Cooldown Monitoring – Most players in League understand the importance of playing around the cooldown of an enemy champion’s ultimate, but Gold & below often forgets to monitor the cooldowns of basic abilities which can be just as critical to the enemy’s survival. Laning against a Sivir as a hook champion (such as Thresh, Nautilus, or Blitzcrank) is often framed as heavily favoring Sivir, but a watchful eye on cooldowns can easily turn what seems like a great disadvantage into a golden opportunity. In this clip, an initial hook is thrown to absorb the spell shield at a time we couldn’t have properly engaged on to prime a follow-up hook which is much more fruitful. Special shout out to @GGC | Reâds | JGL | D2 & Murk for following up and believing in my hexflash-hook.

The Dangers of an Early Death – While it is true in Plat & below comebacks happen all the time, players should refrain from putting themselves in positions that can become overwhelming. Dying early, particularly if you’re a Jungler, can cause a variety of successive events that can all but drown your chances of recovery, let alone victory. In the following clip, an early kill on the enemy Jungler allowed me to take the Rift Herald – spiraling into a massive four turret run (on top of our already mounting lead).

Knowing Your Champions Limits/Gaining an Advantage Before a Fight start- In the beginning of the clip (TF) used his ultimate to try and pick off Sivir, however she had spellshield and Zoe to back her up making the ally team have a 2-man deficit. However, Lux lands a great ultimate to finish off the Sivir making it a 3v4. Gragas scuffed his E and without hesitating I used my W to get off as much (DPS) knowing that the gragas used the only kind of mobility that he has (besides flash). After forcing Gragas to fall back I re-position myself behind a minion to avoid any (CC) that can potentially kill me (Zoe E, Blitzcrank Q) and Rakan lands a followed up by a lux (Q) resulting Blitzcrank to take a great deal of damage from me eventually forced to use his Locket. Knowing that their tanks are low on (HP) and are not able to frontline for their team, I focus on the main damage dealers (Zoe, Quinn). I autoattack zoe and knowing that Quinn intended to E me, I disrupt that with Xayahs Ult (Untargetable) forcing Zoe to use her ultimate defensively and to also force Quinn upwards because of my ultimate and with quick decision making and knowing how much damage your champions do, I reactively flash to where Zoe and Quinn was getting zoned off my ultimate and using my E eventually killing off Blitzcrank, Zoe and Quinn and eventually taking down an inhibitor and winning the game. Safely doing (DPS) before any fight can give your team an advantage in terms of health and combining this with the limits of your champions can allow you to make those quick decisive plays.

Knowing Your Champions Limits/Gaining an Advantage Before a Fight start- In the beginning of the clip (TF) used his ultimate to try and pick off Sivir, however she had spellshield and Zoe to back her up making the ally team have a 2-man deficit. However, Lux lands a great ultimate to finish off the Sivir making it a 3v4. Gragas scuffed his E and without hesitating I used my W to get off as much (DPS) knowing that the gragas used the only kind of mobility that he has (besides flash). After forcing Gragas to fall back I re-position myself behind a minion to avoid any (CC) that can potentially kill me (Zoe E, Blitzcrank Q) and Rakan lands a followed up by a lux (Q) resulting Blitzcrank to take a great deal of damage from me eventually forced to use his Locket. Knowing that their tanks are low on (HP) and are not able to frontline for their team, I focus on the main damage dealers (Zoe, Quinn). I autoattack zoe and knowing that Quinn intended to E me, I disrupt that with Xayahs Ult (Untargetable) forcing Zoe to use her ultimate defensively and to also force Quinn upwards because of my ultimate and with quick decision making and knowing how much damage your champions do, I reactively flash to where Zoe and Quinn was getting zoned off my ultimate and using my E eventually killing off Blitzcrank, Zoe and Quinn and eventually taking down an inhibitor and winning the game. Safely doing (DPS) before any fight can give your team an advantage in terms of health and combining this with the limits of your champions can allow you to make those quick decisive plays.

Why The Minimap Matters –– It’s obvious why the minimap is important, but often players underutilize its power – especially in lower elo games. For those of you who may be struggling to utilize this information hub, work at glancing over at your minimap at least 4 times a minute (though optimal usage should be more than this). In the following clip, @GGC | BladeLord | Mid/ADC | S4 is getting invaded, but from a few choice jukes & coming in to assist in a timely fashion, we manage to turn it to our advantage.

