The Art of Support

2nd edition
.

BloodWater
Lyubomir Spasov

Pseudonaut
John Quarnstrom

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 The Art of League
The Art of League is a series of five books, one for each role
in League of Legends. There are currently three books written,
with plans to finish the remaining two by the end of 2016:

The Art of Support, 2nd Edition (ft. BloodWater)

Early-April 2016

The Art of Top, 1st Edition (ft. Quas)

Late-April 2016

The Art of Mid, 1st Edition (ft. BigfatLP)

April 2015

The goal of this project is to bring together the smartest and

most ruthless minds League of Legends has to offer. You didnt
buy this book for the funny stories or the pretty illustrations.
You bought this book, because you want to win.

With each passing year, the player base continues to grow at

an astounding rate. More and more players are fighting for
their spot on the ladder, and as a result, the average skill level
of each tier has increased significantly.

To climb the ladder, you need three different things: time,

motivation, and knowledge. We have no control over how much
time and effort you put forth, but we can teach you everything
there is to know about solo queue.

Everyone whos contributed to this series has experience

competing in the LCS, so we understand how crucial winning is.
Whatever your goals are, we hope to bring you one step closer
towards them, and more importantly . . . have fun!

3
 To contact us, please e-mail:

Copyright 2016 by The Art of League, LLC

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used
in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the authors
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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 Lyubomir BloodWater Spasov
The Art of Support (1st edition) was released one year ago;
back then, trinkets were new, green wards were still in the shop,
and instead of buffs, Dragon used to give global gold. Times
have changed, metas have shifted, and the Support role is an
entirely different beast now.

BloodWater, a man who could kill you with his stare alone,
has read through each chapter, and meticulously weeded out
any unnecessary and irrelevant information. Hes also included
his insight into the current Meta, and his unique perspective of
the Support role as well.

Pseudonaut, author of the 1st edition, has worked alongside

BloodWater to help organize his thoughts and discuss at-length
certain viewpoints. We wanted to make sure our ideas were well
thought out before committing them to pen and paper.

As you read through this book, we strongly recommend you

pace yourself, and take a break after each chapter. If you simply
read through each chapter back-to-back, you will have difficulty
retaining the information. Be sure to stop and play a few solo
queue games before moving onto the next chapter.

Remember, its not a race!

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 Chapter 1
The Training Grounds

1.1 The Cardinal Rule Page 10

1.2 Mini-map Hawk Page 12
1.3 The Overseer Page 15
1.4 Conceptualizing Match-Ups Page 17
1.5 Preparing Minions Page 21

Chapter 2
Ready, Set, GO

2.1 Auto-Pilot Syndrome Page 24

2.2 Level 1 Shoving vs. Harassing Page 32
2.3 Abusing Power Spikes Page 33
2.4 Harassing Page 36
2.5 When to Recall Page 40

Chapter 3
The War on Wards

3.1 Wards Galore Page 44

3.2 Practice Safe Warding Page 49
3.3 Fight the Good Fight Page 50
3.4 Team Fights and Objective Wards Page 53
3.5 Alternative Wards Page 55

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 Chapter 4
Minion Management

4.1 *Brr* Its Freezing Outside Page 63

4.2 Shove, Shove, Shove Your Wave Page 66

Chapter 5
Roam the Seven Seas

5.1 Is Roaming in Your Blood? Page 70

5.2 Whose Lane is it Anyways? Page 71
5.3 Timing Roams Page 73
5.4 Follow the Yellow Brick Road Page 74
5.5 Use the Buddy System Page 80

Chapter 6
Ganks, Coming to a Lane Near You

6.1 Anticipating Ganks Page 83

6.2 Setting Up Ganks Page 86

Chapter 7
Dealing with Disadvantages

7.1 FeedAlert Page 95

7.2 When to Strike Page 96
7.3 Ward Jammer Page 98
7.4 Tower Defense Page 101

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 Chapter 8
Ending Games

8.1 Aggressive Warding Page 106

8.2 Hands in the Cookie Jar Page 108
8.3 Pressuring Objectives Page 110
8.4 Prioritizing Objectives Page 119

Chapter 9
Team Fighting

9.1 To Peel or Not to Peel Page 123

9.2 Dichotomy of Styles Page 124
9.3 Threats, Weaknesses, and Strengths Page 128

Chapter 10
Mentality

10.1 Goals Page 133

10.2 Dont Worry, Be Happy Page 136
10.3 Perception is Reality Page 137
10.4 Fatigue Page 140

Chapter 11
Practice Makes Perfect

11.1 Spamming Page 143

11.2 Replays Page 144
11.3 Lessons Page 145

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Chapter 1
The Training Grounds

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 1.1 The Cardinal Rule
Drop all preconceived notions you have of the Support role.
Were going to start from the ground up, rebuilding your idea of
what a top-tier Support (future you) can bring to the table.

When supporting, each and every decision you make must

adhere to the cardinal rule. Disobeying this rule will not only
cause your LP to vanish, but youll slowly start to lose your
friends, your family, your kittens, and eventually, yourself. Here
it is, in all its glory:

Read it once, and then read it a few more times.

This single concept is the foundation of Support. Strategies

such as warding, harassing, zoning, freezing, shoving, roaming,
and diving all serve to maximize the benefits this rule provides.
Consider the following:

Why do we ward?
To spot out enemies in advance, and ensure our AD can
farm safely. This gives him more opportunities to farm, as well
as harass.

Why do we harass?
To prevent our opponents from farming, and to potentially
kill them later on, after securing enough of a health lead.

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 Why do we zone?
To deny our opponents farm, especially when our bot-lane
is stronger than their bot-lane.

Why do we freeze?
Amongst other reasons, freezing often forces our opponents
to overextend, leaving them vulnerable to ganks and Teleport
flanks. Sometimes we can zone our opponents off the wave,
while our creeps slowly kill theirs, denying them even more CS.
.
Why do we shove?
When our opponents arent in lane, we can shove the wave
to turret, and deny the entire wave.

Why do we roam (during laning phase)?

To snowball other lanes, take objectives, and secure vision
in certain areas of the map. All of these are done with the intent
to create a greater lead for our team, and as a result, a greater
lead for our AD.

Why do we use smart pings?

They help our teammates push their advantage(s) in lane
and make aggressive moves; most importantly, it alerts our AD
of any potential threats. Its the best way we can communicate
with our teammates.

Why do we dive?
Thats what we were born to do. (And because our
opponents have no summoners left, are low health, and have no
jungler to back them up.)

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 Whenever you make a decision, always consider whether or
not it follows the cardinal rule. The term winning lane simply
means that your AD has earned more gold than their AD during
laning phase. You must do everything in your power to turn
your AD into an unstoppable machine that kills everything in
its path. This doesnt mean you stay with them for the entire
game, but it does mean you should strive to give them as many
opportunities to win lane as you possibly can.

A single Thresh hook, Janna shield, or Trundle pillar could

completely turn the lane around. You must have the confidence
to know youre making the right decision - and if youre not,
youre making the most informed decision you can. Without
confidence, youll be unable to dictate the pace of the game and
how it plays out. To help build your confidence, well talk about
some of the fundamentals of Support, then move onto some
more in-depth strategies for bot-lane.

1.2 Mini-map Hawk

For every ten seconds of in-game time, how many of those
seconds do you spend watching the mini-map? If your answer
was less than four, you arent watching the mini-map enough.
In fact, anything less than six seconds is hardly enough to fully
capture all of the information displayed, but four seconds is the
bare minimum. During laning phase, constantly scan the mini-
map for the following (listed in order of importance):

1. Enemy Jungler
2. Allied Jungler
3. Enemy Mid
4. Allied Mid
5. Enemy Top
6. Allied Top

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 Knowledge of your jungler and the enemy junglers location
is tremendously important when determining whether to play
aggressively or defensively. Players who are inexperienced or
lack awareness tend to engage onto their opponents at the exact
moment an enemy is headed for their lane (even though hes
walking right over a ward)!

Another common mistake that Supports (as well as ADs)

make is to not realize their own jungler is ganking. If you dont
see him approaching, you wont be positioned close enough to
initiate the gank. Keep in mind that bot-lane fights are 2-0n-2,
so they tend to last a lot longer. Mid and top-laners can easily
take advantage of this by roaming or teleporting as the fight is
happening awareness will help you determine whether or not
to commit to certain all-ins.

Kuresshendo, famous for his top-lane Akali, would often

buy early mobility boots and gank bot-lane at level six. Anyone
who lacked the map awareness to see him coming would end up
dying two or three times before catching onto his silly ways. As
he climbed the ladder, this became less and less effective, but
players would sometimes slack, and hed carry the game if he
picked up one or two kills early on.

Deftly I travel.

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 BloodWaters Procedure for Scanning the
Mini-map Frequently and Thoroughly

1. Turn your mini-map scaling to 100, and your HUD

scaling to 0. (Turn chat scaling to 0 if youre easily
distracted by the random and sometimes idiotic things
people say in solo queue.)

2. Look at the mini-map every five seconds.

3. Scan the mini-map for each player in order of priority.

(Bonus points for pinging the enemy jungler, so your
team knows his location.)

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you pass out.

Step 3 should take approximately two seconds, so if youre

looking at the mini-map for two seconds every five seconds,
youre averaging about four seconds of map awareness for every
ten seconds. Heres the list again for reference:

1. Enemy Jungler
2. Allied Jungler
3. Enemy Mid
4. Allied Mid
5. Enemy Top
6. Allied Top

Looking at the mini-map will usually become second nature

after a week the most difficult part is building the habit in the
first place. Dont push yourself too hard; treat you brain like a
muscle and slowly build up your ability to focus on the mini-
map.

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 1.3 The Overseer
Gleebglarbu, former Support for TSM, was remarkably
consistent with timing summoner spells and objectives. Even in
solo queue, he recorded every timer he could in order to outplay
his opponents in lane, coordinate objectives with his team, and
pick players off who didnt have Flash. Having a record of most
timers set Gleeb apart from most other players, who neglected
such an important aspect of the game.

Thankfully, Riot has made it easier for us by adding Baron,

Dragon, and buff timers into our HUD. Now we only have to
worry about timing:

Our opponents Summoner Spells.

Our opponents Buffs (Red, Blue).
Our opponents cooldowns (ultimates, 20s+ spells).
Our teammates Summoner Spells (like TP).
Wards

Its time to channel your inner Gleebglarbu! Weve listed

the cooldowns of important objectives, summoners, and wards
over the next two pages. Your job - know these like back of your
hand. If youre feeling extra dedicated, keep this page open
while youre playing for reference, and write down as many of
the timers in chat as possible.

Objective Respawn Timer

Baron 7:00
Dragon 6:00
Rift Herald 5:00
Blue/Red Buff 5:00
Inhibitor 5:00

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 Ward Death Timer
Pink Infinity (5 autos)
Blue Trinket Infinity (1 auto)
Green Ward 3:00
Yellow Trinket 0:60- 2:00 (based on level)

Summoner Spell Cooldown Timer

Flash 5:00 (4:15)*
Teleport 5:00 (4:15, 3:20)**
Heal 4:00 (~3:25)
Exhaust 3:30 (~3:00)
Ignite 3:30 (~3:00)
Cleanse 3:30 (~3:00)
Barrier 3:30 (~3:00)
Ghost 3:30 (~3:00)
Smite 0:60 (~0:50)

*The (Insight) mastery reduces the CD of SSs by 15%.

**If teleport is cancelled, the cooldown is reduced to 3:20.

When should you start timing objectives? The next time an

enemy uses one of his summoner spells, like Flash or Teleport.
Theres a trick you can use to bring up the timers later:

(1) Type out the timer in chat (e.g. ali F 8).

(2) Press Ctrl + A, then Ctrl + C.
(3) Use Ctrl + V to paste it into the chat-box later.
(4) Ctrl + V, type out new timers, then repeat Step 2 to add in
any additional timers.

Continue to time progressively more and more summoners

with each new game. Move onto timing wards, ultimates, and
trinkets. Writing down the timers of wards wont make or break
games, but it does help your jungler and mid-laner abuse the
enemys lack of vision. Junglers usually time their ganks if you
let them know a specific ward is going to expire.

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 1.4 Conceptualizing Match-Ups
Use your time efficiently during champion select (as well as
loading screen) to analyze the match-up bot-lane. Weve written
out some general questions to help start your thought process,
but keep in mind there could be other things to consider based
on each teams champions.

Who am I against bot-lane?

When are we stronger than them, 2-on-2?
When are we weaker than them, 2-on-2?
Is my ADC stronger early-game, or late-game?
Is their ADC stronger early-game, or late-game?
How do we outplay them (win trades)?
What are their Summoner Spells?
What type of lane is it (sustain, all-in, poke)?
Will their jungler apply early-game pressure?
Do they have global ultimates or TPs?

You may not answer every single question confidently, but

through experience, you will begin to consider these questions
with more complexity, and change your play-style accordingly.
You could even have discussions with your Support friends, or
join some discussions online to compare different approaches
to match-ups and the game in general. These discussions will
bring to light things you may have overlooked, and can also give
you entirely different ways to think about the game.

In general, when your AD is late-game oriented (Tristana,

KogMaw, Vayne), the optimal strategy is to load them up with
as much farm as possible, and let them shine during late-game.
Conversely, with an early-game AD (Caitlyn, Graves, Corki),
focus on harassing, since these ADs usually win trades against
late-game ADs.
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 This is a generalization; Tristana can win trades early on if
you apply enough pressure and play well, but her late-game
strength will always be there to fall back on. You should play off
your strengths, and try to keep a holistic picture in mind (this
means taking into account when your AD peaks, and playing
around that). Lets run through an example:

My Lane: Their Lane:

Lucian (Flash/Heal) Miss Fortune (Flash/Heal)
Thresh (Flash/Ignite) Blitzcrank (Flash/Ignite)

Who am I against?
Miss Fortune and Blitzcrank

When are we stronger than them?

