Dealing With Superior Players
You aren't the best player in the world, if you were this guide would be irrelevant, no? You will encounter players that are flat out better than you, that's life. Beating them through game mechanics isn't a winning strategy, the reason they are better than you is because they know and act on them better than you do.
Its time to start playing the player. Speaking from experience good players just like in Poker have a tight, aggressive game. They make fewer mistakes than everyone else which makes them hard to beat, but don't fret, there are ways!
One effective strategy is to play dumb. The enemy will evaluate your skill level and act accordingly. The better he perceives you are the tighter his game becomes, so start fucking with him. Give him free hits on you, play loose and reckless. As he continues to best you his game will loosen, essentially becoming a weaker player. This is artificial and hard to maintain, but you can get kills this way. If he thinks you are terrible turning around with a great play will catch him off guard.
Don't bother with strategies that work against poor players, they are no good here. You won't be able to "bait" a great player, but sometimes taking chances pays off. Gus Hansen is a phenomenal poker player that consistently beats opponents with much better hands because he plays anything at any time. No-one knows what he'll do next! Play this way, be loose and aggressive, as opposed to being tight. Being unpredictable makes you harder to defeat. Taking the chance he's unwilling to can pay off, you might be willing tower dive for a kill, but maybe he won't. You can use that against him.
Understand player profiling, and acknowledge your tight game versus his tighter game is a no win scenario. Loosen up, it's only a game! Dying isn't the end of the world, and if nothing else you'll be a memorable opponent. Strong opponents are tight-aggressive because it generally leads to a better outcome. Also recall they are analytical/prediction based, breaking the mould of what they expect you to do catches them off guard. If you don't do what most of their opponents have done much of their advantage goes out the window.
A loose game is high risk high reward, but can lead to considerable blunders. Nevertheless that's the angle to play when faced with a tougher opponent. Unpredictability is your only real chance of defeating a strong Aggressive-Tight player, it's a weakness they possess.
But most of all don't let him bully you around. All of the tactics I've talked about work against players of all sorts, but they are useless if you present yourself as meek. Being chancy creates the illusion you are better than you really are: as long you get away with it. Doing something flat out insane and having it work might be out of your desperation: but he doesn't know that. As far as he knows it's all part of the plan!
As discussed earlier, great players are vulnerable to smack talk, so start using it.
Using Allies
If you happen to be the best player on your team, and by reading and applying this that's probable, people will begin to look to you for guidance. People on forums often tell frustrated players with poor teammates to "command" allies via chat, don't do this. It triggers defensiveness: "who is this guy, why should I listen to him, who does he think he is"? People see LoL as a democracy, each player can do as they see fit, trying to assume a role above them is rarely effective and often causes internal bickering. Berating your allies causes resentment, watching you die becomes more trivial this way.
Actions speak louder than words. Instead of telling people to do things put yourself in a position where they have every reason to think you are good person to follow. Achieve this by getting kills fast and quickly, your name will be popping up and the scoreboard will boast of your skill. Do this and people will have a tendency to be lead by you.
Allies will soon be following you, and I see this all the time. Even I have a tendency to do it when faced with an ally better than me. I have an inclination to follow that person, it's the human condition. People are sheep and enjoy leadership, but you can't achieve it by ordering people around. Demonstrate your authority and use pervasive manoeuvres to manipulate your allies.
The difference between verbal and physical command? Verbal commands demand obedience, physical commands respect the team mates ability to choose.
When a team battle is about to begin, there will be a moment where people hesitate. No-one wants to go in first because that person is likely to die. That has to be you. If you are playing poorly they are likely to let you die, but if you are dominating the game they will assume your actions are sound and follow you in. True leadership is when people have a natural inclination to follow you, so lead your allies with movements.
Words are secondary and you have to earn the ability to command people verbally. Difficult to achieve in a single game.
An example of this is the retreat. When I'm dominating a game and a group of enemies is pushing a lane my allies will begin moving back towards our friendly tower. I stand still, as a psychological experiment of sorts. You'll see the conflict as they hesitate to leave your side. Leaving you has become a difficult thing to do, as success seems to follow you wherever you go. They'll sit behind you, wary of incoming forces, but struggle to actually run away.
Its an incredible thing to watch. Stick with allies but use dominant movements. Stay in front of them, not behind. Be the one to enter the fray first, and demonstrate a fear of dying isn't a characteristic you possess. Demonstrate how a great player should behave, and they will mimic you. People aren't stupid: if they see you rocking the enemies world, and you are charging head first into every team battle, the conclusion is great players initiate team battles.
