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[GUIDE] Steps to becoming a Master LoL Player

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0123456789
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States3216 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-03 22:14:55
August 02 2011 17:47 GMT
#1
Some of you may remember my old guide, Steps to becoming a Master LoL Player. This is a new guide, with the same concept dedicated to help newer or players wanting to improve, what you have to do to become a Master of LoL.



STEP #1 MECHANICS

Mechanics in LoL, like in SCII is the #1 thing that differentiates the Kor... I mean Pros from the not platinums. Mechanics in this game include everything under getting creep kills, champion control, and strong reaction times. In my last guide, people said I was being very vague, so I'll try to be more descriptive.

What does getting creep kills mean? Getting creep kills means that you get all or almost all creeps in lane that are possible to get, even the ones at tower.

Example: Pro #1 got almost all creep kills in lane. Noob #1 missed 1 every wave, they both hit lvl 6, and they both go back to buy. Pro #1 will come back to lane having 3 dorans and boots, Noob #1 will come back with 2 dorans and boots. Already right there, Pro #1 has an easier time laning vs Noob #1 with an extra dorans. Noob #1 might mistaken that for uber skills and get depressed that he can't be as good as Pro #1, but in reality Pro #1 had an easy time roflstomping Noob #1 because they weren't on even footings.

With the example above, I think you will know that getting more creep kills gives you a stronger income in game, and if you don't have strong creep killing skills, you will fall behind any player with stronger creep killing skills just because of pure mechanics, even though you have 10x better game sense.


How to practice last hitting skills: PRACTICE. PRACTICE THAT SHIT LIKE IT'S PLAYING LOL, INSTEAD OF ACTUALLY PLAYING LOL. If you want to get better, go into practice games alone, and just work on getting creep kills. Do it until you are perfect at it, then do it to maintain that perfectness. Once you get better, do it while being able to harass bots between last hits, and then do it with a friend on the opposite team laning vs you. ONCE YOU GET IT PERFECT, PRACTICE LAST HITTING SOME MORE TO MAINTAIN THAT PERFECTNESS. LAST HITTING IS THAT IMPORTANT. 5 creep kills in lane may determine the difference between a faster tier 3 items for fights, or 2 or 3 different tier 1 items.


What does Champion Control mean? Champion control means how well you can control your champion. Because this explanation is vague, I'll go deeper.

Champion control using the mouse: Let's start off by asking ourselves how do we move our champions? The answer is with the mouse, specifically the right mouse button. This might seem like an easy concept, moving your champion around, but NO! It includes more than that. You have to move around your champion accurately, otherwise you might misclick the champion you want to attack, and move towards them, getting buttraped.

Example Time: Pro #1 is up against a noob #1 in lane. Pro #1 is playing kassadin, and Noob #1 is playing Corki. Generally, corki should rape kassadin in lane because he is ranged, and has a spell harass vs kassadin's q to dmg back with. It's lvl 1, and Pro #1 is dancing with his kassadin, (moving back and forth really fast with clicks) and generally being annoying with just visual movement. Noob #1 decides I'm going to fuck up the kassadin early because I don't want to eat higher lvl orb nukes. Just as he's about to go in for a hit, kassadin moves back out of auto attack range behind his ranged creeps. Noob #1 decides to back up, and take cs, but at the same time while he's taking the cs, one of Noob #1's creeps are low, and Pro #1 takes a cs. Dope! After he takes that cs, Pro #1 throws the orb nuke at Noob #1. Noob #1 is too slow to react with a Q harass and auto attack of his own. Noob #1 just gets outplayed lvl's 1-2, and then kassadin shuts him down later on with stronger orb nukes and just being elusive.

With the example above, I hope you realize how important it is to improve your clicking skills. A Pro can control their champion like they are that champion, and have fast enough clicking skills and accuracy to outplay you straight up.

How To Improve clicking skills: PRACTICE!


Reaction Times: Reacting to unpredicted events. That determines your Reaction Times. It means if you're in lane, and all of a sudden you hear CAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAWCAW, you are fast enough to flash in the opposite direction and dodge the fiddle ult.

How To Improve Reaction Times: You have to know what is happening before it happens, and if you don't, tough luck. It's something you're born with.



STEP #2: CONCENTRATION

Concentration defines your dedication to the game, and how well you use your brain in relations to the game. This is a pretty short section, but concentration is how well you can focus on and think about in a matter of a few seconds.

Example: Focus on your champion and what is happening on the main screen, then on the minimap, then the timer, your summoners if they're down, your tab screen, your gold, and the top left for teammate ults. You focus on the main screen because that's where your champion is, your minimap because you want to check out the position of 9 other champions, the timer for when neutrals spawn, your summoners because you don't want to do something important without them, your tab screen to check every1's scaling in terms of items and their cs, your gold to see how much you have, and the top left to see who of your teammates has their ults up.


Why is this important: Other than looking at the main screen, the minimap gives you info to the minds of your enemy and their position. They let you know if you're about to get ganked, if the enemy is doing an important objective, or if they went to buy. These infos allow you to counter the enemy with the appropriate action of your own like avoiding the gank, or pushing. The timer tells you when important objectives are up, the timing to know when certain junglers get blue, get red. They also tell you when important neutrals are up. Securing important neutrals give you an adv in the game, so you want to know when they're up at all times. The gold, the top left, your summoners are common sense, but what most people don't do is check the tab screen often.


The tab screen is like the third most important thing to look at in the game. You gain so much info on how scaled your enemies are in the game by looking at the tab screen. For example, if you looked at the tab screen while playing a ranged carry, and saw that everybody on their team had no armour, even their tank because he went banshees first, then that means you could skip your last whisper after Infinity Edge and get like a zeal because it wouldn't be as cost effective to get a last whisper. If you looked at your tab screen, and saw that the enemy fed tank had a frozen heart, Force of nature, and was Cho'gath, you would want to try to draw the game out so that your carries could get enough damage to hurt the Cho'gath. So look at enemy scalings, look the at the tab screen, have good concentration. They are important.


How to improve your concentration: Consciously, every game, make an effort to look at all the things I've listed above. If you're not that good yet, then start off with the two most important things, the minimap and main screen, and gradually and consciously start looking at the other important places on your screen. If you consciously make an effort to improve your concentration, your concentration will be improved, like your macro in SCII.



STEP #3: GAME AWARENESS

Game awareness is probably the hardest thing to teach or explain, because you gain it by playing the game more. It is really hard to teach you how to avoid ashe arrows if you have never experienced playing against an ashe, or getting hit by an ashe arrow and seeing the devastations of being hit by one, or just remembering what an ashe arrow is without previous experience of actually having seen one.

Game awareness is pretty much knowing all the ins and outs of the game, pretty much knowing everything there is to know about the game. Other than knowing the basic order of objectives in this game like what objective is more important than another objective at different stages of the game, etc. the standard crap you see every1 do, you need to know the more general and specific things about game awareness. For example, things like oh, enemy team has a TF, let's not overextend and get ganked when his ult is available. Oh, he used his ult top. For ___ seconds, I have the option of being agressive without worrying about his ult.

If enemy team has a stealth, and the stealth is not present on the minimap, then I am vulnerable to a gank.

I am top, and I have pushed my lane. It is around the _ min mark, and I feel that their jungler has red. Why don't I back off so I don't get ganked, and have an easier time running from the gank.

In lane, I am a caster versus a ranged dps. At a higher level, I can just burst them down. In lower levels, I use a lot of mana to try and harass them with weaker level spells, with no chance of killing them, and they are stronger. I think I should wait when I am stronger to capitalize on my advantages, or harass them early without using all my mana, so I don't hand them the lane win automatically.

I am leblanc, he is annie. At lvl 6, he gets tibbers and he can kill me. Why don't I try to wear him down and kill him before that with my really strong nukes, and strong pre-6 nukes.
The enemy used flash. I checked his stats, and he seems to be using the utility mastery. How many seconds does he have before his flash is up.

