How To: Close Out Games

League of Legends has multiple aspects of the game. You may be mechanically gifted, but can you close out games?

The biggest problem that I see while my lower ELO friends ask me to spectate them is that people don't know how to close out games. Closing out games as efficiently as possible is a necessary bit of knowledge that will help you climb the ladder. Objectives, grouping, vision, and your mentality all contribute to closing out games as fast and efficiently as possible.

In the event that you are ahead in game, the worst thing you can do is get cocky and overconfident in your play. By doing so you will most likely attempt to do the impossible and give away free shut down gold to the enemy team, possibly bringing them back into the game.

Rather than attempting to 1v5 while you are ahead, spread your power to the rest of your team. Share your power to help snowball your allied laners. By snowballing your allies, not only will you get gold, but it will give your allies gold to spend on items and wards, and also set your opponents behind.

Securing objectives is extremely important. Dragon, towers, buffs, and Baron are all important keys to deprive your allies from gaining gold. Dragon gold is overlooked, but when playing from behind it’s an extremely important resource to help close the gold and experience gap.

Towers give your team both global gold and map control. If you destroy your enemy's tower, you can more easily ward your opponent's jungle allowing your jungler to have more counter jungling and counter ganging opportunities. Your enemy ADC will also be more wary of extending past river without the first tower up. If they do so then they are heavily exposing themselves to ganks.

What I see heavily lacking in lower ELO is the early dragon attempts and grouping. Early game dragons are a great way to give your team that little boost in gold to start the snowballing effect. Grouping is an easy way to make the flow of the game go in your favor. If you bring 3 mid or bot lane it's almost a guaranteed kill and tower if done right. Grouping at any point in the game causes a change in the game's pace.

At any point in the game, to win a game, whether ahead or behind, the most important thing is to stay calm and clear minded. Thinking appropriately and logically will help you make the correct calls and lead you to success. Panicking and forcing bad plays will only lead to your teams doom, resulting in defeat.

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