When allies are in trouble, try to give either genuine assistance or token assistance. Leaving an ally to die causes resentment and makes them less likely to assist you, this isn't a good outcome. Genuine assistance is trying to help, that's obvious. If you think you can make a difference try to do so. Token assistance is creating the illusion you are trying to help without putting yourself in jeopardy. Running just ahead of allies, throwing out a spell or any small inconsequential gesture has the same psychological effect as doing something legitimate. In the allies mind you did your best, which is as good as actually saving them. Deep down you know it was all a facade, but that's our little secret.
Dealing With Inferior Allies:
I'm betting you've been in a game with a terrible player, and there's nothing worse. Feeding the enemy team, he's dead weight and an absolute liability. How do you deal with such a player? Well there's three options really: encourage him to leave, support him, or ignore him. We'll explore the pro's and con's of each.
I'm betting you've been in a game with a terrible player, and there's nothing worse. Feeding the enemy team, he's dead weight and an absolute liability. How do you deal with such a player? Well there's three options really: encourage him to leave, support him, or ignore him. We'll explore the pro's and con's of each.
Encouraging an ally to leave is some pretty dubious shit. With lines like "you might as well just leave" or "you aren't helping at all" you can bring down such a players morale to the point where they may very well leave. This presents some problems. First of all at the time of writing this is a new game and these sorts of players are expected. Belittling a specific ally is probably the only morale line we'll cross here where'd I say for ethical reasons alone you may consider not doing it. I'm not the Angel on your shoulder, far from it, so it's up to you.
Problems include bringing down the rest of your teams morale and turning you into a "dick" which demeans your leadership value. That player also becomes less likely to take up any potential advice or help you are willing to put on the table assuming they don't leave.
The second option is support. I'd only do this lightly throughout the game but the last thing you ever want to do is leave a terrible player to die repeatedly to enemies. Either tell him to stay back or abuse the fact that they are being "greedy" by repeatedly punishing the enemies in a lane for attacking him. A new player can make phenomenal bait all game. Later on you might advise him to assist team battles and defences but don't let him take up too much of your time.
Supporting allies can enhance your leadership value.
The last option ignore, leave him to do what he's doing and focus on winning without him. This is self explanatory. Offering some support is ideal even if it's a few helpful remarks but I've found many new players unresponsive so flat out ignoring them is common practice.
The Enemy Carry
So here you are, ripping apart everything in sight. Victory is almost assured when the enemy Ashe pops out and three shots each and every member of your team. He's five levels above everyone else and has a devastating arsenal of items. Where the fuck did this guy come from?
Defensive tight players favour this strategy, hoarding gold and experience to gain leverage. This is effective as rarely does someone appear to stop them. You are only ever as strong as the enemies strongest player, being better than four players but dominated by the fifth is rarely a good scenario for you. If the fifth player is missing go hunting: find out where he is and start dealing with him. Take team-mates if necessary but do NOT ignore that crucial final player, they can turn the game against you.
Always be wary of the enemies carries and focus on shutting them down as soon as possible. Buy wards if necessary.
Acknowledging and Abusing the Bounty System
The bounty system in LoL is often ignored, when it really shouldn't be. As players accrue kills without deaths, they offer an increased gold reward to the player that kills them. The implications are, you and you alone should seek out this reward and avoid giving it to other players.
Look out for enemies that are "owning" as the announcer states and hunt them down. In team battles "kill steal" allies by ensuring you get the maximum return on that bounty. Achieve this by saving a damaging spell or attack until they have a sliver of health left.
As you excel in game you accrue a bounty on yourself as well. Apart from avoiding death, if this has to be given up try to give it to a weak player if possible. Giving it to a player who is pretty terrible or benefits less from items: basically, non carries, is advantageous. The last thing you want to do is give over 1000 gold to an enemy Jax.
Encouraging Leavers
Under the right circumstances most players will leave a game. Creating such circumstances isn't as difficult as you think. Talking trash over all-chat isn't always the best way to achieve this, often it gives players a reason to stay: to prove you wrong! Killing a player at level one is a great start, pair up with a stunner/slower and hide in the bottom or top lanes bushes. When he comes to check what's there kill him, or otherwise when he starts attacking creeps.
Making a single players life hell is as simple as stopping them from doing what they want to be doing. You don't have to kill them, force them back to the fountain repeatedly. The constant running back and forth becomes incredibly annoying. Being a "bully" and picking on one person, usually a helpless champion, encourages said person to press the exit button, and that's one less enemy to deal with! As always, don't spread your carnage over all the enemy team, focus on a few. The effect is more pronounced and leads to a more desirable outcome.
Bad Beats
A bad beat is a poker term where a strong hand winds up losing, usually because the opponent got "lucky". Bad beats rattle enemy players, and in LoL losing when they otherwise "should" have won causes quite a bit of stress. Even the best opponents can get shaken up, so creating these scenarios is very advantageous.
