Practice Drills 2: Team Play

Drill 1: Sid Gillman’s Drill (Jungler)

Rules: Two Heroes play as a jungler and a laner (three if you want to simulate a pair lane), and Villains represent the enemy laners. The Villains have no jungler. Prepare the Villain by waiting for him to get a few levels, and for him to take some damage. Once the Villains are low enough, the Heroes attempt to successfully dive the Villains under their tower. The drill is a success if the heroes get at least one kill while suffering no casualties. Any casualties, or if the Villain(s) survive, the Villains win.

Background: "The big play comes with the pass. God bless those runners because they get you the first down, give you ball control and keep your defense off the field. But if you want to ring the cash register, you have to pass." - Sid Gillman, San Diego Chargers Head Coach, 1961-1971.

Being a positive laner is one thing, but all that work goes away if the other guy’s able to back and buy items. If you didn’t generate a lead, you left some money on the table. But now, with a team you can trust, you can now make sure you can ring the cash register.

This is a kill drill, and the other guy is not going to stand still while you try and collect his head. The Heroes are going to need to communicate and make sure all of the abilities are used efficiently; namely, no CC stacking, no missed abilities, and no abilities get left unused.

Variations:

Easy Mode: Instead of diving, turn it into a normal gank, where the Villain is in the middle of the lane, not under their tower.

Spoiler: Give the Villains a jungler, and allow him to show up to wreck your play.

Hard Mode: Make sure the Villains are at full health before you attempt the play.

Drill 2: And the Kitchen Sink…(Laners)

Rules: Both one Hero and one Villain pick meta-expected laners with reasonable runes, masteries, and items. Begin a custom game and have them lane against each other indefinitely, One side wins when a tower falls, first blood is claimed, or either laner gets ahead by 8 creeps.

Background:

Showdown was a great game mode, as long as you could get a reasonable matchup. It didn’t happen often. But, when you did, you had a pretty honest game to see who was the better laner. Although, the game was rather slow for my liking, as ranged champs who can farm safely were common, and you can’t play an ADC in every position in a real game. Also, a high creep score required to win could easily become a drag.

In this drill, that’s not a problem. Falling behind by 8 CS means you lose, so you’ll have to fight for EVERY creep. This will train the laners to understand that every creep is a battle, every wave a war. As the drill is quick and easy to lose through passivity, your laners will get used to throwing everything they can at the other guy.

Variations:

I Hate That Guy: Have the Hero play a champ in his normal pool, and give the Villain a champ that the Hero explicitly dislikes laning against.

Seems a Little Excessive: Some matchups aren’t fair for this game. For example, Riven will have no problem getting 8 CS ahead of a Nasus early. So, you can adjust the creep score lead required to win.

Circling Vultures: Give both players a jungler on their team, clearing camps as needed. If they see a chance to gank and win the drill, they take it.

Drill 3: Omaha Hold’em (Pair Lane)

Rules: Heroes play as an ADC and support, (champs of their choice), two Villains select Jinx and Janna. Take nominal runes and masteries. The duo lane attempts to lane bot taking every creep while the villains do the following:

Jinx uses rockets to quickly clear the waves, but otherwise doesn’t fight.

Janna attempts to harass the heroes with auto, shield, and W.

The Villains score a point whenever Janna lands two attacks (one auto + W counts) without any retaliation, and for every creep the heroes miss. The Heroes score when both the ADC and Support hit Janna. The Hero support isn't supposed to attack until the Villain attacks first.

Background:

In Texas Hold’em, each player has two hole cards. In Omaha, the only difference is that each player has four hole cards than two. It looks like a more difficult game because more card combinations are possible, but in fact it’s a simpler game; you just assume that most hands are out against you. Instead of trying to play middling hands, you wait for a chance when you know you have the best of it.

Pair laning is similar. Because there’s a support in the lane with no obligation to CS, a lot of people think that there’s much more going on. Instead, I advise you to take the opposite view and see it differently; instead of a 2v2, you’re looking for small scale 1v1s. When an opponent is too far forward, that means his partner is too far back, and that the guy in front is in a 1v1, and may even be a 2v1, like it or not.