Miss Fortune and Blitzcrank certainly have the upper-hand.
As Thresh, youre going to have trouble against most competent
Blitzcrank players; one hook (followed by a knock-up) can half-
health either you or Lucian; combine that with Miss Fortunes
Make It Rain (E), and youre looking at death, or the loss of
your Summoner Spells, just to survive.

Before Level 3, you wont have Lantern to save Lucian, so

position yourself next to him, and try to reach Level 3 safely. If
Blitzcrank lands a hook, walk forward to flay your opponents,
so Lucian can escape. Blitzcrank will likely walk back and forth
to find a good angle, so either kite his hook, or stand behind the
minion wave. He doesnt have enough threat to walk straight
into your wave and open a trade with his knock-up.

Nothing colder than death.

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 After Level 6, Lucians Culling does enough damage to win
fights and all-ins, given that he avoids Blitzcranks hook. If
Lucian opens the lane by culling MF down to half-health, you
could immediately look for all-ins. Alternatively, if you land a
few hooks on Blitzcrank or Miss Fortune and also lower them to
half-health, you can continue to pressure them until it escalates
to an all-in, or they recall to base. Until then, farm passively
and look to make plays with your jungler, or let Lucian farm.

When are we weaker than them?

In this lane, youre always weaker than them. They have
strong zoning potential and great kill potential with a Blitz
hook. Unless they severely misplay, youre at a disadvantage.

Is my ADC stronger early-game or late-game?

Lucian is strong throughout the early game, and becomes
even stronger mid-game with Essence Reaver and Statikk Shiv
(or Phantom Dancer or Rapid Firecannon). Ideally, you want to
snowball early and take the lead, but unfortunately MF beats
Lucian here (not because she wins in general, but because of the
Support match-up).

Is their ADC stronger early-game or late-game?

Miss Fortune is also a strong early-game champion; she
shoves lanes well with W and has strong zoning with her E. She
spikes mid-game, and provides very strong damage with her
ultimate late-game. Lucian and MF are very similar in the way
their damage spikes throughout the game.

How do we outplay them (win trades)?

Farm the lane, and avoid initiating trades. Their lane is only
weak when Blitzcrank misses a hook, so wait until he throws
one out (and misses), or play mind-games and bait out the hook
by walking around randomly.

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 Once his hook is down, you have twenty seconds to make a
play; try and hook either Miss Fortune or Blitzcrank, then flay
them backwards into Lucian. After Lucian rotates through his
spells, back off and wait for another opening (unless you have
kill potential on someone). Even if you miss the hook, you can
still walk forwards with Lucian and pressure MF or Blitzcrank
with Flay. Blitzcrank can only respond by walking forward and
fisting you or Lucian (preferably Flay the MF and focus her, as
she is the main source of damage in this lane).

What are their Summoner Spells?

Miss Fortune has Flash/Heal. Blitzcrank has Flash/Ignite.

Are our Summoner Spells stronger?

Both sides have the same Summoner Spells, so theyre
equivalent. For other match-ups, one side may have Exhaust
while the other has Ignite (usually the Exhaust lane wins if its
timed correctly in an all-in).

What type of lane is it (sustain, all-in, poke)?

This is definitely an all-in lane. One hook will launch you or
Lucian into a world of hurt. Your lane is half poke, half all-in.
Unfortunately, poke lanes are countered by all-in lanes.

Will their jungler apply early-game pressure?

Their jungler will most likely apply early-game pressure
because its a Blitzcrank lane. Most junglers gank Thresh lanes,
because the Thresh has to position farther up the lane just to
land a Flay.

Do they have global ultimates or TPs?

Your answers will vary from game to game.

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 1.5 Preparing Minions and Targons Efficiency

Supports seem to struggle or completely neglect preparing

minions before they reach turret, or even while theyre under
turret. League of Legends is a game where leaks can add up;
consider watching one or two replays and look at how many
minions your AD lost to turret, even though you were standing
right next to them, and could have easily set them up.

As a wave approaches, look at each minions health bar and

quickly determine which ones need additional help - they often
need one or two auto attacks. You can also use spells, but avoid
using spells if theyre AoE, as that might ruin other minions.

Targons Brace is most efficiently used on cannons (which

spawn every three waves). Keep count of when the next cannon
wave spawns, so youll have a Targons stack saved for it. Using
stacks on melee minions when a cannon is available is another
leak that can add up over time. Supports make very little gold,
so you should be looking for every opportunity to increase your
gold income.

A solid giggle should

do the trick.

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 Chapter 1
Recap

1.1 The Cardinal Rule

Increase your ADs gold, limit the other ADs gold.

1.2 Mini-map Hawk

Rule of thumb: Glance at your Mini-map every 5 seconds.
Look over the minimap whenever you can and feed your team
information (pinging enemies, wards, or objectives).

1.3 The Overseer

Time every single summoner, objective, and ward.

1.4 Conceptualizing Match-Ups

Think ahead, make a plan, execute. Know the champions
you are facing, and think about their strengths and weaknesses.

1.5 Preparing Minions and Targons Efficiency

While farming under turret, prepare minions for your AD.
Save Targons for cannon minions.

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Chapter 2
Ready, Set, Go

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 2.1 Auto-Pilot Syndrome
Now that youre familiar with the fundamentals of Support,
we can begin to talk about in-game strategies. What better place
to start, than the first two minutes of your typical League game.

During this time, players often buy their starting items and
do one of two things: (1) stand by turret, waiting for the minion
wave to arrive or (2) stand by a camp, waiting for it to spawn. If
this sounds like you, then youre probably suffering from whats
known as Auto-pilot syndrome a terrible disease that affects
hundreds of players each year.

Fortunately, our scientists have developed a break-through

cure to prevent this disease from spreading. Its a tiny little pill
called Dont Be Lazy. Our preliminary tests on Silver and Gold
Supports have shown great results. As soon as the game starts,
you have three options:

Invade (4 or 5-man, and 2-man)

Defend
Spread Out

Invading (4 or 5-man)
Invading is the act of sending most or all of your team into
the enemy jungle to either steal a buff, or pick up an early kill.
The more crowd control (CC) your team has, the easier it is to
invade. Morgana, Blitzcrank, and Thresh are great champions
for this. If you land your skill shot, its a guaranteed kill as long
as your team is behind you, ready to follow-up.

There are a few different ways to invade; you could rush in

right away, or hold off (known as a delayed invade). When you
invade is typically based on what you want out of it.

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Early Invades (~0:30)
Advantages:
Early ward coverage.
Potentially move into position, before your opponents.
Catch out AFKers who arent expecting an invade.

Disadvantages:
After a fight, the enemy jungler will have enough time
to return to his jungle.
If the enemy is expecting an invade, they could easily
be grouped inside of a bush.

Goals/Outcomes:
Vision
Kills

Late Invades (1:00-1:10)

Advantages:
Even if you retreat, youll know where their jungler is
starting. Your solo-lanes can use this information to
avoid ganks.
Their jungler will be pushed out, and forced to start
at a different camp.
Opponents will be forced to use their trinkets, giving
your jungler more opportunities to gank.

Disadvantages:
If your team dies, your junglers clear will be delayed,
and you will come to lane late if you have to help him.

Goals/Outcomes:
Vision, Kills
Buff Steal, Buff Denial

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 Later Invades (1:30-1:40)
Advantages:
Surprise effect; the enemy rarely expects a late invade
since its so uncommon.
Late-late invades usually result in a head-on collision,
which is great because the enemy has already taken a
bit of damage from the camp.
If the enemy jungler dies, his early game is crippled,
and your jungler will have a huge advantage.

Disadvantages:
Possible smite war. If your jungler misses smite, hell
be incredibly behind.
This could impact you either negatively or positively,
depending on which bot-lane returns to lane faster.

Goals/Outcomes:
Buff Steal
Set their jungler incredibly behind
Kills

Does your team have crowd control?

Without crowd control, your team is significantly weaker
during an invade because you cant lock anyone down. If youre
playing Sona or Soraka, an invade is only appropriate if your
team has some form of hard CC (Shen, Ahri).

Is your jungler reliant on a buff?

Invading is always risky, and if your jungle needs Blue for
his initial clear, forget about invading. Junglers like Elise and
Amumu have zero early-game pressure without Blue buff.

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 Is their jungler reliant on a buff?
Invading a Lee Sin to deny Red can drastically change the
dynamics of his early game pressure; a melee jungler without
Red loses auto-attack damage and the additional slow. Denying
Lee Sin does not stop him from ganking, but it does give your
teammates a better chance to survive once he does gank.

Does your team have a stronger level one fight?

Teams with a strong level one fight usually have hard CC or
strong AoE spells (Karthus). Even if you have CC, you shouldnt
invade when the enemy team is clearly stronger level one.

Invade Routes (Blue)

(The shield indicates where to stand for delayed invades.)

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 Invade Routes (Red)

Bot-lane Invades (2-man)

2-man invading with your AD is an effective strategy, given
the right circumstances:

(1) Your jungler doesnt need help.

(2) You dont plan to take a camp (Kruggs, Gromp).

(3) The enemy team is unlikely to invade.

28
 If all of these conditions are met, then convince your AD to
delay-invade through the bottom most path. Your goal is to ruin
the enemy junglers start by disrupting his first camp (either
Kruggs or Gromp). The enemy will respond by:

Attacking You: This is the best-case scenario; you

have diverted their attention away from the camp, so
itll either reset, or continue to deal damage.

Ignoring You: If they try to finish the camp, just sit

there and continue to deal damage to them. Who you
deal damage to is irrelevant, as the jungler will have a
harder time clearing with lower health, but you will
have an easier time laning by attacking their Support
or AD.

Defending
When defending, youll want to group your entire team into
one or two locations in anticipation of an invade. This will allow
your team to punish the enemy, and possibly pick up some kills.
Remember that the risk of positioning your entire team on one
side of the jungle is that the other side is left completely open
(they could either ward or steal a camp over there). Make sure
to stand in the shield locations, and ward farther out for safety.

One step closer to great

understanding!

29
 Defense Spots

A couple things to note about this picture: you dont need to

ward or stand in both spots. To properly counter an invade, you
need your entire team grouped inside of a single bush. If your
team is divided, one group could easily die to an invade, before
the other has a chance to respond.

Depending on which location you defend, teams could walk

around and blindside you. However, this shouldnt concern you
too much, seeing as the bush will conceal your entire team. As
the enemy filters through, your team will have the upper-hand;
once they walk inside of your bush (or past it), launch a surprise
attack.

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 Standard Opening Spot

Spreading Out
In most cases, you dont need to worry about an invade; the
enemy team composition probably doesnt suggest anything out
of the ordinary might happen. In these games, your best opener
(before the jungler starts his camp) is to ward the river and wait
patiently (ideally, the rest of your teammates will also do this in
other areas).

As you can see, there are once again two different spots to
choose from. We recommend you prioritize the upper position
over the bottom, because as Support, you often have the utility
to deal with invades or small skirmishes that break out near
mid. If another teammate is already holding that spot, dont try
and contest it. Hold onto your ward until 1:15-1:20 to ensure
you have vision in place for delayed-invades.
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 2.2 Level 1 Shoving vs. Harassing
Supports are often unaware of their weaknesses; one major
weakness that you can begin fixing immediately is how you deal
with the first 20-30 seconds of laning phase. During this time,
many Supports play passively (hiding inside of a bush). This is
wrong for two reasons:

(1) Whoever reaches level two first has a time span of

roughly five to ten seconds to gain a huge lead.

(2) If your lane is unlikely to reach level two first, you

need to punish your opponents for shoving the wave
by harassing them.

How do you decide between shoving or harassing? Keep in

mind that your goal during the first two waves is to reach level
two first, and out-harass your opponents. Accomplishing both
is unlikely, but you can at least settle for one out of two.

Shove When:
Your AD lacks some form of AoE to shove the wave; its your
job to auto the minions too (help out as best you can).

You have Relic Shield (use it on minions that fall just below
the 200 health insta-kill range).

You are melee (ranged champions excel at harassing). Yes,

you will take some additional damage (its worth it).

Shoving = Using your spells and auto-attacks to shove the

wave faster than your opponents do. If you neglect to use all of
your resources for shoving, the enemy could both out-shove
and out-harass you.

32
Harass When:
Your AD has AoE clear (or something else) to shove.

You have sustain (both Supports will have potions, but if

you have a level two healing spell or a level one shield spell,
then harassing will often net you a win, and your opponents
will be temporarily distracted from shoving).

Youre ranged, and also benefit from Spellthiefs Edge.

The enemy has a strong shove; you want to stop them from
shoving by forcing them to return your harass. If you dont
have any sustain and youre a ranged champion, dont force
trades against someone with sustain level one. For example,
if youre playing Thresh, dont force trades against a Sona.
Instead, look to land a hook while auto-attacking the wave.

2.3 Abusing Power Spikes

Recognizing power spikes will help determine whether you
play aggressively or passively. In general, when your lane has a
power spike, play aggressively; when the other lane has a power
spike, play passively. The three different forms of power spikes
are level advantages, item advantages, and buff advantages.

Level Advantages
One of the most common opportunities you have to abuse
differences in levels is when you reach Level 2 first. When that
happens, not only do you have two abilities to work with, but
the level up provides you with increased health, mana, attack
damage, attack speed, and armor. Numerous times first blood
has been secured by engaging immediately at level two. Support
champions such as Blitzcrank, Thresh, and Leona excel at this.

33
 If youre not applying any pressure when you have the level
advantage, youre missing out on the opportunity to deny
creeps and possibly secure a first blood. For the following list,
imagine that youre one level higher than your opponent:

Level 2: With two spells available, you should engage as

soon as possible to deny CS, and zone your opponents.

Level 3/4: With three spells available, you should keep

harassing and engaging when possible.

Level 6: Try to use your ultimate at the same time your

AD does during an engage.

Level 9: Put yourself in a position to use your rank five

spell as often as possible.

Level 11: Use your ultimate to kill the enemy, or use the
threat of it to zone (and deny CS).

You can only capitalize on the advantages listed above

when youre ahead of the the enemy in terms of experience. For
example, at Level 11, you have access to the 2nd rank of your
ultimate, while your lane opponents do not - you have more
damage and lower cooldowns. If you and your AD have rank
two ultimates while the enemy still has rank one ultimates,
not only will fights go in your favor (more damage), but your
ultimates will be up sooner for the next fight.

