I.7,8 - Heaven and Earth

7. HEAVEN signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.

On Summoner's Rift this means awareness of buff timers, respawn times, death timers, and summoner cooldowns. Organized pro teams arrive a few seconds before the dragon respawns. They don't respond to the dragon symbol on the minimap, they prepare for it in advance. The jungler or support should type the respawn time in teamchat. Prepare for an upcoming dragon by pushing your lane, clearing enemy wards, ganking bottom or mid, and backing early enough to get back before it spawns.

When did your lane opponent last use his ultimate? Is his flash up? How long is the cooldown on your opponent's big spike damage. If morgana's snare is on cooldown can you get the jump on her before it's back? When is the jungler due for a gank? When will your opponents ward expire at bot? When will yours?

8. EARTH comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.

I've seen Xpecial, support for SoloMid skip buying a blasting wand to keep a slot open for wards. Map control represents the foundation of a winning team. Clairvoyance is required for the support (CV isn't as essential in solo queue since the cooldown got nerfed, but in competitive play it's still carried by almost every top team.)

• Pink wards are excellent.
• You collect 25 gold for killing an enemy ward, offsetting your cost
• Some portion of your opponents 75 gold is wasted because his ward is killed before it expired.
• The advantage of having your own ward up and destroying your opponents is considerable.
• Oracles are worthwhile when you are experienced enough to stay alive.
• You recover the cost by killing enemy wards
• Losing 400 gold when you die is like giving up another first blood (your team is now behind by 400 gold).
• Using cv to ensure you can safely check an area for wards is a good idea.
• Waiting 30 seconds for mias to return to lane before checking a dangerous spot for wards is a good idea.
• Sitting idly in the woods while waiting for a safe chance to ward sweep is great as long as your lane can handle itself while you are gone.
• The solo experience your carry receives is also excellent.
• If your ad carry cannot farm well while you are gone, place your wards and get back to the lane.

A team is dominated when it has no wards. It is fearful, forced to turtle, and cannot move decisively.
A team is dominating when wards cover the enemy jungle and map objectives. The enemies outer towers are down and they are turtling in their base. A dominating team manages buff timers and controls the pace of the game by maintaining pressure and not letting up. Games are won with map control; map control is established through wards, cv, taking down towers, and communication.

I.6 Moral Law

6. The MORAL LAW causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

You should have a shared vision for why are you playing together. If you aren't trying to go pro, relax and have fun. If you are trying to compete, then study, practice, prepare, and support your teams growth. 'Correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction.' (2 Timothy 4:2b NIV). Respect others, act maturely, and you will grow a strong team around yourself.

I was talking about solo queue with SammTheHam, who played for Rock Solid and now works at Riot. He emphasized that regardless of how your team plays you should always focus on your mistakes and what you could have done better. In solo queue you are the only constant, so focus on improving yourself rather than stressing about bad teammates. This is a great example of the kind of attitude it takes to be a great leader, to improve yourself, and to continually grow as a player (and a person too for that matter).

Heaven and Earth

II. Waging War

1. Sun Tzu said: In the operations of war, where there are in the field a thousand swift chariots, as many heavy chariots, and a hundred thousand mail-clad soldiers, with provisions enough to carry them a thousand LI, the expenditure at home and at the front, including entertainment of guests, small items such as glue and paint, and sums spent on chariots and armor, will reach the total of a thousand ounces of silver per day. Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men.
1. It's expensive to maintain an army [not quite sure how this one's relevant =D].

2. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.
2. A sustained push will leave you low on health and mana. If you siege a turret you will eventually have to back.

3-4. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.
3-4. To reiterate, a long push will leave you weakened. When you are low on health and mana the enemy will capitalize by engaging you. Regardless of your ability you will not be able to stop the counterpush.

5. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.
5. A brilliant play should be executed quickly, though rushing into a situation unprepared can be foolish.

6-7. There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare. It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.
6. Experience will teach you the pain of letting a game drag on. [Not entirely applicable because you have infinite resources in game].

8. The skillful soldier does not raise a second levy, neither are his supply-wagons loaded more than twice.
8. A good summoner backs sparingly and lanes efficiently.

9. Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy. Thus the army will have food enough for its needs.
9. Farm your lane and jungle well, but also deny your opponent by stealing his jungle and pushing creep into his tower. This is how you will finish your build.

10. Poverty of the State exchequer causes an army to be maintained by contributions from a distance. Contributing to maintain an army at a distance causes the people to be impoverished.
10. When you're underfarmed you'll be forced to back frequently, setting you further behind as you miss creep in the lane.

11-12. On the other hand, the proximity of an army causes prices to go up; and high prices cause the people's substance to be drained away. When their substance is drained away, the peasantry will be afflicted by heavy exactions.
11-12. When you turtle you will compete with your teammates for farm, starving the carries for xp and gold. This will put supports and junglers even further behind as they split xp and defer farm.

13-14. With this loss of substance and exhaustion of strength, the homes of the people will be stripped bare, and three-tenths of their income will be dissipated; while government expenses for broken chariots, worn-out horses, breast-plates and helmets, bows and arrows, spears and shields, protective mantles, draught-oxen and heavy wagons, will amount to four-tenths of its total revenue.
13-14. When this happens your team will fall behind, your jungle will be taken by your enemy. You'll fall further behind as you are forced to spend gold on wards and consumables.

