Someone reposted this on summonerschool.  So much to learn from on this topic - https://www.reddit.com/r/summonerschool/comments/4eagut/this_wellwritten_guide_by_a_challenger_player/

Some excerpts from that post.  I went through and reread it a few times now:

"Your teammates are four players that were chosen by the Matchmaking Algorithm to be matched with you, so that your team's MMR is more or less equal to the enemy team's.

• Your teammates are not your friends.
• But they are not your enemies.
• They are strangers that you share a game with.
• Their opinion of you doesn't matter.
• But your opinion of them doesn't matter either.
• You, as a single player, are playing to climb.
• You are not playing to make your team climb.

Think I'll continue jibber jabbering in the same vein for a bit.  Very random bits of info first - bryff appears to be single once more, cow appears to be johnny dates a bit, and boaz is going through some rough family stuff.  Be very aware if you play with him in the near future at least that he might have to leave unexpectedly, so please don't report or anything.  Not good stuff going on there.  

OK - back to the topic of my mentality towards the game.  So, step 1 was the culling, more or less.  Decide who you enjoy playing with and play with them.  Folks you fight/argue with regularly?  You don't enjoy playing together - stop.  Not enough people as a result?  Begin supplementing to find more like minded folks.  Over the past 3-4 months I've checked out and joined 2 new communities.  The latest one I'm digging quite a bit as there appears to be an abundance of plat elo folks, which is great for me.  Anyway, as such, I'm getting to meet more folks and figuring out who I click with and enjoy playing with.  It's good stuff.  

So, what I highlighted in my last post...

• Your teammates are not your friends.
• But they are not your enemies.

...etc.- well, I started to put things together a little better.  Yesterday, I played in some of the most excruciating games I've played in some time.  We are talking, sigh inducing at a minimum with rage inducing being the logical outcome.  I'll hop back to that, but first, it codified a few things for me.  

1 - all those rules in the previous post - those are expressly about solo queue.  It's a very important distinction to make as the rules change in tremendous ways once you add repetition into the mix (eg playing with the same folks).  

2- there should be a different set of rules for folks you choose to play with based on a wider set of variables.  

Last night for a few games, I chose to play with some folks from MadCast.  All nice folks, a couple much lower elo than I'm used to playing with.  What ensued was fun for some of them, but totally and utterly excruciating for me.  More on this later...

and its later...

Recap - so attitude you should have when you are solo queue and want to improve, be a non shitty human being, etc - already covered in detail here:  https://www.reddit.com/r/summonerschool/comments/4eagut/this_wellwritten_guide_by_a_challenger_player/.  Easy to forget, but good to meditate on briefly before queuing up.  The 9 other people in the game aren't my pals and aren't my enemies; they are strangers I'm playing exactly 1 game with whose opinion of me does not matter in the slightest and my opinion of them means nothing - I will forget them all.  I am here to climb, I am not playing to make my team climb.

That leaves a few areas - finding folks to play with that you enjoy playing with, playing with folks you've just met (when you are looking to meet new people and develop relationships) and playing with folks you already know.

First, I think its really worth talking about what are you looking for.  By now you should already have a really good idea of who you like to play with, what game mode you enjoy best, etc.  For instance, like in the game I mentioned the other day, I really don't enjoy casual f-about games.  I don't like playing with an entire team that has no idea how to group, when to group, etc.  I don't like it when folks want to play roles I prefer.  I generally enjoy playing with the gold/plat crowd and toss in diamonds when I'm looking to really try to improve my game.  I also enjoy playing in lower elo games when I'm trying to work on champs or roles I'm smeh in.  But, very importantly to me, I very rarely just play games to screw around.  Whatever I'm playing, even if I'm trying out runes and masteries, I'm playing to win.  I want to play with folks who really desire to get better and are willing to work at it - not folks that are unable to adapt to their teammates, etc.  

I don't like playing normals.  It never really occurred to me until this season, but often in normals with some of our pals, I'm expected to play hard while someone else dicks around and plays TF top because they expect it will be an easy match for them due to lower elo.  Naw - let's play a ranked where you actually have to try if we are going to play. 

Anyway, I'm very specific with what I like/dislike - so, folks that I will most often want to play with are people that play roles other than adc/support in gold/plat that are passionate about winning.  Folks I play with will not rage quit.  They do and I'm typically done with them.  They will also have consistently reliable internet (within reason, ofc - i mean, do you really want to play with someone that will cause you to lose 1 out of 3 ranked games because they are dc'd for 10 min?).  On almost any given day I'd rather play alone or queue up for ranked than be in a low elo game playing my main role.  Last, and obviously very, very critical.  Who do you actually like as a person and enjoy hanging out with?  You don't have fun with them, stop playing with them - I'm not obligated to play with anyone and no one is obligated to play with me.  If there is enmity, just knock it off.  Everyone will be much happier as a result, folks lose their agita, etc.  All good.  Blunders like hopping into a game with some MC folks without checking their elo aside, I'm definitely happier moving on from some folks, as are some from me, so its a net positive for everyone.  