Utilizing Enemy Positions — One of the more advanced concepts of league is using enemy positions in an advantageous ways without giving away your intentions, a bait within a bait if you will. Upon successful utilization, you can not only find useful doors out of situations but also pick up some freelo gold on the way. In the following clip, Lee Sin has come to gank me & botched it horribly, but recognizing his relative position to the fight I’m having with his top laner gives me an optimal window to win the exchange.

PRIORITIZING AND PROCESSING — Often times ADCs are looked down upon if they’re not the highest damage in the game and this can be especially difficult when assassins like Katarina/Zed/Master Yi/Talon exist to make your life rather rough. It’s your job to look for positional advantages to either kill them or neutralize their damage. In the following clip you can see that I look to be in a rather hairy position with a Sion and a Katarina. I utilize the wall nearby to continuously dish out damage and move in and out of burst threat damage (namely Katarina and choose to be on the side with Sion where I can’t die immed.) With some clever positioning I simply take all the kills, move out of Katarina’s ult, come back to finish her off, and then proceed to deal with Yi. The Yi was a bit trickier. I knew that I could not get help from my team but could again play the wall to my advantage. I prep Lucian’s double auto passive by throwing out a W to maximize my damage. Proceeding with Lucian’s normal combo I know in my head that I have to wait until Master Yi Q’s before I flash over the wall. Timing it perfectly -> I manage to fire off my autos as I flash over the wall to deny him the last auto that would have killed me.

EARLY AGGRESSION IN BOT — I’ve been going over how no matter what adc you’re playing you should learn to punish and be aggressive early. Lane dominance is crucial to both winning in 5s and ensuring victories in soloq. I’ve gotten requests to see this kind of aggression at level 1 on champions that are “considered” weaker at level 1 than most. So here is a vod of Ezreal at level 1 being aggressive in lane and with some nice Nami work really putting the enemy bot lane behind. Things to note: 1. How their pathing into lane is immediately punished. 2. How we harass no matter how little it is. Just a single auto is worth it

TRUST/COMMUNICATION & MOVING BETWEEN AUTOS — I think it’s fairly obvious that you need to have a certain level of communication and trust with your partner in bot lane. But there often is a lack of communication when it comes to dives. People aren’t vocal about who is tanking or planning on tanking and who should be the one finishing off the kill. This often leads to botched dives and much sadness. In the following clip you’ll see a great bubble land on Jhin. We immediately realize this is a perfect all in and go hard. I’m taking care to weave in movement between my autos so that I end up much closer to them and their eventual goal (their turret). This allows me to basically get in more autos than I usually would have if i had stood in place autoing. The second part of this is the trust with my support for the dive. As soon as I see lux near the turret and her animation of q coming out..I know we can go for the condemn against the turret. I immediately call this out to my support and she moves in to land the chain cc bubble + tank the turret shots. This gives me the opportunity to get out of the bind and finish her off. As you can see it’s close but calculate

CHOOSING YOUR FIGHT WHEN YOU’RE BEHIND — This game was particularly irritating for us as we had a mid Sona that refused to shove turrets or group. Near the end of the match she voiced this and said she was never grouping or helping. Confirming that we were indeed left in a 4v5, I told the team to sit in the bush by drake. Seeing that Elder Drake was up..I knew the enemy team would want to ward it or try to get vision control. Once I saw that Nami had popped her sweeping lens and that they had no idea Nasus + Kayne were waiting in the bush as well…I decided to bait and try to force the fight. It worked and their team ended up throwing out of greed for Elder + me. Small note here: The level of peel and support I got from the team allowed me to kite back safely but even then as an adc it’s important to always know where your threats are. Seeing LeBlanc jumping in..I knew I had to immediately prep a flash to get out before her damage could register. -> That led to me surviving and us winning the team fight.

SUPPORTS ARE AMAZING — The end of this clip might seem like really good kiting mechanics from an adc perspective but THROUGHOUT the whole clip the real star is the Lulu. She enables me to do everything that I needed to do. To top it off when I had but a sliver of health she gave me the chance to take down the yasuo as well. Lulu is truly the star of this one. It’s sad that even the Gragas in the game couldn’t tell that.

Round 2:

Semis:

Finals: