Summoner School

The short, pro guide to dominate as Zed in mid lane. Learn the builds, masteries, counters, and special fighting tactics to carry as him in LoL.

Video

Lane Strategy

• Abuse your mana-free abilities. Farm with your abilities if you'll be worse off from a poke trade
• Light poke comes from Razor Shuriken. Look to reposition yourself so you get a last hit and harass with one Q
• Heavy poke comes from W > E > Q > W > autoattack. The Shadow Slash (E) slows to set up your Razor Shuriken (Q). Get close enough so Zed and his Shadow each deal Razor Shuriken. Swap with your Living Shadow and auto attack only if the target is below 50% health so it procs your passive. You have to be in melee range to harass with two Shadow Slashes making it an unlikely strategy
• Your passive is perfect for last hitting minions. When establishing an ideal minion position to freeze the lane or zone the enemy, still let the minion health get low
• When a melee champion like Gragas or Fizz engages you close, cast Living Shadow and activate it to your retreat location then use Shadow Slash (so your shadow slows) combined with Razor Shuriken for added punishment
• Quickly push a lane by casting Living Shadow in the middle of the caster and melee minions then E and Q. E again when it's off cooldown

Team Fight Tactics

• If you get safely within range of a squishy enemy, cast your ultimate before your Living Shadow. You want your Living Shadow to close the distance on an enemy's dash (or flash) common for AD carries or for your escape. The added damage from a nearby shadow during your ultimate is minimal, not worth the risk, and allows a likely escape for the enemy
• Cast your ultimate when the enemy target like Vayne uses Condem to knock you away or dashes away like Corki with his Valkyrie. You will avoid CC or transport to the enemy's location
• Ult a tank if your AD is getting soloed by him and the enemy carries are not a deadly threat. This allows your carry to re-target dangerous enemies
• Some cooldown reduction is synergistic with your ultimate. CDR lets you cycle abilities for maximal Death Mark damage

Sneaky Tactics

• Only your shadow slows from Shadow Slash. When dueling, if you can shadow within auto-range, instantly Shadow Slash to help you stick to the target. When running, use Living Shadow to create distance then Shadow Slash once the enemy gets near your shadow
• Ward over a narrow wall then catch out a squishy target by initiating with your ultimate. Once you get the kill, press R again to safely retreat
• A similar combo is done to juke when caught. Ult the side you're caught on, shadow across, then swap back to your shadow if need be
• Count the time since you cast Living Shadow and Death Mark. Know how long you have to swap places
• Blade of the Ruin King gives added damage to your ultimate
• Living Shadow provides vision to check brushes
• Death Mark makes Zed temporarily untargetable so you can use it to dodge tight moments like Karthus' ultimate
• Become like Faker
• Zed has a unique taunt when in-front of Shen: "Challenge me Shen...You shall not be an orphan long!"

Warnings

• High skill cap. Takes time to master

Zed is Countered By

• Cho'Gath
• Irelia
• Kayle
• Lissandra
• Lulu
• Ryze
• Soraka
• Udyr

Zed Counters

• Karthus
• Katarina
• Taliyah
• Twisted Fate

Counter Mechanics

• Burst negation. Kayle's ultimate, Jax's Counterstrike, or a silence when Zed ults. Cho'Gath with this tankiness and crowd control is cancer
• Tanky champions work against Zed's burst reliance
• Zed relies on minimal enemy CC or ally threats to enter fights so he cannot get crowd controlled. Against low quality players, this doesn't matter as they may burn such abilities before you ult in
• Track Zed's Living Shadow. It has a high cooldown that when wasted, makes him vulnerable to ganks or no damage
• Strong split pusher as he can clear waves fast, escape, and 1v1 nearly anyone

The short, pro guide to dominate as Lux in mid lane. Learn the builds, masteries, counters, and special fighting tactics to carry as her in LoL.

Video

Lane Strategy

• Assume you have ignite. If you can constantly ignite an enemy, you're playing Lux wrong. Your strength is your distance
• Level up Lucent Singularity because it is your primary harass tool
• Harass with Lucent Singularity behind the enemies initial position. Most players walk backwards to dodge the ability
• Lux's harass combo comes from a snare into a Lucent Singularity. Autoattack first to proc your passive then detonate Lucent Singularity and autoattack the final passive. Skip the passive detonations if you suspect damage reciprocation
• Your nuke combo is the same as the harass combo except you cast Final Spark to detonate the Illumination from Lucent Singularity then autoattack Illumination from your ultimate
• Detonate Lux's passive (Illumination) when the enemy has no abilities up as your autoattack does more damage than their autoattack
• When you want to nuke someone in lane or you're getting a gank, cast Lucent Singularity first to slow the enemy so it's easier to hit Light Binding. If the enemy is about to leave Lucent Singularity, detonate it for the damage. If you successfully snare the enemy, cast your ultimate to detonate your passive then autoattack to detonate the Illumination from your ultimate
• Lux's ultimate has a short cooldown so you can use it as harass or to maintain map control. Clear waves quickly with an E on melee minions into her ultimate
• If you get jumped on by a dangerous champion like Fizz, cast Lucent Singularity on top of you to get away. Detonate it when the enemy is about to leave the AOE affect
• Lux is more effective at counter-ganking than ganking because her abilities are easy to dodge when initiating a gank and unsuspecting when counter-ganking

Team Fight Tactics

• The best goal with Lux in a team fight is to kill a squishy carry before the fight even begins. Do this with wards where enemies cross as you wait nearby
• If an ally gets caught, zone the enemy back line with the slow from your E. Snare them or the diving enemy depending on who has crowd control to further keep your ally stuck
• If your team composition can dive squishy enemies, position to the side so you cannot get engaged on and can cast your E and ultimate on the squishies
• Come mid game with possible fights around Dragon, leveling up Lucent Singularity first gives you good AOE damage to be used with your ultimate
• Prismatic Barrier is best cast when the team fight starts. It is a boomerang ability where if the shield is reduced from the first cast, it can re-shield an ally for the full amount (around 300 health) if it passes through them again. You often get to cast it again to turn around close kills. That hypothetically equals 1200 bonus health for each team member
• Your passive is less important in team fights compared to your positioning and skillshots
• Look to team fight in narrow paths like jungle gaps
• Unless you're cleaning up a kill, cast Final Spark on enemies who have been hit by your Q or E. Wait for their CD if you must as the added damage from your ultimate triggering your passive is worth it

Sneaky Tactics

• Do not detonate Lucent Singularity when disengaging from an attempted initiation or gank. Most Lux players only use Light Binding to disengage forgetting the slow from her E is also as effective
• Check brushes with Lucent Singularity so you don't have to face check
• When running away from damage, cast Prismatic Barrier towards the direction you run as the shield hits you quicker on its return
• When an enemy retreats near a wall on low health, cast your ultimate away from the wall making it impossible to juke
• Track where the enemy jungler starts then place a ward on blue 1 minute before it respawns (so they don't see the ward go down) and steal it with your ultimate
• Cast Q behind one wall of minions. Some people forget it carries onto the second target. It's a one-trick pony. They won't forget a second time
• Annoy short-tempered enemies with Lux's tier-one laugh

