Not only does missing your Smite cause you to potentially lose an important objective but it also often leads to your team wasting time typing about it rather than playing. It’s not good for team morale either and losing or stealing a Baron can often lead to a shift in power in a match and you should do your best to improve your Smites.

The most important thing you always need to know is that Smite deals increased damage for every level, starting at 490 at level 1 and 1000 at level 18. Below is a table with exact Smite damage values:

Smite deals true damage meaning it’s unaffected by armor or magic resist. Rather than remembering Smite damage values for every level you can just hover your mouse cursor in-game over the summoner spell and it will display it’s current damage. You should always note your Smite damage before you attempt to secure any objective, especially Dragon or Baron. Also be aware of the enemy jungler’s level: if he’s higher level than you are his Smite deals more damage, thus he has a higher potential of stealing monsters from you.

Once you know the damage your Smite deals make sure to always look at the health of your targeted monster (click on it and it will be displayed on the top left corner of your screen): don’t spend your time looking what’s going on around the map or opening the shop, focus all of your attention on the health and make sure you Smite just a moment before the monsters health equals your Smite damage.

It’s a good trick to save a damaging ability to be used in the same time as Smite for added burst, ensuring you instantly deal more damage. You’d be surprised about how many junglers never do this even in high rating! Additionally if you’re playing Nunu or Cho’Gath always pair Smite with Consume or Feast, making steals nearly impossible.

One more important thing to note is that you can Smite even though you’re stunned. It often happens if you’re attempting to steal a monster and the enemy team will CC you: don’t panic and keep your eye on the prize. As far as I know you can’t use Smite only if you’re suppressed (Malzahar or Warwick ultimate for example are suppress effects). Even though it isn’t related to increasing your Smite chances there’s a couple of other things that need mentioning. I linked to the Lol wiki article about Smite above, in which you might notice dozens of comments about how Smite isn’t necessary for junglers. I won’t go into specific reasons here but that’s completely untrue and you should ALWAYS take Smite when jungling. Always.

Second, don’t flame your jungler when he misses Smite. In many cases it’s a 50:50 chance whether your or enemy jungler secures a monster and whining about it afterwards is not productive. The best way to prevent the enemy jungler from stealing your monsters is to kill him: if he comes near just ping him for everyone to notice and switch your focus and damage on him. A small difference in latency or a slight miscalculation is enough to make you lose the Smite war. It happens just as often in solo queue as it does in competitive play, more often than not it’s essentially a 50:50, and unless you’re very far behind in power compared to the opposing team and you have nothing to lose, you should never take those odds.

I do hope these few tips help you improve your Smite success rates and ensure more objectives for your team. Make sure you always know your Smite damage beforehand, pay attention to monster health, and pair Smite with another damaging ability and you will have a greater chance of success.

It also occurs when minions are pushing lanes and may deal significant turret damage, or often when another champion is split-pushing. The latter situation forces one team to either lose a turret (or at the very least a lot of gold and experience), or if they go and defend they may lose Baron.

Making Baron dance work

1. Be patient

The most important part of the Baron dance is patience. It’s a game of waiting for the opposing team to make a mistake upon which you can react and engage a favorable fight. The mistake can be almost anything such as a poorly positioned player, someone dropping to half HP, or a precise skillshot or ability on a priority target.

Dictating the enemy team decisions (i.e. forcing a fight) is often more favorable than fighting on their own terms. The point of the standoff at Baron pit is to pressure your enemies to make a bad decision and it often works if you just wait for it.

2. Buy wards

It’s extremely important to attempt the Baron dance with proper vision. If you ever watched a competitive League of Legends game you probably noticed that a couple dozen wards may be placed in just a few minutes to ensure the Baron is secured. Vision Wards and Oracle’s Elixirs also come into play as removing vision from the enemy team can have a huge impact on the inevitable fight. Even spending 10 wards and an Oracle is a small price to pay to win a teamfight and secure Baron buff.

To put the cost into perspective, killing Baron Nashor gives 300 gold to every member in your team, enough to buy 20 Vision wards! By having the buff you are potentially significantly stronger than the enemy team for 4 minutes, which enables you to siege turrets and get objectives more safely to further increase your team’s income. Most importantly, you are denying your opponents the opportunity to get Nashor for themselves.

To Baron or not

When choosing between finishing off Baron and engaging the enemy team, there are two possible choices and outcomes:

1. Finishing Baron: you may blow certain cooldowns and drop in health or mana making a teamfight harder, there’s always the danger of enemies stealing Baron (basically a 50% chance which are odds I’d never bet on)
2. Engaging enemies: if you win a teamfight you can go Baron afterwards (assuming enough members of your team survived), if you lose a teamfight then grabbing Baron probably wouldn’t have made a difference in strength.

If you’re attempting to kill Nashor and get engaged by the enemy team you should nearly always move away from Baron and switch focus to enemy players. If Nashor is at about 2000 HP then finishing him off may be a viable option, but do consider that dealing 1000 damage to Baron means that much less damage on an enemy player. It’s a very dangerous choice and the safest option is to simply switch your focus to players and finish off the big scary monster afterwards.

The bait

When you successfully remove vision around the Baron pit for the enemy team the potential of baiting is immense. Again having your own vision around it helps tremendously as you can see enemy movements. If they back off far enough it may give you enough breathing room to grab the buff quickly, but in a majority of cases they will facecheck and attempt to stop you.

It’s the facecheck you need to take advantage of since grabbing a sneaky kill can often mean enemies will simply give up and let you take Baron rather than risk losing a 4v5 fight AND you getting the buff. It’s especially important if you manage to kill the opposing jungler as the risk of enemies stealing the buff from you is miniscule in the case.

