My name is Xennaria. I started playing LoL less than a week ago, so I obviously consider myself a beginner. However, even though I'm a beginner, I consider myself an educated beginner, meaning I actually read up on the game strategy before I started the game, and I constantly research guides and builds to figure out how I can improve after every game.

The reason I titled this guide "Does Your Team Keep Losing?" is because I keep getting into games where, when my team loses (which is not a lot) the other players on my team are confused as to why we have lost, why the opposing champions were on average 2-5 levels higher than we were, why we kept dying, etc. This is not meant to be the world's best beginner's guide, but I have found that a lot of "beginner guides" out there are not really tailored to beginners; instead they are written by vets who have overcome so many of those beginner challenges that they fail to include in their guides.

The purpose of this guide is to give advice from the eyes of a beginner in hopes that others will read it and be able to improve their game play skills!

Champion Selection

Choose a champion you have experience with and can play well with. If you are trying out a new champion, perfect your play style in a Co-Op vs AI game on a low setting first before you head over to a PvP game. If you are good with ranged magic, don't pick an attacker. If you're good with tanks, don't pick a ranged assassin.

Lane Distribution

I'm sure there are dozens of debates about what type of champion belongs where. It seems to me that the method of having one ranged champ in the middle lane, with the bottom and top lanes otherwise equally distributed, works well.

There are very few circumstances (probably none) where you should have more than two champs in one lane, for many reasons. A great guide to more lane distribution can be found here.

+ The basics: farm minions up your lane (get the killing blow when you can for extra gold). Each minion kill grants experience, which you need to level. Some champions have passive abilities that add to their experience gain rate.

+ If an enemy champion comes around with a set of minions, poke the champ (if you are a ranged champ), meaning you should harass them with ranged attacks in order to get them to back off or retreat. At lower levels, it is not always wise to engage an enemy head-on, because if the enemy champ kills you, they will get a boost of experience, which can cause them to level and become stronger than you.

+ On the flip side, if you see that the enemy champ is low on health, and you're confident you can take them out without dying, go for it. That applies at all levels.

+ Try not to "suicide", meaning, if you are low on health and think you can't get away from an incoming attack, do not stand around and let the enemy kill you. You are essentially giving them a free experience boost. Flash out or teleport to save your behind and prevent the enemy champ from leveling.

+ There are also monsters in the jungle (mobs) that will yield experience when killed. Some of these mobs have relatively low health and can be solo'd at mid-range levels, but others will require a team (such as the dragon).

+ Consistency is key. Stick to your lane (unless someone really needs help, or you are about to be slaughtered by three enemy champions).

+ Turrets are bad. When you approach an enemy turret, it will begin firing at the nearest minion. If there's no minions to fire at, the turret will fire at you. Three to four shots from a turret will kill you at level one and set your team back early in the game. When you are attacking an enemy turret and you see that only one minion is left attacking with you, get away from the turret. If you wait until that minion has been killed, you will suffer at least one shot from the turret.

+ Attack enemy turrets (and inhibitors) when there are no minions or enemy champs in the immediate area. Destroying a turret will give you a nice gold boost.

+ You will undoubtedly run into enemy champs while you are making your push down your lane. Stay behind your minions and take out the enemy minions first. Let the enemy champ come to you. This will almost always give you some sort of advantage, whether it be a recent level or new spell from killing minions, or an extra second to plan your next spell.

+ Later in the game, the enemy may make it into your base and will likely attack your defenses in the following order: outer turret > inhibitors > inner turrets > nexus. Once the enemy has invaded your base, you need at least one-two champs in the base defending it. Minions alone, even super minions, cannot defend the base all alone for much longer than a couple minutes. Intimidate (or better yet, kill) the enemy champs and get them out of the base. Stick around for a couple minutes if the enemy champ did not die to make sure they don't try another attack.

+ Check the map to see where the enemy champs are and have your team distribute their champs accordingly. For example, if there are five enemy champions in the base (defeat is probably imminent) get all your champs to your base and defend it. I have seen too many instances where a game could have been saved if the champs on my team had just stuck it out and defended the base. A breach in your base does not always signal a defeat. Likewise, if you invade the enemy's base, that does not indicate an imminent victory.

This is a very straightforward concept.

+ Over the course of the game, you gain gold by killing minions, killing champs, and destroying enemy buildings. With this gold, you buy items to help you out over the course of the game. Do research on the internet to figure out what items would be best suited for your chosen champion, and in what order you should purchase them. Eventually you'll be able to create your own item order and customize it in-game to show up during every match in your shop.

+ Don't sit on gold. Meaning, if you see that you have 1500+ gold, you can probably buy something in the shop, so hit B and return, buy your item, and get back to where you were.

Do not leave your game.

If you feel the match cannot be won, surrender instead. Leaving the game will lock you out of LoL for a certain period of time if you don't reconnect. Also, your teammates can report you for disconnecting intentionally.

Here are some reasons why people seem to disconnect from games:
~ Keep getting killed
~ Enemy champions too high level
~ Base buildings getting destroyed
~ Not enough gold
~ Champion "not strong enough"
~ Finished testing out a new champion
~ "Internet problem" (sometimes these are legitimate)
~ Dozens more awful excuses

A lot of what I've written here is pretty obvious to most people, and a lot of it is even covered in the in-game tutorials, but judging by what I've seen in my games so far, it seems some people don't even bother with the tutorials.

The TL;DR points of the guide are in green (things to do) and pink (things not to do).

I hope this guide is helpful to at least someone!

08/29/2014
+ Published