Playing To Win

In this section, I'm going to give you quick but very pointed tips on improving your gameplay. Read
through these carefully and evaluate where your weaknesses are as a player.

Personal Skills
While each tip in this strategy will help a whole team, especially if everyone practices them, they are
things you are personally responsible for.

Counter
In Blind Pick, you cannot easily choose counters to enemy champion selections, so this point is more
oriented towards Draft Mode.
In Draft Mode, you can see what your opponents are picking and you can respond by picking champions
that match up well. Try to choose a champion that:

You are very comfortable playing;

You believe will match up favorably with the champion you're most likely going to play
against.

I'd emphasize the first point more than the second. If you play a champion you aren't comfortable with,
you're simply not going to perform as well as one that fits like a glove. It's often better to go into an
unfavorable match-up with a champion you really know than go into a great match-up with a champion
you barely know. There are some exceptions, such as when a champion is a 100% counter to your own
(examples would be Khazix countering Kassadin or Diana countering Katarina).
Make sure you choose summoner spells such as Exhaust and Ignite to counter their most dangerous
selections. In Blind Pick, make sure your team has at least one instance of each of these spells.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

When choosing counters to a team there is a simple trio of attributes to keep in mind. This is:

Effective Health: Effective Health refers to your total survivability in a given situation,
factoring both health and damage reduction. Champions with high effective health will tend
to be survivable fighters (bruisers) and tanks.

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Burst: Burst refers to your ability to output a lot of damage at once. Champions with high
burst tend to be assassin fighters or mages.
Sustain: Sustain refers to an ability to stay alive over a long duration. Champions with sustain
tend to be marksmen or support.

Here's how they work together:

Effective Health beats Burst: In other words, champions who can survive a lot of burst
damage will in turn be able to counter them, either by crowd controlling them for other
damage dealers (tanks), or by killing them (tanky fighters).
Burst beats Sustain: In other words, champions who can kill opponents before they can
recover a significant amount of health will counter them.
Sustain beats Effective Health: In other words, champions who can stay sustained while
dismantling an opponent over a period of time will tend to counter them.

Many champions do not fall strictly into one role, and will have at least some strength in one or both
other roles. Beyond this, players may use items to cover their weaknesses (for example, building
survivability to survive burst). That said, this trio is worth remembering when you're selecting
champions at the beginning of the match, especially if you have a good idea who you'll be against in
lane.

First Purchase: The Doran's Dilemma

Throughout the Champion Roles & Recommendations section I encourage players to start with boots
and 3-4 health potions (with an exception for support), or some sort of health sustain item, or sustain
consumables. The only exceptions to this rule are when you'll have the health sustain you'll need, either
from a healing ability of your own or that of an ally, or you'll be able to keep enough distance that
there's no reasonable way the opposing team can harass you.
Boots and health potions go beyond simply helping you escape, chase, and avoid skillshots. They also let
you be aggressive and make exchanges with the opponent. In a solo match-up against a player with
Doran's Ring or Doran's Blade and no ability that offers them health sustain, you can recover your health
at a significant pace while they cannot. This is how "Sustain beats Effective Health" from the above
section plays out:

You make several damage trades with your opponent, using health potions to recover
between them;
Eventually your opponent backs off at low health (if they haven't been killed or ganked
already);
You push your minions to their tower, causing their tower to eat up your minions, denying
your opponent experience and gold;

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You recall and come back to lane with a Doran's (or another item), and perhaps more health
potions.

When you two meet up again, the match is reset completely in your favor -- you have more experience,
and now you have the same benefit from Doran's that they had in addition to your boots. Regardless of
whether they picked up some sustain or boots when they went back, you came out the winner.
Doran's Ring and Doran's Blade are both very cost efficient items, providing more stats than the gold
they cost to purchase. They're good items, and they're not traps. They're just not always good first
items. That said, Dorans Ring and Dorans Shield were both reduced in price in season 3, making them
more of a realistic option. And Dorans Blade can still work wonderfully for ranged attack damage carries
if they have health sustain in their lane, either from lifesteal (such as lifesteal quintessences), or from a
support, or both.
It should go without saying that it's usually a good idea to try and shut down a player who has a Doran's
item.

Potions & Elixirs

Remember to use your consumables, especially right after you've engaged in combat. Health potions
that are running throughout an exchange or team fight can surprise you, especially in the early game
where they have a disproportionate effect on your survivability.
Beyond health and mana potions, always keep elixirs in mind. Stat elixirs are situational and should be
purchased when they could significantly impact the outcome of the game. Good times to use elixirs are:
1. Immediately after the other team has completed Baron Nashor to help stand against them
while they have the Baron buff;
2. Prior to a significant skirmish or team fight, such as one at or immediately prior to Baron
Nashor;
3. In the early game, particularly prior to ganks that are very likely to be successful with an elixir;
4. Any time you don't have inventory room for new items (you don't need inventory space to
purchase these; as long as you're alive, they will apply the buff directly to you).
The Elixir of Fortitude is a particularly helpful elixir. Not only does it provide you with more health and
survivability, but it recovers health (equal to the amount of bonus health gained), and it is not affected
by healing reductions. This means Elixir of Fortitude can be used as an emergency heal.