The split

It’s also a good tactic to have one or two players split off and fend off any incoming enemies while the rest of their team focuses on finishing Baron, assuming they have enough damage and defenses to finish it safely and in reasonable time. Unless your entire team disengages Baron you should never get out of his range if you’re a jungler as you will want to stay close to Smite it. Leave that up to your ranged champions as they can do it more safely.

The chokepoint

Baron’s damage (and debuff) is not insignificant so attempting to fight enemies while having Baron aggro is an awful situation to put yourself in. Always make sure you distance yourself far enough from Baron for him not to damage you. He can also decrease your attack damage by 50% and increase the magic damage you receive by 25% (stacking ten times!).

His pit is a dangerous place to fight in even if he’s dead as it provides very limited positioning and escape options if you find yourself in a rough spot.

As a sidenote, Baron always attacks the closest target so if you have only one melee champion in your team make sure to stand at melee range of him to share the damage he deals, even if you’re the AD carry (chances are you have lifesteal anyway). If enemies are coming, get out of there.

The stall

It takes about 25 seconds to get from bottom lane to the Baron pit giving your enemies more than enough time to finish him, so try not to be so far if you expect the other team to go for it. Generally after 25:00 in a match it’s dangerous to go farm or push bottom lane unless you have clear vision of your opponents and are certain they won’t do it.

On the other hand if you see your teammates in place to contest baron but find yourself way out of position tell them to poke and stall until you come. The same goes the other way: tell your split-pusher to get his ass back to baron (obviously unless he has Teleport) and try to stall your opponents for half a minute without hard engaging a fight.

The steal

It’s always risky to try and get Nashor with the enemy jungler around. If you think about it it’s a 50:50 chance for either jungler to get his Smite off, so if you see the enemy Lee Sin attempting to get close burst him (player) down as fast as you possibly can. The best way to prevent a steal is to make sure all enemies are dead, and you should never simply assume your jungler will be the one who Smites it.

If you’re the jungler make sure you always tell your team if your Smite is on cooldown. Never try to get Nashor without Smite if even one enemy is close by and can potentially steal it away from you, as the risk is simply too great.

The why

I already mentioned a few cases about why you’d want to force Baron, most importantly when someone on your team is split pushing or you have a giant minion wave about to take down an enemy turret. Engaging your opponents can sometimes be a difficult option even if you’re ahead, particularly if they have good disengage or wave clear abilities and are playing defensively.

When you have superior vision and map control and you know you can win a fight (or at least get one kill by having someone facecheck) the Baron dance is a smart call.

Baron standoff is no exception to most of my Gold strategies and tips, meaning it requires a coordinated and experienced team to work best. It’s definitely not an advanced tactic but many players get impatient and dunk into five enemies for no reason.

If you intend to bait at Baron get proper vision, remind your support to buy an Oracle’s or at the very least a pink ward, and tell your team mates to “bait” so they hopefully won’t start fighting Nashor immediately. If you have a split-pusher without a global presence make sure to be careful about engaging a 4v5 fight as getting killed and giving Baron to enemies can seal the deal on your match.

Attack-move is an important mechanical skill in League of Legends that will help you catch up with people more easily, position better in teamfights and prevent misclicks. It’s one of the most basic mechanics yet hugely underused by Bronze and Silver rated players. This article will attempt to explain the importance of attack-move (also called orb-walking or stutter step, and synonymous with and crucial for kiting) and tell you when and how you should be using it.

What is attack-move?

Attack-move is a command issued to your champion that makes him move to a specific location and attack the closest enemy target as soon as he enters into range of it. It’s done by either pressing “A” key on your keyboard and left-clicking your target/area, or more simply by shift+rightclicking.

Why use it?

1. Staying at maximum range

In teamfights or even when simply last-hitting in lane you always want to make sure you click precisely where you want to. Misclicks happen and often you may miss clicking on your desired target, forcing your champion to move in to melee range. It’s especially crucial as an AD carry: if you command your champion to move next to a minion instead of attacking him it may place you in an undesired situation where you’re vulnerable or over extended. By using the attack-move command you can ensure your champion attacks the closest enemy target at maximum autoattack range, so even if you misclick you will not position yourself incorrectly.

In fast-paced teamfights you will always want to stay at the maximum possible range from your enemies as an AD carry, and even if you almost never misclick your target may Flash just as you were about to click on it resulting in your champion moving closer instead of attacking from range.

2. Brush juking

A second benefit to using attack-move is when chasing players through brushes. It’s not uncommon to see hilarious juking videos from low Elo ratings usually involving one jester moving back and forth through a brush with some other newbie attempting to attack him. When chasing through brushes with attack-move your champion will immediately attack the target and won’t require an extra right click.

3. Ward clearing

There’s always a slight delay of gaining vision of a ward when you have an Oracle’s Elixir. When moving through a brush you may not even notice there’s a ward in there and just move past it, but by using attack-move your champion will stop moving instantly and attack the nearest ward. It makes sure you don’t have to pay extra attention to scout wards and you can even command your champion to move all the way from base to baron pit and clear any wards along the way.

It’s also useful for clearing Teemo’s mushrooms as it makes sure you never walk close enough and activate them.

4. Getting back from base

Whenever I go to base I always attack-move where I want to go rather than simply issuing a move command. It ensures my champion will attack anything along the way, such as a crazy jungler trying to intercept me between two turrets. I usually use the time to look up other player’s builds and CS counts and sometimes I just get so distracted (or shocked) that I walk past enemy champion in the middle of my lane without realizing they are already pushed to my turret. By attack-moving I can once again ensure that my champion stops as soon as an enemy gets into range and automatically attack them.

