I'd like to throw in my two cents. I found myself down to 1050 with a friend hovering around 900. What did we do?
1. Duo-queue (Optional, as you tend to be put with/against other duo-queuers). Never admit to duo-queuing as it tends to cause a lot of dissension though (I don't understand why, even if you aren't laning together there's still an unfortunate stigma attached to it)
2. Take lead roles -- jungler and carry. This helps you control the game more actively early on, when your team's moral is most influenced (Starting out ahead and then falling behind is much more winnable than starting from behind).
3. Assume leadership role as Carmine stated above.
4. Buy wards as Carmine mentioned
5. If you're first pick, ask your team for ban preferences. Be willing to pick more vital champions first and trade them down.
6. Always strive to improve your minion-score.
7. Never surrender before you've lost a fully engaged 5v5 teamfight and lost at least one inhibitor. (Even then I like to play games out till the end unless the enemy team is snowballing out of control).
/2cents
Pretty much this, I honestly don't play ranked ever, so I forgot to mention duo queuing and such. I will probably just play up to my ten matches for the skin. I like a more laid back game where the main goal is having fun, not winning. I also already have a pretty high unranked ELO, which lets me have more challenging games and better teammates, I would have to work that up all over again in ranked.










