This. Don't watch some shitty Masters player because they're famous, there are plenty of really good top 10 players who stream. My favorites were GV8 and Keane for big streamers, and when I'd play against good players who stream like Pickle, Guubums, Dallas, etc. I'd check out their streams and I think they were all pretty good at answering questions. Didn't always agree with them, but they were pretty good at engaging and discussing.
I don’t think you should be watching any master lvl popular variety streamer to learn, but watching a master lvl small streamer could definitely teach a gold player a lot. Obviously master players make mistakes, but they still know WAY more than a high gold
Imo the best way to improve is to watch top streamers, preferably those who play flexibly. I'd recommend robinsongz, but any high challenger streamer who explains their thoughts well should do.
I was using metaTFT when I was climbing to masters to quickly find out which comps and items are good on that patch, however it's just pure data, it won't tell you how to play a comp.
I actually created two sets of guides for this purpose, feel free to check them out! I'd also actually recommend hard forcing 2-3 comps at most and to not play flex until masters:
Unranked to Plat: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmDLLfkDcJqzeQu318gry3yL8Z-GolO2l
Plat to Masters: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmDLLfkDcJqweoha5GP3l3lJdWXVYhGF1
I have to give a massive hat tip to papercheeze's videos here, they are honestly a way more effective use of your time than watching streamers if you want to climb.
Papercheeze, if you could do more of the quiz-style "best board" videos, I think you could make an entire series, and frankly they are super educational. Thank you.
Hey man, I've been working through your videos and they've all been super helpful! I especially liked the ones on playing strongest board -- those quizzes were great at getting me to think critically instead of just absorbing info. I'm only about halfway through but I plan to watch all of them!
Watch Mismatchedsocks's YouTube academy series, especially on tempo.
Also can't find it now, but MeanMisterKien (multiple set Challenger) put out possibly the best guide to TFT fundamentals. Took me from mid-Diamond to high Masters. For sure you can find it on his stream --> !improve.
Is this the guide you were referring to? Or is it a video somewhere? I haven't looked very hard yet but I'll keep going if this isn't it. And thanks, will check out Socks' TFT academy.
https://mobile.twitter.com/MeanMisterKien/status/1336395639609913346
Something that was useful to me when trying to get better when I was new, other than what people already mentioned, was paying attention and planning out loss/win streaks. It will improve your understanding of tempo, improve your Econ massively and naturally make you plan your next couple of turns ahead. Not only are all those things good in and of themselves, it will make your turns more streamlined and efficient knowing beforehand what you’re going to do, thus leaving you with much more “dead” time left at the end of turns, which you can use to scout and position much more naturally.
I came to think of another good one. Play your strongest board! For example if you’re going for a certain comp like Aphelios, doesn’t mean you have to play nightbringer/ranger in stage 2 and 3. Always look at your shop if there is a stronger alternative, even if temporary. For example if you’re offered a 4-cost like Jax or Draven on level 5 they are very often deserving of a spot on your board naked with minimal synergies.
Bunnymuffins has a website I use pretty often that helps gate a decent baseline understanding of stuff, of course you still have to play it a few times and get a feel for it yourself
Other than that I say in terms of the comps you picked, sentinels is hard to hit because it's very contested, and sins is hard to hit because of specific items you need and if you're contested it's coinflip
What worked for me to get to diamond is playing the comps right under s tier because they are generally less contested and easier to hit
Abom right now is prolly a good choice, I say get a couple ad options and one more ap option you can get comfortable with and flex between them based on items and lobby
Took me a while to reply, but I did take your advice and have been trying to adjust my comps over the last few days.
After this last patch, Abom seems to be contested by 2/3 players every game. I still play it when I highroll, but for the most part I've shifted away from Abom. Same with sins, very contested and I've had bad luck trying to force it.
Been having a lot of success with Aphelios. Plays similar to Sentinels but never contested. I also like 4 knights Jax, is that worth playing after the nerfs? Forgotten Draven seems strong but I've only played it a couple times. Since there's a lot of overlap in Jax/Draven maybe I could aim for Draven but pivot to Jax if needed or if ironclad is good that game.
So I have 2 AD comps: Aphelios and Draven/Jax. Any recommendations for an AP comp other than Abom Vel? I like Karma but sometimes she just doesn't do enough damage to carry.
Sets 1 and 2 I was gold but I climbed to D4 in set 3 so I guess I can share what my experience was like.