Using attack-move for chasing

Even though it’s usually referenced as the same thing the attack-move is not to be confused with move-attack. When chasing players you should ALWAYS move in between your autoattacks (aka orbwalking): it ensures you keep closing the distance while doing damage at the same time. Simply right-clicking a fleeting champion will make yours stop every once in awhile and eventually (or rather very soon) your enemy will be out of range.

It’s also in essence the opposite of kiting: with kiting you’re moving between autoattacks in an attempt to stay at maximum range and keep consistently dealing damage, while with move-attacking you are trying to catch up to people while making sure they never leave your attack range.

Attack-move is an important mechanical skill in League of Legends that will help you catch up with people more easily, position better in teamfights and prevent misclicks. It’s one of the most basic mechanics yet hugely underused by Bronze and Silver rated players. This article will attempt to explain the importance of attack-move and tell you when and how you should be using it.
What is attack-move?

Attack-move is a command issued to your champion that makes him move to a specific location and attack the closest enemy target as soon as he enters into range of it. It’s done by either pressing “A” key on your keyboard and left-clicking your target/area, or more simply by shift+rightclicking.
Why use it?
1. Staying at maximum range

In teamfights or even when simply last-hitting in lane you always want to make sure you click precisely where you want to. Misclicks happen and often you may miss clicking on your desired target, forcing your champion to move in to melee range. It’s especially crucial as an AD carry: if you command your champion to move next to a minion instead of attacking him it may place you in an undesired situation where you’re vulnerable or over extended. By using the attack-move command you can ensure your champion attacks the closest enemy target at maximum autoattack range, so even if you misclick you will not position yourself incorrectly.

In fast-paced teamfights you will always want to stay at the maximum possible range from your enemies as an AD carry, and even if you almost never misclick your target may Flash just as you were about to click on it resulting in your champion moving closer instead of attacking from range.
2. Brush juking

A second benefit to using attack-move is when chasing players through brushes. It’s not uncommon to see hilarious juking videos from low Elo ratings usually involving one jester moving back and forth through a brush with some other newbie attempting to attack him. When chasing through brushes with attack-move your champion will immediately attack the target and won’t require an extra right click.
3. Ward clearing

There’s always a slight delay of gaining vision of a ward when you have an Oracle’s Elixir. When moving through a brush you may not even notice there’s a ward in there and just move past it, but by using attack-move your champion will stop moving instantly and attack the nearest ward. It makes sure you don’t have to pay extra attention to scout wards and you can even command your champion to move all the way from base to baron pit and clear any wards along the way.

It’s also useful for clearing Teemo’s mushrooms as it makes sure you never walk close enough and activate them.
4. Getting back from base

Whenever I go to base I always attack-move where I want to go rather than simply issuing a move command. It ensures my champion will attack anything along the way, such as a crazy jungler trying to intercept me between two turrets. I usually use the time to look up other player’s builds and CS counts and sometimes I just get so distracted (or shocked) that I walk past enemy champion in the middle of my lane without realizing they are already pushed to my turret. By attack-moving I can once again ensure that my champion stops as soon as an enemy gets into range and automatically attack them.
Using attack-move for chasing

Even though it’s usually referenced as the same thing the attack-move is not to be confused with move-attack. When chasing players you should ALWAYS move in between your autoattacks: it ensures you keep closing the distance while doing damage at the same time. Simply right-clicking a fleeting champion will make yours stop every once in awhile and eventually (or rather very soon) your enemy will be out of range.

It’s also in essence the opposite of kiting: with kiting you’re moving between autoattacks in an attempt to stay at maximum range and keep consistently dealing damage, while with move-attacking you are trying to catch up to people while making sure they never leave your attack range.

TLDR, attack-moving is a very simple mechanical skill you should learn as soon as possible. It’s not an extremely important skill to have but does help in many situations, and as a certain Riot developer likes to say — it separates the good players from great ones. I hope you found this short guide useful and will start using attack-move from now on.

TLDR, attack-moving is a very simple mechanical skill you should learn as soon as possible. It’s not an extremely important skill to have but does help in many situations, and as a certain Riot developer likes to say — it separates the good players from great ones. I hope you found this short guide useful and will start using attack-move from now on.

While blue build can work well, I feel a majority of the average population have no idea what its strengths and weaknesses are and when and why you should build it. It’s just flavor of the month thing and literally every single Ezreal player I’ve seen in the past two weeks has been going the blue way.

What is the blue build?

Blue build got its name from the colors of the items you’re building: Muramana, Spirit of the Elder Lizard, Iceborn Gauntlet, Last Whisper, Blade of the Ruined King/Bloodthirster.

There may be a couple of variations in the items purchased but it’s essentially what most Ezreals go for these days.

Advantages

The biggest advantage to building blue Ez is its constant poke and kiting potential. Your Mystic Shot (Q) can be fired nearly every cooldown without worrying about mana costs and it deals decent damage along with the slow once you get the Iceborn Gauntlet. Pushing minions is also quite easy with this build due to its increased AoE damage and lower cooldowns.

An upside to this build is that you can stay out of danger easily. You can slow enemy champions with your Gauntlet almost permanently and your Arcane Shift has a reduced cooldown enabling you to reposition constantly throughout the fight. Against bruisers (especially with no gap closers) blue build will allow you to kite them forever and eventually take them down.

Disadvantages

Blue build isn’t nearly as effective when you have a team composition with hard engage. If you have a Malphite top, Amumu jungle and support Leona in your team then going blue build makes little sense. Blue build shines in prolonged pokes and turret sieges, not straight up engagements!

