7 Habits Of A Highly Effective LoL Player
Ever wondered what the best LoL players do so effectively that sets them apart from everyone else? Consistency is one of the biggest differentiating factors and apply to all of these habits so keep that in mind as you continue to read. I'm UberGiantsBro and these are 7 Habits Of A Highly Effective LoL Player.
Habit 1. Effective LoL players play at their peak and stop when they start getting tired or start playing sloppy.
Back when I was trialing for the state Futsal squad, they ran us through all of the fitness trials before moving on to the shooting drills. I thought this was weird. Wouldn't it be better to have us do the shooting first when we were fresh and our legs weren't tired?
The reason they did this was actually pretty simple. They wanted to see how we handled shooting with tired legs and with our adrenaline pumping, 'under load', as it were. They were testing us to see how we would perform with stress and under realistic playing conditions.
The transferable lesson here, as it were, is that it's crucial to practice on or near a stress level - an arousal level (teehee, arousal) - that is similar to what you would be performing with in a highly competitive scenario or when you think you would be performing your best (think maybe that promo series where you played really well).
This means that you want to be playing when you are feeling fresh. The 'optimal arousal level' and 'peak time to play' varies for everyone but generally you'll find that you perform your best after 1 or 2 games, as these get you in the zone. I've found for myself that I tend so play sloppy when I am physically tired near the end of a big day, so I know now to generally just avoid playing late at night when my brain just wants to shut down.
Arousal and stress (a little bit of stress) makes you aware and keeps you alert in game. When you start letting your guard down, well that's when you start making silly mistakes, slipping up in lane, losing track of the jungler or just flat out feeding. The most effective practice is when you are in the right mind frame.
So here's what you do; when you start losing concentration or start getting tired, stop playing LoL. Take a break. You will only play worse and possibly develop bad habits, and the time you spend playing sloppy you could spend doing something that would be more productive like going to bed earlier or doing your chores or something.
Some people like listening to music to get themselves in the zone. Maybe you play your best after a short jog or some other physical exercise to wake you up. Alternatively, you could #getfitwithsnoopeh in between games to keep yourself alert! Check out Snoopeh doing pushups with Froggen on his back.
The important thing to remember is to stop playing when you notice yourself getting tired and playing sluggishly. This is the time where you are most likely to go 'on tilt', and tilting is one of the biggest elo killers that you want to avoid.
Habit 2. Great LoL players instinctively look to analyze and correct their own mistakes before thinking about what others did wrong.
I recently did an article on using Immediate Reflection to improve in LoL which I would highly advise you check out if you haven't already.
I truly believe this is the hallmark of a great LoL player, especially, especially true in League of Legends where the typical reaction to anything bad in a game of LoL is to blame others.
Could you imagine how much more fun to play (and in turn, competitive) League of Legends would be if every player was more concerned with what they could have done better themselves in every situation rather than what others could have done better? What a powerful concept.
Adopt this attitude of self reflection and practice this skill when you play and I guarantee that with time you will be well on your way to reaching your League of Legends goal. For more info on how to take ownership of your mistakes and the beauty of immediate reflection, read more about what I believe to be the secret To improving fast at LoL.
Habit 3. Smart LoL players focus on something specific and put what they learn to the test and practice it until it becomes routine.
Believe it or not, Doublelift - NA's best ADC and one of the best ADC in the world - used to be 'just a good ADC'. He always use to be great at cs'ing but he was generally very passive and average at harassing. Focusing on being more aggressive and smarter with his harass is what Doublelift says turned him from a good ADC to a great ADC.
Harassing is a specific skill, and Doublelift had to concentrate especially on this part of his game until he became good at it. It doesn't just happen, you have to put extra focus on it to improve.
When you find something that is not so great in your game, focus on improving it. Techniques for finding these things include replay analysis (which will be discussed later on) and duoing with another good player.
Near the end of the first LCS split, team Dignitas were facing elimination. Crumbzz (Dignitas' Jungler) stated in this interview that it was really going in to scrims and practice with intentions of focusing on something specific that carried them through the elimination process. Unfortunately you can't time stamp with Gamespot videos but the part of the video I'm talking about is at 2 minutes in.
Habit 4. Pro LoL players play as if they are in the lead, but they know their limits.
There are a couple points I want to make with this habit that mostly revolve around a Pro player's mindset in LoL. Firstly, there's this whole thing about being positive that can help you play as if you have an advantage from the get-go.
For any of you that are familiar with the Law of Attraction (there's a wiki link for you), this idea won't take a lot of effort to get your head around. If you focus on the positive stuff, more positive stuff is likely to happen. Great.
Now how does being positive help you play as if you have an advantage? It basically comes down to knowing that you have the ability to change the flow of the game, even if you are behind.
It's the confidence in your own ability as a player and knowing what you can and cannot do. Think about these two mindsets and you'll see what I mean;
Player A. Uhh he's 30 cs ahead of me and we're 8 minutes in. I think this game is over.
