One of the most frequent mistakes I see players make in League of Legends is the misuse of IP when it comes to purchasing champions that you do not enjoy playing. As with with any video game, at the very core is the fact that those who participate love playing the game. The issue that comes about is that players as a whole tend to forget sometimes that just because a pick is “Meta” or in the “God Tier” for that respective role, that does not equal instant Solo Que LP gain. In this article, I will be giving some tips on ways that you can use your IP effectively in the Shop, so that you will never again finding yourself impulse buying a Champion because you saw another player play effectively with that Champion on the opposite team.

Play-Style:

The most important thing to decipher when attempting to determine which Champion to buy next and add to your pool, is what is your play style. One of the strategies that I personally use is brainstorming three words that have to do with a general idea of what I want that Champion to do. For example, if the three words I came up with were something along the lines were: “Burst, easy escape, mobility” I would obviously be looking in the market for a Zed or LeBlanc. Every player is unique and has different preferences. I find it easier to decide what champion to purchase when I am thinking more about what I want the Champion to do vs worrying what lane I am playing.

Your Hardware:

This is actually a fairly underrated factor that most people do not take into account when buying a champ in League. I however, have to think about this all the time. I do not have a desktop PC to play League and play on a couple year old computer, with all settings turned down to very low, mind you. On top of my laptop not having the most power in the world, my internet that I normally play on is not the most reliable and is also being used constantly by at least 15 other devices at one time by my family.

That said, I generally attempt to stay away from high mechanical champions until I go to a house with more reliable internet due to my ping issues. Why purchase a champion such as Riven when you play with 200 ping on average a game? Most players in my situation would be better playing less mechanical champions that are more “Point and Click” style such as Pantheon.

Once and Done Games:

This is the last point that I am going to cover in this article and it is one of the most common. One game is not enough time to make any form of choice on whether or not a Champion is worth it for you to purchase. One of the worst things causing this is either playing a Champion on a free week and playing one game really well, resulting in an instant purchase of a champion, or getting completely destroyed by a Champion and making the claim “Well obviously that Champion is broken so if I buy that Champion, I will be good.” This is almost always never the case.

The fact of the matter is, whether or not it is a 450 IP Champion such as Tristana or a 6300 IP Champion such as Rek'Sai, all Champions require time put into them to play them at the max level. Just because you get pushed in all game during lane phase by a Darius does not instantly mean that by buying Darius you will dunk like Micheal Jordan. Most of the time you will find in these cases, you fall flat on your face in lane because of the instant purchase.

These three things, if you keep in mind while making your champion selection, well help you on making sure you are not wasting your hard earned IP on bad champions. Always remember that just because you see something done really well, does not always mean it works for you. Always be aware of your personal play-style in order to ensure the most enjoyable experience on Summoner's Rift.

Remember in order to keep up to date with all of Team Dignitas, be sure to follow them on Twitter @TeamDignitas. If you wish to keep this conversation going, or just wanna come say hi, feel free to tweet @TheRealistSloth to ask me a question about this article, or any other one that I have previously posted. As always everyone stay safe, and good luck on the Rift, Summoner!