With this build you also deal fairly low damage to tanks and your autoattacks are weaker than they normally would be with a standard AD carry build. You will also have trouble bursting anyone down, and the build doesn’t allow any defensive items. Additionally playing a blue Ezreal may even take more mechanical skill than usually as you need to land every single skillshot to make the most of it.

Yet another downside is that your core items are more expensive and less effective than a standard AD carry build: an Ashe with Infinity Edge and Phantom Dancer will deal far more damage than you with Spirit, Gauntlet and Muramana. Even when you get your full build you aren’t dealing as much straight up damage as any other ADC.

When to build it?

The blue build is focused on sustained and constant poke and kiting. It works well when you build an entire team comp around it and when people understand why it works and how to take full advantage of it. Going blue build just for the sake of it or because everyone else is building it nowadays is a good step to failure.

The build also works good with siege team comps with champions like Jayce, Lux or Nidalee. Point being you always want to avoid full-on engages and focus on poking and harassing your enemies enough to make a favorable fight.

Conclusion

Always think about why you’re building certain items. Blue build Ezreal may be flavor of the month thing and apparently everyone is building it but that doesn’t mean it’s universally good. Always consider the champions on your own and the enemy team before deciding what items you’re going to build.

Just because you saw Cop or Genja use these items doesn’t mean it will have the same effectiveness in solo queue.

I have played a few games in Bronze and am working on climbing out of it. I am not here to claim that I am significantly better than my fellow Bronzers, or I am stuck in ELO Hell, or that the League system is broken. I am here to call out some of the awful habits, terrible decisions, and just outright stupidity that I see every single game down here in the slums. In watching streams I see some of these made but they are once in a blue moon and I think these are the major reasons for people being stuck in low leagues.

1. Constant, outright, thoughtless aggression: KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL I CAN DO IT I CAN KILL IT KILL IT WITH FIRE IGNITE FLASH ULT TOWER DIVE KILL IT. Stop. This is the reason that you die 7 times in lane. The best way to win a lane is with calculated, cautious aggression. Are your summoners down and you don’t know if the other guy has his? Don’t all-in him. Do you have no wards and haven’t seen the jungler in 10 minutes? Do not hyper push and blow all your mana harrassing. And this is just the lane phase. But more to come on chases and team fights later.

2. Complete disregard for jungle presence: Is your jungle showing bottom and the enemy jungler hasn’t counter-ganked there? Then you should not feel safe. In fact, shit your pants and run away. Because chances are you are going to get ganked. Buy a ward and play SAFE. I cannot emphasize enough that Bronze people would get so much further if they would just play safely. Additionally, pay attention to where your jungler is. He may need help if he is near you and Nunu just buttfucked his red buff and has his yeti dick pointed directly at your jungle’s asshole next. This is a good way to prevent deaths and possibly even secure a kill. but again, CALCULATED AGGRESSION.

3. Chasing: DO NOT. UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. CHASE ANYONE VERY FAR. If you are chasing someone from top down to their blue or red you will find the jungle and possibly the mid lane and you will die. And you will of course blame mid for not coming. So please for the love of all that is holy stop chasing. Stay in lane and free farm. You get experience and gold without the stress of laning against someone while they are gone. It’s wonderful you should try it.

4. Team fighting: The number of 4v5 and 3v5 engages that I have seen makes me want to cry. If you have even the slightest numbers disadvantage or you are a level behind, do not engage. You don’t have to fight every fight just because you can. In fact please don’t. A good disengage beats a questionable engage every time. Now, if you appear to see a 3v5 in your favor, and you want to engage, take a moment to think about something. Do you see any of the members of their team that they are missing? If the answer is no, don’t fight it. Easy. If you see someone two lanes away, by all means let your engage engage. This brings me to my next point.

5. Engages: Caitlyn cannot initiate. Kassadin should not initiate. In fact, almost no carry can engage well. So communicate with your team to find out who the inintiator should be. Do you have Blitz and Malphite (unlikely because they are permabanned down here in the sewers)? Do not Rift Walk into 5 of them. Just think about the implications. Just learn the general idea of every champion, it’s that easy. If you know some one is an excellent initiator simply type into chat “Let’s let Leona initiate then follow up on whoever she stuns”.

6. Priority targets in team fights: Here’s a scenario: The game is tied in kills 20-20. Vayne has 18 of their team’s kills while your kills are relatively well spaced-out. Their Nautilus runs at you to initiate (because he read my post and knows that Naut is an excellent initiator) with Vayne close behind. Naut is fairly tanky but does negligible damage and he is definitely killable. What do you do? If you answered “KILL NAUT KILL IT KILL HIM FUCKING DEAD FUCK SCUBA STEVE KILL” then this post is almost exclusively for you. You need to prioritize your targets. If Naut is initiating and then ignores peeling for Vayne, jump the fuck on Vayne and kill that shit because everyone else is less important. Period. Barring excellent peel (which is unlikely because we are in ELO Hell) there is no reason an ADC should leave a fight. EDIT: I don’t play a ton of ADC so I left out an important point. As an ADC you have to hit what you can. If Vayne is out of your range for the moment and completely un-CC’d by all means hit whatever you can. But when you get the opportunity (hopefully through positioning and proper peeling) go balls deep on the squishiest person you can reach.

7. Peeling: On the flip side, your ADC is the most important person on the team late game. There’s a reason Doublelift is famous for his late game. It’s because ADC’s win games. And you need to protect them. This is called peeling. If you are anything but the AP carry or an assassin your goal is to make sure that your ADC lives as long as possible to put as much damage as possible. That’s why it is called DPS. Burst champs don’t need to live long (it is nice if they do but they normally need 1-3 seconds to unload their damage). DPS means that there needs to be a time component to output damage. And this time component cannot happen if they blow up your ADC. So watch the enemy team. If Rengar is invisible and gonna jump on your ADC you STAY THE FUCK NEXT TO HIM AND MAKE SURE THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN. You will get exponentially better results from keeping your ADC alive than chasing their support for a pointless kill.