Are we there yet?

34
 Item Advantages
Item advantages can range from simply having more health
potions, to having an entire item completed. Lets say your team
manages to kill someone before laning phase begins and you
and your AD have enough gold for additional potions; youre
more likely to win early laning phase if you trade and use the
additional sustain. Later on in laning phase, health potions
wont have a huge impact, but items such as Boots, Caulfields
Warhammer, and B.F. Sword can have a huge impact on short
trades. Over a time span of two to three minutes, if youre
constantly winning trades with the item advantage, youll have
more opportunities to zone, and can slowly accumulate a CS
lead and a health pool advantage.

Alternatively, you should avoid forcing trades when your

AD is behind in items, and wait for a good opportunity to trade
when the odds are in your favor (such as enemies wasting their
abilities or fighting only if your jungler is nearby). Always look
at everyones items when they return to lane - this will improve
your decision making. You definitely dont want to engage when
their AD has an Essence Reaver or Trinity Force and your AD is
sitting there with one Dorans Blade and a long sword.

Buff Advantages
Buff advantages are the Red and Blue buffs we all know and
love. The new Red buff (Crest of Cinders) applies a debuff that
slows the enemys movement speed by 8/16/24% for melee
attacks and 5/10/15% for ranged attacks for 3 seconds (and also
deal 5-56 true damage twice, over time). The buff owner is also
healed for 1% of their max health every 5 seconds, which lasts 2
minutes, and 2 minutes and 18 seconds with the runic affinity
mastery. It also deals extra damage to turrets! If your AD has
Red, play very aggressively - if their AD has red, avoid trades at
all costs. If you have Red buff, play the lane as you normally
would but commit to trades even harder when the opportunity
arises.
35
 2.4 Harassing
Laning phase would be a breeze if both Supports sat in the
bushes and refused to attack each other, but unfortunately we
live in a rift where Supports get down and dirty. There are a few
ways to harass your opponents (and deal with your opponents
harass).

Basic Harass
Basic harassing involves auto-attacks and spells. With
melee champions, you wont have many opportunities to auto-
attack without taking quite a bit of damage, so you should only
auto-attack as a melee champion during engages and all-ins.
Ranged champions can auto-attack often, and should do so
under favorable circumstances.

When harassing with autos and spells, you need to account

for three different variables:

(1) When to trade.

(2) How to position during the trade.
(3) And, how long to trade for.

When to Trade
Knowing when to trade requires extensive knowledge of the
limits of every champion. The quality (amount of damage you
deal) of each trade is also limited by your own mechanics, since
most Supports have skill shots that make or break a trade (e.g.
landing a Morgana bind could lead to a kill, whereas missing it
would require you to stop the trade entirely, and walk back if
youre pressured afterwards).

During the first ten minutes of laning phase, one trade

wont affect the lane much, but the sum of all trades will have a
huge impact. Therefore, you should only trade under favorable
circumstances, and avoid trading under bad ones.
36
When to trade:

When the AD is last-hitting a minion. During this split-

second, his champion is rooted in place. Watch carefully
for when one of your minions is about to die, and time
your skill shot (or auto-attack) when he follows through
with the last hit. Hell either move in an attempt to dodge
the spell (thus losing the minion) or take free damage. If
your spell has some form of CC, he has an even harder
choice to make. (The enemy will get very annoyed from
this, so continue to contest creeps for as long as you can,
and hell likely tilt, or flame his Support.)

How to deal with Supports who do this: If

you find the enemy Support contesting your own
ADs creeps, you need to demonstrate that youre
a threat. Position in the middle of the creep wave
(in front of your AD), or somewhat farther up the
lane. If they disregard you completely, you need to
make a stand and let them know you WILL trade
with them if they try to poke your AD (even if that
means the trade is slightly in their favor). If youre
too far behind to do this safely, youll have to play
passively and wait until laning phase is over.

Trade when your wave has more caster minions than the
enemys wave. The reasoning behind this is fairly simple;
when you damage an enemy, their minions will start
attacking you. Melee minions arent a threat because
theyre too slow to react, but caster minions will attack
almost immediately. If you have more caster minions,
youll deal more damage overall (assuming both sides
trade for the same amount of damage). A difference of
two or three caster minions is rather negligible, but a
difference of five or six quickly adds up.

37
 Avoiding this issue: Note that auto-attacks,
and not spells, trigger minions. An efficient way to
harass, without taking a lot of creep damage, is to
use your spells first, auto attack once or twice, and
then walk away. This will ensure that you take
little to no damage from the enemy minions while
harassing.

Junglers let you trade extremely aggressively for a few

seconds before they enter lane. Unless you feel trading
will scare your enemies away (pay attention to how
theyve responded to your previous aggression), trading
as your jungler is approaching has many upsides. For
one, it forces your opponents into a decision . do they
stay and commit to the trade, or do they retreat and take
free damage? If they commit, then your jungler has an
even better chance of catching them. Either way, its a
win-win for you.

How to position during the trade:

How far ahead are you in lane?

If youre ahead, continue to position close enough, so you
can keep trading as your spells come off cooldown. Otherwise, if
youre behind, deal your initial damage and peel off.

How strong is your vision?

With more vision, you can position more aggressively in
lane. If you lack vision, opt for a more defensive style instead. If
you dont have any vision, dont trade for extended periods of
time, or else you risk dying to a gank.

38
 Do you plan to continue trading?
When the trade starts, decide whether to continue, or break
it off. As youre trading, try and predict the exact moment youll
stop trading. For example, if youre chasing someone, how long
do you plan to chase them down; until they Flash, or until they
reach turret? If your spells wont be up before either of those
occur, you should back off. Your AD could also lose gold if hes
leaving behind a minion wave to chase someone down.

Whats the overall health of each side?

If your side has predominately more health than the other,
you dont necessarily risk much by continuing a trade. If you
have less health, you would deal your initial damage, and then
walk back after.

How long to trade for:

When both sides have fairly high health (a typical scenario),
you often wont commit to a trade. Neither side benefits by
trading for longer than their initial spell rotation. After dealing
your initial damage, back off. If you continue, you should have a
pretty good reason for doing so: either you know your spells
will be off cooldown before your opponents, or youre a ranged
Support, against a melee Support.

If a trade is happening in the middle of lane, and both sides

are half-health, are you going to commit, or are you going to
back off? Try and recognize as soon as possible which side has
more all-in potential, and make the decision early on.

I aint got time

to bleed.

39
 Bluff Harass
This type of harass is focused on wearing down your
opponents psychologically. If you constantly walk forward and
backward, forward and backward, forward and backward, up
and down, side to side, the enemy will have to respond to your
potential to harass every single time. Theyll think about how
to position, how to respond, and what to do about this idiot that
wont stop moving. They may even fight you, regardless of the
circumstances, depending on how tilted they are.

Either way, this creates a constant pressure, and eventually

the enemy will mis-position. At that point, youve successfully
lured them into your trap, and can harass effectively. This
strategy is very effective with Blitzcrank, Morgana, Alistar,
Nautilus, and Thresh who all rely on landing a long-range skill
shot with a high cooldown to trade effectively.

Alternatively, when playing champions with poke-oriented

kits such as Sona, Karma, or Bard, this strategy is not necessary
because your abilities do not have a long cooldown, so theyre
spammable in lane (and because your auto attacks are ranged).
Youre free to sit in the bushes and harass when the opportunity
arises. The bluff harass is mainly a tactic used to give yourself
a better chance to land powerful skill shots.

2.5 When to Recall

Recalling always carries a risk. This is why it is important to
know when to recall. The time spent healing, browsing the
store, and walking back to lane equates to lost experience and
gold, as well as reduced map pressure. Some junglers will solo
Dragon if they have enough time. For example, Elise can take
Dragon by herself (meanwhile, youre sitting there in fountain,
trying to decide between 1 health potion or 2 health potions).

40
 Early Laning Phase (1:30-7:30)
If you miss-time a recall early on, you risk losing experience
from the minion wave. Its too early for your turret to take any
considerable amount of damage, so dont worry about that. The
best ways to avoid losing experience are:

(1) Shove the wave to turret, and recall right after.

(2) Kill the entire wave and recall immediately after,

but dont worry about shoving into turret. Try to do
this right before a cannon wave arrives, as its harder
for your opponents to shove a cannon wave.

Mid-Late Laning Phase (7:30-18:00)

Miss-timing a recall during this time period is much more
devastating; your opponents could easily take Dragon or worse,
take your turret. You should ideally shove the wave into turret
during this time, or recall if your opponents have already left.

Waste not a minute.

41
 Chapter 2
Recap

2.1 Pre-Game
Choose between invading, spreading out, or defending.

2.2 Level One

Shove or Harass? Try and determine this before the minion
wave arrives. Adjust your strategy as the lane plays out.

2.3 Power Spikes

Understand when you have an advantage, and abuse it.

2.4 Harass
Harass during situations that are in your favor.

2.5 Recalling
Time your recalls; dont let the enemy take advantage of
your absence, or disrupt your recall.

42
Chapter 3
The War on Wards

43
 3.1 Wards Galore
Benjamin Franklins advice still rings true today, especially
when it comes to ward coverage:

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

Nearly every item in League provides an immediate benefit.

Wards, however, do not immediately benefit us; they are a tool
to gather knowledge over a period of time. The Supports job is
to squeeze as much knowledge out of every ward placed, and
experience the greatest return on investment.

Ward coverage is similar to car insurance: The amount of

time you spend searching for a better deal (better location), and
the more money you invest (Pinks and Sightstone), the more
safety and protection youll have. Sightstone offers a maximum
of three green wards, and once theyre used, wont replenish
until you return to base. Due to this limitation, you need to be
strategic about how often, and how many wards you place.
Running out could spell disaster.

Option One - The Tricky Trinket

If you dont have Sightstone, youll have to rely on trinkets
for vision (always buy Sightstone as soon as possible; if you
cant buy it on your first back, do whatever you can to save up
the 800 gold for your second or third back).

Yellow trinkets last 60 seconds, and have a cooldown of 120

seconds. This means you and your AD can alternate warding
river, and keep one pathway warded at all times. Avoid pushing
the wave, especially when you have no information on their
jungler (against passive junglers like Warwick and Nunu, you
can push without worrying about their ganks).

44
 The Tricky Trinket (Blue/Red)

Blue Side
Spot 1 (noted by the 1 next to the light blue ward) is the
safest option. On blue side, your main concern will be junglers
flanking through tri-bush. Junglers can certainly gank through
river, or even through lane, but its more likely theyll wrap
around through tri-bush (after sneaking through your jungle, or
simply through river), especially when the wave is stagnant in
the middle of the lane.

Whenever the wave pushes, continue to place trinkets in

Spot 2 instead. This gives you enough time to react to river
ganks, but still leaves you vulnerable to tri-bush ganks
(although these are very rare, as junglers wont spend the time
to sneak through your jungle, knowing the wave may push back
by the time they arrive).

45
 Against aggressive Supports, or those you need to maintain
vision against (Leona, Blitzcrank), Spot 3 is an option, but dont
place your trinkets here if youre against a very aggressive early-
game jungler like Lee Sin or Jarvan IV.

As a side note, if youre laning early-on and shove the wave

into turret, but dont have any trinkets left, you can always:

Stand back and let the enemy push for free. This works
best against aggressive players who push, regardless of
their circumstances.

Shove the wave into turret, so it resets. This works well

against passive players who wont stop you from shoving.

Stand in the middle of the wave, and bait your opponent

into using AoE spells on you. This naturally pushes the
wave (opponents cant resist free damage).

Red Side
Red Side actually has a natural advantage when it comes to
defending themselves from ganks. Notice how Spot 1 provides
vision of junglers coming from tri-bush and river. Blue side can
never keep vision of both gank routes with just one ward.

About 80-90% of the time, youll ward Spot 1, giving you

plenty of time to react to ganks. Spot 2 (inside of the bush) is to
stop junglers from sneaking into your lane. Lee Sin, Jarvan IV,
and RekSai all have a way to jump over the wall from inside of
your jungle, and sneak up from behind you!

46
 The Double Decker (Blue)

Blue Side
The Double Decker is an efficient way to use your limited
Sightstone wards (3 for starters, 4 if upgraded). With only three
wards at your disposal, heres how you squeeze the most value
out of them:

Dont place all three wards down at the same time. Doing
so would leave you vulnerable to ganks once they expire.
Place just two initially (shown in the above image).
Use a Tricky Trinket spot for your final ward.

Spot 1A: Ward this spot every single time. This will protect
you from roaming mid-laners and flanking junglers.

Spot 2A/B/C: Use your second ward in one of these spots,

based on which paths their jungler has been ganking from.
47
 The Double Decker (Red)

Red Side
These spots provide you with similar protection. Remember
to place your third ward in one of The Tricky Trinket spots, but
only after these two expire. That gives you six minutes of ward
coverage.

Spot 1A: This is the main location to protect yourself from

junglers and mid-laners.

Spot 1B: If you place this ward farther into the jungle. you
and your solo-laners can harass when the jungler is at Raptors.

Spot 2A: This lovely spot protects you from most junglers
ganking through tri-bush.

Spot 2B/C: If you ward farther back, you can actually see
their jungler taking Red Buff or Krugs. Only ward in spot 2C if
their Red is spawning soon; otherwise, ward spot 2B.
48
 3.2 Practice Safe Warding
Supports are extremely squishy. In competitive games, you
often see teammates accompanying Supports to place deep
wards, and control vision around objectives (Dragon, Baron). In
solo queue you wont always have a teammate with you, so you
will need to exercise more caution:

Approach Your Destination Cautiously

Enemies may have spotted you approaching; if their wards
give you away, they could easily rotate over to prevent you from
warding, or simply wait in a bush for you to walk up. Before you
ward (a somewhat risky location), glance at your mini-map, and
predict where everyone is (use whatever knowledge is available;
junglers could be clearing camps, mid-laners could be roaming,
and Supports could be warding).

