The things that really differentiate pro-level play from low-tier ranked..

I've watched every single game in this year's Worlds, and I spectate ranked games somewhat regularly. Overall, I've started to notice a couple of things that are pretty much non-existent in low-tier play and pretty much constant in high-level play:

1. Teamwork: This is the biggest and most obvious difference, and yet I almost never see it talked about. Pro players work with their teams constantly, and in low-level ranked games the winning team is usually the one that has better teamwork (assuming of course there is no AFK). People seem to forget quite often that LoL is a team game, and assume that they have to be the one to carry their team. Often in Bronze ranked games, you end up with a team where almost everyone has the mentality that the rest of the team is just there to support them. On the occasions I bring this up with people, I usually et a response along the lines of 'but they practice together constantly!' or 'but we don't have voice chat!'. Neither of those is needed to be able to work with your team, all it takes is common sense and good communication. How do you think

2. Warding: This gets brought up a lot, and yet never seems to change. I can't count the number of games I've seen where nobody gets wards, and then they all blame the support and/or the jungler for the lack of vision. If you don't want to ward, that's your choice, but don't blame anyone but yoruself when you get jumped by an enemy who you didn't see because there was no ward.

3. Counter-building: This isn't mentioned often for some reason, but I see a lot of games where nobody even tries to counter-build. If you're fighting someone with a suppress, get Crucible or QSS/Mercurial Scimitar, if the enemy team is all tanks, get BotRK or Liandriy's Torment, build resistance, and for Christ's sake get pink wards when fighting Shaco or Teemo.

4. Common Sense: Items 2 and 3 above technically fall into this category, but in this case, I'm being slightly more specific. When SKT runs a play that fails, they don't immediately go back and do the exact same thing again. Too many people (and I myself am guilty of this on a regular basis) will die, and then go back and do the exact same thing that just got them killed. If you can't out-trade your lane opponent, play safe, if you're behind, don't try to get a kill unless it's a 100% certainty that you wont die also, and don't assume that just because someone is out-of-place, they are vulnerable (if they're actually good at whoever they're playing, they almost certainly aren't going to be an easy kill). Along these same lines, some other things I see people in low MMR games do that they obviously shouldn't:

   • Chase Singed
   • Face-check bushes when there is a Teemo/Shaco/Rengar/Kha'Zix around
   • Try to kill Katarina when she ults
   • Sit in a bush when the enemy team obviously knows they are there
   • Walk by vision wards without doing anything to them
   • Try to out-duel Vayne solo
   • Not take advantage of obvious counter-play (classic example, I almost never see anyone below Gold try to CC a Volibear)
   • Try to catch Janna/Kennen/Quinn without cutting them off
   • Expecting stuff that was the case multiple months ago to be exactly the same now (for example, one of my friends wouldn't believe that Teemo doesn't hard counter Garen anymore, until he got stomped by a Garen while playing Teemo).