This drill teaches pair laners to keep the formation tight and not strand either of themselves too far forward, and also to defend themselves from poke by retaliating. The only reason there’s a Jinx in the drill is to not give our harassing villain an insurmountable creep wave.

Variations:

Short Range Heroes: This drill is easy for the Heroes with Caitlyn/Annie, and harder for them as their ranges go down. You can adjust the difficulty this way. It’d be very impressive if they could win at this drill with Urgot/Gnar!

Long Range Harass: Janna’s one of the shortest range pokers. If you want to increase the difficulty this way, try Sona, Nami, Karma, Annie, or Vel’Koz.

AFK Reported!: Make the Hero ADC play without their support (your support would probably play the villain in this scenario). Now, they’ll have a lot of work to do as Jinx is cleaving through their own minions and they’ve got to fend off a harasser in addition to CSing well. In a game situation the ADC will have to back off, but remember that in this drill, Jinx isn’t allowed to fight. So, the Hero will need to hang in there and do all they can.

Drill 4: A Voice with an Internet Connection (Shotcalling)

Rules: The whole team queues up for a ranked game, with a ringer playing in place of the regular shotcaller. The shotcaller instead watches the game in real time and runs the team. If they’re close to a teammate, the Shotcaller can go to their house and play over their shoulder; if not, you can use screencasting software. With no obligation to play directly, they can focus all of their attention on the game, and instruct the players to do what they need to do.

Background:

I’m aware that they don’t teach radio discipline in school, but my God, most people are atrocious at it. You’d think in a world where everyone has cell phones, some people would take the effort to make themselves easier to understand over a comm device like a phone or headset. It’s not “S” or “F”, it’s “Sierra” or “Foxtrot”. This way, there’s no ambiguity.

Playing the game itself just makes it worse, as the shotcaller has other things to worry about, and hence less mental resources to devote to communication. Practice makes perfect, so instead of working on both at once, we’re going to work on communication only.

Be sure to understand what information your players need from you, what you need from them, and how to get it. It’s the shotcaller’s responsibility to not only call the right play, but to make sure it works. You ensure this before hand by gathering the right information (your laner told you that Lissandra has no ult), and you relay that information (tell your assassin to bypass Lissandra in this fight, as she’s less of a danger than the ADC).

Variations:

Actually Play This Time: Lose the ringer and play a game like you normally would. Afterward, go over any communication faults you may have noticed.

Are You Really Ready to Win?

TL/DR: Learn to recognize opportunities, and take them.

Solo queue players are a cursed lot. Our situation sucks. We have to play a team game by ourselves, and we’re judged by the results that we achieved along with total strangers. It’d be one thing if it was a team we played on and practiced with alongside players we know; if we suck, we suck. But man, sometimes we just get burned by the matchmaker.

But hey, that’s life, isn’t it? We’re not going to get the first job we apply for or get a date with the first person we ask out, unless maybe if our parents are billionaires. Failure’s a part of life. Isn’t that what Rocky said? It’s not how hard you hit, but how hard you can get hit? Getting to Diamond’s like showing up to the party in a cool car, few people really care how much work it took to get it, just that you got it. If it takes 50 games or 5000, who cares? You got there.

Okay, great. That’s why most people are here. They’re here to keep moving forward. Except...will they?

ONE SIMPLE TRICK! ADC MAINS HATE HIM!

These posts are legion; for they are many: What champ do I pick? How do I beat this champ? What runes or items do I buy? How can I carry feeders?

Dammit, this isn’t a 2AM infomercial for weight loss. All that stuff that takes place before the loading screen is not going to save you. There’s no magic bullet like “play katarina”, “mpen runes” or “buy a sightstone”. It’s like walking into a boxing gym and seeing no one sparring, but instead seeing a heated discussion on whether the Everlast gloves are better than the Winnings. In boxing, if you intend to win, you need to know how to land a punch. In LoL, if you intend to win, you need to know how to get ahead. From there, you need to recognize when to follow on for more or when to back off.

WE ARE ALL HELPLESS

Let’s stick with the boxing metaphor. Laning’s like a boxing match where there are targets in the ring that light up. Punch one when the light is on for a point, that’s one CS. Of course, all these points are worthless if the other guy lays you out by getting close enough to hit all of Riven’s Q attacks, Ahri lands the charm, Caitlyn tags you in the face AGAIN, or if Thresh or Blitz lands that hook.