Warnings

• Has limited item paths. You want cooldown reduction and ability power
• Illumination procs separates good Lux players from great Lux players
• Don't smart cast her ultimate. You need to see its range
• Pure skillshot-based champion

Lux is Countered By

• Kassadin
• Fizz
• LeBlanc
• Talon

Lux Counters

• Karthus
• Ryze
• Annie

Counter Mechanics

• Lux if played in a safe way cannot be countered due to her range, snare, and nuke potential. The Lady of Luminosity can poke and farm safely with her Lucent Singularity in lane and catch someone from a far distance with Light Binding
• Lux counters squishy champions when she can take them out from a distance
• Does well verse short range casters like Karthus and Ryze
• Lux struggles against champions who can juke her abilities and quickly close the gap between them and her (like Katarina, Kassadin, or Fizz)
• Juke her abilities to the side rather than backwards because all of her abilities have a long range

The short, pro guide to dominate as Kassadin in mid lane. Learn the builds, masteries, counters, and special fighting tactics to carry as him in LoL.

Video

Lane Strategy

• Acknowledge Kassadin's weakness early. Don't go for a last hit if you'll take multiple auto-attacks otherwise you'll get pushed out of lane fast. Consider Corrupting Potion for most lanes or Doran's Shield if you suspect a lot of autos will fly your way to try counter early weakness
• Use Nether Blade to last hit under tower. Even if you know you'll miss a last hit, auto-attack to get mana from the ability's passive
• Last hit siege minions with Null Sphere. The gold is worth the mana cost
• Generally preserve Null Sphere for last hits because it gives you an auto-attack animation reset
• You are unlikely able to get a kill on your lane opponent until level 6. Your lane strength comes once you hit 6
• Your kill or harass combo in lane is R > E > W > Q. A good enemy can flash as your Q flies through the air unless you get close with your ultimate.

Team Fight Tactics

• Get a Force Pulse across the maximum number of champions. The slow and damage is devastating. Coupled with Zhonyas to waste their abilities
• Silence an enemy dependent on abilities. This may not always be an AP enemy. A Zed who ults in does no damage if you silence once he ults
• Charge up your ult if you have the mana and know a fight is moments away. The added AOE damage will surprise
• Your Riftwalks early in a team fight should allow you to reposition to combo a front line threat. Rarely are you able to dive straight into the back line
• Have a pink or red trinket on the side near a team fight where you can remove enemy visibility then wait until a team fight starts so you jump in to assassinate a squishy
• If the enemy team clumps and your team is around, Riftwalk and cast Force Pulse then quickly use Zhonya's Hourglass. it's an aggressive play with high reward potential
• If your AD carry is fed, peel with your slow. You can wreak the enemy back line later with Riftwalk

Sneaky Tactics

• Riftwalk under crowd control abilities like Morgana's Bind towards the enemy if you deem the situation to warrant instant aggression
• Activate Nether Blade and Riftwalk when at base to charge up Force Pulse or Tear of the Goddess
• Riftwalk in unusual places when you go to gank to surprise. Kassadin is one of the best roamers in League of Legends
• Your Nether Blade wrecks tanks who go Sunfire Cape
• As long as Riftwalk takes you over the halfway point of a wall, you appear on the other side
• Backdoor like Xpeke

Warnings

• Always weigh up if you should Riftwalk in for a momentary position advantage and damage versus Riftwalk out to escape
• Your passive attack speed boost is useless against an AD-based team because it depends on receiving AP damage
• A lot of champions can kill you mid level 2 or 3 due to their higher burst and synergy from abilities like Anivia, Brand, and Cassiopeia
• Vulnerable to the enemy jungler camping because Kassadin is melee and has to move up further to last hit minions

Kassadin is Countered By

• Bruisers like Irelia, Jax, Gangplank, Jayce, Riven, Zed, and Yasuo
• Poke heavy like Ziggs, Anivia, Urgot, and Orianna, but you counter them late-game

Kassadin Counters

• All squishy AP champions like Twisted Fate, Karthus, Lux, Veigar, and Ziggs

Counter Mechanics

• Counter with early lane dominance through poke
• Consider doing an early 2v1 against Kassadin to shut him down
• Tanky bruisers hurt because they can sustain any poke and are not greatly limited by your silence
• Kassadin works well against AP champs mid because he can burst with Riftwalk, which further gives him potential to chase down and dodge abilities

The short, pro guide to dominate as Anivia in mid lane. Learn the builds, masteries, counters, and special fighting tactics to carry as her in LoL.

Video

Lane Strategy

• You get a power surge at level three with one ability in Flash Frost and two in Frostbite. Flash Frost can deal double damage as well as Frostbite from the frost proc
• If your jungler has a non-skill shot crowd control like Maokai snare, wait until that lands before casting Flash Frost to guarantee you hit your stun and chain your abilities
• Clear raptors only when you have blue buff or are about to back. You're too mana-dependent
• Improve the chances of landing your slow stun by walling behind the enemy, seeing the direction he moves, then cast it
• Once you hit 6, most of your harass will come from an ult into Frostbite combo. This sets you up to hit Flash Frost because your close and the enemy is slowed from your ult. Ideally you want to stun the target in your ult. If not, the stun then wall allows you to get another ult and Frostbite off seconds late
• When you want to push a wave, tank the melee minions until they line up, then use Glacial Storm and Flash Frost to clear
• Always know if your egg is up or not. You can be more ballsy when your passive is up

Team Fight Tactics

• Your ability to clear waves and siege towers is fantastic. You can defend towers well and zone enemies with your wall
• A level 5 Crystallize provides enormous catch potential when trying to taken an enemy tower
• Fight in the jungle because your wall is guaranteed to separate a team while your ultimate covers most narrow passages
• You have two common ways to initiate fights: get into the fog of war then cast Flash Frost or use Crystallize behind one unsuspecting enemy who steps too far forward
• Get your ult on an attack-speed based champion to debuff their attack speed. You can save your other abilities for other champions
• Look to use your wall early if you can keep an important enemy out of the fight
• If an enemy bruiser initiates or gets caught too far from his team, use your wall to block the remaining enemies from engaging. Banish the engager then move onto the remaining enemies
• If a tank does little damage to you but sticks on you, cast your ultimate on you and walk around in it
• If your AD carry is more fed than the enemy AD carry, use all your abilities to peel
• Be patient with your Flash Frost if you cannot kill or be killed. A good Flash Frost that passes through an enemy can double proc its damage when detonated and stun

