Mid Lane Academy Principles:
1. A poor plan executed well, is always better than a great plan executed poorly. This is why grouping even when it’s ‘inefficient’ and ‘not correct on paper’ to do so, in Gold and below games tends to produce the best results.

2. You don’t need to ‘carry’ to climb in Solo Queue. At any time within a game, all you have to do is YOUR JOB, nothing more, nothing less. Your job is defined by your champion’s kit, role in the game based off of both team compositions and the ever changing game state based off of what is occurring in real time.
The ‘carry’ narrative has been pushed for years through toxic league content creators & smurfs, it is unrealistic and detrimental to your relationship with the game. The toxic ‘carry’ mindset is a big reason people cannot climb by influencing you to make poor quality decisions.

3. You are the only consistent factor across the course of your Solo Queue journey. Hence why YOU are the sole reason you are at your rank, not anyone of your teammates, the system or anything else.
If you perform better than your counterpart in mid in the majority of games, you will climb over the long run no matter what.
Remember: The likelihood of your team getting the trolls is equal for the enemy team unless YOU ARE THE TROLL

4. What got you here, won’t get you there. Doing the same thing that got you to Platinum 1, won’t get you to Diamond 1. You will have to get uncomfortable by setting new, challenging learning objectives. Either by getting coaching, or learning about new concepts through educational Youtube content. Please refer to my ‘How To Avoid Being Hardstuck In S11’ Youtube video.

5. League is a confidence game. If you don’t have confidence in your ability, no amount of knowledge will change the result. Lack of confidence leads to a lack of ability to execute. Very dangerous.

Refer to my ‘Self Confidence Lesson’ within the Psychology & Mindset section

6. League is a game of small wins leading to one big win. These small wins are made up of tiny small details. The devil is in the details. If you don’t get into the details in your review, you will not be able to replicate getting leads. Your goal in any game is to replicate getting as many small wins as possible, eventually increasing the chances of ‘big wins’ occuring.

Small win example = Denying 1 CS or taking 1 solid trade etc.
Big win example = Solo kill or forcing them back to base or a blue buff steal etc.

7. Your job in Solo Queue is to make your teammates’ life as EASY as possible. The game is already hard as it is! Here are a few examples of how to do this:
– Deep warding and pinging the enemy jungler to make your teammates aware of their location
– Pinging what side of the map the enemy jungler is on for your team whenever possible
– Pinging WAY in advance that someone is roaming
– Telling the team WAY in advance to not contest an objective so they have time to prepare another plan

There is always ways to make your teams life easier, remember this! GET CREATIVE.

8. There is only a finite amount of information you can process at any given time, your job is to know which pieces of information to prioritize so that the best quality decision is made.
In order to improve upon this skill, in review ask yourself two questions..
– “Which variables was I not considering here that led me to this decision?”
– “What were the signs or ‘red flags’ for me in order to notice these variables?”

This ties in directly to ‘the devil’s in the details’.

9. The first 10 minutes of the game is the most important.
– It is where you have the most influence over the game, and you can actually replicate things that occur within this period of the game. This is where the majority of your time should be spent in the reviews.

This also ties into my underlying philosophy that ‘learning how to get a lead’ takes precedence over ‘learning how to play from behind’.

10. Learning how to ‘lose gracefully’ is a skill in itself. Every Mid Laner needs to develop this skill because you are inevitably going to get behind in some games, or be counter picked and not be the key figure within a given team composition.

11. Being a ‘player’ within League is absolutely crucial for long term success. Are you a ‘Player’ or a ‘Victim’?

A player takes full responsibility for the outcome of a game, finding ways where they contributed even in the smallest of ways to every event within the game.

A victim focuses on what was out of their control and blames externals. Other teammates are the main reason they lose games.

You get a lot more out of a review with a ‘player’ mentality.

12. Using lull states as times to calibrate and prioritize certain bits of information is crucial for high quality gameplay.
– A lull state is a period in the game where you don’t immediately have to attend to something. E.g Coming out of base, in between waves or even the time while being dead.
– Some questions you can ask yourself during a lull state are…
A) What is the win condition?
B) What is my role in this game?
C) Who are the key threats on the enemy team?
D) Can we contest the next objective?

13. Chat should be muted at all times in Solo Queue. The disadvantages of having chat enabled by far outweigh the advantages.
– Mute the chat, and unmute the pings if need be.

14. Separating the ‘real you’, from your ‘league self’ is at the crux of maintaining a healthy relationship with the game.
There is a big difference between saying:
“I am terrible at League” vs. “My threat assessment in that game was terrible”

One is speaking to yourself at an identity level, the other is talking about your level of play at League of Legends.

15. Solo Queue is inherently chaotic, you must be adaptable and fluid like water. Complaining about what is happening in a game is a sign you aren’t ready for the chaos. Because there are so many variables shifting at any one time, we must be constantly assessing and updating our current view on the game state. This is also why you can guarantee people in Solo Queue WILL get caught no matter what, it’s just a matter of time.

16. League is an information based game, the amount and the quality of the information we process dictates the caliber of our decision making. This is why camera panning, mini map assessment and warding are crucial for high level play.

17. Playing with high intensity is at the crux of improving at the game. If we go into a solo queue match with 80% intensity, we will always have the excuse that “we just weren’t trying” or “that mistake was uncharacteristic of me”. Sometimes these excuses are subconscious, be wary of this!

18. Every player improves at differing rates, we are not competing against anyone but ourselves. Success is looking yourself in the mirror and being able to confidently say “I gave it my all, and no one can say otherwise”. Where that takes you is largely unknown.

19. Smurfing should only be done for one singular reason, “to learn new champions”. We do not condone smurfing for any other reason in the Mid Lane Academy.

20. Win rates, KDA’s, OPGG scores and other stats are not indicative of one’s performance in a game nor skill of a player. I want to see a significant amount of games played with average win rates e.g 500 total games played with 52% win rates. This shows to me you are putting in the work and know how to fail forwards.

21. Champion Mastery is the backbone of any great League player. If you do not at least have 70/80 games played on a given champion, then you should not be confused about why you are losing a game nor even focusing on game fundamentals.

22. Playing ranked should not be a spectacle. It is your dojo, your training arena. Ranked solo queue is not the culmination of your life’s work, not a game 5 of a grand final or anything like that. You have to be willing to queue up consistently and get into the ‘thick of it’. Yes, you must be high intensity, but it must be the norm for you to queue up, play, review and move onto the next game.

23. Lastly, we all play this game for fun and enjoyment at the end of the day. We love League of Legends, who wouldn’t!? If you find yourself being genuinely scared, anxious, depressed over League then you need to take a step back and have a think about your current outlook on the game. The last thing I want is people to be having negative experiences while spending time on their hobby.