Enemy jungle is fiddles, and cv just confirmed that he started at blue. What are his options after blue, when can he potentially gank, when does he take red, what are his options after blue, after red, when does he hit 6? Knowing all of this is game awareness.


There are no wards out on the map, I can see no enemy champions on the map, maybe I should go try to go through 20 brushes to ward baron by myself. EXAMPLE OF BAD GAME AWARENESS.

I Cv'ed the enemy golem and saw them doing it, maybe the next time my cv is up, I should cv it again because I don't know if they are doing it. BAD GAME AWARENESS.


This step also includes other things like lane awareness, knowing how to play your lanes vs specific matchups, and awareness like positioning, jungle awareness, knowing how to play roles, knowing how to play teamfights, etc.

If you have great Game Awareness, it should be really hard for you to do bad in a game because you are just aware of everything.


I really can't tell you everything about game awareness, because I do not have great game awareness. In this guide, I can't tell you the cd's of every spell of every champion in the game, which is game awareness because there is not enough space, and you can also look that up to improve your game awareness. So yes, this might be very vague, but at least you know what to learn. Watch streams of top level players who explain what they do and why they do it, and explain the best possible option at a given time, play the game more, get better game sense.


Fast way to improve:

http://www.youtube.com/user/GeneralWiser#p/u/2/uC93NSnkwtY

This guy keeps all the vods of CLG player's games. Watch them, watch how they lane, watch their mistakes, incorporate how they play into your play, watch how they teamfight, how they respond to things, watch every important thing again and again and again, and then learn from it. Fastest way to learn and improve a certain aspect of your game. What to watch out for. When they lane, watch the way they control the creep wave, when they are agressive, how they click, where they put their camera, same in teamfights, watch what they do, why they do what they do, and how they position themselves.

This is new. Watch replays of how you play. You might think you play really well etc, but when you watch yourself, you might see things from a new perspective. Even if it's painful, every time you win or lose, watch your replays. See the things you did good, and bad, and improve on the things you did bad, be it you got caught, you missed tons of cs, you lost your lane, etc.



STEP #4: MASTERY

At this stage, you play the game at a perfect or almost perfect level. Everything stated above you know like the palm of your hands. You have absolutely nothing else to learn, and you know or can abuse even the most minute things like I have 2 more creeps than the other person in lane, that bought me an extra hp pot, I win lane, or you used your ult with Annie, and I'm going to attack 5 seconds before it's up, because you'll stick around to try and kill me with your ult, but I know that I can kill you within 4 seconds. A Master is a god at the game. He knows everything. This master is you. This master is me. This master is everybody, because everybody has the potential to be a master at this game. They only need to work on and realize their potential through hours of practice, and effective practice and improving game awareness, mechanics, and their concentration. I hope after reading this guide, everybody will work hard to become a MASTER OF LOL. I write this guide or necro it because I have decided to come back and try hard at improving in this game again.


Post in this thread if you have questions.
Hynda
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Sweden2226 Posts
August 02 2011 18:37 GMT
#2
Concentration is key, I agree. I would be 2200 if I wasn't so easily distracted.
GiygaS
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
Canada1043 Posts
August 02 2011 20:33 GMT
#3
I'm a 1200-1300 level player right now. How should I split my time in improvement? Should I spend like a week (exageration) practicing CS, or should I go half-and-half, etc. Should I be playing a large number or a low number of champs? Should I play ranked where the stakes are high and I may go back to bad habits, or should I go in to normals to exclusively work on one thing, but play opponents who aren't trying as hard and sometimes there isn't even a jungle? I want to get good, I just don't know how to go about it. :/
AKA gigyas, gigas, giygas khan, giyga khan, giyga...
0123456789
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States3216 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-02 20:55:13
August 02 2011 20:46 GMT
#4
On August 03 2011 05:33 GiygaS wrote:
I'm a 1200-1300 level player right now. How should I split my time in improvement? Should I spend like a week (exageration) practicing CS, or should I go half-and-half, etc. Should I be playing a large number or a low number of champs? Should I play ranked where the stakes are high and I may go back to bad habits, or should I go in to normals to exclusively work on one thing, but play opponents who aren't trying as hard and sometimes there isn't even a jungle? I want to get good, I just don't know how to go about it. :/


