In this crazy world we call League of Legends, everyone wants nothing more than to climb the ever infuriating ladder called solo queue. If you are a good player, then raising your ELO sounds like no problem right? Unfortunately that is not the case, due to trolls, leavers, afk, etc.

Now some players may refer to this as "ELO Hell" in which these things are said to be more common and bad players just drag you down. Coming from personal experience, "ELO Hell" is nothing but Solo Queue itself. This being said, even without leavers or trolls you will run into less experienced players or frustrating people in the pick stage, that will intentionally pick a champ that doesn't make sense. What can I do to increase my chance of winning? Well, Duo Queueing is a very easy one.

What is Duo Queueing?

For those of you who aren't familiar with Duo Queueing, or "Duoing", this is a feature that allows you to play with any friend of yours that you would like, as long as they meet the qualifications for play in Ranked Queues. This way the player can have more of a connection with his team rather than being in a game with nothing but strangers attempting to prove to them that he/she knows a lot about this game. Sounds like a pretty good deal right? Well there is even more that you can do to put you ahead of the duo game.

1. Duo with people you know in real life. If you know the person you are Duoing with personally, then it will make it a lot easier to communicate what you are feeling. If you have played with them previously in normals, that's even better, as you know the way they play and you have previously adapted to their play style and even possibly formed a style between the both of you. Having synergy between the duo players puts you leagues ahead of the players who have only met in Solo Queue and played together once or twice.

2.Communication is key. Be it Skype, Teamspeak, or Ventrilo, keep communication between the two of you. The more you talk to each other the more alert you are to your surroundings, as well as being able to coordinate plays and objectives. Say you know that the enemy jungler is at their Red Buff. The two of you could talk and plan an attempt to steal it and possibly get a kill as well. Planning ganks is also a big thing. Roaming can be key if you can guarantee that you will get the kill or possibly a tower. Also, knowing what's going on in the other lanes is a huge advantage and if you have trouble paying attention to the other lanes yourself, this can put you in a good spot. Communication is so important it is even the key to winning tournaments!

3. Role synergy is another very important factor that when done right, can make your duo queue days loads easier. Understand what roles can influence the game the most when played well together. For example, top lane and jungle synergize very well for duo queue because top lane has the chance to snowball the game in your favor with the junglers help. Mid and jungle do as well because they are the easiest roles to counter jungle with. Understanding these roles and communicating plays and objectives between these can help you win the game immensely.

4. Objective control not only benefits you and your duo partner, but it also benefits your entire team. Having someone else with you who knows objective importance helps keep track of timers as well as planning steals and fights for buffs or Dragon. Even if your team does not know how to acquire and maintain advantage, keeping control of objectives can help everyone maintain an advantage, whether they know it or not!

Long story short:

- Get together with a friend that plays too

- Communicate and coordinate ganks, objectives, etc..

- Use speech programs to talk to each other during games

- Learn your roles and how to benefit most from the two lanes synergy

Final Thoughts:

Duo queueing can make your "ELO Hell" experience quite a bit better if you learn to do it correctly. Practice a few times in normal games to get the hang of things and each other. Don't ever get frustrated when you lose, sometimes you just can't control the tides of the game.Learn from your mistakes and keep pressing onward and you will see a dramatic increase in your ELO!

I hope this helps!

-Oshera