8. Warding: I have seen more people die after saying “They’re doing Baron, I’m gonna get vision on it”. DO NOT DO THIS. IF THEY ARE AT BARON WE DON’T NEED VISION. WE SHOULD HAVE HAD IT LONG BEFORE THEY WERE AT BARON. When the entire team is out of sight, it is not a good time to deep ward their blue. So please don’t. It is more important to stay as a team than to get that deep ward I promise.

9. One final point: This is in response to one specific case that I began noticing a lot. If they are 5 pushing a tower that already has half health do not stay there. Do not do it. Please just let it go and run away. Do not say “I was defending tower” or “I was trying to stall them so they didn’t get tower until you guys came” because you will die and instead of just getting a tower they get a tower and a kill. How is that at all a good thing? Additionally how is it my fault?

10. Accountability: Every time you die it’s because you didn’t do something right. It may also be because someone else made a mistake but in the end there’s something you could have done to not die. Don’t blindly follow someone into the jungle when you know for a fact that the enemy team is in there. Whoever you were supposed to follow will bitch and moan but in the end you prevented them from getting a double kill in favor of killing the moron who ran in like Rambo.

So in summary the major issue is that people just don’t seem to understand the fundamentals of the game. Cautious play will beat over-aggressive play every time and will often beat aggressive play, especially at low ELO. Stonewall put it really well recently, just look for the team to make mistakes and make sure you capitalize on those. I hope someone in Bronze league reads this and makes it to Challenger because of it. That would make me feel wonderful. If not I just got out a lot of pent up aggression and I feel better anyways. So raise your dongers, hail Lord Fabbbyyy, and please try to play more intelligently. Thank you.

Sincerely, A concerned Bronze Leaguer

Via reddit

Despite not being talked about very often, psychology plays a huge part in solo queue. Agurthewise came up with seven psychological tactics to help you win more matches, better understand your team or at the very least prevent frustration caused by losing.

The following article was submitted by TheRealNemesis on Reddit, and talks about situations when you shouldn’t queue for ranked games. Being concentrated can have a huge impact in your matches so if you want to increase your chance to win be sure to queue for Normal games or ARAM rather than Ranked in the following situations.

Hello, as a fellow LoL player I know the game can be fun, but frustrating as well. Often when you go solo queue or duo queue, you get teamed up with guys who “isn’t good enough for ranked”. Ex: can’t play support, or can’t jungle.. This can be very frustrating sometimes and can even ruin your ELO. That’s why I want to make a topic about when you should not queue for ranked, this is 100 % based on personal experiences.

When not to queue for ranked games:

1. When you’re mad – When you’re mad, you can often get upset for the smallest things, if you are on a losing streak, things will only get worse. Go to bed, or do something else to get LoL off your mind, and rather go back when you have calmed down. Flaming your teammates won’t help anything either, rather try to give them constructive feedback and tips so they can improve!

2. If you can’t play all the roles – If you are having problem playing a role, ex: jungler or support, go back to draft- or blind pick and practice! Remember that solo queue consists of 5 players and how you perform will affect the other players. Sometimes you can be the last pick, even though you are usually first or second. And if support is the only role left, you are obliged to play it…

3. If you are in a hurry – If you don’t have at least one hour of disposal for gaming, don’t queue. Suddenly you have to go and leave you team alone, and everyone knows that 4v5 is hard! When you start a game you never know what the duration will be, therefore you shouldn’t queue if you have like 30 minutes until you have leave. It really hurts for the rest of the team if you have to leave because you had to mow the lawn for your grandparents.

4. If you are tired – If you have just woke up after a good night sleep, it’s not always smart to queue for ranked. After waking up go play some normals first as a “warm-up”. The mechanical skills and reaction isn’t really optimized right after you woke up. You could also do some other activities.

5. If you are stressed/can’t focus – When you are stressed you will not focus 100 % and your mind could be somewhere else. The stress-level could also affect your mechanical skills and you could be underperforming. If you are stressed, try do something else, perhaps listening to some music or relax on your couch!

6. Don’t have enough champions to play – Don’t queue if you bought 16 champions to play ranked, and all you can play is Master Yi and Garen. If you have to play ADC, none of these champions really fits as an ADC, and they aren’t ranged either. I suggest at least have 3-4 champions you could play in every role at a decent level. Ex: top (Vladimir, kha’zix and kennen), mid (orianna, Zed and Anivia) etc..

7. Trying a champion for the first time – Don’t try a champion first time in solo queue, first of all, he could get banned. Ex: Aatrox has just been released and is already a usual banned for many players. Rather try him/her in a couple of normal games until you’ll play him/her in ranked. It is important to know the skillset and the mechanics of the champion. If you just bought Twisted Fate, don’t try him in ranked first time, you will be having problem picking the right cards, just saying..

8. When you are drunk / intoxicated – Don’t queue for ranked games if you’re drunk or have been using drugs. Your mechanical skills and your reactions will be worse, and you will clearly underperform. Some people say things like this: “I play best when i am drunk!” Rather go for a normal game, or even a bot game, just don’t ruin other peoples ELO.

9. Bad internet connection – It is not always clever to download things, and play LoL at the same time. A high ping could affect your performance and I am very sure that the team will not accept that you’re downloading and disconnecting… I’ve heard people say that they just have to finish downloading this torrent or so, but for god sake, just pause it and do it after/before the game. Again; playing 4v5 can be troublesome.