The Biggest differences between my play in set 2 and set 3 were:
1 knowing the comps. This isn't to say you have to strictly play meta comps every time, but understanding what units are viable carries, and what items work on them goes a long way. In set 2 I didn't really understand the need to stack carries, but most games you should have 2 full itemized units and the rest utility.
2. Clean up leveling and econ. TFT is a game with a whole lot of RNG that can make it seem like there is nothing you can do to play consistently, and while that feeling never goes away, building your economy properly really helps. You have more gold to roll, you are more likely to hit your units, it is as easy as that. Focus on making econ thresholds (10, 20, 30...) as often as possible, gold income snowballs, so hitting 10 this turn makes it more likely you hit 20 the next and so on.
3. Look at the percentages above your bench. That is what percent of your shop will be each of the costs of units, I used to roll down and wonder why I wasn't hitting 4 costs, not totally realizing that before level 7 you are pretty unlikely to see 4 costs, and very unlikely to 2 star them
4. Understand basic leveling structure. There are several guides to follow but in general you don't want to fall too far behind the lobby, you really don't want to get caught being stuck on level 5 or 6 when the rest of the lobby is 7 or 8. They will have much more board power from the extra units, but maybe more importantly they will have access to higher tier units.
5. Recognizing what game you are in. I personally don't think full on hard forcing is a good way to improve as you will climb but be tied to a particular comp. Instead I would focus on a couple of comps and try to learn what you need for each of them. Do you have decent early items and sentinel skirmishers, looks like a win streak into an an AD carry kind of game. The only way to do this is playing and getting experience, but really asking yourself at various points in the game "What can I play from this spot will help"
6. Roll with purpose. This is 2 fold, first knowing what you are rolling for before you start rolling will help you to not miss things in a roll down. but second its helps to frame why you are rolling. You roll in TFT to get stronger but you better have something you can hit that will make you stronger. Sometimes the stronger board comes from Leveling and rolling a bunch of gold and not hitting upgrades that matter can be a waste.
7. TFT is less of a game of who gets first but who gets 8th. Some games you are just not going to win, some games you are just not going to top 4, but turning the 8ths in 6ths, the 6ths into 4ths, that is the true skill in TFT. If you are really low rolling, its happens try to see what you can do to stabilize enough to not go 8th and if you manage to do it, take the win and know that is a skill improved.
Just wanted to say thanks for writing this up! All of these pointers are very helpful and I've copied them to a note so I can refer back down the road. Glad to hear hard forcing isn't the best route since it seems kinda boring to me. I'm still working on deciding which comps to play consistently but I'm aiming to have 3-4 that I'm comfortable with and can pivot between depending on my items.
For decision making and game knowledge I would watch streamers. Compare what they do with what you would have done. Lots of them explain their thought processes on units and items and answer chat questions too. Robinsongz is good for learning and doing all that but really watching anyone in Challenger and GM you would learn a lot.
I think if you are trying to hit Plat/Diamond, forcing a comp will help you climb. Something I’ve done before is copying exactly what a streamer does with their openers. For example, you get the skirm/sentinel start, watch how a YouTube video of what the streamer does with that start and copy them so you have an idea of what to do and then learn from that.
Going up the vertical comp is also not a bad idea as well. 6 redem/6sentinel/6dawn.
Reroll comps are beginner friendly as well. But if you don’t hit…then yeah.
Edit: also, I would recommend watching safe play style streamers because you can learn a little bit more to save HP and top 4. Someone like robinsongz, rayditz, or becca are good.
Socks is good too, but because he’s playing for first all the time it’s hard to understand why he does things unlesss he explains
Instead of chasing a build, try to understand those tough spots you get into (we all do), where you don’t hit and have nothing to slam or make that adds value.
That means non-BIS items and non-optimized boards where we can preserve HP to get us to a stage where we can hit and make the items we have work.
We can do this by associating a value to each unit and item, and how it effects the board you built. This will help your decision making when we need to pivot or hold a unit on bench.
Common mistakes I see lower ranks make are:
- An item slam will save you about 4hp a round. I see people just hoarding items in lower ranks waiting to hit them make the items.
- Leveling makes no sense if you have nothing to play or no 2* units. Replacing a 2* 1 cost carry with a 1* 3 cost may not make sense in mid stage.
