Achieving High Elo through Five Skills: Tips and Tricks

As an avid eSports viewer, I’ve watched countless professionals make League of Legends seem like an effortless game. In reality, however, the majority of gamers know this is false. League of Legends takes mechanics, creativity, teamwork and knowledge of the game. As I’ve watched more and more games, I’ve realized several things that I’ve seen in low elo games that professional players never seem to do. Hence, I’ve focused on five core skills that should be mastered in order to gain high-elo. Each has tips to hopefully make your road to Challenger a little bit easier!

1) Last Hitting
Just to tell you why last hitting is crucial, let’s look at Bjergsen (one of the best midlaner’s in NA) as an example—he often kills around nine minions per minute. Take an average bronze player and he will most likely get around four minions per minute. You gain more gold from consistently killing a wave in a lane than you do for killing the same champion multiple times. A champion provides less and less gold each time you kill them, unless a teammate provides them a kill to ‘reset’ their value.

TIPS:
So what are some tips on last hitting those pesky minions? The answers are simple. Know the amount of damage your champion deals with auto-attacks. If you’ve never played that champion before, I suggest playing it around five times in a normal game or a bot game. This takes the pressure off from losing LP and lets you practice your last hitting skills.

Here’s a quick run-down to give you a brief idea of some champion’s auto attack animation:
- Champions with slow animation: Annie, Morgana, Brand, Soraka
- Champions with fast animation: Miss Fortune, Caitlyn, Ashe, Nunu

You also need to watch for friendly minion attacks on enemy minions. Ranged minions deal more damage, so watch their attacks hitting enemy minions and attack after your minions.

2) Looking at the Mini Map
The mini map is there for a reason! Contrary to popular belief, the map isn’t there for decorative purposes. Looking at the map will allow you to understand the positioning of your teammates (and the enemies). This will help you figure out what to do next, or plan a strategy.

TIPS:
A professional player once said that in order to practice looking at the mini map, he would set a one-minute timer on his phone. Every time the alarm went off, he would check the mini map. Another good way to get into the habit is by minion waves. Every time you clear a minion wave, quickly look at the map to see where your teammates are. This helps with positioning and overall effectiveness of your team.

3) Positioning
Watching LCS games, I’ve noticed how pivotal positioning is. In the professional scene, if a player is caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, good teams will capitalize on the mistake. Hence, LCS players are extremely careful about how they position themselves in a game.

TIPS:
Here is how teams should be positioned:
- The tank and fighter are going to be what we call "Front Liners". They are going to be the closest champions to the enemy champions and absorb the most damage due to their large amount of health.
- Then comes support. The support champ should generally be in range of all the allied champions at the same time if possible. This lets the support champ throw heals, shields or other buffs on his/her allies.
- The "Back Line" will consist of your assassin and ADC. These champions should be farthest or least accessible to the enemy champions as you don’t want your ADC and assasin (main damage dealers) going down too soon in the fight.
- To practice this, I would play Normal games or invite a group of friends to a custom game. In this case, playing with AI is not going to help as they will not have effective teamfights throughout the match.

4) Knowing Champions
As said before, League of Legends has a heavy emphasis on game knowledge. The more you know about the game, the better. Low elo players are often secluded to a couple champions they are comfortable with. However, this does not help their situation at all! Get to know different champions and play them—playing against new champions only gives you a superficial understanding.

TIPS:
- This is where normal games and BOT games shine! They are there for a reason—use them to your advantage! Normals games are like Ranked games but without the pressure of losing. I would recommend googling champions that seem to fit the meta currently, purchasing those champions and playing around 10 games with them in Normals. Knowing many champions will help when doing ranked games, as you will be able to know the CD of a skill or the general damage a champion could do.
- If you are looking to improve your game with a certain champion, custom games are also a solution. When I wanted to practice my wall-jumping with Nidalee, I used a custom game and spent half an hour figuring out places that I could jump over. This helped me immensely during game as I had already practiced this skill.

5) Taking Objectives
A common mistake made by teams is that they do not take objectives after a victorious teamfight. I've noticed so many people just back after these fights, or maybe push a wave then back but without direction they don't take objectives. Objectives are the key to success when closing out/winning a game.

TIPS:
Make these a priority after EVERY teamfight—even if it's something small like gathering their jungle buffs. Deny them something and you will put your whole team ahead. The last thing on this subject is to learn when a teamfight is over and when and when not to chase.

By securing these give skills, gaining high elo should be easier. Good luck on your journey to Challenger, fellow summoner!