Tab, Evaluate, & Invest Wisely

When you press the 'Tab' key during a match, a screen pops up detailing both your team and your
opponents. On this screen you can see kills on champions and creeps, giving you a ballpark

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measurement of how well they're doing, as well as items they're building and which summoner spells
they have. This will only update based on when the opponent was last visible to your team.
Tab is also a quick way of seeing who is missing. Enemies who are greyed out are not currently visible to
your teammates, so a quick Tab press can tell you who you need to watch out for.
When you have this menu open, look at the summoner spells your opponents have, with a special eye
towards Exhaust, Flash, Ghost, and Heal. All three of these must be accounted for if you want to be
aggressive. Never dive a tower or overextend attempting to kill a player who has any of these spells
currently available unless you're absolutely sure you can compensate for it, as well as any other abilities
they may have.
Take a second to really look at their items. You can do this by targeting them as well. Do they have
wards? If so, that may suggest they've been warding around your lane, or they're about to. Do they have
an empty spot between two other items? In the early game, this may also suggest they've placed a
ward.
Are they building defensively, such as an early purchase of Null-Magic Mantle (magic resist) or Cloth
Armor (armor)? Don't overestimate the damage you'll do to them if they are.
Do they have a Doran's item as their first pick? This can be used to your advantage in many matchups,
because it means they won't have boots and may have very limited sustain, allowing you to both close
distance and escape with them in trades, and potentially allowing you to push them back to their base if
you can get them low.
When you're building boots, open up your Tab menu and run down the list of enemy champions. Don't
buy damage-related boots if everything in your brain says you should buy Mercury Treads. In rarer
cases, Ninja Tabi is a good investment.
Not sure whether a Void Staff or Last Whisper are good bets? They usually are, but it's always worth
checking out whether your opponents are building any magic resist or armor before putting down a
chunk of money on them.
The point I'm getting at is that you need to really look at your opponents. Don't just try to snowball into
an amazing damage-dealing powerhouse -- thinking about your purchases and how they relate to your
enemy really will have a big impact on your performance.
As a related note (in terms of using the interface to your advantage), you can see which of your allies
have their ultimate abilities available by looking at the green or black dot on the upper right-hand of
their portrait on the left-hand side of your screen. Green means they have their ultimate and can use it.

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Situational & Map Awareness (Wards!)

In most cases, being situationally aware largely involves being map aware. The mini-map in the bottom
right of your screen is important. Look at it. All the time. Along with the 'Tab' menu, it is a great way of
seeing who is missing at any given time, as well as a great way of knowing when you can take risks
because everyone is accounted for.
Aside from this, being situationally aware also helps you more quickly capitalize on times when there are
nearby teammates, either by helping them out while they're being attacks, or by getting in position to
gank with them.
Wards have a very large impact on the success of games, provided that you and your teammates will
capitalize on the vision granted. Denying map awareness to your opponents through the use of Vision
Wards and Oracle's Elixir, as well as general sneakiness, is also critical.
Some players, such as those playing support champions, may choose to ward more frequently than
others. However, every player on a team should be willing to buy wards, especially to protect entrances
to the lane they're in.
Read the Warding, Counterwarding & Clairvoyance section of this guide for more detail on this subject.

Observe Your Opponents

While you can calculate the relative power of an opponent by checking out their items and stats, you
will often learn the most about how strong or weak they are by watching them. Take time to
occasionally glance at other lanes, especially after dying, and run through a mental checklist:

Does your opponent look like they're farming well?

Are they being overly aggressive?
Are they not taking advantage of an opportunity in front of them? Are they being too
cautious, or are they being smart?
Are they responding quickly to their teammates needs?
Are they avoiding ganks in a smart way, and do they seem to be reacting to your allies (i.e. are
they reacting based on ward vision)?

You'll learn a lot about their team by doing this. While these snap judgments won't always be correct,
they can give you a good idea how things are going, especially in conjunction with a glance at their
items. Just knowing when an opponent is not doing particularly well, especially if they're a counter to
your own champion, can help you make decisions later on in the match.

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Think About Your Opponent's Cooldowns

As you develop a stronger understanding of the champions you're playing against you may also get an
idea of how long their cooldowns are. For example, Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab is a devastating ability, but
it also has a very long cooldown. Darius' Apprehend pull ability is also devastating, but missing it
completely shuts down a major part of his kit for a very long time.
Watching your opponents cooldowns and having an idea how long these are is helpful as it lets you
know when you have a window to be very aggressive against them. This is especially true if you're
playing champions with ranged normal attacks or abilities, as you can more quickly move in on an
opponent and stay in range for longer before you need to back off.

Track Timers
Track the timers of objectives like Dragon and Baron Nashor, and major jungle buffs such as the golem
and lizard camp if you know exactly when they were last killed. Here are the timers you need to know:

Baron Nashor spawns 15 minutes into the game. He has a 7 minute respawn timer once he's
been killed.
Dragon spawns at the 2:30 minute marker. He has a 6 minute respawn timer once he's been
killed.
Ancient Golem (blue buff) and Lizard Elder (red buff) spawn at the 1:55 minute marker. They
have a 5 minute respawn timer once they've been killed.

Knowing these timers lets you move into position to take down these objectives even before they've
spawned. If the other team is not tracking the timers as well, it usually means your team can take out
the objective before the other team is even aware it was available again.
You should also track nearby wards that you've seen the enemy place. These all last for 3 minutes. This
knowledge can be helpful for your jungler or other gankers to know as they can move in immediately
once a ward expires, allowing for an unexpected gank (sometimes while they're already out of
positioning placing a new ward). You can also use this knowledge to decide whether it's worth
counterwarding them or just waiting it out.
You can check the remaining duration on allied wards by clicking on them.
Flash has a cooldown of 4:10 with masteries, which can be useful to track if you want to ensure a kill.
Personally, when I'm tracking any of these timers, I'll do a quick calculation in my head and type it
something similar to this in team chat: "ward bot tri-bush at 14:23," with the time corresponding to
when the ward expires. Having it in chat makes it easy to reference later.

