Maximize Self Improvement While Minimizing Effort

The Season 7 ranked season is upon us and it is time to start climbing the ladder once again. Playing League of Legends is time consuming, and we all know ranking up can become quite the grind. The most important aspect to improving is accepting that you aren’t perfect. Once you accept that, understand that you will make mistakes and that is fine. A mistake is just a learning opportunity and can turn you into a better player. If you are looking to improve yourself and don’t want to throw hundreds of games into ranked this season, here are some tricks to getting the most out of every game you play.

Take Notes

While winning the game is what we are looking for, a loss can be just as valuable to us. A loss shows us that we have something to improve on. Not every game is winnable, but many are. After a game is over, open up notepad or a sticky note on your computer. Record the champion you played, who you played against and anything relevant to the matchup or the game. Record something even if it’s something small such as “improve CSing on this champion” or “started winning lane after first item”. Spending more time thinking about the game and what you could change for the next game only takes a minute, but can drastically improve your gameplay. You may find yourself in that matchup again in the future and can look back to your notes for help.

Replays

The new replay system is a very valuable tool that can be used for more than watching your pentakills in slow-mo. After a particularly tough game, load up the replay. Find where your deaths were and identify if you could have avoided dying. Did you underestimate your opponent’s damage? Did you position correctly in the teamfight? Maybe you missed enemy movement on the minimap. It could just be you aren’t playing the champion well. You can’t change how your teammates play, so try not to dwell on any of their mistakes you may see. It is up to you to adapt to the game and play as flawlessly as you can. Find your mistakes and make a note of them. Replays are also an important tool when learning about your opponent. You can see everything the enemy team can see. Take note of how they warded, roamed and positioned. It’s important to learn how to read your opponent during the game. Often you can predict when the jungler is nearby by seeing changes in the enemy lane opponent’s movement. You can check a replay to see if your thoughts were correct and if you are wrong, see what you could have changed. Keep your mistakes in mind as you play your next game and actively work to correct them. If you died in the previous game due to poor map awareness, spend the next game forcing yourself to check the map more.

Practice Session

It is undervalued how much benefit can be gained from a custom game against bots or even by yourself. Nailing down the mechanics of your champions is important and can be easily improved by just spending five minutes alone. Mastering a tricky wall jump, improving the speed of your jungle clear, performing a fast combo and last hitting every minion are all things you can improve with custom games. The easiest way to beat your opponent is to simply have more gold than them. The easiest way to get gold is by killing minions. If you master last hitting, that alone will make all your games that much easier. Every champion has a unique auto attack animation and some champions take time to get used to. Load into a custom game and spend five minutes last hitting every minion. As an extra challenge, don’t use any runes or masteries. If you can adapt to last hitting without the aid of runes and masteries, in a real game it will be that much easier for you. With sandbox mode coming soon, these practice sessions will be even more valuable as a tool for improvement.

Spend some time this season to focus on yourself. If you really are looking to improve, it is as simple as taking a minute to identify and actively correct your mistakes. I hope you can implement these tools to transform yourself into a better player and I look forward to seeing you in your challenger jacket soon.

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