Effective communication is the key to coordinating with your duo in League of Legends. Whether you’re both in bot lane or on opposite sides of the Rift, you can use communication to gain an edge over the enemy team. Learn what you can do to improve communication with your duo.
Information management is a central part of League of Legends. Each moment is spent examining the available information and using that to make decisions. Everything from enemy locations to the number of minions in a lane is taken into account in an attempt to gain an advantage. The problem is there’s a limit to the amount of information a single person can process. That’s why having a duo is so useful. Together, you can share information, allowing each of you to make better decisions. The amount of information you can share depends on how effectively you can communicate with your duo. This guide will teach you how to improve your communication and win more games.
You want to clearly communicate important information as quickly as possible. In a game where even a fraction of a second can make a difference, the speed at which you communicate can give you an edge over the enemy team.
There are a few things you can do to speed up your communication. The first, most obvious, change you can make is shortening words. For example, instead of saying “Katerina roaming bottom lane,” you could say “Kat roaming bot.” This effectively communicates the same information but uses half the syllables. Another thing you can do is remove useless words. Words such as ‘and’, ‘are’, or ‘is’ aren’t always necessary for a sentence to be understood. An example of this would be changing “Lucien and Nami are in bot” to “Lucien Nami, bot.” Again, this communicates the same information with fewer syllables. By combining both of these, something like “Aurelion Sol and Master Yi are roaming to bottom lane” becomes “ASol Yi, roaming bot.” This can potentially save an entire second. That additional time gives your duo more options and leaves more time to communicate other information.
Clarity and accuracy are just as, if not more, important than speed. It doesn’t matter how fast you communicate if your information is misleading or difficult to understand. Misinformation is often more detrimental than no information. These are a few of the common mistakes that can cause misunderstandings.
Hyperboles are some of the worst examples of this. Statements such as “they have 1HP!” or “their whole team is here!” can lead your duo to make bad plays. Even if they aren’t taken literally, at best, they’re unnecessary.
Late callouts also have the potential to spread misinformation. League of Legends is a relatively fast-paced game where a lot can change in a manner of seconds. The longer you take to communicate information, the less accurate it will be. In particular, enemy positions and cooldowns can completely change if you’re late with your calls.
Poor enunciation makes you harder to understand. When information needs to be communicated quickly, you won’t always have time to clarify what you said. You need to enunciate to ensure that you’re heard clearly. This doesn’t mean that you need to speak slowly, just that you need to be coherent.
Finally, avoid being vague. It’s important that your communications contain meaningful information that can be acted upon. If a statement is too vague, it won’t provide enough information to act upon. An example of this is the statement “Warwick’s above.” If you’re in separate lanes, it’s unclear whether it means “Warwick’s above you” or “Warwick’s above me.” In the first case, you have to prepare to be ganked, and in the second, you’re free to make plays since their jungler isn’t nearby. Unless you can deduce the meaning from the context, the information is essentially useless.
Even with voice communications, it can be difficult to describe an exact location in words. Because of this, it’s useful to supplement your communication with pings. Pings and voice communications have a synergistic effect. Pings allow you to communicate things that are difficult to express with words, while voice communications provide context to interpret the pings. Together, they can provide far more information than either one could alone.
As an example, imagine the enemy Rengar was spotted by a ward in your bottom jungle. Saying “Rengar, ally bot jungle,” tells your duo that he was spotted there, but it doesn’t provide more than a general idea of his location. By supplementing this with a ping, you specify where they were spotted. This provides ample information that can be used to inform your duo’s decisions.
Communicating your intent is one of the most effective ways to communicate with your duo. It lets you coordinate your actions, increasing the success rate of your plays. This applies at both a micro and a macro level. At a micro level, you can coordinate things like CC chains, focusing targets, and engages. At a macro level, you can coordinate things like roaming, objectives, and ganks. On top of making successful plays, communicating your intent also stops your duo from attempting unsuccessful plays. If they know you want to back off, your duo will know not to make plays expecting you to follow up. All of this allows you and your duo to maximize your impact on the game.
Your roles play a big part in your communication. Depending on your role, the information you need will be completely different. As previously stated, information is only useful if you can act upon it. You want to limit your communications to information that’s relevant to your duo. This keeps communications clear and allows your duo to focus on important information. After the laning phase, the scope of relevant information significantly broadens. Even so, you should still be conscious of whether information is useful.
Despite all of this, it’s always better to say something useless than to withhold something useful. The point is to limit useless information as much as possible, so important information isn’t overlooked.
On top of sharing information, effective communication also provides guidance on how you can improve. How you go about giving feedback to your duo will depend on the particular person. Some people respond best to positive affirmation, while others find criticism more helpful. Learning how your duo responds to different styles of communication can help both of you improve quickly. In addition, it also reduces the risk of arguments and improves morale. Overall, this leads to better gameplay and a more enjoyable experience for both of you.
To summarize, there are many things you can do to improve your communication with your duo. Your goal is to accurately communicate relevant information as quickly as possible. This facilitates coordination and good plays in general. Once you’re familiar with your duo, you can assist each other by providing meaningful feedback. I hope that this guide can help you to make the most out of playing with your duo. Good luck to both of you!
