How can I be a better shot caller? Understand Scenarios better?

SCi am I·1/20/2014, 8:39:36 AM·2 votes·953 views

I am in Bronze 2 and in Solo Que I do well in the early lane phase (top lane), good CS and KDA but I have noticed that even if my entire team does well too we somehow throw hard mid-late game and end up losing. I feel that it is mainly due to a lack in communication among teammates. I feel that the best way for me to help my team would be for me to become a "shot caller" of sorts and that would at least give us a collective goal in mind.

The problem I am having though is I don't feel like I know the proper responses to many situations (i.e. Baron now? split push? siege?) and so wanted to know how I could become better at the role of a shot caller? I feel like there would be less throws by my teams and my wins and KDA would do better as well.

ANY advise would be GREAT! I just want to be a team player and think this would be a great way to help my teams. :D

4 Comments

Roaranor1/20/2014, 5:04:26 PM4 votes

Warding- If I remember anything from my Bronze adventures, it's the lack of warding. Most people still have the mentality that only the support should have to ward, despite having a 4 ward limit (3g, 1p). Get your team out of this mindset. Having vision over the map will open up A LOT of windows for major plays, safe pushing, counter jungling, and catching enemy players out of position.
Don't spam ping- I know this seems kind of silly, but if you're trying to lead your team to victory, the first step is to not lose their favor. Ping once. Twice if they didn't get the picture.
Never go past your wards without your team- As stated above, vision opens up a lot of windows, both for you AND the enemy team. This is a big thing in Bronze and leads to the enemy team picking up easy kills. Think of it as the rule of thumb to being "caught out".
Take advantage of your team comp- Like Pwndras said, if you have a Tryndamere/Farmed Nasus/Shen, don't try to force them to follow the team around 24/7. Let them do what they do best. If they're really ahead, the enemy team will have to send at least 2 people to effectively stop them which gives your team a 4v3 advantage elsewhere. Have them take two wards so they know when to back off a 4-5man gank. If you have an awesome all-in comp, force fights mid and push after ace. If your team does better at solo fights, use the vision from wards to punish enemy players for being away from their team. Whatever it is you think your team will excel at, do it.
PEEL FOR YOUR ADC- This is a huge problem I had for a long time. The ADC will almost always build glass cannon in order to dish out high amounts of damage. They need help from their team to live long enough to do this. If you're a top lane bruiser, I'd give this priority over assassinating targets unless someone else is peeling as your ADC will usually have a higher damage output than you.
If you're behind, play like it- I don't know how many times I've seen teams trying to force fights when they're desperately behind. If the enemy team has a huge lead, and it's clear that you're not going to win a fight, don't let your teammates rush off to their deaths. Like PoorSkills said, turtle it. Get as many wards as you can safely get into your jungle. Push lanes out inch by inch and wait until you can catch up in gold. Abuse the fact that you have a slight advantage fighting underneath your turret. If the enemy team is looking to stack a lane, a good idea is to pressure another lane. Give them a reason to back off (Jungle Yi going from their outer top turret to nexus in 30s) and shift their attention elsewhere.
Scan the enemy team's comp as the match goes on, and build accordingly- This was another big problem. Players will see that an enemy has an AD heavy comp or that a specific person on their team has 80% of the kills, and continue on with their standard build anyway. Don't. Adjust your build to the enemy team. This sounds like common sense, but you'd be surprised how many people don't. They have a bunch of fed auto-attackers? Thornmail. Fizz has 19 out of their 20 kills? Build MR and focus him first.
Focus is order of priority threat. AD or AP Carry(whichever is doing more dmg)>the other>bruiser/fighter>support>tank> tanky support.
Look for openings to take objectives- The point of the game is to take the nexus, not spend 2 minutes chasing a kill. If the enemy isn't in lane for whatever reason, take that turret (dead, roaming, whatever). Get the jungler's help with this if needed. They have a 4 man top and you can't get there from bot in time? Shove bot as hard as you can and take drag while you're at it. Chances are their jungler is one of the four. If one lane is at inhib turret and another is at outer, and you have an even chance at getting both, go for the one closer to inhib. Super Minions in any lane > only having gotten outer turrets (This will likely open up a chance to take the others as someone on the enemy team will have to deal with them).
Get your team on-board whatever you do.

PoorSkills1/20/2014, 9:13:41 AM2 votes

Play the game more and understand every champions skills, cooldowns, mana costs, understand how to calculate your teams strengths by looking at the score board, and then come up with a solution to your question: "What now?"

Positive communication goes a long way, and simply telling your allies what you want to do, and when you want to do it will give them enough guidance. Sometimes people don't want to cooperate, and you'll find lots of these people in the Bronze pool. I would suggest you worry less about coordination, and just hyper-carry, and destroy the enemy teams motivation to win by killing them nonstop, and never letting them have any objectives by warding often. You don't need to make an effort to take objectives the entire game, you only need to stop your opponents from doing so, and then freely take whatever you want.

Playing defensive, and turtling are the easiest ways for any team to come back, and it's because you play passive-aggressive like this with wards everywhere, and shutting down the enemy team when they want to take objectives. Force them to play by your rules and you should always win. When I play top lane, I'll ward the junglers Red/Blue, and try to kill him when he takes it as much as possible. With jungler I'll focus on clearing the top, or lower half and then ganking. Playing as ADC you just need to kite everything, and even as support you can shut down the enemy team by using strong CC, peeling for your damage dealers, etc.

When you can make strong plays by yourself, you'll be ready to tell others how to make plays too.

pwndras1/20/2014, 9:33:42 AM2 votes

basically comes down to when your team has an advantage, think like you just killed their jungler. Is dragon up? let's go get it while he is down. Just killed the midlaner and outer turret is still there? Go blow it up. Your Nasus/Tryn is a monster and he can solo anyone by himself? Send him split pushing while the rest of your team goes down another lane.

So yeah just take heed of when you have an advantage such as 5v4 scenarios or maybe your team is just ahead in terms of gold (check items across all players etc).

You like to play top? I suggest if you get your tower down first go head to mid and help them push down their tower if they haven't already. Possibly take teleport so you can help fights during the laning phase or dragon early on too if you are comfortable with that.

Viranath1/20/2014, 7:57:48 PM1 votes

This might help in an order of priority objectives for your team to get if not knowing where to go next.

Inhibitors
turrets
Baron/dragon (maybe baron before turret, depending on situation)
jungle buffs

This order is my opinion of coarse.