Hit your opponent and you’ll win. Get hit and you’ll lose. But, missing hurts and really needs to be avoided. So, how do we hit our shots and dodge theirs?

Well, the entire act of laning revolves around taking the minions for gold. That’s the name of the game. But, there’s a problem that most don’t see: you have to do damage to the wave, and it leaves you exposed. Use an ability, and you can’t use it again until it’s back. Use an auto, and you’re stuck in place for a moment. Right then, right there, you’re helpless. If the other guy has a skillshot or attack on the way as you stop to shoot a minion...open wide, you’re about to eat some damage. It goes both ways, if you can predict where he’ll be, you can land a hit. Be it an autoattack or ability, you can punish the guy for exposing himself when you’re in a position to hurt him.

LIFE IS TIMING

What’s stopping the other guy from not shooting the minion at all, and just shooting you? Unless he’s someone like Ezreal and you’ve got a minion to block his Q...nothing, really. He’ll lose that one CS, but it’s certainly worth it if he can eat a chunk of your health bar. How do you know what his intentions are?

This isn’t an MMO, where the boss follows a script and all you need to do is not stand in the damn fire. You’re playing an actual person, you need to be able to get into their head. You will need to learn to consistently predict what your opponent is doing and what their intentions are. Every CS, every wave. Each time, you’ve got a chance to hurt him, and he’s got a chance to hurt you.

If you want to improve at this, watch a replay of any game and pick a player to watch. Not you, but someone else. In fact, the best person would probably be your lane opponent. Watch a run of play and try to guess what his next move is. Is he going to take one minion now with an auto? Many at once with an ability? Is he going to stay on this side of the wave, or rotate to the other side? Why? Also, do they have a tendency that’s exploitable? Maybe they dodge backwards and try to outrun skillshots, instead of to the side? Do they use an ability whenever it’s ready, meaning that it spends more time on cooldown than available (Taric’s Disease)? Are they consistently using abilities on the minions, and not their opponent?

Back in my poker days, it’s take an hour or two to get “dialed in” and get used to how my opponents play, and to devise a strategy to beat them. In LoL, you’ve only got a few minutes. So what...that’s all you need. Take a look at what your opponent is doing and try to figure him out. 

CAPTAIN OBVIOUS IS ACTUALLY A PRIVATE

Time for a tangent. I’m going to describe three players to you. Tell me: which one’s not level 30? Which one’s the Silver? Which one’s the Diamond?

* One player doesn’t click in lane except to move. You can see them autoing creeps without moving.
* Another player runs in long circles. They stop in time to shoot a minion, and resume running in circles once they fire.
* Yet another player looks like he’s having a seizure. They’re constantly moving back and forth next to their minions, covering very little ground. When they finally take a shot, they resume the constant shaking.

Yeah, I didn’t try too hard to trick you, did I? They’re in order; the first guy isn’t 30, the second guy’s Silver, and the last guy’s the Diamond. And, that’s the point.

I explain the benefits of higher APM in another post (summary: it’s easier to dodge things), but there’s another benefit that’s relevant here: spastic movements make it harder to predict when you’re going to leave yourself open while taking a minion. If the other guy can’t figure your movements out, they’re likely to not throw an ability at you, or even better, throw one that’s not well aimed and miss. How great is that?

You need to be able to deceive the other guy. You’ve got to guess right yourself, and make your opponent guess wrong. You know that part of The Art of War where Sun Tzu says “all warfare is based on deception"? Well, this is what he actually meant. You want to get into his head, but you need to do your best to keep him out of yours.

A-B-C! ALWAYS BE CLOSING!

Okay, so you hit the other guy a couple of times. So what? If he just backs and buy items he would have bought anyway, you’ve accomplished nothing. How do we actually score?

There’s a lot of ways you can put an opponent away. You can land an ability yourself, using summoners or not, and do it yourself (Kill). Your jungler could show up and help you finish him off (Gank), or even under the tower if he’s confident (Dive). You can leave your opponent and try to make a play elsewhere (Roam). Finally, you can play a 0/0 lane out and hopefully have more CS than the other guy, minding champ scaling (Points).