Sneaky Tactics

• Launch your Flash Frost as you auto-attack to confuse your opponent that the stun is coming. The particle affects are similar
• Anivia works well with Ashe and Nunu because their movement speed debuffs proc the double damage from Frostbite
• Crystallize brushes to gain vision without walking inside. Use it to check Baron from top side
• Crystallize does one true damage if it shifts an enemy. Be aware it can lead you to take tower damage
• Interrupt dashes with Crystallize as you see the enemy beginning the move. Good for Jarvan IV. (Example video)

Warnings

• Be careful when laning while your Flash Frost is on cooldown
• You're one of the slowest champions in the game
• You're mana-heavy
• CC cancels your ultimate

Anivia is Countered By

• Fizz
• Kassadin
• Zed
• Leblanc
• Morgana
• Malphite

Anivia Counters

• Mordekaiser
• Karthus
• Ekko

Counter Mechanics

• Mobile enemies like Fizz and Kassadin counter you when they juke Flash Frost with their mobility to get close, deal massive damage, and disrupt Anivia's ult. Zed works in a similar fashion when he casts a shadow behind, switches to it to dodge the stun, then nukes
• Vulnerable to large gap closers like Malphite and Cho'Gath who negate Crystallize
• Does well verse champions like Mordekaiser and Karthus who get up close and are kept in Anivia's ultimate

This is the screen we all want after a game of League of Legends and is something you will start to see more of when you complete this five-part course...

Sadly, there is no single thing you can do to guarantee a win. League of Legends is a team game with the outcome determined by 10 players.

But what you do influences the other nine players on Summoner's Rift. If NBA player Lebron James joined your local basketball team, do you think he'd make his team better and be more likely than other players to win? You bet.

Though Lebron can have great games for his team, he still loses a game here and there. Does he give up then blame teammates? No (well, most of the time he doesn't). League of Legends players blame teammates all the time to save their ego - not realizing they need to work on their game.

Stop blaming teammates for loses. Only then can you begin to see errors in your play so you get better. All top pros like DoubleLift say this was their secret to win more League of Legends games.

With the following 11 tips, you win more games right now:

1Master one role. Do you love playing top, mid, bot, support, or jungler the most? Perhaps the role you most love is what you are best at and what you should master. The queue systems makes it easier to get mastery in your primary and secondary roles.

Pros can play all roles, but pros are best at one role. My main role is support. I average a 70% win-rate with Janna, Leona, Soraka, and Taric over 600 games between the champions. If I play support, chances are we'll win. Similarly, if you are weak in one role, it's okay to avoid it. Put your pride aside - no one said you have to master five roles.

If you choose to play other roles, acknowledge it as something fun or to improve at. Don't expect to rise in the ranking system by playing any role.

2Play two champions in each role. You will not always play your best role in solo queue. If you have to play a non-preferred role, narrow your selection to two champions per position. It quickens you to mastery. At the same time it does not make you lose with counter-picks.

I suggest you pick strong champions based on who you play the best and are high on a good tier-list. A "strong champion" is weak if you are bad at him. Of the two champions you pick, make sure their styles vary so they can counter and not be countered by one champion. For example, pick up a nuking mid-laner like Taliyah and someone who likes to rotate abilities like Ziggs. For jungle, have a versatile farmer like Ivern and someone who prefers to fight in the jungle like Nidalee.

3Play at your peak time. Productivity experts advise to do your most important task of the day when you have your highest focus. For me, I do my most important task (often writing) first thing in the day. I've spoken with players who tracked when they are most likely to win. Some have a 20% win-rate in their first game of the day because they need to warm up. For others their first game is their best game because they are most rested and positive.

The best time to play is unique to you. It depends on your time zone, when you are focused, and when you have a game-winning attitude. For the next week, create a spreadsheet tracking times, kills, deaths, assists, and whether you win or lose to figure out when you play your best. Here's a spreadsheet I prepared that you can copy and use.

4Duo queue with someone better than you. This tip is thrown around in the LoL community, but I give it to you for a different reason. Queue with someone better than you that you like. Talk over a program like Skype. You will have more fun, make plays together, keep rage between the two of you (which will help your team), and learn. If they play in a division higher than you, you get paired against better opponents guaranteed to crack open your weaknesses and make you humble. This is your time to learn.

5Treat every game like a tournament. Even if you haven't played a tournament, this tip works. Your senses will heighten and you will play better. You'll also prepare yourself for big moments. Imagine 10,000 people watching you play over a stream. One day, it may just happen. It happened for the first time in early 2012 for a creator of Summoner School LittleUberGiant who was suddenly spectated by 20,000 viewers through the stream of former TSM top-laner Dyrus.

6Ward well. Good wards stop ganks, allow counter-ganks, and let you confidently make plays. All this lets you win more. I found that when I lose, I get lazy with wards. How you ward varies for objectives and what towers are up.

The graphic below (which you can click to enlarge) is a good warding guide in the laning phase when towers are up:

How to ward in the laning phase when towers are up

7Last hit better. Tell yourself to focus on last-hitting to improve your CS. Higher CS means better items and a threatening presence. The next part of this free course covers in-depth how to last hit like a world-class player so you reach 120 minion kills by 15 minutes.

8Be positive with teammates. How can this win you more games right now? You reduce the number of trolls you get and help improve your team. Any good coach or manager will tell you negative team-energy is a bad environment for performance. Aim to give at least one compliment to every teammate each game. "You're last hitting well." "Nice escape Janna." "Dude, that was a beast initiation. Good job."

9Make your decisions. If someone wants to gank, you tell him to back because an enemy is around, and they still move into gank, stick to your decision. Should you jump in then die, you will blame the ganking ally even though your death is your fault. If you think yourself to be superior than those you play with and they argue with you, keep quiet.

10Stop after three games. League of Legends is addictive! You can play for 10 hours straight, but not play well for 10 hours straight. Rest every third game. That's one 20-minute break every 2 hours. If you hate that idea, rest after two losses.

A true rest is not jumping on Facebook. Get away from the computer. The human body has hundreds of rhythms from physical, mental, and emotional that go out of whack when you skip rest.

11Have fun. Queue with a friend over Skype, make jokes, talk trash, laugh. Having fun does not make you win, but it minimizes frustration and improves your attitude to indirectly help you win. Don't get sloppy in your play though from being too relaxed. Keep focused on all these tips to win your game.

Tomorrow you will automatically receive an email for the next part of "Get Promoted from Your League in 5 Days" where you discover how to last-hit for amazing CS.

Aside from last-hitting, how do you develop all the skills to win?

How do you learn to counter-pick, pick the right runes and masteries every time, last hit, zone, harass, get kills when you gank, develop map awareness, ward, build correctly, team-fight, communicate with your team, practice better, and learn all the 30+ other skills needed to become a better LoL player?