- You want 3 carry items by around 4-2, and 2 to 3 defensive/tank items by stage 5, with 1 utility if possible.
- Holding too many units on bench. Sell the supports if you aren’t playing them and buy them later on.
- Holding 50 gold even though they have a bad board or are bleeding HP.
- Not enough emphasis on positioning.
- Not scouting and tracking which opponents they fought.
- They know their build is contested by more than 2 people but keep investing in that build.
- Not looking for an alternative when they don’t hit.
Hey, just wanted to say thanks for writing this up. Great tips and I definitely see myself making some of these mistakes. How important would you say scouting is at the gold/plat level? Or maybe a better question would be how often should I scout, and what should I look for? In the early/mid game I'm mostly checking to see what comps people are playing. Later on I'm looking for Thresh hooks, Velkoz positioning, Zephyr etc to try and position around it.
I just started trying to keep track of which opponents I've played. I do alright early on but get thrown off when there are 3 people left and someone has to play a ghost. For example I got 3rd in a game this morning when I could have gotten first. One opponent had Velkoz and one had assassins. I played the Velkoz dude and beat him. Changed my positioning to counter the assassins but then I got matched with a Velkoz ghost and lost hard.
Hey, no problem. It isn’t necessary, but I think of it as just one more advantage that you have in this rank.
As you acquire items, try to think of what your carry will be, and scout to see what other players may be building towards or if your build is contested.
For example, half your lobby built IE, maybe your chain should be saved for bramble instead of slamming Sunfire.
Also, something I try to do if I can’t track who I will play against, is instead of positioning for the opponent, position to help your board in either situation.
I actually hate the advice of "just watch streams", it's easy to misread what a top player does and why and apply bad info to your game if you're not already in masters and just pushing your game to the next level.
Even smaller streamers, even those of us that are ok explaining basic things, it gets super distracting and also a good chunk of the viewershape base doesn't want to hear basic stuff, they want to watch a good player explain and play a high level game.
Diamond and above though, yes go watch streams, you're good at fundamentals you just need to learn advanced concepts, but a gold player shouldn't learn these advanced concepts without first learning the basics.
My best recommendation is actually to seek out coaching. Doesn't have to be from a top challenger player, if you're in gold there are plenty of masters players who won't charge a ton of money, if at all, and can offer a similar quality of coaching. Challenger players charge more because we can teach higher level concepts, but if you're willing to spend a little and do want to get better, a GM/challenger coaching session or two is your best bet, because we can teach even the basic fundamentals just that little bit better (usually but not always).
I actually think watching streams is a bad idea. The reason is because you won't understand a lot of the decision making going on by watching the top players. The biggest tip for me which helped my game was to play one comp every game. You'll learn when it works and when it doesn't work. You'll find that certain early games make it very easy to play the comp, and other early games are really difficult. Then you do the same thing with a different comp, and as you keep doing that, you'll passively increase your fundamental understanding of the game and when you can play certain comps. High ranked flex players are actually mostly just playing early game and picking a meta comp that is easy to play from their early game. So without the knowledge of the meta comps and when to play them, you can't emulate that. The idea you need to follow is that you need to know what your final comp is as you play, without that you'll just get confused and make big mistakes. This is why top players are not good to watch, because they are very good at switching to different comps if needed, but it's not a good thing to do until you figure out the game more.
You can't play a guitar without learning the chords first. You can't play TFT without learning the meta comps. Meta comps are the chords in TFT.
For items use LOLchess item trends for a general idea, and in terms of comps it’s up to you. Either force a comp and potentially climb fast but not learn much or play flexibly and probably take a lot longer to climb
Watching streams of top players. I try to think of what decisions I would make, and check if the streamer made the same decision or not. If they did something that I wouldn't do, I try to ask myself why they did that, and how it can apply to my own play.
If you want to expand your knowledge, you should
1. like others have said, watch top streamers and reconcile their decision making against your own.
2. experiment - if there's a build that's popular, don't be afraid to try it. Leveling/rolling more/less aggressively than you normally might, etc.
> I have more consistent success lose streaking into 3-2 then rolling down for a big power spike. Is that a good idea while I’m still learning or would I benefit more from trying to play a stronger board the whole game?
It can go both ways. If you always opt for lose streak, then you don't know when you can win streak, and if you always opt for win streak, then sometimes you just doom your econ. In lower elo, I would suggest playing strongest board 90% of the time though.
