LoL Teamfighting 101: How To Improve Playing With Friends

Solo Queue isn’t the only way to climb in League of Legends. Sometimes, players just want to share the success by climbing with some friends and reach the Challenger Division as a team in hopes of someday being good enough to create an amateur League of Legends competitive squad. Whether you’re gunning to go pro or just want to improve generally on your Flex tactics, you might want to learn more about LoL teamfighting so that you’ll be a squad that’ll be reckoned with on the ranked ladders.

LoL Teamfighting 101: Tips & Tricks

Teamfighting requires several skills and strategies to fully execute. When we say teamfighting, we don’t just mean what’s the best way to initiate a 5v5 brawl and win it. The team should be able to function like a well-oiled machine that knows how to move for the team but with enough individualism that they won’t crumble when their teamfighting is challenged by the other side. LoL teamfighting is the single most important thing for premade squads.

To understand the mechanics of LoL teamfighting, we need to break it down to the important elements. Once you master this as a team, you can play on a competitive level and even join some local tournaments with enough confidence to gun for the top spot. The hardest part about making a LoL team is assembling members that are willing to work together without having their ego become a major hurdle in asking or listening to people who are trying to assist them.

1. Set a Shotcaller/Leader

The most important thing about LoL teamfighting is to establish a person who you can consider as the leader and/or shotcaller. The shotcaller is in-charge of giving out orders, watching the game state, and keeping up the team’s morale. This person usually stands out in a group so it isn’t hard to choose who will lead. However, if you don’t know which one of your members should be the shotcaller, you should choose the most experienced and likeable person to take it.

The primary reason why teams should have shotcaller/leader is for the team to have a uniform goal. Having too many people giving orders creates confusion and will inevitable mess with your win-condition. Members can challenge an order from the shotcaller as long as you strongly believe you’re right. Otherwise, members should listen to all orders without question. Keep in mind that no shotcaller is perfect, so they’ll eventually make mistakes that might or might not cost you the game.

2. Talk Less But Communicate More

The shotcaller is in-charge of setting the team on the right path but that doesn’t mean every other member of the team won’t be talking the entire game. Keep in mind that in heated moments, you should talk less and communicate more. The human mind is capable of inferring commands or statements from simple words or phrases. Creating complete sentences will just clutter the comms and confuse your allies.

EXAMPLES:

• [X] Kill the Vayne! / [✓] Vayne! Vayne!
• [X] I understand, I’ll go for Vayne too / [✓] Going Vayne
• [X] The enemy team might gank top, be careful / [✓] Care top
• [X] We’re losing, let’s move back / [✓] Back! Back!
• [X] We might win, let’s turn around / [✓] Turn! Turn!

It’s easier to understand a teammate when they’re spamming one word instead of creating complete sentences. As long as you say it with repetition and loudly, trust your teammates that they’ll get what you mean. You can reserve a full discussion when the game state is a bit passive. This strategy is most effective during heated teamfights and everything seems chaotic.

3. Work On Your Drafts

Analysts argue that the simplest way to win the game before the game even starts is to win in the draft phase. Teams that have good drafts have the best chance of winning but those that draft poorly are doomed to lose no matter how good they are. Of course, this only applies if the team is able to fully execute the draft and play towards the champions’ strength. Good drafts in the hands of terrible players won’t matter and will lose regardless.

To understand what a good draft is, you might want to Watch LoL Esports Games. Usually, teams will want to figure out what their win condition is before the draft and use champions that can achieve such conditions. Champion synergy also plays an important part.

Examples of Draft Compositions:

• Late Game Scaling
• Early Game Snowball
• Global Macro Control
• Objective Monopoly
• Front-to-Back Teamfighting
• Sidelane Split-Push
• 1-3-1 Lane Control
• Artillery Poke & Harass

4. Understand Lane Priorities

Understand which lanes you want to prioritize. Do this by acknowledging which player in your team has the highest chance of carrying the game according to his/her individual skill or according to the draft. If you’re familiar with the enemy team, you might also want to put a bit of focus on trying to shut down the best player on the enemy team or try to abuse the weakest link to create an advantage for your team.

Once you’ve established a lane priority, the rest of the team will act accordingly. More resources will be put on trying to make your lane priority successful as quickly as possible. Opposing lane priorities will also adjust their playstyle. For example, if you want to place lane priority on the bottom lane, the top lane should acknowledge itself as the “weak side” and play a bit more passively or carefully. Don’t try to attract attention to yourself so that the rest of your team won’t have to babysit you and eventually lose lane priority.