10. Sick – If you are sick, ex: stomach ache or diarrhea, don’t play. Rather wait 10-20 minutes and see if you’re feeling better. Running off to the bathroom and stay there the whole game isn’t good for the team If you know sweets, coke or some types of food makes your stomach sketchy, just play normal or wait until you’re ready!

Redditor SIDLOTF01 posted an excellent analysis of the recent changes in Counter Logic Gaming and explanations on their recent successes. They have been struggling in LCS Spring Split but with roster and gameplay changes they managed to get ahead of nearly every other team and had spectacular performances in some of their matches.

If you’re not a passionate follower of the competitive League of Legends scene you won’t get much insight into how you can improve your own gameplay, but for those who keep track of professional teams the overview provides great insight into how even the best of teams need to adapt their playstyles and expand their champion pool to perform at the highest levels.

Reliance on Doublelift and the Spring LCS

Spring Split CLG relied heavily on Doublelift to win their games, often funneling as much as their gold as possible into their ADC in hopes of him carrying. A good way to gauge who would win a CLG game would be to look at Doublelift’s KDA and CS around the 15-20 minute mark. If he was struggling or behind, it almost certainly spelled defeat for the team. Sometimes Link would pick up the slack and carry, but for the most part, the team hung of the back of their star ADC. This CLG paradigm was not due to lack of skill among other players, but was rather because of individual play styles.

HotshotGG often favored tanks, playing Shen, Galio, Malphite, and Cho’gath in a majority of his games. Instead of playing carry toplaners to pose more of a threat in lane, he opted for tankier champions to split push for map pressure, and then to damage soak in teamfights. While this strategy was not unsuccessful, it did add a certain level of predictability to the team before the game had even begun. Other LCS teams never had to worry much about a “wildcard” factor coming from the toplane, becuase they understood the distinct way in which Hotshot played the game: pick a high-durability-low-threat champion, stay in lane, farm as much as possible, come to help team during dragon, then head back to lane.

This playstyle isn’t inefficient, but when a person or team plays the same way over and over again, opponents can find the pattern and subsequently abuse it. A prime example of this was the recent OGN Finals in which CJ Entus Blaze, who had been utilizing a minion push strategy for a 13 win streak (more in-depth look by MonteChristo ), was crushed by MVP Ozone, who had carefully crafted strategies and compositions to counter Blaze’s predictable tactics. In a similar fashion, HotshotGG never truly posed too much of a threat simply because his opponents were able to work around his limited champion pool and play style.

At the mid lane was Link, who showed high promise but rarely carried his team and provided threat like the likes of Reginald or mandatorycloud or Scarra (look at Scarra’s Yi and Zed play at MLG and compare it to Link’s Nidalee during the spring split). Link was a threat, but never really snowballed and carried games hard. Chauster, the team’s jungler, was extremely underwhelming and consistently failed to make big plays or carry.

This left a majority of the carrying job to Doublelift, who was often forced into hypercarries, such as Vayne and Twitch, or Ezreal due to his extremely safe nature. Aphromoo’s lack of longtime synergy and experience as a support, however, kept Doublelift’s lane a bit suboptimal. This is not to say Aphromoo wasn’t a good support, but there was a clear discrepancy in Doublelift’s performance when compared to Doublelift’s season 2 play, or his Allstar performance when paired with Xpecial, one of the best supports in North America.

All in all, CLG was a team with great potential (lolgetit?) but a lack of threats across the map and a bottom lane with little experience gave CLG an extremely inconsistent Spring Season, where they were eventually knocked down to relegation matches.

The New CLG

Before the summer split of LCS began, things looked hazy for CLG. HotshotGG, one of the team’s founders and most seasoned veterans to the game, retired, along with Aphromoo. Nien was acquired to fill the top lane, but was previously an ADC player and thus lacking any competitive top lane experience. BigfatLP, the former midlaner and sub for the team, was recruited into the jungle, and Chauster was switched back to support, in hopes of the CLG bottom lane returning to it’s Season 2′s world-class form.

After three weeks in LCS, CLG, the team with the most roster/role swaps of all NA teams, is tied for second place.

Link Rising

Abandoning his old utility/poke oriented play style (Orianna, Lux, and Nidalee), Link has come out swinging during the summer, playing champions such as Zed, Twisted Fate, Karthus, and Jayce, champions who make kills happen. Link thus far has played spectacularly, carrying games as hard as, if not harder in some instances, than Doublelift. His roaming playstyle and aggression have proven to be fruitful, and Link has established himself as a true threat. Jungler camping bottom? No problem, Link will roam top, get Nien a kill and help him snowball. Link’s performance has drastically improved since the Spring Split, and his new pool of champions have begun to unleash their terror on their enemies. As the season progresses, and Link gets more and more comfortable carrying, I predict Link to become one of the most feared mid laners in all North America.

The Surprising New Top

Considering the fact that he was not a top lane player before this Summer Split, Nien has been playing very well. Currently sitting at the 3rd highest KDA among NA toplaners, Nien has transitioned into his new role beautifully, and continues to improve with each game. He has thus far demonstrated an extremely diverse champion pool and varying play styles, from tanking with Malphite, to carrying with Elise, to somewhere in between with Jarvan. Those who saw the CLG v TSM game saw Nien flourish and demonstrate the beginnings of what will hopefully be a fantastic season for the rookie top. With a hard work ethic and proper practice, combined with his impressive mechanical skills, Nien has the potential to become one of the best.

