How to Stay Focused while Playing League of Legends

Focus your mind like a laser

A wise man once said, “don’t let the distractions distract you.” A lot of players struggle with concentrating and focusing on things that are important. From gaming to homework, we all let our minds drift from time to time. In this Mobalytics guide by Picklepants, we will provide you with a range of tips that can help you to focus on what you’re doing in-game.

League is a very challenging and frustrating game where one slip up can cost you your life and your LP. This means that you need to be focused on the game at all time to avoid making costly mistakes which can lose you the game. A good player will know that you’re not playing properly and can abuse it. There are many things that you can do to help you stay focused and here are our top suggestions.

Mute the chat

If you’re somebody who likes to talk to your allies, you may not realize it, but you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. Not only are you distracting yourself from the game and typing to your friends, but you’re also putting them behind as they will read the chat and may reply. Letting yourself get distracted or distracting your allies can be a recipe for disaster.Typing also has the disadvantage of slowing down the game. League of Legends is currently very snow-bally and momentum is everything. If you stop to type, you will be slowing down your actions and decreasing your APM which you need to sustain and keep high to continue to perform at peak performance.

While you’re typing to your team, replying to messages, or chit-chatting, you will not be focusing on what is happening in game and this may cause you to come to harm. How many of us have been typing and were unable to Flash away because we had the chat open? You may also miss out on CS, miss out on roam possibilities and also miss out on the chance to escape – just don’t talk unless you have to.

On the other hand, it may not just be your allies saying positive things to you. There is, unfortunately, a wide range of toxicity that shrieks over the LoL community. If somebody on your team or the enemies is talking smack to you, do NOT rise to it. Instead of talking back to them, just mute them and play your game. If they are spam pinging you, then mute their pings too.

At the end of the day, if somebody who is a friend or foe is talking in game and it is slightly distracting you- mute that person and do not reply back to them. Not only will you not have to deal with their toxic behavior, but you will also not get banned for talking back to them.

Listen to appropriate music

Like previously said, League is very momentum-heavy and in the current meta, you need to be as pumped up as possible to carry the game. We know how much you love Lo-fi, Vaporwave and Mumble Rap, but these choices of music may not give you the best chance to win. Music can be very emotional which is a good thing. The issue around them is what emotions they are trying to represent? If the music is sad, slow or relaxing, then they may not exactly be suitable for a fast-paced game such as League of Legends.

If you are a person who likes to listen to Podcasts or Twitch Streams, then you may find yourself focused on the audio, not the gameplay. What is happening around you (audio wise) is super important in keeping a focused and positive mindset. If somebody is shooting off fireworks or cutting their grass, you should probably wait before queuing.

So what music should you listen to?

There is a lot of personal preference with music choices and there are so many genres to choose from. Spotify, Youtube, and Twitch have a range of playlists which you can choose from to find the most appropriate music for your game.

There are a lot of handcrafted music playlists on Youtube already dedicated to League of Legends and they all have something in common. They all consist of a “hype” theme to make you focus.Picking or making a playlist that will help motivate you, help you focus, pump you up or make you the playmaker in game is a good way of keeping the momentum of the game as well as allowing you to come out ahead.

Focus on yourself

In a game that relies so heavily on your teammates, and where every game feels like a 1v9, you need to focus on yourself rather than your allies. For the vast majority of the community, you will never meet those individuals ever again. Trying to account and make them better by pointing out their mistakes is redundant. You should not worry about what your team is doing and instead, focus on what you can be doing to win the game.

Everybody, including the pros, make small mistakes that are often overlooked as not game-changing. However, missing out on a few CS here and there can quickly snowball out of control where you find yourself being starved for gold and farm. If you were able to pick up these missed creeps, you may have seen yourself getting an advantage over the enemy. It’s not worth speculating about what could happen, but instead, you should avoid making these mistakes in the first place. How?

Experience plays a huge part in playing the game, more so than people give credit too. Whenever you decide to play a game, write down or think about a few goals that you can achieve in the game. Things that are “easily” achievable in the game are good to start with. For example, hit level 2 before the enemy. Once you’ve become familiar with this goal, then you will be able to move on to creating more goals and focusing on more things. A goal such as this is very easy to do in every game and will help you improve your laning experience as a whole.

Another thing you can try, and what many players do to focus on themselves, is by playing as if they’re playing their own game and not care what about what their team does. Some players consider their team as bots and remove the chat as well as all the Summoner names to make it feel more realistic. This has its benefits and its drawbacks and in my opinion is quite hard to do. Naturally, most people will brush off the blame to other players which is easy to do as you will never play with those players again.

If you’re struggling to keep the focus on yourself rather than your team – and hey, it’s easily done – you can keep asking yourself one question: “What can I do right now to win?”. This is something I personally do if I feel myself starting to tilt or play on autopilot.

Take a break

If you’re struggling to focus on the game as a whole and feel like you’re not playing to your full potential, then you should take a break. Taking a break lets your mind reset and it can allow you to clear your mind about the game. When losing, you may feel very tilted and frustrated which can be fixed by taking a break.You may want to take a small break or a long break. If you’re very tilted, then you may want to take more than a couple days leave from League. You can take a range of different types of breaks; a 24-hour break, a 48-hour break, a week and sometimes even a month. As long as you allow your mind to reset and un-tilt, then take as long as you need.

Taking a break also has a range of other benefits that are not just limited to the game. Depending on what you do during your break, you may find that when you come back, you’ll play better and get a win streak shortly after your return.

Clear your workspace

If you’re getting distracted by things that are outside of the game, then you may need to clear your computer space. Removing and hiding your phone, tablet or turning off your secondary monitor will allow you to focus on the game. If your phone beeps and vibrates every 5 minutes and you frequently check whos messaging you, then it’s obvious that your head is not fully in the game.

If you cannot physically hide your phone or tablet, turn it upside down and put it on silent. Getting somebody pinging you on discord or messaging you on Facebook can be annoying at the best of times, let alone when you’re trying to focus. So keeping these electronics off and away is a good way of keeping your focus where it’s needed in game.

Having two monitors has a range of benefits and if you’re like me, you love to have movies or Youtube on the second one while you work. But if you do this, you know how unproductive it can make you. When playing League, you should try to have as much focus as possible and using your second monitor to watch movies is not the smartest thing to do (trust me, I know!)Something that is not necessarily going to help you as much as the many other things we’ve listed in this guide, but is still quite important, is that you should clear your desk and your room. Having your desk cluttered in empty wrappers or paper is not going to give you the best experience in game. Little things such as these items are classed as clutter and you should avoid having clutter around you while you’re grinding. So keeping your desk and your room clean and tidy is a great way to stop yourself from getting distracted.

We’ve discussed a range of things that you can use to keep your mind focused on the game. Using these tips will allow you to focus on game and allow you to try your best. Oh, we almost forgot- don’t tab out and while you’re in game, especially in the early game against Blitzcrank! *beep boop*

If you have any questions or want to learn more, check out PicklePants stream.

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Thanks for reading! What are some ways that help you personally focus when you play? Let us know in the comments below. As always, you can find Picklepants in our Discord if you have any questions.