Whether you’re playing a competitive shooter like Valorant, an MMO like Final Fantasy XIV, or a complex MOBA like League of Legends or DOTA, games do their best to show you the ropes of their systems and mechanics to help gear in newer players to their experience. But regardless of how casual or competitive the game might be, there’s always going to be information and interactions that fall through the Tutorial’s cracks and are left for the players to discover or learn on their own.

Today we’re putting a lens on what League of Legends doesn’t teach you, and hopefully newer and older players alike will learn something from these ‘overlooked’ pieces of the game.

There’s an Overarching Competitive Meta in League, and Riot Balances the Game with This Scene in Mind.

Many veteran players are rolling their eyes reading this, having already been fans of the LCS and its orgs for many years. But, newcomers to League or esports entirely may not be aware of League’s place in gaming history and may not be aware of this heightened layer of gameplay.

To quickly lay it out: League of Legends has a competitive scene that esports organizations like Dignitas compete in. The goal of these orgs is to dominate their competition domestically in their various regions (North America’s regional scene is known as the LCS) and then translate their successful placements into a shot at competing at Worlds, the largest international League of Legends tournament. Seasons start after the Preseason Patches for League and run year long with Spring and Summer Splits that lead into Worlds into Autumn.

And the entire time these orgs are competing for dominance over one another with some of the best talent available in the world, Riot is tweaking and altering the game with patches. Item updates, Champion balance, objective timers and strength, all these are subject to change throughout the season. So, a large portion of the competitive aspects of Pro League comes in adaptation to these changes. And in many cases, some of the biggest changes come due to the state of the ‘Pro Meta’ which is vastly different in comparison to the Solo Queue/Ranked Ladder that average players experience the game through.

For example, say a Champion like Akali (a notorious example) has an overwhelming presence in the Pro League scene across various regions. Presence in this regard can mean both in-game when she’s picked, but also throughout the Ban phases when she’s taken off the board by teams during draft. If Akali persistently dominates the narrative of competitive League, then it becomes clear that at the highest level of play the Pros have found something about her that is oppressively strong. Factoring in other data, Riot may make the decision to trim and nerf Akali’s strengths, and despite this being geared towards the Pro’s abuse of the Champion, it’s going to trickle down and affect your Average Joe who mains Akali in Gold.

Sometimes adjustments may kill the Champion outright in terms of strength in the Solo Queue ladder, while sometimes it may do exactly as intended and dissuade Pros from putting an emphasis on the Champ. But whatever the intention, Riot’s balance ripples throughout the community. So, if you intended to use League as a form of competitive outlet, it’s always best to be aware of what is going on in the Pro Scene to have your fingers on the pulse of the changes that are coming to the game. Additionally, Riot have a bit of a meme-like reputation for increasing the power of Champions closer to Worlds to increase the hype and engagement from a viewership standpoint, so don’t ever think your Champion is a ‘safe-bet’.

There Are Differences in the Various Forms of Crowd Control in League

Crowd-Control, or CC, is a blanket term used to describe any ability that reduces or removes a target’s ability to control itself, such as movement or being able to cast spells or use abilities. If you’re coming from a background in MMOs or other RPG style games, think of CC as a more specialized Debuff that has an instant and immediate impact in the game, versus more traditional debuffs that have an effect over time. The ability to directly hinder a unit’s decision making is what leads CC to being categorized all on its own, and League of Legends has a surprising mix of Crowd Control types to factor into skillful decision making.

Typically, for this type of section, I’d list out all the types and format them for you. However, with the sheer amount of CC-sources available, you’ll have to forgive me as I cop out and direct you to the ever reliable and community driven LoLwiki website.

The above article on LoLwiki wonderfully categorizes all the types of Crowd-Control, their counter effects, and supplies various unique info on particular interactions with CC. Though experience is perhaps the best tool to learn what the particular effects can and can’t do, this page can supplant that experience with concrete education.

