League of Legends is a complex and overwhelming game sometimes. Understanding your role, your Champion, the enemy’s Champions, how items alter a Champion’s playstyle, knowing when to go for map objectives, rotations, dueling… The list of what you need to know could go on forever! And while you’re juggling all that information, trying to actively think and respond to each bit of stimuli the game throws at you, some of it is likely to slip through the cracks.

So, today we’re going to highlight those big mistakes that most players make. Some might already strike your mind as obvious, but we bet there’s going to be one or two points that you’ve not actually considered as big mistakes that are absolutely holding you back. So, join us today as we break down the five worst mistakes you can make in League of Legends.

Positioning & Threat Assessment

Poor positioning is probably the core of 90% of a League of Legends player’s mistakes. And while it’s quite simple to tune, fix, and be aware of after an obvious fumble, it’s one of the hardest to engrain and change into a good habit due to movement being such a second nature skill. Additionally, a big portion of positioning mistakes relates to proper threat assessment against the enemy team. So, let’s talk about some common examples, and then unpack how we can be more aware of both positioning and threat assessment.

So, what are some common threats that we need to be aware of that can affect our positioning? The first is displacement effects, or Crowd Control. At the start of each game, you want to scan the enemy team composition and have in mind who on the enemy team has the ability that can most effectively deal with your Champion and disrupt your personal gameplan. Think about abilities like Blitzcrank’s Q, Mordekaiser R, or effects like Vex’s passive.

Next, consider the enemy’s carry threats and consider them through each phase of the game. Blitzcrank, to continue an example, will be more impactful early. Mordekaiser will be extremely effective in the mid game. While someone like Vayne will be effective late. Think about how your Champion can interact with the threats, and then consider how you approach fights and what phase of the game you need to be putting forth the most pressure. Against Blitz and Vayne, walls and corners are rough spots to position next to as it limits your movement options to dodge and avoid set-up. Mordekaiser might need to be CCed down first, so be sure you utilize what you have to offer to kite him out.

With review of your threats, you’re more able to actively think about your positioning in-game. Keep a note pulled up on your monitor (or even stickied to it) to keep active in assessment throughout the game because this can cause you to be actively engaged in piloting your Champion and prevent you from auto-piloting and playing without awareness. Think of notes and threat assessments as breathing exercises. Sure, you can breathe without being reminded, but if you utilize a technique (threat assessment) then you can manage and enrich yourself at an even pace.

Champion & Role Inconsistency

‘Champion ADD’ as it’s sometimes referred to by big content creators is actually a pervasive problem for a lot of the League community. But, it also stretches into the roles as well. Some players start off the season playing one role or a select number of Champs, but the moment it stops working out for them, they pivot to their secondary role and twist their pools. This of course is totally fine from a casual playing perspective, but if you’ve set the goal for yourself to reach a new rank or better yourself individually you have to commit to your Role and to your Champions.

Why? Well, one of the biggest points that Coaches across all ELOs give is familiarity, game sense, and muscle memory in relation to execution. Execution is the bare minimum you need to succeed in Ranked. Knowing your ability combos, how to farm, how to position, and what a generalized game plan looks like for your Champion is level one. Executing all that in relation to Dragon, Herald, Grubs, Baron, and the Junglers is the next step up. If you’re fighting to learn your Champion mid-match, you’re going to fail to respond to those next level objectives and could cost your team resources or even the game. So, you want to trim away that layer of executional fat and focus on refining aspects of the game that affect everyone, not just yourself.

We suggest first by looking at your Champion and mastery and consider what playstyles you enjoy from there. If you’re a Mid Laner and enjoy Mages, take the time to look at the wider Mage playstyles. Do you enjoy poke-oriented Champions like Xerath? Well, slotting him and Ziggs in as your primary Champions can help keep you in a constantly familiar game state so you always know what to do. Are you a Jungler that enjoys ganking from every angle? Briar and Nocturne are right there! Explore what you enjoy and then consider how you can stay in a similar space to your highest mastery Champions so that you can help keep your game sense refined. Once you reach the rank you want, open up and explore other styles from there!

Failure to Play Towards Powerspikes

Champions are designed for specific moments in the game where their damage, utility, and effect reach a peak. We call these moments ‘Powerspikes’. At a base level, one can say this is Level 6 where every Champion gains access to their ultimate. But to whittle every pick down to such a simple moment limits the capabilities of some Champions. And it doesn’t even cover the breadth of powerspikes in-game. Some spikes are dictated around items, and even some Champion combinations can cause spikes in a particular pick’s power.