5. Move Around The Map as a Unit

Now that you’re playing Flex or as a squad in general, there’s no need to act like a solo queue player that tries to carry the game by himself/herself. Once you’ve established a system where you can communicate with the team, you’re able to move around the map as a unit. The best way to win a fight is to have more allies. This means that you should try to move in 3s when trying to secure a kill. No matter how good the enemy player is, they can’t beat 3 people.

Try to assist your allies as much as possible. When your jungler is trying to take the Rift Herald or Elemental Drake, the laner closest to them should assist them and keep them safe without attracting the attention of the enemy laners. Don’t let your allies get killed or bullied in lane by helping them in lane. Your presence alone is enough to tilt your enemy enough that they’ll make mistakes by being impatient or overly cautious.

6. Prioritize A Target

During chaotic LoL teamfights, it’s difficult to keep track of which targets your teammates are trying to kill. The last thing you want in a teamfight is having all 5 members of your team splitting damage evenly on the enemy team. The best way to win a teamfight is to take down the most important target as quickly as possible before proceeding to the next. This requires quick thinking from the shotcaller and good communication from the team.

As mentioned before, talk less and communicate more by keeping the comms clear. Once you hear the shotcall to prioritize a target, every member of the team should focus on taking that target down in unison. The shotcaller should choose a realistic target to take down. Sometimes the most prized target on the enemy team is safely protected in the backline which means trying to lead your team to kill that target might end up becoming a suicide mission.

7. Know Your Roles

In solo queue, every player wants to shine and carry the game. Unfortunately, in LoL teamfights, not every player gets the exciting role of being the star player. Some of your teammates need to make the sacrifice of being a utility player which means they won’t be carrying the game with their flashy players. They can still carry the game by being a good guy and offering support to you key teammates and help them reach a comfortable position.

Players should acknowledge their roles in the team and play towards it. If a teammate is stuck playing tank, they shouldn’t be making reckless plays like trying to assassinate an enemy player in their sights. Junglers should try to roam too deep into uncharted territory alone when important objectives are up. Key players and damage deals should always be accompanies by another player so that they don’t end up getting assassinated by an enemy player and turn the game around instantly.

8. Macro Formations

Macro formations refer to your position on the map at all times. Macro formations occur during important game periods such as when a team secures the Baron Nashor or when players are trying to position themselves to get an important objective. It might not be prominent but professional teams always try to position themselves depending on macro formations to give them the highest chances of confusing the enemy team and dealing as much damage around the map as possible.

Macro formation is purely knowledge-based but you’ll also need to have proper experience on when to break formation or when to begin these formations. These formations also depend on the draft and team composition. For example, a 1-3-1 Macro Formation requires at least 2 strong split push capable champion. Making a 1-3-1 without the proper draft usually just ends in disaster and gives the enemy team an easy excuse to take 1 or 2 kills.

9. Team Vision

To open up LoL teamfights, information becomes the greatest weapon that a team can use to win a fight before even starting it. One of the Reasons Why Korea Players Were So Dominant is because they were able to abuse vision control and use the information they gather to take control of the flow of the game. You’ll need to synchronize all of your vision wards so that you can get as much wards on the map at all times as possible and get rid of enemy wards on your side.

The best way to achieve team vision is to always have a 1-2 Vision Wards in your inventory at all times. If you haven’t dropped a Vision Ward on the map yet, make sure to place it somewhere useful. Having vision around the map lessens the chance of a successful gank and prevents the enemy team from securing an important objective without contention. One or two teammates should also buy Sweeping Lens to clean wards and check if a gank or objective has been compromised.

10. Spellchecking & Reports

One Advanced Strategy From a Pro-Player is Spellchecking & Reporting. This involves tracking the use of an enemy’s Summoner Spells and share on the LoL chat box when that specific spell will be back up. This helps the team take on fights more confidently and choose which target they should prioritize. By being able to track a target’s Summoners efficiently, the chances of successful ganks or LoL teamfights increases dramatically.

The hardest part about this is keeping spellchecking in mind. It’s easy to forget to spellcheck or remember when a timer is supposed to be back up but with enough practice, it comes naturally to you as a player. Reporting is also important. Report where the enemy places their wards or if an enemy is moving. Keep the Chat Box clear, avoid any unnecessary chats and mute the enemy team to prevent the box from being flooding quickly. This will make it easier to scroll up or down to search for specific time stamps.