Every time before you play, practice your cs and get comfortable, you might have to pick one or a few role champs, then go into game. Play a low number of champions and get really used to them and good with them. If you want to improve fast, play ranked. Ranked matches you up with people of your similar skill level. If you feel they are lower skilled than you, then play to learn how to carry others in the lower skilled enviroment and excel in that enviroment, even more than you feel you are doing now. Watch vods of top players and really learn what they are doing right, wrong, how they are doing it, and this will give you the most improvement. Then watch replays of yourself to compare, and see which areas you can improve in. Even if you win, watch your replays, even if you lose, watch your replays. Take a break if you lose, then come back and play, don't grind games out. The thing about ranked, is nobody really cares. The feelings you get from it are you comparing yourself to others. You will get better faster playing ranked than playing normals.

If you post replays of your play, I'll watch them and if you have questions you can ask me.
GiygaS
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
Canada1043 Posts
August 02 2011 20:59 GMT
#5
Mmk, ill play a game or two today and post them. Thanks for the advice!
AKA gigyas, gigas, giygas khan, giyga khan, giyga...
barbsq
Profile Joined November 2009
United States5348 Posts
August 02 2011 21:05 GMT
#6
iirc, there are actually mouse reaction and mouse accuracy exercises that i kno for a fact starcraft players use to up their game.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=234243

this thread is a good starting resource for such things
Look at this guy, constantly diluting himself! (╮°-°)╮┳━┳ ( ╯°□°)╯ ┻━┻
unichan
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States4223 Posts
August 02 2011 23:07 GMT
#7
now i understand why you always do those 2 minutes prac games with ad carries before you actually did anything, very useful thread ty ty
also when you said that thing about corki vs kass i felt like you were speaking directly to ME and that was very powerful and moving
:)
billy5000
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States865 Posts
August 02 2011 23:20 GMT
#8
On August 03 2011 05:46 0123456789 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 03 2011 05:33 GiygaS wrote:
I'm a 1200-1300 level player right now. How should I split my time in improvement? Should I spend like a week (exageration) practicing CS, or should I go half-and-half, etc. Should I be playing a large number or a low number of champs? Should I play ranked where the stakes are high and I may go back to bad habits, or should I go in to normals to exclusively work on one thing, but play opponents who aren't trying as hard and sometimes there isn't even a jungle? I want to get good, I just don't know how to go about it. :/


Every time before you play, practice your cs and get comfortable, you might have to pick one or a few role champs, then go into game. Play a low number of champions and get really used to them and good with them. If you want to improve fast, play ranked. Ranked matches you up with people of your similar skill level. If you feel they are lower skilled than you, then play to learn how to carry others in the lower skilled enviroment and excel in that enviroment, even more than you feel you are doing now. Watch vods of top players and really learn what they are doing right, wrong, how they are doing it, and this will give you the most improvement. Then watch replays of yourself to compare, and see which areas you can improve in. Even if you win, watch your replays, even if you lose, watch your replays. Take a break if you lose, then come back and play, don't grind games out. The thing about ranked, is nobody really cares. The feelings you get from it are you comparing yourself to others. You will get better faster playing ranked than playing normals.

If you post replays of your play, I'll watch them and if you have questions you can ask me.


