11 TIPS FOR PLAYING THIS GAME EFFICIENTLY (CRITICISM ENCOURAGED)

1. EAT A BALANCED MEAL AND BE WELL RESTED

This is common sense, you need brain food and don't forget to drink water; it optimizes the senses.

2.a. TURN OFF SUMMONER NAMES ABOVE THE CHAMPS

The less you see on the screen, the better. It makes it easier to process and react to useful information. Summoner names offer useless information and can interfere with gameplay. They are basically an obstruction of vision. You'll thank me later.

2.b. FIND THE VIDEO SETTINGS THAT OFFER THE HIGHEST FPS. Performance > Quality.

In Ranked especially, you aren't looking for the game to be pretty, you are looking for the game to be clear and concise down to every particle. If you aren't used to high settings, turn them down. Lower settings on some computers also increase performance. If your computer cannot support running multiple programs efficiently, only run League of Legends by itself.

2.c. QUICK CAST > NORMAL CAST

Get used to this because it will save you loads of time when using abilities. In a game like this, every second counts. You can also use hotkeys to set different settings to show the range of skills and things like that. After you get used to the game, you will learn to love quick cast.

2.d. UNLOCKED CAMERA > LOCKED CAMERA

This is extremely important because you want the freedom to obtain more information on your team and the enemy team. Locked camera keeps you literally in a box and limits your range of vision as to what is actually going on around you. Once you get used to unlocked camera it will be hard to go back. You can also hold the space bar to track your champion while in unlocked camera. Refer to youtube on how to optimize this feature to your personal preferences. Sometimes I feel like locked camera should have never been offered because people get used to it and then start to prefer it but it definitely impacts game-play.

3. LEARN TO BUILD A TEAM COMP OR LEARN HOW TO FIND WHAT YOUR TEAM NEEDS IN CHAMP SELECT (Optional)

This is speaking more to champion comp synergy than meta. A lot of times, people are queue'ing solo or as a team but they are picking the champs that they want to play, not the champs that they need to play. This is a tricky concept because it is recommended to pick at least 2 roles and a few champs that you know how to play really well and spam them in Ranked games. I second that notion but in the off-chance that you are a well-rounded player or someone that can "FILL" a position, try to pick a champion that meshes well with other champs on your team because majority of the time, a team comp with a few wombo combos can seem to have an advantage in team fights over a team comp with skills that don't really compliment each other or mesh well together in sequence. If you aren't that good at the game or a specific champion, watch out for counters. Usually counters don't matter because the game is a test of the individual skill of the summoner but sometimes countering does matter so just be mindful of lane match-ups and/or counters, especially in draft modes.

4. /MUTE ALL

(When necessary; sometimes champ select banter will require this at the start of the match before things get toxic or before people start spouting useless things that will easily distract you from the game).

Rarely is anything useful being said in chat other than the occasional MIA, GJ, or objective call by the teammate who believes he/she is the shot caller. The new pings which include pinging when an enemy uses a summoner spell are pretty much optimized at this point and can communicate things faster and clearer than having to type them out which distracts you from the game. I'm sure there will be more options added to pings also in the future.

5. TURN DOWN "PINGS" VOLUME

Once you are deadly familiar with the game and the map, it should be second nature where not to go, who's missing, what objective to take, where the other enemy team is, common ward placements, etc. People love to spam pings at this point and so turning down their volume to a level that isn't blindly, ear-searingly, mind-numbingly distracting helps to keep you focused. If you aren't on that level I wouldn't recommend turning pings off but I def. do most games, especially from those that spam pings in situations where it wasn't necessary.

6. DO NOT ENGAGE IN TOXICITY; It doesn't win games, it is merely a distraction. This includes any chat or conversation that doesn't offer useful information. (/Mute All helps with this, if you can't see it, you can't engage in it).

It's going to be interesting to see how the new honor system will affect this dynamic. I predict their will be a lot of people spewing compliments through grinding their teeth because they aren't used to saying anything nice and toxicity felt more rewarding to their obviously immature resolve and insecurities. Now that there is some kind of solid incentive for sportsmanlike behavior, even now more than ever, there is no winnable scenario in flaming because you have your own internal issues to work through as a person.

7. LEARN TO LOSE

Nobody from a competitive point of view likes losing but winners understand it is part of the process. Re-watch your old games to find flaws or mistakes in your game-play and improve on them. It also helps to learn from others mistakes. Watch the pro's to improve your own game-play but don't seek to literally copy the pro's or people in challenger and master. Develop your own play-style. If you start to tilt, take a break, go outside, eat something, etc. then come back to playing the game.

8. LEARN TO LANE

No matter what lane you choose, there are techniques and tactics that are used in lane. When you first play this game, you think farming consists of last hitting minions only. It is much deeper than that. It is lane control also **lane position.**These two things will make or break a lane. Learn when to freeze and reset minion waves because this will affect both junglers, your towers, objectives and also your recall times. You can look up many youtube videos on how to lane correctly so I wont touch on too much here.

9. WARD, UPGRADE WARDS AND CLEAR WARDS (VISION WINS GAMES)

I don't know how many games I have been in where it is 40 minutes into a game and nobody has upgraded trinkets, bought control wards or even cleared or used any wards the whole game. If you have 75 gold, BUY A CONTROL WARD. Constantly try to clear enemy wards and remember to upgrade your trinket depending on what lane or role you have. This is important because 9/10 someone get's ganked and starts flaming the team or the enemy team when it is their own fault for not knowing how to lane correctly and/or because they pushed without warding first.

10. MAP AWARENESS

PLEASE FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR TEAM.... Not only ping mia's or enemy sightings but sometimes it is necessary to FOLLOW YOUR LANE, which means if you see your enemy going to roam, attempt to **safely ** shadow them so that you can help out whatever lane they are going to. Simply pinging mia is not enough. Also, you NEED to be aware of where the enemy is or isn't. This will help you in ganking other lanes and pushing/taking objectives. If you see your jungler engaging in a fight, please for the love of everything that is good, HELP HIM/HER. I don't know how many times I watch an enemy team collapse on a jungler while his own team just stays in lane and continues to obliviously farm as if their opponent hasn't left lane to go help in a fight. This is extremely annoying and not only sets your jungler back but may discourage him from helping you in lane if you can't help him in his jungle. Learn to rotate objectives or at least exploit a weakspot in the enemy team. If someone needs help, and you are able to help them, HELP THEM! Be aware of everything that is happening on the map because that information will help you identify and predict the enemies next move.

11. WORK TOGETHER

Enough of the childish antics. Don't participate in not helping a teammate because you disagree with something. That doesn't prove anything to anyone. What that shows is that you don't care to win the game because of your false sense of pride that is getting in the way. You are your own worse enemy when it comes to this game. If you see someone feeding and you don't offer any concrete help or solution... stay quiet. If you're not going to be a part of the solution, you are probably a part of the problem. Don't get in your own way. Offer constructive advice in a nice way, telling someone something as if you are better than them and condescending them will only discourage them from playing better. You have no right to consider yourself better than anyone if you are in the same game as them. After all, chances are you have similar mmr to them which literally means you have the same or similar skill level as them which is why you were matched together in the first place. **Flaming a teammate only burns yourself in the long run. **