision to spend time on the game or not. It's really not our problem as players, as at the end of the day, it's either a good use of time or not. At least for me, I'd say that if I had no agency in 50% of my games (even if I win half of 0 agency games) I'd say it'd be unambiguously not worth it for me. I just don't want to spend my time on a game where half the time what I do doesn't matter (one way or the other, I don't really enjoy low agency wins either.) League is unfortunately creeping towards that 50% mark. I don't think it's wrong to acknowledge that Riot has some work to do regarding "player behavior" to keep the game viable. It's to everyone's benefit if Riot is actually able to fix these problems. Also want to reiterate, the low agency games aren't stopping me or anyone else from climbing, but even if they don't stop anyone from climbing, are they a good use of time?

[@CoachCurtis]

Something to note is that the lower the elo bracket the MORE trolls/people who don't care. In Iron/Bronze there are even more than in Silver. But as you get higher and higher, it gets exponentially lowered to the point where in master + it's literally 1 in every 100 games where there is a genuine troll. So for a lot of the lower elo community I see what you are saying as a valid point and a good question to ask. It might not be the best use of their time in the short term, BUT in the long term it will get better.

[@huathebard]

@@CoachCurtis That's fair and it's kind of what I'm holding out for. I'm almost out of Silver. Hopefully it improves a bit in Gold. Just to clarify though, I don't run into that many inters, even in Silver. I probably have an inter/troll (on either my team or enemy team) maybe in 15-20% of games. Maybe it's just end of season that's driving this, but I get boosters and smurfs more than I get inters. In my last 6 games, I only had 1 inter (my team), but I had 2 boosters (1 my team and 1 enemy team.) The boosters are frankly more aggravating than the inters. These days I think I'm playing well enough that I think I can probably carry some % of inted games. Playing against a Dia+ booster in Silver feels way worse :/. Even if they're on your team it kind of sucks. It makes the game really boring even if it's a free win. So yeah, I'm hoping that the boosting situation calms down a bit once I get to gold. I assume it'll pick up again around plat with people looking to get diamond, but hopefully gold will be a bit of reprieve. I also have only played for a year or so, and I have no context for previous years, but I do wonder if the boosting/smurfing is extra bad right now on account of the smurf queue removal. I don't mind running into the occasional smurf/booster, as it can be educational (I actually got smurfed on recently by a booster playing my main champion and it was very informative,) but 1 in 3 games is really ridiculous.

[@nathanrodriguez5891]

As a life long low ELO player, this comment is spot on and what makes ranked League debatably not worth it for me too. Why spend a lot of time playing games with low agency and trying to keep my mental for games where I have to be 100% on my mental and play perfectly to climb.

[@Auturgist]

I have decided, pretty firmly, fuck Summoner's Rift. I'm dead set against queuing solo into a 5v5 mode with low agency when the new 2v2v2v2 mode actually looks fun and gives me a ton of agency.

[@L9nexah]

Great video as always. I just want to ask a question (not related to the video), what do you think of Kassadin currently? I feel like I struggle with him a lot more than last season, I hit plat with Kassadin in season 12 but I didnt even reach it in S13. My playstyle is pretty midgame carry oriented, taking Ludens to try to get fed early but it just doesnt work for me anymore. Whats the best playstyle now?

[@DeathBean89]

Hey, new viewer. I've watched a couple of videos I'm a fan of the content, and I definitely appreciate the look at silver elo gameplay. One thing that I would like to see would be clearer notes. I understand that you're typically writing with the mouse and drawing on the screen to point things out, but it's hard to follow what's being written sometimes. A great example is in the key learnings + take-away section in paint at the end of the video. If you go to e.g. 1:03:08 and pause it, it looks like point #2 says something like "CC / crandy / nyalie" if you don't have the audio. Other than that, looking forward to more content in the future!

[@voltrix3821]

i rlly love ur content was plattoed at plat 4 as adc i decided to go onto a new jurney of playin yasuo mid cause ive always liked swords and being in their face which might be reason why i was only able to get plat on adc ive finnaly decided to make a switch ive always wanted to do but i was too scared cause ive thought all that time i played this game would be wasted a thought finnaly crossed my mind i rlly love anime swordsmans and swords in general and i love seeing that crit strike numbers for my second champ i chose lissandra cause she seems pretty fun to play

[@DarthZackariya]

NEW COACH CURTIS VIDEO LETS GO

[@jumpkicking]