Bigfat Returns

While previously the mid laner for CLG, bigfatlp was often criticized for falling short in lane, despite his incredible teamfight mechanics and focus. Now, as the new jungler for CLG, bigfat has foregone the lane phase entirely and instead become one with the jungle. While Chauster is often hailed as the mastermind by CLG, bigfatlp possesses a certain brilliance in-game that makes him incredible to watch. Bigfatlp builds as a tank exclusively, regardless of the champion, in a way that is a bit reminiscent of Hotshot. The difference here, however, is that as a Jungler, bigfatlp’s unique tank style is harder to abuse than a top laner’s. In addition, bigfatlp plays champions that can duel invading junglers quite well (Nocturne) or CC enemies down until his team can come help (Sejuani and Nasus).

His teamfight decision making and skill is outstanding, and he seems to always escape fights with sub 10% hp, knowing the exact limits of his champion. In addition to his near-flawless tanking, he possesses a rare gift among North American junglers: the ability to time his smites perfectly. Simply put, bigfat does not miss smite. He essentially does not miss when his team is starting an objective, and has smite-stolen many when the enemy has started it instead. His incredible smiting ability, combined with a genius playstyle, is what makes bigfat the behind-the-scenes hero of the team.

Finding Their Roots in the Bot Lane

During Season 2 of League of Legends, CLG’s bot lane, Chauster and Doubelift, was arguably one of the best in the world. Doublelift was coached by Chauster, who had previously been the team’s ADC, and the mentor and student quickly became one of the most feared duo’s in the game. Chauster was eventually switched to jungle, but after an extremely disappointing performance there, he has made his way back to support. While Chauster is still obviously the weakest member of the team, he has demonstrated in the past that he can be a top-tier support. Currently his performance fluctuates as wildly as Curse’s has this split: he will either make an amazing play, or get caught out and give up first blood for free (both of these clips are from the exact same game). If Chauster is able to return to his Season 2 form, which he most certainly has the capability of doing, then CLG’s bot lane will become feared once again.

A Bright Future for CLG (the TLDR)

CLG has essentially taken everything that made them weak previously and changed it. While there are new problems, such as Chauster and Nien getting acclimated to their new roles, and sometimes questionable in-game objective prioritizing, their old problems have been widely dispersed. The predictability of their top laner is gone, and now actually have carry tops when they are needed. The team has an outstanding jungler that provides presence and extreme objective control, coupled with excellent team fighting control. Mid lane has seen a tremendous growth and is sometimes the biggest threat on the entire team. Bot lane is now only one part of a triple threat team, rather than a 1.5 or two threat team. I truly believe that if CLG can overcome their current issues such as re-prioritizing objective control and working on where they funnel their CS, CLG can be the #1 team in NA.

Source: Reddit

The following tips are submitted by Str8F4zed on Reddit. It will help you understand the jungler’s mindset and exactly what you can do to make him hate you.

Ping ward/trap locations

It seems so simple but a lot of people don’t do it. While we’re clearing camps we’re looking for an opportunity to gank for you. Having said that, we won’t be able to notice EVERY ward or trap location. So ping it out and let us know. With that information we can decide to avoid the area when we gank and we don’t waste time.

If we’re pinging on our way, don’t drain your mana pool before I arrive

I find my teammates doing this at times. Why? I’m not sure. You should always try and save mana for at least one ability. If you’re the support, be sure that you can cast your CC on top of mine. If you’re the adc be sure you have the mana to get out of there if things turn bad.

Please don’t make it obvious that I’m about to murder them

Yeah I may be sitting in the bush about to gank for you, but you don’t need to let them know that. I’m waiting for them to go for a last hit or waste a useful ability. That means whatever you were doing before I arrived, keep doing it. If you were pushed under tower, don’t walk past the creep wave. If you were being aggressive don’t sit back. Most players aren’t stupid blind and they’ll notice the difference.

Ganks don’t always equal kills and that’s OKAY

So many players become obsessed with stacking kills. A gank can be successful without giving you the kill, trust me. If we force a summoner, a recall, or help from their Jungler then we did well. If they flashed I’ll be sure to come back and get the kill soon. If they recalled chances are you can get a nice lead in CS and/or take the tower/dragon. If the Jungler came to assist then that’s a load off of the other lanes. They can now play aggressively and this especially pays off if your other lanes are performing well.

Be vocal with what you want

This one is more general but it’s the best I could think of for the 5th tip while still covering the basics. As a Jungler, it’s difficult to keep track with EVERYTHING going on in each lane. I try my best. If you’re struggling in lane please let me know. I want to help and I’ll be up there as soon as possible. If you’re in need of a ward tell me that and I’ll buy you one soon. Need to recall and finish an item? Let me know before you do. That’s valuable XP someone on our team should be getting, and for no reason should your opponent be getting it for free.

EDIT: Being vocal with us doesn’t guarantee that you get your way. Understand that we have other people to take care of, so your request for a babysit may not be obliged. “The farmers who plow their fields first and then pray for rain receive it.

EXTRAS EDIT: Some taken from comments…

Mr. mid lane, you aren’t entitled to blue buff.

If you’ve given up 3 kills in the first 10 minutes, chances are you won’t be getting it. Please don’t bash me for that but I’d hate to have you die and give it to Karthus. If you ask nicely and you’re playing well, I’ll definitely give it to you. Hell, I usually give up the 2nd buff anyways. Just don’t do anything to make me change my mind. That includes playing poorly and being an ass. Now good luck.

If I’m sitting in this bush, I have a reason.

If our other two lanes are pushing up and doing well but you’re not, I know there’s a ward in this bush. I’m going to sit here and scare your opponent away from the farm. Why? It’ll help you reset the wave and gain the XP back. I’m almost leeching some of it so it isn’t all bad for me. Don’t ping caution like a mad man for me to go away when I’m obviously helping you.