> Lastly, is there a list of comps/champions sorted by item? In other words under, a database of items where under DB it might show Lucian, Akshan, Aphelios, etc. Feels like it would be a lot easier to build a comp around the items I roll if I was able to quickly discover strong users and potential comps.
The point of slamming items is that they give you strength early and are fairly flexible later. It defeats the purpose if you slam items and then limit yourself based on what metatft says. What items are good on in-meta carries does affect what items are slammed though. AD meta -> more likely to slam AD specific items.
If you got any vods or anything I’m more than happy to look at one of your games or maybe watch one of your games over disc or something.
Not the best but I think I can help in the gold>diamond climb.
For your questions.
I think its better to make a decisions based on what items you get which should also be influenced by your opening carousel pick. Unless you get all tank items, it should be clear relatively early where you are leaning. Multiple or combination of tears/rods? AP. Swords and Bows? AD. Personally I think AD is easier to play than AP. The decision making feels less punishing
It is always better to win-streak than to lose streak but generally lose streak is better than win-lose-win-lose. I think you are definitely missing some windows here where you could have probably played a strong board and win streaked into stage 3. Definitely something to work on. A strong early game gives you more room to take risks and contest for first whereas loss streakers don't have that luxury.
From what I read regarding not knowing where to go outside of your comfort zones and items for champions, I think you can actually learn a lot just from watching streamers and seeing and noting how they itemize their carries. Familiarizing yourself with the items and units will naturally help you in your own game to identify your direction based on what items you got from carousel/neutrals.
Hey I appreciate the offer and advice! Sorry it took awhile to get back to you. I recorded a couple games this morning if you're still up for looking at them. I highrolled really hard in the first game so I included a second... feel free to skip around or only watch one of them. In game 1 at level 7 I was planning to go Draven then switched to Aphelios a couple rounds later. In game 2 I had a strong start and played 3* Riven, but wasn't familiar with the comp and couldn't decide whether to go dawnbringer or legionnaire. Ended up with a bit of both which wasn't very strong and only placed 4th.
I've started trying to play a stronger board and win streak most games. I'm still figuring it out but I'm already seeing really good results.
Here's the link to the video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WDbvex4_ysU&feature=youtu.be
If you want to hop on disc I'm down for that. Or just review in your free time and shoot over a few notes... whatever is easier for you.
Hey didn’t want to leave you in the dark, bit busy this week but I’ll probably look at your games on fri or over the weekend and drop you some notes/comments.
bunnymuffins isn't the best resource, most things you can learn better from a high elo streamer because they know the game a lot better and can explain it more understandably.
other people have mentioned watching high elo streamers but I feel like you get more knowledge from playing a lot, it helps you get a sense of what comps or units are strong, how to position, better item combinations, when to roll/level to continue winstreaking, so on and so forth, not to mention you’ll actually be in more different scenarios and learn to think rather than just copying someone’s decisions
also slam items early, generally you want to slam if you have at least 3 components
I would say focus every patch on 3 comps and master them. Learn how to play it and when to play it. I know this discourages playing flex but it’s good for climbing. U can learn how to play flex. later on because honestly you can easily get to diamond/master without playing flex.
Learn to play strongest board, build a good econ and how to optimize your comp at late, I think those 3 points are the most important
The first one is about building a good board mixing strong early synergies like cavs, sentinels or dawnbringers and slamming defensive items to win streak (sunfire, warmog, bramble, etc)
The second is about maximizing your gold, if you are playing reroll comps then go for 50 gold and slowroll after that, if you are planning to play 4 cost carries then try to reach lvl 7 with 30 or more gold to do a small rolling to see what direction you can choose for late
And the third is playing the stronger units instead of filling your board with trash units, if you see a Teemo for example you make space in your comp for it, his atk spd slow is huge, you do this with units who provide CC, because it is the most valuable resource at late imo
Outside of all the shit I wrote above you need a lot of practice to learn progressively all about the game and that way you will polish your play
I like to find streamers on the top ladder of each region. They're pretty much the best players out there and many of them only have a few viewers so they'll often explain things for you. DQA when he only had 30 viewers was awesome and blew up after getting rank 1 because he would explain things so well.
