Things I've Realized Jungling in Low Elo

Before, when I jungled, I'd always take the shortest route to hit a lvl 3 gank — if I was on blue side, I'd go red > wolves > blue > gank / gromp, and if top looked playable I'd start with the opposite buff.

While clearing, I'd always glance at the map to see which lanes were pushing or freezing, and plan out my gank path ahead of time as I cleared.

I'd try to track the enemy jungler's position too, do some counter-jungling, ward their jungle, and when possible look for counter-gank angles.

But looking back, I think I was always just thinking about where to gank next while clearing, without really properly watching the map. I'd just ask 'where?' before every gank and go in.

But whatever, the players in my elo don't get that stuff anyway. So starting today, I decided I'll just be the one to watch it. Honestly, maybe it's just what a jungler's supposed to do in the first place.

Being a support main, I've got good instincts for warding spots and warding habits, so I usually end up buying more pinks and placing more wards than most sightstone supports.

The whole reason I picked up jungle was that after maining support, the junglers I got were just too damn frustrating, so I thought I'd go wreck lanes myself.

But reality wasn't that easy. Right from the start, all my lanes would start shoving like crazy. Sometimes they'd be freezing, but that was usually after they'd shoved, gotten the crap beaten out of them, and were limping back at half HP, whining as they ran away. That's pretty much the majority of players in my elo. Anyway, I used to think all I had to do as a jungler was feed my laners kills.

But that's not it either. I don't remember exactly when, but I had a Riven vs Yasuo matchup mid on my team. I always thought Yasuo loses to Riven, but still, I found a gank angle and gave our Riven like three kills. But the moment I stopped going there, she just kept getting 1v1'd. In the end, the story was always the same — the enemy jungler was having a nice chill RPG game while no matter how many kills I gave my laner, they'd still get soloed and then have the nerve to ask 'jungler not ganking?' I don't know where they sold their conscience.

Playing support and jungle, I learned the value of control wards the hard way. But in this elo, no matter how much I warded or spammed back pings, they'd shove the wave like crazy and then die anyway. Sometimes I think — honestly, if just once, instead of that laner, I could send the gromp into lane, maybe it'd do a better job. Unless you're in high elo, control wards, ganks, vision control... none of that matters.

So my final realization was this: in low elo, just play as if you need to win 1v5. I tried mastering Yi and Ekko, since they're pretty good at that. But Yi is too hard to go in against heavy CC, so I dropped him and started practicing Ekko. After some practice, I noticed that low elo players struggle to even 1v3, and if I got fed, I could even pull off the 1v5 sometimes.

In conclusion, if you wanna win in low elo, forget about giving kills to teammates — just get fed yourself, take the game by the scruff of its neck, and hard carry.

If there's anything I'm still missing, feel free to point it out — nicely, please.