If you have a skill shot, use it to check bushes beforehand.

Sweeper will also spawn a drone that detects enemies inside of
bushes (the movement indicator is delayed by about a second,
so give it time to reveal someone, before rushing in).

Ward from a Distance

Dont enter a bush before warding: If the enemy is inside,
theyll instantly try to kill you. Place the ward, while standing as
far away as possible (your crosshair will change from blue to
green to indicate the ward will be placed inside of the bush).

Duo-Queue Coordination
If you duo-queue with an AD, we highly recommend using a
program like Skype to communicate; not only can you ask for
assistance while warding, but you can ask for a Farsight Totem
(Blue Trinket) to scout out the area.

49
 Trigger Fingers
Keep your finger on Flash, ready to use it at a moments
notice. Some players are very sneaky, and may blindside you
around a corner or fire a skill-shot from the fog of war. As long
as youre ready to Flash, you can escape the majority of these
situations.

3.3 Fight the Good Fight (Counter-Vision)

Once you purchase Sightstone, immediately switch out your
Yellow trinket for Sweeper you no longer need the extra ward.
With a Sweeper, you can begin clearing the enemys vision and
give your jungler more opportunities to gank; youll also force
the enemy bot-lane into playing more passively (ideally, they
wont trade back as much after you clear their vision). You have
two options for removing vision: Pink Wards and Sweepers.
Lets look at where Pink Wards are most effective.

Lets get in range!

50
 Pinks Are Forever (Blue)

Spot 1A: This is the most effective Pink; it denies vision of

the tri-bush, giving your jungler more opportunities to gank.

Spot 1B: Youll have a much more difficult time defending

your Pink here, but it also gives you a bit more protection while
pushing the wave. Only Pink here if youre controlling lane well.

Spot 1C: This is the least likely spot youll Pink, but it sets
your jungler up very well for lane ganks and also gives you great
control of the bush. If youre even in lane, this is a good option.
If youre being shoved in often, this ward will disappear quickly.

51
 Pinks Are Forever (Red)

Spot 1A: This is also the most effective Pink on Red Side; it
denies vision of river, opening up more opportunities to gank.

Spot 1B: This spot protects you from any river-ganks, but
keep in mind that if the enemy jungler does walk this way, itll
likely be the first ward to go.

Spot 1C: This spot lets your jungler gank through lane. But
be careful; Pinking this spot makes it obvious a gank is coming.

Sweepers
While youre warding around the map, the enemy Support
will likely be warding too (or will have already warded). One of
the most important skills to develop is awareness; specifically
your awareness of where the enemy Support has warded. You
can make a fairly accurate guess by asking yourself
52
 When the enemy Support returned (after recalling), did
he enter lane normally, or come in at an angle? If he
came in at an angle, where could he have warded?

If the enemy Support disappeared for five or ten seconds

while laning, how far could he have walked during that
time, and where did he likely ward?

Where have they previously warded, and how can I use

that information to predict where theyll ward again?

How many charges does his Sightstone have? Should I

call for a gank if hes out?

3.4 Team Fights and Objective Wards

Vision plays an important role in team fights kills (and
entire team fights) have been lost because an enemy escaped
into the fog of war, a team was flanked, or someone walked
around a corner, into two or three hidden enemies. Before a
team fight takes place, its your job to ward blind spots. With a
solid view of the enemys distribution, your teammates can
make better decisions.

An example of covering blind spots: When youre shoving a

wave into the enemys tier-one turret mid-lane, you should
ward the side bushes. The enemy top-laner could easily teleport
into one of those bushes, and any unseen enemy could flank
from there.

When team fights break out, its important to ward bushes

as enemies retreat into them. Your teammates need vision so
they can continue to auto-attack and cast spells accurately.
Always keep at least at least one ward on hand for this very
reason.
53
 Against stealth champions, like Akali or Rengar, youre
responsible for saving Sweepers and Pink wards for them. Pinks
are more effective than Sweepers when it comes to actually
detecting a stealthed champion (Pink wards instantly reveal
them, whereas Sweepers have a delay). Team fights can be won
by revealing an Akali in her shroud, a Vayne in her tumble, or a
Twitch sneaking around - these champions will completely
steamroll your team if they remain undetected.

Warding Dragon
Dragon isnt worth fighting for anymore - even though the
first Dragon will help your team scale into mid and late-game,
warding it is rarely a priority. Your team will typically take
Dragon only when its 100% free (the enemy jungler is on the
other side of the map, your team has a numbers advantage, or
you just killed someone bot-lane).

Its still beneficial to ward the entrance to Dragon in case

junglers hop over the wall for a gank. Junglers like Nunu and
Elise can also solo it early, so you should have vision to prevent
them from sneaking it (you can actually waste a huge chunk of
their time by letting them think they can take it, and then walk
over before Dragon falls below 2,000 health).

Rift Herald
Rift Herald is an objective that can be taken by two people
before 19:45 (it disappears at 19:55). This objective was created
to add more chaos top-side, and take away some from bot-lane.
The best part is - junglers and top-laners spend more time
contesting it, instead of teleporting and ganking other lanes. If
laning phase has ended bot-lane before 20 minutes, you could
duo Rift Herald with the jungler and push a lane with the buff
immediately afterwards.

54
 Baron
Baron is incredibly strong, requiring at least three people to
kill. Around the 25:00 minute mark, teams have the potential
to three-man Baron. With Kindred, this has changed to 20
minutes; as long as she has two other people tanking for her,
she can kill it within 30 seconds or less (depending on how far
ahead she is and how many marks she has gathered). Maintain
vision of the area from 25:00 on, or 19:40 against a Kindred.
Ward Baron 10-30 seconds before it spawns; teams dont often
expect this, and may forget to clear your vision with Pinks or
Sweepers before starting it.

3.5 Alternative Wards and Warding Techniques

Wards arent just for protecting yourself from ganks - once
mid-game rolls around, you have the entire map at your
disposal. Theres also a special warding technique that places
wards farther than usual - using this technique helps cut down
the time spent warding, and also keeps you out of harm's way.

Go-Go-Gadget Warding
Certain areas of the map are filled with restricted terrain;
placing a ward in one of these areas will force the ward to the
closest terrain available. For the following pictures, stand on
top of the Blitzcrank icon, place a ward on the green arrow, and
watch your ward take flight!

Let me guide you.

55
 Map Hacks (Red Bot-lane)

As you enter lane on red-side, you can ward this bush safely
by standing against the wall from either side and warding over
using this technique. This method saves you time by not having
to walk over to the area you want to ward, and its also safer.
For the rest of the images, make sure you stand right next to the
wall before placing the ward. Too much of a gap between you
and the wall will result in the ward dropping right in front of
you, instead of the intended location.

There are countless walls and angles which can grant you
vision in interesting areas, but most of them are very situational
and only needed in the middle of combat. Experiment with
different walls until you incorporate some of the different spots
into your style. You may even find a creative use for a ward that
no one else has discovered yet.

56
Map Hacks (Red Side, Dragon)

Map Hacks (Blue Jungle)

57
 Map Hacks (Turrets)

58
Alternative Wards (Extra Vision)

Alternative Wards (Sneaky Baron)

59
Alternative Wards (TP Flanks)

Alternative Wards (Sneaky Red)

60
 Chapter 3
Recap

3.1 Who, What, Where, When, and Why?

Use whatever vision you have to protect yourself.

3.2 Practice Safe Warding

Exercise caution when warding. Your life depends on it.

3.3 Fight the Good Fight

Take out your opponents wards, deny information, and
allow your jungler to sneak through.

3.4 Team Fights and Objectives

Maintain vision of the enemy in team fights, and ward
Baron before it spawns.

3.5 Alternative Wards

Use your wards effectively and creatively.

61
 Chapter 4
Minion Management

62
 4.1 *Brr* Its Freezing Outside
Minion management: easy to learn, but difficult to master.
By controlling the minion wave, you can:

Earn more gold for your AD, and less for theirs.
Earn more experience, while also denying their bot-lane.
Create more gank opportunities for your jungler, as well
as deny their jungler any gank opportunities.
Create better scenarios for harassing.
Prevent your opponents from committing to fights and
small trades (which quickly add up).

Before you worry about freezing the wave, practice reading

the wave; this means paying attention to which way its headed.
If you attempt to freeze a wave thats already shoving, youre in
for a very bad time. Likewise, when you notice a wave is shoving
towards you, you may change your mind about shoving out the
wave.

There are two different ways to control the wave: Freezing

and Shoving. Freezing requires both you and your AD to stop
all damage (if you have Targons, wait until the minion is about
to die; the longer you wait, the slower the lane pushes).

Indecision is failure.

63
 So why do we freeze?

To zone enemies off the wave. By freezing, we can focus

on harassing and zoning our opponents after successfully
harassing them.

To put our opponents in a vulnerable position. If they

want to farm, make them position farther up the lane.

To protect us from ganks by holding the wave near our

turret. Very rarely will junglers dive an opponent under
their turret, with more than 50% health.

To give our top or mid-laner the opportunity to teleport

in from behind. Freezing the wave near our turret gives
them more room to chase.

To avoid losing minions to turret. If we freeze the wave

just outside of turret range, our tower wont accidentally
kill minions, and our opponents are less likely to zone us.

To build up a huge wave, shove it in, and tower dive. This

is typically done as an afterthought to freezing; with a
large enough wave, we can apply enormous amounts of
pressure once it hits our opponents tower.

There are two different scenarios you would freeze:

The first scenario: Freezing against two opponents. This

inevitably leads to trading; if you are stronger, you can freeze by
zoning their bot-lane and ignoring the wave entirely. Whenever
they walk up to last-hit, move forward in an aggressive manner
and prevent them from framing. Most lanes will fight to regain
control, so expect some heavy resistance.

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 There are many factors which determine whether or not
youll out-trade the enemy, but typically youll need an item
advantage, a level advantage, or a health pool advantage. Even
if youre behind in terms of damage, you could have managed to
out-trade them; if both you and your AD are at 75% health, and
theyre both at 40% health, you should look to freeze the wave
and zone them.

The second scenario: Freezing when one (or two) of the

enemies have recalled (or left lane). If they thought ahead, and
shoved the wave to turret, freezing will be difficult to pull off.
However, when the wave stagnates in the middle of the lane,
you can simply keep it there and zone whoever is in lane (which
should be relatively easy, since hes by himself).

If a wave is shoving towards your turret, but your wave has

already died, you have the option to tank the wave so it freezes
just outside of turret range. You will take quite a bit of damage,
but its often worth freezing the wave to put your opponents in
a vulnerable position when they return.

Know your
environment.

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 4.2 Shove, Shove, Shove Your Wave
When you have more minions than the enemy, the wave
will eventually shove. You have two options: Let the wave shove
naturally, or speed up the process with spells and auto attacks.
Here are the advantages to shoving:

Roam Opportunities
For the first four minutes, roaming doesnt typically benefit
your team. After four or five minutes, roaming by yourself (or
with your AD) becomes incredibly profitable if a kill is secured
(or a Summoner Spell is forced). Before roaming, shoving is
highly recommended, since it helps your AD to farm safely, and
prevents you from falling behind in levels. If you roam without
shoving, you can fall behind in levels, and lose pressure in lane.

Deny Minions
When you shove a large wave into the enemys turret, they
are forced to (1) focus on farming and (2) avoid harass. If they
return your harass, your wave will focus them, and theyll miss
farm, while also taking free damage.

Vision/Dragon Opportunities
Force the enemy into a choice: farm the wave thats pushed
to turret, or contest Dragon. If you shove in and begin Dragon,
bot-lanes will often have a difficult time deciding between the
two (ideally your jungler is on board for this plan).

Warding afterwards is also easier, as your opponents cant

stop you from warding certain bushes, and if you need to roam
up river to ward, youll have plenty of time to return to lane.

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 Turret Damage
Depending on what your goals are for the lane, shoving into
turret could simply be a means to deny creeps, or give you the
opportunity to chip away at their turret. During the early stages
of laning phase, you should take pot shots at their turret if
youre ranged (otherwise let the AD hit it). Once its down to
20-30% health, you can:

Quickly take it before diving.

Pressure your opponents off the wave more easily. If they
know their turret is going to fall, they might retreat, and
forfeit a wave.
Tank it later with a teammate.

Lets say both of your opponents are in lane (which will be

the case most of the time). When should you shove, and what
should you try to accomplish afterwards?

Mid-laner Kill or Jungler Kill Force Dragon

Your jungler or mid laner just picked off someone: With a
numbers advantage, your team can quickly take down Dragon
(they start pinging you over). Shove the wave quickly to pick up
the gold and experience and then head over.

Jungler Roams Around Dive

Your jungler may have snuck around and is waiting behind
the enemy turret, or near a bush. He pings someone, and clearly
wants to dive. Shove the wave, and coordinate a dive with him.

No Jungler Harass Under Turret

Pay attention to the mini-map and look for opportunities to
shove when their jungler is near mid or top-lane. You shouldnt
continue to pressure if you havent the slightest clue of where
their jungler (or mid-laner) is (apply pressure for a wave or two,
but dont continue; chances are, theyve pinged for assistance,
and their jungler is on the way). Watch out for TP flanks too.

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 Chapter 4
Recap

4.1 *Brr* Its Freezing Outside

Freeze at the right time.

4.2 Shove, Shove, Shove Your Wave

Shove at the right time.

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Chapter 5
Roam the Seven Seas

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 5.1 Is Roaming in Your Blood?
Roaming is an extremely powerful (and fun!) strategy. For a
while, professional teams were basing their entire early-game
strategies off of Support roams. KiWiKiD (Support for Dignitas)
was known as The Based Roam God for making so many plays
when roaming early-game. Lets take a look at some of the best
(and worst) Supports to roam with:

God-Tier: Annie, Alistar, Blitzcrank, Leona, Morgana,

Nautilus, Thresh

Mid-Tier: Braum, Janna, Nami, Nunu*, Sona, Taric, Zilean

Low-Tier: Karma, Lulu, Zyra

Forget About It-Tier: Soraka

*Nunu has an AS buff for taking towers, but no kill potential.

