PLAY TO NOT DIE!

Rootworth·Apr 2, 2015·14 votes·9,203 views

This is the only thing I could tell someone with confidence when it comes to improving at League:

PLAY TO NOT DIE!

I notice a lot of low ranked players die a lot in their games. It usually comes from chasing, diving, over-extending... basically they want kills. But a lot of times they end up getting killed for a kill, or at best they end up just trading kills. I kill you, you kill me. Getting you're enemy fed is never worth. If you try to not die and focus on not dying, you'll probably do better. Maybe your cs might improve too? Maybe you'll focus on learning trades better, so you always come on top? Maybe you'll learn to ward more often? I mean why die and get your enemy fed?

Going 8-15-0 is not worth in my opinion. I'd rather go 2-0-5, if you know what I mean. Heck 15-15-0 isn't worth either. I mean how many times have you had an ally with a load of kills but deaths too and you lose? Many times.

Edit: After reading many comments down below, I think I haven't explained myself well. I think what I said can be taken many different ways, and some see what I said differently than how I meant it. However, down below there are some comments that are great examples of what I'm talking about. You might notice I've replied to them as well, as I agree with what they're saying or they relate to what I'm talking about.

42 Comments

RiotScuttleChrisApr 4, 20156 votes

I've been trying to play this way for 5 years! Every time I play to get kills, I lose (as you said, I often end up trading, or I end up getting baited and outsmarted). When I play not to die, I usually win.

Exception: URF Mode.

RootworthApr 4, 20151 votes

Thank you for your post!

hh the thinkerApr 2, 20154 votes

I agree, but you can push it a step farther. play as aggro as you can, while still trying not to die. if you can punish people in laning and survive a gank, you made the jungle come to your lane and not get anything and you were making it harder for your laner. there are times when I was ganked top and got double kill even and when you do that in a game, other team almost gives up right there sometimes.

RootworthApr 2, 20153 votes

Well said.

Nefarious YordleApr 3, 20154 votes

Funnily enough, the way I am currently learning this game is by being as aggressive as possible without being blatantly stupid. Sometimes I enter a 1v1 I am not sure who will win, simply to find out who wins it and why. I don't see how playing overly passive improves your game-play. It might temporarily increase your performance and win-rate, but it sounds to me like it would slow your learning process down. Also there's lots of situations in which you would negatively influence your performance by playing just not to die, for instance when playing naturally aggressive champions such as any midlaner, any AD botlane, or any AD bruiser toplane.

Maybe you should refine your statement to "Focus on not dying when playing really strong late-game champions." That would be simply the most wise style of game-play with those champions, since you'll actually benefit from nothing happening to you or your lane opponent.

RootworthApr 3, 20153 votes

Well you said it in the first few lines. You try to figure out what you did wrong. A lot of people just continue to make the same mistakes over and over.

The thing is, when someone hears, "try not to die," they assume it means play really passive. But that's not the case at all. All it means is to not run into the enemy jungle without wards, chase and get baited, jump into a group of 4 enemies when all you're building is damage and you're a squishy champion, and so forth.

TsundayApr 3, 20155 votes

All it means is to not run into the enemy jungle without wards, chase and get baited, jump into a group of 4 enemies when all you're building is damage and you're a squishy champion, and so forth.

No that's not what the phrase means at all. Try not to die means simply that, actively putting in thoughts to avoid death. It means a hell of a lot more than not running through the enemy jungle. It means leaving lane when you're too low, it means trying to position yourself in open spots with more than one escape route, it means in lane trying to sidestep skillshots and when trying to run it means use your escapes effectively. It has nothing to do with not running through the enemy jungle. It has nothing to do with not jumping into 4v1s. Those are literally the worst ways to describe it.

Basically trying something is an active process. You are taking actions to achieve your goal. Not doing something is also not taking actions towards achieving your goal, in fact it hinders you as a person and as a player. You aren't supposed to think of things in what "not" to do you're supposed to think of what you "should" do. You should take action to see if the enemy jungler could be nearby before you go in on an engage, that's how you avoid dying. You should take note of your enemies power spikes, what is on/off CD, what items they have built before trying to trade with a champion who will be in range to trade back, that's how you avoid dying. The people who don't go anywhere in life are the people who focus on what they "shouldn't" do and they think things like "don't run the red light", "don't tell her that dress makes her look fat", "don't fall asleep during tomorrow's meeting". The people who actually get somewhere focus on the things they "should" be doing to get somewhere. They focus on complementing the woman's hair or her laugh if they think her dress makes her look fat, they actively attempt to take notes and process what their boss says during the meeting instead of trying not to fall asleep.

