PSA: Pre-game planning and its importance
Communication pregame is vital. The last few games i've lost its because pregame went horridly and i didn't dodge. To give you an example... my last queue (that i did dodge thankfully...) was orianna,teemo, lee sin, leona, varus(me) vs kassadin, garen, lucian, thresh, and xin zhao.. mid and bot were hard countered with an early game nightmare vs our "i was gonna be top lane!' lee sin and our "i lolcountered garen and last second picked teemo so gg2ez we win!" /rant
now for the meaningful and non-ranting part that tells how to avoid this.
Picks
If you want to succeed in ranked, pick champions that you know you can play to fit your team. If you are top... don't try to carry when you know your team needs cc and tanks. If you run into a situation where you realize your team needs something that you can't do well.. then ask yourself.. "how did this happen?" the answer is one of two things.
A: you didn't communicate what you can and can't do for your team to accommodate you in time/at all
B: you aren't able to fulfill the role you we given by the team, and need to learn to be more flexible.
Let me tell you... it is your fault. Take responsibility and know what your team needs. This game can take a lot of quick thinking pregame that may ruin your game if you aren't aware of it...
Advice: Now if you find yourself just picking champions to try and win lane, and not thinking past that.. then you are under-thinking everything. If you don't know who to play when you're against a certain champion... there are a couple things that should cross your mind.
--don't worry about countering people unless it suits your team well enough.
--ask yourself "what is that champion weak to?"
--if you say "I don't know" about anything involving the above 2, it is an indicator to get more familiar with their champions and that you are under-prepared and your team will be at a disadvantage because of it.
--In the event of not knowing, throw out ideas to your team as to who you can play well as a LAST RESORT to make sure they are okay with your pick (which is very important).
Section TL;DR- Picking champions isn't just about laning and countering It is about how you talk with your team to make sure the fundamentals are covered for basic successful teams.
Team Cohesion One of the most important things in your games is to make sure you have a solid team with a cohesive strategy, and cohesive behavior.
Behavior:
Being negative in any way in a game can only make things worse. Demoralizing people who are doing things you feel are wrong does not give you the right to control them, and if you try they often rebel and are less cooperative. It is metaphorically stabbing your team with a knife by being negative. You hurt them and they react by being rebellious and often stop caring about winning, but rather trying to get revenge for your actions regardless of whether you were right or not.
Being positive can have varying levels of success, but it is always good to help quell ragers and keep the team more reliant on one another. It is how you also get more respect in what you type. If you are nice and considerate, people will more likely listen when you tell them to get an executioner's calling late game to counter their high sustain team or when to back off or stay grouped.
People are reactive by nature. They are often illogical and more spiteful than they will ever admit to themselves. I say this because it works the other way too, and to truly benefit pre-game and give yourself the largest advantage before the game even starts, you need to communicate.
Strategy:
This is the nuts and bolts of League of Legends. It is intoxicating to get into once you get your first team set up perfectly and see how powerful it really is. It transforms 5 ordinary people into a monsterous, demolishing, team fighting, objective taking machine that will win no matter what.
Your role in this- Often times people will aimlessly pick champions and run into a good team composition once and a great while. You can greatly increase your chances of winning by guiding your teammates into roles that suit their strengths and your team's overall strategy.
Know your Stuff- Understanding how teams work together is much easier said than done. You need to understand how you and your team plan to kill the enemies, but also take objectives and close out the game. That is a tall order for anyone who isn't really knowledgeable about the game, but in the end it is incredibly beneficial.
Are you lost?- If you want to learn more about champions I suggest looking at guides to champions on any guide site like lolking or mobafire. Often times they detail each champ very accurately and give you insight and often even reveal their weaknesses. you need to go into games knowing this and can't look it up on the spot. Learning how they work together as a team is up to you and your brain to figure out, since every game is situational you need to evaluate things on the fly then make your best judgement.
Section TL;DR- learn team compositions and learn how your team SHOULD work together and you will find yourself winning a lot more than losing.
I hope this read has been helpful. I want teams to communicate more.