I'm a silver 4 support main, I only play solo que as I've not currently been too motivated to seek a duo. I exclusively play support and in the past I've tried to climb to gold with a few different people, but the closest i got was silver 2. All I do each season is climb to silver in solo que and then play normals. I found it particularity difficult this time around, while the last time I did this I glided to silver with Taric and I sort of regret not pushing, I was clearly doing something right. What I find frustrating about playing the game is that I will win lane most of the time (~70-80%) and I can get adcs incredibly fed, I become very present and I co-operate, never being spiteful... and then we lose. Whats odd is that even if I trash the enemy bot into irrelevance... their team can win, but I swear every game I lose lane when it happens I lose by default and never get carried. I understand the importance of being carried, sometimes you are against someone better than you or the stars misalign, but your team mate does well and you do everything in your power to help them carry you. I'm finding a lot of success playing Alistar support, I've been playing in normals and picking him regardless of the enemy support pick and I've got to a point where "counters" don't phase me and I can best them. My biggest issue does seem to be luck, and I know this sounds like cope, but especially in my recent games (also I've been playing with friends starting the game off role)... my jungler is doing nothing and my enemy jungler is incredibly proactive. I find that when I;m thrashing my lane I'm often subject to 4v2 from the enemy team collaborating to deal with us... but then when it's the other way around we get no help and I struggle. I'm not so hung up on my rank (silver is sort of respectable), low elo or not I enjoy the game... but I'd be really dissapointed if I missed a victorious skin for some of my favorite supports (RIP Blitz) and I genuinely feel that I can compete at gold elo. My friend reached Diamond 1 and invited me to play with him and his diamond buddies and I actually did just as well in low elo as I did in a high elo lobby, I even did really well as Shen jungle in such lobby off-role. I feel I could do better, but something is keeping me down. People say "you need to play top or jungle to climb", but I know people have climbed solo que as support and I typically do well with my duos when I have one. I love this game and I think I can do better, but I guess I'm lacking motivation.

[@Cinderthebeaver]

@jumpkicking so I am a support main too. You are probably just ranting and tilted but I’ll still say this. Don’t play games when your tilted. Don’t think the game revolves around you being support. We are utility and vision is information and information is god. I sometimes win lane as well but because of mistakes you throw your snowball. I suggest rewatching your mid/late game vods, supp KZbinrs (corejj, bizzle, etc), and have a Diamond/platinum friend critique you.

[@johnfullker8986]

play pyke

[@karenwang313]

I have to give you credit, every time I watch your videos I get super excited, thinking I can finally climb out of iron/bronze, only to be reminded how futile the thought is every time I get on soloqueue.

[@Nuvizzle]

I know most of this review is pretty general mid laning advice but one malz specific thing this guy is completely neglecting is his passive. He doesn't seem to change his game plan at all in lane when his passive is down. In every game there were so many situations where hanging back and playing a bit safer just for a few more seconds for the passive to come back up would've saved his life. Malz with passive up is extremely difficult to gank even for some of the most aggressive junglers out there - almost every death to the Nunu for example would've been avoided if he'd respected his passive cooldown more. Once or twice the enemy laner smartly walks up to break the passive as the jungler is in route, but in most of these ganks the shield goes down well before the gank happens which should instantly put the thought in your mind "oh, I could be ganked in this position, I should be more passive until my shield is up".

[@yiannisv3573]

Great video. As a gold player I have to say when you say stuff, like he should have ulted the nunu under turret then you say he should have ulted the urgot under turret: In cases like the first, I'm too slow to react and in cases like the second, there is so much stuff going on, it's imposible to notice urgot. I don't know if attention to multiple things and reflexes can be trained honestly, and it's definetely something that makes me mess up a lot of important plays

[@WhiteBoyFunk]

Instantly hooked me the moment Coach says - "below gold is just misunderstood." It's so true.

[@smelly4373]

37:20 one of my biggest pet peeves, is the team wasting time chasing instead of taking objectives. I main ADC so outside pinging I can’t force my jungler to go for objectives and it can get quite frustrating, this is a classic scenario I’ve seen quite often in my games

[@vanjamenadzer]

This is the reason I bought a plat mmr account instead of a fresh one when my main got banned. I really can't torture my self by playing through silver/gold games for this exact reason. I lost many games when 12/3 jungler is chasing 0/10 support to add one more kill and gets caught, dies, enemy take baron which was free for us. Almost every 2nd game in silver is like this. Just pain.

[@KD-_-]

My biggest peeve with lower MMR is frontliner top / jg playing defensively when our mid and not are strongly ahead and we can easily wipe them in fights...

