Learning to learn together
A guide on improving while in voice chats
One thing I can thank for all I have done and all I am currently doing in the Runeterra community (Topping Ladder, Casting high caliber players, and interviewing them) is the friends that helped me understand how to improve at the game and the friends I have been helping get better at the game. It was early, but I used to hang out with people from dusk till dawn in Annie Desu’s Discord and improve that way, even giving free coaching at some point during my path. One of these great friends was Pespscola because those days used to start with us in the voice chat and end with us in the voice chat 😂
But your time might not be unlimited, so let us see how you can improve your game during the time you have.
As you already know, my name is Constantin “CastMin” Dumitru, caster for many community tournaments and peak Top 20 player on the EU server, Funsmith
Burn aficionado, and interview host for all these great player winning tournaments every week.
Today we are going to learn how to learn. I once read a book called How to read a book, by Mortimer Adler and many people started laughing about it, “you would need to learn how to read the book. Just go over the pages and that’s it”, right? Wrong!
What that book taught me was every process, every activity, every step of your life has clear guidelines. Sometimes you are acting on intuition and completing them naturally, but you should be aware, and I repeat, every process of your life has clear guidelines.
Today I will be teaching you how to improve while hanging out with people in voice chats, based on the experiences that I mentioned before and why this process is going to make you a better player.
Learning this way is not stressful
I suppose you are already familiar with the phrase brain fart, defined by the Macmillan Dictionary as “an occasion when for a short time you cannot remember something or think clearly”. I also suppose you are familiar with this situation on the ladder. But “why the hell is it happening to me?”
To clarify, humans are built with this Fight-or-Flight Response (aka acute stress response), which refers to “a physiological reaction that occurs when we are in the presence of something that is mentally or physically terrifying” (Kendra Cherry, 2020). I highlighted the words “mentally terrifying” for you because that is what is usually happening to you on the ladder. You are so stressed, so focused on that one win for your rank promotion or to confirm that you have mastered that one deck you enjoyed that for the one instance when the play matters… you are screwing up royally. Been there, done that, guilty as charged 😂
But that doesn’t happen when people are surrounding you, playing with you, giving you their bits of information from either experience or just a flash of brilliance. Even more so when you are the one helping out. Why?
Because it is not a “ME” Problem anymore, it is a “WE” Problem. And a collective is prone to succeed while they are working together towards achieving a common goal.
It is true uncertainty that is keeping you stressed, but that is fading away once you have people around to support you. Good job, you anime protagonist!
Learning this way incentivizes growth
I mentioned before the transition from a “ME” to a “WE” Problem as a form of stress relief. But what I did not mention is how does this objectively helps you become a better player? We are going to clarify this now.
Don’t be afraid to queue, regardless of the rank of the players in a call. While a versed player can provide you with a lot of knowledge, what lower-ranked players are going to provide you with is knowledge gathering opportunities, as you start debating with each other, making a point for certain plays, cards to play around, how you have been overcoming similar situations and essentially becoming the versed player.
Learning this way is accessible
Do you have the money to splash on coaching? Great. I have heard some cool guys are doing this Mastering Runeterra thing, having a cool Discord and coaching you to become the player of your dreams, take down incredible foes and get to know why Beagles are so great.
But (and there’s a big BUT), if you do not have the resources, there is nothing easier than just hopping into a random voice chat, get some people to gather around, and advance your plan towards World domi-… Wait, that’s Veigar. Anyways, you should take the opportunity to hang around with people, either your friends or soon-to-be friends, and enjoy some Runeterra.
Nobody is going to put a tax on that, nobody is going to force you to leave and absolutely nobody is going to refuse a helping hand.
Besides, you can combine this method AND actual coaching, as a way to deepen your understanding of lessons that people like Jae and Bae taught you. Take that deck that you have learned about during the coaching session, gather a few friends that were with you, and start taking turns in piloting and watching each other’s games. This is especially useful because:
~ all of you have attended the same session;
~ all of you have been taught the same aspects;
~ each of you can focus on the individual aspects that you have been taught.
Closing Words
This could easily be Point 4 on the list and I decided to use it in the end: “Learning this way is unimaginably fun!”. Don’t tell me you don’t want to share those moments when you are queuing an Atrocity
or Decimate
on the stack with your breath taken, hoping it will be fired off and kill your opponent. I know I want to. I even want to show people when I am drawing my perfect curve.
Why? Because it is FUN.
Whatever the future may hold, I hope you enjoyed this article and found it useful.
Don’t forget to check out my Twitter as I will keep you up to date there about my future articles and future interviews with top competitors that will also share tips towards improving your game.