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Gold Matters
Gold has a significant impact on the game. Between equally skilled players, the team with a significant
gold lead -- provided they aren't taking stupid risks -- is favored to win.
Last hit! The biggest single improvement most players can make to their gameplay is learning to
effectively last hit minions, ensuring they get the bonus gold. Some champions are much easier to
achieve this with (Morgana, Mordekaiser, and Vladimir being among the easiest), while others must pay
far more attention to do it effectively (most marksmen in the early game). The only exception to this are
champions who intentionally forgo last hitting in order to let other players get more gold (the "zero CS
support" dynamic described in the Champion Roles & Recommendations section).
Passive gold gain items work great on champions who have a natural reason to build them. For instance,
Philosopher's Stone can be good on support and some tank champions, but not usually a good idea on
mages or marksmen.
Towers, Dragon, Baron Nashor, and jungle monsters all offer opportunities for additional gold gain. It's a
good idea to pursue these as often as possible.
If you kill an enemy champion more than once, and they haven't killed anyone on your team, they are
worth less and less gold. While you are denying them from being able to impact the game while dead,
there comes a point where you're sacrificing more to kill them than you could be gaining by just last
hitting minions or taking objectives.
In some cases, it's still a good idea to go out of your way to kill an opponent, especially if they can
potentially snowball into a powerhouse (such as Tryndamere). You're denying them experience and gold
by doing so. Be smart about it.
Finally, let your teammates get assists on champions you're fighting. You don't get any extra gold for
killing a champion by yourself, whereas your team gets a very significant chunk of extra gold if at least
one of your allies helps out. This bonus is not increased if more than one player helps out, so your main
goal is to have at least one other player involved as often as possible.
By the same token, don't be a nice guy and let a nearby teammate get a kill if no one will get an assist.
Do everything you can to get in, even if you are going to take the kill as a result.

Avoid Unfavorable Fights

It should go without saying that you don't want to get into fights you have a decent chance of losing.
If you've already been killed more than once in the early game, but don't have the kills or assists to back
it up, that's usually a sign that you need to focus on playing defensively. Pay attention to how you're
getting killed (such as a jungler or a particularly brutal combo from your laning opponents. If your

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opponents are killing you, you're even less likely to be successful your next time around, as they may be
gaining a level and gold advantage.
Sometimes your teammates will get caught in obviously unfavorable fights. Discretion matters, but you
should never do something which is likely to result in your death with little or no gain to your team. In
other words, don't help when it doesn't make sense for you to help. By the same token, don't be the
player who is in that unfavorable position, not only for yourself, but because your teammates may be
drawn into a fight that is just as bad for them.
Don't get baited into fights when you're not aware of what you're running into or where your opponents
are. Some bait is more obvious than others, such as Shaco frequently running out of a bush and back
towards it to draw you towards a trap. But any time a kill seems to easy, you should think it through.
Avoiding unfavorable fights is a common theme and nearly everything else in this section offers you
something that is technically related to this concept.
All of this said, it's ok to take risks. As long as they're educated and you believe there's a reasonable
chance you'll come out on top. Without taking risks you won't learn all of the things you can get away
with (and the boundaries of your potential).

Movement & Positioning

Movement and positioning are important concepts for every player, and there's a myriad of ways to
approach this, usually dependent on the champion you're playing and who your teammates are.
Without going into detail on a subject that is so specific to the champion you're playing, one thing you'll
need to get used to is moving between your normal attacks and ability casts. There's usually a window
of time where you can safely move a little without slowing down your attacks or spells.
In terms of normal attacks, you can move the moment your character has attacked a target (in the case
of ranged champions, this will be when the projectile first appears in the air). Some champions have
slower wind-up animations than others, so knowing exactly when you can use a move command again
without accidentally canceling an attack is a matter of practice and muscle memory with your champion.
Virtually all top players are constantly moving, some of whom use over a hundred movement commands
every minute. This keeps them on their toes, prevents their opponents from landing easy skillshots, and
allows them to position better towards their next targets (or away from potential threats) while not
sacrificing their damage output. By constantly moving, they can continue to stay near -- or even ahead -of the path of the champions they're attacking, securing kills that players who aren't moving between
attacks would miss. In other situations, skilled players can kite opponents, staying at a distance from
them while being pursued, but still landing a barrage of normal attacks and abilities on them.

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Juking
Juking is when you telegraph the wrong moves to your opponents and fake them out. An example of this
is running in a straight line to encourage a Blitzcrank or Morgana to use their skill-shot abilities on you,
but instantly changing directions once they fire, thereby juking the ability.
Faking your movements can be very effective in escaping pursuers. For example, moving into brush
while fleeing may cause a pursuer to assume you're going to continue running forward. However, if you
wait until they reach the bush and then immediately run back in the direction you came from, you can
sometimes more easily escape this way since they may need a moment to recognize and react to it.
This is easiest (and often the most fun) to do with champions that can easily cross barriers in the jungle
such as Gragas and Nidalee. Lee Sin is among the best champions at advanced juking, especially if he has
wards or other enemy and allied targets available.
Keep an eye on your potential escape routes wherever you are, and try to have at least two available.

That Awkward Moment When...

...you know you're going to die, but you still have a few seconds left. One moment you're on top of the
world, the next you realize you have absolutely no possible escape unless your opponents are dumber
than bricks. What do you do with your final moments?
If you see their ally coming to attack you, try really hard to let your opponent kill you before their ally
gets in range. Stand still or get a tower to help your opponent out. It's much better to die to a single
opponent than to two or more, as it denies their team assist money.
If you haven't actually been attacked by an enemy champion, but you're surrounded with no escape
(such as trying to take a monster in their jungle, or being flanked in your lane), you can run straight for
their tower or for a monster that can quickly kill you (such as Baron Nashor). If you're killed without
being attacked by an enemy champion, you are considered "executed," and the enemy team gains
nothing. Keep in mind that towers that are further in towards an enemy base deal more damage and
can kill you more quickly.
If you're not the only team member person trying to flee, don't move towards allied champions. Instead,
actively move away from them so the enemy players are less likely to kill them as well. Or get suicidal
and take out the enemies who you're most likely to be able to kill or seriously harm before dying.
In most cases, you want to waste as much time of theirs as you can without sacrificing anything
important. This is especially true if it distracts them from taking out your structures after a major
teamfight.
When you realize you're going to die, try to do something cool with it. And sometimes you'll actually live
as a result.

