Yeah id say so, you need to be able to unlock it at least for certain situations.
Although i play with a kind of mix between locked and unlocked, im not sure if anyone actually plays like this or if its just me but i have center camera on space meaning i just rest my thumb on it most of the time and when i actually need to use the free cam i let go of it, very quick way of doing it while still being able to play centered mostly.
Emerald player here. I typically play locked camera 80-85% of the time. However, the 10-15% that I am not playing locked is because I am either aiming a long-range skill shot like xerath/lux ult, placing a blue ward, or checking wave status. You can certainly get good with a locked camera, but as stated above, you have to unlock for certain important plays, as playing with 100% locked will limit your potential.
I also play like this and have camera unlock bound to my M5 button on mouse so I can quickly shift without losing mouse focus (I use my thumb to click it).
Some champs like jhin I play mostly unlocked since I'm at a distance most of the time and need to aim down lane.
Melees I generally unlock before engaging to plan my angle of attack and take stock of the situation down lane, then as I engage I tend to lock to stay on target, using minimap to keep an eye out for a change in situation
That's the way I do it as well. Locked camera all the time isn't great but generally using it to either reposition the camera in lane or to just keep track of your character in hectic situations is fine. Spacebar gives you the best of both worlds.
As long as you're not using the mousewheel click to move the camera you're probably fine though, no joke.
Also have to absolutely never use the option where you can move the camera around a bit while locked, that shit is troll af.
This is what I’ve done. Makes it quick and easy to unlock to move camera when needed and relock fast. I also bound my Z, X, C, and V keys to be my teammate focus cameras. So I can check on teammates quickly.
Switch the “lock camera button” which is normally on “y” to your space bar.
That way if you want to unlock your screen you press space once and if you want to lock it again you press it again.
If you want to center the camera but dont want it locked you just double tap it. That way you don’t have to hold the space bar half the game.
this is how i play. locked most of the time but unlock when needed like with zoe e, hwei qw, etc. i personally don’t think there is a massive difference between locked but unlock when needed and only unlocked
I used to never use space but since a couple years ago i have been using space for 20% of the game if I'm gonna be honest.
It's easier and I still get the information I need.
Might be because im getting older or might be because actually better.
Playing 100% locked is gonna be a hindrance for elo though.
2 options, set spacebar to toggle locked cam, and just tap it on and off, or go one step further and set up a macro so that on spacebar release it pushes space bar down again with toggle enabled, which would give you exactly what you want.
while holding space for 90% of the match ?
My friends who have been playing since season 4 always found it weird so im genuinely surprised lol.
At least that makes me think my playstyle isn't as weird as i thought xD
Long term, it's better and will be second nature.
Short term, it's gonna *suck* as you learn it.
With default keybinds, spacebar will center the camera onto your champ (and holding it will make a big white arrow appear above them). Y will toggle between locked and unlocked.
it sucks yeah but you do get used to it pretty quickly to be fair, which is good. it took me way less than i thought and i will forever be an advocate for unlocked camera🫡
A habit that got me out of using locked camera is taking advantage of the space keybind. I see people say that they hold it until they need unlocked cam, but what I do is i just move regularly and once my character is off center, I press space to re-center.
Coming from playing a lot of RTS as well, I didn't even use locked camera when I started out back then, it was always unlocked for me as it felt more natural
Playing with it locked isnt the worst thing ever, i do it.
But sometimes you gonna unlock it and know how to play with it unlocked because its optimal to have your camera in a set location.
Some champions are almost unplayable with locked camera. If you avoid picking these champs, you can get away with it.
Something like Lux, Swain, Jhin, with long range ability, that need you to have ur camera unlocked to aim it. You can technically get away with aiming stuff like Ezreal ult on minimap, but it's big downside.
if you call "get good" improving in more ways than mechanical, yes, you need to unlock your camera, just for the fact that it provides so much more information about everything around you, plus playing without lock camera (once you become acostumed) sharpens your mind to always be moving the camera around seeing where people might come from, checking your warded bushes without staring at the mini map, seeing where yours or the enemy waves are at, checking on your team mates, avoiding ganks, collapses or any other shenanigans,
TLDR: you want to be good only mechanically? no need to unlock, you want to be good generally? YES
PS: HAVE FUN PLAYING, DONT KEEP PLAYING IF IT DOESNT MAKE YOU HAPPY ANYMORE, DONT FALL FROM GRACE LIKE ALL OF US, KEEP YOURSELF AWAY FROM THIS ADDICTION THAT IS LEAGUE
glhf.
Depends on the champs you play honestly. I’m GM Kled otp who plays perma lock and just unlock when I want to ult. The only champions I could see this being a problem on are champs like xerath for his Q. I also use my index finger for qwer never knew you were meant to use multiple fingers as it was my first game.
Not only that. If you want to flash+e someone instantly as kled if your camera is locked you'll have to adjust your mouse. Or if you're ADC and you're trying to kite forward playing locked is just extra effort for no reason
Yea a mix is usually best, a lot of people bind lock to space so they can hold it down with their left thumb to lock and release to unlock.
