It's like we forgot the basics of this game

I remember when diving a turret would get you a lot of angry teammates. I remember when everyone refused to take a proper champion that suited the team, people got angry and even dodged. But not anymore it seems.

You can pick anything and people will just go with it. Of course there is always someone that tells you it's a bad idea to go Poppy support or Teemo, but somehow we're allowing everything and anything without much trouble. It's as if no one at this point really knows what he is doing or what he is supposed to do.

When you turret dive level 3 and it fails, someone might get pissed off, but you continue the game. In the past - even though it's never cool te get flamed - people just collectively enforced certain playstyles and rules of play, but right now anything is ok. The reason of course is because, well those level 3 turrets dives seem to work out a lot more often than before, where actions like that were considered bronze plays.

Right now, teams don't really care if there is no tank or too many or if someone pushes a lane unless he get killed 6 times in a row. As a jungler main, this bothers me the most. I main Evelynn and I rely on lanes not being pushed but people don't seem to understand that I need that advantage to have impact on the game and that I cannot win a late game match versus nearly every decent team.

This isn't something just for lower elo, it's in Gold and Platinum as well. So here are some basics everyone should write down on a post-it and stick to your screen.

• Don't overpush your lane Pushing your lane puts you at risk of a gank, simple as that.

• Don't push when the enemy ADC is without his support I see this happening a lot. People think they need to push the turret as fast as they can when the enemy ADC is by himself. Much better is to freeze the lane and deny any farm to the enemy ADC, thus forcing his support to return as soon as possible and punishing for instance a roaming bard.

• Push the lane and turret once you've had a succesful gank It's easier to take down that turret when the jungler or other laner just succesfully ganked your lane, instead of trying to destroy that turret one hit at a time whenever you can, leaving you open for ganks and giving the enemy the opportunity to take down your turret with aid of teammates.

• Don't dive early Basic rule, of course it can be done in the current state of the game, but it's a risk nevertheless even with a stopwatch. It's never a win-win situation, but a win-lose-lose situation, because if you're succesful you've got your jollygood kill, but if you fail, the enemy has probably killed 1 or more of your teammates and you've at least wasted a lot of time while the enemy has taken advantage.

• Pick for your team, elo and by tier Even though a full AD/AP team works fine these days, picking LeBlanc into Galio when your team is full of AP champions isn't the wisest of decisions. Another thing to consider is taking the right champion for you elo as there is little use to playing Heimerdinger in Gold+ unless you're some kind of HeimerGod. Also, sadly enough picking top tier champions is important right now. I've seen someone with over 5000 Ryze games, but he never got out of Silver. Of course it's partially skill, but in the current state of the game, picking a strong champion means at least as much as being skilled with one.

• Vision Don't go into the jungle when you have no vision, defintely not when you're behind. Keep seeing this, because of the clown fiesta state the game is in. People just go with it and chase that Alistar at 3% health into the jungle, where a 12/0 Rengar is proudly waiting in the bushes for his next kill. Buy those Control Wards and use them properly, but remember don't just go near a bush in the hopes that there's nothing there, because as I've heard before. In Silver, there's a small chance there is someone in that bush, in Gold there is probably someone in that bush and in Platinum+ there is defintely someone in that bush. You decide where you belong.

• Don't commit with every single chance you get I see a lot of games where whenever someone hits a single thing, half the team goes ham and goes all in on whoever is hit. If you snare Amumu it doesn't mean you have to throw in your full combo just to kill of their tank. Wait for the right moment, get a good angle and don't send in the cavalry to kill the archers if the phalanx are still next to them. Some champions poke and poke and poke, without the means of going all in. For instance when I mark someone as Evelynn it doesn't mean I am going to kill him, I might just be trying to presure my opponent in changing position or trying to avoid a fight.

• Stop wasting support skills on low probability offensive odds The best example of this is a Morgana support that constantly tries to snare her opponent all across the lane, but being unable to snare the incoming jungler when they're coming for a gank or Leona trying to stun the enemy Vayne under his turret. Use common sense. Are you ahead, do whatever you like, you'll probably get away with it, are you behind? Leave it, even if it's just a single kill. Stop taking risk and start reducing it, leaving your enemy open to make that mistake and giving you the chance to get back into the game.

• Keep track of farm and levels I see so many games where people don't understand why they are taking so much damage and not doing any. The reason most often is very simple. Where a level advantage of 1 or 2 levels was quite something in the past, nowadays it's easy to be 2 or even 3 levels ahead when you're just several kills ahead. Always check your opponents level before commiting to an attack and if the enemy team is ahead all together, don't go picking teamfights at all. Another thing I see a lot is people with 100 CS around the 20 minute mark. That's insane, that's CS I would be angry about if I didn't have around the 10-12 minute mark. Farm = Gold = Items & Levels. I've seen so many games won where a top laner just commits to farming for 20 minutes and then becomes undestructable against a team where no one bothered to farm and this still applies to the game in regular circumstances(IE: There isn't someone fed 8/0).

There is probably a lot more things to keep in mind, like tracking your minimap, look at it all the time, but with the chaotic state of the game I must admit I feel like I have less time to look at the minimap and in many situations it feels like it doesn't matter either. The damage is so high and fights last nearly a second or two, so you'll need to spot your enemy really early to be able to get away from them and even then.. Turrets don't seem like a really safe place anymore so it's either kill of get killed sadly enough. Apart from that, many champions have such versatile mobility that they can come from places you shouldn't even be thinking of warding.

All in all, this little post of mine is not just a reminder to other players, but a writing of introspection, so I can remind myself of my own mistakes, because I make them plenty enough considering I've went from Platinum two seasons ago to Silver right now. I hope this sticks when I'm playing again tonight, but in all likelyhood I'll just get pissed off again.