Additionally there’s this article on LoLWiki, which supplies some of the same information as the previous. However, this particular piece leads in with a graph of interactions. So, if you were looking for a more immediate response to your, “Why can’t I do X when Y’d” this will get you that information quicker than scoping out the previous article which is more of a deep dive.

However, on the deep-dive aspect of this article, there’s a wonderfully detailed segment that breaks down every CC-type and supplies what Champions can apply these types of CC in-game. A great read if you were curious as to the unique aspects of what each Champion brings to the CC-table.

But, perhaps the most important takeaway from these articles, especially for you ADC Mains out there, is how Cleanse interacts with the various crowd-control effects. Take the time to read up as to what you can Cleanse/QSS as that effect against certain compositions can make or break your lane.

Animation Cancels and Buffering

A common tech in Fighting Games finds its way to League of Legends in the form of Animation Cancels and Ability Buffering.

Animation Cancelling is the use of one ability, and casting another during the first ability's animation. Upon input, the second ability's cast time is done while the first's is still in animation/action. For example: Using a movement spell with no cast time and another ability while your character begins the second ability. Usually done with dashes, Flash, and auto-attacks this tactic is great sneaking in extra-damage on a combo, extending your reach, or creating a surprise trade scenario to put yourself in a favorable position.

Buffering is very similar to animation canceling but it’s often talked about in the context of getting into range or using movement options. To describe Buffering, first think of your abilities as a queue or line. Whenever you click a key, you input something into your Champion’s queue and the move to execute that ability. Buffering essentially sets up and creates a queue of ability to use. So, some of your abilities require that you be in a particular range, and if you click to cast outside of your range your Champion will move to the max range of that ability and cast it as soon as they get there. This is one layer of buffering and you can manipulate its timing with dashes and Flash.

Take for example you’re playing Annie and you want to pop Tibbers on top of an opponent’s predicted path. They’re approaching but they’re just out of range of you and you need to get them down and out before others show up. You click to cast Tibbers in their path and Annie starts walking forward, but instead of letting her walk the full distance and cast as you commanded, you Flash shortly before arriving at the ability destination and reach the spot a second sooner. Still queued to cast when she reaches this location, Annie will pop Tibbers down regardless of the inputs that you put in over the course of her auto-pathing to the location.

Another probably more recognizable example of buffering are Blinks/Flash effects like Ezreal’s Arcane Shift against pulls. For example, Pull effects like Thresh Q, Blitz Q, and Naut Q, all drag their target closer to them. But, since these abilities don’t apply a stun and only a displacement effect they don’t disrupt a target’s ability to Blink when hit by these effects. So Ezreal, even when hit by a Blitz Hook, can Arcane Shift just as the hook makes contact with him to nullify the effect of Blitz’ pull.

Champions in League Fall into Different Classes and Subclasses

League’s class system is a diverse one. Champions don’t just fall into their Lanes or into a simple one class paradigm. Instead the primary classes themselves are broken up into Subclasses to further push the uniqueness of a particular Champion in relation to their peers.

To lay them out as TL;DR as possible:

Controllers - Defensive Champs that focus on opening opportunities up for their allies

• Enchanters - Group focused and Supportive Champions that are designed to buff, shield, and heal their allies throughout fights. These Champions are typically fragile and thus shine when they’re in a group versus isolated situations (Janna, Nami, Sona)
• Catchers - Specialize in locking down and picking off opponents by creating massive zones of ‘threat’ that cause approach to be dangerous for their opponents. Though not as fragile as Enchanters, Catchers work best when paired with an ally who can supplant their high pick-potential with more damage. (Blitzcrank, Zyra, Morgana)

Fighters - Sturdy damage focused Champions that thrive in the thick of a fight

• Juggernauts - Slow moving powerhouses that are deadly when opponents are within reach. They are excellent at dealing and soaking damage, and as such lack wider ranges of mobility to compensate. (Mordekaiser, Garen, Darius)
• Divers - More agile Fighters that are given more mobility but are less durable as a trade off. These Champions are great at singling out a target and taking them out of a fight entirely. (Kled, Hecarim, Vi)