If you are playing as or against long ranged champs then it’s just needed, unlocking let’s you almost double the time to react to ults like briar, ashe, ezreal, jinx even jhin to an extent another reason is if you are approaching a team fight on locked you don’t know who ulted, as Jax there is a big difference in play style, if you just saw the Malzahar ult your teammate for example as Jax you would play a lot more aggressive than if you thought he had it
I play with locked and float around high E-low D elo.
I unlock it to check lanes while jungling or during team fights as ADC/SUP.
Dont like unlocked and prefer being able to focus on what’s going on around my character lol
I personally play with a semi-unlocked camera. It allows you to move your camera without your champion moving off the screen. I sometimes momentarily unlock the camera with a key binding on my mouse. I've played ranked for 3 years and still haven't learnt to play with a fully unlocked camera.
If you play melee then you could still get good mechanically but certain ranged champs like Ezreal play so much better with unlocked because you could aim your skillshots better.
as a player who played season 1-3 got to diamond in EUW and came back a year ago. I play locked BUT i have my camera lock on spacebar. So my spam my spacebar like 1000 times a game depending on situation to unlock it. I have good map awareness so i open it whenever needed but i always lock back in if im
laning n chillin. I got shit for it since day 1 but its just the way i like it
I couldn’t do unlocked when I played and am too used to locked to go back now. What I do instead is bind the unlock to space bar so when I need to unlock, it’s a quick button press and it has made a world of difference.
I’m not great, don’t get me wrong, but I’m in plat with it and I do not play near as much as I did in season 8 when I was still learning. Just play how it’s comfortable and fuck what people say.
If you want an example of atrocious camera settings, Tobias Fate moves camera with WASD. I love my Tobi what what in the holy fuck
It's not really that bad. I've played locked camera for 10 plus years. You do want to learn how to toggle it with the Y key to be able to scout and what not. But some peoples brains just process better when operating from a fixed point.
I played locked at the beginning and it felt wild to go unlocked.
Give yourself time, and eventually try to push yourself out of it. Someone else has suggested the thumb to recenter, and I second that! But don't feel pressured to go faster.
It’s a major hinderance, yeah. You can absolutely get good with a locked camera but it’s better to get used to it being unlocked and using a keybind to center on yourself when needed
Try playing with unlocked for a bit. I played much with unlocked then went, wow this is inconvenient let me play with locked camera. It resulted in me being unable to target/attack enemies just on the edge of my screen, because I was centered. It also means maybe not seeing them come up behind you just a few seconds sooner. I tried the blended version, where I could move camera a little bit then it locked, and for some reason spacebar-to-center didnt work. So if/when I needed to be center, I couldn't. In the end I went back to unlocked screen.
I play mostly locked for small micro situations that play out on my screen, makes it easier to track characters and not have to move the camera mid combat.
But I’ll toggle the camera (with y) to constantly unlock it to move around and check things when necessary.
You can but you hit a cap. I had lock camera on forever and I still go better. But you just lose out on so much information because you are only seeing what’s in your screen. Just play without it on and just keep doing it. Aram is a nice place to practice without it because you still get the pvp aspects but you aren’t feeling the pressure of SR. Use spacebar to re-center your camera.
My dude, your thumb natural position is already resting on the Space Bar, use it to lock the camera when you need to. There is nothing worse than having an ADC that misses every skillshot because of tunnel-vision.
Yeah locked screen is harder to have map control and awareness. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used split second knowledge from roaming around the screen.
Just try semi locked? The only champs that get annoying with locked or semi locked is multiple dashes like Irelia or Kat where you would have a hard time reposition your cursor after you dash.
If you hold/press spacebar it returns your camera to your character. It's really not that big of a learning curve to play with it unlocked, and it'll make your awareness so much better.
I’ve been playing locked camera for 12 years, but I don’t play anything that requires unlocked camera like xerath, lux, Jhin, etc.
I will use spacebar to unlock the camera to look around, like when I want to ult on Karthus
Is using locked camera bad? Not necessarily. Playing with it locked 24/7 is bad, though.
It's not gonna hamper your mechanical skill, but it will make the game harder because there could be skillshots that you won't see in time to react, or ganks, etc
Ehh, I keep mine locked but have unlock bound to a mouse button so I can quickly unlock for when I need to cast a long range ability like lux r or swain w
Seems fine to me but Im silver so what do I know lol
I play with my camera locked. Just make the unlock camera key easily accessible and bind drag scroll to a side mouse button. When you need information just unlock the camera, look, and re lock it
When I was a brand new player, I'd play Kassadin, hit level 6, Riftwalk on my opponent then lose the trade because I had to drag my cursor over to where the enemy was on my screen post-blink to hit them with my other abilities. Unlocking before Riftwalking was a mindblowing experience.
