When playing League of Legends, players must be able to respond quickly and accurately and communicate effectively. Players must have a warm-up routine to get their blood moving and their digits working as League becomes more and more like a sport with each season.
Many professionals use warm-up procedures, including athletes, actors, news readers, chess grandmasters, etc. And you can’t expect the best from yourself when playing League of Legends without warming up.
So, esports teams have a pre-match warm-up regimen unique to their games. And professional players begin prepping for game hours in advance, if not days. And as a result, before a chess match even begins, grandmasters will have their heads racing.
A warm-up regimen can have many benefits, and we’ll go over how to create one that fits you in this article.
7 Ways to Warm Up and Boost Your Performance in League of Legends
1. Stretch Your Hands and Fingers
The first thing that any League player should do when he wakes up is to stretch his arms, hands, and fingers. This is a great habit to develop, especially if you’re serious about climbing in solo queue.
Simple stretching of the wrist and fingers before playing prevents joint pain as well as loosens your hand up so that your clicks are smoother and more accurate. It increases the blood flow and can instantly improve your performance in LoL.
I can’t stress how important hand and finger stretches are. Players often underestimate how much influence can simple exercises have, so don’t be one of them.
Read Also: 7 Healthy Habits for LoL Players & How to Build Them
2. Use League’s Practice Tool
Practice Tool is one of the best things that Riot Games ever added to League of Legends. It’s a free tool for working on your mechanical skills and practicing all of your champions. And all players should use it!
Practice tool is one of the greatest ways to warm up before a ranked match. Whether it be practicing last hitting cs or testing the mechanics of the champion you will most likely be playing, spending just a few minutes goes a long way.
But how should you practice on Practice Tool?
Open up the Practice Tool and the champion you want to improve on. If you’re an ADC, buy the starting items, head down to a lane, and practice last hitting for 5 – 10 minutes. Or, if you’re a Lee Sin main, grab some wards, select “Auto-Refresh” on everything and do some “InSec” kicks on the dummies.
There are tons of different things you can do in Practice Tool. You can test your champion’s limits, experiment with ranges, and simulate all possible situations that could happen in a regular League of Legends match.
So, don’t underestimate Practice Tool either!
Read Also: How to Replay & Skip the Tutorial in LoL?
3. Play a Warm-up Match
Oftentimes, there’s no better warm-up for a LoL match than to actually play the game. And whenever I advise other players, I always tell them to play a warm-up match in order to adjust to the game and warm up properly before attempting to climb the rank ladder.
This match isn’t about winning; it’s about getting your blood going! This can either be a Normal Draft game, Practice Tool, ARAM, or a game with bots. But if you use this preparation method before a ranked grind, it will significantly assist you.
The great thing about a warm-up match is that it really wakes you up. No matter how prepared you think you are, going live on Summoner’s Rift is the best self-check you can do.
So, always play a warm-up game before the important ranked match!
Read Also: League of Legends Challenges & Titles – Guide
4. Use Training Tools & Websites
Training tools such as LoL Dodge Game can improve your mechanics and warm you up for important ranked matches. This website lets you practice your dodging, farming, and skill shots so it can fully prepare you for your next games.
It’s a free browser tool that doesn’t require any downloading, and you can use it to practice on your PC. For smartphones, there’s an actual LoL Dodge Game that you need to download from the Play Store. But it’s also free to use.
Besides that, you should work on your mouse accuracy in general.
Mouse accuracy has a crucial role in League of Legends. Landing skill shots and kiting can be the difference between losing and winning a team fight. Having your accuracy on point from your very first ranked game gives you a huge advantage.
Mouse Accuracy is a great tool to improve your accuracy and readiness. It has tons of different difficulty settings and it’s the perfect warm-up technique right before your match.
Mouse Accuracy also gives you results in great detail about your performance. So, you can measure these and compare them to see how you perform in LoL every day.
5. Watch Replays of Your Previous Games or LoL Streams & Videos
If you’re serious about improving your gameplay and climbing in League, you must examine replays of your previous matches regularly. It is highly effective to learn from your errors by re-watching past games.
For this, you have the League Client. Simply head over to your match history and download a game you want to watch.
Pay close attention to your positioning as well as everything you do. Try to discover what led to each of your deaths and think about what you can do to prevent the same thing from happening in your next games.