Champions with heavy CC, long-range spells or gap closers,

and a mix between mobility and durability are great for picking
up kills and forcing enemies to use their summoners. Nothing is
more terrifying than being dove by an Alistar or Blitzcrank as a
mid-laner. Champions with low amounts of CC should forget
about roaming, especially since their kit is often geared towards
laning phase (i.e. high amounts of sustain, defensive utility).

They will suffer.

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 5.2 Whose Lane is it Anyways?
Roaming is always an option, but that doesnt mean you
should roam every game. There are a few factors to take into
consideration before roaming.

The first, and most important consideration, is the current

status of your lane. Perhaps you and your AD are struggling to
farm, taking constant harass, and are losing lane in general.
Roaming when slightly behind is acceptable because your AD
still has the option to farm under turret; if hes too far behind
(in terms of experience and gold) roaming will exacerbate the
situation. Enemies will dive your AD when you leave, so avoid
roaming when your AD cant hold his own. Alternatively, youre
free to leave lane when your AD is ahead, or simply even. Make
sure you communicate that youre roaming though, as he may
play aggressively thinking youre there (when youre not).

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 Even if youre playing a champion that excels at roaming,
that doesnt mean you should roam. Youll need to consider the
ever-changing dynamic of mid and top-lane (whichever one you
plan to gank).

Whos stronger?
If a solo laner on your team is too far behind, ganking will
result in two different outcomes: (1) neither of you will have
enough damage to secure a kill; (2) your target is so far ahead,
hell kill you both.

Roams are more helpful to lanes that are slightly behind or

somewhat even; your teammate is more likely to use the small
advantage youve created to snowball the lane.

If your mid or top-laner is already winning lane, its still a

good idea to roam to their lanes, but your plans should slightly
change; for example, instead of just killing their solo-laner, try
and take an objective or two afterwards. Ideally, your solo-laner
is far enough ahead, that hell roam to your lane instead.

Do they have escape mechanisms?

Dont force plays on champions with escape mechanisms.
Ahri, Vladimir, and Tristana, are tremendously difficult to lock
down; if you do gank one of these champions, dont look for
kills - force out their Summoner Spells. Once their Flash, Ghost,
or Barrier is on cooldown, your jungler or mid-laner will have a
much easier time killing them later.

Where have they placed wards?

There are two ways to navigate ward coverage; the simplest,
would be to ask your teammates where they are. A simple, Is
mid warded? will suffice. Usually theyll respond with an idk,
but sometimes theyll tell you exactly where its warded.

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 How do they behave when you approach?
As you approach, pay attention to how they respond. Does
their mid-laner move backwards for just a split-second, then
continue as usual? Was he dodging spells, or avoiding you? If
he spotted you, maybe he decided to stay because his jungler is
nearby, or believes he can outplay the situation. He may also be
wasting your time.

5.3 Timing Roams

Timing is important; leave lane too early, and your AD will
have to farm alone (often times, the enemy bot-lane will zone
him). Leave lane too late and you miss out on opportunities. So
what are the best times to roam?

After Shoving
When you shove to turret, the enemy will be preoccupied
with farming their wave. This provides you with plenty of time
for a roam to mid lane (return to bot-lane immediately after, or
your AD will have to farm alone; avoid this at all costs).

After ten minutes, you could ask your AD to roam with you;
these types of roam are great! Once mid-lane turret is down,
your mid-laner has the opportunity to roam top and bot-lane a
lot more often. You should only rotate if their turret is less than
40% health; any more than that, and youll spend way too much
time taking the turret, and your opponents will punish you for it
by taking your turret bot-lane.

After Recalling
Roaming immediately after recalling generates an element
of surprise. Keep in mind that as soon as you reveal yourself in
a different location, your AD will quickly be pressured off the
wave. After your gank attempt, head back to lane right away.

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 After The Enemy Leaves Lane
When your opponents arent in lane, you dont need to sit
there watching your AD farm. If you can spare the experience (a
good rule of thumb is to never fall behind more than two levels)
try and roam mid-lane. If you fall behind from roaming, it could
mean one of two things: (1) youre not succeeding enough when
you do roam or (2) youre roaming too often. Try and determine
where your weakness lies, and stop yourself from repeating it.

5.4 Follow the Yellow Brick Road

There are three reasons to roam:

To take objectives.
To pick up kills (or force summoner spells).
To acquire vision.

Depending on your goals, your pathing is going to change

completely. Lets say you want to roam mid-lane: now you have
to worry about wards, junglers, and sometimes roaming mid-
laners. Decide how much of a risk youre willing to take before
heading out. The more risk, the greater the reward.

Squishy Supports, like Sona, may consider taking relatively

safer pathways. Tankier Supports, such as Leona, are durable
enough to survive most run-ins with the law.

I will break their line.

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 Roam Routes (Blue Bot-Lane)

For blue side, your jungle is relatively safe and typically not
warded (sometimes you have a better chance of sneaking into
mid-lane this way, since their mid-laner wont notice you). The
alternative paths (river and the enemy jungle) prove dangerous,
but once again the more risk you take, the greater the reward.

To choose what pathway to take near the end of your roam,

observe how far up the enemy mid laner is positioned; if hes
relatively close to your mid-lane turret, theres merit to both the
blue and yellow pathway. If hes positioned in the middle of the
lane, you may opt to walk through the red or yellow path (as the
blue path would net you no benefit). Also think about where the
enemy jungler could be; these two factors often dictate how you
approach mid.

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 Roam Routes (Red Bot-Lane)

Red side offers less flexibility, because there are only two
pathways to choose from. River offers a safe and generic path
that is typically free of junglers, while the alternative route is a
dangerous bend through the enemy jungle. (Notice that you can
Flash over the Raptor-pit for a surprise, but be sure your mid-
laner is on the same page.)

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 Roam Routes (Blue Base)

Roaming from base gives you more opportunities to roam

mid and top-lane. Oddly enough, the most effective pathways
may not be the most dangerous ones (as opposed to roaming
from bot-lane)! Read the situation of each lane and try to figure
out a good approach. Many times your decision will be affected
by what type of CC your solo lanes have, and what type of
mobility their opponent has.

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 Roam Routes (Red Base)

Above are the corresponding roam routes for red side. Note
that these routes can be used in sequence: For example, after
attempting to gank top, you can roam through mid-lane as you
head bot. Instead of squeezing your way through mid (while
hugging your own turret), you should attempt to apply pressure
by ganking through either the yellow or red path. You may not
accomplish anything spectacular (especially if their mid-laner
just saw you gank top), but these types of roams capitalize on
enemies that lack awareness.

Ganking top-lane can help offset unfavorable match-ups for

your top-laner. Just be aware that the waters up there are
murky - the enemy jungler could be lurking nearby. This tactic
works best when you know their jungler wont be nearby for a
counter-gank. Ganking top-lane is also time consuming, so
make sure your AD has enough health, sustain, and protection
to survive while youre gone.
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 Laning-Phase Wards (Blue Side)

Warding
Sometimes roams turn into scouting missions, in which you
place wards throughout enemy territory. The more vision your
team has, the better decisions theyll make. They can time their
aggression with ease once they see the enemy jungler. Plus, you
apply pressure to solo lanes as you ward from your presence
alone. Dont forget about those warding techniques we talked
about in Chapter 3; this is when theyre especially handy.

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 Laning-Phase Wards (Red Side)

5.5 Use the Buddy System

Roaming with a buddy (usually your jungler) is a fantastic
way to ward deeper, and make ganks twice as scary. Whenever
you find yourself roaming, and have the urge to ward deep, ping
for assistance and ask a teammate to follow you (dont expect
your teammates to always lend a helping hand; they often have
better things to do like farming or shoving, but its a good idea
to ask).

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 Chapter 5
Recap

5.1 Is Roaming in Your Blood?

Roam with champions designed to kill. Give em the old 1-2.

5.2 Whose Lane is it Anyways?

Analyze the current status of every lane before roaming.

5.3 Timing Roams

Maximize efficiency.

5.4 Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Experiment with different roam paths; adjust accordingly.

5.5 Use the Buddy System

Hold hands with teammates while roaming.

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 Chapter 6
Ganks

82
 6.1 Anticipating Ganks
Junglers are everywhere, lurking in the shadows, watching
our every move. By the time you see them coming, its too late;
your AD is screaming for help as a hostile Warwick starts eating
his corpse for dinner.

Anticipating ganks is a useful skill. What if:

Your vision has expired.

The enemy has cleared your vision.
You didnt ward deep enough.
Or their jungler crept around your wards.

In any of these scenarios, you can reduce the possibility of

dying to a gank by playing passively when you suspect a gank is
about happen. What are some ways we can predict a gank?

Jungle Routes (Early Levels)

Junglers will rarely gank after clearing their first two camps
because of the high risk of failure. If a jungler starts on bot-side
(which happens about 90% of the time), you know they wont
gank until three minutes and thirty seconds have passed (this is
how long it takes them to finish their initial clear).

At 7:05, junglers will typically start their second clear (it

takes five minutes for a buff to respawn, and if they killed their
first one at 2:05, their second will respawn at 7:05). If their
jungler hasnt made an appearance since 7:00, hes most likely
at his Red/Blue Buff, and will spend the next minute clearing
other camps. Theres a sweet spot of aggression where you can
look to fight, knowing their jungler is busy (~7:05-7:45).

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 Global Ultimates
Once someone has their global ultimate (Pantheon, Shen,
Twisted Fate, Nocturne, etc.) you can bet your first born baby
theyre looking to use it bot-lane. Surprisingly (but not really),
bot-lane is a huge targets for those with global ultimates.
Theres two potential kills, plus its easier to dive, knowing two
other teammates are there to follow-up.

There are two ways to deal with globals: You can either play
passively until the enemy decides to use them elsewhere, or you
can attempt to bait it out. To bait out a global, you would need
to purposefully overextend, then run away once it starts; using
this technique is both dangerous and fun! Successfully baiting
an enemy will waste their time and relieve pressure elsewhere.

Jungler Level
Depending on who youre dealing with, tracking their level
will help you determine when their next gank will be. Warwick
and Shyvana are great examples of junglers who wont usually
gank until Level Six. Once they have their ultimates, you need
to place even more wards down. This doesnt apply to early-
game junglers such as Lee Sin, Jarvan IV, or RekSai (you would
place wards for these junglers much, much earlier on).

Success Effect
Once a jungler successfully ganks your lane, theyll feel a
positive jolt of validation; psychologically speaking, theyll feel
the need to repeat that success (experience the same release of
dopamine). Avoid his next few gank attempts by continuing to
ward. Lay low until he strikes somewhere else - theres a huge
chance hes going to gank again.

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 Here are some other things to consider:

Jungler Play-Style
What type of play-style does their jungler have? This is a
behavior youll need to sniff out as the game progresses. Some
junglers refuse to gank bot-lane; either theyre arguing with
their teammates, or had a bad experience in the previous game.
Other times, junglers prefer to camp a single lane, in the hopes
they snowball that lane enough to carry the entire game.

If you encounter a jungler who insists on camping, youll

have to play incredibly passive. Dont worry, you actually want
to be play against these junglers - as long as you ward well, and
avoid any of their silly gank attempts, they will lose pressure on
other lanes. Your jungler and solo-laners can take advantage of
this by pressuring other lanes even harder.

Crowd Control
Be careful against lanes with strong initiation; Supports like
Leona can quickly engage before you finish blinking; ADs like
Kalista and Ashe also have plenty of CC to lock you down. If you
notice the champions with CC trying to position themselves to
land their spells, it could indicate a gank.

Mess with the bull and

you get the horns!

85
 Behavioral Changes
Pay attention to the slight nuances in the behavior of both
the enemy Support and AD. Most players have a terrible poker
face when it comes to ganks, and will reveal their intentions as
long as you look for the right signs. Youre not looking for any
behavior specifically: Youre looking for a deviation from their
normal behavior.

Consider the following scenario: The enemy Support hides

behind their AD and only harasses when their AD does. Hes
clearly a passive Support. He leaves lane momentarily to ward,
and shortly after returning, changes his style and makes bold,
aggressive movements. Behavioral changes like these typically
occur when a jungler is ganking (the Support probably left to
sweep the area, and the jungler quickly moved in after seeing it
was clear).

Alternatively, some Supports continuously play aggressive

for a minute and suddenly stop. They probably changed their
style in an attempt to lure you in. Focus on these small details
and begin making judgment calls when you see a pattern being
disrupted.

6.2 Setting Up Ganks

Providing the right conditions for a successful gank
requires knowledge of enemy wards and a strong poker face.
There are two ways to deal with vision

Completely remove the enemys vision with Pink wards

or Sweepers.

Track the enemys wards, and guide your jungler around

them.

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 Removing vision is fairly straightforward; if you know
where their wards are, the easiest way to set a gank up is to
clear one of them, and guide your jungler through the opening.
(If you dont have the slightest clue where they have wards,
either tell your jungler to gank somewhere else, or let him do
whatever he wants). For the following images, weve given you
some recommendations on what to say when your jungler is
ganking:

Type: tri and river warded, gank through lane

Lets assume youre on Blue side, and the enemy has wards
in the above locations. Give the order to gank through lane - be
clear and concise so your jungler knows exactly how to proceed.
Remember, he may have other plans (ganking from a different
angle, or invading the enemy jungle).

Allow your jungler to make his own decisions while you act
as a beacon of information and guidance.

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 Type: tri warded, gank through river or lane

Type: river and lane warded, gank through tri

88
Type: lane and tri warded, gank through river

Type: too many wards, come back later

89
 Type: tri and river warded, gank through lane

Type: tri warded, gank through lane or river

90
Type: river and lane warded, go through their jungle

Type: tri and lane warded, gank through river

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 Type: too many wards, come back later

When your jungler starts moving in, its important to

synergize your movements with him. Engage onto the enemy at
the exact second your jungler appears. If you move too early,
the enemy will run away; if you wait too long, your jungler will
scare them off, and you wont be close enough to engage.