Your HP, mana and attack damage is readily apparent to the enemy. Your critical chance is not. Stacking critical runes and items gives you damage that is hard to predict. Getting a "lucky" critical might not be so lucky if you are build up to do such damage. Champions that are great at "comebacks" like Tyndramere with his ultimate and Singed with his "unchasability" can devastate the enemies confidence.
An opponent is at his weakest when he thinks he can't be beat, with a little luck turning it around on them shatters their game.
Players that consistently get bested get "steamed", meaning their play-style becomes a lot more loose as their frustration mounts. Emotion overrides judgement, an angry player is more likely to play poorly. Angering them even more repeats this cycle, which is encouraged. Killing an enemy by leading him into a series of mines is very fucking annoying, and right out the gate as they resurrect they are still peeved about it.
Hunt them down again!
Encouraging Premature Surrenders
Feeders are the bane of any team, and abusing the shit out of them lowers the enemy teams morale. Feeders are players too: and their constant death does much more than give you gold an experience. Internal bickering in the enemy team causes them to think about surrendering even if they still have a good chance of winning. Creating any tension in the enemy team is a great thing to do, they exist as a unit. Killing feeders relentlessly is a morale breaker, so track them down and do your worst.
When inhibitors go down many teams believe it's all over, and learning to backdoor is a great way to get the enemy to surrender. Remember: if they surrender, you win no matter what, so why bother risking a series of battles you may not win? The correct time to backdoor is during a team battle. Their focus is on the battle itself and they won't even notice you sneaking in and destroying inhibitors. Master Yi is great at this, whilst Sivir can push rapidly at unexpected times. Don't backdoor when things are calm because any half decent player will try and stop you.
When most enemies are dead or their attention is diverted, that's the time to strike!
Generally speaking you should always aim to bring the enemy teams morale down. Don't taunt them to the point where they have to "prove you wrong", make them believe it's already over and you've won the game.
When The Chips Are Down
The enemy team has twice your kills, feeders are abound and your inner rage mounts as the prospect of winning becomes more and more faded. You wonder how you got to such a state, and how the hell you'll get yourself out of it. Winning a losing game isn't easy, and at some point it really will all be over. Here you should surrender, there's no value to playing an unwinnable battle. It's not "dishonourable" to knock your King over in chess, it's simply admitting there's no real play to make from here.
Getting a surrender isn't always easy. There's almost one "lets fight to the end" clown who'll constantly battle against common sense. If you've already lost you are going through the motions, which is a waste of your valuable time. Would you rather be sitting in your computer chair getting your arse handed to you or trolling malls for naive schoolgirls? I think the answer is obvious.
Bringing your own teams morale down is effective in getting surrenders out of them. Plant seeds of hopelessness: "we really should have won that battle", "what can we do from here?" or "we are outmatched!". These lead your teammates into believing too it's all over, making getting that surrender all the easier. Be subtle: don't make a comment then and then type /surrender, let it stew. Even if people don't respond they are reading these comments.
If you can't get a surrender, leave. Leaving is a dick move, but let's be honest here. There's a difference between leaving 5 minutes in because you got killed and leaving 35 minutes in because the enemy team is a bunch of douchebags who won't finish the job. Besides, should morality stand in the face of your good time?
Sometimes there will be a glimpse of hope. Co-ordinating a counterattack can work wonders. Baron gives you a group buff, so heading to him first can turn the tides. You can also tell your team to all drink elixirs: these are inexpensive and give your team a chance for one last showdown. The last effort should be a 5 man push straight to their base, it's an act of desperation but failing a backdoor there's probably nothing else you can do.
Comebacks make for the most memorable games, period. Admitting defeat is knowing there is nothing that can be done, and if that's the case I see no value in continuing to play. Always do your best but be realistic. There such a thing as an unwinnable game. "Checkmate".
Version 3.0
Every game, win or loss, should be a lesson learned. Think about what happened, what went right, what went wrong, and where your areas of improvement are. A win is rarely perfect, but focus on what you did "right" and how that can be replicated. By the same token a loss is rarely based on the fact that you played a perfect game, think about what you did "wrong" and how that can be avoided.
People tend to write off losses, "my allies sucked" or "they were all friends". Well guess what champ, your f*cking allies will probably always
suck and you will be often versing friends. That's the game. Either learn to overcome it or start watching Disney. The most important lessons you'll learn are in your failures, so think about them objectively.
Acts of Evil, With Friends!
