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Basics > Skills

Slythion··26 votes·2,835 views

Basic Skills > LCS Plays

^^^That is the simplified version^^^

Not-So-Daily Reminder: Too many players focus on getting good enough with their champion to pull off Gosu-like Vayne plays, or Faker-like Zed/Leblanc plays, or Bjergsen Azir-plays that they foget what actually wins games. The Basics. Understanding that having 100% perfect fundamentals will win you more games than being able to pull off an LCS play every once and awhile. Is it as exciting? Maybe, I enjoy winning don't you? I guess what I'm trying to point out is that you should stop trying to become the next WildTurtle, Faker, Bjergsen, Hai, Huni, or whatever LCS player you admire (I have a very limited number of known lcs players). Focus on perfecting the basics because those are what sets you up to make those "big plays".

That is all, thanks for reading :)

Edit: Sorry I made this post while at school (bored af lol) and should probably clarify some things (although some amazing comments below did a great job)

By the vague terms of "Basics" and "Skills" I mean this:

Basics: The fundamentals of league that are needed in games. Basic things that players forget or simply aren't good at such as; lane/wave controls, map awareness, warding, farming, decision makings on objectives, understanding which situations are appropriate for grouping vs. split pushing, teamfight positioning, and all these other fundamental parts of league that go mostly unnoticed.

Skills: Being able to outplay your opponent with that flashy kill or pulling of the "amazing escape". Being able to land that 5 man Rumble ult that cuts off their paths, etc etc. All these showy and big moments are much less important than your basic league fundamentals (or the Basics). Without the basics, your opportunities and chances of pulling off these plays decrease drastically.

The reason I wrote this post was really due to the fact that so many players get focused on k/d/a and who got first blood or who had the flashiest play that they forget basic stuff like who provided the most vision for the team and who pushed that bot lane to ensure a minion wave would be there to push down the tower. These things go relatively unnoticed yet it is impossible to win the game without it. Don't grow to be narrow-minded summoners, remember to keep your eyes open and focus on the things that really matter when it comes to winning League games

(and yes I just wrote this after going on a losing streak, rip me ;n; )

66 Comments

DREADN0UGHT15 votes

"No thanks I'd rather get plenty of kills and look cool than get actual objectives and win"

HayRoss13 votes

How 2 ranked:

  1. Never focus on objectives, only KDA
  2. Complain about "Elo hell" because you lost anyway
Only Play Darius5 votes

Some champs can only kill and cannot pressure objectives. Like Katarina.

Marshbouy4 votes

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? killing your opponent in lane or forcing them out leads to being able to push objectives.

RookPusher2 votes

This is what everyone in Bronze says. And this is why they're in Bronze.

Reminder: All Super Minions play at a Silver 2 level. They don't chase, they push objectives, and they don't lag out, get toxic, or rage quit. Super Minions win games.

Sire Hippington1 votes

the outer turret, yes, maybe even the inner, but you won't get any further than that unless you play vs potatos. Many assasins are actually team reliant, they can do the killing, but they rely on their team to convert thos kills into important objectives. And adc or a fighter like jax just needs a few seconds to tear down a tower with minions and also is able to solo Dragon rather fast, if they get a solo kill they can force an objective on their own if the opposing team doesn't react really fast.

Slythion1 votes

Katarina can provide a lot more than just killing champs. She has decent wave clear and her positioning in teamfights will influence enemy champion pathing (which is a huge deal). Things like killing champs also deprive them from farm and objectives, as well as giving your own team opportunities to gain an advantage. Katarina does a lot more than meets the eye

Slythion1 votes

Basic mentality of a surprising amount of summoners :3

Sire Hippington10 votes

Funny to see hai in that list, as he's a perfect excample for what you want to say. He's mechanically on the weak side compared to other proplayers(which certainly still means he's has very good mechanics), but he's arguably one of the best players in the world beacus of his understanding of the game and macroplay and the resulting shotcalling.