How would you specifically practice to carry your team in a lower skilled environment? What champs do you recommend for this? Which lanes do you suggest? If possible, what are some examples of a strong duo queue combo, and how would you play them out?

cs isn't much of a problem for me. tbh my laning phase is decent; it just feels that I need to play more actively, as I come across many times when I'm 2-1 while the team score is 4-12.
Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why?' Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand. Vonnegut
HAL9OOO
Profile Joined January 2011
United States176 Posts
August 03 2011 01:09 GMT
#9
I love it when posts like this are made because it is a subject not touched on by many, but one i feel can really improve ones game. I mean just for me I can recall so many times I wish I had clicked faster to kite better or known the cds on important spells like flash and tp. Look forward to any additional tips to improve on these "small things", anything like playing games on missionred to practicing last hitting in a practice game to improve your game without playing the game.
0123456789
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States3216 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-03 01:54:38
August 03 2011 01:32 GMT
#10
On August 03 2011 08:20 billy5000 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 03 2011 05:46 0123456789 wrote:
On August 03 2011 05:33 GiygaS wrote:
I'm a 1200-1300 level player right now. How should I split my time in improvement? Should I spend like a week (exageration) practicing CS, or should I go half-and-half, etc. Should I be playing a large number or a low number of champs? Should I play ranked where the stakes are high and I may go back to bad habits, or should I go in to normals to exclusively work on one thing, but play opponents who aren't trying as hard and sometimes there isn't even a jungle? I want to get good, I just don't know how to go about it. :/


Every time before you play, practice your cs and get comfortable, you might have to pick one or a few role champs, then go into game. Play a low number of champions and get really used to them and good with them. If you want to improve fast, play ranked. Ranked matches you up with people of your similar skill level. If you feel they are lower skilled than you, then play to learn how to carry others in the lower skilled enviroment and excel in that enviroment, even more than you feel you are doing now. Watch vods of top players and really learn what they are doing right, wrong, how they are doing it, and this will give you the most improvement. Then watch replays of yourself to compare, and see which areas you can improve in. Even if you win, watch your replays, even if you lose, watch your replays. Take a break if you lose, then come back and play, don't grind games out. The thing about ranked, is nobody really cares. The feelings you get from it are you comparing yourself to others. You will get better faster playing ranked than playing normals.

If you post replays of your play, I'll watch them and if you have questions you can ask me.


How would you specifically practice to carry your team in a lower skilled environment? What champs do you recommend for this? Which lanes do you suggest? If possible, what are some examples of a strong duo queue combo, and how would you play them out?

cs isn't much of a problem for me. tbh my laning phase is decent; it just feels that I need to play more actively, as I come across many times when I'm 2-1 while the team score is 4-12.



You're looking at it wrong. If you improve your play you will win. It's not let me win, without improving my play, or what's a good gimmick to help me win. Everything needed to "carry" comes from good mechanics, concentration, game awareness. These skills make you better, influence the game more, than doing something fast or trying to learn something specific. Almost every champion in the game, if used correctly, can carry at a lower level.

If your team is down, you only have a few possible options. One is to dominate your lane harder, so that you are fed, and the other guy is pretty much useless for another 30 minutes and carry. You can turtle up, get wards, not get caught and play for the late game, and hope they make mistakes. You can also group as 5 and try to push or pick somebody off and get fights in your favor.

Sometimes, you just get games where you can't win. But mostly, if you do well in the early game, you will come out stronger in the mid game, and late game. It's easier to carry a team being fed, then it is to be mediocrely fed, and then try to play off enemy mistakes.

If you want to play champions that can carry better than others, your best option would be champions that excel at late game if they get their items. For ap carries/dmg, you would want heavy ap dmgers like casseiopia and karthus, for tanks people like amumu, rammus, singed and lee sin, for carries it would be vayne, gangplank, for support nidalee, orianna, soraka.
r.Evo
Profile Joined August 2006
Germany14080 Posts
August 03 2011 05:43 GMT
#11
Great guide, thanks. <3

(However, the formatting makes my eyes bleed. If you don't mind it would be cool if you'd add some bold/italic to emphasize stuff and make it more readable. If you hate doing that shit I'd be happy to PM you that text in a little upgraded formatting. I'm german. I can't stop it. Sorry. :/ ...)