[@Wombola]

Coach your videos even helped me climb in Dota2

[@aemaful]

Hi! What software do you use for watching vods? I use VLC right now but when hardcore slow-mo it tends to crash

[@SnickersWasHere555]

Hi Curtis. I've stumbled across your content recently; mainly from the Broken by Concept Podcast and very much enjoy the content there. I'm exploring the content both you and Nathan are producing individually at the moment. Full disclosure; at the time of writing this comment I haven't finished the entire video, but something stuck out to me that I was wondering if I might be able to pick your brain on. At the near start of the video when we went into VoD review you said you weren't going to nitpick every small detail and that you were going to go big picture with core mistakes, which in principle I don't really question. Where I begin to get curious is that this seems to have applied to the laning phase as well and I am wondering why. I've received coaching from a couple of other sources and by far the most influential on my play was LS's team, but more directly the person he referred his Bronze (that was the lowest tier at the time) to Gold players to, HitTheLow. The primary focus of the coaching was mainly the laning phase with the mid and late game essentially following a flow chart. Embedded in this was a way of self review that actually had it's own template. Did I CS 5-6 minions per wave? Did I trade 5-6 CS per wave? Did I follow the rules for wave control? Did I position myself in the correct places to Trade and CS? The coaching set up clear "rules" for where to stand, what to do in basic wave states, and defined what a trade was (for clarity, contesting a minion and doing damage, forcing mana/ability cd's, and simply causing the opponent to miss the gold was all considered a trade. XP was brought up as well but is usually much harder to do successfully). The mid and late game followed another set of rules even simpler than that, but I'll spare you that for the moment in the interest of sticking to the point. The nice thing about this is it allowed me to be objective about the game and my performance. Before it wasn't very effective for me to review my own games because I could remember the reason why I made the decisions I did and didn't see why it was wrong to do so. This stripped all that away. What I knew became irrelevant to the process and I didn't have any of my preconceived knowledge getting in my own way. This caused me to improve more in 3 months than I did in 9 years of playing league at the time. I think this point is increasingly relevant given that our hero who we're observing today has said in his reply that self review and applying knowledge in practice were some of his biggest challenges. One of the downsides to the "core ideas" style of coaching in my personal experience is it can leave self review to be a harder process because of the difficulty to change paradigm. It's much easier to justify your decisions based on your current knowledge than it is to open your mind and ask questions and truly have the mental capacity and the critical thinking skill to question and correct what you believe to be true. It may even be worth asking (I don't know the answer because I'm not a coach) if someone had the critical thinking skill and mental flexibility to do that on their own if they really even need coaching. At least in the sense of coaching that I'm thinking of. It seems folks that possess that ability have much, much different coaching sessions that other ones I've seen. I'm curious to know your thoughts on the approaches. You and Nathan seem to be very considerate, very knowledgeable, and very deliberate about the content you guys put out and I'd love to know why you chose this style of approach for a video like this and what considerations come to mind, as well as your experiences with each approach and what impact they have on your students. I hope this didn't come across as pompous or super critical. I enjoy your content and am quickly growing a lot of respect for the two of you. If you've read this far I really appreciate your time and I hope to see a reply. Have a great night!

[@PossibleTango]

The easiest way to actually rank up is to learn to know when to dodge games. What I noticed is that the better comp (if it's significantly better) tends to win the games 80% of the time.

[@Roasty420]

I feel his stress, I'm a former OTP Malzahar who was once Platinum3 and in the top 8% of the NA player base, and let me tell you, Silver is a hell hole. I recently got back into the game after my one-year hiatus and I started playing meta champs, as my knowledge on the game is pretty good, but I've lost my gold promos three times and overall, I was stressed, as one of those loses was due to a troll and two of those loses was due to me playing the same smurfing Master Yi, shit was exhausting. After my three loses for gold promos I started getting trolls and inters and then I snapped, and I trolled 10 games straight on support I knew it was a bad idea, but overall, I was pressed and irritated. Overall, the game has it's metas and its player base is terrible at times with trolls, inters, and smurfs, winning in rank can be a shakeup at times. It takes grit and passion to play this game and climb.

