Understand the Strong/Weak Areas of the Map
Basically, the map in League of Legends is designed by Riot Games to be divided into two halves with the mid lane as the boundary. If your team’s jungler moves in one half of the map, that area is your team’s strong zone, and conversely, if the enemy is in that half, it’s your weak zone. In many cases, pushing too far even when your half of the map is weaker makes it extremely easy to get ganked; you could say you’re setting a trap for yourself.
So, how can you tell when your side is strong or weak? This comes from two factors: knowing where the enemy jungler is and understanding the position of your own jungler. If your jungler is close to you, you can confidently fight the opponent because your teammate is nearby and ready to assist. Conversely, if there are no teammates nearby, you need to ward carefully to know where the enemy jungler is. If you can’t ward, then farming safely is the best option.
Push the Lane Smartly
Lane control is crucial to whether you win or lose, regardless of champion quality. Typically, lane control is balanced, but with player influence, this can change; one side will push while the other must find ways to farm under tower. However, pushing is easy, but handling the aftermath is something not many people know how to do.
When you push the lane, your vision will naturally benefit you. Standing high with the wave of minions provides no benefit because you won’t farm much and taking down the tower early is impossible. Therefore, take advantage of the time when the opponent is busy farming to ward deep into the enemy jungle to gather as much information as possible. If possible, roaming to mid lane to assist your teammates in ganking is also a good option.
Understand When the Support Roams
Many Supports currently have strong crowd control abilities, making their roams extremely effective. If you’re not paying attention, you can easily get killed or lose all your advantages. Essentially, there are two key moments when a Support can roam: right after their first recall when they can buy Boots, and after the bot lane has pushed a large minion wave into the enemy tower.
To grasp this, the most important thing is to observe the lane control in bot lane. If the opponent recalls after pushing your bot lane into the tower, be cautious that within the next 10 to 20 seconds, they might attack you, usually in mid lane. The jungler also needs to understand this to coordinate effectively with teammates when ganking; Supports often lack damage, and having additional teammates to ensure successful ganks is necessary.
Maintain a Strong Mentality and Know How to Play When Behind
You won’t always dominate your opponent, and how you play when behind is what makes a skilled gamer. Even at an average rank like Gold, players often make many mistakes, such as pushing at the wrong time or unnecessarily diving towers. Skilled players will always remain calm, looking for ways to farm to reach the necessary item threshold and seize opportunities to counterattack to regain advantages, even if they were behind beforehand.