The Do’s and Don'ts of Helping New Players

Introduction

Helping a friend who is new to League of Legends can be a rewarding experience. Although most players have good intentions, the impact a mentor can have will make the difference between a Dedicated Newcomer and Level 7 Quiter. In this article, we’re going to tackle some of the best and worst things a veteran can do when teaching the game to a newer player League of Legends. 

Bad Composure

The biggest “Don’t” in regards to playing League of Legend has to do with composure. By raging at something that seems “broken” or “unfair”, you are passing bad habits to your student. Instead of raging, try to take a deep breath and figure out where the went wrong. If you admit your mistakes aloud, you are more likely to enforce good habits. Another course of action would be to congratulate your opponent. This shows you are humble and willing to find flaws in your play. If your student is able to recognize their mistakes, they will improve much faster than average.

 

Playing Normal MMR Games with your student                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 What may seem as harmless as playing a few games on your LVL 30 account can actually have major consequences. By playing games with your low-level friend, you are actually artificially inflating their Normal MMR. Although this inflation may not affect you when you DuoQ your friend will find it impossible to SoloQ thanks to the high volume of smurfs that will be filtered in with his MMR boost. You can avoid this by playing BOT Games with your student or by leveling up your own fresh account to help keep the MMR consistent. Also remember that any game that teaches a lesson is better than one where you solo-carry the team and they learn nothing.

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Rushing them to 30
One major misconception with LoL is that once a player hits LVL 30, they are ready to jump into ranked. This idea will not only hurt your students morale, but they will most likely rank much lower than they’d like to. Do not try and find shortcuts for your student. XP boosts are great for leveling secondary accounts, but new students should not be encouraged to boost or play dominion for extra XP. They need all the games they can get before they are ready to play in ranked mode. William "Meteos" Hartman became one of the Highest-Rated Normal Game players before he played ranked. By the time he chose to play ranked, he was ready to become one of the best in the world. Although you're friend will most likely not see the same success, there is a cooralation between normal games played and placement rank. 

Enforcing the Meta
Another common misconception people have is that it is better to have an inexperianced Jungler without runes than two Top-Laners. The meta is tricky to teach as new players may often misunderstand what you are saying. This could lead to them applying something like an item build to the wrong champ or make them rage at teammates for not doing everything how you taught them. A good idea would be to be very clear with the applications of item builds and roles. Make sure they know there are other ways to play the game, and that it shouldn’t matter when playing with low levels.

 

Lastly it’s always a good idea to introduce your student to outside sources such as informational streamers, youtubers, or websites. Being able to watch someone play the game properly is proven to translate when applying the actions to one's own play.

There is so much more you can do to become a great mentor, but if you take every piece of advice to heart, you will pave an excellent path to success for your student! Thank you for reading! I hope this guide was helpful to you. Good Luck on the Rift,

Conito

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