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You Have Been Slain

Once you die, take a moment to check out the Death Recap (an option to do this appears near the top of
your screen). This will break down the sources of damage that killed you, as well as their damage type.
Taken together with what you observed from the battle that killed you, this can help you make more
effective purchasing decisions for defensive items.

Calling MIA
Letting your team know that an enemy is missing from your lane is often a good idea. For experienced
players, using the Missing smart ping will make that clear. With newer players, doing this and then
using chat to give some sort of indication that your lane is missing is a good ideaIf an opponent is
constantly staying out of vision between minion waves, consider saying something to that extend in
chat.
While map awareness is a personal responsibility, and some people are better at it than others, your
goal is to win the game. You're more likely to win the game if you help your teammates out by letting
them know about missing opponents. From a very practical standpoint, you should be calling MIA for
your own benefit, even if you feel your teammates should be paying better attention to the map.

Direct Your Team

Good communication on a team can significantly increase your chances of winning matchups, even
when those matchups are in the other team's favor. Obviously you shouldn't berate and insult your
teammates, but you can take this a step further:

Get your team's attention regarding objectives like Dragon and Baron Nashor. Do everything
you can to organize people quickly to take these before the enemy team can stop you;
Sometimes just attacking these objectives with teammates nearby will get their attention and
get them to join in;
Ask the team to group up and push an objective such as a tower, or have them group to help
force a fight against the enemy team;
Say when you're going to initiate a team fight, especially on champions like Amumu, so your
teammates are prepared;
Sometimes you can use obvious abilities, such as Sivir's On the Hunt aura, to indicate to your
team that they should initiate or back off;
Use the "Fall Back" ping if you think your teammates are in a bad position (but don't spam
pings);
If split pushing looks like a good idea, communicate to your team who should go where;

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Direct people to crowd control certain targets in fights (instead of placing blame for how the
previous fight went);
Let your teammates know about enemy wards, as well as potential gank opportunities.

Not everyone is going to respond positively to this. Be tactful, not demanding, and you're more likely to
get a good reaction.

Recall Quickly
When youre first playing League its usually a good idea to fall all the way back to the safety of your
tower before attempting to recall. But as you learn the game and get a better idea of what your
opponents are capable of, along with more awareness of where they are on the map, its a good idea to
get in the habit of starting your recall as soon as youre reasonably safe.
While pushing, this may mean going to the closest brush or simply falling back out of vision range. This
little bit of extra time can turn into big efficiency gains for you and your team over the course of the
game, and can allow you to get to teamfights and objectives a little more quickly.

Dont Ask Why

Whether youre genuinely curious or youre bothered by a certain action your ally took that got them
killed or put the team in a worse position, never ask why they performed the action. I wouldnt have
thought to include this in the e-book, but there was a fantastic set of discussions on reddit that
reminded me how Ive personally felt about this in the past. Heres why:

You dont really need to know why a play happened;

The player is put on the defensive, making it less likely theyll be effective as part of the team.

Short of someone being upset or purposely feeding, chances are the player didnt make a play with the
intention of dying. And chances are they realize the mistake and will learn from it. Nearly every player
you come across, even diamond players, lacks knowledge in some areas of League of Legends; mistakes
will happen.
If your goal is to win, offer tactful suggestions on improvement rather than being confrontational. Of
course, I like to imagine most of you reading this e-book already have that attitude!

Don't Give Up
Nothing is better than that come-from-behind victory. It will happen more often than you think if you
really pay attention to all of your opportunities in a game.

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There's a difference between playing well and doing well. Players can be doing well if they're racking up
a lot of kills in the early game and causing a major headache to your team. In these situations they may
have a lot of gold and be in a great position to snowball.
But playing well is a whole different story. Is the player racking up all those kills a melee champion
investing in pure damage items, making them extremely vulnerable to being bursted down later in the
game? Are they actively farming to gain more gold, or are they simply roaming to pick up kills on
opponents who aren't necessarily worth much anymore? Are they going for ideal targets in team fights
and playing safe or are they getting cocky?
Keep in mind that some champions, such as Shaco, will often have stronger early games than late game.
Also, keep in mind that some champions, such as marksmen, can become extremely strong
powerhouses later in the game, and simply holding the game longer can turn it in your favor.
Finally, winning a single team fight in the late game, particularly one the enemy team didn't expect (such
as having your entire team hidden in brush), can turn a game completely around. By the same token,
focusing on objectives like Dragon and Baron Nashor, or even stealing a Baron Nashor kill while your
opponents are doing them, can also turn games around.
Don't get discouraged. Stay calm and collected. You will play better.
Don't surrender a game unless your opponents are doing well and playing well. If they're not playing as
smart as your team, getting better map awareness (through wards) to deny them opportunities, in
addition to toughing it out until your team can outpace theirs, is enough.

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Teamplay & Objectives

Slaughtering enemy champions is not your goal. Your goal is to destroy their nexus. This is achieved by
destroying their inhibitors, which is achieved by destroying their towers. Don't lose sight of this.