How has the enemy been responding to your previous

aggression? Do they fight back, or do they walk away? If they
fight back, you should return their aggression - if theyre willing
to trade, it could make it easier to land your CC or set your
jungler up (say the enemy Lucian uses his dash in a trade, now
your jungler doesnt have to worry about it). If they walk away,
theres no point in playing aggressively right before your jungler
ganks, as it will scare your target away.

92
 The success rate for your jungler increases the closer the
wave is to your turret. Freezing the wave outside of your turret
means your opponents would have to walk the entire lane just
to reach their turret. Junglers who have huge gap closers like
Elise, RekSai, Jarvan IV, Rammus, and Amumu thrive in these
situations. Notice how in each of the previous drawings, your
jungler has a much easier time ganking when the wave is close
to your turret.

Chapter 6
Recap

6.1 Anticipating Ganks

Read your opponents body language, and look for tells.

6.2 Setting Up Ganks

Track wards and communicate with your jungler.
Bonus points for timing wards.

93
 Chapter 7
Dealing With Disadvantages

94
 7.1 FeedAlert
Falling behind is frustrating; instead of using our reasoning
to play, we let our emotions take over. Everyone goes through
those games where they make poor decisions, or end up feeding
unnecessarily. One poor decision rolls over to the next. To avoid
this, we recommend you adopt a passive play-style once you fall
behind a certain amount.

Its incredibly easy to fall behind as a Support. You have a

low health pool (in most cases), and dying once or twice leaves
you with less experience than everyone else (contributing to an
even lower health pool). Imagine yourself with a shock-collar,
which well conveniently call FeedAlert. Each time you meet
one of the following conditions, this collar is going to send 300k
volts of electricity surging through your body. You may not live
for very long, but your play will improve significantly:

Two Deaths without Kills

Dying once without securing a kill or an assist is acceptable,
and you can easily recover. Dying twice however, will likely give
the enemy a level advantage and an item advantage. Youll also
lose pressure in your lane, which means the enemy Support can
do whatever they want to (roam, invade, or harass you all day).

After two deaths, play passively and avoid digging yourself

into an even deeper hole. Ask for assistance from your jungler,
and communicate with your AD to focus on farming in an effort
to survive laning phase without suffering more casualties. The
worst plan of action is to continue fighting and feed even more
kills. If your other lanes are winning, let them use their lead to
carry the game and possibly help you recover later on.

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 Two Deaths in the Last Two Minutes
Whether youre still laning, or have been roaming around,
dying twice within such a short span of time will likely cause
frustration (and usually means you need to slow down). Take a
deep breath, and re-focus. After dying twice, recognize where
your lane is, and continue aggression (if its warranted), instead
of playing aggressively because thats what I need to do to get
back in the game.

Not Paying Attention

On the rare occasion you die because you werent paying
attention to the Mini-map, continue to practice your awareness.
If this happens, youll be beating yourself up anyways.

Supports usually end the game with either the most deaths,
or no deaths at all; theyre often the squishiest champions in the
game and have the least amount of money. Unfortunately,
Supports need to acquire vision, peel for teammates, and even
engage (all of which puts you in harms way). Again, if you find
yourself dying too often, continue to:

Position behind teammates.

Allow teammates to engage; avoid forcing fights/trades.
Only fight with a numbers advantage.
Ward, but do so cautiously (preferably with teammates).

7.2 When to Strike

Playing passive is only to prevent yourself from feeding the
entire game. League of Legends requires a mixture of passive
and aggressive decisions. Suppress your aggression until you
have an opportunity, and then capitalize immediately. We have
listed out times when you should play aggressively (i.e. engage
or force a fight). You can deviate from them if your team is far
ahead, but if youre behind, follow them even more closely.
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 Numbers Advantage
As long as you see four enemies on the mini-map, you can
estimate the relative strength of your squadron (whoever youre
grouped with) compared to the enemy teams squadron. You
should be able to do this instantly - if you cant, try practicing it
during your next game (25:00 onwards). When you have more
champions than the enemy does in a certain area of the map,
take soft-objectives, like turrets, or jungle camps. Focus on
objectives that your team can secure without having to contest
it. If the enemy contests these soft-objectives, only fight with a
numbers advantage (i.e. 4 against 3).

Vision Advantage
Making a pick means you caught the enemy off guard by
killing them when they lacked vision (sometimes they position
poorly, and your team lands CC or assassinates them). A pick is
done by either staying in one position until an opponent comes
close enough, or by navigating through the fog of war to cut off
someones path.

Picks can happen all over the map, at any given time, but
will only be successful if you stay within unwarded areas. If the
enemy sees your team grouped up in a bush, or moving around
somewhere, theyll likely walk away or outmaneuver you.

Contesting Objectives
Dragon and Baron deal massive AoE damage and can easily
reduce a teams overall health by 20-30% within a short time
period. Solo queue teams are often unorganized and make poor
decisions while finishing Baron (Dragons does considerably less
damage, and thus isnt a problem for teams). The most efficient
way to contest Dragon or Baron is to wait until the objective is
below 30%: Dance around while the enemy continues to take it;
dont engage immediately. Once Baron/Dragon is below 30%,
or the enemy team has taken enough damage, then you should
look to engage.

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 7.3 Ward Jammer
When behind, your opponents will control your jungle with
vision and pressure (taking your camps or pathing through it).
Retaking these areas requires counter-vision and general wards
to avoid any threats. In our pictures, we recommend you place
wards farther out so your team has time to react to invades, and
can still farm jungle camps safely.

The Alamo (Blue Side, Bottom)

Sweep the areas indicated by the red circles and ward at the
appropriate spots. You only have one sweeper so try and clear
the area thats most likely warded (use your knowledge of where
theyve warded in the past to predict where theyll ward in the
future).

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 The Alamo (Blue Side, Top)

You wont be able to ward every single location: Ask your

team for help, or distribute your wards as best as possible. Pay
attention to the enemy teams habits. If they consistently invade
your bottom jungle, prioritize warding that area, instead of your
top jungle. Take into consideration which objectives theyll go
for next, as thats the best indicator of their future plans.

Ive got a bogey

on my tail.

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 The Alamo (Red Side)

100
 7.4 Tower Defense
Theres no shame in tightly defending your inhibitor turrets
and turtling until the enemy makes a mistake or your team has
enough gold (and items) to win fights. Even though Baron
provides a strong boost to minions, teams can hold out if their
wave clear is strong enough.

To succeed at turtling, you need tight ward coverage. When

the enemy lacks vision while sieging, they miss more skill shots
and possibly make huge errors. Focus on pinking inside your
base to weaken the enemys ability to poke. Once they retreat,
ward farther out to secure vision and provide safer pathways for
your team.

Turret Defense (Blue Side, Upper)

101
 Turret Defense (Blue Side, Lower)

Having a ward in lane (#3s) is especially useful to spot out

any rotations from one turret to the next. You can also react to
skill shots much faster if you keep vision out. The numbers next
to each ward indicate which tier turret youre defending. So for
tier-three turrets, you would have vision in most, but not all, of
the #3 spots.

102
Turret Defense (Red Side)

103
 Chapter 7
Recap

7.1 Feed-Alert
Avoid feeding by knowing when to play passive.

7.2 When to Strike

Take calculated risks when the situation is in your favor.

7.3 Ward Jammer

Prevent the enemy from controlling your jungle by counter-
warding.

7.4 Tower Defense

Turtle in your base for a longer period of time by properly
warding the surrounding area.

104
Chapter 8
Ending Games

105
 8.1 Aggressive Warding
In general, the longer a game lasts, the more opportunities
the enemy team has to recover (assuming youre ahead). There
are multiple ways to stay proactive throughout the game to give
yourself a chance to end. The sooner you destroy the enemys
nexus, the fewer chances they have to recover. The following
strategies are for games in which youre even, or ahead. Refer to
Chapter 7 for how to play when y behind (and even if youre
behind, you could manage to secure Baron, and then these
strategies would become viable again).

Warding deep gives you a huge advantage. With more

vision, youll have more information (and more opportunities to
pick players off). Teams usually attempt Baron late-game if
three or more enemies are spotted elsewhere; you must place
wards down first, before you can try such a sneaky play.

The Deeper, The Better (Blue Side)

106
Pinks Strengthen Control

107
 But Wait, Theres More!

8.2 Hands in the Cookie Jar

If you came home and found your little brother with his
hand in the cookie jar, would you:

A: Look the other way.

B: Join him and taste those sweet, sweet (diabetes-

infested) chocolate chip cookies.

C: Force him to clean your room, or else hes in BIG

trouble (and by trouble, we mean hes sleeping in the
streets tonight).

108
 This exercise gives you insight into how you would go about
punishing players for their positioning. If you chose A, then
youre the one whos in BIG trouble - always take advantage of
someone when theyre caught red-handed.

As soon as you see someone alone, put that killer instinct to

work, and ping your teammates over. Throughout mid-game,
look for these common situations, and try to capitalize on them:

Overextending
ADs and top laners are notorious for overextending in a
desperate attempt to farm. Often times, theyll do so without
any wards at all (unless they have Blue trinket, but even that
can be avoided).

Whenever you see someone overextending, ping them and

gather one or two teammates to take them out. In the previous
section, we talked about warding aggressively - if you maintain
strong vision in the enemys jungle, it makes everything a whole
lot easier. With vision, you can see enemies rotating, and know
exactly how far you can chase your target down without
running into trouble. You can also avoid walking into any traps
(smart players love to wait inside of bushes).

Junglers Jungling
Junglers (and anyone farming jungle camps) are easy to
punish, as long as you have vision. Once they start a camp, head
over with a teammate and take the camp, or go for the kill. They
probably already have one or two spells on cooldown, so theyre
likely to retreat. Once again, the more vision you have, the more
plays you can make.

109
 Wandering Supports
Youre not the only one placing deep wards. Other Supports
will wander around by themselves (or with a teammate) to
place wards. With deep wards youll see these players coming a
mile away. Either lay in wait, or cut them off to deny vision. If
your pick doesnt work out right away, dont chase - allies could
be rotating! Be happy you denied him the chance to ward, and
walk away victorious.

If theres one thing you learn from this, its that teams
arent coordinated in solo queue. As long as you have vision in
place, it becomes incredibly easy to pick someone off. Just pay
attention to how your opponents move around the map, and go
for isolated targets.

8.3 Pressuring Objectives

Your three main objectives are Baron, Dragon, and turrets.
Pressuring these objectives is dangerous, but the risk of taking
them can be mitigated through precautionary steps, like proper
warding and quick (but appropriate) shot-calling.

Sieging turrets is fairly straightforward. These can be taken

at any time regardless of whether your team is fully grouped or
not. You should usually pressure turrets when you have:

A Numbers Advantage
Whether youre pressuring a turret with two, three, or four
other teammates, never siege when the enemy has more players
defending, than you do. Pay attention to enemies rotating, as
they may easily flank your team, or hard-engage before your
team can retreat. Be patient while sieging - if the circumstances
arent right, come back later.

110
 Higher Health Pools
When your team has strong poke, you may not need to
worry about which team has the numbers advantage. If your
team lands enough poke, they wont be able to engage, and will
likely give you a free turret.

Better Wave Clear

Most teams have one or two champions with strong wave
clear, like an Ahri or Caitlyn. Sieging against these champions is
usually ineffective (and if you continue to siege, youll lose
pressure in other lanes). If the enemy team has strong wave
clear, theres two ways to deal with it:

1: Let a teammate split in another lane and create

pressure there. Continue to siege the lane youre in, and
keep whichever enemy has strong wave clear
preoccupied with your own pressure. Your teammate in
the other lane wont have to deal with it, and should be
able to secure a turret or a kill.

2: Simply push through the wave clear with some well-

timed aggression. The next time a wave comes in, walk
forward and pressure your opponents while continuing
to damage the turret (like usual).

Dont hold back.

111
 Avoid Flanks, Keep Sight (Blue)

When sieging, your main concern is a flank. Ward the areas

beneath you to maintain complete vision of the enemy. When
you push through the second-tier turret and begin pressuring
their inhibitor turret, ward over the wall. Enemies usually clear
the initial ward with a Sweeper, so continue to place wards until
they place a Pink. Its also important to sweep around the area
you are sieging (to prevent your opponents from TPing to it for
a flank).

Im on the case.

112
 Avoid Flanks, Keep Sight (Blue)

Another important ward for sieging the second-tier turret

mid-lane, is shown on the left (#2). This ward provides great
vision of the surrounding area and will allow your teammates to
fire skill shots with more accuracy.

While sieging the second-tier turret bot-lane, you have the

option to ward closer (#1a) or deeper (#1b). By warding deeper,
youll see whether the enemy plans to flank sooner, and also see
anyone hiding around the corner, but sometimes youll need to
ward in a safer location due to threats. Place your ward as deep
as possible.

Once again, the uppermost ward (#3) is needed for sieging

inhibitor turrets because youll have little to no vision of the
enemy without it; having vision while youre waiting for the
next wave to arrive opens up opportunities to poke.
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Avoid Flanks, Keep Sight (Red)

114
 The second most dangerous objective is Dragon (right after
Baron). You should only look to take Dragon if at least one of
the following conditions are met:

Distant or Dead Enemies

If Dragon is warded, enemies may rotate over to contest it.
Dragon is easily taken when enemies are dead, have recalled, or
are too far away to respond. You should ideally have a numbers
advantage too (4 against 2, 3 against 1).

Teamwork
The more teammates you have, the faster youll kill Dragon,
and the less damage your team will take overall. Dont attempt
Dragon unless you have three or more teammates. An exception
to this rule; if you have Nunu, Kalista, Elise, Vayne, or Kindred,
then you can take Baron rather quickly with two people.

Vision Removal
Even though the game automatically keeps track of timers,
denying vision will still discourage teams from contesting it. Try
to have at least a Pink or Sweeper ready to clear out vision.

Health Pools
Dont start Dragon with low health: Not only does Dragon
deal AoE damage, but a single enemy could kill everyone if your
team is low to begin with.

Today is a good
day to die.

