Low Elo Mistakes
I am in Low Elo, and I see a lot of mistakes. I am not perfect and sometimes I make some of these mistakes, but I am aware after the fact that I made a mistake. A lot of people don't realize how dangerous these mistakes can be, specially during this season where 1 mistake can cost you the game. In fact I just lost a game that we were 100% going to win but 2 members of my team made a very bad mistake that cost us the win.
Just keep in mind, these are tips and observations based on and for lower elos, they may not apply to higher elos or to every champion/lane.
So here is a list of things that have cost me a game:
- Focusing kills instead of Objectives.
Kills are important, but Objectives are most important. You can win without a single kill by getting all the Objectives, but you can't win by getting all the kills and none of the objectives. Idk how many games I have lost because my team will focus the enemies instead of the Towers, its probably one of the most common mistakes people make at my elo. Its not always a bad call to go for kills but you need to read the situation first, are your teammates low? how many enemies? how fast can you take the turret? who is the turret focusing? Most of the time though, its just a better idea to go for the turret.
- Losing lane and continuing to build damage.
I see this fairly often, a losing lane has nothing but damage items and are continuing to feed wondering why they are dying. Some champions can build straight damage even if severely behind, but chances are high that you should be building some sort of defense. You may be surprised how much a single tank item can help, at the very least you can soak up more damage that would otherwise be going to a carry. There a lot of items that give both offensive and defensive stats, so investing in these if you are not winning will probably help you catch back up.
- Not playing Safe when behind or with no wards.
This is the biggest reason a losing lane will continue to lose. They die for the 5th time and you see that once again they have died more than half-way across the lane. If you are losing lane, playing safe is pretty much your best option. By playing safe I mean staying near enough to your turret to be able to quickly get back or to an area that you have sufficiently warded up. Don't all-in your opponent, that is clearly not working, try to just play safe and farm. Getting CS is more important than getting kills, specially when you are behind because you probably won't be able to kill them enough to make up the difference.
- Walking through unwarded Fog of War.
This is a universal problem, you should never be face checking a bush when you can't see the enemy team. If you have a rough idea of where the enemies are, as in you have seen them recently and there is no way they could be in the bush, then its ok. Otherwise you want to be warding up any section of the Fog of War where you think your team might be soon or where a teamfight is about to happen. Generally you want to keep vision control over the river as this shows Baron and Dragon, around buffs and entrances to lanes are other good places to just keep warded. When you are pushing to their turrets, you are going to want to have deep wards in their jungle. Its better to ward first then start pushing, you never know when they will come for you.
- Knowing when to teamfight/split.
What I see in my games is this: One team will group and push, the other team will not group or one member will be off by themselves farming. Obviously the team of 5 will engage on the team of 4 and most of the time will win. You need to know when its ok to split off and farm and when you need to group. Generally speaking, you want to group if you see the enemy grouping or if you see one or more of their team off by themselves. If Baron or Dragon is up, its also a good idea to group then because after the teamfight, one or both will probably be taken. On the flip side, if you see a member of your team off by themselves, you should be in "Disengage Mode", ready to run should the enemy engage on you. You all want to survive and get away to wait for your teammember to group with you. This is especially true if that person is a carry. However there are exceptions to this and thats if you have a good split push comp. Basically if your team can easily apply enough pressure in more than 1 lane that they are forced to split up in order to stop you, then its a good idea to split. A good way to see if you should split push? Well did your team all die the last time you split? Yes? Then you probably shouldn't split. No? Then go ahead but make sure to ward and watch the minimap in case they need you.
- Knowing how to end the game, pushing down an Inhib/going for baron/ taking the Nexus Turrets.
This should be an obvious one, but its probably one of the most important. You need to know how to end the game. Did you just take Mid Inhib? Ok well now its probably a good idea to push another lane. Obviously there are exceptions, such as their team being mostly dead and minions are in their base, but generally you want to be pushing down a different lane. Mid is already pushing and unless you can easily win a teamfight with no minions under turret, you probably should not be grouping and pushing mid. At this point you can also go for Baron, depending on the condition of both teams.
Ok so you went for another lane and now you have two of their inhibs down, what do you do? Well there are a few things you can do, you can push down the third lane, go for the nexus turrets, or go for Baron. It all depends on how many of them are alive, how many of you are alive, and how low you/they are. If your whole team is alive and their whole team is dead and not coming back up for awhile, go for Nexus turrets. If you are left with only 2-3 people but they are all dead, you can either try to take a nexus turret or go push down that third lane, this is more dependent on their death timers and your minions. If they are all alive and you are all alive, you can go push down the third lane or go for Baron, this is dependent on how well they can clear minions. If you can't get near the turrets because they are clearing too fast, you can try to Baron because they now have 2 lanes pushing against them and will be in trouble if their attempt at stopping you goes bad.
This also ties into my first point, do you try to kill them or go for the Nexus Turrets. Well this depends on how many of them are alive and which of them are alive. Generally though, you want to take those turrets, if you try to dive them the turrets may turn the fight in their favor. If their carries are still alive, you can try to bait them out or have your engagers jump on the and force them away from the turrets while your backline focuses the turrets. If they stay and fight, you should back off and try to kill them without taking too much turret damage. If their non-damage members are the only ones left alive, you should just focus the turret as there is no threat of them killing your team while you do so.
This one is tricky because its very situation dependent, but just try to look for these points: How many of them are alive and which ones are dead? How many of you are alive and which ones are dead? Are your minions pushing? How much HP do both teams have? Can you take turrets quickly or is it a struggle? Do you win teamfights?
Answer all of these and make a decision on how best to win the game based on the combined information. Try to stick to the safest route, sure you could potentially end the game right now, but there is also the risk of you losing the game right now too should you fail. If you are not sure on any of the questions above and its safer to just back off and come back refreshed, then thats probably the best option.
Ok sorry for the long post and yes I know its pretty much useless, very few people will read this and think "hmm im going to look for this and try to improve". I hope that newer players will look at this and see if they are making any mistakes, or if they are asking themselves some of these questions. I know that a lot of people in my elo and even myself, make all of these mistakes often enough that we are stuck in our elo. Hopefully this helps someone, but most of all hopefully my future teammates see this and I can lessen the chance of losing a game because of one silly mistake.