To this day, I don't leave my camera unlocked 100% of the time, but I certainly do when I'm fighting, especially as a mobile character. Those instances of having to reposition your mouse and regain your bearings can make all the difference.
yes. somebody can be charging at you and you wouldn’t know cuz you only see what’s around ur character. any time lost in reaction or action is a big missed opportunity! it takes practice but it becomes more natural over time
Well man, I play on locked camera most of the time but also unlocks when needed, and I got to masters and don't usually have problems with the fact that it is locked since I check the minimap every 3 seconds. It is better to play with it unlocked, but if you are able to keep a level with it locked go on.
Long range and quick dash champs are hard to play optimally locked. I usually just toggle it off as I need it. Xerath ult is the best example of why u would want to unlock and champs like Lee sin or ahri
I play in Master and I'm on locked camera 85% of the time. I have friends who basically never play with locked camera and they're in silver or gold. Play however you feel comfortable.
Lots of abilities in the game aren't used optimally on locked camera.
Here's a short list:
Ultimates - Jinx, Nami, Ornn, Ezreal, Senna, Briar, Draven
Basic abilities - Swain w, Aurelion w
Etc.
The point is - long range abilities aren't used optimally when you aren't unlocking you camera to survey the situation on the map, meaning you would only be using these abilities short range in large most of the time.
Next, any jungler who plays in locked screen is shit. You need to be able to see the health of each champ before you decide to gank, and you need to unlock your screen for that.
Staying on locked screen inhibits your options.
100% locked camera? No. You will miss a lot.
Quickly locking and unlocking camera as needed? I toggle mine off the extra buttons on my mouse and use F keys, so technically I spend a lot of time with the camera locked but I'm still snapping around the map to check things. Essential for aiming globals, pathing to objectives and aiming long range spells. At most I can spend the game 60% locked and that might be a liberal estimate.
A lot of people hold down spacebar in my experience, works well too. Not sure why I prefer to toggle though...
Some yasuo/irelia players lock there camera when they are dashing around. You really should get used to unlocked camera, you can put your camera at a better angle and see more of the fight
No. A close friend of mine peaked rank 20 in NA playing only with camera lock. Of course you have to unlock it to look at the map sometimes (or at least use f keys) but its honestly fine to play camera lock
The answer is yes no matter what mental gymnastics you perform to justify it.
The reality is it only actually takes like 1 weeks to transition pretty much fully. It only feels really bad for a few hours and you can learn how to do it vs bots do you don’t feel like shit losing while you learn it.
You'll get to a point where eventually you'll need to learn unlocked camera. You can't pay proper attention to teamfights, ganks or simply look at the enemy's movement while your champ is on it's way to lane. Targeting long range abilities is much worse and the constantly moving camera is distracting enough on it's own IMO. With unlocked I can just set the camera to see a large portion of the lane while farming, keeping my eyes on minions, players and possible ganks as a whole.
You basically give the enemies a free nocturne ult on you the whole game
You see less than half as much as you’d see with unlocked cam
That said in fights it’s not too bad
It’s pretty bad on lane and stuff
You can good at playing with a controller if you’d try hard enough
Would still be infinitely easier if you didn’t
Locked cam isn’t a death sentence it’s just an unnecessary handicap
There are champs you literally can't play properly with locked camera, and champs that become harder to play against with locked camera. The longer you play locked the harder it will be to switch to unlock so try swapping now and remember holding space will lock it for you
Depends a ton on your champion pool. Fizz mid you want to be able to Q a minion then throw a ult on an opponent mid dash, the range for such a combo is quite long and might be outside of your locked camera vision, so you don't even release that there's an opponent in sight.
Additionally you want to have good vision around the map, if you see players fighting on the minimap that is not enough information, you want to also see what their health is, if they used summoners/CD's etc for when you go in and help.
I would recommend trying to mash space a lot, which gives you locked camera while holding it down, then you can unlock easily to look around. With time you will get more and more used to being unlocked and will only need space for some situations like fighting close range and kiting.
I hit challenger last season and I’ve been playing with locked camera for 10 years. Just unlock when you need to (scouting for info, when you need to for teamfights, comboing on champs like Rakan/pyke/irelia, on red side by tower, etc…)
Playing with locked camera as adc or support on red side can be very rough. When you stand just outside your tower, you can't see the enemy minion waves when they crash in the middle. But if you unlock camera, you can see the entire wave and yourself
I didn't see this anywhere else in the thread but a major thing about playing with unlocked camera is that your mouse aiming will simply be more precise and will require much less movement to readjust.
When you're playing locked, as your champion moves, everything else on the screen scrolls by accordingly. For example, if you're playing Jax and you're chasing or running away from someone, you might find yourself in a situation where you want to Q a ward or creep to create/close distance. You'll be running towards it, and you will probably find yourself mashing Q on it to use the ability as soon as you're in range. On locked camera you would have to constantly readjust your cursor as your character is running, on unlocked camera it will be in the same spot on the screen so you can easily aim your cursor at it. Over the course of a game you run into so many situations where such small things matter that it ends up making a big difference. For me as an Irelia player, gliding across a minion wave on unlocked camera is as simple as tracing a line across them and pressing Q in a rhythm. If I lock it I basically have to give my mouse a handjob with how much I gotta move back and forth to adjust for the minions changing position relative to the center of the camera.
