Summary
Highlights
Players with a lead often try too hard to force plays, especially around mid-tower, leading to unnecessary deaths and throwing their advantage. Maintain the same game plan that secured the lead: pressure lanes, farm, and take opportunistic kills. Natural progression will lead to objectives and wins; don't force aggressive, high-risk plays.
Players often ruin strong lane setups by making unnecessary trades that break freezes. Aatrox had a perfect freeze against Nar, but by trading with Nar, he broke the freeze, allowing Nar to reset with minimal loss. The key is extreme discipline to not engage, even when the opponent makes a mistake, to maximize the impact of a freeze, which can deny significant experience and gold.
Low ELO players often commit to objectives even when the situation is unfavorable, leading to bigger losses. Threatening an objective is often as valuable as taking it, as it can force the enemy to make mistakes or concede other advantages. In the example, the red team secured huge advantages around Dragon but committed to taking it despite respawning enemies, resulting in a stolen objective and lost kill. Prioritize consistent advantages like waves over risky objective plays.
When behind, players either play too safe or group too much, becoming worthless in team fights. A 0/10 Ryze pushing a side lane can be more disruptive to a fed LeBlanc than if he grouped with his team and was easily one-shot. Even when behind, focus on pushing waves and towers to create pressure elsewhere on the map, forcing the enemy to make difficult decisions.
Low ELO players waste too much tempo clearing unimportant or expiring wards. Just because an opponent has vision doesn't mean they can act on it. Evaluate the value of clearing a ward against the time it takes and other potential plays. For example, a support might miss a crucial roam by recall-cancelling to clear a control ward that could be cleared later.
Many players are hesitant to use their ultimate abilities unless it guarantees a kill. Zed, for instance, hesitated to use his ultimate for a good trade because his W was on cooldown, leading to a much worse outcome later. Using an ultimate for a strong trade, to force a base, or to gain priority can be very valuable, as a health lead allows your team to react first and set up plays.
Educational guides provide suggestions, not strict rules. Players often try to force guide advice, especially timing windows (like recalling for Grub spawn at 8 minutes) without considering the current game state. These 'guide watchers' make suboptimal plays by adhering rigidly to advice that doesn't fit the dynamic circumstances of a specific game. Adaptability is key; use guides as ideas, not mandates.