A Brief Introduction and Guide to Playing League of Legends

League of Legends is the most popular MOBA game in the world. It was released in 2009 and quickly became a global phenomenon. Nowadays, LoL is played by large numbers of people from China, South Korea, Europe, North America, and other regions. In total, it has more than 125 million active competitors.

In this guide, you will learn the basics of LoL and how you can get into it.

How to Play LoL

League of Legends is a free-to-play game. It mixes elements from RTS titles like StarCraft with elements from RPG titles like Diablo 2. There is only one map but the number of characters you can play is enormous. There are over 165 champions and every single one of them is unique.

Matches are 5v5 battles, which greatly adds to the replayability of the game because you almost never encounter the same champion composition twice. Nor do you have the same champions on your team. This forces you to think each time you play and use your creativity to find a way to win.

The complexity is further increased by the large number of items that you can buy. In LoL, champions level up and gain gold as they kill enemy units. The gold can be used to buy powerful items from the shop. What items you buy is entirely up to you, which means that you can build your character in a variety of ways.

The order in which you maximize your abilities and the items you choose to buy are two important decisions that you will make in each LoL game.

LoL is a battle of timings. The two teams constantly try to get an advantage and become stronger than their opponent. If you can get to a specific level and a specific item ahead of an enemy champion, that will allow you to force favorable fights and destroy towers with ease. You can also kill Dragons or even the Baron.

League of Legends can be played very easily by simply downloading the installer from Riot’s official LoL website.

The Key Elements of LoL

League of Legends is composed of a handful of key elements that you need to master to become a better player.

• Champions
• The map
• Items
• Buildings

Champions

LoL champions are characters that start at level 1 and can reach level 18 during a game, which lasts around 30 minutes. At level 1, most champions are quite weak and need to play safely. But by the time they’re level 12, they’re quite strong and can sometimes win games almost on their own.

Champions have attributes and abilities. Their attributes include HP, attack damage, and so on. Their abilities are unique. At every level, you get one point that you can use to improve one of your abilities. The ultimate can only be skilled for the first time at level 6.

Different champions are well-suited for different roles. Some are excellent junglers, others are good for the carry role. You can also pick a support, mid, or top champion. LoL players expect you to have basic knowledge about each role and what champions are good for it.

In other MOBA games, such as Dota 2, the system is a lot more flexible, in the sense that there’s no fixed expectation about what you will do with your chosen character. But in LoL, you always have one jungler, one mid, one top, and two champions in the safe lane, one of whom is a support and the other is the carry.

Champions get stronger by killing enemy units. This is called farming. So the objective, unless you’re the support of the team, is to farm as much as you can without getting killed. If you die, you will need to wait until you respawn and then come back to your lane.

Professional players like Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok can play just about any champion to perfection. But as a beginner, it's enough to master five of them.

The Map

In LoL, you play on the same map each time. This map is divided in two parts. Each part is composed of three lanes and a base. The lanes and the base are guarded by towers and units that spawn frequently.

A team’s goal is to make progress toward the enemy base by destroying towers. Of course, teams will not just let you take their towers for free, so they will either defend them or try to take objectives of their own.

Between the lanes there is a portion called the jungle. This terrain is full of creatures that you can slay to get experience, gold, and other benefits.

The map is quite large and there’s no easy way to get from point A to point B. You’ll have to either walk or use teleportation. However, you can only teleport once every 6 minutes, which means that you need to make good use of this summoner spell.

Items

LoL has more than 200 items that you can buy. These items enhance your champion’s survivability, damage, and so on. It’s up to you to determine what you need to maximize your chances of winning battles.

In some cases, buying a lot of armor will be the optimal choice, especially if you play the tank role. In other cases, buying as much damage as possible will allow you to quickly take out enemy champions and win the game.

Items should be bought progressively. Don’t wait until you have 3000 gold to start buying your first piece of gear. If you do this, your opponents will notice that you’re not using your gold properly and will take advantage of it.

With each item you buy, you become stronger, which often gives you the ability to farm faster, which in turn makes you even stronger. The objective is to grow faster than the enemy champion that plays the same role. If you’re the position 1 carry, you should try to grow faster than the enemy carry.

Items can be bought from the shop, which is located in your base, where you spawn. If you need to use your gold, find the right moment to teleport back to base and then go back to farming or fighting.

Buildings

In LoL, buildings are not hard to understand. The ones you’ll encounter most often are towers. These buildings will kill you very quickly in the early game, so make sure you stay out of their range. They’re designed that way to prevent players from diving too early. While you are under your own tower, you’ll have some amount of protection.

Another important type of building is the Inhibitor. Once destroyed, the lane units of the team that destroyed it become significantly stronger, pushing additional pressure on that lane.

The most important structure in LoL is the Nexus. This is the equivalent of the king in a game like chess. When a team’s Nexus is destroyed, the game ends with the victory of the side that destroyed it.

Featured Image Source: Riot Games