Early Lane Swapping

Sometimes but not always it can be a good idea to swap your marksman and support to top lane
instead of keeping them at bottom lane. This is for two reasons:
1. This kind of lane swap can shut down an opposing solo laner, particularly if they are melee
range champions who can be bullied even when attempting to last hit at their tower;
2. The double golem camp can be valuable to take for a support and marksman, but this is not
available to Purple teams bot lane.
To successfully lane swap, you need to know that youll be able to shut down the opposing solo lane and
ideally push the tower as well. When deciding if you can successfully lane swap, consider the following
criteria:

Can you definitely shut down top lane even if the jungler camps the lane?
Is your ally at bottom lane going to be able to farm well? Or, at the very least, will they not lose
the tower quickly? (Consider both which champion theyre playing as well as how much
harassment the two opposing champions in their lane will bring)
Would your ally otherwise be likely to succeed in top lane? In other words, are they playing a
champion that normally counters the enemy top laner?
Will any of your allies be able to keep an eye on Dragon consistently, and will you be able to
contest it quickly enough?

Lane swapping is high risk but its worth at least considering, especially in coordinated teams. I cover this
more in the Team Composition section below.

Defend
Defend your own objectives. Never give your opponents an opportunity to take an objective without
losing something in return. Make them pay for it.

Don't go back to purchase items just because you have the money to do so, particularly if it
may give your opponents an opportunity to push the tower you're defending.
Don't leave your lane while it is being pushed, or for long enough that you can reasonably
expect it to be pushed.

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That said, there are two reasons to stop defending a tower. First, if your opponents are likely to win a
fight against you and the tower is at low health, it is usually good to give up the tower and get to a safe
position. Second, in rare circumstances it can be worthwhile to give up a tower in favor of locking down
another objective or securing multiple kills in a teamfight or skirmish (so long as that leads to working on
another objective).
Be able to reasonably justify letting an opponent push your tower if you leave it for any reason. It's ok to
lose first line towers if it's for a better cause, but never lose it because you're not paying attention or
you want to shop.

Push Together, Recall Together

If youre in a duo lane (ex. marksman and support at bot lane) and you successfully force your
opponents out of lane, its often best to push minions towards their tower as quickly as possible, then
immediately recall together to purchase items and recover health and mana.
This is because there is a window of time where your opponents are coming back to the lane and will
not be able to quickly push minions to your tower before you return. By taking this time to recover, you
dont lose much potential gold or experience, likely dont take tower damage, and come back to the lane
completely ready for another fight.
What if one player has just returned to lane and has no reason to return to base? In this case its fine to
press the advantage and pick up a little extra gold and experience, so long as you feel its unlikely that
youll be ganked while pushed up. But short of being extraordinarily fed, opponents who realize youre
alone in lane when they return can easily harass and zone you, so be careful not to throw away the small
advantage gained.

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Sometimes It's Better To Wait

While objectives are very important, there are often situations where you don't want to take down a
tower in your lane. This is because minion waves will tend to gravitate to the mid-way point between
the current towers on either side -- and if your opponent is missing a tower while yours remains,
minions will spend more time on your opponents' half of the map.
Here are the basic reasons not to push:

If you are farming very well and have been relatively safe in doing so;
If you need to continue to farm but can't risk going past the river due to potential ganks;
If you are effectively zoning your opponents and preventing them from farming;
If your team doesn't need you immediately or if you'll be more of a benefit to your team by
farming further;
If allowing your opponents to recommit to another lane could cause a problem;
If you don't have a place to go after you've pushed the tower.

The last point is the most important, because it relates to when you should take a tower. The worst
thing you can do is take a tower early, then not be able to either secure kills or objectives elsewhere on
the map, leaving you either falling behind or leeching on another lane and causing them to fall behind.

Before going further, let me emphasize that taking out the middle tower is nearly always a good idea. It
has too much of an impact on the map to justify waiting longer than necessary, unless you simply cannot
go anywhere else with your champion and reliably pick up kills or experience.
Make sure that if you take a tower, you have a short-term plan to contribute to your team (take Dragon,
gank and push mid-lane, recall and gank top, etc.). That said, don't leave yourself unable to defend your
lane if your opponents push!
You should also take towers if you're not getting much out of your lane in the first place. If you're
constantly being harassed, or your opponents are not doing a very good job farming but are making it
very difficult for you (such as a kill lane with champions dedicated to taking you out rather than

15 | Learn the League

effectively farming), taking their tower the moment you have an opportunity can allow you to move
somewhere more favorable while denying them easy shots at you.
As a rule of thumb, 20 minutes is about where you should be considering taking a tower regardless of
other factors, as you'll need to transition to mid and late game dynamics with your team. This isn't a
hard rule, but it works.
If you lose your first tower, there is a silver lining in that you can more safely farm and your jungler or
other lanes may potentially have an easier gank on your lane opponents if they stick around. You can
also move more freely around the map immediately afterward, which helps if your team has seriously
hurt one or both other lanes and easy ganks can be set up. It's not ideal and you shouldn't intentionally
throw a tower for this reason (since it does give easier Dragon or Baron access, among other things), but
it will occasionally turn games around.

16 | Learn the League

Control Your Lane Extension

Don't blindly auto-attack enemy minions! There's an art to controlling how far you're extended in the
early game, especially in the side lanes. Here are some tips.

Gain a level before your opponents by pushing hard for the first minions, especially if you know where
the jungler is or you don't believe that their jungler will pose an early threat. You'll want to do this if you
can follow up a brief level advantage with very strong harassment, or if losing that level advantage may
make you particularly vulnerable.
This is usually good to keep in mind for an early level 2, level 3, or level 6 advantage, but don't push too
hard at all times for the sake of leveling. Keep in mind that minions don't spawn any more quickly, so
pushing too hard won't gain anything but a very small, temporary experience advantage (unless you kill
your opponents or force them to back off).

You want to avoid minions reaching your tower whenever possible, not just because of the damage to
the tower, but because it makes last hitting those minions far more difficult. Beyond this, if a tower
helps clear minions, it can give your own minions an advantage and push the lane significantly further
out as a result. Push back when your opponents are pushing so you can keep the minions off the tower,
and consider items like Chalice or Catalyst if youre a caster and need to use your mana pool to push
minions off the tower frequently.