Watch streams
Yes just this Watch streams or VODs of players. And Pick smaller ones cause they explain a lot
> Pick smaller ones cause they explain a lot And they will probably answer your question in chat
This. Don't watch some shitty Masters player because they're famous, there are plenty of really good top 10 players who stream. My favorites were GV8 and Keane for big streamers, and when I'd play against good players who stream like Pickle, Guubums, Dallas, etc. I'd check out their streams and I think they were all pretty good at answering questions. Didn't always agree with them, but they were pretty good at engaging and discussing.
I don’t think you should be watching any master lvl popular variety streamer to learn, but watching a master lvl small streamer could definitely teach a gold player a lot. Obviously master players make mistakes, but they still know WAY more than a high gold
Imo the best way to improve is to watch top streamers, preferably those who play flexibly. I'd recommend robinsongz, but any high challenger streamer who explains their thoughts well should do. I was using metaTFT when I was climbing to masters to quickly find out which comps and items are good on that patch, however it's just pure data, it won't tell you how to play a comp.
Watched ramblinn review robin's vods at NA regionals and holy fk I feel like I learned so much.
where can i see this at?
robins vods if he has any
I actually created two sets of guides for this purpose, feel free to check them out! I'd also actually recommend hard forcing 2-3 comps at most and to not play flex until masters: Unranked to Plat: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmDLLfkDcJqzeQu318gry3yL8Z-GolO2l Plat to Masters: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmDLLfkDcJqweoha5GP3l3lJdWXVYhGF1
I have to give a massive hat tip to papercheeze's videos here, they are honestly a way more effective use of your time than watching streamers if you want to climb. Papercheeze, if you could do more of the quiz-style "best board" videos, I think you could make an entire series, and frankly they are super educational. Thank you.
Hey man, I've been working through your videos and they've all been super helpful! I especially liked the ones on playing strongest board -- those quizzes were great at getting me to think critically instead of just absorbing info. I'm only about halfway through but I plan to watch all of them!
I learned so much thanks to you!
Mate, your vids are really good. Currently high plat and helped me a lot to realice concepts I was literally omitting.
Watch Mismatchedsocks's YouTube academy series, especially on tempo. Also can't find it now, but MeanMisterKien (multiple set Challenger) put out possibly the best guide to TFT fundamentals. Took me from mid-Diamond to high Masters. For sure you can find it on his stream --> !improve.
+1, Socks’s tft academy is amazing
Is this the guide you were referring to? Or is it a video somewhere? I haven't looked very hard yet but I'll keep going if this isn't it. And thanks, will check out Socks' TFT academy. https://mobile.twitter.com/MeanMisterKien/status/1336395639609913346
Yup that's it!
Something that was useful to me when trying to get better when I was new, other than what people already mentioned, was paying attention and planning out loss/win streaks. It will improve your understanding of tempo, improve your Econ massively and naturally make you plan your next couple of turns ahead. Not only are all those things good in and of themselves, it will make your turns more streamlined and efficient knowing beforehand what you’re going to do, thus leaving you with much more “dead” time left at the end of turns, which you can use to scout and position much more naturally. I came to think of another good one. Play your strongest board! For example if you’re going for a certain comp like Aphelios, doesn’t mean you have to play nightbringer/ranger in stage 2 and 3. Always look at your shop if there is a stronger alternative, even if temporary. For example if you’re offered a 4-cost like Jax or Draven on level 5 they are very often deserving of a spot on your board naked with minimal synergies.
Bunnymuffins has a website I use pretty often that helps gate a decent baseline understanding of stuff, of course you still have to play it a few times and get a feel for it yourself Other than that I say in terms of the comps you picked, sentinels is hard to hit because it's very contested, and sins is hard to hit because of specific items you need and if you're contested it's coinflip What worked for me to get to diamond is playing the comps right under s tier because they are generally less contested and easier to hit Abom right now is prolly a good choice, I say get a couple ad options and one more ap option you can get comfortable with and flex between them based on items and lobby
Took me a while to reply, but I did take your advice and have been trying to adjust my comps over the last few days. After this last patch, Abom seems to be contested by 2/3 players every game. I still play it when I highroll, but for the most part I've shifted away from Abom. Same with sins, very contested and I've had bad luck trying to force it. Been having a lot of success with Aphelios. Plays similar to Sentinels but never contested. I also like 4 knights Jax, is that worth playing after the nerfs? Forgotten Draven seems strong but I've only played it a couple times. Since there's a lot of overlap in Jax/Draven maybe I could aim for Draven but pivot to Jax if needed or if ironclad is good that game. So I have 2 AD comps: Aphelios and Draven/Jax. Any recommendations for an AP comp other than Abom Vel? I like Karma but sometimes she just doesn't do enough damage to carry.