Player B. Uhh he's 30 cs ahead of me and we're 8 minutes in. It's k he's basing now and I might be able to pull some cs back. I'll try to farm it out and have a bigger impact than him in the teamfights - Malphite is weak early and a beast later on anyway.
Player B has a better mindset, he knows that he scales well and that he has the ability to get back in the game. He is confident in his Malphite pick and that later he can still crush team fights.
Focusing on this keeps him more positive and has an immediate impact on his cs'ing and communication with his team. He is now a positive, unstoppable rock.
My second point is that Pro player's are confident enough and sure enough of their own ability that they know if the enemy slips up, they will be there to capitalize. They just have to put out enough pressure safely and within their known limits to give their opponent opportunities to slip up.
I played mid against MandatoryCloud" (mid laner for Team Vulcun) and even though I was on my most comfortable champ at the time, Lux, I felt like he was always 5 steps ahead. Yes that is a Swain quote, yes he was playing Swain. The point is that he was confident enough in his play and on his champ that he knew how aggressive he could be while still playing relatively safely.
One of my teammates used to say, "If I can't play aggressive in my lane, what better am I than these randoms?"
Obviously there's more to it than just playing flat out aggressive, but the essence of what he was saying is very true. It's knowing when it's a good time to play aggressive that is the key. [Smooth transition to next habit, oh yeah]
Habit 5. Switched-on LoL players rarely get greedy, they know when it's safe to take an advantage and when it's a dangerous risk.
Ever been caught out farming that one last minion wave before going back to base or trying to take that inhibitor only to be caught with your pants down by Homeguard boots? I know I have, I'm sure you have. HotshotGG has.
Switched-on LoL players rarely get greedy. They take what advantage they can safely. They are confident enough in their own ability that they know they don't need to take many risks throughout the game to win.
It's often been said that the team that makes the less mistakes in League of Legends wins. I think this holds considerable truth, and often the majority of mistakes stem from that 'solo queue greed' for kills, cs, towers, objectives or whatever.Greed often comes down to knowing what you can do when you're fed and what you can do when you're not fed/when a certain enemy is fed. For example, I've seen plenty of Singed players farm well and maybe even get a couple kills in their lane, but when it transitions over to a team fight they give up easy kills for free because they think they are indestructible.I recently played a solo queue game which illustrates common solo queue greed perfectly. In this game, the enemy team just got greedy/cocky again and again and it eventually led to their demise. Check out the greatest comeback in solo queue history.
A large portion of not getting greedy is again, knowing your champion and your own ability well enough (experience, practice) to know what you can and cannot do in every scenario. Knowing this will limit the amount of times you get caught being greedy.
Habit 6. The best LoL players use their time efficiently, this includes time allocated specifically for replay analysis.
They focus on one skill at a time if it is lack luster, they focus on one role at a time if the ranked queue allows them, they take time to fix aspects of their game through replay analysis.
Dyrus, when commenting on having a dedicated replay analyst in preparation for All-Stars, said, "It feels like cheating."
Unfortunately most LoL players don't have the luxury of a dedicated replay analyst however this doesn't mean replay analysis shouldn't be done. Take the time to correct (or even discover) parts of your game that are letting you down.
Go through your replay, preferable straight after you play the game, and actively watch for mistakes that you made. Don't just sit there and watch it like a movie, you won't notice much. Here's your chance to be critical of your play, but don't get down about how bad you are!
Once you find something that you can work on, put extra effort into focusing on that skill or part of your game until you get better. An example is if you notice yourself missing a lot of last hits under your tower, you might choose to practice pushing out the wave (trimming) better so you don't have to last hit under the tower so much, or maybe you might concentrate on perfecting your last hitting technique under the tower with that specific champ instead ie. I don't have AD runes on this champ so I have to hit these ones twice.
Habit 7. The up and coming LoL players learn from resources available to them that speed their way to becoming a better player.
Wouldn't it be amazing if some high level players took everything they knew about the game and combined it into one super awesome, amazing, ultimate League of Legends guide for your ease of access? Wouldn't that just speed up your improvement like no other resource?
When I was new to the game, I accessed sites like Mobafire fairly regularly to learn the good builds for my champions. But even then, I didn't exactly understand why I was building the items that I was as most guides didn't go into that. At Summoner School you learn the theory behind everything you do.
What is Summoner School? Summoner School is a complete League of Legends guide created by 3 Australian brothers who wanted to share what they'd learned through their years of (sometimes frustrating) solo queue and competitive experience in an easy to access format. These 3 brothers (myself being one of them) all went from being Bronze/Silver level players to Platinum/Diamond level players and now want to help you do the same!
Feel like you've missed the boat in terms of having the time to be a highly effective LoL player? Nonsense. League of Legends is just heating up and there is plenty of time for you to achieve your LoL goal. So go check out Summoner School right now, hit me up on Twitter @UberGiantsBro to let me know how you're finding it and have a great day!