The game is played the exact same way.

Just because you shouldn't do something doesn't mean you'll win more games by not doing it. If I decide not to chase through their jungle and instead recall, that doesn't help me win the game. If I choose to not chase the enemies through the bottom side jungle and instead farm bottom lane, it doesn't stop the group of people who would have caught me in the jungle from coming to kill me. Not doing something never helps win you the game, it helps keep you from losing it faster. There really are certain things you have to do to win the game. You have to take towers and at least 1 inhib and the nexus turrets to take the nexus and win the game. That is really how you win, it's not by "not dying". Not dying means that the enemies have more people to worry about when they try to take turrets. It doesn't magically mean the enemy's turrets fall or that they will surrender.

Seriously just focus on the things you should be doing in your games and not the things you shouldn't be doing.

RootworthApr 3, 20151 votes

Good points.

B3ERApr 3, 20153 votes

Tried this. Got reported for being AFK in base.

RootworthApr 3, 20151 votes

lol You're taking it to the extreme.

Leti the YetiApr 2, 20152 votes

If you're confident and want to improve You're more likely to achieve that by playing to die You're never gonna learn how to make LC$BIGPLAY$ without actually attempting any plays You're never gonna learn the limits of your champion if you never use up mre than 30% of their capabilities cuz you're hell bent on not dying all the time

I'm aware playz wont win games for you but you do learn to exploit the kit to its fullest imo I can freeze the lane infront of my turret with just about ANY champ and farm till the other laner gives up and lets me take tower but i didnt learn shit but to last hit, like that was a challenge to begin with

my issue is no one ever knows what they're capable of they could be 10/0 by some magic but they will still be dumb as a rock cuz that 0/27 garen is oh so fking scary, eh what if i make a mistake, bitch make enough mistakes and you wont be worrying bout it so much cuz you would know by then what you are capable of

truth be told, i personally dont know the significance of my stats at different stages of the game that is precisely due to the lack of experience people, especially tanks have this problem, they have no idea how tanky they are but they insist on oppressing themselves, why the fk did you even go tank

you know how easily you can run up to a tower ,knock it down and just leave? ;l probably wouldnt have know how to accomplish that if you never try

/rant

RootworthApr 2, 20152 votes

I'd disagree. I've improved a hell of a lot by focusing on not dying. I've learned the limits of my main champions because I didn't want to die. I don't mean not to attempt lovely plays and instead play like you're scared of everything; but don't go in dumb-minded and not take anything from what happened.

Also, by your comment, I feel you didn't even read my entire post.

Leti the YetiApr 2, 20151 votes

I'm not sure wat im suppose to grasp from the rest of it yes, not dying is better than getting a kill, and? ;l

Diving and overextending is all part of the experience too As much as I would love for my team to play safe there are too many times where I feel like they just pussied out of that 4 v 1 gangbang they have no idea what they are capable of

RootworthApr 2, 20151 votes

I guess what I'm trying to say is stop mindlessly throwing yourself into fights and learn a thing or two. Too many times I see people fight and I know they're going to die, and they do. But when it happens over and over again, there is no experience. They're never learning. I have friends like this and they've actually got better being more patient when they go for kills - they climbed some leagues now.

Spawned101Apr 2, 20152 votes

what this really comes down to is experience how well you know your kit and your ability to ward playing passively or defensively has its benefits but this game isn't one size fits all you need a good combination between aggressive and defensive plays. i heavily agree that if you don't know your champion kit ect be more defensive for awhile no ones going to mad at you for going 1-0-3 as long as you're helping in team fights and objectives this also depends heavily on your champion and your role/style of play. example i play both garen and trundle top lane garen i pick my moves very carefully and play much more defensive but with trundle i ward a lot more and i'm much more aggressive

RootworthApr 2, 20151 votes

I think what it comes down to is to get rid of that itch of wanting to kill everything all the time. Ever get that Riven that continually tower dives, goes 4v1 right after you and some of your allies died? It's about controlling that want to kill and being smart about it.

But I agree. You would need some experience to understand your champion's limits, however there's a difference in 'playing to play' and 'playing to learn'.

TsundayApr 3, 20151 votes

So basically you can sum this thread up by "how not to be wood 7" because not making the stupidest mistakes in the game over and over and over for no reason doesn't really get you far at all, it just gets you above wood 7. It's like saying "buy boots" or "press B instead of walking all the way back to base" they help you a little bit but after that you're still stuck in the same place and not actively improving at all.

