If you only look at one stat after a game, it should not be KDA. KDA is famous because it’s printed on the loading screen — not because it’s the best signal for how you played. Here are the numbers that actually correlate with climbing.
CS per minute (CS/min)
The single most boring, single most reliable stat. Every 10 CS is roughly a kill in gold. A laner going from 5.5 to 7.0 CS/min gains an extra ~450 gold over 25 minutes — that’s an entire component every game, for free, with no risk. Look at your CS/min in wins vs losses. If it drops a lot in losses, tilt is what’s killing you, not the matchup.
Rough targets, solo lanes:
- Iron / Bronze: 4.5 – 5.5
- Silver / Gold: 5.5 – 6.5
- Platinum / Emerald: 6.5 – 7.5
- Diamond+: 7.5 – 9.0
Kill participation (KP%)
The share of your team’s kills you were involved in. This is the number that catches ADCs who farm all game and never fight, and the junglers who power-farm their own jungle instead of the enemy’s. Ranged carries and mid-laners want 60%+. Junglers and supports want 65%+. Below 50% in a winning game means the game was won without you.
Damage share (DMG%)
Your share of your team’s total champion damage. This is the honest version of “did I carry?”. A high-damage-share loss is usually a team problem; a low-damage-share win means you got carried and shouldn’t take too many lessons from it.
Rough targets by role:
- ADC: 28 – 35%
- Mid: 25 – 32%
- Top: 20 – 28%
- Jungle: 18 – 24%
- Support: 10 – 16% (this is fine)
Vision score per minute (VSPM)
Wards placed + wards killed + control wards, per minute. Support target: 2.5+. Jungle target: 1.5+. Solo lane target: 1.0+. If your VSPM is below role-average and you keep dying to ganks, that’s the loop.
Gold per minute (GPM) — the sanity check
GPM catches everything: farming, kills, objectives, plates, first blood gold. It doesn’t care how you got the gold, only that you got it. If your GPM is high but your damage share is low, you’re farming into games you can’t close. If your GPM is low but your KP is high, you’re fighting for scraps.
What about KDA?
KDA is fine as a health check — a 0.8 KDA week means something is wrong. But it can be inflated by leeching assists off a fed teammate and deflated by playing a champion that trades lives for pressure (Renekton, Rengar, Kled). Don’t chase it. Chase CS/min, KP, DMG% and vision. KDA will follow.