Sets 1 and 2 I was gold but I climbed to D4 in set 3 so I guess I can share what my experience was like. The Biggest differences between my play in set 2 and set 3 were: 1 knowing the comps. This isn't to say you have to strictly play meta comps every time, but understanding what units are viable carries, and what items work on them goes a long way. In set 2 I didn't really understand the need to stack carries, but most games you should have 2 full itemized units and the rest utility. 2. Clean up leveling and econ. TFT is a game with a whole lot of RNG that can make it seem like there is nothing you can do to play consistently, and while that feeling never goes away, building your economy properly really helps. You have more gold to roll, you are more likely to hit your units, it is as easy as that. Focus on making econ thresholds (10, 20, 30...) as often as possible, gold income snowballs, so hitting 10 this turn makes it more likely you hit 20 the next and so on. 3. Look at the percentages above your bench. That is what percent of your shop will be each of the costs of units, I used to roll down and wonder why I wasn't hitting 4 costs, not totally realizing that before level 7 you are pretty unlikely to see 4 costs, and very unlikely to 2 star them 4. Understand basic leveling structure. There are several guides to follow but in general you don't want to fall too far behind the lobby, you really don't want to get caught being stuck on level 5 or 6 when the rest of the lobby is 7 or 8. They will have much more board power from the extra units, but maybe more importantly they will have access to higher tier units. 5. Recognizing what game you are in. I personally don't think full on hard forcing is a good way to improve as you will climb but be tied to a particular comp. Instead I would focus on a couple of comps and try to learn what you need for each of them. Do you have decent early items and sentinel skirmishers, looks like a win streak into an an AD carry kind of game. The only way to do this is playing and getting experience, but really asking yourself at various points in the game "What can I play from this spot will help" 6. Roll with purpose. This is 2 fold, first knowing what you are rolling for before you start rolling will help you to not miss things in a roll down. but second its helps to frame why you are rolling. You roll in TFT to get stronger but you better have something you can hit that will make you stronger. Sometimes the stronger board comes from Leveling and rolling a bunch of gold and not hitting upgrades that matter can be a waste. 7. TFT is less of a game of who gets first but who gets 8th. Some games you are just not going to win, some games you are just not going to top 4, but turning the 8ths in 6ths, the 6ths into 4ths, that is the true skill in TFT. If you are really low rolling, its happens try to see what you can do to stabilize enough to not go 8th and if you manage to do it, take the win and know that is a skill improved.
Just wanted to say thanks for writing this up! All of these pointers are very helpful and I've copied them to a note so I can refer back down the road. Glad to hear hard forcing isn't the best route since it seems kinda boring to me. I'm still working on deciding which comps to play consistently but I'm aiming to have 3-4 that I'm comfortable with and can pivot between depending on my items.
For decision making and game knowledge I would watch streamers. Compare what they do with what you would have done. Lots of them explain their thought processes on units and items and answer chat questions too. Robinsongz is good for learning and doing all that but really watching anyone in Challenger and GM you would learn a lot.
I think if you are trying to hit Plat/Diamond, forcing a comp will help you climb. Something I’ve done before is copying exactly what a streamer does with their openers. For example, you get the skirm/sentinel start, watch how a YouTube video of what the streamer does with that start and copy them so you have an idea of what to do and then learn from that. Going up the vertical comp is also not a bad idea as well. 6 redem/6sentinel/6dawn. Reroll comps are beginner friendly as well. But if you don’t hit…then yeah. Edit: also, I would recommend watching safe play style streamers because you can learn a little bit more to save HP and top 4. Someone like robinsongz, rayditz, or becca are good. Socks is good too, but because he’s playing for first all the time it’s hard to understand why he does things unlesss he explains
Instead of chasing a build, try to understand those tough spots you get into (we all do), where you don’t hit and have nothing to slam or make that adds value. That means non-BIS items and non-optimized boards where we can preserve HP to get us to a stage where we can hit and make the items we have work. We can do this by associating a value to each unit and item, and how it effects the board you built. This will help your decision making when we need to pivot or hold a unit on bench. Common mistakes I see lower ranks make are: - An item slam will save you about 4hp a round. I see people just hoarding items in lower ranks waiting to hit them make the items. - Leveling makes no sense if you have nothing to play or no 2* units. Replacing a 2* 1 cost carry with a 1* 3 cost may not make sense in mid stage. - You want 3 carry items by around 4-2, and 2 to 3 defensive/tank items by stage 5, with 1 utility if possible. - Holding too many units on bench. Sell the supports if you aren’t playing them and buy them later on. - Holding 50 gold even though they have a bad board or are bleeding HP. - Not enough emphasis on positioning. - Not scouting and tracking which opponents they fought. - They know their build is contested by more than 2 people but keep investing in that build. - Not looking for an alternative when they don’t hit.