[@jamesdrool]

Some very helpful points made! That being said I do feel like any tips that hinge on you being able to influence your teammates' actions are better served for higher tiers of play. Like at 37:33 when you talk about doing Infernal and Baron rather than chasing the enemy team for kills. That would objectively be the better call but your teammates (and I'm speaking from my Gold/Plat experience) will either ignore you or not respond quickly enough for it to be possible. I do feel like the advice I want to hear (as an exceptionally average player) is more of a "Yes, and..." approach (this is an improv comedy reference, I'm sorry). My teammates are going to do what they're going to do. If my guidance and communication is ignored, how can I pivot to support the game my teammates are going to play? Or even if it pisses them off, how can I make game winning plays in spite of them? Again, love the content.. always gets me thinking and have learned/applied a lot of these tips to my game.

[@xcmedinA]

2 weeks ago I climbed to gold 3 80 LP. Then it seemed like whatever I did and no matter how hard I tried I kept losing and now I’m down to silver 4 and can’t stop falling. Really discouraged and don’t know how to get back up. I’m certainly not perfect but it seems the lower rates I fell the more trolls and inters or instant giver uppers there are :(

[@dumpsterplayer2700]

as someone who went from s3 to g3 this season this video will be interesting. There are a lot of things i prob did different that helped that i dont even know i learned. Off the top of my head (mid player here) that i ACTIVELY worked on * Knowing where jungler starts, and playing on the side of the lane where he isnt * putting a deeper ward at 2:15 ish (before 245 for sure) * using my spells on opponent when they go for CS * getting better backs where i dont miss creeps/give plates for free * if i harass with autos backing off so i dont take too much ranged creep aggro

[@faveology]

Yep. Also, watching pro play is a great way to learn the game in general as well. Even if you don't understand what is happening, the casters do a great job of explaining things. Especially if you listen to the criticisms the caster is giving. 'X player should have known cause y, and z'

[@pedrofaria6236]

Tbf I'm tired of this game. I main jungle and 90% of the time I win jungle but the bot or top loses and throws the game away. Sometimes there are communication problems like mid and bot refuse to assist me in drake or top in herald to secure objectives and make sure we won't lose any fight. Because of that, I try other lanes like top and support, and mostly win as well but the others find a way to lose again. Even though I'm frustrated I can't blame the team players because they mostly try their best but the matchmaking is so stupid. I peaked at gold last season, now playing at silver and can't get out because they put me as a bronze player and autofill players. The matchmaking is horrible, frustrating and not rewarding. Even if you get better, you can't carry them. Maybe if you go pre, but if not, give up.

[@ace0ecra]

you were so close to reviewing silver gameplay to my main champion, fizz. that would of been interesting to see a challengers perspective on how my champion would be played by them.

[@unknownff15]

Damn I felt like this guy. Malz main that would bounce gold 2-1. Felt like I was too passive and my mechanics reflected it. Followed your advice and finally hit Plat for the first time (playing since s4) on my off role as adc. It was painful but I learned so much about aggression, positioning, and efficiency. I've seen people hit GM with Malz only but for me it was def holding me back not because the champ or playstyle, but because it did not fit my personality.

[@bazzagazza5019]

Malz is a beta champ 💀

[@foenem6003]

@@bazzagazza5019 xd i cant understand how anyone plays malz

[@MrBromedy]

@@foenem6003 Some people like playing by themselves Veigar > tbh

[@KayOScode]

@@MrBromedyyep, cass is my chad champ, and veigar is my b** champ. Good combo imo

[@BACON-nf2rr]

For me personally what got me out of silver was picking a champion that can really punish low elo players. I played support and 2 types of champions that did this for me was ones that can tank cds and consistently win lane (for me that was Tahm kench currently) and the other type was consistnently win lane and do dmg (zyra,xerath). Nautilus amumu and other engage type supports are fine but u will be much more dependant on ur teams follow up and one bad decision on ur part can end the game. Pyke i dont recommend, i had played 120 games on him with like 52% avg scores of 8-5-10 , he isnt bad but half the time ur adc wont do much with his lead and u dont scale too well in an elo that leads to a lot of late game, even getting heralds and drakes early doesnt consistently end the game early here. (this was solo, later i played duo and any supp worked as long as u played around ur duos champ pick/lane)

[@valentin06iancu]

I play league casually (average 20-30 games per week) since season 2. My peak was Plat 2. However, what i noticed every single year (rank reset) is that while i'm always placed in a good elo, once you hit gold 3-2 everything changes. Players tendency is that they have limited to none experience regarding wave management, macro gaming, objective focus. One example i can give is , on one of my account i'm currently Plat 4 and in one of my games where my adc was Emerald 2 i told him i go roam to help jungler with first herald. He literally started to go crazy saying i'm stupid ... that i leave him alone (as an ezreal adc) and from that point on he ran it down. Now, just imagine this behavior in silver :)) and you'll figure out very quickly why people struggle. My advice is to learn the fundamentals, jump into support role, do a lot of roam (consistently , every game) , help your jungler secure objectives. That's how i climb as a casual player every year to plat 2-3.