Starting first with your chosen Champions, we ask first that you study up on a few guides and watch some high-level VODs of the Champions you intend to main. Study how higher ELO players of your picks utilize their kits, when they look for trades, or how they path through the Jungle. Then, look at their builds. Notice how they just won’t run a default build every game, but instead will adapt their items to each game state. Write all this down and keep it somewhere that you can reflect on during load-screen or Champion select.

Now that you’ve got some notes, play towards those spikes. If your Champion is dictated around Level 6, play towards it and only take what is given to you during the early game. If your Champion spikes at Level 2, communicate with your partner that you want to all-in at Level 2 (Looking at you Leona Mains). If you need a certain item before you can interact with your opponent, limit your aggression until you get them or the components that trim down their power. And thereafter, consider your synergies with your team. Xayah and Rakan, Malphite and Yasuo, Sejuani and Melee Team Comps, notice your synergies and play towards them!

Constantly Fighting

League of Legends, over the years, has promoted mobility and damage, working with the majority of players that seem to enjoy fast paced games with high kill counts. And this can be a fun style with a plethora of Champions able to entirely take over games once a bit of gold stumbles into their pockets. But it isn’t the ‘right’ way to play the game a lot of the time.

While we never expect to see the slower and more tempered games of the Pros within Solo Queue, emulating their more macro- and team-focused approaches is a great way to stem aggression and mistakes. League of Legends is a game about resources, and the Pros understand that better than anyone. So, what’s the surest way to gain resources with minimal risk? Farming, numbers advantages, and macro play.

Adopting this mindset in your Solo Queue games won’t have you running a match history that has multiple games of 10+ kills, but if you’re wanting to climb, then you need to focus less on your KDA and more on learning and positive outcomes. Of course, that doesn’t mean play passive the whole time and ignore our previously mentioned powerspikes, but you want to play towards conditions that always favor you or your team rather than take random fifty-fifty plays or put an over-reliance on those sixty-forty plays that require you to skill-check your opponent.

Think about what you want to do and how to safely execute it. If a play is sixty percent likely to work in your favor solo, I’m sure if you made the move with an ally there, it becomes eighty or higher. This is the mindset you want to gear into, especially as you climb, and games get harder to take over from the randomness of Solo-Queue. And, of course, this all starts building the from work that -you- don’t always have to be the carry of every game and can help manage games as equally as you can carry them.

Poor Communication

Our last point before we sign-off is a rough one to discuss. Winding back to all those things one has to manage during the game: farming, trading, cooldowns, mechanical execution, etc., etc. One thing that often gets overlooked in the hubbub of LoL is communication.

Minimally, Riot equips League of Legends with a Chat and limited Ping system. Allowing for players to communicate their resources and game information through these methods. But, unlike DOTA, HotS, Overwatch, or even Riot’s own current favorite child, Valorant, League of Legends doesn’t support a voice-chat function. Why? Well, that’s an eye-rolling discussion for another time. So, let’s refocus on how to communicate effectively in-game with what limited tools Riot offers.

First step though, let's do some research. You want to be familiar with all the major Summoner Spells in-game. Flash being your primary concern before anything. Almost every Champion utilizes Flash, those that don’t often utilize Ghost. And if they don’t utilize that, it’s some combination of Teleport alongside another Summoner Spell that helps them in their particular matchup. Getting to know these cooldowns intimately allows us to type into chat when they’re on cooldown, allowing our team to make plays and movements around those cooldowns without risk or time wasted.

Try to communicate cooldowns during ‘dead’ periods where you’re under no pressure. So, when you’re recalling, walking back to lane, or you’re on gray-screen during a respawn. These moments are the surest way to drive this information forward for your team and set up your next play. Otherwise, utilize the ping system for quick communication.

Pings don’t communicate enemy timers as of this article, but spam pinging the enemy’s Summoner Spell/Ultimate is a go-to method to let your team know, “Hey this ability is down!” Additionally, you can ping your own health, mana, ultimate, spells, and more on your UI. This allows you to communicate what you can and can’t do. A common example being to ping your health, which throws your name and its percentage into the chat, to quickly let your team know where you stand before a gank, fight, or whatever play they might be rotating to make.

Doing your best to type or ping in necessary info is going to be a key to success. But don’t get caught up in the banter of the chat and focus on your game. Despite what communication failures can occur, you can ultimately dictate a lot of outcomes by being self-aware and being at the right place at the right time.

Closing

That’s all we have folks! These are the biggest mistakes that League of Legends players make while trying to climb the ladder. With some solutions thrown in, we hope that you can isolate your own issues and overcome them through dedicated effort!

Good luck in Solo Queue and with the remainder of your split!