Three Simple Ways To Improve In Solo Queue By Watching Pro Play

Watching professional League of Legends is a really exciting and fun way to be involved with the game and can provide all the same emotions and responses that watching a professional physical sport can provide. It’s easy to get caught up in the stories surrounding each game, the excitement of the back and forth between the teams, and desiring your team to win. However these games can also be an amazing learning experience for the average League of Legends player.

If you can keep your head on during the games each one can give lessons about many different aspects of the game. The following are three easy tips for how to take what you watch in professional matches and turn it into valuable material for climbing the ladder in Solo Queue. There are probably hundreds of ways pro play can aid you in Solo Queue but these are three simple tips to help anyone and at any ranking.

Number one: Noticing Trends 

When you watch professional matches in League of Legends there are things you definitely should keep an eye on. For instance if you ever see something like a 91% ban rate on a champion (As Alistar has above from World Championships) take notice, because it probably means that champion is really strong right now. This kind of ban-rate, at Worlds even, is an obvious trend. Champion picks and bans are the easiest to watch for since Riot does a really nice job providing us with Pick/Ban percentages on them as they come up. Try playing these trending champion picks in normals to see how you feel on them. There is a good chance that these picks have a strong upper hand in the current metagame and if you’re faster on picking them up than your peers, you might ease your way into some clean wins in ranked play.

Just as the types of champions that the pros are playing can be a trend so can many other things that happen in-game. When you’re watching a week or two of LCS and you notice Kiwikid roaming mid instead of just staying in lane, resulting in some really impressive and advantage taking kills, that might work but it’s not a trend. If in the next game you notice Lemon Nation doing the same thing, and then LustBoy and on... now you’ve got yourself a trend. This is good evidence for the success of a strategy. If you see lots of pros doing a similar thing at a similar time in game, try it out!

Maybe you’ll find that next sweet spot that lets you carry your team as a support player! The idea though, is to keep track of what professionals are doing consistently and if it’s working. If you can find these successful trends in pro play, they can be great tools in helping you climb the Solo Queue ladder. Everything else you can gain from watching pro play, relies on looking for these trends. Keep the idea of trends in mind whenever you watch any aspect of a professional match.

Number two: Lane Matchups

There’s nothing more basic in League of Legends than knowing your lane matchups. If there is anybody in the world that knows their lane matchups it’s the professional players. Most people tend to have a preferred role, when you watch pro play try to pay close attention to the role you care the most about. If it’s xPeke against Froggen in the midlane, Ahri against Fizz, play close attention to how they trade with each other, when they push and roam and how they use spells both responsively and aggressively against each other. Or maybe you’re watching the bot lane and you want to know how Corki’s damage stacks up against Lucian’s at early levels.

When you pay close attention to how the champions that players pick interact with each other, you can notice the subtle ways each player tries to gain an edge against the other. Just as you want to be taught how to play piano by a master, you’ll want to learn how to beat Irelia in lane by a master. Keep the things professional do to take these advantages in mind while watch and whe you play, even if you get ten more CS because of this, it's worth it. Though this won’t help with every game; when you end up in one of these laning situations you’ll have a lot better tools to win the lane and the game.

Number three: Item Builds

The most simple thing you can do to learn from pro play is simply watch what items they buy. I don’t mean mindlessly jotting down the items they’ve got on each champion at any given time, but instead, a meaningful attention to the items they buy and why. If your opponents items are more optimal than your own for any given situation they can be more powerful than you even at a disadvantage.

So one game, Deft bought a Bloodthirster on Lucian first and the next game he bought an Infinity Edge, which is better for you, and why? In this case there are very specific circumstances to make that decision, a Bloodthirster for a fast pushing composition so that Deft can take damage sieging a tower and Infinity Edge for pick, laning and fighting compositions. If you can see the situations and compositions that arise where these builds are useful, you can integrate it into your knowledge base for actually playing the game. Like with anything you learn from pro play, make sure you keep your trends in mind too. There will be staple items for many champions and roles that pros almost always buy, consider those in your next item build.

A comprehensive idea of what are currently good item purchases on most champions and roles can give you an edge over other plays in the game and let you keep pace with the best players. The best way to know that is to see what the best players are building and why! So in your next ranked game, since you've seen the best players already do the theorycrafting for you, you can focus on honing your other skills. 

Wrap Up

If this all seems basic, it’s because it is, but it’s important to think about when you are playing the game. Being able to learn from the people who put the most time in and are the best at League of Legends will allow you to quickly gain an upperhand in the game itself. The basic tip of noticing the trends in professional play, keeping items in mind, and watching your matchups are some of the more simple ways of getting something useful out of the process. At any ranking, these lessons from the pros will help you win the game and even get closer to becoming a professional yourself.