Previously there was no guide out there to teach you all this. The best answer use to be to pick tips here and there from second-rate guides then learn most of it yourself over hundreds of hours studying, testing, and failing... but this takes so long! And after all that effort, there's no guarantee you're going to come out a better player.

The Best Way to Go Insane Trying to Get Better is Playing Solo Queue for Hours Everyday

You feel like you're trying to cut a tree with a butter knife. You skip studying, don't work, forget to eat... your life suffers.

It is possible to learn by playing endlessly, watching streams, and reading free guides, but it's not worth the sacrifice and never-ending frustration. It takes you over a year of smart learning to figure out the secrets.

You want a map to follow so you can confidently get to where you want to go - whether it is to escape league hell, become a platinum player, or make your team pro – without destroying your life.

After one year of intensive learning, I finally freed myself from solo queue hell at bronze IV. Our pre-made team held #1 on the Australian LoL ladder for most of the year winning cash, RP, and rights to play in bigger tournies. I reached my goal of diamond-tier, which meant at the time I was in the top 1% of the world according to Riot. My bros (UberGiantsBro and LittleUberGiant) got picked up by esports giant Dignitas and both became top 5 players on the Challenger ladder in Oceania servers.

You want to know something what's even crazier? LittleUber was 16 when he beat DoubleLift bottom lane on 200 ping (NA servers from Australia) while playing on an old laptop that maxed out at 10 frames per second! (Check out his Reddit AMA.)

To help you get the most complete, fastest training to kick-ass at LoL, we created the ultimate guide: Summoner School. Players frustrated in solo queue like yourself have followed the guide and reached diamond-tier.

Everything is revealed step-by-step in Summoner School so you dominate solo queue with noob teammates. Get started today with Summoner School:

Last-hitting is the act of doing damage to a minion so you kill it for gold. The gold for minion kills increases as the game progresses. Below you see my bro as Lucian playing for Intel Immunity securing a minion kill in the Oceanic Pro League hosted by Riot:

More gold equals better items and better items win you games. That's why you need to read this then practice what you learn.

League of Legends players glorify kills, but overlook fundamental skills of the last hit. Pro players in tournaments often only care about getting minion kills and stopping the enemy from minion kills because their opponent is difficult to kill in-lane.

You generally have the advantage when your CS (creep score) is greater than your lane opponent. Summoner School students win more games because they know how to last hit and zone.

Last-hitting at time feels like an art of random luck. There's a science you can use to get the most minion kills.

Psychology of Last-Hitting and the Minion Sweet Spot

There's two optimal outcomes in last-hitting that make a good game for you:

1. Maximize your gold
2. Minimize enemy gold

Concentrate on maximizing your CS then less importantly minimize enemy CS when the time is right. How do you accomplish these goals?

There's two ways. First is achieving what I call the "minion sweet spot" where the minion waves balance each other just outside the range of your tower. This stops the tower from attacking your minions, which pushes the waves toward the enemy tower, AND keeps the enemy at maximum distance from safety for chase-down kills and ganks.

It is generally best early-game when the only damage you deal to minions is the last hit. This is safest for you. Do not auto-attack or cast abilities on minions because the damage pushes the minion waves nearer the enemy tower making you vulnerable to ganks. The exception to this rule is when you want to hit an early level 2 for a power spike (it's a great cheese tactic).

You especially should not push the minion waves early if the enemy jungler can help kill you. Alistar, Lee Sin, and Shaco are powerful junglers and gankers at level two. Always factor in the enemy kill potential predicting their abilities and summoner spells.

What if the enemy constantly attacks minions? Soon their minions will reach your tower making it difficult for you to last hit. Here your strategy needs to change.

Match the enemy's auto-attacks to put the minion waves outside your tower range. A wave usually pushes towards you when there are more enemy minions. With enough last-hitting practice you feel when you need to damage minions to achieve the minion sweet spot.

A secret strategy to achieve the minion sweet spot is tanking damage. Stand outside your tower range then get minion aggro to absorb their attacks until your next minion wave arrives. This prevents tower aggro to make it easier to last hit. You will see my youngest bro as Amumu do it in this old video tutorial:

Do not tank minion damage when the enemy is nearby (you become an easy target) or you are unable to recover lost health. With good amounts of life steal or spell vamp from items or runes, you quickly recover health.

There is more goals in last-hitting than the minion sweet spot. There's a second way to win with last-hitting:

minimize enemy gold

Pros strategically attack minions to push waves towards the enemy tower. This makes it harder for the enemy to last hit because the player has to judge tower and minion damage on enemy creeps.

Push a minion wave only when you are safe. Always factor in the enemy kill potential. It is dangerous being near an enemy tower when Twisted Fate can ult to gank or you have no escape summoner spells up. If your team wards well, you can be safe to push the lane, making it difficult for the enemy to last hit.

Pushing then leaving the lane lets you get objective control or gank another lane. Do it when the pay off is greater than staying in it.

Four Last-Hitting Mistakes

You know all about the psychology of minion positions and how you can use minion positioning to get more gold than the enemy. League of Legends players make common mistakes executing this advice by:

1. Excessive focus on harassment. I see players have awful CS because they obsess over attacking the enemy and miss last hits
2. Letting one's minion wave get tower aggro when it's easier to last hit at the minion sweet spot
3. Missing minion waves for whatever reason like an attempted gank
4. Getting harassed too easily, bad lane sustain, and constantly having to back

Which of these mistakes do you make? The first mistake can be corrected by reading about it. We've already covered how to correct the second and third mistakes. The last is difficult to learn about and fix by yourself. To out-harass the enemy and generally outplay them in lane, you need to know how to pick solid champions, harass, zone, and buy the right items. You have to be better than your enemy. You learn all the skills to kick-ass in Summoner School.

Two Last-Hitting Laws

Now you have the psychology of minion positioning to get more gold and are on your way to correcting the four common mistakes of last-hitting. It's time to obey the laws of the last hit.

Avoid downloads and anything unnecessary that consumes internet and wireless bandwidth during a game. Research Internet providers in your area for the lowest ping. An Internet provider may offer a better service than your current one and you could save money. Lastly, signup for WTFast as LoL players have found it reduces ping and disconnects.

The second law is also simple. Monitor the enemy minion who will die first then position yourself and time your auto-attack to do the final damage. At the bare foundations, these are the two laws of last-hitting.

In order to time your auto-attack to do the final damage, first note your attack damage and judge if that's enough to finish off the minion. It may help at the start to select the minion and monitor its health then compare it your attack damage to get yourself in the last-hitting groove.

Secondly, to last hit well on a per-champion basis you need to know the attack animation of your champion. Some champions like Tristana respond quickly but others like Karthus have slow attack animations that make it difficult to last hit. For a champion like Karthus, allow extra time for him to auto-attack. When you practice last-hitting, I recommend you select a champion that feels good to you.