[@opa-age]

No matter how good you are at your champ, it's hard to climb because: 1. Riot's matchmaking algo to try to make you lose 50% of games no matter what 2. Feeders, trolls, inters, smurfs. 3. Just simply unwinnable games due to bad matchups where games are lost in champ select.

[@RetirededKat]

I've never heard the term "sophisticated gaming background" before, I'm putting that on my resume. "Robust and extensive gaming experience"

[@emperorsascharoni9577]

Most low elo problems are just down to missing out on easy gold by farming for low % roams and second is engaging when not necessary. Especially when on a roll people tend to want more and aren’t happy with small wins which goes back to prioritizing easy gold over risky gold.

[@victorhansen1028]

played since s6. League was first game ever and still is. i liked top. played to lvl 30 got into bronze and ended bronze 5 three seasons straight. playing 3-400 games a season. was very lost. until i found out how to play basic concepts and learning aggression a bit. played camille all the time. and still do. to me this game is about some small flawed areas in your arsenal that holds you back. sometimes all it takes for the stars to align is a little observation about how to circumvent certain scenarios and play them slightly different. im masters now and ended my season as the 12th best camille player in eune. this player has alot of games down and could well miss a tiny point or two to reach that dream of gold.

[@chazdomingo475]

I don't play league, but I play Dota2. I'm a silver equivalent (guardian). It's interesting to see the streaks are a part of LoL too. I wonder what it is about matching making that both games have that makes those streaks. Usually when I'm in them I just have outright feeders and griefers several games in a row.

[@MightrisN1]

Thats completly true when i first time hit plat ever there was plat 5 it was a HUUUUUGE difference in players playstyle and communication even more positive vibe than "trolling rage kids" or "trying to be funny rude kids". bronze I till gold 3 is same bunch of dificulty in my opinion.

[@BlackIceNails]

LoL was the first game I properly played, and it took me like 2k games to climb from bronze 4 to gold 4 in season 6. It's NOTTTT as easy as they make it out to be. I hit dia last season which I was super proud of, but at this elo its so weird to see smurfs trolling saying that dia is "low elo" when i know how hard i had to work to get there, especially because the quality of gameplay has improved soooo much that the average silver player now can do things that you would have needed to be plat to know in season 6.

[@steffenjensen422]

I've just started playing ranked and lost 5 of 6 games. I think that's quite good actually since right now I don't care since I've just started and in the future, my mental is gonna be bulletproof since I'm already used to loss streaks

[@unforgiven3035]

I’ve played for 4 years and I just hit gold this year. I have stayed in silver for 2 years straight stuck in silver 4 for those 2 years. I finally got out of silver this season by limiting my champ pool to Yasuo Yone and Pantheon. But currently Yasuo feels really hit or miss in majority of the games I’m now stuck in Gold 4 and just unable to move forward.

[@badbadfull]

Making a new account will allow you to progress more in 1 day than you have in the last 4 years.

[@gymlin123]

did no one noticed the really sick flash prediction from malz at 7:02? :D

[@Thedoctorr5]

Hey this video definitely fills a hole in this kind of content. You might have found a niche here my dude

[@omarhossam9200]

Thanks, Curtis, about this great video, but I have a concern, and I hope you answer me Do you think I need to have consistency in all the 6 points you mentioned at the end of the video (and the other basic fundamentals) just to get out of SILVER If that's true that will actually shift my mindset a lot becuase I feel like a player will stuck in silver until he develops a plat level of fundamentals then he will climb to this plat elo then (I mean I won't really have a problem getting stuck for a while if I know I need the whole collection of fundamentals to climb, So I will work on developing them regardless of my rank then hopefully I will just climb at somepoint after getting comfortable with them.) This is important to address because you have to understand most of those who quit are so afraid that they will climb through silver and getting stuck at gold again, climb through gold, yet stuck at plat agian and so on which TBH my not worth it.

[@CoachCurtis]

Well in league there are many ways to climb, you got to remember that you can OVER INDEX on particular skills to make up/compensate for other lacking skills. There is no ONE 'cookie cutter' way to climb. BUT a good/replicable way to climb is be consistent in the areas I mentioned e.g. resets/playing in accordance to R/teammate locations etc.