A sidenote on the CS part, especially cause I read...

cs isn't much of a problem for me. tbh my laning phase is decent; it just feels that I need to play more actively, as I come across many times when I'm 2-1 while the team score is 4-12.


...I'd say the first and most important thing is to actually realize when and in which ways you suck at things. (Big fanboy of 5H1Ts "On scrubs" here) ... Like, at 1300 elo I thought my laning was "decent" - I had usually one of the top cs and was complaining that I still somehow couldn't carry. Now at 1700 I realize that my laning sucks complete hairy donkey balls. The same cs I had at lower elo is now no where near best compared to people who do it really well, and the overall higher aggression makes me regret I ever took a single cs with spells.

Not sure if you forgot it, but I feel that getting all farm with autoattacks only is a huge thing that improves your game a lot. - Spells are there to buttrape the other guy in lane.


Two specfic questions:
1) How to exactly work on the "Champion Control"-Part?

For me it feels I learn a lot when I get beaten the crap out of by someone in game and can watch the replay, or catch a video here and there which shows specific situations which cause "aha-moments".

Examples would be seeing how Wickd smacks around a Rumble as Irelia (and explains why what action he does works) or getting smacked around by an Annie as Orianna, copying her behavior from the replay and then confidently beating Oriannas at the same skill level with the stuff I just copied.

However, that type of stuff seems to be so incredibly rare. (And sometimes so under the radar that you don't even notice what actually was the reason someone won a lane.) "Just playing" and waiting for those moments seems not effective to me. Is there any other way to learn this stuff besides just checking pro videos of specific matchups?


2) How to actively work on game awareness?
The problem for me here is that the "game awareness" top players have is it is the least visible and the least explained component overall. - People just take it for granted.

Example:
I duo q'd with someone from LP who's around 1800 (and a way stronger player than me in general), we laned bot as Vayne(him) / Taric(me), blue side. We dominate our lane simply by coordination and knowing when to buttrape them and when to back off. Around the 8 minute mark we have the following scenario:
-Their midlane was pushed to our tower, their mid is also being called mia.
-Their jungler ganked top about 30s ago and then disappeared.
-We just went back, got new items to buttrape bot even more and the ward I just put down at Drag got killed like the second I'm back in lane (loldurrtheypinkwarded, newb taric)
-Ward at Tribrush is still up.
-Our lane is pushed to our tower.

We both instantly agree on needing a proper CV, I'm confident Annie went to get blue from their jungle (he was Lee and started blue or something similar), my duo q buddy is like "She's in our brush for sure". Trying to be like LOL I WIN I cv their blue/wolves and... no one there, blue not taken.

Now, despite being being 4-0 in lane the Vayne does not push the lane AT ALL, we freeze it at our tower and he's like "No way in hell we're going to push that before we see Annie again."

What happens? After like 20s Annie flashes from the second bottom brush towards us, we instantly tumble+flash 'cause we were ready for it and she misses Tibbers.


What would have happened to me being the AD in that scenario? I'd have assumed she is either in the small brush next to the river / went back / to gank top. Her hiding and waiting in our bot brush made the least sense to me. I would have died to that gank over and over, giving up my killing spree and most likely the tower in the process.

Afterwards it makes complete and 100% sense to me (especially considering that giving up like 10 CS to be sure she's not there is totally worth it 'cause you keep up lane domination anyway), however that's a chain of thought I never, never would have made up during the game. Even worse, would it have been solo Q I'd have shrugged off getting killed there cause my support didn't ward properly and because it was unlikely in the first place.


IF THAT SAME THING HAPPENS IN A PRO GAME NO ONE EVER EXPLAINS IT. I'd watch it and be like "lol, nice call". The pro would do the whole thing and be like "lol, nice try".

tl;dr: I feel duo q with someone who's stronger than you at these aspects is a great way to improve it, simply because you instantly get solid and reliable feedback. How would you go ahead and improve this when being for yourself? Any way besides going over the replay, analyzing each death and thinking "Was there ANY way I should have smelled that?"

