Escaping from League of Legends Elo Hell

1) As far as I can remember, "Solo" queue actually lets you queue up to a team of two. This may have changed. Unfortunately, Solo Queue is just that - you and some strangers - and if you want an easy strategy to climb the solo queue ladder, there isn't one. You're largely at the whim of the matchmaker, so the best you can hope for is to carry a team, perhaps by playing a ganking jungler such as Rammus, Shaco, or Nocturne.

The current metagame theory is that teams with a jungler > teams without, so by playing a strong jungler (assuming you aren't overestimating your skill) will give you the best odds, as an early game lead can be hard to overcome.

2) Queue dodging in a ranked game no longer reduces your ELO, but it does prevent you from queuing for ranked games for a substantial amount of time. If you want to raise your ELO, you need to play games, and you can't do that if you constantly queue dodge.

ELO hell doesn't exist. If you're losing ELO you're being matched against people with similarly low ELO, so unless you're really bad at the game, or really unfortunate, you'll win sometime.

It is still possible join "solo queues" with a partner and this can increase a bit your chance to win.

Try then to find a good friend to play with and try to find heroes combinations that work well together (synergies). Optionally use TeamSpeak on any other voice program to communicate in-game.

Usually in low ELO games lot of people do not understand how important is having a balanced team. Having no stun/crowd control or not enough tough guys (tanks/offtanks), no jungler, could probably lead to a bad loss.

Try to "fill" the holes in your team by selecting an appropriate champion (jungler, tank, offtank, support, ap/ad carry, etc.). From my experience what usually misses more in low ELO are tank/offtanks and solid junglers. Of course, before being able to apply this effectively you need to buy and learn to play decently different typology of champions.

Regarding the other three members (four if you play alone) you will have in your team the only thing I can say is to try having e a positive attitude towards them (do not start calling them "noob" at first dead). Communicate in game when needed and try to propose tactics.

Applying all these suggestions could help a bit, but for sure is not easy to climb the ladder and exit from ELO hell. I went down under 1000 in ELO and now I am finally reaching again 1300, after months of attempts.

Good luck!

This answer tries to give few insight on how to increase your winning chances.

First, there is no such thing as Elo hell. Youtube video

But then, why am I stuck here when I do alright and my allies feed like (Elo) hell?

Watch the following video, it gives a good insight of what you should/shouldn't do. They are not dark magic advice but they are very important: Youtube video 2

Few more points:

Never flame, always stay positive

If you flame etc your allies, you will most likely lose the game. Don't even try to be constructive, just don't point out mistakes. Either they will know it was a mistake and then it's useless to point it out, either they won't want you to tell them.

If the flaming comes from someone else, just mute that person. Reading and typing will never, NEVER, make you play better.

Never surrender. You might have a big disadvantage, but if your team starts playing like a team, you might have a chance.

Become the leader

In season 3, I managed to climb up to GOLD 3 by playing support mostly. Because I was always calling the objective, warding properly to be able to secure drake etc...

Don't under-estimate objectives and vision. And if nobody does it, YOU WILL have to be the leader and make the call. A team needs a leader, if nobody is, you will have to step forward.

Try to keep up with the drake, buff timers. If you don't have the vision when they die but you suspect them to be cleared, right it down so you can challenge it next time.

Don't blame others, blame yourself

Even if during a game you are at 5/0 and your allies are feeding a lot. Don't blame them, blame yourself. You can always play better. Maybe you could have ganked more other lines, maybe etc... Try to see what could have been possible to do to increase the chances.

This point is actually the most difficult. Sometimes, you will be 0/3 on your line because the jungler got you. You can ask for help from your jungler. But don't blame him. I'm pretty sure you could have saved a kill by warding properly etc...

It is frustrating but if you always blame others, you will never improve on the points you need.

Considering the champions

There are slightly more powerful champions, sure. Depending on their role, how they are played etc.

If you get countered, then ask your jungler for help right away, play safe. The goal is to not feed him.

In general, it's better to play top tier list champions. But the most important thing is to play a champion you play well, you are used to. There is not point playing a champion because it fits your team if you don't know how to play him.

There are many more points to address but those are the principal ones people tend to forget/skip.

The problem with Elo rating (or any other rating) is that it approximates your level based on every game you ever played since first picking up the game. Remember that your teammates and enemies have the same Elo as you. Which means that unless they are playing only at their best capacity, they can play like a much higher Elo player when they are focused and in a good mindset or play well below their ranking if they are tilted or distracted. You lost 7 games in a row to get into current rank, but it's just as likely that your teammates got there by losing 7 games as well. If you don't jump back up instantly by being so much better than anyone else at you rank and carrying every game, you are most likely not teamed up with players who bring you down but with player who fluctuate in ranking just like you. Again, your teammates and enemies have the same Elo rating, so if you are below the rank you are supposed to be, your team has a huge advantage in that match.

Elo rating was originally created for ranking performance of chess players compared to each other. It's not a common practice (or at least it wasn't before the internet) to play chess games back to back for 8 hours with no breaks, every day of the week. Elo is great at correcting small fluctuations, for example if a player was sick on the day of the tournament or couldn't get a good night sleep. When applied to rank-grinding LoL player, it completely breaks, because performance fluctuates constantly based on the time of the day, previous wins/loses, current mood, amount of sleep, even what you ate and when (hard to digest foods take blood circulation away from the brain and towards digestive system).

The best thing you can do is maximize the consistency of your Elo rating. If you feel tilted, tired, distracted or in any other way impaired, stop playing immediately. If you are the type of person that needs to win to get satisfaction from the game, have another game ready and play that instead. Get back into League only when you feel you can play at your best. This way you will be always paired with players comparable to your current level of play.

The purpose of having consistent Elo is not to climb higher, it's to get stuck at certain ranking. When player starts ranked play, most likely they are below their actual ranking. This means that you need to correct for every mistake your teammates make as long as you are climbing in ranks, because you are the strongest asset in your team. You need to be a leader and need to fill roles of other teammates if they are playing poorly. But eventually you will get matched with people who know the game as well as you and who play the game as well as you. Then you start going up and down the ranking, seemingly unable to progress. When you fall down you can carry again and with some luck you can get above your actual level but overall, there will be a ranking you will hover around forever.

This is your Elo ranking. People with higher ranking play better than you. People with lower ranking play worse than you. This is your place and after how many ranked games you played, you finally gave the system enough statistical data to place you in the ranking where you belong. There is no Elo Hell, there is just Elo. If you want to progress further, the only way is to identify what you are doing worse than better players and to actively improve. Ladder in, for example, Hearthstone and many other games is designed in such a way, that to climb to highest rank all you need is 51% winrate and hours and hours of play. Even if you are a mediocre player, climbing is just a matter of how much you play and not much else. Not in Elo. In Elo the only way to improve is to improve and it shouldn't be expected that if you play enough games, you will eventually climb higher and higher. Best way to improve is to improve and nothing else.