115
 Dragon Wards (Blue/Red)

116
 Baron is arguably the most dangerous objective in the
entire game. Teams have thrown countless times, but have also
made huge comebacks, all because of this one silly objective. To
keep things running smoothly (for all of you Dignitas fans, you
know how hard this is), you need to shotcall. Weve listed out a
few different strategies for Baron, and what you should type, to
keep your team on track.

Bait baron, dont start.

Against very passive teams, you need to bait them out. You
might be ahead (or even), but either way, the enemy team isnt
willing to fight. In order to provoke them, clear their vision, and
wait around Baron. You could even sit inside of the pit (many
teams fall for this). Whatever you do, DONT start Baron - you
cant afford to take free damage. This strategy is geared towards
games when your team is ahead, or slightly even.

Start baron, turn if they come.

Have your entire team focus Baron, but expect the enemy to
contest. When the enemy is in range, signal your teammates to
turn with an On My Way ping. This tactic should only be used
when your team is far ahead of the enemy (when you can afford
to take damage before a fight). Its a fantastic way to force out
teams if theyre turtling. If they dont contest, youve just picked
up a free Baron.

*Ping Baron Constantly*

If youve started Baron, and need the team to finish it (as
opposed to peeling off), constantly ping Baron. You should be
able to see whos coming, and decide - can we finish the Baron
beforehand or do we need to abandon ship?

117
 Warning: If Baron is around 2,000 health and youre on
Blue side - dont finish the Baron if the enemy jungler is waiting
to take it. Do your best to deny vision or knock the jungler out
of the way if your team keeps going (especially if youre playing
a champion like Alistar or Janna).

*Danger Ping Constantly*

You may have miscalculated your teams damage and Baron
is taking longer than expected. Use your Danger ping and
retreat. Dont hesitate to make this call - better safe, than sorry.

Baron Wards (Blue)

*Sweep the Red Circle; sweep Baron instead if you dont have a
Pink for it.

**You wont have the chance to ward every spot. However, you
should ward as many as possible.

118
 Baron Wards (Red)

8.4 Prioritizing Objectives

Now that weve discussed optimal approaches to each of the
three main objectives, lets talk about how you should prioritize
one over the other (after ~20:00, a.k.a mid-game).

Turrets:
If any first-tier turrets remain, these are your first priority.

When one of your minion waves is stacking and your team

has the ability to rotate over or follow it up immediately; you
wont risk losing another objective while taking the turret.

A specific turret is below 30-40% health. This could often be

tanked if your team has enough health. Otherwise, sieging it
will take a very short amount of time.
119
 If Baron and Dragon are dead, turrets are your only option.

Dragon:
When their jungler is spotted on the other side of the map or
isnt able to respond if your team starts Dragon.

Your team has the numbers advantage in that area; take the
objective while you have the chance (unless the enemy team
starts to threaten Baron).

If you have a big wave pushed to their turret and they have
poor vision around Dragon.

If youve chunked out one or two enemies, rendering them

useless if they contest Dragon.

Baron:
While an enemy inhibitor is down.

Three or more enemies are spotted on the other side of the

map, or have recalled.

After picking off two enemies (one doesnt necessarily give

you enough wiggle room to take Baron, unless youre baiting
the enemy with a numbers advantage, a viable strategy).

While Dragon is dead.

The enemy team has no vision on Baron, and your team can
quickly kill it with a Kalista, Nunu, ChoGath type champion.

120
 After winning a team fight, you may be presented with the
option of taking either Baron, or an inhibitor. Baron is often the
better option against a team with weak wave clear. Once you
begin sieging, your minions will be next to unkillable.

On the other hand, inhibitor(s) are better than Baron when

the enemy has strong wave clear and poke. If you were to take
Baron, you may find yourself unable to take turrets afterwards;
not to mention their poke could also prevent you from sieging.
(One Nidalee spear could chunk a carry to 30% health, and then
you could no longer siege).

Chapter 8
Recap

8.1 Aggressive Warding

Deep ward the enemy jungle to gather more information
your team.

8.2 Caught Red-Handed

Use deep wards to make picks.

8.3 Pressuring Objectives

Prepare objectives by warding the surrounding area.

8.4 Prioritizing Objectives

Shot-call for your team and lead them to the next objective.

121
 Chapter 9
Team Fights

122
 9.1 To Peel or Not to Peel
One of your responsibilities as a Support is to peel. Peeling
for teammates (or any carry) requires you to position by their
side and use spells, actives (Face of the Mountain), or your body
to soak up damage for him. In some cases, your AD already has
enough kite, so you can peel for another teammate, or focus on
engaging and making picks instead. Take into consideration:

Relative Strength
The goal of peeling is to give your carries more time to deal
damage. Therefore, you should peel for your AD when hes the
strongest member of your team; otherwise, look to peel for
whoever else has the most amount of sustained damage. Keep
in mind that peeling for an Annie is pointless if shes just going
to use her initial rotation, and walk away afterwards. You would
much rather spend time peeling for your AD who will deal more
damage over an extended amount of time (as long as your burst
carry deals their initial damage).

Mobility
KogMaw and Varus lack mobility; if you leave them alone
for more than a few seconds, the enemy team will likely focus
them down. Ezreal and Corki, on the other hand, have self-peel.
If your AD can peel for himself, peel for someone else instead.

Enemys Focus
Think about who your opponents have focused in the last
few team fights; they may need peel because the enemy team
considers them a higher threat than others. Their focus may
also change (before the fight breaks out) depending on how
someone is positioning; think who theyre prioritizing based on
perceived threat level and out of position.

123
 Some games youll play a champion that isnt built to peel.
You should know how you plan to approach team fights during
champion select. If youre last pick, and see the enemy has been
picking hard-engage champions (or assassins) like Zed, Talon,
or Wukong, then you could pick Janna and follow the advice in
this section. On the other hand, you may see Nidalee, Kalista, or
Orianna and realize that peeling isnt appropriate against that
type of poke-comp. Instead, you would pick a champion with
hard-engage (Leona, Thresh). In those games, you arent going
to spend that much time peeling (if at all).

9.2 Dichotomy of Styles

The Support role has two main styles. On the one hand, we
have safe and passive Supports; Nhat Nguyen would always say,
If Im not the last person to die, Im doing something wrong.
He used to main Janna and Soraka, and would approach team
fights with a Survivor mindset. He would try to stay alive and
provide constant utility (heals, shields, buffs) until dying.

On the other hand, we have Supports like Mata, who excel

at engaging (he always picked the perfect time to engage).
Matas Bruiser mindset was summed up well in one interview
where he explained that his strategy was to lock down at least
two or three targets, and if he could do that, he knew his team
could follow up. Lets talk about some of the characteristics of a
Survivor style:

Stand Behind the Front-Line

Allow your bruisers to establish a front line while you stand
behind them, using them as meat shields. Follow your carries
around when the team fight ends, so youre by their side for the
next fight (placing down wards when possible).

124
 Kite
Constantly move your character in an attempt to dodge skill
shots. Spend time walking backwards and sideways, instead of
forward (to keep your health pool high as high as possible). Pay
attention to skill-shots so youre ready to side-step them (if
theyre going to hit your AD, it may be wiser to tank them).

Peel and Conserve Spells

Save your utility spells for when your AD needs peeling;
avoid using them for harass or initiation, unless its absolutely
necessary to win the team fight.

Show Calculated Aggression

When your spells are on cooldown, sit even farther behind
the front line. Only walk towards the enemy when you plan to
use a spell; otherwise, stand next to your carries.

Be Willing to Walk Away

When the team fight is looking grim, dont hesitate to cut
your losses and walk away. Sticking around would only give the
enemy more chances to kill you.

These champions excel at the Survivor fighting style:

Bard
Fiddlesticks
Janna
Karma
Lulu
Morgana
Nami
Nunu
Sona
Soraka
Zilean
Zyra
125
 The Bruiser style involves a more aggressive approach.
Instead of surviving and peeling for your teammates, youll act
like a tank, soaking up massive amounts of damage, and using
spells to lock down enemy champions.

Man the Harpoons

Maintain a front line for your team to hide behind. The flow
of a team fight is determined by you - either push forward or
backwards, based on your read of the situation. Your team will
follow suit, because after all, youre the front-line.

Engage
Focus on landing a solid engage for your team. Locking
down two or three enemies with a single spell could secure a
team fight from the very start.

Intercept Skill Shots

Purposely tank damage so your teammates with a smaller
health pool can survive longer. You should also stand in front of
your carries when the enemy is looking to land CC (Blitzcrank,
Nautilus, and Thresh hooks).

Follow Enemies
Instead of standing next to your carries, actively follow the
enemys movement until your spells are off cooldown. You need
to aggressively position so you can lock down priority targets as
soon as your spells are off cooldown.

Be Willing to Die
This play style puts you in harms way more often than not.
Ideally the enemy will have attempted to focus you, so your
teammates have more time to deal damage. Dying is acceptable
when playing with this mindset.

126
 These champions excel at the Bruiser fighting style:

Alistar
Annie
Blitzcrank
Braum
Kennen
Leona
Morgana
Nautilus
Poppy
Taric
Thresh

Dont fixate on a single play style too strictly each team

fight. Youll find that a mixture of the two is appropriate
depending on which champion youre playing, as well as the
team composition for each side, and how strong (or weak) your
team is, compared to the other.

Lets say youre playing Blitzcrank Support with Tristana as

the AD. You wont peel for Tristana too often because her kiting
is already very strong; however, Blitzcrank excels at peeling, but
also proves to be a very strong front-liner. Blitzcrank will often
sit in the front-line, throw a hook, and then immediately look to
peel for his teammates (if he misses).

Morgana and Thresh are both champions with the potential

to dive an enemy team and act as an obnoxious front liner, but
are also amazing at peeling. As the Support, it is ultimately your
decision whether to engage or peel for your carries during a
skirmish or team fight. These decisions define your own play-
style as a Support. Its a complex role and theres no right or
wrong - only tactics that work, and tactics that dont work.

127
 9.3 Threats, Weaknesses, and Strengths
The first step to winning a team fight is to understand how
the enemy intends to win their team fight. If you know what the
other team plans to do, you can counter their strategy. Some
teams rely heavily on one player to deal all their damage, while
other teams play towards the strengths of their composition.

Single Fed Player

When the enemy team only has one fed player, youll need
to focus that person down. This will prove difficult if they have
a strong front line, so youll have to either flank the enemy or
ignore their front line altogether and push through (focus the
front-line and kite around until their carry is out of position).

Two Fed Players

Take them out one by one - dont split your damage. Focus
whoever has the least mobility.

Team Composition
Here are your typical solo queue comps:

Full Physical Damage

These teams only deal physical damage. Buy multiple
armor items (melee Supports rush Face of the Mountain,
then Frozen Heart; ranged Supports buy Frozen heart if
its applicable to your hero. Janna and Nami should,
Brand and Zyra shouldnt).

Area of Effect
Teams with an Annie, Amumu, Morgana, Fiddlesticks, or
Karthus are incredibly scary to team fight against. Your
best bet is to split push; these teams are ineffective when
forced to lane against players. When team fighting, keep
your team spread out and avoid clumping. Rush Aegis
and Locket.
128
 Pick Comps
These teams will avoid head on team fights since theyre
more effective at skirmishes (1v1s, 2v2s). Stay grouped
and look to team fight. Pay close attention to where the
assassins are around the map (avoid skirmishing), and
remember to exhaust them in team fights.

Poke Comps
These comps slowly decrease your teams overall health
before committing to a full blown team fight. Theyll kite
backwards if you attempt to engage so they can continue
poking. Chasing will almost always result in you losing
(since they can poke while kiting). Either land a solid
engage, or wait until you have another opportunity later.
Flanks are especially dirty against poke comps.

Look for weaknesses in the enemys team composition or

individual players. Given the frustrating nature of solo queue,
youll notice some players giving up or playing poorly as a result
of their own frustration. Theres no shame in abusing players
who have a weak mental fortitude. Players such as these tend to
wander around and constantly play aggressively. These arent
the only types of weaknesses though:

Wanderers
Enemies are sometimes too adventurous and deserve to be
punished for wandering into your territory alone.

Lone Wolves
These players refuse to group and constantly split push the
entire game. Group up and pressure any objective; the other
team will contest without their fifth player (4v5), at which point
you can team fight with a numbers advantage.

129
 AFKs
Similar to Lone Wolves, theres no need to empathize with
teams that have AFKs. Continue to pressure objectives and play
extremely aggressive with a numbers advantage.

Laggers
Show no mercy. Kindness is a weakness in League.

Weak Tanks
Certain team comps will fall off mid-game because they lack
tanks or fail to build defensively. In these situations, you can
focus the front-line, take them down quickly, and push through.

Weak Carries
When the enemy team has a strong front-line (tanks), but a
weak back-line (carries), youll still be able to focus anyone you
want without repercussions. The enemy team will have little to
no damage with weak carries, so look to team fight and punish
their lack of damage.

Observe the strengths of your team and play towards them.

When determining how to play with your team composition,
refer to this list:

AoE Comp
Group and team fight. Wait for the enemy to clump before
engaging.

Pick Comp
Split-push and stay in laning phase as long as possible.
Assassins on your team benefit from laning phase because they
excel at dueling. When team fighting, look for stragglers and
focus them down before engaging head-on in a 5v5.

130
 Poke Comp
Sieging turrets and kiting back are the two main strengths
of this comp. Never hard-engage with a poke comp; whittle
down the enemy before engaging or pressuring objectives.

Split Comp
These comps revolve around having a strong solo laner who
scales into late-game. Let him push, while the rest of your team
groups in another lane. No one can duel your solo laner 1v1, and
if they send additional players to deal with him, youll have the
numbers advantage in a different lane; from there, look to push
down turrets or contest objectives.

Play around your strongest teammate.

Chapter 9
Recap

9.1 To Peel or Not to Peel

That is the question.

9.2 Dichotomy of Styles

Perfect both the Survivor and the Bruiser style.

9.3 Discerning Threats, Weaknesses, and Strengths

Play to the strengths of your team composition and the
weaknesses of the enemys composition.

