How 200 Ping Made Me A Better Player

Transcript

While I've gotten used to 200 ping as an Australian LoL player, there are definitely things you can't do as EFFECTIVELY with 200 ping. For example I find it tough to react to a Morgana bind in time, I have to predict and anticipate it's direction rather than react to it to dodge it.

Let me explain. When you take something away from someone, it's safe to say that they've lost that thing and that they're now at a disadvantage, right? But what happens sometimes is that disadvantage may allow the person to focus on another skill, and as a result that skill is now stronger and better than it was before.

I want to use an analogy here. You may know a person or have at least heard about people who for whatever reason become blind, and after a while their hearing becomes that much more effective because that's what they have to RELY on all the time. It's a similar thing.

So for me, while it's obviously not that severe, it's still the same concept! In terms of League of Legends, I've become less reliant on my reactions (due to my ping) and more reliant on other skills such as prediction and reading players. I'll use one of my favourite champions to illustrate this - Lux.

In lane I've learned to watch a players movement pattern more closely and use that to predict where he'll be or when he'll go aggressive so I can more easily take advantage of his position with an e auto harass combo, rather than simply reacting to when he moves forward for aggression.

If you are reacting to that aggression rather than anticipating it, you're generally going to lose. Is this something I would have learned without 200 ping? Possibly. But I have no doubt that that skill is stronger for me than it would have been simply because I've had to rely on it so much.

I've always been jealous of players with like 30 ping, but then I remember that I may not have developed or even learned some of these other skills without my ping, so in essence that's how 200 ping made me a better player and I think that's pretty cool.

So do you have a weakness in your game or something that could be labeled as a disadvantage to you? Here's what you do.

Step 1.

Identify one weak point in your game. Pause for a moment and make a note... Please don't say your disadvantage is having bad teammates! Don't ever use that as an excuse if you want to improve yourself.

Step 2.

Once you've identified something, take note of how it effects your game play in normal circumstances. Maybe you have poor map awareness and this makes you an easy target for jungle ganks.

Step 3.

Admit it and work on improving. Whatever it is, being aware of it (and being able to ADMIT it) is the first major hurdle. Realise that you are not the perfect League of Legends player. For a complete and step by step guide on how to rise through the leagues right now, check out summoner school now. I helped create summoner school and being in the top fraction in the world - literally the top 0.01% in the world, being in Diamond 1 - I know what I'm talking about.

Well I hope you've learned something here, I can appreciate that everyone will have a different point in their game that they'd consider a weakness. It's cool to have a weak point, you just have to acknowledge it and work on it. Until next time! Follow me on twitter @UberGiantsBro.