Lee sin is currently and has been one of the strongest junglers and general bruisers in the game. His Damage, utility, and mobility make him one of the most effective and one of the hardest champions to play. given that he has six spells and so many small interactions, combined with a skillshot Q and one of the hardest ults to use in the game, the possible plays with this champion are near endless. Great Lee Sin junglers are quite rare for this reason, but seeing it executed properly is truly a sight to behold!

Pros
-Insane mobility
-Rediculous early game damage
-very strong sustain
-Great ganks, especially post 6
-Extremely strong skirmish potential
-If played right, insane youtube worthy plays are common

Cons
-Extremely hard to learn/master
-General rule of thumb must be very tanky late game to be effective
-very weak/no hard cc
-Very hard to regain your feet if you fall behind

Early Game

Generally, you want to start at the buff with your AD/support lane, although in lower level play it doesn't matter as much. Either way, you generally want a smtieless leash
Standard paths:

(Purple) Blue -> Red -> Gank top (or wraith, if top is warded)
(Blue) Red -> Blue -> Gank top (or wolf, if top is warded)



Always be aware of enemy starting wards, always be asking your lanes where wards are so you can look for potential sneak paths. Lane ganks are also possible once you hit 3, so keep that in mind. Just Safeguard / Iron Will to your ally then Tempest the enemy and your Sonic Wave should be easy to land, making it a clean kill.

Counter Jungling your opponent

Another thing you can do is look to counter-jungle early, especially vs junglers like Amumu, Maokai,Tryndamere, zac, etc. If you do that, get your smiteless leash then run to their second buff. For example, if they started blue, you run to their red ASAP after getting your smiteless leash. If they're doing it, engage when the buff is at ~800 health so they can't finish it and walk out - they have to give it up. If they aren't, just wait - they'll be coming, and they will face check you. Make sure you let your team know what you're attempting, and keep an eye on enemy lanes also. You don't want to get stuck 1v3.

*It's also possible to start at the enemy red if their jungler is starting blue, if they become aware early of your invade, ask your team to ward paths to your red/the actual buff and it is fairly easy to kill their jungler if they go for your buff.

Early game

Your playing style top can change completely based on your opponent, for instance if you're facing a heavy sustain/tanky champion (Garen,Renekton) Or any champion you feel you can't kill. you're going to want to level your W(Safeguard/iron will) Very heavily early game, and you can out sustain/out tank your opponent in early trades and laning. If you feel like you can dominate your lane, Level your Q(Sonic wave/resonating strike) early and be prepared to go all in on your opponent, although be aware of possible ganks.

Lee sin will truly shine if you can obtain a few kill(s) in very early game, I recommend abusing your early game skirmish potential to wreck your opponent level 1-3. If you're jungle, try meeting their jungler at their 2nd buff (read chapter on counter jungling) Try and land your sonic wave while they're close up, and continue auto attacking them hoping to force a flash, if it's done, re-cast your Q to stay on the enemy and you should secure the kill. Once you obtain early kills, ward river and entrances to their jungle, and camp their jungler into oblivion.

*IF THIS DOESN'T WORK*
Say you get caught somewhere, or you somehow lose the trade with their jungler. Look at your teams composition and pick the lane with the heaviest cc. sit in the brush and just set up a tent in their lane. if your teammates manage to land cc you should get kills very easily early game.

your W(Safeguard/Iron will) can be a huge asset to you as far as positioning your champion in plays, Dashing to your allies can give you a great angle to land a Sonic wave on your opponent and go in for a kill. but What if you have no allies to jump to? Your W is also able to jump to wards, this is why purchasing sight stone on Lee is so key, using it you're able to dash over walls, ahead of opponents, next to them, anywhere you can imagine. Using this technique will increase your skill cap greatly, although it takes a while to master. Get used to assigning wards to a hotkey(1-6), and then Shift+(1-6) on your cursor where you wish to go, in the same place, press Shift+W and dash to your ward, I recommend trying this in a bot game first to get used to.

your role as lee sin in team fights is usually to cause mass disruption and chaos for the enemy team. This can come in many different ways, depending on your team comp and theirs (Do you have a hypercarry on your team? [ex:vayne]) you have to decide weather it's more important to peel for your teammates, or try and assassinate their back line by either actually killing them or Landing a sonic strike, kicking them into your team, and following. Both can be almost equally as effective at times. Seeing as Lee sin drops off in late, your role transitions fairly quickly from OPmaster to playing as an actual conservative jungler.

Say something goes wrong with your game, entirely wrong. you didn't get any kills, at worst you're feeding. What do you do? Stay with your teammates! ward! Try and become as tanky as possible and roam with your teammates to feed off their damage to earn you assists and kills. Roaming with your team in the EARLY game can catch lee sin up very quickly considering no matter what your build is at this point you still can be a huge threat to their entire team.