LankPantsApr 3, 20153 votes

You're never gonna learn how to make LC$BIGPLAY$ without actually attempting any plays

There's your problem. This game isn't won by plays, it's lost by misplays.

IcyPepperApr 3, 20151 votes

Have you seen how low the killcounts in pro games are sometimes?

One game I saw was 1 to 11 for twenty minutes of the game or so. With a Karthus.

DestructoDaveApr 4, 20151 votes

{quoted}

If you're confident and want to improve You're more likely to achieve that by playing to die You're never gonna learn how to make LC$BIGPLAY$ without actually attempting any plays You're never gonna learn the limits of your champion if you never use up mre than 30% of their capabilities cuz you're hell bent on not dying all the time

Gaining elo, esp. in low elo is not about making LCS big plays. Its about not making mistakes. Thats people's problems. League games are not won on LCS big plays. Maybe in the pros, where they might end a game with a 3-0 score, but in your typical solo Q game, its about who throws and messes up the hardest, not who insec'd who.

And there is nothing wrong with risks if they are calculated. But some people just do dumb things that have a very small chance of succeeding. And, its usually these people that are complaining the most about being stuck in low elo, about struggling teams, about the system, about everything. Its not your typical fun loving people who are dying 12 times a game. Its the try-hard guy thinking he belongs in silver/gold/plat while he breaks even at best in games.

And again, this fun thing you are talking about people rarely do. People spam 1 champion out of 100+ all day, every day, JUST to gain some LP. Just to maybe win a game or 2 more. They spam 1 role nonstop, JUST to win more games. I mean, hell the people who are having "fun" are the ones at lvl 10 who are just randomly going places with random champs. Not try-hard number 5000000 spamming 1 champion mid for months at a time.

At some point you do have to test your limits; but those have to be TESTING your limits. Not just suiciding and doing dumb things that have little chance ot offer anything worthwhile except not to do that again, which you should hvae known better the in the first place. Its like working a speed bag. You dont start hammering on that thing as fast as you can. You have to slowly work your way up to being able to style and show-off on that thing. You arent going to get anywhere on it by hammering on it like a monkey the first time you hit it.

But if fun is all you care about then go ahead. Just dont start complaining when you cant gain elo when you are sabotaging yourself by making too many mistakes.

Low elo is a game of mistakes. Its who can make the less mistakes. Most of the people, esp. on this forum, are in that elo. Low elo games just arent won by LCS big plays. Its won by throws.

Leti the YetiApr 4, 20151 votes

if i was willing to write paragraphs for my OP, maybe people would quit bothering me over the same thing... I'ma just head over and edit that instead of responding to everyone individually

dProphetApr 2, 20152 votes

Good post. I totally agree with OP. I'm still a noob, but I've started learning a lot faster when I began playing with OP's tactics. When I started out, I played as Lucian and I rushed into fights all the time. Ended up with a lot of 2-15-2 type rounds. Later I changed to Tristana (currently my main) and started to focus more on actively trying to avoid fights I'm sure I'll lose. I almost always pull back when there's more than 1 enemy champ if I'm soloing my lane. Never use my rocket jump for offense since it's my main means of getting out of trouble, except for "sure" kills and sometimes fleeing champs when ganking.

Today this playstyle really payed off and I played my best round yet. Except for some jungler help and end game support, I was soloing bottom lane. Ended up with 10-5-1. Two of those deaths where completely my fault because I was over-confident and got owned when rushing in (lesson learned: keep my distance with Tristana). Two deaths was enemy ganking and/or ambushing me (lesson learned: ward is key!!!). Last death was getting killed for a kill. I ended up with second most champ kills on team, most minion kills by a long shot, most gold, highest lvl and I cleared my lane of turrets and inhibitor. After I started playing with OP's playstyle, there are two very important things I've noticed. 1: This is the obvious one. I die a lot less. 2: This is the important one: I ALWAYS know why I died, what I did wrong and what I should get better at doing/avoiding.

Play to not die! :)

RootworthApr 2, 20151 votes

You're comment is great example of what I'm talking about. Thanks for the post! :D

TheElectedBaconApr 3, 20151 votes

[deleted]

RootworthApr 3, 20152 votes

Your post is against the rules of the LoL Boards. Please don't post such things.

YOU BEEN WARNEDApr 3, 20151 votes

What kind of ambition do you have ?