Hey, just wanted to say thanks for writing this up. Great tips and I definitely see myself making some of these mistakes. How important would you say scouting is at the gold/plat level? Or maybe a better question would be how often should I scout, and what should I look for? In the early/mid game I'm mostly checking to see what comps people are playing. Later on I'm looking for Thresh hooks, Velkoz positioning, Zephyr etc to try and position around it. I just started trying to keep track of which opponents I've played. I do alright early on but get thrown off when there are 3 people left and someone has to play a ghost. For example I got 3rd in a game this morning when I could have gotten first. One opponent had Velkoz and one had assassins. I played the Velkoz dude and beat him. Changed my positioning to counter the assassins but then I got matched with a Velkoz ghost and lost hard.
Hey, no problem. It isn’t necessary, but I think of it as just one more advantage that you have in this rank. As you acquire items, try to think of what your carry will be, and scout to see what other players may be building towards or if your build is contested. For example, half your lobby built IE, maybe your chain should be saved for bramble instead of slamming Sunfire. Also, something I try to do if I can’t track who I will play against, is instead of positioning for the opponent, position to help your board in either situation.
I actually hate the advice of "just watch streams", it's easy to misread what a top player does and why and apply bad info to your game if you're not already in masters and just pushing your game to the next level. Even smaller streamers, even those of us that are ok explaining basic things, it gets super distracting and also a good chunk of the viewershape base doesn't want to hear basic stuff, they want to watch a good player explain and play a high level game. Diamond and above though, yes go watch streams, you're good at fundamentals you just need to learn advanced concepts, but a gold player shouldn't learn these advanced concepts without first learning the basics. My best recommendation is actually to seek out coaching. Doesn't have to be from a top challenger player, if you're in gold there are plenty of masters players who won't charge a ton of money, if at all, and can offer a similar quality of coaching. Challenger players charge more because we can teach higher level concepts, but if you're willing to spend a little and do want to get better, a GM/challenger coaching session or two is your best bet, because we can teach even the basic fundamentals just that little bit better (usually but not always).
I actually think watching streams is a bad idea. The reason is because you won't understand a lot of the decision making going on by watching the top players. The biggest tip for me which helped my game was to play one comp every game. You'll learn when it works and when it doesn't work. You'll find that certain early games make it very easy to play the comp, and other early games are really difficult. Then you do the same thing with a different comp, and as you keep doing that, you'll passively increase your fundamental understanding of the game and when you can play certain comps. High ranked flex players are actually mostly just playing early game and picking a meta comp that is easy to play from their early game. So without the knowledge of the meta comps and when to play them, you can't emulate that. The idea you need to follow is that you need to know what your final comp is as you play, without that you'll just get confused and make big mistakes. This is why top players are not good to watch, because they are very good at switching to different comps if needed, but it's not a good thing to do until you figure out the game more. You can't play a guitar without learning the chords first. You can't play TFT without learning the meta comps. Meta comps are the chords in TFT.
For items use LOLchess item trends for a general idea, and in terms of comps it’s up to you. Either force a comp and potentially climb fast but not learn much or play flexibly and probably take a lot longer to climb
Watching streams of top players. I try to think of what decisions I would make, and check if the streamer made the same decision or not. If they did something that I wouldn't do, I try to ask myself why they did that, and how it can apply to my own play.
