How do you play? Stationary camera or moveable camera?

Lock my camera, unlock it if I want to land a long range skillshot or watch my top lane dive the enemy and die.

Unlocked camera. Smart cast. Fingers on Q,W,E,R. Flash on D.

Unlocked. Makes longer range skillshots doable, lets me look over a wider area than just the immediate zone around me, makes mobility spells less disorienting to watch.

Locked camera is, for the most part, a beginner's thing. A movable camera is great but takes some getting used to, much like smart casting.

Locked camera and a lack of smart casting are the two major mechanical differences that I see between beginners and veterans.

For pros and cons:

Locked camera: Pros: You won't lose yourself in a teamfight It makes the controls simpler for when you're first starting out Cons: It severely hampers your awareness, meaning if something isn't on your screen, the only way to see it is the mini map, which is also an adjustment for many new players.

Movable camera: Pros: You can look at anything you want. You can check lanes for ganking opportunities, see if anyone is in trouble for teleport/shen ult etc, check dragon, check baron, check your team's wards, look down your lane etc. Cons: You'll occasionally lose yourself in a team fight if it is particularly hectic. It is one more thing to control for new players.

Locked can master race.

Then again I play on a track pad so an unlocked cam makes it extremely difficult to play.

this may sound rude but not having moveable camera is just plain bad.

Moveable Camera, I cannot stand the locked camera, even when I first started playing.

I played locked but have the unlock button on my mouse so I constantly unlock to scan around, check other lanes, etc. So kind of a hybrid of both. But having a quick button the mouse to lock/unlock is more preferable for me than holding the space bar or have to constantly microadjust the camera whenever I move around.

"Locked" camera is only useful as sort of a learning phase, the controls are much easier for brand new players if they don't have to constantly move the mouse to the edge of the screen. With that said, having the camera unlocked is much more advantageous to you if you are already familiar with the game - not to mention that if you need to center the camera on yourself (which I actually find myself quite often needing), just tap spacebar.

I take the best of both worlds and go semi-locked. I can still pan the camera around myself, as long as my champion is on-screen, and it still follows when I move around. Gives a much wider FoV without the hassle of recentering the camera every 15-30 seconds. If I need to check elsewhere on the map, I will still unlock it, but I move it back afterwards.

I play with it locked 80% of the game. I unlock it from time to time to check on certain stuff.

I play with a locked camera (with the per-side offset). I typically only unlock (by pressing y) when teleporting or using global skill shots.

And don't believe people that say without unlocked screen it's impossible to play well. All that really matters is whatever you prefer.

really the only bad thing about a locked camera is if you just always leave it locked.

I keep my screen locked by default but its so easy to simply press Y to unlock camera, slide it over to what you need to see, and then hit Y again to snap back to your position immediately.

i unlock screen for casting long range spells, often leona ult, getting a quick peek at how a fights going (especially if im on my way to it), and pretty much viewing the map during any down time

people who play with the screen locked should be hitting y often to look around at any chance

I play with a moveable camera, and am constantly pressing space bar to focus it back on me if I need to. I like to look around.

My friend plays with a locked camera, and I don't know if it's because he has no map awareness to begin with or because of the locked camera, but I often have to ping him multiple times to come help a teammate.

both but 90% of the time movable. Not having a moving camera in makes me feel dizzy. I don't like locked on cameras to thing that are poorly done. ie: not being zoomed out enough to get a large enough picture... Locking on that doesnt account for character size. For example a good "locked on" camera would be dark souls cameras. They're generally pretty good for boss fights and overall fights in general. Theres not much screen choking in those games.

I... SHOULD play with an unlocked camera. Most of the time I don't. I'm trying to learn it, but the habit is deep. Fingers go on qwer - Smartcast on errything (except Rumble ult, and I think there was one other ability I had to turn it off for.) F is for Flash. Shift-qwer for leveling up.

I play both, largely depending on what champion I'm playing and what I'm doing (CSing, Teamfight, roaming, etc)

I play on locked, but I do it because I'm looking at the mini map so much I would lose my self without it. and I take advantage of the click and drag option there.

Having been a gold ranked SC2 player from S1, unlocked is natural for me and if it was locked i find it to be disorienting having the camera move when I don't want it to.

I switch it on and off. I use the locked camera when I'm normally laning and during team fights, while I use he unlocked camera for looking around the map to see what the others are doing, or when I have a long ranged skill shot that I want to see where it will land.

I mostly play Rek'Sai, Xerath, and Bard.

Locked camera prevents you from playing two of them.

I'm still a complete noob (100% verified) at this game. There were a few things I knew going into it and one was to force yourself to leave your camera unlocked. At first, I dreaded it. I mean, I hated it so much. I borderline said "Screw this, I'm going back to locked." But one day, I started a game and was wondering why my camera was locked and thought "What the heck? This is ridiculous." I had realized that I was used to the camera being unlocked. And so from there, I was really happy that I forced myself to use an unlocked camera from the beginning.

Locked usually, unlock it to look around the map

The best is a combination of both. i use my space bar as a lock/unlock button and i use this mechanic to move my camera quickly and efficiently

I keep it free, and I use the space bar to bring it back to my champ when I need it. I should probably get used to using it free though, lol.

Though I use it hybridized and holding space more than I should, I'm trying to play more with freecam. I've heard it makes aiming easier, which makes sense considering your screen is moving when it's locked.

I play locked, but unlock when the situation requires. While people say that unlocked gives you more awareness and helps aim skillshots, you can just as easily be aware and hit skillshots with locked cam. It's different but it doesnt mean unlocked is tons better than locked

(I can play both, but I choose to play locked)

I used to play with the camera centered on me and I didn't unlock it until around level 30. Now, I understand why people would say that a centered camera is better but it's honestly not. It is easier to last hit and land many skill shots when your camera isn't swinging around all the time. Also, you can drag it around on the minimap to check out how other lanes are doing (this is really helpful to land global ults like Jinx's ult, Ashe's or Draven's.) It gives you good map awareness and allows for you to focus on where your enemies are in terms of distance. The downside to this is sometimes you'll want to have the camera on yourself AND the enemy laner but it doesn't fit so clicking on where to go or auto is difficult. The hardest thing about playing on a moveable camera was that during teamfights it might fly all the way off the map or I lose where I am. That is easily solved by just holding the space bar, as it will temporarily stay on you. Sometimes I do get carried away with watching a fight on the other side of the map and completely ignore my surroundings (I walked right past a fed Fizz who insta-gibbed me and I didn't react until the last minute -_-. It takes a while to get used to it but if you play it enough, it's rewarding and helps you get much better at the game.