Do you go to school to stay in school too?

Or do you go to school to get an education?

That is a terrible and boring mindset that should not enter the video game world, you can stay alive in real life. Video games are for doing things outside of the norm and having fun.

Please don't listen to this guy -_-

dProphetApr 3, 20151 votes

First of all the point of this playstyle isn't to stay in base and don't do a thing, and you can't compare school to LoL. But the point is to learn your champs limits and learn your opponents limits. As you get better, you can take more risks because toy know what your enemy is capable of doing and you get better at reading your opponents playstyle.

BUT, I agree that this is a boring mindset in the general video game world because with most games the rewards far outweigh the risks. You can rush all you want in games like Assassins Creed, GTA, Call of Duty, etc. because they reward you for taking risks. This does not apply to games like LoL. Neither does it apply to games like Age Of Empires, Divinity, StarCraft, etc.

If you rush into every game without thinking about tactics, you will not have a fun time, but if you can adapt your playstyle and tactics to each game you play, you will definitely have a fun time.

But of course, to each his own. If your playstyle works for you, keep at it, but remember that it might not work for everyone. As you say yourself: " Video games are for doing things outside of the norm and having fun". This is good advice, but remember that what's fun for you, might not be fun for someone else.

YOU BEEN WARNEDApr 3, 20151 votes

Still bro, if you want to tactically think about your next move then turn based RPGs are the most suitable for that. This passive aggressive playstyle is like for Veigar & Nasus .

imo you shouldn't pussy out or be afraid to do trades, you are in league to fight. Teamfights break out every game, kills will happen and that's when you will take objectives. They don't happen "by not dying" they happen by fighting efficiently.

Fight smart is a much better way to word what OP said.

TakanuvaApr 3, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=YOU BEEN WARNED,realm=NA,application-id=WEuoGbmp,discussion-id=Z2KGhu4G,comment-id=000500000000,timestamp=2015-04-03T18:16:58.718+0000)

Still bro, if you want to tactically think about your next move then turn based RPGs are the most suitable for that. This passive aggressive playstyle is like for & .

imo you shouldn't pussy out or be afraid to do trades, you are in league to fight. Teamfights break out every game, kills will happen and that's when you will take objectives. They don't happen "by not dying" they happen by fighting efficiently.

Fight smart is a much better way to word what OP said.

i never said fights and such wouldn't happen. teamfights are definitly prominant, but killing isn't the only objective. i cant tell you how many games ive played where the enemy literally outnumbered our kills 2 to 1, yet we win. why? we took objectives, while they spammed chat with things like "1v1 me bro" gg wp" and "get rekt m8" and believe it or not, high elos have IMMENSE planning. i dont bother highly with timers and rotations and such. i try to be a decent player, but i dont want, nor do i have the capability, to tactically think about my next move. i wanna play and enjoy league. as far as passive-aggresive playstyle, thats very situational, although admittedly some champs will cater to one style over the other Shaco

BiffoloApr 3, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=YOU BEEN WARNED,realm=NA,application-id=WEuoGbmp,discussion-id=Z2KGhu4G,comment-id=0005,timestamp=2015-04-03T05:17:09.129+0000)

What kind of ambition do you have ?

Do you go to school to stay in school too?

Or do you go to school to get an education?

That is a terrible and boring mindset that should not enter the video game world, you can stay alive in real life. Video games are for doing things outside of the norm and having fun.

Please don't listen to this guy -_-

I dunno. If it helps win, it certainly seems worth it. If self improvement is the goal, it takes a priority over screwing around. You need to practice effectively in order to improve.

YOU BEEN WARNEDApr 3, 20151 votes

At the sake of not having fun?

Isn't that why you came to League in the first place? Or are you following your LCS dreams now ?

BiffoloApr 3, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=YOU BEEN WARNED,realm=NA,application-id=WEuoGbmp,discussion-id=Z2KGhu4G,comment-id=000500010000,timestamp=2015-04-03T18:22:50.299+0000)

At the sake of not having fun?

Isn't that why you came to League in the first place? Or are you following your LCS dreams now ?

Uh. I might kind of be trying to make it to lcs....

RootworthApr 3, 20151 votes

So let's dive the enemy base with all their turrets up 'cause it's fun!

The point of this thread was to help you improve.

YOU BEEN WARNEDApr 3, 20151 votes

W/e

I still don't think it's worth it to improve in this direction, taking smart trades would be a better path which provides fun.