dapositiveviking4 votes

its not cloud9, its cloud nhain

MrBuffington1 votes

Faker is somewhat similar; everyone knows him for his flashy plays, but the thing about Faker is that his fundamentals are so solid. He has such a good understanding of trading and damage foresight that allows him to play very aggressively and punish mistakes incredibly hard and get away with massively favorable trades or kills that no one else can. (Actually, the same is true for most top pros, but to a lesser degree. You don't become a top pro with crappy fundamentals)

An interesting thing about Hai is that he actually doesn't consider his shotcalling anything special (at least globally); he makes good calls, no doubt, but it's that in combination with the fact that his team listens to him almost without question, and the fact that he just raises his teams morale that C9 play so much better when Hai's on the team.

Slythion1 votes

Faker is somewhat similar; everyone knows him for his flashy plays, but the thing about Faker is that his fundamentals are so solid

This is perfectly said. Most players see pros and are blind to the fact that they are doing every fundamental thing correctly and are focused on the flashy play those fundamentals give them the chance to make

Sire Hippington1 votes

i think faker is more an example of the opposite. He's the flashy plays guy that all the people look up to and think what a god, but in terms of macro and gamecontroll, he is lacking. Don't get me wrong, just as with hai's mechanics, lacking in this case does by no means mean he's bad, just that compared to the really great macro players he's not that good. Faker is a really good laner with a great champion pool for counterpicks, and he knows well how to convert a lead from lane into more. But in terms of teamfighting and controlling the game wihtout winning the lane hard, there are better midlaners, like pawn or easyhoon.

A great example for not much flashy plays but insane macro and gamecontroll is Bengi. He was the main reason SKT won the championship two times. Faker most of the time looks that good cuase he always had bengis backup. He just brought so much visioncontroll and kept perfectly track of the opposing jungler, always ready to countergank or simply outpace them. Faker could play that agressive in lane cause Bengi established the needed controll to do so without bigger risks. Now with bengi gone, SK suddenly isn't nr.1 in korea anymore, but nr.4.

MrBuffington1 votes

I think Faker dictates the pace of the game pretty well, just because you always have to take him into account. I agree he isn't known for shotcalling or brilliant macro play, but he does control a game in his own way. Especially if you look back at some of his Ezreal games, he was controlling the entire map (in part because Ezreal has a global). But yes, Faker and Hai are relatively opposite

I also wouldn't call stellar macro play among your fundamentals. That naturally requires team coordination, something that is inherently lacking in solo-q (it's hard to say solo-q anymore, since it doesn't exist, but you know what I mean). Of course you have to be aware of basic rotational things (if you already have mid inhib, go take something else instead of just sitting in mid), but you take Hai or Bengi and put them on a low-elo team, and they're going to win because of mechanics, not shotcalling (even if players listen, they're not going to execute properly).

Put a different way; good macro/shotcalling isn't as vital to an individual player's success. To have a good team, you need five good players, but only one good shotcaller. In fact, it's probably better to only have one, so you don't have competing voices.

Sire Hippington1 votes

true, shotcalling and many more advanced macroplay things mostly metter in high level 5vs5, but what i want to say is that even in lcs, it isn't mechanics and flashy plays that wins, but superior macro. And there are other things than shotcalling, wavecontroll for example. On most really good teams, you will nearly always see the minions pushing in theit favour when fights start, and comeing back in when they disengage and pickup farm. And exeptional player in this regards isXpeke, regardless of the matchup, his wave is nearly always exactly where he wants it to be, similar to Froggen. this allows them to apply alot presure and controll mid without straight winning the lane and mostly comes from there massive experience as seasoned vetreans, and this is something that will win you soloQ games aswell. It's also why they usually reach exeptionally good farm numbers even in bad matchups without overextending.

MrBuffington1 votes

Yea, I agree with that

Slythion1 votes

I'll be honest I really don't know Pro players to a very high degree and just listed off popular lcs players. You point out Hai, but in reality all pro players have above-average basics. It's the flashy plays that are reported though, making non-lcs players focus more on the flashy plays and not the basics that created the chance to make those flashy plays.