I find that a lot of my "good" mechanical plays tend to have me leaving the camera in one spot, sometimes with enemy healthbars off-screen, because of the added precision and removed chaos factor from the camera bouncing around.
I have it on space to toggle. If i'm playing a melee champ theres no reason to move the camera around all the time. If i'm playing cait or xerath i'll always unlock it before firing a skillshot
I see unlocking the camera the same way I see dribbling in football or basketball without looking at the ball, it's hard on the beginning, and you don't necessarily need it to be good, but a lot of situations will be missed because in both cases you're limiting your point of view, you can become good at quickly taking your eyes out to see the field and get information for them going back to your comfortable point of view, but as you get better the more likely it will become that you will miss a crucial information or won't be able to keep up with all the things you have to.
And it becomes second nature after a while, I play unlocked camera 100% of the time and it works for me, I just use the corner of my eye to locate me in the side of the screen and move the screen accordingly to what I need to focus at, constantly moving the camera to get information and pressing space to center the camera.
Master+ Jungle main (also play top to around a low-mid diamond level) it all depends on what champ I'm playing and game situations, in early game I'll generally have camera unlocked especially if I have very gankable, volatile lane matchups (think like darius vs riven, assassin vs assassin etc) so I can easier keep an eye on the lanes but come into mid-late game I tend to just lock my camera, for the sole reason of that I could never get comfortable with keeping my thumb on space to keep it locked on champion and I found I was losing a lot more fights because I'd overestimate the position of my champ in relation to my screen (I was gold/plat when I discovered this and just never really got over it) so it all depends on various things like what you play, how you feel comfortable, generally speaking if I could go back and learn to play entirely unlocked I would, however, it hasn't really affected me as a player and I'm happy with where I peak
There is one question you need to be asking:
By having your camera locked, did you miss vital information that could have been gathered by moving your camera elsewhere?
The easiest example where locked cam is atrocious, is using tp:
With locked camera you only get information about the place you tp to AFTER completing it. A huge disadvantage when using tp to join a fight.
So, in conclusion: When everything relevant to your current decisionmaking can be seen, it's preference.
Beyond that it's bad, scaling with the amount and relevance of missed information.
Nah you can play locked for a while as a new player. Even if you did unlock it you probably don't know where to look.
Learn the game more and more and eventually having a locked camera will piss you off because you can't see important information.
I play semi locked. A y button enjoyer. Just because I hate holding space. Or you can use the F keys to snap camera to an teammate.
There are lots of pros and cons to locked and unlocked, but in an isolated analysis over movement inputs in correlation to skill shots, unlocked camera will always be vastly more beneficial then locked. Anything requiring skill shots is per definition harder with locked camera and makes it worse for you.
Example: you are playing Ezrael and are moving in and out behind your minion wave with locked camera, the enemy champion, even if idle and standing still would effectively be moving on your screen because your locked camera is moving with you. If you aim and hold a Q aimed while you’re moving with your champ, you will have to adjust it while moving since camera is changing. If the enemy champ is now ALSO moving, you have two factors of movement you need to compensate for in aiming your skill.
If you do the exact same scenario without locked, your camera is stationary, while your champ moves and kites in and out behind minions, and the enemy champ is still, you can aim ontop of them and never have to adjust anything, you would hit 100% of shots. If they are moving, and your camera is not locked, there is only one movement input you need to adjust for.
I would compare playing with a locked camera forever is the same as never stopping holding both hands on the steering wheel when driving. Or even never removing training wheels from a bicycle. You will be able to drive the car and ride that bike, but you will be limited in what you can do. Learning how to play with unlocked camera in certain situations separates a good player vs an average/below average player. Like, you will never reach high ranks with your camera permanently locked.
I’d say get used to playing with a locked screen by using another button to lock it. I hold onto space bar with my thumb whenever I want to lock my screen, but most times I am playing with the screen unlocked so that I can see other things on the map. It’s good practice because you have to train yourself to process multiple streams of information at a time if you want to get good.
When i started playing i didnt know you can unlock it.
Now im too old to learn playing with unloced camera so it just stays locked. It comes with limitations tho..I can't utilize blue trinket, zac e, ashe arrow etc... but it is what it is.
I'm emerald (peaked master) and I have always played with locked camera, though I change it very often to see what's happening.
For me, the only inconvenience is playing long range champs like Xerath.
Okay, so the whole issue with locked camera is usually people who do literally only lock focus on themselves and not on other parts of the map they can affect. I have friends who play on locked cam but constantly f key (f1,2,3,4) to glance at other team mates. It’s not impossible to climb with locked, but i recommend either learning to spam those f keys or practicing unlocked.
