User blog comment:TheTobarMethod/Motivation For SoloQ GO!GO!GO!/@comment-1985493-20131002214013

I had the same problem. I never wanted to play for fear of losing/screwing up/getting yelled at. I really wanted that gold status though, so I managed to fight the fear and make it through. There are a couple things you can do though:

1) Be confident: Confidence really is a huge part of it. If you believe you can go into it and come out on top, then there's not much that can keep you down except for some legendary throws or whatever.

2) Find good times to play: I wouldn't do rank unless it was the weekend, because I was very busy otherwise and I just wasn't "in the zone." Play when you feel all good and motived while at the same time being able to play on your highest level.

3) Do normals: While this can be slightly counterproductive since it wastes a good amount of time and can potentially demotivate you, normals can relax you and get you into the LoL mindset if you were away from it for a long time or something. (On another note, something you can do if you're finding yourself get stuck in ranked is just do nothing but normals. I did nothing but normals until this summer, and as such, my MMR wasn't set to anything. Because of this, I was placed straight into Silver V because I carried with Rammus jungle in my provisionals and not even have to go through elo hell. I know a lot of people aren't that patient, and I can't blame them, it just worked really well for me.)

4) Find ways to have fun in game: Be talkative and friendly and joke around when appropriate (not when your bot lane is giving jungle a detailed explanation of where the wards are :P.) Keeping spirits high makes the game way more enjoyable and a lot less tension-ey.

5) Don't let defeats hurt your mood: Defeats suck, just get over them and move on. If you're chaining losses though, I'd suggest taking a break for a little so you can refresh and go in without a tilty mindset. If you're pissed at some guy who was telling you to hang yourself the previous game, you just have to forget about him and put things in perspective.

Anyway, hopefully this helps! I know it was difficult overcoming my nerves, the morning that I was doing my first gold promos in my first game I was shaking so bad that I couldn't control my hands. I also didn't include any real "skill" tips, cuz you seem to know what you're doing well enough :P