How to reach Challenger effortlessly - Enter Flow State
Have you ever been in the zone and hit 120CS in 10 Minutes like Chovy? Or could you accurately and effortlessly predict every single step of the enemy jungler?
What you’ve experienced is known to psychologists as Flow.
Flow is a state of mind that occurs when a person is totally immersed in an activity. Action and awareness merge, and efforts feel effortless.
Many, if not all of the best athletes in the world make use of flow (1).
The term was popularized by famous hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi and elaborated in a book titled the same.
Csikzentmihalyi explained the phenomenon as follows:
���The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”
According to his book, flow state is not only associated with optimal performance but also increased creativity, greater enjoyment and reduced stress.
It has since then been replicated in various studies and disciplines.
In fact, there are studies showing that with increased flow experience playing League, the winrate increases.
In an article written by Ben Wisbey, he explains how they used EEG measurements across 16 players playing 1634 league games. The data showed: The more flow you experience, the higher your winrate (2).
So, how does one reach a State of Flow?
There are 4 requirements:
1. Clear goals
Clear goals are pretty self-explanatory. Besides the overarching SMART Goals (see my other post) that you should set up, smaller, game-related goals can also be of use. You can for example focus on specific metrics like CS/min or certain mechanics such as dodging Xeraths abilities.
2. Balance between challenge and skill
You need an optimal balance between challenge and skill. This is one of the many downsides of smurfing. Even though you are probably way better, it is way less engaging to play in lower elos. People often report that when smurfing, they seem to play equally bad as the elo they are smurfing in. That is most likely due to a lack of engagement.
3. Immediate feedback
Luckily for us, immediate feedback is almost always given in League of Legends (unless it is your junglers fault). The only necessary requirement to make use of the feedback is that we focus on OUR actions, OUR mistakes, and OUR feedback.
4. Distraction-free environment
This point also emphasizes the importance of my last post regarding multitasking. Even though you may have to cut out the chill music, you gain newfound fun in entering Flow during your Ranked.
I think that making use of Flow experiences is a necessary requirement for achieving mechanical perfection. And even if it wasn't, several studies (3,4) have proven over and over again that experiencing flow is also associated with having higher life satisfaction in general. And who doesn’t want that.
Have you experienced flow before without knowing?
Sources:
(1) Flow in Sports - Susan A. Jackson, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
(2) https://t.co/4yxtGEzvix
(3) https://t.co/qbnbc64YhV
(4) https://t.co/8GwgOWI8NY
+ video of number 1 flow abuser canyon (he told me this in a recent dream of mine)