If you dive their turrets as Tryndamere Aatrox Zac etc that's fine, to every situation it's conditions.

But really, misleading people with that title encourages farming under tower. We don't need bots in PVP too.

It's just a game in the end. So don't be afraid to make mistakes as long as you learn from them.

RootworthApr 3, 20151 votes

I don't think I'm misleading with my title. I think the problem with my post is that you can take it many different ways, as you can probably tell with all the comments posted so far.

TakanuvaApr 3, 20152 votes

[{quoted}](name=YOU BEEN WARNED,realm=NA,application-id=WEuoGbmp,discussion-id=Z2KGhu4G,comment-id=0005,timestamp=2015-04-03T05:17:09.129+0000)

What kind of ambition do you have ?

Do you go to school to stay in school too?

Or do you go to school to get an education?

That is a terrible and boring mindset that should not enter the video game world, you can stay alive in real life. Video games are for doing things outside of the norm and having fun.

Please don't listen to this guy -_-

if you want to win call of duty, you kill everyone

if you want to win league of legends, you kill towers, inhibitors, and the nexus. its hard to do that when you got 5 kills, but you fed 7 kills to a riven. watch the pros, they die very rarely, they recognize the importance of objectives over kills

RootworthApr 3, 20151 votes

Well said.

YOU BEEN WARNEDApr 3, 20151 votes

Yeah because they recognize the kill potential zones and the availability of the jungler. When provided enough information via wards, experience or champion match ups you can safely go for a kill.

You don't get dueling experience by sitting there farming minions. You will get better at farming every game, because these minions will be there every single game and you will kill them. You don't need to make them the focus of the game.

I'm not necessarily talking about killing the lane opponent or roaming. However say you're playing Jax against Fizz .

If you know that he's weaker than you at a certain point, or that he made a mistake. Take advantage of it, if you get him low then he will B and you will get a tower. No kills needed, just balls to fight.

But how will you know that he's weaker at a certain time if you're focusing on farming every game? You have to be brave, to be brave enough to have fun.

Don't pussy out, try new stuff.

Some champions are centered around farming and that's understandable, but you should usually trade with the enemy laner.

TakanuvaApr 3, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=YOU BEEN WARNED,realm=NA,application-id=WEuoGbmp,discussion-id=Z2KGhu4G,comment-id=000500030001,timestamp=2015-04-03T18:33:19.634+0000)

Yeah because they recognize the kill potential zones and the availability of the jungler. When provided enough information via wards, experience or champion match ups you can safely go for a kill.

You don't get dueling experience by sitting there farming minions. You will get better at farming every game, because these minions will be there every single game and you will kill them. You don't need to make them the focus of the game.

I'm not necessarily talking about killing the lane opponent or roaming. However say you're playing against .

If you know that he's weaker than you at a certain point, or that he made a mistake. Take advantage of it, if you get him low then he will B and you will get a tower. No kills needed, just balls to fight.

But how will you know that he's weaker at a certain time if you're focusing on farming every game? You have to be brave, to be brave enough to have fun.

Don't pussy out, try new stuff.

Some champions are centered around farming and that's understandable, but you should usually trade with the enemy laner.

your totally correct. im not saying afk farm minions, it just dumb when half your team chases a low health person all throughout the jungle. even if they get the kill, you just wasted a good oppurtunity for towers or dragon. same with jungle, if you at least burnt their flash and gotten some damage, thats fine, no need to towerdive at lvl 3. of course things like this have exceptions, and you do need to try to expand your options, sometimes you gotta go braindead for a fewseconds and try a kill, but thats occasional. one character i like to play is vladimir. pre lvl 7, your harass is usually crap and farming is a pain, once you hit lvl 7, well, things change. like you can 3v1 if you pressed your advantage well :D

PikaCHU567Apr 3, 20151 votes

Kills makes you FEEL GOOD. (~~￣w￣)~~ But killing minions is too boring. :P

Exactly what they think.

Nybx4lifeApr 3, 20151 votes

Here's how I'd play with a new champ:

1st game: Go nuts. No brakes, All the ham in my sandwich. The hyper-aggressiveness at least lets me learn how offensive I can be, and the limitations of my moveset in terms of offense.

2nd game: Vegan. Very passive, try to do the minimum for my plays. I found the issue with this is that I do too little sometimes and that makes my team lose out in trades.

3rd game: Ham and cheese. A good balance of offense, and safety to keep me from getting caught out.

But yeah, offense is no good if you don't come out ahead.