Why is map awareness important: Map awareness is one of the basic skills one must develop in order to be successful in League of Legends. Understanding what is going on around the entire map, and not just your immediate area, will help to improve your decision making ability, and ultimately make you into a smarter player.

Having map awareness allows you to take control of your game. Some summoners will die to a gank, then blame their teammates for not calling mia or pinging. While having warnings from your teammates can be extremely beneficial, you should not rely on them. By relying on your teammates to call mia, you are effectively forfeiting a portion of your impact on the game, and giving it to your allies. On the other hand, if you maintain map awareness, and you are able to avoid ganks because you know when the enemy has the potential to gank you. This takes matters into your own hands, and allows you to have more control over the game.

How to develop map awareness: A good place to start is to get yourself into the habit of checking the minimap often. The minimap is the only way to instantly obtain knowledge about the entire map. As a laner, take the next few games to peek at your minimap after every CS. As a support or jungler, keep eyes on your minimap as often as you can. Looking away from the present situation for a second might be uncomfortable, however, once you make checking your minimap a habit this uncomfortable feeling will fade. Some summoners might even find it beneficial to mute their in game sound for a few games. While this may make your in game performance worse for these games, you will be forced to check your minimap as you will not be able to hear allied pings.

Interpreting and utilizing information: This is where map awareness gets a little more abstract and is usually the biggest source of trouble for people. So you've gotten yourself into the habit of checking the map. Now what information are you getting from this? You see what how many enemies are visible, who they are, and their location. From this you can determine their actions, and decide upon your own actions.

The information you obtain from your minimap is powerful, as it can let you know when you are walking yourself into a bad situation. For example, let's say you are in the bot lane. You take a glance at your minimap and notice that both toplaners are in top, your jungler is on top side, and their jungler is out of vision. You also notice that your mid is at base, and the enemy mid just got out of your vision as he motioned towards the bot lane. You would be in the right to assume that the enemy midlaner is coming to gank, and the enemy jungler could potentially be near as well. With no chance of assistance, it would be in your best interests to back off of your tower as you would probably die to a four man dive.

It can also help you determine your team's next course of action. Another scenario: this time, you are the jungler. Your bot lane is doing well, and is shoving into the enemy tower. The enemy jungler just showed topside and is committing to a gank on your top laner. The midlaners are occupied with each other in mid. This is a prime time to pressure the dragon.

Moreover, let us say that all the lanes are even, but you notice on your minimap that the enemy mid just came from the direction of their blue at around 7 or 12 minutes. It is safe to assume that they took blue, however, you can also infer that their jungler is in that portion of the map. If that means he is far away from you then you know you are safe for the time being. If their blue is on your side of the map, then you know that you are at risk for a gank. These are just a few examples of information you can obtain from map awareness. It would be impossible to list them all as the benefits are limitless. Having strong map awareness really molds how you play out the game.

Wrapping things up: It is very important to take as much control in your games as you can. You want to get yourself into a position where you can rely on yourself. You are the only factor that is consistent in all of your games. Where one ally might call mia in a timely manner every time, another might not call it at all. This is why it is better to take matters into your own hands and learn to rely on yourself to understand what is going on around the map. All that being said, you should still inform your team when your lane opponent is missing, as your allies might not have the map awareness you've been developing. Good luck out there summoners, and remember, we all need a map!