The theory of how to last hit is basic, yet hard to execute in different scenarios.

How to Consistently Achieve High CS in Different Scenarios

If you judge two minions will die at the same time, auto-attack one early to create the health difference. An alternative for some champions like Gangplank and Jarvan is to auto-attack one minion then use an ability such as Parrrley or Demacian Standard to take out the second minion. Abilities in general are good to clear minion waves fast if you want to push the lane.

One common scenario players miss last hits is when enemy minions are under their tower. This is why it can be wise to push waves under an enemy tower. There's four rules to make last-hitting easier under your tower:

1. For melee minions when playing an AD champion, let the tower attack twice before last-hitting
2. For caster minions when playing an AD champion, let the tower attack once before last-hitting
3. For melee minions when playing an AP champion or others with attack damage below 75 like tanks and bruisers, attack once, wait for the tower to attack twice, then last hit
4. For caster minions when playing an AP champion or others with attack damage below 75 like tanks and bruisers, attack once, let the tower attack, then last hit

Early in the game, your attack damage on an AD champion might be too low that you need an extra auto-attack. Do this extra auto-attack soon as possible (like in rules three and four) because your attack speed could be too slow to keep up with tower attacks.

You can overcome the problem of just not killing a minion with an auto-attack by having the right runes and masteries. It's smart to run attack damage runes on AD champions. The runes let you last hit better to help you get more gold and win the lane.

Sometimes you cannot one-hit a caster minion in bottom lane after a tower hit... but you have a special option. Tell your lane partner to setup the minions by auto-attacking each one. Some players hate their lane partner touching minions. This tactic is another option if you want Soraka throwing the occasional banana onto minions.

When ally minions also attack enemy minions under your tower, that's the most difficult scenario to last hit. It's a scenario to avoid by getting the minion sweet spot where minions sit outside your tower range. The combination of ability-use for your particular champion and pre-hitting minions gets you the gold in this difficult scenario. It's a beautiful site to kill every minion under your tower.

A Simple Bonus Tip to Get More Gold

A secret strategy to maximize your CS is to leave your lane to kill neutral minions. Look for opportunities to kill neutral minions in the jungle. Mid laners can steal raptors. Top and bottom lanes can get krugs, golems, or Gromp. Everyone can do the Rift Scuttler. Do a group of neutral minons just once and you get yourself an extra ward to help you get more neutral minions, save you from dying, or land your team a kill.

Some junglers in solo queue hate teammates who take jungle minions. It is always safe to ask. Slow jungle clearers and good gankers like Pantheon are well-suited to their teammates taking neutral creeps.

Gragas in the screenshot below steals the enemy krugs because he is not missing minions in lane. With this strategy, he nearly gets one hundred extra gold and stops the enemy mid or jungler from getting the gold - a relative change in 200 gold.

My last piece of advice here for last-hitting is what to do when you wait for minions to get on low-health. When there is minions or an enemy within your champion's range, like a washed up abusive drunken boxer your champion hits anything nearby. Stop this by clicking side-to-side to keep your champion mobile. Constant clicking can also keep your mind active. Another fix is to press "s" on your keyboard when you want your champion still.

Your Goal

If you follow this last-hitting guide in-game, aim for 8 minions per minute. Minions spawn at 1:15 in waves of 6 every 30 seconds. Every third wave has a 7th cannon minion. Waves take 30 seconds to get half-way into lane. At 8 minions per minute, you miss an average of 2 each wave (ignoring cannon minions for simplicity sake) for 104 CS at the 15-minute mark. If you're going hard, make it 9 minions per minute (117 CS at 15 minutes). If you want a world-class level, go for 10 minions per minute (130 CS at 15 minutes). Most pros don't get this.

Monitor your last-hitting by multiplying the minutes into the game (minus 2 minutes) by the number of minions you want per minute. It's better to realize you are last-hitting poorly at the 5-minute mark than the 15-minute mark so you can refocus quick. Constant feedback is better than late feedback. Another feedback loop is to run the LoL Creep Calculator on a second-monitor.

Daily Exercise: Last-Hitting

Practice last-hitting in a custom game against bots. Even if you think you are pro at last-hitting, use the benchmarks for truth. Practice various scenarios like when your tower attacks minions. Work on achieving the minion sweet spot so that in games you maximize the chance of getting a gank and having the enemy miss CS from fear of a gank.

I just practiced farming mid as Gragas. My focus in the first five minutes was on last-hitting and not doing additional damage to minions. This is good training for when there's a threatening jungler good at early ganks. As the game progressed I moved out to steal the enemy's krugs. Despite fighting the enemy bot 5 times, I got 162 CS in 15 minutes as you can see in the screenshot below.

Last-hitting is one skill in League of Legends you can always work on. If you or your team plays poorly (and it will happen), focus on last-hitting well for the rest of the game. The fastest improving players find a way to learn something from every game. That's a powerful lesson to apply to life!

That was a pretty cool guide to all you need to last hit, hey? In a few days you learn how to handle trolls. There's tonnes more lessons waiting for you in Summoner School.

We've broken down all the skills, tips, and tricks to stop you losing games from feeding teammates. Get challenger if you want like us. Learn how to carry baddies and become pro-like. By joining Summoner School, you learn everything to become in the top 1% of all LoL players.

Join me. It's cool playing against pros. Get in now:

In the video below UberGiantsBro, one of the creators of Summoner School, reveals how he handles trolls in league:

Once you've watched the 5-minute video, continue to read below for more cool advice on this hard topic.

You ask your support for a good champion but he gets Teemo. Your jungler took the second blue buff so a teammate afks. Your top rages at everyone for being trash when he's doing the worst on the team.

This is League of Legends solo queue - and it can be hell. Every player knows the frustration of solo queue. Trolls are probably the worst thing about League of Legends.

Ever since I started to play League of Legends, I believed the team who raged, had negative energy, and participated in bad team chat lost more than the team who avoided such behaviors. Then it was proved. Morello, lead champion designer of Riot Games, had the data to prove intra-team fights lead to more losses. In a forum post he said:

What are you to do when trash goes on and all you want is to have fun winning?

For over six years I taught guys how to make friends, attract women, and generally be better with people. It is my career. I worked with bestselling authors of communication books, creators of therapies, and an Oprah star.

From my research, discoveries, and discussions with these experts, I have advice you can use in solo queue to handle problematic people. The best step-by-step option to handle jerks and have fun winning is to enroll in Summoner School. You learn everything to deal with players so you enjoy yourself, play better, and make your team better so you win more.

Below is a short guide to deal with players that ruin League of Legends so you can win more and have fun.

The First Simple Secret of Human Harmony

You just found a game and now ban champions. What is the first thing you do? It is not to ban OP champions.