Kill, Gank, Dive, Roam, Points. Those are the five ways to win. It’s not any more complicated than that. While you’re in lane, think of which of the five ways is best bet.

I play Mundo top a lot. He’s a poor trader and doesn’t do much damage, and without my ult, all my abilities actually help my opponent because they cost me life. Does that mean that Points is my best bet because I’m a shitty laner, and can do nothing but lay back and toss cleavers? Close, it’s actually my second choice. I have teleport, so I want to win with a Roam. I watch bot like a hawk, and if I can swing a fight by pressing D, I will do it.

Kill? Doubt it. If somebody’s dumb enough to eat over five cleavers in lane with no sustain, maybe, but I’m not that lucky. Gank? Probably not, I’m usually far back cleaver tossing, and will probably need to hit a cleaver to succeed. With minions in the way I’ve got to either waste time walking forward (giving the gank away), or flash for it, which is betting a lot on the gank. Dive isn’t happening, I’m just not going to be realistically getting my opponent low, unless a gank failed and he stayed out while wounded. Even then, my waveclear sucks, I probably can’t get the wave to his tower.

So, ask yourself this question: which of the five ways to win is your best option? Which is the worst?

A BUNGLE IN THE JUNGLE

Hey look, I’m playing Mundo top again, on the blue side. The game starts, I pick Q on the fountain because all of my other abilities suck, and walk forward to go earn my Jungle Boy Scout Merit Badge. Cleaver a bush, clear. Go into that bush. Cleaver another, clear. Hey look, the entire top half of their jungle is empty (red buff side). Cool. I ward the wraith bush, leave, and go to lane.

I am willing to bet a large sum of money that the enemy jungler is starting Gromp, Blue, Red. When he gets to red, he will be low even with the smite heal. If someone gets there to attack him while he is doing red, he’s going to be in very big trouble. An invading jungler can smite red himself to heal, and can also position so the red buff monster is closer to the enemy, so the red buff monster will help him hit his target. It doesn’t even need to be the jungler; as Mundo, I suck in low level fights, but I can still make him pee his pants if he eats cleavers and a few E punches while fighting the buff. If I was on a killer at level 2 like Ahri, it’s money in the bank.

The victim of this invade can flash away and back, falling behind, or die, falling further behind. They MIGHT be rescued by a laner. Maybe. But if Jarvan hits that knockup or he takes two Vi autoattack resets...stick a fork in him, he’s done.

Most of this guide so far has been about laning. Junglers, on the other hand, have all sorts of helpless moments. The new jungle hurts like hell, and if your opposite number shows up while the jungle camp is also beating on you? You’re gonna have a bad time.

As a jungler yourself, you need to know and recognize when both you and your opponent are vulnerable. If you don’t know, just jungle for a game and ask yourself “if the enemy jungler’s in that bush, how screwed am I?” at every opportunity. You’ll give yourself nightmares as you realize how easy it is to kill you. After that, how hard is it to be that “enemy jungler”?

CLOSE, BUT THAT’S OKAY, HAVE A CIGAR

When you kill someone, they’re out of the game for X seconds, then they’re sent back to base, and you get gold.

When you cripple someone but don’t kill them, they recall. They’re out of the game for 10 seconds (recall time, a little shorter with the mastery), they’re sent back to base, but you get no gold.

Is it that big of a difference?

If you’re in a game when all five opponents are available to act against you, you need to think about how to get rid of one. Killing’s great, crippling and forcing a recall is pretty good too. From there, you can then decide on a tower, dragon, baron, or my personal favorite, lighting up their jungle. This is the power play, when you are actually out there getting closer to destroying the nexus. So, the instant the fight ends, you must immediately decide on what you can turn this into. If you go back to lane and shoot minions, you better be about to lose an inhibitor to them. Otherwise, you’re just pissing an advantage away. An advantage that you earned by winning a fight, and may not get again.

YEAH, ABOUT THAT CIGAR…

Want to see a bad player?

Watch him as his lane opponent leaves lane with a full or close to full health bar. Does he do anything other than ping MIA then farm passively?

If not, he’s a bad player.

As I described above, winning on Points is only good if you can’t win any other way. If you see your lane opponent leave, you have to decide what they’re doing. He could be backing, going for a buff, warding, or roaming. The first three aren’t so bad, but that last one is him attempting to win the game. What do you intend to do about this?