17 | Learn the League

One way to freeze enemy minions at a particular point is to simply stand in their path and force them to
attack you until your minions reach you. Youll take some damage in the process, and its more suited to
certain champions and item builds than others, but its a reliable way of keeping the minion fight near
your tower without actually reaching your tower. In rare circumstances you may be able to juke into
brush and drop minion aggro once or twice as they lose vision, then come out and regain it, as a means
of delaying them without taking as much damage.
By keeping minions closer to your tower without letting them get pushed back out by the tower, you put
yourself in a naturally safe position near your tower. This helps a lot in avoiding early ganks from the
enemy, while making ganks from your teammates a lot more likely to be successful.

Sometimes you'll need to fight under your tower. This can happen if the opponents are doing a good
job pushing, or if they're doing a good job harassing you (therefore making the only safe spot under your
tower), or both. On many champions, you can gain higher minion kills by keeping these rules in mind:

Use one normal attack on a full health ranged caster minion before the tower hits it and it
should be low enough to last hit after the tower hits it (unless your attack damage is very high,
in which case you should wait until the tower hits it once);
Wait for the tower to hit a melee minion twice from full health, then kill it with a normal attack.

Those rules help a lot, but the situation is usually very dynamic, and minions won't always be coming
under a tower at full health. You'll want to get used to ways of dealing with this on the various
champions you may play.
You want your minions to get to their tower, especially if the opponent is back at base. This makes it
much harder for them to last hit minions for gold, and if they're back at base, loses them all of the
potential gold and experience from that wave. This is a huge hit, especially when two solo laners are
against each other and one is losing waves.
You may even want to farm their minions behind their tower. This is extremely risky and should only
be done if youre in a seriously good position, and/or youre aware of where their jungler and other
lanes currently are. While the damage from the enemy tower is critical for pushing your minions back
towards your side of the map, this only occurs if the enemy minions reaching the lane; by holding and
killing minions before they ever reach the tower, the enemy tower can kill an extra wave (or even
several) of your minions, which in turn makes it much more difficult for your opponents to gain gold and
experience. On top of all of this, it allows you to fairly quickly take down the tower.

18 | Learn the League

Keep bushes in mind. If you've got a jungler or another player looking for an opportunity to gank in a
side lane, it can be to your benefit to push the minions in a lane far enough that the player can walk into
one of the bushes on the side of the map without being seen. This can give them an opportunity to get
close to opponents without being noticed, provided there is no enemy ward vision in the bush or the
approach.

Between Minion Waves

As you get more comfortable with the lane dynamics, you'll start to recognize times when a wave of
your minions won't kill a single enemy minion in the next wave (either because an opponent is killing
them or a tower will take out all of your minions first). In some situations, this will be a back and forth
that occurs on nearly every wave, especially if both you and your opponent can clear full minion waves
quickly. At these times, it's usually a good idea to leave vision range of your opponent during the wave,
either by going into a bush or backing off. You won't be losing gold or experience, so this is perfectly
fine, and the threat of you showing up elsewhere threatens each of the other lanes.
If you do this often enough, your opponent may not be able to recognize the difference between you
standing back for the next wave or actually being missing. This will allow you to more effectively
accomplish warding or ganking with less warning, or to simply back off to another bush where you can
watch for opponents coming into your lane.
One common example of how a good mid lane can use breaks in minion waves:

You push to minions to the enemy tower, perhaps after you've killed them or after they've
gone back, or perhaps because you're just a very strong pushing champion;
Between waves, you back off and place a ward in the top river;
You arrive back in lane to push the next minion wave again;
Between waves, you back off and place a second ward in bottom river.

That setup lets you place wards without losing experience or gold. If your minions are pushed to their
tower, you can see a defending player if they're attempting to react to you. Alternatively, you could use

19 | Learn the League

either of those opportunities to head up or down river or through the jungle and attempt to gank an
opponent.
Killing jungle monsters between waves can be effective, too. Both purple team's top lane and blue
team's bottom lane have relatively easy access to double golems, though you'll need to make sure you
can get back quickly. Mid lane has easy access to both friendly and hostile territory wraiths. This is best
done while you have minion control and your opponents do not.

Press the Advantage

One of the worst habits that League of Legends players fall into is seeing kills in a teamfight as the end of
an event, after which they go back to base, recover health, and purchase new items. In most cases, this
is the completely wrong thing to do.
If you've just killed your opponents, push. It doesn't matter how much gold you just earned or how low
you are on health, if you can reasonably push anywhere safely, do it. The only exceptions to this rule are
in the early game where you may intentionally avoid pushing first lane towers.
It sounds simple, but knowing and acting on this will put you head and shoulders above a huge portion
of the League of Legends community.

React To Enemies Who Aren't There

Just as important as reacting to nearby champions is knowing how to react when you know some enemy
champions aren't near you at all. This is part of pressing the advantage.
If your team is near Dragon or Baron Nashor and one or more members of the opposite team are on the
opposite side of the map with no way to respond (no teleport, etc.), that is a great time to either force a
fight or take these objectives. By the same token, don't show yourself in bottom lane later in the game
when your opponents may be ready to take Baron, as that's a clear indication to your opponents that
you will not be able to immediately assist your team.
If you can account for their jungler ganking another lane and believe part of their jungle is available
(particularly blue or red buff), invade the jungle and take it! This is risky, but often pays off as long as
you can continue to account for them.
If you can account for all five members of the opposing team on the map and believe you have an
advantage in your lane, push to take out a tower. This is especially true at the second towers and base
towers and inhibitors, where a teamfight on the other side of the map may leave these vulnerable while
your opponents are distracted.

