LoL Being A Good Shot Caller Guide

LoL Being A Good Shot Caller Guide by Roonie222

Hey everyone, I’ve seen a lot of guides about in game stuff such about creep wave management and mains explaining how to play with or against their champion but I haven’t seen one for shot calling. So I figured I’d make one.

A little about me first. I have been playing this game for about four years now. In this time I have shot called for a number of teams and we always seemed to get about a tier higher (at least MMR wise) than we were ranked in solo queue due to team play. Example, a Team of silver and bronze I played on made it to high gold low plat MMR before disbanding due to life issues. So today I’m going to try and help explain how I go about it along with some videos from my stream where my most recent team played in a tournament for examples of good things and bad things. The game I am using is a comeback from 12k down.

TL:DR: Read just the numbers.

1.) Know the game

First rule of shot calling is have a general knowledge about what you are talking about. Know when you can call for baron and call for dragon. Select targets in fight not just based on where you are but where your team is. Understand both your teammates and champions they play and what limitations they have as well as the enemy.

Example of how to be bad: Here I am the decider to go dragon. I fail to take into account that the enemy is all up and assume they are low enough to not be able to contest. This results in a four for nothing trade in favor of them.

Example of good shot calling: We win a team fight and here I properly take into account ability of champions to contest as well as a worst case scenario (Tp to take inhib) and call for the recall. Recall gets interrupted but it turns out fine for us.

2.) The game is NEVER over.

As soon as you say the game is over, it is over. This is the most important rule. Even if you think it is over never vocalize it. If a teammate begins to get that mentality start providing ways that you can get back into the game.

Good Example 1: My team loses that fight based on my bad call and you can hear people get down about it as their Tristana became very fed off that. I started talking us back up by saying what needs to be done in order to win

Good Example 2: Coming off the first team fight that we won but lost most of our base in the process our ADC was down thinking it was over. I pointed out mistakes that the enemy was consistently making and how we can exploit them.

Bad Example: The entire second game in the VoD I get down a little and let it show in my calls. We were out matched and I let it show in my tone.

3.) Do NOT blame anyone during a game.

If someone messed up the fight, odds are they know they did. People generally know when they made a mistake especially if you are playing with people in Gold and above. In the game is not the time to reprimand them. You accept the mistake, maybe the person says, “Sorry guys, I fucked up,” and you move on. The most you can say is, “Let’s (as a team) try and do (this thing) better next fight.” If you need to do not be afraid to take the blame yourself. When these mistakes happen feel free to talk about them but do it AFTER the game.

No examples for this one, just notice we save all talks for after the game for mistakes.

4.) Listen to your teammates ideas

You play support a lot? Well odds are your adc knows adc better than you. Your teammates are a good source of information. Use them.

Bad Example: My ADC had a 20cs lead, she wanted to go back for her BF Sword but I called to stay to deny more. It ended up biting us. I should have listened to her better and pressed the advantages with items instead of pressure.

Good Example: I was unsure about the timing it would take for us to kill the base and my teammate called out we could end. We followed up that call and he was correct.

5.) Do not be afraid to say you don’t know something before a big fight

Not sure what objective to push for next? Ask around! Someone might have an idea that is better than the normal all group mid and push that solo queue gets stuck in frequently. This can create more pressure around the map than would otherwise have happened. It’s how we grow and get better.

Can’t find any examples of this either. My bad.