Are In-Game Overlays Worth It?

Rilea

Aug 22, 2022 • 2 min read

In-game overlays have exploded in popularity over the last few years. They slot into your game seamlessly to display a ton of information about your gameplay, the state of the map, and your enemies. However, is this information worth knowing when you're trying to focus on the game?

Helping Your Game

Overlays are very useful for 3 main reasons:

Tracking jungle camps
Identifying enemy playstyles
Highlighting effective champion builds

While laners stick to their lanes, junglers have much more freedom in the early game to move around the map. Tracking the enemy jungler is essential to success, so knowing when an enemy camp is respawning can reveal where the enemy is heading to next. If you can get there first, this can set you up for an easy pick.

Some overlays analyse your opponents games to detect any trends, such as whether they often invade the jungle. Knowing this can help you prepare plays that counter their strategies, setting you up for success. You can continue this by copying the build suggested by the overlay, as it will be sourced from builds with the highest win rate in high elos.

Information Overload

Sometimes, too much information is overwhelming and does more harm than good. Undoubtedly in-game overlays provide some valuable info, but a lot of stats are just fluff that doesn't help you in a meaningful way.

Stats like CS and gold/min are neat to know, but don't really do anything; you should always be striving to have good stats because it suggests you're playing well. You can also become fixated on increasing these stats instead of making the best play. For example, if you notice your CS/min stat is low, you might prioritise clearing waves instead of moving toward objectives that are about to spawn.

Seeing positive stats when you're playing well is certainly a sweet boost to your ego, and can make you more confident in your play. However, the inverse can make a bad situation even worse. If the early game doesn't go to plan and you see a ton of negative stats from your overlay, this can tilt you even more.

Summary

In-game overlays can be very useful when used in moderation. It's most useful for newer players to help them become familiar with champions builds and Summoner's Rift.

More experienced players should try and avoid getting lost in the amount of stats they track, and instead focus on trends to highlight areas where you can improve. For example, if your CS/min numbers are consistently lower than average, this suggests you should spend time practicing last hitting in the practice tool.