Having good map awareness in League of Legends is vital to success. Map awareness is not just looking at your mini-map. It’s about your ability to read the game and act accordingly.

This article will show some simple methods to help you improve your map awareness in League of Legends.

Improving League of Legends Map Awareness

Although being skilled at your champion is important, being aware of how the game moves and flows is just as important, and you can instantly win more games by following some of our simple tips.

Learning to ward

Although this is a self-explanatory tip, many players in the lower elo do not put down wards. Wards are there for a reason: to provide you with a vision of a hidden part of Summoner’s Rift.

The most straightforward example is a brush in the river. You will use wards to spot any enemy, whether a jungler or roaming player trying to gank you. If you do not have vision put down and you do not know the whereabouts of the enemy jungler, don’t push the lane, as they will likely be lying in wait.

Increase Map Size

We know you like having more of the screen available to you, without the HUD sizes taking up a big chunk off of it. Luckily, League of Legends’s devs thought of that. You can bring up the map size only, which we guarantee will help you notice the little things that pop on your map easier, especially when things get a bit hectic.

We recommend setting the Minimap Scale to 70 or higher, depending on your in-game resolution (we don’t want it taking too much space, play with it until you find what works best).

Understand teammates’ positioning

You must focus on both yours, and your teammates’ positions in League of Legends, which plays a vital role. For example, if you’re the jungler, do not start up a neutral objective such as Rift Herald or Dragon if the enemy team has better positioning at the given moment. Because of their advanced position, they can react to what you are doing quicker than your teammates. For example, you have started taking Rift Herald, but the enemy mid-laner can roam up to you quicker than your teammates, meaning you could lose both the Rift Herald and your life.

Sound Cues

We all want to listen to some music while playing LoL, even the pros do it while streaming. The thing is, sound cues in the game can give out very important information, whether a player is missing, the enemy jungler going in for an objective etc. Pings are a very helpful tool in League of Legends to boost up the map awareness. We recommend you tweak your sound settings so you can gather as much info as you can for your team’s next moves.

Learning Timers to Improve Map Awareness

Why should you keep timers? Knowing  when something spawns or when a summoner spell is off cooldown, allows you to make in-game plans accordingly.

Keeping track of Summoner Spells Timers

In the lower elos, you can get away with a lot more, but for the players starting to climb the ranks, you need to be aware of Summoners spells timers. For example, you are fighting 2v2 in the bottom lane, and then suddenly, the enemy top laner teleports in and completely changes the fight. The timer for the enemy teleport needs to be tracked. The basic Teleport cooldown is 360 seconds (without any summoner spell CD), meaning you have a window of six minutes where your fights will be uninterrupted by the enemy solo laners. Same goes for every summoner spell (Flash, Ghost, Ignite etc.), both your teammates and the enemies’. If you’re having a hard time keeping track with timers (it can be tough, especially if you’re just starting playing LoL), Mobalytics is a great app to help you do that.

Learning Neutral Objective Timers and Camp Spawns

We spoke about the responsibility of junglers; now, let’s also bring the laners into the equation. Obviously, starting an objective up without priority is not good, but as a laner, you can do certain things to make sure you are available to help your jungler take the neutral objective. As the support, keep track of when the dragon is coming up and ping that the Dragon is coming up. This will indicate to your team that we must set up the vicinity with wards and be ready for any potential team fight. So if you are in the bottom lane, for example, make sure the wave is not crashing into you, get back with enough time to grab your items, and get back on the map before the dragon spawns so you can ward up and get in position to at least fight for the objective.