AMYS GRAVE6 votes

Me: You know after we ace them at 43 min we can push mid and win the game right?

ADC tries to solo baron top laner farming their raptors mid grabs our blue buff support died in the fight

me: facepalm.

Serika Zero1 votes

you should help your adc overlord and get baron. Better than facepalming and doing nothing

AMYS GRAVE1 votes

well i re-took the inhib so i did something. Our adc was pretty weak already anyway so we probably couldn't duo nash, but maybe.

Serika Zero2 votes

anything is better than nothing. sadly everyone has a different idea on what to do when you get an ace or whatever. So, you got to pick an option that its doable. If everyone rushes mid, sure you can end. But if someone just wants to recall. There's no way you will stop them from recalling, so better take jungle, do baron, take inhib, etc :) Since you can't force stuff on your team mates

Dealth2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Serika Zero,realm=EUNE,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=jXYdE6y8,comment-id=0003000000000000,timestamp=2016-03-30T17:21:05.425+0000) But if someone just wants to recall. There's no way you will stop them from recalling

Trundle it takes a troll to do that

MrWasjig1 votes

Something just as aggravating happened in a match yesterday. We kill enough of them to Baron. Sadly our ADC is dead leaving no DPS. So our top Naut decides to solo dragon while the rest of the team with an A.Sol Jungler try to 3 man Baron while repeatedly telling him to come join us and spamming pings.

We don't secure Baron, enemy team comes back up, they take Baron instead.

Holy fuck I hate people [zombie-brand-facepalm]

RookPusher3 votes

Agree wholeheartedly. Though I'd say "decision making" instead of "basics" but I think we're coming from the same position. Skill in LoL is like Intelligence in the real world. People assume some people have it and others just don't. But if you believe that, you likely worship Zeus. Hardwork, and knowledge-seeking are the things that get everyone to the top no matter what.

The only other thing that factors in is passion, which is why some folks are doctors, and some folks are COOs.

Slythion2 votes

Perfectly said man, I made this post with limited time (I was bored in school lol). I used the vague term "Basics" to include sets of skills like farming and warding that can't quite be considered decision making as in taking objectives and such. But you helped clarify so thank you!

RookPusher1 votes

{quoted}

Perfectly said man, I made this post with limited time (I was bored in school lol). I used the vague term "Basics" to include sets of skills like farming and warding that can't quite be considered decision making as in taking objectives and such. But you helped clarify so thank you!

Happy to add something. We're all in this together.

Michael Sykes2 votes

what do you exactly mean by "basics"? Taking objectives, teamfighting in general, game knowledge (i.e. weaknesses of champions)?

BestTristMyHaus6 votes

Yeah: "The basics are more important than flashy kills" Woo. Care to elaborate professor? Guess what, being able to walk to the car is more important than being able to drive a car well since if you can't do the former you won't often do the latter.

Brascus8 votes

Making sure lanes are pushed before grouping, so if you lose the fight and are pushed back in mid, top and bot become a threat for the enemy team relieving pressure even if aced or forcing them to counter split push.

Ever seen your team win a team fight but you can't push because there aren't any minion waves to safely and quickly take a tower pre-20? They almost get it but enemy team respawns and aces them? This happens with unsurprising repetition ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Knowing when to group for team fights is a pretty big deal that most players get wrong a lot, most people think it means go mid and push which simply starts turtles. You want to track enemy jungler and turn bot lane into a 2v4 with mid/jg roam early game. Or pushing your lane to roam for pressure/gank to back and tp.

Late game you start that zzrot portal split push, placing it in an afk lane (bot/top), while actively solo pushing the other (top/bot) to about tier 2 then grouping mid for a full 5v5 to burn time, which they either split to take care of active pressured lane, meanwhile zzrot afk lane is building a massive wave.

Noob teams will initiate before the pusher gets back, this can cause the pusher to lose faith in the team and just afk split push which is just as bad.

