After seeing the word “communicate” you may think of quick chat messages, but it’s much more than that. There are many things you could be saying to your allies and enemies. But there is a difference between talking and communicating.
When you talk to people in-game, like saying thanks to your teammates after a kill or asking for help, it’s talking. But when you are actively communicating during the game with other things besides words, that’s a whole different story. There is a lot of important information you could be relaying with simple gestures or pings.
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So, How can I Communicate With My Team?
Talking can be anything from chatting Quick Chat messages, where there are only around six different phrases everyone will understand (Usually “Yes”, “No”, “Duo?”, “Bait?”, etc.). Most players just use these quick chat messages because they don’t know what else to say except maybe greeting allies and enemies at the beginning or end of games. The rest of the time, most people type random things into the chat. When the game is going on, you should be communicating with pings and gestures.
Ping: A ping is a small, glowing circle that appears above something if your mouse hovers over it (Such as an ally who needs help or a ward you want to place). Pings are very useful for relaying information quickly if someone may not notice it.
You can use pings at any time! You can even ping during the laning phase in case an enemy goes MIA (Missing In Action) and he could be roaming around. If you notice this, tell your allies by pinging their lane enemies so they know to keep an eye out for him while fighting their own foes.
There are several ways to ping in League of Legends. The most common way is to use the left mouse button. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts (which are easier if you have a gaming keyboard).
The default keybinding for pinging with the left mouse button is Alt + Ping. To ping an ally, hover your mouse cursor over them and then press Alt + Ping. An arrow will appear above their head, and a small ping sound will play. This is the easiest way to ping someone without needing to look away from the action.
Gesture: Gestures are animations that appear above your champion’s head and can be performed by pressing “T” (Default). The default gesture is the thumbs up, which you should always make after winning a teamfight or as soon as possible when the game is over. You can set different gestures to show that you need Mana & Health regen, wards, Teleport, and more. Each champion has their own unique animations they play when performing these abilities.
You don’t have to type anything if you feel like talking and want to type something out! But there are times when typing important information will help your allies or yourself. For instance: If someone is trolling and asking for a surrender vote every chance they get until 25 minutes in the game, maybe telling them it’s not going to happen will help out your team more by not wasting time.
Some people aren’t really aware of what is happening in-game either, they may be browsing Facebook or Tumblr while playing. If you are watching the chat logs it’s important to explain what happened after a teamfight or what someone did wrong if he isn’t communicating with his allies.
Don’t type too much without reason though! Sometimes less is more when typing to players who don’t want to talk because they are shy or just annoyed at their own team that game. You can also type things in all chat for everyone to see, but that’s only recommended when people might actually read it… Or if you’re trolling/taunting them.
Telling them how bad they are can be fun, but it gets old and useless after a few games. The only time where trash-talking is useful is in ranked queues when you’re in promo series or in competitive play.
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Conclusion
When talking to your allies, there are things you should always include: Thanking them for their help (Ally) / Requesting help (Enemy), telling them what they could’ve done better (Both!), calling out enemy positions like MIA’s and asking for assistance, recalling if necessary, and ping spamming important information like how many enemies there are at Dragon or Baron Nashor.
Even after the game ends you should talk about what went wrong with the team and possible areas that could improve next time. You can even go into a custom lobby and test strategies if you want.
Oh, and try not to type “bg” or any other offensive messages unless you want people to report you.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope it will help everyone become a better League of Legends player!
