Here is the MLA League Philosophy in 10 points:
1) League is the hardest game in the world. It is an IMPOSSIBLE game. There is too much going on, too frequently. The human brain cannot process all the necessary information fast enough, let alone execute all of the intricate mechanical things required just to DO YOUR JOB.
If you’ve never played League before and you come in thinking it’s going to be just like any other game, you will be in for a big shock.
This is the reason building muscle memory is so pivotal to having success in League. We need to embed as MUCH information into our subconscious as possible such that we do not need to actively engage our prefrontal cortex when the time arises.
For example : If I have to actively engage my mind in reminding myself what ‘Lissandra’s kit does’ while in the lane phase, by then I’ve already made 10 mistakes relating to the wave state, missed trade windows, giving lane pressure , missed warding windows , the list goes on! Our mental bandwidth is a precious resource, the more things we can deeply embed into our intuition through repetition the better.
This is also ONE of the main reasons why League of Legends is NOT a great casual game. If you are not getting regular games in, you will find the journey quite miserable due to a lack of muscle memory/unsophisticated intuition or FEEL for the game, your ‘mental stack’ will be too overwhelmed to actually play the game.
None of this is even mentioning the inherent snowball oriented design which leads to ANY and EVERY mistake being punished way harder due to a lack of ‘game resetting functionality’. Think of League like Chess, a mistake on turn 1, impacts the ENTIRE game.
2) League is a game of information gathering/processing AND a game of execution. I’ve noticed players like to view League through ONE of two lenses rather than BOTH.
Players who enjoy the strategic aspect of League tend to see League as a ‘thinking man’s game’ similar to that of Chess, conversely players who enjoy the dopamine rush and execution aspect, tend to view League through the ‘Call of Duty’ lens.
The reality is that League is both a game as strategic as Chess yet as execution based as ‘Call of Duty’. We must simultaneously have a deep respect for the strategy/underlying decision making AS WELL AS the significance of execution.
Only once you understand and accept League’s complexity through both lenses will you TRULY become a consistent player. We must have the understanding of WHY something occurs, but also have the muscle memory to execute upon it reliably.
3) Champion mastery is the bedrock of my League philosophy. EVERYTHING starts from developing champion mastery.
Champion Mastery is a bit of an umbrella term nowadays, but the way I like to view it is : “you have a solid amount of champion mastery when you don’t have to think about ANYTHING execution related while piloting the champ”. Therefore, you are able to use that precious mental bandwidth to actually PLAY League of Legends.
The more mental power we have to put into thinking about HOW TO FIGHT, the harder it will be to allocate energy towards actually winning the game itself.
In both of my programs, I emphasize Champion Mastery to the point that if you have less than 40 games on a champion, I know you aren’t really even at the stage of ‘improving at the game’. This is also the reason my MLS program is centered around the Champion Guides I make on the platform.
4) We are all on our own unique League journey. The way we VIEW League and what we enjoy about the game is all totally different, this is because we all have differing gaming backgrounds. Some of us grew up playing PC at a young age, others only played Playstation or Xbox, others didn’t play any games on ANY platform until the age of 30. Not to mention the wide variety of personality types and friendship group influences.
This is important to understand because we will ALL improve at differing rates. Some people join my program and sky rocket up the ranks in just a matter of weeks, others take months and months to get ANY results. A large part of this is your GAMING BACKGROUND.
On top of this, even if you have played League before, you may have played your first 3 years through the lens of Support while someone else only played bruisers in top lane before moving to Mid. This doesn’t even include the influences around you while you LEARNED the game, some people had strong mentors/helpful high elo friends, others had toxic friendship groups that ingrained nasty narratives.
The more we understand WHY we are the way we are, the easier it will be to accept it.
5) League will teach you to be honest with yourself. It will teach you to LISTEN to your feelings and to really get to the bottom of WHY you feel a particular way.
When things get hard in League (which they inevitably will), we must introspect and be brutally honest with ourselves. League will exaggerate whatever problems you have going on in your life, BUT will exaggerate the positives if done well. It’s a double edged sword.
My philosophy revolves around UNDERSTANDING ourselves properly before we can actually get better at the game. I call these ‘stage 4’ issues. Stage 4 issues can be anything from video game addiction through to a fixed mindset. None of us are perfect, but I know for a fact that we will struggle to get REAL results without having that tough conversation with ourselves.
Your mental state is directly connected to your level of play. You cannot ‘be in a crappy mood’ and play great League.
6) Having a process is the most reliable way to improve at League. It increases the likelihood of you performing at your best as well as streamlines the learning journey. At the core of my recommended process is the ‘3 block method’, this basically means you play solo queue in blocks of 3 games, and in between each game you review the previous game.
This way we limit the possibility of tilt queueing, we also increase intensity & focus, while also allowing us to schedule League into our lives.
7) Due to the way League is designed, there are many aspects OUT of your control. We must laser focus on what is in OUR control. We are the only consistent factor in our games. This can be a tough pill for many people to swallow, but it is the cold hard truth. YOU are the only reason you will climb, and you are the ONLY reason you won’t climb.
8) The game is always changing, just like life. We are forced to question our underlying beliefs about the game every week. What might be true this month, may not be true next month.
We must also understand that League is a CHAOTIC game, there are 9 other people on the Rift with you, all with their own agendas and differing ways of viewing the game. We must not only ‘embrace the chaos’ but eventually learn to ‘THRIVE in the chaos’. Rather than getting bothered that your team didn’t listen to your ping, we must ALTER that default response to “Ok now what”.
9) We must accept that the ranked system always puts you in games where you are optimally challenged. Therefore no matter how much you improve, you will ALWAYS be ‘pushed’ and feel uncomfortable. If there is ever a game where you start to say “Oh, I’m finally feeling fine now”, you must remind yourself that the feeling will NOT last. Before you know it, you’ll be in higher elo lobbies and you’ll find yourself being overwhelmed again. WELCOME TO LEAGUE!
10) Get comfortable with failure and making mistakes. There is SO much to learn in League, and SO much muscle memory to be developed. The only way to do so is through trying and failing many many things. We must find that balance between holding ourselves to a relatively high standard but not be TOO harsh on ourselves and be kind to ourselves and understanding. I’ve noticed over time that most people struggle with finding this balance, we are either much too hard on ourselves or not nearly hard enough.
The mentality that has served me well is “I am ok with making mistakes, but not OK with not understanding my mistakes”.
For some people who have only ever committed to things that they are naturally talented at, League can be a bit of a shock. I see many successful people both in the work force and in College struggle with the idea that they are just ‘not that good at something’. League will humble you, it will bring you to your knees and give you immense pain. But it will also give you immense pleasure and satisfaction when you can look yourself in the mirror and TRULY KNOW that YOU have improved at something that is incredibly hard.
Remember : Every mistake or negative experience is an opportunity for you to learn and be a better version of yourself then you were before!
Cheers,
Curtis