5 Things I Wish I'd Known When I Started Playing League
Booting up League of Legends for the first time can be a daunting experience, with over 160 characters to play and 5 unique roles to try out. Here are 5 things I wish I knew when I started playing League.
Level 2 Experience
Reaching level 2 is a critical point in the laning phase, as it doubles the amount of abilities you can use. Reaching it before your enemy is a huge power point and can lead to a kill.
In the mid/top lane, you will reach level 2 after killing the first melee minion of the second wave. If you are playing bot or support, you will reach level 2 after killing the third melee minion of the second wave. It's really important to track this experience for yourself and the enemy.
5 Champions Per Role
It can be really tempting to play every single one of the awesome champions League has to offer, but this isn't the best strategy to win. Playing too many champions means you're spreading yourself too thin, and you won't have the time to master any of them.
Instead, try and focus on playing around 5 champions per role. This means you can put in the time into excelleing at them, and you can counter-pick or play a champion if your choices are picked/banned. You should adjust your champion pool based on patch updates, and your selection should cover different classes within your role (e.g. tanks and assassins for junglers).
Vision
Controlling vision is one of the most underappreciated skills when people first start playing League. Information is power, and being able to know exactly where enemies are is critical to winning fights.
Vision control is mostly done by the support and the jungler, as the two roam around the map to place wards and destroy the enemy's vision. In the early game, you're trying to spot out where the enemy jungler is to help protect your team from ganks. In the late game, vision control around the Baron and Drakes is essential as it will help you win fights around these objectives.
Pressure Points
If you can establish vision control, this can help you identify where your team is being pressured on the map. For example, if you can spot the enemy jungler on the top side of the map, your top laner knows to play defensively else they'll die to a gank. Consequently, if you know the enemy jungler is top side, your bot lane knows they can play aggressively without being ganked.
Pressure can also be traded. If enemies are diving the top lane or taking Rift Herald, their bot side is vulnerable to dives because enemies wouldn't be help out. You could also trade the Rift Herald for the Dragon.
A Marathon, Not A Sprint
League is a huge game, with a near infinite amount of unique interactions and matchups. Climbing and improving at League is an incredibly rewarding experience, but it requires a ton of time and effort. Games will be lost and won, and it's important not to be deterred when things aren't going your way.
No matter the outcome of a game, you can always learn something new or improve your gameplay, and use that to help you in your next game!
