Why the Grind Falls Short

1. Burnout and Fatigue

Grinding can lead to mental and physical exhaustion. Playing 10+ hours a day without breaks diminishes focus, reduces the quality of decision-making, and increases frustration. Esports pros often balance practice with rest and other activities to maintain peak performance.

2. Lack of Goal Setting

Unstructured gameplay often means repeating the same mistakes without clear objectives for improvement. Grinding doesn’t inherently teach you how to refine specific skills, like wave management, teamfighting, or decision-making.

3. Ineffective Learning

Repetition without reflection is rarely productive. If you don’t analyze your games or experiment with new strategies, you’re unlikely to gain insights that translate into better gameplay.

4. Poor Practice Conditions

Solo queue, a popular grinding method, doesn’t always reflect the competitive environment. Factors like uncoordinated teammates or unpredictable opponents make it difficult to simulate pro-level scenarios.

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How Esports Pros Practice Effectively

1. Deliberate Practice

Unlike grinding, deliberate practice focuses on specific skills and involves goal-oriented training. For example, instead of playing endless games, work on perfecting your CS (creep score) in the laning phase or mastering a champion’s combos in a practice tool.

2. Scrimmages and Drills

Professional teams prioritize scrimmages — organized matches against other teams — over solo queue. They also use targeted drills, such as "blitz scrims," where teams only play the first 15 minutes of a game to improve early-game strategies.

3. VOD Reviews

Top players spend significant time reviewing their games. Watching replays (VODs) helps identify mistakes, assess decision-making, and learn from opponents. Comparing your performance to pro players’ gameplay can also provide valuable insights.

4. Diverse Training Methods

Pros don’t just rely on in-game practice. They use tools like 1v1s to improve specific matchups, engage in theorycrafting sessions, and study meta trends. These methods help refine mechanics, decision-making, and adaptability.

5. Balanced Lifestyle

A healthy lifestyle supports better performance. Esports players often include physical exercise, mental health practices, and structured schedules in their routines. Breaks and recovery are essential for maintaining focus and avoiding burnout.

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How to Apply Pro-Level Training to Your Practice

1. Set Clear Goals

Before starting a session, identify what you want to improve. Whether it’s landing skill shots, map awareness, or macro play, focus your practice on achieving specific objectives.

2. Use the Practice Tool

The in-game Practice Tool is perfect for refining mechanics, like last-hitting or testing new champions. Spend 10-15 minutes here before jumping into ranked matches.

3. Limit Solo Queue

Solo queue has its place, but it shouldn’t be your primary training method. Use it to test strategies or practice against high-level opponents, but avoid over-relying on it.

4. Review Your Games

After each match, analyze your performance. Ask questions like:

• What decisions led to a loss or win?
• Could you have positioned better in fights?
• Were there opportunities to take objectives you missed?

5. Incorporate Variety

Mix up your training routine. Play 1v1s to learn matchups, join a custom game to practice ward placement, or review pro matches for strategic inspiration.

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Smarter Training in League of Legends: Work Smarter, Not Just Harder

Practicing League of Legends like the pros requires more than just playing countless games. Effective training involves a lot of work outside of actual gameplay, such as analyzing VODs, reviewing decision-making, setting goals, and experimenting with strategies. While these methods are far more effective than simple grinding, they can also be tedious and time-consuming.

That’s where Athena.ai helps you. Athena analyzes Your gameplay and tells you exactly how to achieve the next rank. By letting Athena.ai handle the tedious aspects of training, you can focus on applying insights and improving faster — all without burning out.

Invest in smarter, more structured training with tools like Athena.ai to maximize your time and effort in League of Legends.

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Source: 

Abbott, C., Watson, M., & Birch, P. (2023). Perceptions of Effective Training Practices in League of Legends: A Qualitative Exploration. Journal of Electronic Gaming and Esports, 1(1), jege.2022-0011. Retrieved Nov 21, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.1123/jege.2022-0011

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