20 | Learn the League

If Theyre Going For Blue, Theyre Coming For You

There are some indicators that an enemy is going towards their blue golem (or yours, for that matter). If
your own golem has recently spawned, theirs may have, too, depending on how diligent each team has
been. Alternatively, if youve gained vision, either through scouting or through wards, you will know
when their golem has gone up.
In games where the mid laners are picking up the blue golem, you should always keep in mind that they
are halfway between the mid lane and either top or bottom lane, depending on which side of the map
theyre on. Until you have vision on them you must assume theyre a potential threat to the side lanes.
You can take advantage of this by either moving to intercept them, pushing mid lane, or moving to the
opposite lane where both the mid lane and jungler may not be able to respond (though this depends on
whether the mid lane is capable of clearing blue golem easily without help, such as a Cassiopeia).

Dragon & Baron Nashor

While I emphasize the importance of team objectives -- specifically, structures -- and want to discourage
you from looking at killing enemy champions as the goal of the game, gold does matter. Repeatedly
killing Dragon during the early mid-game, along with securing Baron Nashor, will give you a massive gold
lead over your opponents (not to mention Baron's buff). Being able to take these objectives before they
can respond can keep you ahead of your opponents, allowing you to stay in a game youd otherwise be
losing.
If you're going to contest Dragon or Baron Nashor, there's a very common trap you want to avoid. Both
Dragon and Baron Nashor have an outer wall around them, with their only real entrance being in the
river. Less experienced players on the purple team (top half of the map) will tend to congregate around
the outer wall (inside their jungle) when an enemy team is attempting Baron Nashor. This only makes
sense for a small number of champions with reliable blink or dash abilities, who can potentially move in
and attempt to steal dragon or otherwise engage in a team fight. Alternatively, champions with
skillshots that may hit Baron can attempt to steal the buff from here.
Outside of these champions, players grouping outside the pit walls prevent your team from organizing
and contesting the other team in a normal team fight, unless each player without blinks or dashes burns
Flash. It also isn't a good position to come in from anyway: Baron Nashor attacks the closest valid target
while he's engaged, and entering a fight that close to him means his damage may be redirected to you.
As a rule, a team should usually move in from the river if they're going to engage the enemy team. The
main exception to this rule is high-mobility team compositions.
For Dragon, it's important to remember that he can be moved, and moving him outside his river
entrance puts him out of range of most skill-shots that can be fired from the outer wall. Like Baron, this
should usually be contested from the river (though players who can dash or blink over the outer wall can

21 | Learn the League

do so more safely here, especially if a team fight is occurring there or only a small group of enemies is
working on Dragon).

Note on Baron Nashor

The more Ive covered the pro scene, the more Ive noticed just how many important games are lost
because of misguided Baron attempts. Baron is an enormous trap, and players at all levels of play get
sucked into it. Heres my advice:

Dont do Baron if youre significantly ahead, unless you can account for every threat on their
team. After all, if youre ahead because youre winning teamfights or doing a better job
securing objectives, chances are you dont need Baron to continue this.
Consider whether your opponents have global map mobility (Twisted Fate, Nocturne, etc.) or
the summoner spell Teleport. If they do, realize they may still be able to get to you if theyre far
away. One pro team, Dignitas, has lost key matches they should have won simply due to not
accounting for global map mobility.
Dont do Baron without warding and counterwarding first.
If you suspect a teamfight could break out near Baron, dont engage Baron. On top of damage
he also applies a damage debuff which can help lose a fight.

Baron is worth risking if youre already losing the game. If played well, it can turn a close game in your
favor, or cement a commanding lead and allow you to close out the game, but be careful about when
you decide to attempt it.

Force Favorable Teamfights

There are four places teamfights should occur:
1. In a lane, with the goal of defending or taking a structure, or preventing opponents from
farming the minions in the lane;
2. In or around Dragon or Baron Nashor, with the goal of killing them for your team;
3. In the jungle, specifically to counter-jungle (killing their jungler or taking their important buffs)
or in response to counter-jungling (protecting your jungler or your important buffs);
4. In between any of these (such as moving to the enemy team's base after successfully killing
Baron Nashor).
The first thing that needs to be said is that if you're engaging in team fights elsewhere, either your team
or the enemy team is doing something that may eventually help them win the game, but rarely is an
ideal approach to doing so. If their team is ahead and trying to engage in fights unrelated to any of the
above, you're probably better off ignoring them as a team, and instead focusing on other objetives.

22 | Learn the League

Forcing favorable teamfights is an important concept for a team. To do this, you need to make it clear
you're attempting to achieve one of the first three goals above, and you need to be ready to respond in
a way that will likely result in victory for your team.
The best example is forcing a Baron Nashor fight. If the enemy team has it warded, or you clearly show
yourself headed to Baron Nashor, then they'll know you're there and ready to take the buff. Your team
having the Baron Nashor buff, in addition to all of the bonus gold, is a huge risk to nearly any team, and
they will be forced to choose whether to respond to you or whether to let you have the buff.
In some cases they won't respond to you if they know it's an unwinnable fight, and they feel they are
more likely to come out on top fighting under towers (if it's your team, keep in mind that you don't need
to respond to fights like this).
In many cases, they'll wait until you're doing Baron Nashor and attempt to fight you during the
encounter while you're already taking damage from Baron. This is usually favorable to for them unless
you have lategame items that really mitigate Baron's damage output.
And in other cases, they'll wait until you're doing Baron Nashor and attempt to steal the gold and buff by
a well-timed Smite or other damage. Even if they lose one or two players doing this, successfully stealing
the buff can turn the game around for their team.
In this circumstance, forcing a favorable teamfight usually means not actually engaging Baron Nashor.
Instead, you want to make it clear that -- if they don't respond -- you will kill Baron Nashor. If you can
take the damage, you may even want to start attacking Baron briefly if they have vision on you, such as
with a Clairvoyance (with the intent of quickly resetting the encounter) to make sure they get in to try
and stop you.
If the enemy responds and comes near Baron, engage in a teamfight. If you're correct that it is a
favorable teamfight (after all, forcing unfavorable teamfights is usually bad unless it's a last-ditch effort),
you should come out on top. And if you come out with enough health and damage, you can take Baron
Nashor.
The advantage to a forced fight like this is not just that you've locked down the enemy team and
successfully taken Baron Nashor as a result. It also means the enemy team is crippled, likely with players
still dead if it's later in the game, and this gives you an opening to make significant dents to their
architecture (i.e. destroy their structures). In some cases, you can take a victory here straight to their
base, saving Baron Nashor for after you've done your damage to their defenses.
Baron is a well-known example, but you can force favorable teamfights anywhere, especially at towers
and inhibitors that your opponents must defend. This is an especially good tactic if you're already ahead
in the game, as it removes options for your opponents and gives you more dominance over the match.
But be careful not to overestimate your power or overstay your welcome when you're low on health.