Mages - Spellcasters that whittle away and cripple their opponent with devastating spells

• Burst Mages - Focus on upfront damage and annihilating single targets. They struggle against Champions that are on the tankier spectrum but excel against squishier ones. (Annie, Syndra, Neeko)
• Battlemages - Mages that don’t mind being close-range in a fight. These Mages typically have low ranges and lower burst but are given more defensive options and higher DPS focused abilities. (Swain, Vladimir, Rumble)
• Artillery Mages - Spell-chuckers that are all about poking and throwing spells at their opponents and hoping the damage sticks. These Mages are extremely long-range but start to struggle when opponents close the gap on them. (Ziggs, Xerath, Vel’koz)

Marksmen - Sharpshooters that bring high DPS to their teams in exchange for lower mobility and higher fragility. Often the Bot Laners that are paired with a Support to compensate for their lack of defensive stats. (Ashe, Vayne, Miss Fortune)

Slayers - Fragile but agile Champions that excel at taking down isolated targets

• Assassins - With high mobility and burst, Assassins are perfect at slipping through unseen and taking down unaware opponents. But typically being melee focused Champions and lacking defensives stats does put them at risk to be locked up and shutdown versus more aware opponents. (Zed, Qiyana, Akali)
• Skirmishers - Trading off burst for DPS, Skirmishers prefer extended combat situations where they can utilize their unique defensive abilities to lay down a ton of damage throughout long fights. (Gwen, Jax, Fiora)

Tanks - The studiest guys, gals, and other pals, who soak damage and defend their allies from harm.

• Vanguards - The aggressive fight starting Tanks. They’re constantly looking for their windows to go in and lockdown a mispositioned enemy to set up their allies' followup damage. (Leona, Sejuani, Malphite)
• Wardens - The defensively minded Tanks. Wardens are a steadfast wall against what the enemy team might throw against the Warden’s allies. They excel at being a defensive and dissuading zone thanks to their defensive utility. (Braum, Galio, Shen)

Specialists - Champions that are so unique in design that they overlap with multiple classes and subclasses. Regardless, Specialists have a pervasive theme of ‘Zone Control’ to their kits and excel at locking down and neutral areas of the map. (Fiddlesticks, Heimerdinger, Zilean)

One of the best ways to climb the ranked ladder, learn the game, or just have fun is to find which of these designs appeals the most to you. And establishing that appeal might mean you overlap your likes from other game genres entirely into League. For example, all you MMO Tanks out there might be called to pick up the Tank class here in League! If you like playing stealth focused or finesse based characters the Slayer Class with Assassins and Skirmishers might be your schtick. Use your experience and likes from gaming in general to help establish your interests, but don’t ever be afraid to say, “Wow ____ looks really cool! I’m going to try them!” because mastering the characters you care about is going to be what leads you to the most success regardless of roles, paradigms, or design.

Ranked Is Much More Than League Points & Tiers

This is a huge one that not even some of the most seasoned League players understand. But there are two ranking systems to League of Legends, the ELO system and the MMR system.

The ELO system is pretty clear cut. It’s shown in the amount of LP that you currently have and is represented via the rank that you are currently at. So, if you’re Bronze 1-75LP you are in, “Bronze ELO”. Super easy to understand, right? But where things get hairy is when we take the MMR system into account.

But before we can dive into the weird nature of the system, we first have to answer: “What even is the MMR system?” Well, simply put, it’s the system that determines how matches are made in any game of League of Legends. This system is designed to create lobbies that are balanced between the teams, giving both teams a fair shot to win. And it does this by applying hidden MMR Rankings to each player and then pulling players of similar hidden MMR Ranks together.

This system ideally works hand in hand with the ELO System, in that, if you’re a seasoned Bronze 1 player, you’re likely going to be playing against your fellows between a range of Bronze 2 to Silver 1, which is a close spectrum of ranks that shouldn’t have much skill disparity. Because, nine times out of ten, seasoned League players ‘belong’ in their ELO by having the same hidden MMR Rank as their visible ELO.