The first step is to greet your teammates! A friendly introduction is your first impression on your team. It is the first thing you do in person when meeting someone.

Say nothing or say something rude to set the mood for a bitter game where teammates fight you more than the enemy.

If you start friendly, others are more likely to do the same. This means less chance of trolls. All you have to say is something like:

• "Hey guys"
• "Morning"
• "Yo"
• "Greetings fellow Earthlings"
• "Hope ya'll having a good day"

Some games you can't be bothered to greet your teammates. Greet your teammates most games because it is the start of all human friendship. When I skip greetings, I often say something to build rapport.

Quick Rapport

Rapport is the art of connecting to someone. It is that feeling you get when someone understands you. This makes you like them.

Rapport is tough to create over an online game. There are some tips I developed you can use in LoL:

1. Talk about recent LoL changes. A new champion just released? Ask your team, “What do you guys think of the new champion?” New skin made? “Love the new Teemo skin. Happen to have it?”
2. Joke about names. Laugh with them. One I remember was “Master Bates”. Humor works because friends laugh with each other.
3. Compliment a pick. When someone makes a good pick, give a kind word like, “Nice pick for mid lane”.
4. Share something random about your day. I'm always surprised by how this creates an entirely new conversation and feel amongst the team. You usually get one or two players happy to comment on what you shared.
5. Keep verbal resistance down. This means you don't disagree or hate. Rapport is the art of understanding so show people you get their reality. As an example, if a teammate told you he purchased a new skin and he loves it while you hate it, say, “Cool. Glad you got it.” An unfriendly person would say, "I hate that skin." We want to punch trolls because they get into verbal and emotional combat you can avoid with rapport. Minimize verbal resistance in your everyday conversations. People will like you more.

Once you use these quick rapport tips, you cut down the number of trolls, make friends in League of Legends, and enjoy yourself.

How to Handle Potential Trolls

You be nice to your team and follow the advice in this guide yet someone wants to play a trash champ mid. You feel this **** always happens to you. What are you to do with such trolls?

A troll is someone who deliberately evokes anger from others. They often get pleasure and satisfaction from "trolling". Trolls are abundant in League of Legends. You can usually spot them at champion select by what they say.

There is two good lessons you can pick from the definition of trolls to handle trolls. The first is to not get angry. The worst thing you can do against a potential troll is express anger. This means calling them names, raging, and typing in capitals. Seeing your anger is the payoff that leads to their satisfaction of trolling. By not getting angry, you reduce the pay off they get from trolling.

If you have a teammate that gets angry at the troll, tell him politely to chill and keep positive. You are not picking sides, but being a calm base for everyone. Be a leader. Draw your team together and focus on the enemy. "Guys, let's work together so we win."

Secondly, do not label someone in your mind as a troll. A troll is someone who deliberately, again, deliberately, does something to evoke anger from others. I have seen players think others are trolls when they have done nothing to troll.

Once I picked jungle Twitch when people believed it was awful (and it was a legitimate pick). Instantly I had 3 teammates call me a **** head and declare it's gg. 35 minutes later, I was 10 kills to 2 deaths and carried the team to victory.

When you think someone is a troll, give them the benefit of the doubt because they may:

1. have computer or internet problems
2. have made a mistake
3. know something you don't
4. not know something you do

A Jarvan casts his ult thinking he is helping the team. Instead he sets up teammates to die. His mistake does not make him a troll. You too make mistakes like everyone in League of Legends.

Conflict management is a matter of perception and opening your mind. It is good practice when you get angry to think of alternative reasons things happened the way they did. You will be surprised at why things took place.

Take for example a driver cutting in front of you in traffic. Sure, it may have been a dangerous move. I am not arguing against that. But what if the man who cut you off was trying to see the birth of his daughter? All he could think about was his newborn. In your mind he is no longer a jerk who intentionally tried to ruin your day. You become less angry.

What do you do when someone clearly trolls by intentionally feeding or doing random stuff that hurts your team?

Remember the first rule: do not get angry. A troll gets off from anger and frustration. Do not be sarcastic, abusive, or show anger. Sometimes it feels good to be quiet then burst out with a raging comment, but that is passive-aggressive behavior. You gain nothing from it.

Next, you can plead in a friendly and overly loving way, which adds humor. Say something like, "I'll send you roses to your door with a love note if you get exhaust over revive" or "Please, if you get exhaust over revive I'll order a hot chick dressed up as Nidalee to come visit you."

If there is nothing you can do to change their trollish behavior, let them know if they are going to troll, at least make it funny. By never getting angry about it and being friendly, you will be surprised at the number of people who no longer troll. If someone goes from trolling to not being a troll, thank them. Give them eternal blessings.

The most important tip is to focus on your attitude. That determines how you feel then how you play. You do not have to deal with online trash. You can choose to ignore it. Yes, fun is a choice!

Other than these tips, I have yet to discover anything you can say to stop online abuse. When someone is abusive, they continue to abuse because they are the problem. Get it? Trolls have issues.

You cannot remove idiots from this world so there will always be a troll lurking in nearby darkness. Troll-handling is not about never getting trolled – it is about reducing the times you get trolled and enjoying yourself. You are better equipped than your enemy at handling trolls so they are more likely to be affected by trolls.

For all you need to deal with noobs, solo queue idiots, and carry feeders, access Summoner School today. You learn:

• The #1 mistake by every League of Legends player that makes them die (a head-slapping moment for you here)
• Get frustrated by a player who doesn't listen (and even rages) when you give advice? Brain-secrets from a mind-control guru to get players thanking you for advice (make your team better in solo queue)
• 7 lost secrets used by pros in tournaments to counter-pick (have enemies in solo queue want to surrender before the loading screen)
• 13 rules for eagle-eye map awareness so you never die to surprising enemies (includes 4 tips that make the blindest teammate safe)
• And so much more...

Join hundreds of players by signing up to Summoner School.

Harassment in League of Legends pressures the enemy with damage often in small amounts. Harassment has nothing to do with banter and trash-talk!

How is harassment important to you? Why will the 14 tips to better harass revealed in this guide make you a better LoL player?

Who wins the harassment battle often wins their lane and can better win the war. You build an advantage in gold, experience, and items. If an enemy is harassed too low, he gets zoned. He will be afraid to last hit and has to sit back to lose experience like the screenshot below:

As you get good at harassing, you setup kills for yourself. You make it inviting for your jungler to gank. On top of that, you die less. If you get ganked, you can escape. You also can kill the enemy you harassed because he or she is on low-health. I get a kill using this tactic every second game. The benefits of learning how to harass sound sweet, uh?

The Secret to Own Any Lane Hard

You auto-attack the enemy twice, but was that really good harassment? There is more to harass than giving damage.