Serika Zero5 votes

Making sure lanes are pushed before grouping, so if you lose the fight and are pushed back in mid, top and bot become a threat for the enemy team relieving pressure even if aced or forcing them to counter split push.

even lcs teams don't do that, and you expect casuals to do it?

Slythion2 votes

I think you dumbed it down a lil too much :3

To use your anology of cars in the way I was trying to put it: People need to remember they need to walk to the car and actually know how to drive before they can pull of drifting and street-racing moves like they see on youtube. Focusing on the basics (like actually knowing how to drive = farming, warding, etc) allows for you to make those flashy plays people get so focused on

Slythion1 votes

sorry for the vagueness, I actually made that post during school (I was bored) and didn't have a lot of time lol. Brascus down there helped explain it better than I ever could've but I added what I could in an edit to the original post :)

Hay5eed2 votes

But what ARE the fundamentals? No one has told me

Voluug135 votes

dont frucking overextend, vision, managing lane pressures, map awareness, etc.

Oh and who can forget the important part of counterpicking, safepicking and team synergy and composition.

Mickey Donnerudo3 votes

and faaaarm

theragingnerd2 votes

I overextend a lot i just call it baiting with out an ally

The Lexer6 votes

"What are you doing????"

"Baiting their jungler into my cannon minion"

Slythion1 votes

I edited my original post to clarify a few things, but Brascus (in the comment section) did a far better job than I ever could

Slack King2 votes

Dont you dare make my LCS plays with Mordekaiser not great Do you know how many hours it took to master the LCS skill of walking towards enemies whiles listing lazily to the left to dodge slows?

Banoffee2 votes

Truer words have never been spoken in the Gameplay section of boards. I salute you OP. #teamworkOP

Slythion1 votes

Thanks man ^-^ [slayer-jinx-catface]

Zedex1 votes

Lol you can't really play the complicated champions effectively against a good opponent unless you have basics though...So..Thanks for the common sense PSA I guess? lmfao

Nøble3 votes

The thing is though is that all champions in general aren't that hard to play, even the seemingly complicated champions should really only take 20 games or so to learn to play them very well. Champion mastery makes up for probably 15-20% of what it means to be a good player. The point here being that way too many people devote all their efforts to developing skillsets that will only get them so far. That's the reason you see a lot of 200k mastery points on zed players that are stuck in bronze/ silver, and then complain about why they are there is because they don't understand that being really good at your champion isn't what wins you games 80% of the time. You would be surpised how far knowing the value of things such as the value of each dragon stack (2 and 4 being meh, and 3 and 5 being huge), or knowing how to determine if a lane will push or not based on the number of minions and the position in the lane will get you.

YossarianSensei1 votes

The basics are boring AF, the LCS plays are the fun part

Part of the reason Dynamic Queue sucks ass, you'll rarely win in a premade game if you pit LCS plays vs basics, whereas you have a fair chance in Solo Queue.

Slythion1 votes

Basics/Macro play may be boring but winning isn't :)

Dynamic Que doesn't doesn't really have anything to do with LCS plays vs basics but more communication. Anyone can focus on playing better with the basics and focusing on the things they can control. This was really just an awareness post for those that get too self centered or tunnel visioned on making the single "game-changing play" that they forget about all the things needed to set up for that play (the basics)

YossarianSensei1 votes

Rather have a fun loss than a boring win

Ionian1 votes

This is why, as a one trick pony, I can't climb anymore. What are basics, all I have is skills...

Slythion1 votes

Start working on the basics and even your Ahri skills (assuming that's your 1 trick champ) will improve :)

ZephyrDrake1 votes

thanks for the very vague and maybe helpful but not really tips... this entire post can be boiled down to "be better at the game and you will win more!" you don't say!?

Slythion1 votes

It seems my message wasn't clear

Basically, in the simplified version is about how focusing on the simple basics and macro plays are infinitely more useful than that "epic 1v1" or flashy micro plays that look cool. A surprising number of players lose focus on macro play and spend time working on micro play which costs games and causes tilt. It was an awareness message that, if it didn't apply to you, it still applied to a large portion of the league community

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