League of Legends: 5 Mistakes Every Player has Made in a Ranked Game

Every League of Legends player makes mistakes in solo queue, but here are the five most common mistakes in ranked.

“To err is human.” Try explaining that to your solo queue teammates. In the high-pressure situation that is the League of Legends ranked ladder, any mistake is immediately put under the microscope, with question mark pings reigning down on the offender. It’s easy to forget that we’ve all been there.

With the ranked season ending on Tuesday, the pressure will be high for a lot of players who are barreling down the stretch to try and secure their desired rank. For those who are ready to jump down the throat of a teammate or those who feel disheartened at their own failure, don’t worry. Here are five mistakes that everyone – yes, even the Challengers, pro players, and Faker himself – have made in a ranked game at some point in their life.

1. Locking the Wrong Rune Page

It could be because you just plum forgot that you’re auto-filled for the first time in 10 games and the Aftershock page you were rocking on Maokai is not quite so great on Yuumi. It could be because your fingers just weren’t quick enough as you were making some last-second changes to a new rune page and didn’t hit the save button. Whatever the reason, we’ve all had games where you’re forced to play Arcane Comet Kha’Zix. It’s not ideal, but it could be worse.

2. Fail Flashing

You were just not quite close enough to make it over the wall or your cursor was just a millimeter too close to your side of the wall, no matter what, everyone has had to watch their champion flash almost in place and bonk off a wall as you’re trying to escape an enemy. You can find montages of players fail flashing all across Youtube and clips of pro players fail flashing in high-pressure situations. If it can happen to Faker, it can happen to everyone, no need to question mark ping me.

3. Leaving Base After Buying the Wrong Item

It’s such a heartbreaking feeling, walking out of base rushing back to your lane so you can catch that wave that’s about to hit your tower…and realizing that you misclicked and bought a Doran’s Ring on Tryndamere. Or a second pair of boots. Or a Kindlegem instead of a Fiendish Codex.

You have that Sophie’s Choice between sacrificing getting back to lane on time or laning with the wrong item in your inventory. And then, minutes later when you’re back in the fountain, the shame you feel when you have to sell that useless item, take the loss of gold, and slink back onto the Rift praying no one noticed your error.

4. Facechecking a Brush

Every League of Legends player has that sixth sense when approaching an unwarded brush. You get that little prickle on the back of your neck as that Spidey-sense kicks in you. But you ignore it, decide you’re just being paranoid, and instead of throwing a spell at the brush just to be sure you walk right into it.

And there’s that 9/0/1 Rengar sitting right there. And now your screen is grey.

The only feeling worse than walking into a brush you knew someone was sitting in is dropping a ward in one of those brushes. You can almost feel your teammates staring at you, biting their tongue from saying “told ya so.”

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5. Missing a Cannon Minion

All that gold just slipping through your fingers, this is like having a winning lottery ticket in your hand and then the wind blows it away into a rushing river. Of all the mistakes to make in a ranked game of League of Legends, missing that cannon minion might be the most heart-breaking.

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