1 - see solo queue rules above

2 - evaluate who you currently play with and decide if you want to continue playing with those folks.  

3 - find new folks.

I'll briefly go over a little what I've done. It's a lot easier for me than it is for most of you due to the sheer number of smurf accounts I've made over the years (this enables me to play exclusively with certain folks on certain accounts, at varied elos, etc).  Also helps if you are feeling timid and just don't want to have to tell billy you'd rather not play with him.  

Some advice re: finding new folks.  Don't just play 1 game with someone new and bugger off.  Give folks a fair shake.  It's pretty easy to play 1 game with someone, they have a pisser of a game, and then you are like... nope... thx for the game.. cya.  I recommend playing a few games.  Get to know them a bit.  Now, if they are being an ass, etc, and that doesn't really work with your sense of humor, etc, then drop em and move along to the next.  There are a LOT of other folks playing league.

OK - so one easy way to meet new folks - check out the league connect subreddit.  I don't personally find this the best way to go about things, but its a good introduction to meeting new folks.  People will post their region and w/e other info they want to.  If you are interested you either reply to them or add them in game and chat them up.  w/e.  Here's a random copy/paste to give you an idea of a typical post:

NA looking for duo support main to climb back to goldself.LeagueConnect

Submitted 8 hours ago by bobbypepperman

Boom - just like that you probably ended up with someone new to get a game in with and you know what they are about.  It's a nice starting point and I recommend giving the subreddit a look anyway. 

I found the gaming communities I joined just by some basic google searches and then hopping in with folks.  Here's a snarky link which shows how I started:  http://lmgtfy.com/?q=find+people+to+play+league+of+legends+with#

As you can see, there are already a few tools out there that help you meet people.  Those are OK.  The gold mine has been in joining communities though and hopping in the LFG channels.  

/outoftimeagain

I think that one of the problems has been that most of us do try reasonably hard even in normals and are willing to adapt to a fairly large range of situations.  As you say, you sometimes find it odd that you should have to try hard if you have to adapt to a teammate going off meta.  This had led to a conflict of expectations I think.

One of the problems that can happen here is that you tend to be stubborn about meta picks.  That is, you very much expect people to play off of tier lists and get unhappy when they don't.  A few comments.

When in one of these normal games with pals, and somebody doesn't pick something meta, it might be more productive to be more positive about it.  Once the pick has been locked in, it might not be useful to complain about it at length any more.  I'd also generally attempt to try and find ways to play WITH the off meta pick on your team, rather than just tilt against it.

Let me give an example.  I don't find Sejuani mid to be particularly good.  But if I find myself in a game with it as a jungler, I substantially change my playstyle to deal with it in the best way possible (I change jungle paths to gank mid a lot since that's about the only good point of Sejuani mid, so it actually works out a lot of the time).  On the other hand, I find that on many nights with off meta picks you tend to not try hard (as you say) and we get the weird split pushing behavior.  This leads to bad feelings all around.

I'm not a challenger player dispensing advice, but I would also generally advise that you be proactive in champion picks, rather than reactive.  This basically means not being so stubborn about tier lists.

A tier list or stats website tells you what is already happening.  It is reactive.

Many of us tend to play in a more proactive way with champion picks, where we counter what is popular rather than picking off the "I'm popular" list.  For example, I played runeglaive Hecarim for a month and got crap from you and Hunny about it sucking before Valkrin said it was good and made it more popular.  Cow was playing Maokai top before it became a big thing again.

I think that it would be productive to not go into a negative place when somebody goes off meta.  You tend to begin games with a negative mindset if somebody picks off meta, and you would probably win more (and get along better with teammates) if there were more positive thoughts.

That's a fair observation regarding folks picking off meta and me having a negative disposition immediately.  Good call out and something for me to work on.  That goes in degrees with me.  1 - I should be OK with at least trying off meta.  2 - I'm very OK with it if we have a 1 trick wonder. 3 - I get agitated if I feel like I need to play the straight man to make crap work because someone wants to try something out that they have no experience on (and its off meta). 4 - all of this applies primarily to ranked now as a limiter.  Meaning you are a dick imo if you are trying out a champ you don't really play in ranked.  But I really shouldn't have a hissy fit if someone is just picking off meta.  

Also fair and something to work on.  I think what happens is that I go in trying just as hard as normal, but then when things start going crappy (if they do), I take on more of a defeatist mentality.  Certainly a heck of a lot more than I would with meta picking.  

Got Diamond III for the second time this season. Had a big loss streak like 8-9 games in a row that demoted me. Went on a pretty good run of like 6-1 or something to get back to Diamond III. Been queue with a lot of challenger/diamond I/master's players while in diamond 4 and III. Its fun to recognize names from popular twitch streams or see a challenger boarder in load screen. Dynamic Queue seems to not do a very good job of match making at mid diamond. When you have Gosu and the other team doesn't have any one higher than diamond II it doesn't seem to fair. Its been a pretty fun experience thought.