[@omarhossam9200]

Yeah, I understand, so while learning fundamentals one by one, some of them may compensate for other lacking skills, which may result in some improvement in the rank along the way. Thanks, coach, and glad to always watch you

[@foxyxayah8864]

any idea how this marking tool is called? i kinda wanna get back at analysing like i did years ago, it would help pointing out misstakes and such, big big thanks in advance

[@MattHatter360]

I have been playing since season 5 and have always been silver, this season I decided I wanted to try to get gold and I did wil 64% wr. All I had to do was understanding that it would take me more than 20 games to get there and I had to actually try. I think when it comes to low elo it's all about putting in the work. I don't think this is necessarily a healthy thing because I understand not everyone has the time to do it, but here's my two cents.

[@dogdo92]

Well, congrats! Koggart is gold now! Well done!

[@wrwinter]

ok but what about those of us who are actually grandmaster players stuck in silver? /s

[@anniekujo]

💀

[@marianominino7264]

xd

[@JW-nu8ks]

Looked him up and he is still a Malzahar one trick but is Plat 4 now. Nice to see him figure it out :)

[@NexyiaArt]

I'm doing that thing and replying to something only a few minutes in, but hearing a high elo player accept that really, for others, it IS hard to process and learn the information to improve, its not easy. I stopped playing this game a while ago, and recently i;m jumping in, relearning everything. I just always remember that I have always felt differences between different super low elos while I was climbing, even when I would play through a low elo account again, I noticed these same differences, and it might be miniscule to a challenger player but realistically, to a player of that elo, it feels SO rough, and then importantly, it's easy to get into your own head about it, making it harder

[@bryanglover757]

Curtis you are GOAT’d

[@OminousSilence1]

