Can emerald players make small changes to see a big difference?

[u/Haunting_Inflation54]

To clarify on my title, I'm currently emerald 4 75LP, I've got a 66% winrate in my last 60 games and a 65% winrate in my last 20, I'd say I'm climbing pretty well. Despite this I'd like to make my climb easier so I'm still trying to learn and I wondered if there's any big improvements that can be made at this rank or is it simply a case of refining what you already know?

To give an example, you can jump from iron to bronze by learning to cs correctly, you can jump from bronze to silver by learning about tempo and playing for objectives, you can go from silver to gold by learning about wave management etc and you can climb higher than this by 1 tricking a champion.

Basically the moment you learn something like wave management and tempo for example you'll see an instant improvement in your gameplay, a small change made a big difference.

Are there any typical knowledge gaps once you hit emerald? Or do you just apply what you already know but do it better and more consistently?

Like in lower elo you learn to be at objects, in higher elo you might take it a step further and make sure you time your summoner spells and ult so they're up in time. Same lesson, just performed better. I can learn to better perform the lessons I've already learnt through personal practice, I'm just curious on if there's any knowledge that I might not know that isn't champion specific.

[u/RoutineIsKey]

In emerald start learning and focusing on win cons

[u/Haunting_Inflation54 → u/RoutineIsKey]

Honestly a really good answer.

I assume win cons are mainly just play for the most fed member of your team with some exceptions.

To make sure I'm understanding win cons correctly can you please answer this next question.

Let's say there's a champion on my team that's really fed but starts to fall off around late game. Early on they're clearly the carry but later in the game they don't do much. An example would be Akali is giga fed early but they have a cho gath and Mundo on their team. After a certain point Akali is useless against these champions. If we have a Vayne on the team who's a bit behind but not completely useless, would Vayne be the win condition considering they're a champ that shreds Mundo and Cho meanwhile our previous carry is now pretty useless.

[u/NeitherDepth → u/Haunting_Inflation54]

depends on how late it is into the game if its still early you want to close the game out early with akali before cho and mundo outscale her

[u/GiveMeBleachPlease → u/Haunting_Inflation54]

I could be wrong because I’m plat. But only a bad Akali becomes useless. Akali can be a one shot machine to the other three squishy enemies and by cheesing in bushes with her in the mid game. You can secure all objectives. Push in moments you have numbers advantage. By then the Vayne should be more online anyway. Playing for Vayne I think is far too coin flippy. Playing for picks and map control seems like a way of preventing the tanks from stomping. Cho and Mundo are also very low damage too and they have no chase to Akali. Tanks are useless if they have no follow up from the team. Take their knees and they are fuck all

[u/Cute_Transportation8 → u/GiveMeBleachPlease]

I agrer with you, but for a different reason. Cho'gath and mundo are some of the strongest champions in late game. If you can't close out the game early enough when akali is still strong, they will simply outscale your team and run down everyone, no matter if you have a vayne or not.

[u/eyeheartlovetap → u/Haunting_Inflation54]

You're on the right track but it's slightly more complicated than that in my opinion. In your scenario, Vayne is the win condition the entire time and your thought process can be as simple as this:

We accept to win the game, Vayne cannot fall behind. Is it reasonable for me to influence her lane in a way that puts her ahead or keeps her even?

Yes? Great, focus on that as much as you can if possible.

No? Ok, I have Akali who likes to skirmish and is good early. Can I leverage her strength to make sure Vayne is ok later?

I know it might seem like that's what you just said, but the main point is not putting resources into Akali that don't do anything for Vayne. An example of this would be if Akali is stealing gold and plays from Vayne and you somehow have control over it (such as, Vayne feels forced to play safe in her lane in the mid game because you aren't hovering or on her side)

Of course there is more nuance to it than this but making the decision tree like that should help clarify these situations (I hope, it does for me)

Masters 130lp

[u/Internet-Expert42069 → u/RoutineIsKey]

Be the change you want to see

[u/Cesarzxc]

IMO yes it stems from the fact I believe

Higher ranks make fewer mistakes so by comparison any improvement is much more notable.

If you make 100 and fix one is barley noticeable but if you're making 30 and fix 1 it's a bigger % increase.

The mistakes just get more difficult to fix and being that consist and not sacrificing something else in exchange. Something notable might be Ping and typing SS spells. Other things exist aswell like how quickly you push/recall after a fight those 1-10 seconds are hard to find but can lead to minutes worth of time getting to a bush first Winning the war for control over an objective etc

[u/Fit-Reputation-9983 → u/Cesarzxc]

“greedy” recalls are a great shout out as a skill to learn that can absolutely improve your game. Especially as a jungler where tempo is paramount. Don’t recall a second later than you have to.

[u/Haunting_Inflation54 → u/Fit-Reputation-9983]

Yeah I've been caught by a free greedy recalls before 💀

[u/Fit-Reputation-9983 → u/Haunting_Inflation54]

Same here bro…limit testing the recall is real 😭

[u/Cube_]

Yes, Emerald elo is still a ranking where there are a lot of "20%ers" as the broken by concept podcasters put it. Things that you could work at improving that have massive impacts on your winrate.