If you harass well, you own any enemy hard in lane. The perfect harass is when the enemy takes damage, you take no damage, they miss a last hit, and you don't miss a minion. Rarely will you get all four against a good player. The more of each you achieve, the better your harassment.

As you seek these four goals, keep in mind harassment is a battle between you and the enemy on three fronts:

1. Health. What most players believe is harassment.
2. Mana. This applies to mana champions. If you have equal health as the enemy, but you have mana while they are empty, you have the advantage. Non-mana champions like Riven can often harass and exchange damage until the enemy is low on mana.
3. Safety. Harassment is more advantageous when the enemy is less safe. Putting an enemy on low health and mana is good, but if you can keep the minions closer to your tower, the enemy is vulnerable to ganks or being chased down.

As you use the following tips to give damage, avoid damage, get last hits, and make the enemy miss last hits, work at achieving the three points of health, mana, and safety.

14 Harassment Tips to Win Your Lane and Get Kills

Here are 14 tips on harassment that utilize these 3 fronts of harassment:

1Harass when the enemy goes to last hit and you have no minions to last hit. This is the best time to harass because the enemy will be closest to you and not look to damage you. If you follow only one harassment tip, make this it. Good enemies see this is about to happen and may avoid the last hit while exchanging damage.

2If your lane sustain is better than the enemy, make harassment a priority. Even if you exchange equal damage, with better sustain you heal and become ready to re-harass. There's a lesson in Summoner School that teaches you how to understand champion strengths and weaknesses without playing every champion.

3On the contrary to harassing the enemy when you have better sustain, avoid being harassed if you have inferior sustain.

4Intentionally push the lane or not. If you're confident in your ability to harass the enemy in lane without pushing it, do so then zone the enemy to reduce their creep score and experience. When you're a melee champion, rarely push because you cannot harass well when the enemy is under tower safety. Ranged champions benefit from pushing the lane because the enemy must last hit while you can move in-and-out of tower range to harass.

5Know the auto-attack range and range of abilities for you and your enemy. Caitlyn has the highest auto-attack range at the start but Tristana's range is the longest come level 18. When your range is longer, you can often auto-attack once then back without getting hit. Take this into consideration when you go to last hit and when the enemy goes to last hit.

6Harass at the start of a game if your jungler wants to gank soon for you. This is a great way for top laners to get first blood.

7Hit and run with abilities. Champions like Talon and Kha'Zix deal the most damage within two seconds (of their ability cycle) by harassing with abilities rather than auto-attacks. Renekton and Lee Sin can dive to the enemy, deal damage, then dash out before the enemy and minions deal harmful damage.

8Be weary of how close you and the enemy are to minions when you auto-attack harass so you come out ahead. Many times a Kennen has landed his Q on me then an auto-attack while I have not touched him, yet I've come out ahead because the Kennen took too much minion aggro. Don't get hit by minions early. Their damage can make you worse off than damage dealt to the enemy.

9If the enemy will get minion aggro should they attack you and you will not get minion aggro, you are probably in a better position to harass. Once you harass, enemies try to exchange your harassment. They will be worse off because of minion damage.

10There's a trick to quickly stop aggro. The fastest way is to stop attacking then enter a brush. A slower way is to walk out of range.

11If the enemy missed a skill-shot or used an ability to kill a minion, that's one less ability to hurt you. Consider harassing.

12If you have a large mana pool or good mana regen, hit the enemy with an ability. In most cases the enemy will attempt to harass you. Be prepared. Do not harass with an ability if you need mana or will become vulnerable to death (for example, you lose your stun to escape a gank and the enemy has missing champions).

13This tip is advanced to execute. If the enemy hides behind a minion to dodge a skill shot like Morgana's Dark Binding, last hit the protective minion then quickly cast your skill shot.

14An advanced tactic to avoid minion aggro is to auto-attack harass when enemy caster minions start an attack. Usually you can't harass based on minion animation though. The right time to harass is often from a momentary position of the enemy.

Pros are great at following about 10 of these tips. Execute all 14 tips and you become world-class in lane.

If you liked this harassment guide, it was taken from Summoner School. You can signup to it to win more. You learn every skill needed to play like a pro. Get challenger-tier (the best ladder on a server) like us if you want. It really is the most comprehensive guide created to help you carry noob teammates.

Are you a better player now than you were last week? Will you be a better League of Legends player in a weeks time? What if you had a formula that let you confidently answer, "Yes, I know I'll be better"? Imagine how good you would become.

I can answer that for you: you can be as good as the skills you're learning about. Use Summoner School with this to become in the top 1% of all players.

Learning is a complex skill developmental experts, psychologists, geneticists, neurologists, and other leaders are still trying to understand. While they debate about how the human mind and body learns, one thing is clear: good practice leads to mastery.

What is Good Practice in League of Legends?

Amateur LoL teams fail at practice. They think they improve by playing in ranked teams or scrimming another team. All they do though is play. Nothing changes.

You probably do the same in solo queue. You queue to get better, yet all you're doing is playing - you could be even making yourself worse. Pro DoubleLift previously refused to play in solo queue because of the firm belief he played worse in tournaments because of it.

Once you acquire knowledge and mechanical skills, playing League of Legends makes you better only when you consciously work on the timing and smoothing steps of the Player Pyramid (a model of LoL mastery revealed in Summoner School).

Player A lanes against player B who is of equal skill. To the spectator it seems each player does the same thing. Only will player A or B know if he is practicing for improvement through a series of deliberate steps.

You can always develop once you know how to practice. You can always advance leagues once you know how to practice. The goal is to move an area from badness to goodness or what psychologists call "unconscious incompetence" to "conscious competence". Unconscious incompetence is where you do not even know you suck at the skill whereas in conscious competence the skill is instinctive.

How Do You Know You're Better? A Simple Trick to Improve Performance

In business there's a saying, "What is measured is managed." When you track results you can improve them. A feedback system is the best way to gauge progress.

Sprinters have digital clocks with laser systems to track times. High jumpers have a measuring bar. Sport teams have the scoreboard. These are feedback systems for the athletes that lets them know exactly where they stand. If sprinters just ran with no times, that'd be demotivating and crap. What about us LoL players?

The best feedback system in League of Legends is the rank elo system - now seen with the ladder system. The elo rating system was designed by Arpad Elo, a Hungarian physics professor, to put chess players against opponents of equal skill. League of Legends uses the elo system in ranked games to match players of similar skill against each other.

Though your elo is hidden, it is reflected in your division and tier. A player can have good games and bad games. Overtime a player's division reflects his average play ability relative to other players. What does this mean for you?

It means if you're in so-called "league hell", you deserve it. There's no nicer way to put it. Stop complaining as tempting as it is. Please read this guide if you disagree with me. You can get better using the advice in Summoner School if you want to carry noob teammates.

