Real Talk/Lesson for New Players: "What are you doing?"

Have you ever been in base after a respawn, and have a single "question mark" ping appear over your character like you're doing something wrong?

Well, you might be.

(This is mostly a reference for newer players, and personally my opinion, so veterans might disagree or find this boring. If you disagree with my views, I would ask that you KINDLY comment below. I'll revise this post so that I can get different views represented.)

Are you...

• Waiting for 5-10 seconds for 20 gold so you can buy an item? Sweet! Timing your backs during the laning phase so that you complete an item is something that you should be cognizant of, for usually the laner that has more items also has the upper hand.

One thing to be careful of though (thank you Niaphim for pointing this out!) is what item you are waiting for. A simple item like or won't help you much in lane, so it's better to go back to lane instead of waiting for it. On the other hand, waiting for a complete item like or will give you a bigger boost against your opponent, so it's worth to wait a little time for those last pieces of gold.

• Waiting 30 seconds or longer to complete an item? I would run back to lane. 30 seconds is a lot of time in this game, which means that the downsides of waiting that long is huge.

• Typing/Pinging to other teammates? It's OK to stay still when starting out; new players will find it hard to focus on more than one thing at once. However, once you start getting more comfortable in the game, I would start moving, and then ping or type your message. That way you're using your time more efficiently.

• Deciding what item to buy next? This is one of my pet peeves, since I know that this is wasting time yet getting items is important. My advice is to NOT do nothing during the time in which you are dead. Try to buy your items then, and then look at the minimap, type, or take a quick break (relaxing after you die can REALLY help you focus during a hard game).

*Doing nothing? Oh god no.

Why is time really important in this game? The more time you spend in fountain, the less time you spend in the fight, and the weaker your team is. The faster you get out there, the faster you make an influence.

Let's take laying for an example. It's important to have a rough estimate of how quickly your opponent pushes. Otherwise, they could take your tower, or at least damage it, when you recall. To show some data, here are some examples I tested out myself. This is how long I took to push my minion wave into the enemy tier 1 tower, from my own tier 1 tower.

Jinx (ADC): Level 9 With Runaan's Hurricane and Boots: 31 seconds. Lux (Mid): Level 10 With Nomicon: 20 seconds Kled (Top): Level 10 With Black Cleaver: 29 seconds

Yeah, other champions are way slower than this; but against the champions that can push really hard, backing and waiting can be a game-losing play. One wave of creeps gives out around 168 gold (this number is VERY FLEXIBLE, as creep gold depends on level), so staying in base for 30 seconds could cost you that much gold. Believe me, there are games that have come down to that lost creep wave that got pushed into tower.

So, here are some tips that I wished I came across sooner. The importance of time was taught to me by a boards post, so I want to pass it on to some newer player so it could help them like it helped me. Make sure to post a comment below with your questions, criticisms, memes, and anything non-insulting!

P.S. There are many other tips for new players; time management is something that players usually don't usually use in lower ELOs or pre-30. It's perfectly fine (and, tbh, ENCOURAGED) that you focus on more basic strategies, like last hitting, before tackling these kind of techniques that are more complex.