23 | Learn the League

Inhibitors Matter, But So Does Their Nexus

This is straightforward. If you're pushing into their base but feel you cannot take out their nexus (in
other words, pushing to win), knock out as many inhibitors as you can. Two inhibitors down, especially
on opposite sides of the base, makes it very difficult for a team to leave their base without risking their
nexus (either to super minions or an easy path in for your allies). If they're resurrecting with two
inhibitors down, that can be a good time to take out objectives like Dragon and Baron Nashor, as it will
be very difficult for them to respond (and very obvious if they do if your minions are giving vision inside
their base).
The nexus and its protective towers are actually pretty easy to take down if you have minions and a
good deal of damage output. This is true even with one or two of their players coming back life,
provided you still have an overwhelming presence. It takes a bit before you can judge whether you can
push to win, but you should get in the habit of making a real effort on it whenever its reasonably safe
(instead of killing more inhibitors).
Victory is achieved by killing the nexus. Don't get distracted by opponents who may be very easy kills.
Stay focused on bringing down the towers and the nexus itself unless you absolutely must respond to
opponents. Not pushing a nexus when you had an opportunity to will come back to bite you at least a
few times, given enough games.

Pushing & Split Pushing

Pushing is when you actively put pressure on a lane, usually with the goal of taking out structures. Split
pushing is when a team is actively pushing more than one lane at a time.
Split pushing tactic should be used when an enemy team is dead or crippled after a skirmish or team
fight and there are multiple easy objectives to take. However, it can also be a great way of safely
winning a game when all of your enemies are alive.
Pushing and split pushing is distracting. If your opponents work best as a cohesive group of four or five
players, split pushing forces them to split up to effectively respond. If they're currently attacking your
tower, or getting ready to, pushing or split pushing other lanes can get the pressure off of you.
Sometimes pushing and split pushing isn't distracting, especially when you're already in combat. I can't
recall the number of times I've been so engaged in a team fight we were winning that I didn't realize one
of my enemies was pushing down a base tower. This is a pyrrhic victory -- in other words, we won a
team fight, but usually lost as much as we gained. I've learned that it's often a good idea to purposely
engage in teamfights, even unfavorable ones, in order to let someone push directly to their base.
Consider pushing and split pushing when you cannot effectively respond to an enemy team doing Baron
Nashor or even attacking your own structures. This is risky to do, but it can pay off in the long run,
especially if you can knock out an inhibitor (or worse).

24 | Learn the League

I recommend looking for any opportunities to split push when a game is clearly not in your favor and
you've been losing team fights. It can pull out unexpected victories.
Note: If you want to learn a little more about effective split pushing, check out The Impossible Decision
in the e-book.

Backdooring
Backdooring occurs when a team attacks enemy structures while their allied minions are not present.
With towers, this is more difficult to do because the tower gains additional stats when minions are not
present, but it can be done at points in the mid and late game. You will usually want to do this when
there is an undefended target of opportunity (such as while an enemy team is dead).

Closing a Game by Staggering Deaths

In the late game, one of the most consistent ways to win in a roughly balanced match is to find and kill a
single opponent, leaving the enemy team at a single person disadvantage. This can mean unloading
burst onto the first person to engage on you, then disengaging before a teamfight, or it can mean
catching a support or another player alone and taking them out.
Obviously the 5v4 advantage alone is good, but when death timers are long, it can be helpful to make
big plays to knock out a second enemy, putting them on a death cooldown. An example of a good time
to do this is after taking a turret or inhibitor; even if youd like to follow this up with Baron, it can make
sense instead to invest that time into killing another player. It seems like an overall loss if you need to
give up Baron or another objective, but its completely crippling to the other team to have their death
timers staggered so they can never fully recover.

Fight Fire with Fire

Unless your team is running with lategame threats such as Ryze, Twitch, and Tristana, there is rarely
ever a virtue in playing passively while your opponents are playing aggressively. Aggression is countered
with aggression. If youre losing, getting your team to roll the hard six and make a high risk play as a
team is far more likely to recover a game than waiting for your opponents to take Baron and hoping you
can defend your inner towers just a little longer.
This doesnt necessarily mean you get into a teamfight. If you cant win a teamfight, maybe it means
split pushing. Maybe it means waiting in brush as a group until a single one of your opponents walk
through it. Maybe it means having one player bait their team to the bottom half of the map while the
rest of the team rushes Baron.

25 | Learn the League

Double Explosion
If you're losing, try to have a successful Surrender vote as your nexus is being attacked. If you time it
right, you get two explosions.
Two explosions.

26 | Learn the League