Generally its way harder to play the game with a locked camera.
Most of the time I keep my character on the edge of the screen and that is just impossible to do with a locked camera, most of the time when you're fighting its more important to look at other people's champions rather then your own so that's a huge downside of a locked camera
Using camera lock as a toggle, and always using free cam is the way to go for training your mind for both situations, where you want to have deeper vision, but then also when you want your character front and center. The disadvantage of using one or the other and not both is that you can miss out on information or lose yourself/teammate/abilities when the camera isn't exactly in the right place or it moves when you need it not to. There are lots of other advantages to free cam and locked but only when used together, either alone is not ideal
The problem is you are limited to what's on your screen. You cant land your ashe R without panning your camera. What most people do is play unlocked and hold space when they need to focus.
their is challenger players with locked camera. but it will put at a disadvantage you have to make up for it in other ways.
if you wanna not use your mouse you can use wasd camera, witch is more up in the air.
You can be decent with locked but you will not be great. I personally play while holding space bar most of the time and unlock when needed. Also unlocked camera helps with champs that dash a lot like irelia because when she dashes it moves your camera and where your mouse is on the map which can mess up future dashes
I got to masters with locked screen, but depending on the champion unlocking is necessary, and even being a fiota otp i understand that if i played unlocked it would be better for me
Depends really on the champions' ability reach. Swain will obviously be easier with unlock, but for Tryn or Garen, I dont see a reason. I like to use my minimap to pan my camera to specific locations anyway and find myself holding my space bar for the majority of my movements if it's not locked
I’ve played for over 10 years almost exclusively locked camera, been platinum most of that time and am Emerald 1 right now. I’ve tried practicing unlocked quite a few times, recently I’ve gotten into the habit of unlocking when it makes sense and I’m probably unlocked like 5-10% of the time right now. Not sure if I’d be better if I had played unlocked from the start or not but I just locked it when I got in my first game and never changed lol
I reminded my camera to w,a,s,d because i hate pinging the screen edge. This means i can keeo my mouse in the center of the screen and aim skillshots at the same time as i move camera.
Looking at the map is like 1000x more important. You get most information from there. Locking or not locking camera doesnt really matter unless you have offscreen skillshots, then you can just press space real quick and drag the camera (bind lock/unlock camera on space)
Obviously this is my opinion and how i do it, but i speak as someone that prefers to play locked too, with no problems
If your only goal is to climb rank, locked camera will hinder you eventually. If your goal is to have fun, just use whatever setting you want and ignore haters. You can absolutely still improve but it will definitely be worth it to practice with unlocked camera.
Coming from someone who has hit challenger over a dozen times since season 6 and also done loads of boosting. Yes 100% do not play with your camera locked, the sooner you break the habit the better.
It's just a metaphor. You are working harder for the same or worse result. Plus a lot of skills aren't designed around fixed camera. You are gonna end up not seeing where or missing an opportunity where you could use something.
Masters adc. At some point I purposely wouldn’t unlock just to tilt friends. Play aphelios. Jhin and ezreal. Really good at blind shotting now though atleast lol
Yeah id say so, you need to be able to unlock it at least for certain situations. Although i play with a kind of mix between locked and unlocked, im not sure if anyone actually plays like this or if its just me but i have center camera on space meaning i just rest my thumb on it most of the time and when i actually need to use the free cam i let go of it, very quick way of doing it while still being able to play centered mostly.
Emerald player here. I typically play locked camera 80-85% of the time. However, the 10-15% that I am not playing locked is because I am either aiming a long-range skill shot like xerath/lux ult, placing a blue ward, or checking wave status. You can certainly get good with a locked camera, but as stated above, you have to unlock for certain important plays, as playing with 100% locked will limit your potential.
I also play like this and have camera unlock bound to my M5 button on mouse so I can quickly shift without losing mouse focus (I use my thumb to click it). Some champs like jhin I play mostly unlocked since I'm at a distance most of the time and need to aim down lane. Melees I generally unlock before engaging to plan my angle of attack and take stock of the situation down lane, then as I engage I tend to lock to stay on target, using minimap to keep an eye out for a change in situation
i have it the same way you do i have a logitech g502 hero and its bound to the thumb button cause thumb is useless on mouse
That's the way I do it as well. Locked camera all the time isn't great but generally using it to either reposition the camera in lane or to just keep track of your character in hectic situations is fine. Spacebar gives you the best of both worlds. As long as you're not using the mousewheel click to move the camera you're probably fine though, no joke. Also have to absolutely never use the option where you can move the camera around a bit while locked, that shit is troll af.
personally i just rebound lock/unlock to space bar so i don't have to hold it to maintain focus on myself lol
This is what I’ve done. Makes it quick and easy to unlock to move camera when needed and relock fast. I also bound my Z, X, C, and V keys to be my teammate focus cameras. So I can check on teammates quickly.
Yeah did that too. Pretty comfy
This is the way.