First of all, I'm writing this cause I actually have hope that you might make a chance for us all as to how low elo is percieved. second, I am not bashing you, I'm actually a big fan of what you did and try to give some very constructive feedback. Please don't take anything the wrong way, I'm not trying to hate on you! I am both very happy and slightly disappointed in this video. When I read the title I had so much high hopes that a higher elo player realizes how it's not always as straight forward as basic fundamentals to climb. The fact you look further than just "I can do this with my eyes closed, so they should be able to do it with some help and tryharding, easily" is very admirable and I thank you very much for that. TL;DR start: In silver, due to smurf accounts starting here, lack of basic knowledge and a large variety of which specific pieces of knowledge is present in each silver player in any given game, the games in silver are VERY inconsistent. Therefor, it is much more benefitial to focus on how to carry in the mid-late game, rather than focusing on the laning phase. TL;DR end. I used to be a silver stucker for years and although I can safely reach plat now for multiple seasons in a row, I still have troubles winning games in silver. The main thing that I've noticed is: players in silver understand about 20% of the game. Therefor, by knowing the fundamentals of league of legends (which i estimate to be around 60% of all game knowledge), you should have the consistency to outplay your opponents in 2/3ds of every game. examples: -when the enemy midlaners knowledge goes as far as the laning phase, both harrassing, backing, trading and recalling, you might go even in lane. But then you'd outplay the living XXXX out of them once laning phase is over and you know to catch side waves or shadow vulnerable allies. -an other example could be a tryndamere who goes 10/0 in laning phase and you decide to play around this player. Problem is, if they are a true silver player, there is a high chance that they only mastered their laning phase and will start to int after the toplane tower falls. This is the "20% knowledge threshold". Now in this example, even if your yorick goes 0/10 inlane, if his 20% of knowledge is on splitpushing, grouping and catching people at 20+ minutes, there is a huge chance that this tryndamere you trust your game to, will get severly outclassed, outpressured and you will simply lose playing around him. The key issue that most high elo players forget when helping low elo players, is that people DON'T have a full understanding of *ALL* fundamentals. therefor lategames are extremely random and there is very little consistency to be found in each game. then there is smurfs. When a new botted account is bought and boosted through intro bot games to lvl 30, the first ranked game that smurf account will play is in silver 1 elo. THIS IS A MAJOR PROBLEM. players that have grinded their account through normal games have a normal game MMR, which will be taken into account if the account has *never* played any ranked games before. So a new player, will mostly start in low bronze elo. If this player manages to climb to silver, they will start to notice "Elo hell". This is because the games are already super inconsistent due to the 20% knowledge, but also because every other game or so, there is a very strong smurf on either team (i realize i am part of the problem, call me a hypocrite all you want, it will only prove my points). Now I can see people think "so what if 2 in every 10 games have an enemy smurf and 2 out of every 10 games have an allied smurf, it will balance itself out". Although that is not entirely true due to the 5 potential enemy smurfs vs 4 potential allied smurfs (and you), this still poses a problem in trying to be consistent, self confidence since you compare yourself to these players + smurfs, and the overall enjoyment of grinding. Then there is an other issue I have found trying to improve and get out of silver myself a couple years back. Almost all guides that I find, focus specifically on the laning phase. Unless you're a jungler, I think this is fundamentally wrong for silver players and below. If you're able to get 90 cs on a fizz at 10 minutes and roam bot to get a double kill... good for you, smurfing is easy. But unless you get an advantage that is as significant as this scenario, I'm certain that mid-late game information is a million times more valuable to silver players than laning information. Now for some reference points to the video: 1: 17:30 - 18:14 So this is one of the key moments that i mean. Not for a single second did you analyze what the malzahar player was thinking. You said "greedy pathing" but that is not at all what was in his head. It's safe to assume that he thought "i have 3 allies nearby, zeri and yuumi are bot, I am very safe and I want to make sure they don't have an escape path. Therefor I come from behind plus I have enough time to clear the ward in the tribush". The fact that he gets collapsed on by Kassadin and Volibear might not even has crossed his mind and even made him think "ah ****... I'm so unlucky. But it was the right play". After 9 minutes of laning phase gameplay, even if he smurfed out of his mind like in my fizz example earlier, he would still have lost the game right here. In fact, it would've been even worse, cause the Zeri/Kassadin would've gotten a 1k shutdown bounty. 2: 37:20 - 38:45 I appreciate that you pointed out that he overextended after the 2 kills, but I still think that you kinda shoved it under the rug. I think a dedication of those same 9 minutes would be infinitely more valuable when used to explaining why it is quite literally game losing to chase them into the jungle, over taking dragon, 1 or 2 enemy jungle camps, then resetting, warding baron and going back to grouping/pushing lanes. 3: 39:00 - 39:10 "You've got a very very clear wincondition". I disagree with this. Specifically with the "very very clear" part. As a plat player looking at their team, I was questioning myself what or who the win condition was, since I can see kogmaw easily get blown up by kassadin. Even if you ult the Kassadin, they have a volibear ult to knock the kog out. Now with some prolonged thinking I can see how being with kogmaw will potentially win this game, but considering that it took me a bit, there is no way you can expect a silver player to think the wincondition is "very clear" to them. "shove midwave move, shove midwave move, can't really go wrong with that". There are two problems here as well. First, I highly doubt that this is obvious to anyone in silver. I assume that the people watching this video didn't take a full course where you explained this stuff in greater detail, therefor it's actually quite vague and weird that you're suggesting this without any context of what to do after executing the push. In the end, all you're telling right now is to start araming. Then there is the 2nd problem. The chance that your team will follow you, even if you ping like a maniac (which will more likely get you muted than listened to) is very low. What is the alternative, when your team doesn't follow you into pushing mid and then setting up an ambush in their jungle or something similarly effective? (I.E. you could've mentioned to shadow the kogmaw from fog of war, trying to get a pick on someone that tries to get an easy kill on the kog). there is not much to say about game 3 and 4 since the afk makes it meaningless and in game 4 we didn't get passed 10 minutes. I hope someone finds use in what I wrote.

[@jasperdaniels9045]

Man. I demoted from gold a couple days ago after around 15 games where i was positive in all but 1 and lost all but 1. I literally broke down in tears today because this game just has a way of tunnelling into your head and making it seem more important than just a time waster mostly. It's so fucking hard to play even remotely competently when you're tilted going into every game.

[@rotaryryosuke1552]

I quit ranking a couple years ago for the same reason. I had gotten so tilted with not just League, but IRL. I want to come back to ranked but with a different mentality. This video inspired me to try again, but I won't know until I try again if my mentality has changed.

[@soulsemblance3163]

I am a high plat low diamond player(soon probably emerald depending on where mmr will land me) and I went back to a very old account because it had rare skin on it. I have literally a 65% wr on my otp champs(singed swain) and I had a 17% winrate on both of them with an average kda. I thought diamond 4 was elo hell but trust me being low elo while maining tanks or non carry champs is the real hell. Once I got a few lucky games and reached gold I suddenly shot up to platinum despite having Terrible lp gains from the consecutive losses. They would always surrender and never do objectives. I am sorry for anyone in silver that isn't 🧠 dead but struggles to climb because of their teammates constantly surrendering.

