If you’ve ever queued up for a match only to get flamed for missing a skill shot or picking the wrong champion for your team comp, you know how overwhelming jumping into a league of legends can be. I’ve been there too: I spent my first 50 matches sticking exclusively to Ashe support, feeding four games in a row, and wondering why everyone else seemed to have the game figured out. The good news is you don’t need to grind 10 hours a day or memorize every champion’s ability cooldown to have fun and win more matches. These tips are built for casual players who want to climb without sacrificing their free time or mental health.
Core Fundamentals to Master First in a League of Legends
A lot of new players fixate on getting kills and carrying games, but mastering a few basic fundamentals will win you far more matches than learning fancy combos ever will. Last hitting minions is the most underrated skill for new players, even if it feels boring at first. If you can get 80 to 100 minion kills by the 10 minute mark, you’ll have the same amount of gold as someone who got three kills, even if you never fought an enemy champion once.
Ward placement is another skill that will save you from dozens of unnecessary deaths. You don’t need to buy a dozen wards every game to make a difference. Just place one in the river bush whenever you push past the middle of your lane, and another one near your jungle buff if your jungler is on the other side of the map. Map awareness rounds out the core fundamentals: make a habit of glancing at the minimap every 5 seconds, even when you’re in the middle of farming. If you can’t see three or more enemy champions on the map, they’re almost certainly hiding somewhere waiting to gank you.
Low-Effort Champion Picks That Win More Matches
It’s tempting to pick flashy, high-skill champions like Yasuo or Zed when you first start playing, but these picks have extremely high skill ceilings that will make you lose more matches than you win for your first few hundred games. You don’t need complex mechanics to climb ranks, and you can actually make it all the way to Platinum playing simple, consistent champions that don’t require hours of practice to use well. Some of my go-to picks for new players include:
I know picking these champions might feel boring at first, but I climbed from Bronze to Gold in two months playing almost exclusively Garen and Soraka, and I barely spent any time practicing combos. The less you have to think about your champion’s abilities, the more you can focus on the big-picture decisions that win games.
Common Mistakes That Make You Lose More Matches Than You Think
Most new players lose matches because of small, avoidable mistakes, not because they’re bad at the game. Chasing kills across the map is one of the most common mistakes I see. If you chase an enemy champion that’s low health all the way to their turret, you’re giving up 3 waves of minion gold and experience, which is way more valuable than one single kill. If they get away, you just wasted two minutes of game time for nothing, and you’ll fall behind the enemy laner as a result.
Fighting when you don’t have vision is another mistake that throws so many winnable matches. So many new players walk into unwarded bushes or the river alone and get ambushed by three enemies before they even have time to react. If you can’t see the area you’re walking into, assume there are enemies waiting for you, and don’t go in unless you have teammates with you.
Tilting after one bad play is the easiest way to throw a match you could have won. I’ve seen so many games get thrown because one player dies once, starts flaming their team, and runs it down mid for the rest of the game. If you have a bad play, just mute toxic teammates, take a 10-second deep breath, and get back to farming. One death doesn’t lose the game, but giving up definitely does.
How to Climb Ranks Without Burning Out
A lot of new players get obsessed with climbing ranks as fast as possible, and end up hating the game after a few bad losing streaks. Limit your ranked games to 3 per day if you want to avoid this. I used to play 10 ranked games in a row when I was on a losing streak, and I ended up dropping two entire divisions in one night. The more tilted you get, the worse you play, so stop after three losses no matter what, even if you feel like you can win the next one.
Play with friends if you can, too. Queueing with one or two friends you get along with makes the game way more fun, and you’ll coordinate way better than you will with random teammates. You don’t have to play with pro level friends, either: even queueing with another new player who’s learning the game at the same time as you will make your matches feel way less stressful.
At the end of the day, a league of legends is just a game, and you don’t have to hit Challenger to have a good time. If you’re not having fun, take a break for a day or two, play some ARAM, and come back when you’re in a better headspace. Your rank will always be there when you get back, and you’ll play way better when you’re relaxed and enjoying yourself.
You don’t have to be a pro player to enjoy and succeed at a league of legends. The tips we covered are designed to be easy to implement, even if you only play a couple of matches a week. Start with one tip first, like mastering last hitting, before you move on to the rest, and you’ll notice you’re winning more matches before you know it. Don’t let toxic teammates or a few bad matches ruin your experience: the whole point of the game is to have fun, after all.