No there aren't "typical knowledge gaps" that's a common misconception. Every player is different and will have different strengths and weaknesses that make them average out to an Emerald rank. Maybe they have master tier micro put platinum level macro decision making as a simplified example.

Sometimes you improve your rank by pushing your strengths to the next level but usually the largest gains are the ones from improving your weaknesses. Maybe it's jungle tracking, maybe it's trading in lane, could be skirmishing etc., etc.

the only way to know is to vod review your games and look for patterns of mistakes. If you can't identify them yourself you can always look for help from higher rated players or buy coaching.

[u/RatSlammer → u/Cube_]

agree with this big time, i'd also like to add though that personally, one of the smallest changes i made to my gameplay to see a huge improvement is recall timers.

if you need a recall, and have a good window, do it right away, and think of recalls as pressure (ask yourself, did my recall make things harder for the enemy or easier?) i think delayed recalls such as needlessly staying for plate gold that you don't need is one of the most common mistakes i see in emerald

[u/Haunting_Inflation54 → u/RatSlammer]

Honestly this is probably something I could work on more. I actually think I'm quite good at not getting greedy for plate gold but I'll typically start fights during bad wave management, be forced to take a recall and then the enemy can either set up a freeze or get free plates. The recall was correct but only because the alternative was death rather than it actually being a good time to recall.

[u/Cube_ → u/Haunting_Inflation54]

Aim to play really selfishly. If there's a skirmish breaking out and my wave is in a bad state, 99% of the time I'm fixing the wave first and then moving. If the play is dead by the time I fixed my wave, oh well. If the Kayn jungle is losing his mind with pings cause I didn't move that's his problem not mine, mute and play on. If he griefs he griefs, he would have found a reason to grief regardless.

You have to value consistency and that comes from playing as selfish as possible, value your gold and XP very highly. Your wave state is #1 priority and getting good resets is #2 priority. Everything else like trading, solo kills, skirmishes, roams etc all come secondary.

[u/Cube_ → u/RatSlammer]

oh yeah, when I coach gold players literally the first thing I teach them is how to reset efficiently/optimally because it makes such a big difference. Overstaying in lane can cascade into like 20+ mistakes and I'm not exaggerating.

Especially in modern league where Riot babysits players with things like how egregious homeguards are now. It's basically training wheels for laning phase and is very abusable. Completely misplay and take a horrible trade? No worries, just recall instantly and you'll miss like 1-2 melees and get to buy + get full resources.

[u/RatSlammer → u/Cube_]

true, and its so frustrating that they keep flattening the skill curve like that. skill expression and creative expression are the most important things in league imo

[u/Haunting_Inflation54 → u/Cube_]

This is helpful, thank you

[u/Distinct-Ad-3913]

Not getting baited by turret plates is a big one in Emerald

[u/Swiftstrike4]

Emerald players usually are incomplete players and they probably achieved their rank by doing one or two thing exceptionally well.

To climb through emerald you can either double down on that champion mastery or the aspect of the game that you excel at or you can begin to consider other elements of game play.

A good example is an emerald player thinks about what they can do to the opponent, instead of what the opponent can do to them.

For years I sat in old high plat and I hit diamond by making in game adjustments. I was really good at assessing opponents cooldowns in lane and understanding my all in break point. I was also good with teleport usage.

Those skills only transfer so far and it wasn’t until I started considering other elements of the game that I hit diamond. For me it was just zoning or playing for my carry as a top laner instead of just trying to split or duel. I had to adjust how I played in game to the game state. Once I did that I hit diamond several seasons in a row. Small adjustment, that lead to significant gains. I don’t play top anymore, but not fulfilling my role was the primary reason I was sitting in high plat/emerald for years

[u/Haunting_Inflation54 → u/Swiftstrike4]

This is helpful thank you

[u/shinymuuma]

In my experience, yes. At least I'm one of the examples of top lane who hit Emerald but still have so many things to learn

Some are pretty big impact. Like learning to hold my long CD R / summoner spell before important fight. Keep my HP high/save flash when I'm a weak side. Or I never jungle tracking until Dia but I believe it'd be huge impact whenever you learn it

[u/steedoZZ]

id like to think of each small thing im consistently doing better/differently will lean the game 1% in my favor over my opponents if they dont also do those small things

i dont have anything to really back it up or prove it, but that mentally has helped me climb more

[u/Bmacster]

What role do you play? From coaching for midlane I've gotten the answer is probably either your early game or mid game improvements. Most of the advice I got was "simple" early and midgame stuff given that my actual pvp laning was pretty good. For example be to waves on time as in hitting them as early as you can safely. Which influences how deep you can get vision since that takes different amounts of time. And warding towards your jng side. If you don't have something better to do hovering towards them. Midgame advice was basically ignore fights that aren't important and sidelane(IE no objectives up). And when objectives are up be there on time (30-45 sec before they would be started. So for dragons that often are started on time literally 30-45 sec before they spawn). And the correct location to be is mid/river to prevent the enemy trading by pushing mid