Observing the best teams in esports is also essential for learning how to play League of Legends in terms of picks/bans, vision, objectives, and rotations. This is a highly beneficial habit to develop.
Use what you’ve learned and observed how other pro players play the game to gain insights. Watch multiple professional streams, but don’t merely replicate the top players and teams’ moves; instead, try to understand why they make them.
The information you get here can be used to develop new tactics or plan new ways to counter your enemy laner.
Read Also: How to Fix Low FPS On Good/High-End PC In LoL?
6. Focus on One Role
Most low elo players will focus on five champions for each role in League of Legends. And, that’s not something you should be doing if you want to win more.
Try focusing on one lane and up to two champions that can be used in that lane. If your main focus is Jungle, try learning new ways to clear camps faster on the Practice Tool. This way, you can create a camp clearing routine and also try to learn where to ward.
In League of Legends, no one should be a “jack of all trades.” Even Faker, one of the best players in the world focuses on only one role – mid lane. And even he has main champions that he can always carry with and “weak” champions that he avoids playing.
So, if you’re trying to warm up for an important ranked match in LoL, the best thing to do is to focus on the champion and the role you’re going to play!
7. Discuss Your Strategies with Your Team
This last tip works best if you’re warming up for a Clash match or a 5v5 tournament with your team. However, it also works in solo queue too. And the idea is – keep all of your teammates informed and don’t be afraid to share your ideas.
Many people play League of Legends alone, which may seem obvious, but you’d be shocked how many people treat this game as a solo experience. But all of you are playing for the same goal: promotion to the upper divisions.
So, make sure you’re actively engaging in your team’s discussions in person or via the game’s chat. You may find it a little daunting when you’re playing with people you’ve never met, but you can overcome this by simply discussing things.
When you act like a well-functioning team, you’ll be able to work more effectively with others. Do not hesitate to speak up if you believe you can help your team win a game. There is nothing to lose and a lot to gain.
How Long Before a Game Should LoL Players Warm Up?
Since League of Legends is a game that demands a lot of focus and energy, your warm-up shouldn’t be too fast or too slow.
1 minute of warming up is usually never enough while preparing 3 hours in advance is also not recommended.
The warm-up should last anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes.
If you’re warming up for too long, you’ll get tired and lose the energy to play ranked matches. And, if your warm-up isn’t long enough, it won’t make you 100% focused on the game.
So, the most important thing to remember is to have a warm-up session between 10 and 20 minutes to maintain your energy for at least two ranked matches.
Read Also: How Do Matchmaking & MMR Work in League of Legends?
How Do LoL Pros Warm Up?
LoL pros warm-up contains a specific routine before each match, allowing them to always stay on the top. And, from a lot of research, we found that LoL pros always stretch their arms before playing.
There are seven hand exercises for gamers that you can do to improve the comfort of your hands. And pro players always do these before any vital match to get more comfortable and flexible while destroying enemy lanes.
Professional League of Legends is on a whole other level than ranked LoL. The players train rigorously and treat it as a regular sport.
The warm-ups professional players like Faker and Bjergsen do are similar to the ones listed above. Warming up hands, stretching fingers and wrists, and practicing in training mode.
They also learn from their past mistakes, so they watch their own games as well as other pro players’ streams. This way, they remain sharp, focused on correcting their errors, and even learn new techniques against their opponents.
What Do Athletes Do in Other Sports to Warm Up for a Game or a Kick-Off?
Most athletes do the basic warm-up stuff, but different sports require different warm-up sessions and routines.
In other words, it’s all up to you what you decide to do. When training for a martial art, martial artists warm up their bodies thoroughly before entering the cage and beginning any type of boxing, wrestling, sparring, or even simple movements.
The same goes for soccer players, basketball players, rugby, football, golf, hockey, whatever sport you name it.
They must thoroughly warm up their bodies to ensure they don’t injure themselves in a silly accident. Regarding their workouts, doing a 5–10 minutes warm-up is a non-negotiable requirement.
Read Also: 4 Ways to Avoid Tilting in League
Conclusion
These strategies and ideas have consistently been effective in both video games and traditional sports. Of course, it’s always easier than it sounds. However, if your goal is to climb the ladder in League of Legends, use this guide to warm up properly.
Overall, it’s as straightforward as that. Focus on your prior year’s strengths and build on them this year. Set an achievable goal, warm your arms, and energize your head before every gaming session.
