the professional circuit of League of Legends is incredibly vast and complex in every way. Many professional gamers have a very specific style of play, only want to use certain peripherals that they feel particularly comfortable with, specific in-game settings that allow them to exploit the full potential of their favorite characters, . But there is an adjustment within the competitive landscape, especially in the Asian regions, which is very recurrent and which many do not understand, which consists of to play League of Legends in windowed mode.
One of the things you notice when watching League of Legends Proviews from previous Worlds is that a lot of pros play that way. This may seem counter-intuitive to some, who find it annoying to see their desktop in the background. LS explains the reasons for this preference through a video clip.
Playing LoL in windowed mode can improve your performance
As he comments in the video, for professionals, the windowed mode is quite good due to the possibility of looking at the lane and the minimap at the same time. Basically, it’s a more comfortable way to get information, while in full screen mode their gaze has to swipe to see the minimap. They therefore gain a few seconds each time, because in addition to looking at the minimap, it is necessary to analyze again the new information available.
Is this pushing optimization too far?
To lower ranks probably. If a player is stuck in Silver, switching to windowed mode will not allow them to gain LP. However, for professionals, this is crucial. Besides having a overview of the global situation on the map permanentlythis can prevent them from getting surprise by an opponent when their gaze slides on the minimap. Certainly a player could not not detect this moment preciselybut seen the number of games played in a year, this situation can happen. If it’s during a regular season game, it can be considered a game hazard, but if it’s during a knockout gamethen the advantage taken on a somewhat lucky action (in the sense that the aggressor has time to place his first spells during the second and a half the other player’s gaze is on the minimap) can ruin a season.