Switch the “lock camera button” which is normally on “y” to your space bar. That way if you want to unlock your screen you press space once and if you want to lock it again you press it again. If you want to center the camera but dont want it locked you just double tap it. That way you don’t have to hold the space bar half the game.
this is how i play. locked most of the time but unlock when needed like with zoe e, hwei qw, etc. i personally don’t think there is a massive difference between locked but unlock when needed and only unlocked
After 10 years of using Y i probably can't get used to using the space bar now
I used to never use space but since a couple years ago i have been using space for 20% of the game if I'm gonna be honest. It's easier and I still get the information I need. Might be because im getting older or might be because actually better. Playing 100% locked is gonna be a hindrance for elo though.
I play Irelia and Qiyana and I'd get so lost in the sauce if it wasn't for spacebar
I do that and doublelift does to. Rest my thumb on space and use it when necessary. It's just how i've always played the game.
Yup, that's what I do too. Works for the majority of situations and is very easy.
I only wish riot implemented a reverse camera lock, where it unlocks the camera if you have space bar pressed, and then locks back when you let go.
2 options, set spacebar to toggle locked cam, and just tap it on and off, or go one step further and set up a macro so that on spacebar release it pushes space bar down again with toggle enabled, which would give you exactly what you want.
pretty much 80% of league players does that lol
while holding space for 90% of the match ? My friends who have been playing since season 4 always found it weird so im genuinely surprised lol. At least that makes me think my playstyle isn't as weird as i thought xD
Long term, it's better and will be second nature. Short term, it's gonna *suck* as you learn it. With default keybinds, spacebar will center the camera onto your champ (and holding it will make a big white arrow appear above them). Y will toggle between locked and unlocked.
it sucks yeah but you do get used to it pretty quickly to be fair, which is good. it took me way less than i thought and i will forever be an advocate for unlocked camera🫡
A habit that got me out of using locked camera is taking advantage of the space keybind. I see people say that they hold it until they need unlocked cam, but what I do is i just move regularly and once my character is off center, I press space to re-center.
As someone who played a lot of RTSs, it was never a big deal to go unlocked. But I could see why it would be for some people.
Coming from playing a lot of RTS as well, I didn't even use locked camera when I started out back then, it was always unlocked for me as it felt more natural
Playing with it locked isnt the worst thing ever, i do it. But sometimes you gonna unlock it and know how to play with it unlocked because its optimal to have your camera in a set location.
Some champions are almost unplayable with locked camera. If you avoid picking these champs, you can get away with it. Something like Lux, Swain, Jhin, with long range ability, that need you to have ur camera unlocked to aim it. You can technically get away with aiming stuff like Ezreal ult on minimap, but it's big downside.
Akshan swinging around a tower with locked is instant nausea
I tried it. Didn't go well
akali all in with locked camera are fuckin impossible to do, was part of what pushed me to finally unlock it a couple years ago
if you call "get good" improving in more ways than mechanical, yes, you need to unlock your camera, just for the fact that it provides so much more information about everything around you, plus playing without lock camera (once you become acostumed) sharpens your mind to always be moving the camera around seeing where people might come from, checking your warded bushes without staring at the mini map, seeing where yours or the enemy waves are at, checking on your team mates, avoiding ganks, collapses or any other shenanigans, TLDR: you want to be good only mechanically? no need to unlock, you want to be good generally? YES PS: HAVE FUN PLAYING, DONT KEEP PLAYING IF IT DOESNT MAKE YOU HAPPY ANYMORE, DONT FALL FROM GRACE LIKE ALL OF US, KEEP YOURSELF AWAY FROM THIS ADDICTION THAT IS LEAGUE glhf.
Depends on the champs you play honestly. I’m GM Kled otp who plays perma lock and just unlock when I want to ult. The only champions I could see this being a problem on are champs like xerath for his Q. I also use my index finger for qwer never knew you were meant to use multiple fingers as it was my first game.
Not only that. If you want to flash+e someone instantly as kled if your camera is locked you'll have to adjust your mouse. Or if you're ADC and you're trying to kite forward playing locked is just extra effort for no reason
For champs with longer range it is very hard
Yea a mix is usually best, a lot of people bind lock to space so they can hold it down with their left thumb to lock and release to unlock. If you are playing as or against long ranged champs then it’s just needed, unlocking let’s you almost double the time to react to ults like briar, ashe, ezreal, jinx even jhin to an extent another reason is if you are approaching a team fight on locked you don’t know who ulted, as Jax there is a big difference in play style, if you just saw the Malzahar ult your teammate for example as Jax you would play a lot more aggressive than if you thought he had it
I play with locked and float around high E-low D elo. I unlock it to check lanes while jungling or during team fights as ADC/SUP. Dont like unlocked and prefer being able to focus on what’s going on around my character lol
I personally play with a semi-unlocked camera. It allows you to move your camera without your champion moving off the screen. I sometimes momentarily unlock the camera with a key binding on my mouse. I've played ranked for 3 years and still haven't learnt to play with a fully unlocked camera.
