Choosing the right team composition, making decisions

Solution 1:

This is humble help from me for newbie ranked players. Remember that I could make a mistake here! I'm not a pro player but I played with such (gold, diamond) and watch hell lot of streams. However I hope it helps!

General e-sport advice

1. Have fun with imitating a sport team ;) this is crucial!
2. Record your games and watch them to find what went wrong. Maybe making your own Youtube chanel with your after game commentary will be something interesting & motivating for You as a team.
3. Find out what kind of communication work for you all the best. You need pings on map? Or better say that enemy is in enemy banana bush next to Baron? I recommend pinging + communicator with push-to-talk.
4. Decide who will be making calls a.k.a. will be the "Leader". This will help you at teamfights and deciding in crucial situations.
5. Always decide who will be your focus in teamfights. Red ping on such enemy will make your teamfights better.
6. Have strategy & tactic before game. Strategy will be pokeing (Nidalee Mid + Jayce Top + Tristana AD Carry + Janna Supp + Cho'Gath Jungle) or late game (Vayne AD Carry + Leona Supp + Irelia Top + Ammumu Jungle + Karthus Mid) team composition. Tactic example - you have Zed and Mordekaiser in team. Decide that Mordekaiser will always try to initiate on AD Carry and after that Zed must use his ulti. Thanks to that you will be 4 vs 6 and will win teamfights.
7. Remember that losing is a crucial part of learning! Without learning you will never be a good player. You will lose only if you don't learn from your past games.

Specific League advice

1. Know that objects are often more important that kill.
2. Have timers on Drake, Baron and Your and Your enemy Buffs.
3. You must win at least 2 lanes to win a game. Jungler should help lanes where is possibility to get a kill or objective and not babysit lane that are already lost.
4. If you lost 3 first turets before 20 minutes you will probably loose. This means that you can play more risky.
5. There is laning phase, group phase and teamfight phase. Laning ends when somebody looses a turret. Group phase ends when there is drake or mid teamfight. Remember that.
6. Check Lolking stats (focus on win/lose ratio in ranked) to know what champion works with each patch.
7. Know about latest patch and changes! Often they can really change the game - see League of Warmogs, League of Black Cleavers, League of Blade of Ruined King and League of Draven :D
8. Know what champion counter what. This should make you help to decide about swaping lanes.
9. Kill steal don't exist in rankeds. More assists means that there is more global gold. This means that you will win.
10. Map control a.k.a wards wins games. Know how to and when ward.
11. Lasthiting is game inside game. How good are you at it?
12. Read all gameplay guides from LolPro.
13. Focus playing on few champions this helps you know what you can do with this champion. This doesn't mean you don't know what other champions abilities are!
14. Picks and bans are crucial to winning. Start from safe picks (AD Carry, Support) or your must-have/OP (IMO Khaxix, Tresh at the moment).
15. Start picking in this order Support -> AD Carry -> Mid -> Jungler -> Top Lane. Why? The easiest to counter lanes is Top Lane. Jungler can be also very easyly denied from creeps by pick. Interesting fact is that this is all way different pick order than from normals...
16. Ban what is your crucial champion counter and then ban OP champs.

About your situation

I didn't see match but;

• How about using wards in your jungle and make a trap near your buff?
• Let them push and try to make comeback from base with Homeguard boots?
• Let other lanes win?

Solution 2:

Well, there are a few things it sounds like you aren't doing that you could be.

1) Communicate: Before the game, after the game, during the game. Talk to eachother about what you're doing as you're doing it. Talk before the game about your plans, and after the game about your problems. This is your primary advantage over Soloqueue.

2) Adapt: If they stick their ADC and Support top, your Top lane needs to know to play defensively, with support from the Jungle if he needs it (and the Jungle doesn't have a chance to help grab Dragon or another global objective) Your bottom lane needs to push its own 2v1 advantage and try to take the tower, and to ward your enemy's jungle to try to help your jungle ambush him at the buffs later. Remember, even if Bot gets ganked, it's still only 2v2, not as big a deal, especially if you see him coming.

3) Synergize: Use champions that work well together. This is part of communication. You need to be able to take advantage of eachother's abilities. For example, you have a powerful AoE taunt in your mid Galio? Think about taking Miss Fortune for a Bullet Time into the ranks. You have a Shen top that loves to split-push? Take someone who can clear waves really fast (Anivia?) to slow down the 5v4 push. You need to think about who can support eachothers weaknesses and capitalize on their strengths.

Solution 3:

Picking good bans are an essential first step. Ban overpowered champs or champs you have a hard time playing against. Then pick champs to counter your opponents. Once you are in the game, ward often. Make sure everyone on your team is map-aware and ready for a gank from your jungler and their jungler. Also your jungler should help a lane that is having trouble. When in team-fights make sure to focus the right enemies for maximum damage. Finally take dragon whenever possible for extra gold. Baron is also a plus.

Solution 4:

A few tips to improve your overall gameplay:

Watch some pro matches, the LCS is going on with matches every week, try to watch a few of those and try to understand why they do what they do and how they work together as a team. You can also watch some streams from high ranked players playing the same role as you on twitch.tv.

Practice practice practice, You cannot do it enough. Play normal if you want to try out new things, and when they seem to work, try them out in ranked. Play soloqueue as well, the other players might have some tips for you, and even though most will just flame you for everything you are doing wrong, a few actually have something useful to say.

Make someone the shotcaller, and listen to him. If everyone just does what he thinks is best, you will not be in sync. It is better if one person makes the decisions and the rest follows him so you can work together. If that person turns out to be bad at calling the shots, pick someone else or practice in normal a lot.