Just feels to me that the really hard part here is to actually get aware that it was your fucking fault in those situations. What attitude would you suggest to work on that?


Cheers for sexy answers beforehand. Please don't delete your post within 3 minutes. <3
"We don't make mistakes here, we call it happy little accidents." ~Bob Ross
jtype
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
England2167 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-03 07:51:19
August 03 2011 07:50 GMT
#12
One important aspect that a lot of people fall down on. I see it all the time on streams, in matches and in my own play. People get too emotionally invested in kills/fights/taking certain objectives and wont back out because they develop tunnel vision on whatever they're trying to do.

Certain things like diving past 2 towers and the rest of the enemy team when you're worth 500 gold with oracles and double buff and the person you're chasing is worth 25 gold, etc.

It can be really tough to do it, but it's important to always remain objective and analytical about every situation; weighing up the costs of all your actions and those of your opponents.
JackDino
Profile Joined July 2010
Gabon6219 Posts
August 03 2011 08:51 GMT
#13
Last hitting too hard, hit creep, creep dies exactly when bullet/arrow/w/e hits, no gold.
This isnt Broodwar so I dont owe anyone respect for beating me. -arb
Attakijing
Profile Joined June 2011
United States693 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-03 22:19:43
August 03 2011 22:01 GMT
#14
On August 03 2011 14:43 r.Evo wrote:
Just feels to me that the really hard part here is to actually get aware that it was your fucking fault in those situations. What attitude would you suggest to work on that?

So first of all this is a really fascinating story and I'm very glad you wrote it. I will definitely be showing it to my friends learning how to get good at the game.

When i see really good pro gamers (i'm thinking of reginald specifically) play and talk about their games they have an extremely responsible mindset. When their team begins to lose they feel like it is their fault and when they win they often attribute it to flaws in the other team. Especially when it comes to map awareness, they will often feel responsible for not only knowing the last time they saw all 5 people on the other team, but also what each one of them has the potential and likelihood to do as soon as they are MIA based on their hp, mp and level. They essentially never blame someone else on their team unless they are dead and watching this teammate the entire time, and then might criticize their micro. Sometimes they will say that they should have been able to guess someone would get ganked soon and prepare to countergank instead of getting angry at the person for overextending.

I don't remember who exactly, but i remember hearing one guy over 2000 elo say that if he played in 1000 elo he would be able to carry 90% of games because he would know how to fix the weakest parts of his team and exploit the enemy teams' weaknesses, and how to herd them towards the best objectives, into fights they will win and away from fights they will lose. In an extreme case, I've noticed that if you are 4-0, or if you give people polite warnings that turn out correct, people will listen to you a lot more. This means if you do badly in the early game it is partially your fault that your team will not take your advice, even if it is good (we have to do baron 3 of them are dead etc), because you have not built up the prestige necessary to influence them. This is another case in which it is very easy to just blame your teammates and come to the conclusion that your game was uncarryable.

My point is, even though it is often incorrect, the way to improve your game seems to be to minimize blaming others and instead "trust no one" in solo queue like dyrus says, AKA realizing it is your fucking fault when you die. This entails constantly figuring out a way that you could have prevented any problem your team runs into even if it seems implausible to you at the time. Running teleport helps me with this at my low level, because I know I constantly have to be aware of ways in which i can run in and change the course of a fight anywhere, even in laning phase. (It helps that I play tanks like singed, and that nobody expects surprise tp's in normals.) I would imagine playing pantheon or TF would also help, especially considering you need to not only be sure that you can help secure a kill but also escape with your own life, preferably without wasting flash.
HyperionDreamer
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
Canada1528 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-03 23:35:19
August 03 2011 23:34 GMT
#15
On August 04 2011 07:01 Attakijing wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 03 2011 14:43 r.Evo wrote:
Just feels to me that the really hard part here is to actually get aware that it was your fucking fault in those situations. What attitude would you suggest to work on that?

So first of all this is a really fascinating story and I'm very glad you wrote it. I will definitely be showing it to my friends learning how to get good at the game.

When i see really good pro gamers (i'm thinking of reginald specifically) play and talk about their games they have an extremely responsible mindset. When their team begins to lose they feel like it is their fault and when they win they often attribute it to flaws in the other team. Especially when it comes to map awareness, they will often feel responsible for not only knowing the last time they saw all 5 people on the other team, but also what each one of them has the potential and likelihood to do as soon as they are MIA based on their hp, mp and level. They essentially never blame someone else on their team unless they are dead and watching this teammate the entire time, and then might criticize their micro. Sometimes they will say that they should have been able to guess someone would get ganked soon and prepare to countergank instead of getting angry at the person for overextending.

I don't remember who exactly, but i remember hearing one guy over 2000 elo say that if he played in 1000 elo he would be able to carry 90% of games because he would know how to fix the weakest parts of his team and exploit the enemy teams' weaknesses, and how to herd them towards the best objectives, into fights they will win and away from fights they will lose. In an extreme case, I've noticed that if you are 4-0, or if you give people polite warnings that turn out correct, people will listen to you a lot more. This means if you do badly in the early game it is partially your fault that your team will not take your advice, even if it is good (we have to do baron 3 of them are dead etc), because you have not built up the prestige necessary to influence them. This is another case in which it is very easy to just blame your teammates and come to the conclusion that your game was uncarryable.

My point is, even though it is often incorrect, the way to improve your game seems to be to minimize blaming others and instead "trust no one" in solo queue like dyrus says, AKA realizing it is your fucking fault when you die. This entails constantly figuring out a way that you could have prevented any problem your team runs into even if it seems implausible to you at the time. Running teleport helps me with this at my low level, because I know I constantly have to be aware of ways in which i can run in and change the course of a fight anywhere, even in laning phase. (It helps that I play tanks like singed, and that nobody expects surprise tp's in normals.) I would imagine playing pantheon or TF would also help, especially considering you need to not only be sure that you can help secure a kill but also escape with your own life, preferably without wasting flash.

This is a really good post. I agree with pretty much all of it, especially the part about reginald. His expectations of himself are incredible.
BW4life! Jaedong ~ Savior ~ Shine ; "drowning sorrows in late night infomercials" - bnYsooch
0123456789
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States3216 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-03 23:55:23
August 03 2011 23:53 GMT
#16
Don't ever do what I do, which is get a loss, get emo, grind games in a bad mental state, and tiredness, and lose 100 elo, and because outside influence is making you emo so you play games to get away from it.
Lanzoma
Profile Joined February 2011
Mexico813 Posts
August 04 2011 00:14 GMT
#17
Just reiterating that everything Attakijing said is 100% true.

It's always your fucking fault.

If the top 100 players can whip out a smurf and get them up to the same elo, then that means THEY are the difference in their games and a single person can and does have a huge influence on who the winning team is.
TieN.nS)
Profile Joined August 2003
United States2131 Posts
August 04 2011 00:22 GMT
#18
Real Locodoco wisdom, if you can't carry 4 retards to a win against 5 retards you don't deserve to gain elo~
GiygaS
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
Canada1043 Posts
August 04 2011 01:53 GMT
#19
http://www.mediafire.com/?7h3x3tmkmfe8m1k
http://www.mediafire.com/?l773rb4q2v5g8ux

Here are two replays of my play. They both share a theme, can you guess what it is?
AKA gigyas, gigas, giygas khan, giyga khan, giyga...
Attakijing
Profile Joined June 2011
United States693 Posts
August 04 2011 01:55 GMT
#20
If you believe my post it also gives you ultimate trolling immunity. If someone rages at you and you don't think they have a legitimate complaint, you are automatically right because if they were actually better than you they could have warned you first (especially true of macro strategy like split pushing). Their getting angry at you just proves that they are worried and trying to find something to blame.

Additionally, the fact that they are unaccustomed to some of their teammates doing absurdly stupid shit means they are noobs. or they are emotionally unstable and they rage every game in which case you are nicer than them IRL
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