Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Thought: Never Give Up, Never Surrender

League can be a very frustrating game, and I do not begrudge anyone for wishing to end their suffering quickly. However, if your goal is to improve surrendering is a great way to stunt your progress. Surrendering is a mistake not because you might still win (though this is often true), but because you cut yourself off from vital experience.

The only way to gain late game experience in League is to first play through the early game. No matter how much you play you will always have more early game experience, and even without surrendering many games won't reach the late game. This makes late game experience a premium commodity, each minute being more valuable than the last.

I've met a lot of otherwise good players who, for various reasons, habitually surrender when a game takes a turn for the worse. The difference between their late game play and that of their peers is striking. They may win their lanes frequently, but they lack the knowledge to close out a victory if the game doesn't end quickly.

By playing games out you learn much that the early game can only foreshadow. You learn the radically different priorities of the late game, how to punish teams that fail to group up, and how easy it is to take Baron when the enemy sends a couple vital members bottom to farm. You learn the importance of map control, the implications of revealing your position, and the dangers of the fog of war to a degree the early game simply can't match. You learn far more about team fighting, roles, and how team compositions work together than any skirmish over dragon can teach. The late game is practically a different game entirely, its knowledge specialized and largely separate from that of the early game.

For these reasons you shouldn't surrender if your goal is to become a better player, save in the most dire of circumstances (e.g. 3v5 with two AFKers in the fountain, whee). You may not win the game, but the experience you gain will be far more valuable than another win in your match history.

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