Frokat
The holidays are over, so we better get back to the grind. Screw all the NY resolutions about going to the gym and making up with your second cousin in law – the real resolution any League of Legends player should make is to climb at least one rank, at least one division higher from where they are. And if you wanna get on top of the ladder, you have to stay on top of the grind. With Season 12 rolling out in less than a week, why not take a head start ahead of your competition?
League is an everchanging sea, and it holds especially true for the ends and the beginnings of seasons. The pre-season changes were quite a shakeup for the established meta, with stuff like new items, new runes, and mechanics like objective bounties and brand new Drakes completely reshaping the most effective composition drafts.
If you want to avoid feeling like a complete stranger in the game you enjoy, here’s some stuff you should be doing in preparation for the upcoming season.
Keep up with educational content creators
The days of Season One, when everyone was pretty much left to their own devices in trying to figure out how to play, are long, long gone. Although the holiday season was the perfect time to take a break from whatever they were doing, League’s amazing educational community has been pumping out content without any hiccups.
And what is a better way to learn the updated game than to take lessons from the very best?
Formerly a midlaner and then a competitive coach for team Dire Wolves, Curtis ‘Curtis’ Morgan is a phenomenal League of Legends player, placing at the very highest ranks of Challenger for over 8 years in a row. His background in professional coaching on the highest level is the reason for his content being very in-depth and educational, as well as accessible to players of all skill levels.
Previously known as Sharp, he embraced his passion for teaching, taking up the alias of CoachCurtis, and launching a prolific YouTube channel for midlane coaching – and beyond. A word of caution, though – Curtis’ videos are so in depth that you better stock up on food and supplies before opening up one of those.
Dobby도비 is a Master-tier player from South Korea. He created his original YouTube channel in 2018 and has posted almost weekly since then. Although Dobby’s channel was exclusively in Korean at first, his analysis videos quickly grew in popularity and started attracting viewers worldwide.
His channel mostly focuses on the newest trends in the highest levels of competitive League of Legends on the Korean and Chinese servers, as well as doing in-depth explanations of star players’ gameplay and champion pools.
Drew ‘Midbeast’ Timbs is a former professional player from the Oceania region. His playstyle is most known for his love of macro-heavy champions like Twisted Fate, while his content shines due to its educational value as well as keeping the viewer entertained at all times.
Midbeast mostly focuses on doing educational VOD reviews of the best players around the globe. So if you want to pick up a new champ, hop on his YouTube channel!
This list has been pretty midlane focused, and I beg your pardon for that. I’m a bit of a midlane enthusiast so I only watch these guys to get my game on. But, if you’re looking for content creators for other roles, the community still has you covered: a recent post in r/summonerschool, a dedicated subreddit for those taking League of Legends seriously, has an amazing list for educational content creators for most roles in the game. The subreddit itself is also a nice way to get new info.
And of course, we can’t forget the legendary pillar of the community, Phreak, on this list. If you’re looking to keep up with the new changes, going into details too hard might quickly become overwhelming, so his channel is your best bet when you’re looking for that patch spotlight.
David ‘Phreak’ Turley is probably the most popular League of Legends persona. A beloved caster, a streamer, and the voice of many-a champion spotlight in the past, Phreak remains a very active community member for more than two decades now – he started all the way back in Warcraft 3!
Phreak’s channel is a great way to get useful info out of patch notes in a quick and easy to digest format, as well as some in-depths guides about some game mechanics and interactions you might have not even considered.
Review VODs yourself
Having a professional player or a coach review a replay and explain all the moving parts that you might not be able to catch yourself is fantastic, but sometimes unfeasible. There’s only so many coaches, but so many interactions, so sometimes you’ll have to take matters into your own hands.
Thankfully, we have plenty of stuff to make the whole experience easier nowadays: from apps like Porofessor allowing you to look up high-level gameplay of the character/matchup you want to learn in two clicks, to even a website that lets you filter out livestreams from pros or high-tier players by the champion you wish to see in action.
Plus, just looking at the replay may boost your gameplay experience and game sense. As an observer, you’ll have an easier time thinking over gameplay patterns. Even without understanding 100% of what you see at first glance, you’ll have plenty of time to think about the high-elo players’ decisions in a peaceful manner. Dedication is key here – don’t follow the urge to skip to some juicy team fights (unless this part is specifically what you want to learn). The key is in the details.
Actually play the damn game!
I know, I know, this might seem pretty controversial when it comes to opinions about pre-season. Most people treat pre-season as a League vacation, and for good reason: this is the time where the game is plagued by questionable design decisions, power-inflated champs, general misunderstanding of the new game flow, and, worst of all, players really not caring about the games.
The last part stings specifically bad, as game quality drops significantly when a portion of players collectively goes “well, whatever, ranks gonna get reset in a week anyway, so I will now proceed to build a full movement speed “build” and run it down mid for fun.” Funnily enough, this manner of thinking is completely wrong despite its prevalence – your MMR will be affected by your pre-season matches.
At any rate, while playing in pre-season has numerous drawbacks, the upsides are still great enough for any player trying to climb. All the theory in the world is meaningless without practice, after all, and what better time is there to practice something new than when everyone else is just as clueless as yourself? For someone like me who’s coming back to the game after a mother of all hiatuses, it’s even more of an invitation to get my game back.
Stay tuned for the professional play
Last but not least, new season not only means a new ranked ladder to climb, but also tons of professional League to enjoy. The first professional matches of LCK, and LPL spring splits will begin only a few days after the season release. If the things are as they seem, this professional year will be extremely competitive.
