Hey everyone, Konduit here. Today's article is short and sweet, but covers some important strategic concepts you don't wanna miss. Before we get into things, I've gotta give a big shoutout to Moomoo, who introduced me to the concept of a Margin for Error in League and without whom writing this article would be impossible. Now without further ado, let's talk Margin for Error.

The dictionary definition of Margin of Error is: "an amount (usually small) that is allowed for in case of miscalculation or change of circumstances." In other words, it's how big you can mess up while not falling apart or losing your current position. It's important to understand, conceptually, that you actively want a large Margin of Error, while a smaller one is undesirable.

In League of Legends, the Margin for Error principle arises and is most relevant when considering macro play calls and the ensuing execution. Execution, unless you're wildly ahead, is the 'unknown' factor; so many different variables (skillshots landing/missing, positioning, general micro teamfight mechanics, etc.) can shift and change the course of a fight and diverge the result from what you might be hoping for/expecting. The way I like to think about execution (especially in the scenarios where both teams are at parity or near parity) is in terms of probabilities and Risk Analysis: "We're slightly favored in this teamfight, about 60-40 to win," etc. A significant component of actually determining these probabilities is how you evaluate your own burden of execution. How perfectly do you have to play the fight in order to win? If you have to execute almost perfectly to stand a chance, your odds of winning the fight are most likely pretty low (maybe 10-90), as it's a little unreasonable to assume that you'll hit every skillshot and completely outplay your opponents on a micro level.

The biggest concept you should take from this article is that you should account for the potential of suboptimal execution by increasing your Margin for Error. You want to try as hard as you can to avoid getting in situations where you must execute things perfectly! In each of your play calls, one of your primary considerations is to account for and decrease the importance of execution... take a moment and really let that sink in.

There are a number of ways you can increase your Margin for Error, the most manifest of which is in your in-game macro decision making. Look to setup flanks with teleport to sandwich the enemy team and make the ensuing fight a breeze. Try and fight important teamifghts on the enemy's side of the map - if you lose, there's a limit to how far your opponents can push before you respawn (whereas if you fought near your own base, your opponents could easily push in and quickly end the game). Poke down the enemy team before a late game teamfight so that your squad begins the engagement with a health advantage.

Planning for a wide Margin for Error begins even in champ select. Pick champions that are naturally favored to excel in the conditions the enemy team is looking to establish. If your opponents are crafting a low-mobility, tanky, very 'walk-at-you' team composition with limited hard engage potential, pick a kite comp with a lot of champions that can disengage. You'll have such a great deal of innate safety in your kits to fall back on that your Margin for Error becomes absolutely massive - you can flub engages, miss skillshots all game, but still be in good shape because you can effortlessly escape and reset for the next fight.

Tahm (Image credit to surrenderat20) brings great playmaking capacity as well as widening your team's Margin for Error, picking teammates out of sticky situations.

Employing any of these strategies shifts the odds of success in your favor. If your team has created superior positioning, has a health advantage, and has a composition advantage over the enemy team, you don't have to execute anywhere near perfectly to win a teamfight! That's an ideal scenario of course, most situations will present both teams at relative parity, but every edge you can get and a greater Margin for Error (the more mistakes you can make while still preserving an advantageous position) is directly correlated with win percentage.

Sometimes, of course, you will have to take fights in which your burden of execution is quite high. But it's important to understand that you have a great deal of control in avoiding that scenario; picking engagements in which you're favored to win (based on simple numbers advantage, combat stat advantage via a powerspike, superior positioning, etc.) consistently over the course of a game will more often than not result in a victory.

That's all for today, I hope you enjoyed the article. If you'd like to discuss anything League, have comments/feedback on this article, or just want to say hi, feel free to tweet me @k0nduit (with a zero instead of an 'o') and I'll get back to you.

Until next time.

Konduit