You could have avoided this by landing more harass or glueing him to his tower by power pushing. But, that was then, and right now he’s got a chance to swing the game. Can you respond?

If you can, you should. If you have teleport, you can spend it when they show up. You can also follow them, but be careful that they aren’t hiding in a bush to drygulch you in transit.

Sometimes you can’t respond. If you’re hurt yourself, you can’t safely cross from one lane to another with no vision. If there’s a lot of enemy minions attacking your tower, you may be losing a level or more by leaving, which forces you to succeed in that fight just to get even. Maybe you blew that teleport to get back to lane faster after shopping, and now you’re regretting it.

As a last resort, don’t just ping MIA (“?”). You spam ping danger (red “!”) at that lane.

It’s obnoxious, it’s annoying, and your teammates may think you’re an asshole. On the other hand, that enemy Akali might be collecting a double kill. Which do you care about more, your reputation among internet people you’ll never see again, or your LP?

As an aside, maybe you weren’t paying attention and don’t notice, instead trying to get every CS. Get used to farming in custom games; not only because it makes you a better farmer, but because it makes farming easier, and you have more of an attention span while doing so.

MEAT IS MURDER, AND IT’S AWESOME

There’s a TL/DR at the top, but I did want to touch on the general theme here at the end; how do you intend to win?

You NEED to have an idea of what to do to make something happen. You will not get anywhere sitting and farming until everyone groups mid for a teamfight. If you sit all day farming, the game’s going to pass you by. Farm as much as you can, but you need to remember that there’s a game going on and you intend to win it. Don’t be that Whole Foods Vayne, sitting in the corner eating grass. You need to be a meat eater.

If you don’t know how to be, that’s okay, you’ve got the internet in front of you, and people will be willing to help if you ask. But if you’re going to admit that you don’t know what to do, yet you’re going to go into ranked anyway, well, you’re going to get what you deserve.

Hopefully, there aren’t too many swear words from your teammates involved.

Practice Drills 1: Solo Queue

Here's a few that you can do, including the one I outlined over there. Each drill has its title, rules, some background info that explains what the drill's trying to accomplish, and a list of variations on the drill you can also.

A note on the terminology: the player the drill is focusing on will be called “hero”. The human opponents in the drill will be called “villains”. Most of these drills will not work if bots are used instead of real villains, although I will point out where a bot will suffice.

Drill 1: “AA Boxing, with Reach”

Rules:

Hero picks Caitlyn, Villain picks Lucian. Runes set to health regen and armor, no AD. Masteries set to defensive and support, no damage. Both players start with a Doran's Shield and one potion. No abilities are allowed, don't even spend the skill points. Auto attacks only.

Lane against each other in the bottom lane for nine waves (minions that arrive in the 10th wave, arriving at 6:30 may not be shot, but both players may still shoot minions that were there from the previous wave). Hero scores one point for every CS Villain missed, and vice versa. For every AA Hero (as Caitlyn) landed on Villain (Graves), Hero scores one point. For every attack Villain lands on Hero, he scores two points. Most points at the end of the last legal wave wins.

Background: Basic laning in LoL is like a boxing match. You can win by knockout, or on points if you couldn't kill the other guy. Imagine if there were targets that lit up in the boxing ring that the boxers could punch for points, and that the other boxer can capitalize on by punching his opponent while he's distracted by the target.

ADC matchups come in three categories: you have more AA range, you have the same AA range, or you have less AA range. The goal here is to maximize AA harass while not missing any CS. By forcing an uneven matchup where one champ has a range advantage, both players will need to learn to cope with this. The Villain player will need to be a step ahead and plan to safely walk up to the longer range champion to shoot them. The Hero player will need to recognize her range sweet spot and make sure that her opponent doesn't creep out of it while she's busy shooting creeps. Both players will need to attack often and still CS at a fast pace, lest they be pushed to tower and fall far behind in our little game.

Variations:

Reverse It: Hero plays Graves, scoring 2 points per auto, and Villain plays Caitlyn, scoring one point per auto.

Any ADC You Like: Graves and Caitlyn were chosen because of the range difference, but players should eventually work out both playing as and playing against all ADCs they are likely to see, to get used to everyone's attack animations and whatnot.