But, in truth, there are ways to manipulate the MMR System so that it reads you as a different rank than what is represented via your ELO. This is done through Dodging and it’s a legitimate tactic to increase your ability to climb. Dodging is the process of exiting the client in the middle of the draft to avoid a game that you do not want to play. Essentially, you could set arbitrary conditions to the way -you- like to structure your entire climbing process around by only playing the games that fit your wants. Doing this begins to create inflated win rates and increases the gap between the MMR and ELO systems with each of them representing a different type of player. The MMR system could read a player as Gold 4 while they’re in Bronze ELO due to simply holding themselves back from the excessive amount of dodging that they do.

Riot tries to discourage dodging by placing LP penalties and queue timers that incrementally increase with each dodge, but dodging still only affects the ELO system not the MMR system. And this is a super important detail since the MMR system is what gauges how much LP you gain or lose at the end of each match.

Now, imagine that this example player has a string of ‘good lobbies’. The MMR system will then dramatically increase LP gains for that player in an effort to boost them closer to the rank it actually perceives them at, thus skyrocketing them up the ELO brackets. And should they suffer a loss in this process, their loss will be minimal in comparison to their gains. So, this is how the system gets abused so that climbing to your desired rank becomes easier. It’s about how you set the conditions of your lobbies and how dedicated you are to dodging the situations that you deem ‘unwinnable’.

Riot aims to make dodging penalties more severe down the road, so if you want to do your best to try and climb utilizing this tactic, get it done now. Because later down the road the wait times and LP penalties may be too much for even the most try-hard of ranked climbers.

Items Builds Are More Than Cookie-Cutter

With the Shop Update of Season 11, Items were overhauled and given new abilities, niches, stats, and more in an attempt to shake-up and balance the game into a new direction. With this, a change that is very player friendly came into the new shop and that is a ‘recommended’ item selection. Now, instead of players having to do their own research to find out what items are most effective on their Champions, they receive in-game suggestions based on their pick and the enemy’s composition. Which is a great start to helping players learn and put situational patterns together, but sadly, this system doesn’t always suggest the best choices.

And if you’re a player that utilizes a site like Mobalytics, OP.GG, or U.GG for your builds, these sites present aggregate information and not game specific information that can help you on the fly. A large part of being a successful and great League player is making that adaptation that helps you turn the corner in a game.

So, get familiar with what situational items like Quicksilver Sash, Mikael’s Blessing, Chemtech Purifier, Thornmail, Abyssal Mask, Randuin’s Omen, Serpent’s Fang, Edge of Night, and Banshee’s Veil (to name a few) bring to the table. Come to understand how these effects respond to particular Champions and mechanics, and focus on identifying if those effects are stalling you in-game.

Even if it delays you from your Mythic or ‘core items’, opting for a key situational item as early as possible can inhibit your opponent from getting to do what they want, and if they can’t play the game the way they are intended, then how could they possibly overcome you!

What Is Wave Management?

You just found the Daily Double here. League doesn’t really go in-depth on Minion waves other than the fact that they spawn over and over and will keep pushing until one of the teams wins the game. (Yes. I did just avoid trying to correctly implement the plural of Nexus.)

And the tutorial and other Riot extensions don’t really pump out content that relates to covering this often overlooked skill that’s needed to climb to the highest levels. Thankfully, there’s a ton of content creators out there who’ve pumped a ton of in-depth information out to precisely tune the waves into your favor.

As a matter of fact, we’ve got some of that content right here on our site! Feel free to check out this awesome piece by Ahrivve that will key you in on some core concepts to managing your waves!

Closing Out

Naturally, there’s even more out there that could be added to this list. But to save you guys from reading a novel of information, I’ve included here what I think are the biggest and most beneficial things for you to understand. So, take some time out and get familiar with these elements of the game. Do some extra research on Wave Management and CC-types, before playing your next game. And above all, don’t play the Champion that the Pros are abusing, you’re just gonna feel bad whenever they get nerfed into the gutter.

Anyway, good luck in Solo Queue and thanks for reading!