New League of Legends self-help series.

A glimpse into the mind of a diamond player.

We are releasing a new writing series by Adam Till. His articles will help your understanding of the game, and it will teach you how to improve. We want to give our elo boost clients, our coaching clients and the random reader an opportunity to learn the old fashioned way, by reading and implementing what you have learned.

An introduction from the author:

Everyone wants to be a better player, but some people don’t know or don’t have the resources needed available to them. I’ve been playing League of Legends since May of 2011 and have been a supporter of e-sports for the past ten years. I’ve made it to the top 1% of the ladder and feel the knowledge I have gained along the way may be of some use to the everyday player on League trying to reach their next pinnacle and more. This series will not only include in-depth champion guides, but also psychology and other means of self-improvement. Starting September 9th, we’ll be embarking on a journey to being the best summoner you can possibly be, while of course, climbing the ladder. Every week and every Monday I’ll be taking you into the mind of a Diamond player in hopes of teaching you a thing or two.

Adaptation and the Importance of Your Mindset

League of Legends Article 1.0 by Adam Till
 

1. Adaptation1- Why does this apply to League of Legends and why is it important?

Every game you play is different from the last. There are lots of variables that come into play that either have you resulting in cheers and laughter, or anger and stress. The only thing that remains constant (but are often subject to change) in this game are the champions, the meta, and of course the mechanics. As a result of this being able to adapt to any and every situation that gets thrown at you and your team can help you achieve that new destination you plan to reach. Adaptation is often overlooked when talking about how to become a better player, adaptation literally means to adjust accordingly. If you’re able to adjust your play style accordingly in a game that is not going in your favor, than the probability of your own success will have increased. Let’s say for example you are having a rough time mid-lane, you being that ultra-mega-juke LeBlanc player who idolizes HotShotNidareeGG, and your matchup is Pantheon. Your natural instinct while playing is to kill him, you kill him and you’ll definitely win. The consequence of this had led to you being overly aggressive against your hard counter, and feeding first blood.

Being able to adapt comes into play here. A more experienced player would not continue being aggressive, he would adapt his play-style from “OMG KILLSZZZ!!11!” to “Well there's one creep, two….”. You get the picture, adaptation plays a huge role in making sure you don’t keep your economy in a deficit while throwing dollar signs at your counterpart which would almost always result in a bad time. Now the question of “how does one simply learn to adapt”, it’s easy. If you hold the philosophy that “If it’s not working, don’t continue doing it” and that ol’ quote “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” then you’re on your way to becoming a better League of Legends player. Learn what works and do it in simplistic terms.


2. Importance of Mindset2- Why is it important and how can it help?

It’s true, psychology plays a huge role in your game by game play. Having a negative mindset while going into a new match will result in your performance being sub-par and at worse terrible. Being negative is never healthy, both in game and out of game. A summoner who goes into a game flaming or going on a tangent about how he or she has lost their last fifteen ranked games, will most likely negatively impact the outcome of the game in one way or another. Now on the flip side, a summoner who goes into the game promoting positivity and as Greg “Sky” Williams puts it “DST”3. More or less getting the idea of winning into your teammates heads will nine times out of ten have a positive effect on their personal play.

Now you may be asking yourself, can this really work for me? Changing your mindset can not only help you improve in terms of better gameplay, but also being able to learn faster and of course most important of all, climb faster. The mentality the majority of players who play ranked hold is (and I’m sure holds true to plenty of people) “ I’m playing perfectly, I’m doing my best, there is nothing more I can do.” and as a result of this the players are more inclined to place false blame on others and not find out where their own mistakes are. Changing that mindset to something along the lines of and can be changed to your liking is “There will always be room for improvement. Everyone makes mistakes, but by golly I will not make as many as I did last game.” I assure you the moment you learn to self-reflect on your own mistakes will be the day you can go back to enjoying ranked without the self-inflicted problems.

Adaptation 1=the act of adapting.

Mindset2= the ideas and attitudes with which a person approaches a situation, esp when these are seen as being difficult to alter.
DST3= “Dick Sucking Theory”- as defined by Sky, the art of brown-nosing your comrades with an overbearing amount of positivity

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