Don’t expect ganks if you’re in a dominant lane.

I’m not being a dick, you’re just pushed to their tower. If I don’t have a decent amount of armor I won’t turret dive because it’s probably suicide. So either last hit and ward like a smart player or leave me alone so I can focus on counter ganking, because their Jungler WILL be on your ass.

You don’t have to use your Summoner to pick up the kill.

Now if you’re absolutely CERTAIN (this really only applies in very few situations) that you can’t get the kill and get out, then fine. As long as we picked up an advantage for you as described in tip #4, there is NO NEED to get greedy and lose that advantage.

Smite has a cooldown and preset damage!

If I say “smite down”, you may want to rethink this Dragon attempt. If Zac leaps over the wall and smites our Baron I’m sorry!, but he is 2 levels ahead and his smite does more damage. I’m not perfect and there’s a good chance I had some CC thrown my way. Please don’t spam “Noob jungle doesn’t know how to Smite” after something like that happens. It devastates the little bit of morale I had left.

You better be a firm believer in lane taxation.

If you’re not familiar with what this is, you probably rage at your Jungler for doing it. If a gank is not very successful, I’m probably gonna grab a minion or two. This way I don’t entirely waste my time coming to help you out.

Calm your biscuits, I’m not pushing the lane. Swear!

I ganked for you and you had to back. We killed your opponent, but some of his creep are left sitting. Guess what I’m about to do? Push the lane. That’s right, I’m gonna do it. Is it going to hurt you? Nope not in the least. It will deny him XP and gold and by the time you get back, the lane will be reset. I’m not leaving free XP unattended. I better not hear any lip for doing it, either.

Thou shalt leash for me and do so properly!

If I ask for a Smiteless blue/red, take the extra 4 seconds and do it for me. I’m not asking for it because I’m selfish. Junglers typically request a smiteless clear so they can reach lvl 3 faster and get a gank in or to steal the enemy buff. Getting in one AA and leaving for your lane not only leaves me to burn 2 pots right off the bat, but I’m not going to be a happy camper either.

Don’t get tunnel vision. Help me out if I’m being invaded.

This is a difficult concept for a lot of people to grab. If your Jungler, or anyone for that matter, is having trouble near you, it’s okay to leave your lane for 10 seconds to help them. You surely don’t want double buffs leaving your team. Be aware and ready for situations like this if you’re facing a Shaco or Lee Sin. If your Jungler is Fiddlesticks or Amumu protect their blue buff at all costs. Without it you can bet that they won’t get much done early.

Source: Reddit

Hi there, I just completed my journey from Silver 4 to Platinum, invading every single match on the way there, approximately 1k games (minus the occasional game where people refused to, perhaps 1/50 games).

I experimented with several types of invade, and settled on this one because it has virtually no risk in soloq. This can be done with as few as 3 people (although you will probably only force a flash), and no level 1 cc abilities are necessary.

First, get your items as quickly as possible and run straight to mid with no delay, SPEED IS THE MOST ESSENTIAL FACTOR, THE FASTER YOU GO, THE BETTER THE INVADE. When you get to mid immediately step into the brush by their blue (assuming their jungler starts blue, if he starts Red, go to that side). You can get to this bush with 100% safety if you go quickly (unless they have a teleport teemo).

When you get there, if your team got things together quickly you can go straight into the next bush. If they didn’t, but either you or another person that is with you has cc, go straight into the next brush anyways.

This bush is where you will sit and wait until one of the people on the other team comes to facecheck it. If no one comes by 1:15, leave to leash your jungle, you have plenty of time and you have lost nothing.

Here are some pointers to avoid common mistakes with this invade:

1. Don’t change your level 1 skill for the invade, especially if you are the jungler. CC is really nice for invading, but if you walk into the middle of 4 people, you’re in trouble whether they have CC or not. What’s more, exhaust is standard on most supports, and if they exhaust before the enemy flashes, the flash is essentially wasted, because you can catch up to them before exhaust wears off.

2. Maybe you don’t even get a flash for some reason, but if their Nautilus had to get anchor at L1 he’s going to have a rough time clearing his jungle: this means you know he will be looking for immediate ganks on that side of the map, and that he is even MORE counterjungleable early, so going to his red might not be a bad idea…

3. Only flash after if it guarantees a kill. Sometimes people will walk into the first bush (the one at mid), and when they see you will flash away. This means you have won the exchange because you forced a summoner, don’t change that by flashing after them.

4. If no one facechecks your bush, there is a decent chance they are invading you. Decide with the time left before minions spawn whether you should go back to yours and fight them (usually not the best idea, unless you wait out of sight until they start leashing blue/red and then jump them) or simply swap buffs.

5. Don’t get greedy. Unless your team comp is infinitely better at a L1 engage (Morg, Blitz, Cho, Trist, Voli v Sona, Ez, Nid, Malp, Mord) don’t try to force a 5v5 teamfight at L1. It’s very easy to get a kill with this invade if you have one solid form of CC, but even a free flash is enough. Staying to try to take Blue/Red is where things can go really wrong.

6. Make sure everyone is on the same page. Communicate exactly what the plan is in champion select, because TeamWithPlan > TeamWithoutPlan.After that, leading by example and pinging lead to a better coordinated team.

If you have a style of invade you like, please share it! Invading is probably my favorite thing to do in League and I love doing/thinking/talking about it. Likewise, if you have any questions about this invade in particular, or invading in general, if I can’t answer it someone else probably can, so ask away.

If you would like to see this invade in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-ITJxOqPog (also embedded below).

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