@OCE King
Hey

So I have been playing League since Season 2, but I have quite honestly never ever been good at this game. For the longest time, I have consistently peaked at low plat and that is literally it. Lately though, I find myself only ever enjoying playing Riven (my oldest main and I have been consistently playing her since like... ever).
My problem is that, when I am top lane, I hear that top tier players play safe and don't make mistakes. Okay sure that's cool and all, but when I play safe, it allows the enemy top laner to get level 2 first then I proceed to get zoned and lose out on gold and xp. Against champs like Renekton and Fiora it's devastating to me because if I want to go in I get forced out of lane thanks to a horrible trade. How can I address this?
Another scenario, once I get through the early stages of the laning phase, and we are still laning, I find myself oftentimes feeding kills. When I am playing with my friends, over the years it's become a very common thing that I die 1-2x in my lane at least, and more often than not I usually come back in lane and dominate. I die a lot due to ganks and just being overly aggressive in general and (I guess it may sound dumb and all), but I feel like because I don't have to mentally think about what abilities to execute when, I overestimate my damage and end up killing myself. Or sometimes, when I feel like I can get an easy kill but I know i have absolutely 0 vision on the enemy jungler, I decide to take the risk anyway and go for the kill but I almost always end up dying. In this situation, it's like... I know I can win the 1v1 easily and put my enemy laner further behind, but if I do nothing because of a fear of a potential gank then it will give my opponent time to build up more gold and xp so they can become a threat to me. What would you do in this situation? Because I am all about putting the enemy down and keeping them there, but it often times backfires on me and I end up throwing a seriously good lead.
With Riven in general, if I get smashed in lane, I go a more tank-focused build compared to the bruiser type. My issue is that, when it comes to teamfights, I am oftentimes the tankiest person on the team. That's a huge issue for me because, when I am playing with my friends, they often wait for me to engage... and when I do, I press R then E, Q, W and I proceed to get CC'd and instakilled. Then the teamfight is lost.
I guess this is more of a personal issue but... for the past year and a half of playing with my friends and me playing Riven, most teamfights have been like this. And for me, Riven is my most favorite champion and that is what I am known for in my group of friends. But because of teamfights like this, me constantly getting smashed over and over, it has seriously hurt I guess you can say my willingness to play her, as much as I do. (Maybe i'm being dumb to you but that's just how I feel about it).
As a result, I end up most of the time split pushing 24/7 and just letting the enemy win the game because I think to myself, "what am I going to do? Just stand back and watch them take the towers? I might as well be pushing a lane and taking some towers than stand there and be useless."
There is more on my mind but i'd like to see your input on what I have posted above. Ty for reading this