Bring a GUN to a Gunfight: Players no longer score points for landing auto attacks, but abilities are now allowed, along with their choice of items, runes, and masteries. Players can win either by scoring a kill, or by being ahead on cs after nine waves.

Drill 2: “Hookshot Hell”

Rules:

Hero picks the ADC of their choice, two Villains pick Blitzcrank and Thresh. ADC is free to choose any runes, masteries, or items. Villains may only take sustain, such as mana and health regen. No cooldown reduction is allowed, except for the mastery page. The Villains each take Heal and Clarity. The Villains should have voice chat, be in the same room, or have some way to communicate where the Hero can't hear them.

Hero lanes alone against two Villains in the bottom lane. Hero must take at least 5 minions per wave, or the Villains “win”. The Villains also “win” automatically by landing a hook (Rocket Grab or Death Sentence) on the Hero. If a “win” is scored, do not end the drill; let the Hero return to CSing and continue until the clock strikes 7 minutes. The Villains are not allowed to move past the Hero's furthest forward minion. Imagine a line, parallel to the river, that passes through the Hero's front minion. The Villains are offside if they pass it, and are not allowed to do anything other than retreat back onside if they are in front of it. The Hero wins if the clock strikes 7 minutes without the Villains winning. Villains are only allowed to harm the hero with their hooks, but may do whatever they like to the minion wave, provided they stay onside.

Background:

It's quite a problem for newer ADCs to deal with hard engage supports. The fact that they're up against skills that will probably lose them the lane if they're landed make many ADCs play over-passive, and lose anyway as a result. This drill is designed to teach the ADC the limits of hook supports and how to deal with them. The Hero will need to outwaveclear the Villains, gaining a minion advantage in the form of disposable “shields” that can block hooks, all the while CSing properly. Since the villains are communicating, the Hero will also need to deal with the Villains' tricks, such as being prepared for a hook coming right through the space where a minion was a second ago, up until the other Villain killed it. Finally, the Hero will have to develop “bait” skills, trying to entice the Villains to throw their hooks and miss, earning the Hero a significant reprieve in lane that he can use to advantage.

Variations:

The Flash Exception: Villains may now take Flash. They are allowed to use their hooks when they are offside, provided the flash spell was used to cross the offside line and the hook is thrown immediately. Hit or miss, the Villains must immediately retire back onside, so they are not past the Hero's forwardmost minion.

I HATE Cheese: The Villains, if they so choose, may also take Smite. They can use these to instantly clear minions to create a hook path.

Those Aren't Even Hooks: Villains can now play other support champions that have engage in different forms, such as Leona or Annie. Record any hard CC skill (where the victim cannot move) that lands as a “win”.

WTF Troll Support: Villains may take any champion, and not only supports. Any Champion with a form of hard CC may be used, such as Elise, (Cocoon) or Jinx (Flame Chompers). To really torture the Hero, you can play Fiddlesticks.

No Fair: Add a third Villain, forcing the Hero to contend with three of them. The offside rule must still be followed.

Carry Me Support: Add a second Hero to play support against two Villains. The offside rule does not apply, and the Villains may go wherever they like. It's up to the Heroes, both ADC and support, to keep the Villains at bay while gaining CS for the ADC.

Drill 3: “The Excel Drill”

Rules:

Hero chooses Elise. Villain chooses any champion with a melee auto attack. Both players take maximum sustain, especially mana regen for the Hero. Play through the first two levels passively. Starting at level 3, Hero must land the following combo on the Villain, all within one second of the first spell cast (Human Q): 

• Human Q
• Human W (The spider must hit the Villain for it to count)
• R
• Spider Q
• Auto Attack as spider
• Spider W
• Spider E to safe minion, in the direction of Hero's tower.

Be advised that Elise's human W (spiderling) will jump on whoever she uses her Spider Q on, provided that it hasn't exploded yet. It's advisable to throw the spiderling away from the lane towards nobody, to ensure that it doesn't explode prematurely. Be careful, this is a difficult mouse movement.

Hero attempts this combination whenever the cooldowns are up. Both champions must do their best to CS, and are only allowed to drop one CS per wave. The Hero “wins” if he can land the full combo before 10 minutes pass. Even if the Hero “wins”, continue the drill for the full 10 minutes.