[@boomknight1015]

17:30 Ramus made the main mistake of moving to help the split rather then grouping with the team. Ramus is the main CC and tank and can't push towers well. Split pushers wins games which is why it happens so much, What they need is the 4 members to have good vision and know where the other team is at. Not forcing a fight but looking for misplays and someone going solo making easy kills for your team. Just resisting with out starting an actual fight, or threaten a push bot when he is top. Making it impossible to defend both with out making it even. What I don't like is their team has at lest one person who can jump pit, no one should be moving near pit, they should all have grouped near tower to defend and ward you're jungle. No one freaking warded, even as with vision you can see them pushing into the jungle to help attack bot tower. The malz is 100% at fault for not seeing Ramus top and not playing safer in a clear 3 on 4. Just hug tower and not risk them jumping wall for a gank on malz going solo for a cut off.

[@theodorossavvides5321]

Im otp zed and you helped me reach gold with your zed guide❤

[@ChimkinSendwich]

Hello I want to join the program will there be content for specific champions or just general fundamentals?

[@lWlKingofSpadeslWl]

As someone who was hardstuck silver for years, the cruel reality is once an account is hardstuck gold or lower, it is going to take the average player 1-2 years playing 3-4 matches daily after learning how to improve. The problem is once you hit a huge negative LP loss, the account is essentially screwed. I was losing 29-31 LP and gaining 17 or 18 last February. This was even after finally hitting gold. It was not until i found a commited duo that i turned plat and actually evened out my LP gains. But without a dedicated duo to improve your chances of winning and winning most of your matches per session on a regular basis. The account is essentially working against you. People can literally level an account to level 30, get it ready for ranked and lose 5 placement matches. You will end up in gold 1.... i dont know why Riot thinks this is where new people belong, but this plagues gold to emerald. So genuinely new players have no clue what basic fundamentals are amd they are playing in higher elo games than they belong. So my biggest advice after hitting diamond this year to people hardstuck gold and lower is this. If you truly want to climb and save your mental health, level up another account after mastering fundamentals on your old main, and tryhard on a new account when you are ready. Lastly, playing more does not mean you are doing yourself a favor. Stop rage queing, if you lose 2 matches call it a day on ranked. If you win most of your placements, you will have a shot at reaching plat and see how far you have come.

[@Clayray94]

Do you think the ranked system is designed to be like a bell curve? where as the general player base gets better the ranks don't change that much because there is effectively a curve?

[@rileykwak4339]

babe wake up new coach curtis video

[@marcelohenrique2638]

i've played league since 2015 (but with gaps of over 2 years) and I'd never climbed out of gold until now, I started to play again and got to plat pretty fast, now I dont know if it is the emerald elo that made it easier or i just got better at the game

[@1337MaxRabbit]

Can someone tell me what the actual tradeoff is between starting Doran's Ring vs. Sapphire Crystal? Coach mentions several times which starter item he thinks would be better for that matchup but I don't understand why.

[@zombamin2525]

As a bronze player who has gotten much better at the game since when I started, I have noticed some things. When I started I learned the game, started playing ranked when my account was level 50, and honestly wasnt very good. I knew I wasnt great but I still didn't think the losses were entirely my fault. However, I have since stopped playing ranked and become much better at the game through my hundreds of games of normal draft. However going back into ranked every now and then I have noticed some things. Since I now play at a level much closer to high silver or low gold (according to my friend who is in diamond), when I go into a game of ranked where I am playing against other ppl in very low bronze or high iron, I have noticed that much of the time I will legitimately just curb stomp them due to being much better at the game. However, as a veigar player, there are some games where even doing as much as I can do I cant win. I had a game where I went 22/3, singlehandedly set up every fight for drag and barons and such, shotcalled to my team, but we still lost because an enemy rengar and ksante got fed enough to where I couldnt 1v5 the enemy team. I have noticed that this is the case with a lot of champions, specifically champions who arent really hyper carry champs. It is much harder to 1v9 a game on a champ that isnt really meant for that rather than one that is. For example, my yasuo is nowhere near as good as my veigar however it is more reliable to pick in an environment in which I know I am better than the enemies because I can solo carry a game far easier on a champ with a lot of mobility and survivability with the items I build. However I still find league far more fun when I just lock blue kayn in draft and go 19/19 and make the enemy karma go 0/19 :)

[@vanjamenadzer]

This is true. I'm panth OTP, dia peaker and when I played on my friends bronze account, I would curbstomp my laner every game but had only 55% wr in 30 smth games because Panth as a champ can't 1v5 unless all 5 enemy players are at max 2-3 kills in when I am on 20+ kills.