131
 Chapter 10
Mentality

132
 10.1 Goals (Focus)
Mentality is often overlooked. Those looking to improve are
told to work on their last hitting (or in the case of Support, their
ability to set up last hits), better their map awareness, watch
replays, and look into professional streams. These are all great
ideas, but at the end of the day, your mentality can still stop you
from reaching your full potential.

There are three parts to a good mentality:

Focus, Optimism, and Stoicism

Do you have a goal? Maybe you want to reach Challenger.

Maybe you want to reach the next tier. Maybe you see League of
Legends as a recreational hobby, and find that improving is its
own reward. Weve decided to write our own stories to give you
an idea of how we approached the game:

Pseudonaut
At the beginning of Season 3, I did my promos and climbed
up to Platinum 1 rather quickly. Once there, I began to goof off
by picking random champions for Support, instead of playing to
win. I never had any goals for myself, and as a result, ended up
losing quite a few of my games. Losing never phased me, since I
just ended up rationalizing losses as games I wasnt even trying
to win. Once I found Imaqtpies stream (former AD for DIG), I
realized what an inspiration this guy was. Not only did he pick
troll champions, but he played them so mechanically well that it
didnt matter whether he went AD Thresh he would still reach
legendary status (9-0-0) by 20 minutes anyways. That, coupled
with his attitude, gave me a reason to climb, and so I started to
actively focus on my gameplay (and every so often, play Veigar).

133
 Climbing from Platinum 1 to Diamond 2 was somewhat of a
challenge, but in order to queue up with Qtpie, I had to reach
Diamond 1. The promotion series for Diamond 1 was possibly
the most frustrating and emotionally crippling barrier Ive ever
had to face in League of Legends. I failed that promotion series
approximately fifteen times and distinctly remember having to
hold back tears during the 10th one. Despite failing numerous
times, my desire to reach Diamond 1 kept me going.

After a couple months, I climbed up to Diamond 1 (20 LP)

and began queue-sniping Imaqtpie. One day the planets aligned
and we were queued up together. After finally reaching my goal,
I thought to myself, What better way to celebrate this glorious
day than by picking the greatest champion known to man, and
the Support role as well: Anivia.

The troll within me couldnt be contained; unfortunately,

the Donger wasnt strong enough and we succumbed to the
evil forces of tryhards (we fed horrendously). I continued queue
sniping Imaqtpie, but actually trying. Eventually we won more
than our fair share of games, and enjoyed ourselves at the same
time (I had this move where I spammed Blitzcranks animation
to make him twerk in place, which always made Qtpie laugh).

134
 I realized I had the potential to climb even further up the
ladder. Instead of queue sniping poor ol Qtpie, I found a few
ADs to duo-queue with and spent time building synergy with
them (as a Support, this is essential to improving, and climbing
past certain tiers). I ended up climbing to 600 LP in Challenger
with TheSwingingSalt, who matched my personality quite well
(and who carried me all the way).

After playing in high Challenger for a while, I earned a solid

reputation, duoing with Fabbbyyy, NintendudeX, and also the
AD of LMQ, Vasilii (who to this day, I regard as having the best
mechanics in the competitive scene).

The Story of BloodWater

League of Legends is a game of fun for me; I just played the
game and went to high school five days a week, like most of you
guys. For a while, I was stuck in 1700-1800 ELO because I
simply did not know how to try and win (I lacked motivation). I
somehow climbed out with Mordekaiser and after that, I played
AD until around 2,300 ELO (at which point I started playing in
Go4LoLs with friends).

One day in one of my solo queue games I was Supporting

and fell in love with the role. I was really aggressive when I
needed to be and was mechanically above most other Supports
at the time. Initially, I was not perfect at the role, but with time
I began to master it little by little. After a while, I learned that
competitive play was enough to make League of Legends an
exciting and fun game for me.

With time, I was offered a tryout on CLG Black and made it

on the team after a best of three while scrimming against the
main CLG roster which was comprised of HotshotGG, BigfatLP,
Saintvicious, Doublelift, and Chauster. Surprisingly, the games
were pretty close.

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 That was a turning point in my League of Legends career,
because it never occurred to me (not even once) that I would be
on a professional team (I always wanted to be on one, but never
knew how). This highly increased my motivation to become a
better player, and my passion and love for League of Legends
greatly contributed to all of that.

10.2 Dont Worry, Be Happy (Optimism)

There hasnt been a single game where a team has perfect
decision-making every second of the way. In fact, almost every
game, you could justifiably call out a teammate for making one
or two measly mistakes; but, Summoners Rift is like any other
battlefield where your teammates are your comrades-in-arms.
They have emotions, moods, and morale, and ruining those can
easily cause your team to tilt, miss skillshots, lose focus, and
eventually give up. Staying positive and optimistic not only
benefits your own mindset when times are tough, but can allow
your teammates to latch onto a positive force, and persevere.

How many times have you been in a situation where your

team is slightly behind and two or three people start raging,
flaming, and typing all sorts of vulgarity into chat? If your team
is constantly arguing, dont stoop to their level; instead, mute
the players causing you stress and focus on your performance.
Muting players will relieve tension and can tremendously help
your gameplay (after five minutes, youll likely forget about the
previous drama).

Theres only one constant that will never change from game
to game: you. Countless times Ive fallen prey to the belief that
by explaining to my teammates their mistakes, I was actually
improving our chances of winning. Boy was I wrong

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 Quite frankly, League of Legends is an emotionally charged
game and people will misinterpret your words when they feel
frustrated. Your only concern should be your own performance,
especially in the Support role. You dont have time to fix other
players mistakes when your progression as a player requires
constant evaluation of your own errors.

10.3 Perception is Reality (Stoicism)

Were not perfect; sometimes our emotions will overcome
us. If you find yourself raging at your teammates, dont type
unless youre feeding people information that can contribute to
winning the game. Criticizing teammates is an easy way to keep
your feelings of anger going. Let yourself feel the emotion, but
keep it to yourself. Again, dont type if youre upset at someone.

You will encounter blood-boiling teammates who attempt

to make your ears steam with rage. You will lose five, six, maybe
even ten games in a row and fall into an extreme tilt; the likes of
which youve never experienced before. Tilts are surprisingly
cyclical and after going through a few rough ones, youll begin
to understand the different emotions you endure from start to
finish. Theres a philosophy known as Stoicism which preaches
the suppression of your emotions; its like holding your hand
over an open flame - the pain is there, but you dont let it affect
you in a negative way (nor let other people see your pain).

A basic principle of Stoicism is negative visualization, a

tactic which involves imagining the worst possible scenario to
better appreciate what you already have. Saintviciouss account
was hacked Season 1, and someone thought itd be funny to set
his ELO to 0. Whenever Saintvicious queued up for ranked, he
was with players who had hundreds upon hundreds of losses.

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 Of course, Saintvicious didnt sit around feeling bad for
himself; he streamed some entertaining games at the lowest
ELO known to man. Imagine having your account falsely
banned and losing all your progress (Gold, Silver). Knowing
your account could be hacked (or banned) at any given time
should give you more of an appreciation for it now. A good
mind-set to have is: Dont own anything youre not prepared to
lose.

Another common perspective of Stoicism is the refusal to

consider yourself a victim. Weve all heard (or said):

I always get the trolls.

My teammates AFK.
My AD (or team) never follows up.
Their jungler always camps me.
My jungler never ganks.
My teammates suck.
No one calls MIA.
Lag.

A Stoic would think about things differently:

I always get the trolls.

This is out of your control; plus, the other team is just as
likely to have trolls as well.

My teammates AFK.
It happens (out of your control still).

My AD (or team) never follows up.

Work with your team and try to adapt to their play-style.
With each new game comes a different obstacle.

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 Their jungler always camps me.
Nothing prevents you from asking your jungler for help,
but if he refuses to gank, youre on your own; work with
what you have.

My teammates suck.
If your teammates suck, then its just as likely the enemy
team sucks too. Spend more time abusing the stupidity
of your opponents than harping on your teammates bad
decidisions. League of Legends is a game of punishing
weaknesses.

No one calls MIA.

You are responsible for awareness of the mini-map. Any
help from your teammates is simply icing on the cake.

Lag.
Madlife used to play with 200 ping on N.A. before South
Korea had their own servers - he was still a god. Dont let
ping be an excuse (although it certainly is a handicap).

They disgrace the

Art of War.

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 10.4 Fatigue
After playing for a while, your concentration levels will
begin to drop. This means more missed skill shots, missed CS
(those cannon minions are especially tough to kill when playing
Thresh), and delayed decisions. Depending on how accustomed
to spamming games your mind and body is, youll need to take
a mental break from playing League at least every couple hours.
Whether youve been winning or losing, take a half hour break
as a refresher; your future games will yield more victories.

If you spend most of your day playing League, you may

have noticed that there are certain parts of the day where your
playing and thinking are at their peak. Heres a typical schedule
Ive observed from my day-long League sessions:

11 A.M. 1 P.M. Just woke up, highly concentrated.

Dont respond emotionally to arguing. Im often playing
my best from 9-10 A.M.

1 P.M. 5 P.M. Lull throughout the day, typically

average or below average win rates, will begin to correct
teammates, respond emotionally (but eventually I stop
after one or two times).

5 P.M. 9 P.M. Perfect time for duo queue, talkative,

65%+ win rates.

9 P.M. 2 A.M. Tired, ignore teammates, focused,

and high win rates.

Experiment with your schedule and determine which hours

you play best. Adopt a schedule around those times and you will
see a greater win rate. Remember to sleep for at least seven to
eight hours (lack of sleep highly impedes performance).

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 Chapter 10
Recap

10.1 Focus
Discover your goal; use that as your fuel.

10.2 Optimism
Expect the worst, hope for the best. Dont worry, be happy.

10.3 Stoicism
Stay cool, calm, and collected.

10.4 Fatigue
Adopt a solid schedule of when to play; sleep 7-8 hours.

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 Chapter 11
Practice Makes Perfect

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 11.1 Spamming
This final section is dedicated to how you should approach
solo queue outside of the game, starting with the frequency with
which you play. There are two main approaches: spamming or
infrequent play. Spamming (playing games for 4-5 hours at a
time) has its upsides and downsides.

Upside: You can grind out many games at once.

Upside: If youre doing well, youll gain momentum.
Upside: After 1-2 games, youre warmed up.

Downside: Hard to know when to quit (especially on tilt).

Downside: Sometimes youll go into Auto-Pilot mode.
Downside: Negative experiences carry over.

On the other hand, playing infrequently (1-2 games here

and there) is another strategy, and sometimes the only option
for those of you with restricted schedules. The only downside to
playing infrequently is that youll often start games cold, and
out of shape. Much like professional pianists ready their fingers
by practicing arpeggios and scales, you must ready your mental
state (concerning both reaction time and decision-making).

For those of you with a busy schedule, theres one simple

way to climb: maining one or two champions, and never playing
anything else. Truly mastering a champion and understanding
their limits and capabilities lets you focus on decision making
and shot calling. Players with a wider champion pool typically
lack experience to play their champion without concentrating
on it specifically - mastering a champion removes that burden.
We suggest you main champions you enjoy; otherwise, you will
find yourself becoming bored quite often (and eventually tilt).

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 11.2 Replays (Identifying Weaknesses)
Replays are a means to identify what your weaknesses are.
After discovering those weaknesses, you can then actively focus
on them during your next games. For example, lets say you find
yourself losing all-ins during the first few levels of laning phase.
The best way to approach this is:

(1) First recognize the issue while playing.

(2) From the replay, determine why the issue is happening.
(3) Figure out what to do differently.

Doublelift explained in an interview that he used to spend

hours upon hours watching replays of his Vayne to improve his
condemn mechanics and identify any missed opportunities. He
didnt neglect to watch replays (unlike 99% of the player base)
just because watching replays was boring or tedious. He knows
that to see progress, you need to put in the time and effort.

Start out by identifying a single weakness of yours. Maybe

you forget to time Flash when its used, or ward against junglers
early on with your trinket. Whatever it is, focus solely on that
weakness until it becomes a strength (in other words, until it
becomes second-nature). This process may take a few games, or
a few weeks, depending on what skill youre working on.

Timing Summoner Spells will take constant practice, while

maintaining vision throughout laning phase may take less than
a week. Everyone progresses at their own pace (its especially
important not to ignore your weaknesses either; once you know
something needs work, dont put it off until later, unless youre
already working on something else in the meantime).

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 11.3 Lessons
Lessons arent for everyone. Most professionals who offer
lessons charge expensive rates and are difficult to learn from:
The best players to take lessons from are players in the amateur
scene who are ranked highly on the challenger ladder. These are
the players that have something to prove and will do their best
to teach you. When approaching players for lessons, ensure you
have specific questions. Ask for their help on specific parts of
your game, such as warding, harassing, or zoning. Whoever you
take lessons from, ask them to identify your weaknesses and the
steps you need to take to improve upon them. In the end, you
can only learn from yourself. Lessons aid that process.

Chapter 11
Recap

11.1 Spamming
Dont stop till you drop.

11.2 Replays
Its like watching yourself in the mirror, but sexier.

11.3 Lessons
Seek wisdom from your teacher; always ask questions.

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 Acknowledgements

Riot Games (lol.esports)

Big shout out to Riot Games for releasing and maintaining an
awesome game; not only have they created a masterpiece, but
theyve also brought together an incredible community.

Wed also like to credit lol.esports for providing us with a

picture of Bloodwater for the introduction section.

Oni Marin
All of the character illustrations were done by Oni Marin. He
does a great job at capturing the personality of champions. You
can check out more of his work at onichan-xd.deviantart.com.

Alex Vo
She did a wonderful job making the cover for this book. She was
crazy enough to draw the Sightstone as an Illuminati symbol,
and for that, we thank her.

Shayne Fletcher
Shayne The Wizard Fletcher is a wizard at using Photoshop.
All of the in-game images you see were his creations. He was
very patient with us and made sure everything turned out just
the way we wanted it to.

You
This entire book was written for just you. We hope you enjoyed
reading it and found it both informative and entertaining.

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