Aside from the ladder system, another feedback system you can adopt is tracking your kills, deaths, and assists (KDA) every game in a spreadsheet. You can add your week's performance together then compare it to previous weeks. I realize your KDA is not everything. It is an imperfect tool, but one of few at your disposal to track performance.

The last feedback system you can use in-game is your creep score. Your number of minion kills tells you how you're doing at last-hitting. You cannot trick yourself with how good you're performing when you have a good feedback system.

Players hated the elo system and they hate the ladder system. If you do too, that's because you do not understand the astonishing short-cut secrets to get platinum (and higher) that pros want to keep hidden.

Now you know how to track performance to allow yourself to get better, it's time to go on a journey of improvement.

3 Steps to Be Pro-Like

1. Awareness of Present Skill

The first step to get better at League of Legends is understanding what you suck at to move out of unconscious incompetence. Unfortunately many players in "league hell" remain stuck at this step because they do not see their mistakes. They are too busy blaming teammates. I guarantee you make a plethora of mistakes every game.

It can be difficult to learn what you suck at because you do not know what you do not know. I have two favorite ways to identify mistakes.

The best way to identify your mistakes so you begin the three steps to be pro-like is watching your games. The replay feature in the League client is a fantastic free tool available to watch your games and identify mistakes. Watch at least one game each day to see what you did wrong. In-game it is impossible to realize every mistake because you're focused on performance.

A second way to identify where you suck is feedback from others. Duo queue with someone better than you who wants to help you play better. If you have the money, consider paying a good player to coach you. An expert observing your execution is great at helping you identify where you need to improve.

Coaches in sport are powerful because of their objective eye. Amateurs think a coach's primary job is to tell pros what to do. More often though, a coach identifies what needs to change. A football player can know the right way to kick a ball and kick a ball 100 times in one practice session, yet have no idea he is executing a mistake until an observer brings light to his habit. This is why getting a League of Legends coach is a smart investment.

2. Knowing What to Do

The second step to get better at League of Legends is knowing what to do. There is much knowledge for you to gain!

Situational knowledge is best gained in League of Legends by playing and observing. If Ahri has a Deathcap and you have level 2 boots with 2 Doran's Ring, can she nuke you? Through experience you develop a feel for when you can kill or be killed.

A lot of LoL players like to learn what to do by watching streams. This has its place in learning, but many overrate what can be learned. Streamers are often pro players who make few mistakes. Due to their near-flawless play, it is easy to trick yourself into thinking you can duplicate their success. Be careful of such mental tricks otherwise watching streams can make you a worse player from overconfidence.

You do not get become an NBA player by watching NBA games. The difference between LoL streams and NBA games is that some streamers explain the reason behind their actions.

Another method a lot of players use to learn what to do so they get better as a player is self-discovery and experience. They read tonnes of guides, play a lot, and test different things. You can get better using this method. I did this for two years and it is the most common, time-consuming, and frustrating way to get better at League of Legends.

The quickest way to get better as a player is to follow a step-by-step system. I put every single tip I knew about how to win at League of Legends in a complete system so you can go from total noob to pro. It's Summoner School. All the top players I knew shared their best tips and reviewed it to make the course even more amazing. If you want a simple way to conquer the frustrations of solo queue fast, I encourage you to signup here.

3. Deliberate Practice

So you have identified where you suck at and what to do. The third step to get better at League of Legends is to make practice deliberate.

Three psychologists in their 1993 paper "The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance" explain that an expert appears talented from years of effort dedicated to the skill. A person with expertise for years did deliberate practice with the intent of improving skills. They practice for performance rather than for pleasure or rewards. The psychologists go on to say such good practice to develop skills require substantial mental effort.

What that means for you to become a better League of Legends player is you must focus during deliberate practice with the intent to get better. Do not only play for pleasure if you desire to be on your favorite pro's team in solo queue or be on stage at a big event. An athlete does not enjoy hammering heavy weights in the gym. He does so knowing it makes him stronger and faster. That is one difference between playing, practice, and deliberate practice.

The League of Legends booth at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. Photo courtesy of @MarckVision.

Playing is what everyone does. If you do what everyone does, you get what everyone does.

Practice for most players is when they play to get better but use little mental effort. They might pick a new champion, try a new build, or play with their pre-made team in a scrim against others. Advancement with this kind of practice is mostly knowledge acquisition. You discover a level 6 Taric and Graves can nuke level 5 Soraka. Improvement is slow if any is made.

Deliberate practice is when you feel awkward performing a skill to acquire it. You are slow at the skill as you think about execution.

Use deliberate practice for several skills starting with one I call "ward observation". A good jungler knows the time and location of wards by observing when enemies return to lane. You have to deliberately practice this skill with substantial mental effort to possess it.

You might start by focusing on mid lane alone noting when the enemy has to back. When he returns to lane, press "tab" to track ward purchases then look where he places a ward. Instead of mindlessly clearing your jungle then ganking, practice this skill. Eventually expand it to other lanes so you become a "natural expert" at surprise ganks and not getting counter-ganked because you know their ward locations.

One simple skill you can deliberately practice right now is the use of hot keys. Every player should use q, w, e, and r keys for abilities. Take it to the next level with smart cast so you cast abilities quicker. Use numbers for active items, wards, and pots; "v" to tell allies to fall back; "g" to indicate locations on the mini-map; "b" to recall; and "p" to open the shop window.

Each hot key you learn feels clunky and unnatural. At times you forget to use the hot key. Deliberate practice requires effort to change habit so you become expert.

One skill to practice in your ranked team is communication of what to do at Dragon and Baron. When it is time to contest the objective, say what a teammate is to do. The teammate can be responsible for making the call to finish the objective, fight the enemy, or run. Do this each time to make it a habit so you become a stronger team.

Everyone can admire a beautiful high-rise building. Few appreciate how it is built. Practice is the cement and pillars of high performance. It is ugly to do yet makes you great.

How Much Is Ending Solo Queue Bull Sh** Worth to You?

I use to rage playing LoL trying to carry noobs. You may too. It’s not fun even though you enjoy the game.

You cannot put a price on being great at something you love.

How much have you spent on RP to buy skins, champions, and rune pages? $50? $100? Some players have paid over $600!

Having that cool Teemo skin doesn’t make you play better. Summoner School will.

Are You Willing to Sacrifice a Few Skins to Become in the Top 1% of All Players?

I hope so. When Summoner School was released, enrollment was $US47 per month. No guide covers everything to make players damn good. Students felt that was a great deal.

I recently moved the website to a cheaper web host and wanted more players who couldn't afford monthly bills to join... and was able to slice the cost of Summoner School for a limited time.

I may have to make it $47 per month soon to pay my graphics designer, support staff, and tech guy. To be fair though, if you signup now, you get lifetime access with no hidden nasties. You also get a friggen crazy guarantee of how good you will become. Check it out to get started today.