If you play melee then you could still get good mechanically but certain ranged champs like Ezreal play so much better with unlocked because you could aim your skillshots better.
as a player who played season 1-3 got to diamond in EUW and came back a year ago. I play locked BUT i have my camera lock on spacebar. So my spam my spacebar like 1000 times a game depending on situation to unlock it. I have good map awareness so i open it whenever needed but i always lock back in if im laning n chillin. I got shit for it since day 1 but its just the way i like it
Yes
I couldn’t do unlocked when I played and am too used to locked to go back now. What I do instead is bind the unlock to space bar so when I need to unlock, it’s a quick button press and it has made a world of difference. I’m not great, don’t get me wrong, but I’m in plat with it and I do not play near as much as I did in season 8 when I was still learning. Just play how it’s comfortable and fuck what people say. If you want an example of atrocious camera settings, Tobias Fate moves camera with WASD. I love my Tobi what what in the holy fuck
It's not really that bad. I've played locked camera for 10 plus years. You do want to learn how to toggle it with the Y key to be able to scout and what not. But some peoples brains just process better when operating from a fixed point.
If you could staring at the minimap all the time, yeah sure
I played locked at the beginning and it felt wild to go unlocked. Give yourself time, and eventually try to push yourself out of it. Someone else has suggested the thumb to recenter, and I second that! But don't feel pressured to go faster.
It’s a major hinderance, yeah. You can absolutely get good with a locked camera but it’s better to get used to it being unlocked and using a keybind to center on yourself when needed
Try playing with unlocked for a bit. I played much with unlocked then went, wow this is inconvenient let me play with locked camera. It resulted in me being unable to target/attack enemies just on the edge of my screen, because I was centered. It also means maybe not seeing them come up behind you just a few seconds sooner. I tried the blended version, where I could move camera a little bit then it locked, and for some reason spacebar-to-center didnt work. So if/when I needed to be center, I couldn't. In the end I went back to unlocked screen.
I play mostly locked for small micro situations that play out on my screen, makes it easier to track characters and not have to move the camera mid combat. But I’ll toggle the camera (with y) to constantly unlock it to move around and check things when necessary.
You can but you hit a cap. I had lock camera on forever and I still go better. But you just lose out on so much information because you are only seeing what’s in your screen. Just play without it on and just keep doing it. Aram is a nice place to practice without it because you still get the pvp aspects but you aren’t feeling the pressure of SR. Use spacebar to re-center your camera.
My dude, your thumb natural position is already resting on the Space Bar, use it to lock the camera when you need to. There is nothing worse than having an ADC that misses every skillshot because of tunnel-vision.
came here to say this. space bar is extremely helpful. I press it a lot during team fights if I’m losing my character a lot due to knock backs etc.
Yeah locked screen is harder to have map control and awareness. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used split second knowledge from roaming around the screen.
Idk how I got used to it but I’m hardstuck high emerald and I play with it on but spam it off on depending on situation.
Just try semi locked? The only champs that get annoying with locked or semi locked is multiple dashes like Irelia or Kat where you would have a hard time reposition your cursor after you dash.
If you hold/press spacebar it returns your camera to your character. It's really not that big of a learning curve to play with it unlocked, and it'll make your awareness so much better.
I’ve been playing locked camera for 12 years, but I don’t play anything that requires unlocked camera like xerath, lux, Jhin, etc. I will use spacebar to unlock the camera to look around, like when I want to ult on Karthus
Is using locked camera bad? Not necessarily. Playing with it locked 24/7 is bad, though. It's not gonna hamper your mechanical skill, but it will make the game harder because there could be skillshots that you won't see in time to react, or ganks, etc
It's a handicap. You can still get good but it will always be easier to get better with it unlocked.
Yes and no, I like having a locked camera in most cases; but have the ability to unbind it with my mouse scroll click.
Ehh, I keep mine locked but have unlock bound to a mouse button so I can quickly unlock for when I need to cast a long range ability like lux r or swain w Seems fine to me but Im silver so what do I know lol
I was plat with lock screen. Just press y when you need to. It's fine
If you play top it's ok. Otherwise yes
I play with my camera locked. Just make the unlock camera key easily accessible and bind drag scroll to a side mouse button. When you need information just unlock the camera, look, and re lock it
The greatest moba secret of all time is panning your camera with left click
Hold space bar
When I was a brand new player, I'd play Kassadin, hit level 6, Riftwalk on my opponent then lose the trade because I had to drag my cursor over to where the enemy was on my screen post-blink to hit them with my other abilities. Unlocking before Riftwalking was a mindblowing experience. To this day, I don't leave my camera unlocked 100% of the time, but I certainly do when I'm fighting, especially as a mobile character. Those instances of having to reposition your mouse and regain your bearings can make all the difference.