Playing with friends is great, hopefully you managed to get a few in life. You won't be making many with this guide, so try and come with some prepared earlier. Everything in this guide manifests with partners, teaming up against weak players is twice as easy when there's two of you. Pick champions that work well together, stacking stuns and slows is very effective. One of you should be the "carry" (preferably the stronger player) whereas the other should be the "wingman". A carry with a constant right hand man is devastating, so discuss beforehand what works best for both of you. There's no shame in being his helper, nor him being yours. Switch around to prevent arguments!
Taric and Nunu are examples of great supporting characters for carries. Having two carries in my opinion is less effective than having a true carry and his "bitch".
Managing Risks
So you see a hot girl at lunch, and you think about approaching her. The best case scenario; you **** her brains out that night. The worst? She blows you off in some derogatory fashion. Seems like a pretty easy risk evaluation to me. Of course this isn't a guide on getting girls... yet.
People in LoL are very much risk adverse, probably because people are that way in life. At the end of the day fortune favours the brave, in all areas, pushing your game to the next level will always involve doing things you aren't comfortable with. Being willing to take risks is first acknowledging the consequence is insubstantial: this is only a game and nothing can ever happen outside of that.
Always be willing to take the risk the other guy isn't. Charge through enemy towers. Take two heroes on one. Do crazy item builds. Whatever. If nothing else you'll learn an important lesson about how the game mechanics really work, and you just might discover something that was "risky" is actually pretty reliable.
Do something new each game, it's the only way to get better.
That said, as the game goes on you should become more risk adverse. Late game your entire base can fall in 60 seconds flat, less time than your respawn counter. If you are carrying your allies you dying can be an absolute disaster. The early and mid game is where your chances should be taken, later on you need to be cautious as to not lose a game by virtue of you making a tactical error and not being there to defend your base.
Champion Choices
Heres a list of Champions I recommend and why. There are others that are workable but these are my favourites. Try and practice with at least a few of them.
Evelynn: Torture defined. Many players are unwilling to counter invisibility, and picking off vulnerable players has never been so easy. Evelynn is a weak carry so exit the gate hard and fast. Start racking up kills as soon as possible, buy elixirs if you need to.
Twitch: Probably a better champion than Evelynn. An effective backdoorer and carry, Twitch has few weaknesses against poorly co-ordinated teams. End game Twitch is devastating, focus on enormous amounts of damage and balance your farming/killing accordingly.
Gankplank: Criticals Ahoy! With a critical build the pirate puts out unpredictable damage, and has enough going for him to carry end game.
Cannon Barrage can be cast from anywhere: use it to pick off "near dead" foes, the comedy practically writes itself!
Jax: As game changing as ever, rack up dodge, hit points and attack items to solo enemy teams later on. Farming well is important, but his ability to chase is fantastic indeed. Jax is phenomenal against enemy carries thanks to his ability to dodge and punish physical damage.
Kassadin: Unpredictable and irritating, infinite blink makes him a pain to deal with all game. He's a decent assassin but a great chaser and has enough team utility to be the whole package. As soon as you hit level 6 the fun begins, but you'd better do well, because he can't carry well.
Katarina: Like Kassadin she has a great psych-game. Shunpo is a great move though as the game goes on her capacity to kill somewhat diminishes. She's new and I haven't played enough of her to make any definitive judgements but her early game alone makes her worth playing.
Master Yi: If you want to win games, pick Master Yi. The king of the backdoor, nothing comes close to his ability to single handedly wreck enemy bases. Play passively to start, getting some items going and focus on your damage output and defenses against towers. When you overshadow the enemy team the games already won.
Singed: The definitive juker, his tough exterior and difficulty to chase means you can turn around so many conflicts. People who chase Singed are asking for trouble, juke and feign them into pursuing you. When they turn away, finish them off. Oh, and he's a monster late game thanks to his all round power. A top tier hero for sure, start playing him.
Teemo: Support or carry, Teemo does it all. Shut down enemy carries with blinding dart and bait them right into your traps. You can have enemy teams afraid to leave their base if you do your job right.
Tristana: Her raw damage is practically unmatched, shes a better carry than Ashe so don't both with anyone else if you want to wreck enemies late game with ranged attacks. Rocket jump and Buster Shot give her tactical possibilities to boot.
Tryndamere: Difficult to anticipate, his criticals give him the best burst damage imaginable. Great at mind games and great at wrecking enemy teams, he demands an aggressive, all-in style. Don't be afraid to die, just make sure enemies are going down with you.
Twisted Fate: His teleport allows for some legendary ganks. You'll need strong map awareness to play him well but he excels with items and is a definite game changer. Plus he plays cards. Who does that remind you of?
Warwick: Last but not least, keep a low profile early game by jungling with smite and rally. Periodically emerge to wreck enemy heroes, always keeping them thinking they'll be next! Unbeatable one on one, he's great at feeding on weaker prey.