15. Hence a wise general makes a point of foraging on the enemy. One cartload of the enemy's provisions is equivalent to twenty of one's own, and likewise a single PICUL of his provender is equivalent to twenty from one's own store.
15. A resourceful team starves the enemy by taking their buffs. A stolen buff is worth twice one's own, and denying creep through pushing waves into the enemy tower is very effective.

16. Now in order to kill the enemy, our men must be roused to anger; that there may be advantage from defeating the enemy, they must have their rewards.
16. Your team will get pumped when ganks are successful; carries should be rewarded with kills on a successful gank.

17. Therefore in chariot fighting, when ten or more chariots have been taken, those should be rewarded who took the first. Our own flags should be substituted for those of the enemy, and the chariots mingled and used in conjunction with ours. The captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept.
17. In a teamfight the carries should get kills and map objectives should be taken when the fight is over. Feeding kills to your carry also rewards them with the enemy buffs. Be respectful to your opponents as you may queue up with them in the next match.

18-19. This is called, using the conquered foe to augment one's own strength. In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.
18-19. Snowball against your enemies by taking their jungle. Your goal should be to end the game quickly when you have momentum rather than letting the game drag. Focus on destroying the nexus and don't give your opponent a chance to come back.

20. Thus it may be known that the leader of armies is the arbiter of the people's fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril.
It depends on the captain to lead his team to victory.


Sunzi (2009-10-04). The Art of War (Kindle Locations 575-635). Adams Media. Kindle Edition.

I. Laying Plans

I. Laying Plans

1-4. Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field. These are The Moral Law, Heaven, Earth, The Commander, Method and discipline.
1-4. This is important so pay attention. The art of LoL is governed by five factors, Teamwork, Map Understanding, Map Control, Leadership, and Method and Discipline.

5, 6. The MORAL LAW causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.
5, 6. Teamwork creates cohesion that allows a team to follow their leader into a teamfight without fearing any carry.

7. HEAVEN signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.
7. Map understanding includes buff timers, dragon and baron timers, death timers, and ability cooldowns.

8. EARTH comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.
8. Map control includes being in the right place; knowing enemy dude potential; warding river, jungle, and lane entrances; the chances of life and death if you engage.

9. The COMMANDER stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.
9. The captain understands the game, supports his team, shows courage and discipline.

10. By METHOD AND DISCIPLINE are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.
10. Method and discipline means to assign lanes well, use players in appropriate roles, establish map awareness with wards, control of map objectives, and use gold wisely.

11-13. These five heads should be familiar to every general: he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail. Therefore, in your deliberations, when seeking to determine the military conditions, let them be made the basis of a comparison, in this wise:
Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law?
Which of the two generals has most ability?
With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth?
On which side is discipline most rigorously enforced?
Which army is stronger?
On which side are officers and men more highly trained?
In which army is there the greater constancy both in reward and punishment?


11-13. A team captain who knows these principles will win. To assess a matchup consider:
Which team works better together?
Which captain is better skilled?
Who has better objective awareness and map control?
Which team is more disciplined?
Which team has a better composition and is better farmed?
Which team has better skilled players?
What team consistently grows and learns from their mistakes?

14. By means of these seven considerations I can forecast victory or defeat.
14. These seven questions will allow me to determine whether a team will win or lose.

15. The general that hearkens to my counsel and acts upon it, will conquer: --let such a one be retained in command! The general that hearkens not to my counsel nor acts upon it, will suffer defeat: --let such a one be dismissed!
15. The captain who pursues these principles will win. The one who ignores them will lose and his team should find a new captain.

16-17. While heading the profit of my counsel, avail yourself also of any helpful circumstances over and beyond the ordinary rules. According as circumstances are favorable, one should modify one's plans.
16-17. You will succeed by adhering to these principles, just remember to leverage any advantage that presents itself outside of the normal meta. Adjust your gameplan if you can take advantage of a mismatched lane or an early dragon.

18. All warfare is based on deception.
18. All games are based on deception.

19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
19. Don't reveal your position when you are about to attack, move through the jungle unseen; when waiting to gank from a bush, your enemy should think you're still in your lane; when you're backing to base they should think you're in a nearby bush.

20. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.
20. Use teleport, bushes, ward sweeping, and global ults to bait your opponent. Feign disorder and crush him.

21. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him.
21. Be ready for an attack when all your opponents lanes are secure. If he has outfarmed you stay out of his way and catch up in other lanes.

22. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.
22. Troll your opponent like a boss if you can make him angry. Tempt him to overextend by appearing to be passive.

23. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them.
23. Maintain constant pressure on the lanes when he tries to back; don't let him recover from a close teamfight. Use cc to peel champions away from their team.

24. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.
24. Take a turret when he backs. Invade his jungle and gank from unexpected directions.

25. These military devices, leading to victory, must not be divulged beforehand.
25. Do not telegraph your strategy ahead of time, avoid enemy wards and set up your gank without being seen.

26. Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought.
26. The winning team will be prepared, planning composition, picks, bans, and strategy before the game.

26b. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.
26b. The captain who loses won't be prepared. Therefore plan ahead and win; it's obvious which team will win or lose based on the team that shows up more prepared.

The first expanded post: Moral Law
Sunzi (2009-10-04). The Art of War (Kindle Locations 514-572). Adams Media. Kindle Edition.