So I was talking to a friend about League of Legends today and she asked me to come up with a list of the best players in the very loose and informal “clan” that we have (its basically just a rag-tag group of people, honestly). Now, this brought out a general discussion of what exactly makes a good player well... a good player. And honestly I realized a few interesting things.
First of all, skill alone really isn't enough if you ask me. For instance, there is one player in particular who I really despise because he's so freaking arrogant about his skill. He's honestly good, I checked his profile and he is right on 1600, which is about the point where there is a really clear difference between “good” and “average” players. Yet he has always been “I'm so good, you're not. I'm carrying team. Look at me! I'm carrying the team!” In comparison a few days ago I played with a guy who is ranked 100 points higher and was much more... humble. He did pretty much carry all our games, but he was nice about it. He wasn't like “I am an awesome carry!” he was, “hmm... I think this hero should be rated higher than most people do.” It makes a difference. In fact, it makes a huge difference. I don't care how good you are, if you're going to be a jerk to me, I'm not going to play with you. Its silly, why be rude? I admit, I'm serious about this game, and I want to win, but I don't get condescending or rude when people are worse than me, I only do that when they aren't trying or are being silly on purpose.
In fact, that's another thing that kinda bothers me. I know players who are bad. That's okay. Be bad. I don't care. However, don't revel in it! Don't use your lack of skill as an excuse to go ultimate bravery. A few nights ago I played with people who knew they were no good, but instead of spending their time to improve their game (as I did when I began playing DotA years ago), they used it as an excuse to play purposely bad builds and do silly stuff so that they cannot do good at all.
There is a time to have silly games. I love teemoball,a game that is basically just... pure stupidity. However, when I played teemo ball I attempted to play seriously and take what was meant to be a silly game seriously. It was still a silly game. But it was a silly game that had serious strategy behind it. There is a difference between giving up because you're no good and accepting your skill level and attempting to improve. I remember my first League of Legends game, I was clueless. I didn't know what to buy, I didn't understand items. Now, I'm getting there. I'm slowly understanding this game, and its a complex one so that is okay! Of course, it I does depress me when I realize Wickd, a pro EU player is about 16 and he's on what might be the 2nd best EU team. I'm 19 and I'm nobody.
Additionally, there is another player I know who is quite good. He manages to do rather well as a carry player with heroes like corki and nocturne. I remember when Sona was OP he had an AP sona build that was rather good at dishing out damage. However, I don't think I've seen him do anything but play carries, ever. In comparison, I have another friend who while he prefers to play supports and is a VERY good Janna player, he can and will switch to Ashe when the time is right. His Ashe is perhaps slightly worse than mine (I'm not sure, honestly, I trust him to carry me enough to let him play Ashe), but it is not a “Good” Ashe, its a “fair” Ashe. Furthermore, he doesn't really play any other carries (that's fine because Ashe is good 50% of the time, haha). Additionally he can play different tanks. Versatility is a really needed thing in this game, and attempting to make every hero you play a carry isn't a good idea. Phantom Dancer Chogath and Udyr is funny, AP Sona is cool, but Tank Chogath and Tanky DPS Udyr and Support Sona are the better builds, leave carrying to Corki, Ashe, Nocturne and those heroes. Learn to play Chogath as he was intended: a beefy caster that tanks really, really well.
Finally, there is an element of the game that a lot of people don't understand, and that's strategy and map awareness. Its supremely frustrating for me to not know where the enemy is. SUPREMRELY frustrating. I feel helpless, especially when they start stealing map objectives and I don't know because I can't see what they are doing because we don't have map control. A lot of players I know do very well with a select group or type of heroes. However, they don't understand strategy much. What does that mean? Well, team comp is about 50% of the game, at least. Having a team that has tanky, sustained damage, burst damage, and CC in good amounts is important. You can't just throw together a bunch of heroes, even if they technically all fufill roles. I've played plenty of games where we lost and my teammate was like “yep, we had horrible team comp.” Right now my team is working on running a “default” team comp that we can run back to no matter what. But to be honest, forming a team comp is really hard, its something that I struggle with, almost more so than playing the game. I feel that if we can manage a good team comp, then my team will win most of the time, and its because we have a good comp.
So yeah, what does it take to win League of Legends? To be a good LoL player? Skill is important, learn the basics like last hitting (it amazes me how few people know how to last hit well! It also amazes me how good the pros are. Learn to last hit like Chauster and you'll be a pro carry in no time), learn map awareness, how important wards are, the importance of Baron and Dragon. Learn to be versatile, playing more than 5 different types of carries or tanks. Learn the strategies of this game. A poor strategist can win with the help of a good one, but you'll be more successful if you're a good strategist too. If you're good, don't rub it in too much. An arrogant jerk who's really good isn't going to make many friends, a humble pro will. Also, and most importantly, don't take your lack of skill as a reason to play bad on purpose! This is a fun game, but its more fun to win and to win you have to be good. Saying I won because I had fun is... its cheapening the system. Yes, you should do that. But being a tryhard isn't so much about winning as it is about taking the game seriously and understanding that you need to improve. I've improved so much in this game, to the point where I know I was a noob all those years ago. I'm really interested in getting better, but to do that I have to suffer humiliating defeats. Its a learning process, and its hard.
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