The new season of League of Legends is upon us! It's an exciting time for old veterans to stay on top of the game and new faces to prove themselves on the Ranked ladders of Summoner's Rift. Through this article, we'll give you 10 easy tips for making sure you can make this season yours and dominate LoL in 2020!

1. Work on Events

Events through Season 10 will be more accessible for the average player, as addressed by Riot in their Skins & Events video, so it’s in your best interest to stay up to date with them. With more weekly missions and challenges for players, so too will there be greater opportunity to gain rewards - Blue Essence, Event Tokens and Chests & Keys are all contributing factors to success, since they can contribute to your Champion pool. This might seem meaningless, but let me give you a scenario; I’m sure you’ve all come across the situation where someone’s asking for a swap to really nail your draft, but the other party involved doesn’t own the champ. Players who have the bare minimum number of champions required to play Ranked put themselves and their team at a disadvantage, because there’s less flexibility with swaps and creating the perfect team composition.

2. Focus on Vision Score

We all know that wards save lives- but focusing on your vision score is a great indicator of just how much you’re helping your team. In Season 10, with the introduction of the alcoves and all new ways to take cover from the enemy team thanks to the Elemental Rifts, Trinkets and Control Wards are more important than ever. On top of these consumables, the Scryer’s Bloom and Rift Scuttler are neutral sources of vision that can and should be taken advantage of in every one of your games, which will also increase your vision score. Champion abilities such as Ashe’s Hawkshot and Quinn’s Heightened Senses can also aid your vision score depending on how effectively they’re used - a Hawkshot into the enemy base that catches an enemy just respawning won’t yield as many points as one cast on to the Baron pit that catches all 5 members of the enemy team.

3. Understand Your Bans

At the moment, there is only the potential for 10 bans, maximum, in a Draft Pick/Ranked game of League of Legends. With a roster of over 140 champions and new champions being released consistently as the season goes on, the need to deny your opponents a champion that hasn’t undergone balance changes yet is often essential. You should also pay close attention to the pick order, so that you can see where the first pick lies and whether that means you can try and snatch a powerful champion for yourself by not banning them and then first picking them, or if it’s better to be safe than sorry.

4. Identify the Best Builds

With a number of preseason changes modifying the build order of different champions, it’s best to take some time to practice with new builds if your champion has been affected. Notably, the removal of Spear of Shojin shakes up the meta in the Top Lane by disabling the immediate powerspike of Champions like Renekton, and even earlier than that the removal of Raptor Cloak prevents Darius from spiraling out of control before anyone can do anything about it. Additionally, the change-up that occurred with the Lethality items has affected nearly everyone who used them, and invited new champions to dip into Lethality with the introduction of Sanguine Blade - the duelist’s dream. Allocating time to learning which items best suit you in this new season is essential in guaranteeing success.

5. Stay Up to Date with the Patch Notes

The Patch Notes are the best indicator of what we can expect in the weeks following its release, making it an invaluable tool in deciding which picks and bans you should prioritise. As an example of this, let’s have a look at Patch 10.1, specifically the change made to Nami and that her E now empowers the target’s abilities as well - this was a powerful change that was intended to make her more powerful in Bot Lane, and surely enough we began to see Nami rise in the ratings for both Win Rate and Play Rate. You can check out the Patch Schedule here, so make sure you take some time on those days to have a look at who’s getting some love and who’s going to be less powerful in the foreseeable future on the Rift.

6. Take Advantage of the MMR Reset

The start of the new season means that everyone on the Ranked Ladder needs to retake their provisional games - 10 important games that are aimed to place the player at their new starting point for the season. In Season 10, the ranks were scaled down fairly heavily, moving high-ranked players back down to ranks they never thought they’d see again. This can feel like a harsh blow, but you can use this opportunity to reset your MMR and influence the amount of LP you’ll be gaining for a win in the climb ahead. If, prior to the change, you were struggling to climb out of Gold IV and push higher, you now have an opportunity to climb back to that point with a higher win rate and earn yourself more LP this time around for a much easier journey forward.

7. Study Your New Threats

Continuing on from the talk of changes in the preseason, you should also take time to cover the changes made to champions specifically. We already know that there are going to be some pretty major changes this year in the way of Volibear and Fiddlesticks, so ensuring that you keep a contemporary knowledge of how they’re being changed will keep you ahead of the curve. You can do this by following all of Riot’s official channels on social media, reading over the Patch Notes and, most importantly, registering for the Public Beta Environment (PBE) so that you can get a firsthand look at the proposed changes coming to League of Legends. You do, however, need to remain at Honour Level 3 and above, with no restrictions or bans, to be given access; you can check if you’re eligible for the PBE here.

8. Remember to Honour Your Team

New season, new honor levels! For some people, this is a good thing… for others, this means that they need to build back up to honour level 5 before they can continue earning those sweet level 5 orbs and rewards. Everybody loves flexing with unique emotes and earning free skins and champions through the orbs given to you as you rise higher and higher in the honor system, so make sure that you maximise the honor you gain at the end of every game by honoring the other players in your game (even if you feel like your shoulders are aching from carrying them so hard).

9. Stay Tilt-Proof

This ties in nicely with the previous tip of honoring your team, but staying tilt-proof is necessary if you want to boost yourself out of the initial rank reset of Season 10. Climbing the ladder can be incredibly intense and different players will react differently to losing, which can be dangerous if they plan on playing several games one after another. League of Legends can sometimes be as much about your mentality as it is about your skill, so taking some time to keep cool is conducive to better performance and a more enjoyable experience overall; play a different champ, run an ARAM game, or even take a small break from the game to refresh your mental state.

10. Get Ready for the Grind

Strap in - this Season is going to be super exciting for players thanks to a whole lot of new and exciting changes to the map, but you need to remember that the jumps from Iron to Diamond, Level 1-30 and Mastery Level 1-7 don’t happen in a day. If you’re feeling ready for a day of grinding out Solo Queue, make sure you’re staying hydrated, getting some exercise, and eating well for the long slog ahead of you. Remember to take breaks to keep your mental game strong and read up on other articles like this one so your knowledge of the game stays relevant and strong. Big brains carry games! GLHF!