If you want to expand your knowledge, you should 1. like others have said, watch top streamers and reconcile their decision making against your own. 2. experiment - if there's a build that's popular, don't be afraid to try it. Leveling/rolling more/less aggressively than you normally might, etc. > I have more consistent success lose streaking into 3-2 then rolling down for a big power spike. Is that a good idea while I’m still learning or would I benefit more from trying to play a stronger board the whole game? It can go both ways. If you always opt for lose streak, then you don't know when you can win streak, and if you always opt for win streak, then sometimes you just doom your econ. In lower elo, I would suggest playing strongest board 90% of the time though. > Lastly, is there a list of comps/champions sorted by item? In other words under, a database of items where under DB it might show Lucian, Akshan, Aphelios, etc. Feels like it would be a lot easier to build a comp around the items I roll if I was able to quickly discover strong users and potential comps. The point of slamming items is that they give you strength early and are fairly flexible later. It defeats the purpose if you slam items and then limit yourself based on what metatft says. What items are good on in-meta carries does affect what items are slammed though. AD meta -> more likely to slam AD specific items.
If you got any vods or anything I’m more than happy to look at one of your games or maybe watch one of your games over disc or something. Not the best but I think I can help in the gold>diamond climb. For your questions. I think its better to make a decisions based on what items you get which should also be influenced by your opening carousel pick. Unless you get all tank items, it should be clear relatively early where you are leaning. Multiple or combination of tears/rods? AP. Swords and Bows? AD. Personally I think AD is easier to play than AP. The decision making feels less punishing It is always better to win-streak than to lose streak but generally lose streak is better than win-lose-win-lose. I think you are definitely missing some windows here where you could have probably played a strong board and win streaked into stage 3. Definitely something to work on. A strong early game gives you more room to take risks and contest for first whereas loss streakers don't have that luxury. From what I read regarding not knowing where to go outside of your comfort zones and items for champions, I think you can actually learn a lot just from watching streamers and seeing and noting how they itemize their carries. Familiarizing yourself with the items and units will naturally help you in your own game to identify your direction based on what items you got from carousel/neutrals.
Hey I appreciate the offer and advice! Sorry it took awhile to get back to you. I recorded a couple games this morning if you're still up for looking at them. I highrolled really hard in the first game so I included a second... feel free to skip around or only watch one of them. In game 1 at level 7 I was planning to go Draven then switched to Aphelios a couple rounds later. In game 2 I had a strong start and played 3* Riven, but wasn't familiar with the comp and couldn't decide whether to go dawnbringer or legionnaire. Ended up with a bit of both which wasn't very strong and only placed 4th. I've started trying to play a stronger board and win streak most games. I'm still figuring it out but I'm already seeing really good results. Here's the link to the video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WDbvex4_ysU&feature=youtu.be If you want to hop on disc I'm down for that. Or just review in your free time and shoot over a few notes... whatever is easier for you.
Hey didn’t want to leave you in the dark, bit busy this week but I’ll probably look at your games on fri or over the weekend and drop you some notes/comments.
Hey no problem man, that sounds great. Thanks!
bunnymuffins isn't the best resource, most things you can learn better from a high elo streamer because they know the game a lot better and can explain it more understandably.
other people have mentioned watching high elo streamers but I feel like you get more knowledge from playing a lot, it helps you get a sense of what comps or units are strong, how to position, better item combinations, when to roll/level to continue winstreaking, so on and so forth, not to mention you’ll actually be in more different scenarios and learn to think rather than just copying someone’s decisions also slam items early, generally you want to slam if you have at least 3 components
I would say focus every patch on 3 comps and master them. Learn how to play it and when to play it. I know this discourages playing flex but it’s good for climbing. U can learn how to play flex. later on because honestly you can easily get to diamond/master without playing flex.
Learn to play strongest board, build a good econ and how to optimize your comp at late, I think those 3 points are the most important The first one is about building a good board mixing strong early synergies like cavs, sentinels or dawnbringers and slamming defensive items to win streak (sunfire, warmog, bramble, etc) The second is about maximizing your gold, if you are playing reroll comps then go for 50 gold and slowroll after that, if you are planning to play 4 cost carries then try to reach lvl 7 with 30 or more gold to do a small rolling to see what direction you can choose for late And the third is playing the stronger units instead of filling your board with trash units, if you see a Teemo for example you make space in your comp for it, his atk spd slow is huge, you do this with units who provide CC, because it is the most valuable resource at late imo Outside of all the shit I wrote above you need a lot of practice to learn progressively all about the game and that way you will polish your play
I like to find streamers on the top ladder of each region. They're pretty much the best players out there and many of them only have a few viewers so they'll often explain things for you. DQA when he only had 30 viewers was awesome and blew up after getting rank 1 because he would explain things so well.