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"You're not only playing against the champion, you're playing against the player"

thicc as fuk·4/14/2015, 4:48:03 PM·26 votes·2,434 views

Just a general tip of advice.

My brother (currently climbing through silver.) constantly asks me at the start of games what he should buy first, level first, max first. How aggressive he should play in the early and when he should try to engage. I don't really mind helping him but at the same time I feel like he isn't retaining the information I give him so I decided to tell him "You're not only playing against the champion, you're playing against the player."

Yes some champions have advantages over others but there is a level of skill that trumps those advantages. Especially in gold and below.

I had been doing this myself for the longest time without realizing it. I spend a good 1-2 minutes of the lane analyzing how my opponent plays to know just what exactly it is I can do to beat them.

Which of course doesn't stop him from asking me how to itemize. In this situation I'll give you all the advice I gave to him. Press tab, look at who's fed, and build against them. Do you have the potential to insta gib them? Good, build to do that. Can't you survive their dps with the right items? Great, start building that. In higher elos when people have more focus you might want to start checking the death recap along with the score board to see who's focusing you and adapt to that.

30 Comments

Wheatloaf4/14/2015, 7:22:10 PM19 votes

This is why a good Vel'Koz is scary; if he figures out how to read you like a book, you're in for a world of incineration.

Orangesilk4/14/2015, 9:03:12 PM8 votes

But analyzing someone takes WAY more experience than just trying to play the matchup, that is pretty much useless advice, by the time he is even ABLE to do that, he won't be asking you about matchups.

Learning about matchups is an essential part of solo laning. Know your champion, know how he interacts with the enemy champion, don't bet against someone not reacting to your actions, just assume they will do the right thing and try to play to be best of your ability, also, 1-2 minutes of laning don't tell you how will a player behave. Expect Yorick or Rumble to play very defensively until lvl 4, which is when he can get to the part where he stomps your face. 1-2 minutes of watching him play won't tell you how he plays, but knowing the matchup will.

Once you know the matchup, you can start spotting the individual differences between the different players and make use of them, but that comes AFTER having played a matchup several times. "Hey, this Riven is using her Q to waveclear when minions pile up too much, I bet I can abuse that". But that's something you only notice after the 5th Riven you face with any single given champion. (Which is why maining a champion is so important, you not only have a lot of experience playing the one guy, but you have played MANY times against most common matchups).

Short story: Keep trying to help your brother in a game-by-game basis, hopefully at some point, he'll start recognizing the matchups, and after he does that, he'll start recognizing the players.

AFK Push4/15/2015, 6:03:08 PM3 votes

"You don't have to outplay the other player, but rather wait for them to outplay themselves"

-The Oddone

Not a perfect quote but eh, I live by it.

Nucleophilic atk4/14/2015, 4:54:40 PM3 votes

Unless they are playing Zed...then you playing against some bullshit.

Sypher The Poro4/15/2015, 2:58:43 AM2 votes

Quick tip for playing against Riven: If she hasn't killed you before level 6, she will try very hard to kill you at level 6.

WhiskerWow4/15/2015, 1:38:41 AM1 votes

Shut up! You're clearly a virgin. Kappa.

Seriously, it takes a mix of champion and player. If you didn't know that Annie could 100-0 you by level 6, you would be in for an unhappy ride. If you notice the enemy player is dodging skill shots very well, shift your view on farming better or ganking other lanes, depending on which champion has the better late game.

Spacesuit Spiff4/14/2015, 7:38:07 PM1 votes

Yeah. Reminds me of my attempts to steal dragon that only work because the enemy team panics and makes a mistake.

Cerbearus4/15/2015, 1:04:17 PM1 votes

Now if only the death recap didn't tell me things like Garen using Mystic Shot on my for 700 true damage...

Ship 0F Ducks4/14/2015, 7:30:37 PM1 votes

tell him to play master yi

Stark60004/15/2015, 6:04:15 PM1 votes

mostly you're playing against the champion.

Brakedown4/15/2015, 6:47:25 PM1 votes

I think i understand somewhat of what your brother is going through. I personally cant find the time to sit down and come up with strategies for multiple champion match ups, especially since i don't "main" any one champion. i play mostly Olaf , Teemo (i know hes hated) and Tryndamere . It wasnt until recently i started playing Fiddlesticks and im finding that each champion is different in their approach to each match up. My biggest fustration is that i cant seem to remember all of them unless i play all day every day, which i have no time to do. But keep giving your brother as much support as you can. hell if i had a guide like that i dont think i would have any of the problems i do now

PubgamerAU4/16/2015, 11:18:59 AM1 votes

While this is a great concept to have, I find the bigger problem people have is not knowing WHAT to analyze or how. What should a player watch for? What are some common mistakes you can capitalize on? etc.