If no one is available to practice, the Hero can play against a bot.

Background:

One of the biggest obstacles to improving with a champion you already feel comfortable with is mechanics, and not specifically the act of farming. You need to be able to get the most out of your champion that you can, especially moves that cannot be directly countered. This means entering complex combinations on the mouse and keyboard.

I really struggled to practice these combinations in game. I seemed to never be able to get the keystrokes right. What I ended up doing was firing up my Excel spreadsheet. I marked one cell as “enemy”, one cell as “escape minion”. I then practiced clicking the right cell, spamming the keys in order, as fast as I can. I eventually did it many times in a row, using the cell next to it each time, leaving me with a spreadsheet filled with “qwrqaw”s in one column, and another column filled with “e”. I was quite proud of myself when I finally took Elise into a game and absolutely TROUNCED that poor Renekton who played against me. Good times.

Variations:

Two Heroes: Both players select Elise, and take turns attempting to land the combo. Once one player tries it (successfully or not), he can say “your turn”, and it's the other player's turn to try and land the combo.

All In: The Hero must also drink a potion and cast ignite during the combo to get credit.

Villain Fights Back: The Villain selects a champion with some sort of melee disable, such as Renekton (stun) or Garen (silence), and attempts to use it to retaliate once Elise goes in. The Villain can now “win” by landing significant damage in retaliation.

But I Don't Own Elise: The Hero may play any complex champion that they like, such as Zed, Jayce, or LeBlanc. Be sure to clearly define what the winning combo is with both players before you attempt it.

Drill 4: “You Play a Fine Edge”

Hero selects LeBlanc, max sustain. Villain selects Lulu, max sustain. Lane in the middle lane against each other for 7 minutes. At level 2, LeBlanc must have Sigil of Silence and Distortion (Q and W). At Level 2, Villain must have Glitterlance and Help, Pix (Q and E). Both players may choose their skills freely afterward. Hero scores one point by landing Leblanc's Q AND proccing the silence with any other skill. Villain scores one point by landing Lulu's E under any circumstances. Both players must endeavor to take at least 5 creeps per wave.

Background:

The first World Series of Poker Champion, Johnny Moss, once complained about changes in the tournament in his later years. Originally, the tournament called for seven players to a table in hold'em, but increased that number to nine. Moss wasn't happy about it; he was quoted as saying “with seven, you play a fine edge. Nine-handed, you need the nuts to break the suckers.” He liked the older seven-handed games, where a player had to play big pots without necessarily having good cards.

Some matchups are easy, and some aren't. Eventually, all players will find themselves in a lane where they are going uphill due to a champion that their champion really struggles against. Here, I've chosen LeBlanc, playing Lulu. Lulu's a mean bastard with her ability to land her non-skillshot E, and using it to also land an nearly impossible to miss Q. Leblanc can counter this with a VERY slight edge she has: there's 50 range or advantage on the range of her Q over Lulu's E. If LeBlanc can land these max-range Qs on Lulu without taking any punishment back, she can then get the advantage in the lane by getting the silence, and landing her other abilities. The window is so small though, and it takes a lot of practice to not only cast the spell, but to immediately move LeBlanc to safety the make sure Lulu still can't get her cheap E, and to setup Leblanc's other skills. After all, a LeBlanc Q by itself isn't winning any lanes, so LeBlanc's player must successfully land her other abilities, get the silence, and win a successful trade. Fair warning: this drill is VERY hard for the Hero playing LeBlanc!

Variations:

The Excel Variation: Merely proccing the Q isn't enough. Leblanc must land both of her other abilities plus an auto attack to score a point. After level 6, she must hit three more abilities and the auto.

All In Excel: Like the Excel Variation, except LeBlanc must also drink a potion, use ignite, and use an item active (DFG) if she has it.

Use Another Matchup: Instead of LeBlanc v Lulu, you can use any champion against any other champion that is a tough matchup. Be sure to examine each champion's abilities, devise a way for the underdog to win the matchup, and award points to players for succeeding or failing. For example, take Singed v. Teemo. Singed scores a point if he gets both a Fling and a Goo to hit Teemo within a second of each other. Teemo scores a point every time he lands auto + Q + auto.