Communication: What and why it's important

Proper communication in League of Legends is a vital part of a team's success. Whether you use pings on the map or use chat, you should try to communicate every source of information you gain with your team. After all knowledge is power right? This can be several things that happen in every game and can change the outcome of a game. Here are some things that should be communicated with your team and why is can be the difference between a Victory or Defeat.

1)  Ward Placements

You don't always know and see where the enemy wards are, however there are many instances where you see the enemy place a ward somewhere. Informing your teammates on the placement of the ward helps everyone. For example, if you are playing bot lane and see the enemy ward the river area, you can let your team know so if the mid or jungler tries to gank bot they will know not to go through that area. An additional advanced tactic is to keep timers when you are able. When you see the enemy ward something you can log in chat “13:17” or if you have timestamps on “river bush ward”. With this you will know when the ward will expire. A good example is the picture below, the two members of TPA briefly see the ward placed by AF, they can share this with their team and know there is a ward in that bush.

2)  Spells

Keeping note of what your opponent expends can help greatly. It is difficult to know what is going on in every lane and informing the team of spells your opponent has used can aid in a successful gank attempt. This includes summoner spells, champion abilities or even the opponent’s mana reserve. Knowing that an enemies flash is down can help as your team will know they have no escape when ganking. Knowing an enemy’s ultimate has been used is helpful as you know that can be a large amount of damage not available in a fight. For example, if you are in the top lane and your opponent uses their flash in a skirmish. You can now let your team know that the flash is down allowing your mid or jungler to gank more easily. Taking advantage of these opportunities can mean the difference between an even or lost lane to snowballing to victory.

3)  Coordinate ganks

Planning ahead is never a bad thing and can give you the advantage over an enemy with poor communication. While every lane loves getting a gank from a teammate, letting them know in advance allows them to prepare better for the upcoming situation. I have seen many occasions where a teammate ganks a lane unsuccessfully due to the others not having mana or they simply did not know they were coming. Communicating your strategy with teammates such as “After I get blue I will come bot to gank” or “I'm going to buy an item then I will gank mid” raises your chances of successfully ganking the enemy. When they know ahead of time that you are planning on helping them they can prepare for the gank by conserving mana & health or shopping for items.

4)  Communicate team efforts

This is similar to coordinating ganks but it involves every member of the team. These efforts usually include global objectives such as Baron Nashor, Dragon or taking turrets. Making sure everyone is on the same page leads to smoother plays to happen. Here are several key events in the game to communicate with your team. When you are to the point of doing the so called “Baron Dance”, inform teammates about how one player that appears on the bottom of the map will lead to the opposite team engaging the Baron.

With this, your teammates can position themselves closer to Baron for when they see an enemy player on the bottom of the map. I have seen countless times where the team gets very upset with a teammate because they went bottom and the enemy killed Baron. For dragon, communicate vision wards and enemy status. For example taking dragon can be made much easier with the following events: seeing the enemy jungler in the top lane allows for a numbers advantage, killing an enemy or forcing them low to recall also allows for numbers advantage, and also knowing the enemy does not have vision can lead to an easier kill on dragon. Communicate this with your team so everyone is aware.

One last thing to communicate is when the team is pushing a turret, use chat or pings to communicate targets. There are many instances where half the group is attacking an enemy, one is attacking the turret and another splits off to do something. This causes chaos, confusion and can lead to a team wipe. Simply ping or tell your team what to focus, it usually comes down to one person taking the lead for the rest to follow.

5) Positive Attitudes

Yes, you've heard it before and seems very “carebear” to always be positive and assuring with your team but as studies have shown, most people react better to positive comments rather than negative. This will help your teammates stay focused and in the game rather than have their spirits down and not fully in the game. Instead of saying things such as “OMG you’re so bad why did you engage”, say things like “Maybe next time we should wait for the whole team to engage”. Even a simple “good job” after a teammate gets a kill or does something good in the game can go a long way.

It raises morale and helps keep the communication levels up with the team. All in all, just try and be as positive as the situation allows you to be. Being negative brings down the team morale, leads to frustration and bad plays and probably will get you reported.

Hopefully this has given you some insight that will allow you to improve your game. Have fun, communicate with teammates and stay positive! Look for more articles & interviews soon!

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