Current best bans:

Ekko, Zed, Kindred, Fizz, elise, gragas (jungle), nid, graves, yi 

Best sleeper OP's IMO:

Sivir, Ryze, Kayle, Trundle (top/support), kha (jungle), Gragas (top)

Predictions:

Ekko, Gragas, Graves, Mao will probably be nerfed soon. Ryze might be nerfed due to really high elo and LCS scene hes always pick/ban. 

Grats on Dia 3!  Last I checked you were 1 loss in your best of 3, so grats on killing it the last 2!  

Just got back to plat 3 tonight (2nd or 3rd time this season).  Happy to say my mmr is on the rise now (gained about 250 mmr since i hit plat III last time).  

Random comment - is velkoz's popularity up a bunch mid due to some reddit posts recently?  Seem a lot more of him lately on folks that aren't so good w/ him (not talking about you dr cow).  

It's really cool you are getting to play with some well known folks.  That's neat.  You should grab replays at least (LSI does that and you can upload em).  I'd be interested in watching that stuff.

RE this:

Current best bans:

Ekko, Zed, Kindred, Fizz, elise, gragas (jungle), nid, graves, yi 

Best sleeper OP's IMO:

Sivir, Ryze, Kayle, Trundle (top/support), kha (jungle), Gragas (top)

Bans - I agree.  I think raka belongs there. I feel pretty strong against her, but win rate is win rate. it's high.

Sleeper - kayles not sleeper, I think its pretty well known (53.5% win rate - #4 in game).  I think you might have missed the absolute strongest champ that has not seen much talk.  Kog maw.  This fugger is very strong.  They delayed his power spike, but only a little.  And folks have not caught on yet (they will soon I think).  I'm actually very surprized folks are not keyed into this.  Like yasuo had to be nerfed into the ground when he was perceived as strong.  Many times. Kog was ungodly strong (eg the easiest adc bar none imo - press w, use e, all die).  He was nerfed some and folks acted like the problem was solved.  It was not. Give him a try and play him EXACTLY as you did when you felt he was strong.  You can do the same crap, but it takes about 7 min longer.

Oh and honey swears by voli bear jungle being OP right now.  He actually does really well with him, so perhaps he's onto something.  He runs distortion boots and the cdr mastery on summs + cdr boots.  Tends to get to the back line very very often.  Worth a look. I'm hoping to watch a replay of his soon. 

i think ekko nerf might be coming - something to make him less slippery. I still dont see graggy top as super strong.  hoping to see something along those lines, but I'm missing it so far.  

Kog's early game is super bad but the few times I have seen him go off there is a pretty big WOW factor though. Kayle is a sleeper because she isn't picked a whole lot yet (atleast in the games I have been playing and watching) but whenever she does it seems impossible to deal with (Runnan+rageblade) with her ult is just dumb. Watch me right click you while you can't do anything to stop my auto attacks herrrrrrderrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I guess kog is pretty similar to that once he gets his rageblade+hurricane but atleast you can kill him because he doesn't get some stupid immunity. 

Here is one of the replay although an embarrassing game for me haha. 

http://www.lolking.net/replay/na/2155013079

What roles are you queuing up for anymore cow?

Mid, top usually but when I feel in the mood for a blitz game I just pick support primary

It's how we sing at the end..

http://plays.tv/video/57118f753b2fcbd614/sloppy-dbl-kill-start?from=user

Was reintroduced to drunk boaz tonight.  Turns out I am the funniest mofo on the planet.  He said he had 75% of a 1 gallon jar of wine. God bless Alaska.  

Tired, but will rattle off some crap quick.  Been having a lot of fun playing lately.  Done with dj bby d (more often than not was playing poop - my goto twitch stream for music is this crap (hit and miss - https://www.twitch.tv/monstercat).  

Starting to look at elo differently.  Specifically, I'm trying very hard to gravitate away from caring about promo series/demotions and keying into the behind the scenes mmr.  Being up 200 points or so since the last time I hit plat 3 is cool.  Feels like I'm building on something.  

Also, I'm starting to wonder a little bit about why raising elo is a little more difficult for a few folks.  It's not like an I think folks are bad thing in the slightest.  I'm actually just trying to put together why it wasn't that much work for me to hit plat elo again while some other plat folks are taking longer.  Was the old ranked system different in ways that it was easier for folks?  For me I felt like my biggest problem was not being able to get the role I wanted in previous seasons.  Now that you generally can, maybe that offsets things (eg if everyone can usually get what they want, then perhaps the skill ceiling is raised in those roles, so some folks don't do as good). idk.  Just kind of wondering.  

Hit gold on my 1 alt tonight.  Didn't even know i was in a series.  Another really nice thing about multiple accounts.  While I try, I don't really give a shit at all about the elo on alt accounts.  I just take it as an opportunity to practice crap I blow at.  Starting to get good w/ lucy again.  

Anyway, that's all.  Dr rando out.  Night.

rewinding the live stream to catch some of the games from earlier today

perkz is freaking amazing as LB in game 1.  Guys a nightmare to the enemy team

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPfIQsHgGbY