What to gain from watching LoL streams

If you are in any way involved or know about the Professional League of Legends scene, then you probably know about streams. This incredible technology makes us able to see the game from the player's point of view, and hopefully provide some helpful commentary on the way.

Streaming is the best way to learn about professional League of Legends players, and they're point of view into Professional Gaming. I watched Destiny play Starcraft 2 and have witnessed streaming evolve. So lets talk about what we can gain from professional streams, but not just the obvious items and champ selection.

Movement

Laning phase can win or lose you the game, but it can be through completely crushing your lane, or just being able to out farm your opponent. Most likely, the second case will be the case. And one of the best methods to outfarming your opponent is through harassment, poking, abusing creep blocking, all done through movement.

Watch most mid lane streamers, they run horizontal across their back line while CSing, but they don't make it predictable. Many top laners abuse the top lane brushes to poke from, or as an escape from minion aggression; so can bot lane, usually the supports. Movement can be a whole mind game of its own, yet is incredibly underutilized by most players. Watching professional players can be the best guide to learning something as complicated and important as movement.

Objectives

In the early game, Dragon can be one of the most important objectives on the map, giving your team 1000 global gold. However, when to attempt such an objective might be daunting. So watching streams usually helps with this, generally Jungler's or Bottom Lane, who have the most control over the objective. Many factors come into play with Dragon, did the other lane just back, are they dead or pushed to tower, did the enemy jungler just show top? There is a lot of factors that can play into when to go for an objective like this, and can help you determine when to make your own decisions about Dragon. 

 

What Dragon is to early game, Baron is to late game. Often, many times in my own normal or low elo games, I see Baron go completely ignored for the entire game, often just something to kill after a victorious teamfight, or something that a team will try to sneak as a sign of desperation. However, Baron is so much more important than people give it credit, giving a buff to AD and AP, plus giving Health and Mana Regeneration boosts, not to mention a healthy gold and experience gain.

This is more of a whole team effort, but there are many points to taking Baron, and fighting for control over it (the Baron Dance) For instance, Whoever is tanking baron will deal 50% less Attack Damage, and take 25% more Magic damage. As such, you probably shouldn't have your AD tank baron next to your full health tank. The importance of Baron and the way to acheive it is a big part of many streams, and can be shown as such. 

The little things

For this, I'll use myself as an example. My first AP mid lane champion was Karthus, which I picked up around level 15. As you can guess, I was awful. However, I watched a few Scarra and Phant0ml0rd games of Karthus, and I learned so much. For instance, don't buy Tear of the Godess. You can use your q to farm, don't try and autoattack every last one. Use your Ultimate to help teamfights across the map, dont just use it to snipe enemies that get away with just a little bit of health. There are little tips and secrets that can help with every champion, role, and lane, and sometimes the best way to learn these things are by watching streams. 

The obvious stuff

Clearly, the most important thing you'll learn from watching the pros at work is they're picks and their items, and the things that are easiest for you to emulate. So don't forget about the big things like that, which can be obvious. Don't forget about things like that, and if you're watching streamers who commentate, like Scarra, WingsofDeathX, or Crumbz, hopefully they'll go over their item choices, letting you make the best decision.

Don't underestimate the knowledge of these players, they probably have a much better understanding of the game than you. Also, don't be afraid to make your own decisions, especially since you probably don't have the right runes or mechanical skills that complemetn their builds or champions, but isntead use it as a guideline. For instance, maybe you don't have the extra defensive runes to get a first item B.F. sword on your AD carry, so go back and get a couple of Dorans blades and boots two instead.

Conclusion

Professional Streams can offer a lot of help, don't be afraid to utilize them. Just know what to look for, and how it can help improve your own game. So use this knowledge to go out their and dominate the fields of Justice! Or watch Dyrus sit at his computer and complain about how sleepy he is. But try and learn something while doing it.

Related links:
Twitch.tv
Scarra's Stream
Crumbzz' Stream

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