Master any Game with the "One Game, One Goal" Method

If you’re trying to get better at LoL, you can always do something like only playing one champion, but if you really want to become an all-around better player, that won’t cut it. Sure, you can raise your ELO with those kinds of methods, but you’ll be a one-trick pony. Some people are able to transition to other things once at a top level, but that’s not a reliable strategy for the average gamer, especially if you just really want to get good at the game overall.

The solution? The “One Game, One Goal” Method. This method is largely about developing a mindset that fosters and automatically leads to improvement, no matter what game you’re applying it to. Instead of mindless grinding on the same champion over and over, you have specific things to focus on and work towards.

Introduction

SC2 players might already have an idea of what this method is. The One Game, One Goal method has been famously championed by StarCraft guru and eSports juggernaut Day[9].

Day[9], lover of the number J (Image Credit: Darren Chin)

The theory is simple: instead of overwhelming yourself with a huge list of things to do and improve upon, choose only one to focus on in your next game. If you accomplish that goal for the game, you’ve won, regardless of if a “Victory” or “Defeat” screen showed up at the end. Keep on focusing on this goal in every game. Once you have that goal down so well that it’s basically second nature, move on to another goal. Rinse and repeat.

Using it in LoL

Perhaps the two most well-known applications of this technique for beginners in SC2 are frequently checking the minimap and constantly creating workers in the first half of the game. There’s a minimap in LoL, too, so let’s start there.

In SC2, you want to make sure that you’re glancing down at the minimap at least once every 10 seconds or so. If you want to avoid brutal jungle ganks, the same guideline holds for LoL. So, say to yourself, “This next game I’m going to do everything I normally do without worrying too much about my mistakes. My one goal is to make sure that I check the minimap every 10 seconds.” The point is, that’s all you have to worry about for the game. Still play to your usual standard, but make that goal the real focus of your victory. Need reinforcement? Stick a Post-It note on your monitor. Or set your phone to vibrate on your desk every 10 seconds.

A similar universal goal for LoL is to hit ‘Tab’ to check what items people have every few minutes. Before you fight, when you or your opponent return to lane and just periodically in general. LoL is about knowledge, and this helps keep you as informed and prepared as possible. In other words, it is about looking before you leap -- you'll never have to say “Oh, I didn’t know they were THAT fed” while staring at a gray screen ever again.

Universal stuff is all well and good, but how about more in-depth, specific things? Depending on what position you’re playing, here’s a rough outline of some goals to follow to both learn the role and get better at it:

- Laner: (1) CS as perfectly as possible, (2) engage your opponent when they make a mistake, (3) controlled aggression (lane bully; when you know you have the advantage), (4) roam

- Jungle: (1) gank more, (2) steal/time buffs, (3) counter jungle more (and duel the enemy jungler if appropriate), (4) predict enemy movements and counter gank

- Support: (1) ward all important areas, (2) aggression when the enemy messes up (usually from positioning), (3) presence in the lane/zoning.

To help guide you, you can break all of these goals into small parts. A good example of this is with the jungle objective “steal/time buffs.” If you play an aggressive jungler like Lee Sin, try setting a goal to invade a buff either at the beginning of the game (e.g. your blue to their red) or when the buff respawns for the first time (~7:05 for the one they started at and shortly after for the second if they didn’t gank right away). Otherwise, be on the lookout for what side of the map the enemy jungler is on to see if you can steal their buff on the opposite end. After committing to that, time the buff and be there right when it respawns to steal it again.

The essence of improvement is consistency -- legitimately try to do this every game and you will improve. Remember that this isn’t a trick or a shortcut; it’s a way of thinking that you constantly apply and work on. It requires you to really think during and after games about your performance. In many ways, this is the “tryhard” route, so go into it expecting that.

So it’ll take a little work, but if you want to master any game, give the One Game, One Goal method a try!