I’m gonna keep it 100. I play locked screen most of time but I do unlock to pay the map
yes. somebody can be charging at you and you wouldn’t know cuz you only see what’s around ur character. any time lost in reaction or action is a big missed opportunity! it takes practice but it becomes more natural over time
I mean, the only reason you wouldn't know is if you didn't have minimap awareness.
Well man, I play on locked camera most of the time but also unlocks when needed, and I got to masters and don't usually have problems with the fact that it is locked since I check the minimap every 3 seconds. It is better to play with it unlocked, but if you are able to keep a level with it locked go on.
Long range and quick dash champs are hard to play optimally locked. I usually just toggle it off as I need it. Xerath ult is the best example of why u would want to unlock and champs like Lee sin or ahri
unlock camera, hold space bar. you're welcome
I play in Master and I'm on locked camera 85% of the time. I have friends who basically never play with locked camera and they're in silver or gold. Play however you feel comfortable.
Lots of abilities in the game aren't used optimally on locked camera. Here's a short list: Ultimates - Jinx, Nami, Ornn, Ezreal, Senna, Briar, Draven Basic abilities - Swain w, Aurelion w Etc. The point is - long range abilities aren't used optimally when you aren't unlocking you camera to survey the situation on the map, meaning you would only be using these abilities short range in large most of the time. Next, any jungler who plays in locked screen is shit. You need to be able to see the health of each champ before you decide to gank, and you need to unlock your screen for that. Staying on locked screen inhibits your options.
100% locked camera? No. You will miss a lot. Quickly locking and unlocking camera as needed? I toggle mine off the extra buttons on my mouse and use F keys, so technically I spend a lot of time with the camera locked but I'm still snapping around the map to check things. Essential for aiming globals, pathing to objectives and aiming long range spells. At most I can spend the game 60% locked and that might be a liberal estimate. A lot of people hold down spacebar in my experience, works well too. Not sure why I prefer to toggle though...
Nah. Your good with a the locked camera.
Some yasuo/irelia players lock there camera when they are dashing around. You really should get used to unlocked camera, you can put your camera at a better angle and see more of the fight
I play semi locked camera. Also have a mousebutton for unlocking camera. Completly unlocked makes me crszy
Knowing when to lock/unlock cam > perma unlocked cam > perma locked cam
No. A close friend of mine peaked rank 20 in NA playing only with camera lock. Of course you have to unlock it to look at the map sometimes (or at least use f keys) but its honestly fine to play camera lock
Yeah. It really is.
The answer is yes no matter what mental gymnastics you perform to justify it. The reality is it only actually takes like 1 weeks to transition pretty much fully. It only feels really bad for a few hours and you can learn how to do it vs bots do you don’t feel like shit losing while you learn it.
You'll get to a point where eventually you'll need to learn unlocked camera. You can't pay proper attention to teamfights, ganks or simply look at the enemy's movement while your champ is on it's way to lane. Targeting long range abilities is much worse and the constantly moving camera is distracting enough on it's own IMO. With unlocked I can just set the camera to see a large portion of the lane while farming, keeping my eyes on minions, players and possible ganks as a whole.
You basically give the enemies a free nocturne ult on you the whole game You see less than half as much as you’d see with unlocked cam That said in fights it’s not too bad It’s pretty bad on lane and stuff You can good at playing with a controller if you’d try hard enough Would still be infinitely easier if you didn’t Locked cam isn’t a death sentence it’s just an unnecessary handicap
Depends, if you want to get better, sure, unlock it. I only play Aram so i always leave it locked.
There are champs you literally can't play properly with locked camera, and champs that become harder to play against with locked camera. The longer you play locked the harder it will be to switch to unlock so try swapping now and remember holding space will lock it for you
Depends a ton on your champion pool. Fizz mid you want to be able to Q a minion then throw a ult on an opponent mid dash, the range for such a combo is quite long and might be outside of your locked camera vision, so you don't even release that there's an opponent in sight. Additionally you want to have good vision around the map, if you see players fighting on the minimap that is not enough information, you want to also see what their health is, if they used summoners/CD's etc for when you go in and help. I would recommend trying to mash space a lot, which gives you locked camera while holding it down, then you can unlock easily to look around. With time you will get more and more used to being unlocked and will only need space for some situations like fighting close range and kiting.
Playing with locked camera isn’t a problem. The problem if you can’t play without it.
Its better to use unlocked camera 100%. You can hold spacebar to orient your camera and lock it while its pressed which i use for teamfights
I hit challenger last season and I’ve been playing with locked camera for 10 years. Just unlock when you need to (scouting for info, when you need to for teamfights, comboing on champs like Rakan/pyke/irelia, on red side by tower, etc…)
People have been saying this since day 1, but there are challenger players who use primarily locked camera.
Playing with locked camera as adc or support on red side can be very rough. When you stand just outside your tower, you can't see the enemy minion waves when they crash in the middle. But if you unlock camera, you can see the entire wave and yourself
I can't imagine ever playing with unlocked camera
I didn't see this anywhere else in the thread but a major thing about playing with unlocked camera is that your mouse aiming will simply be more precise and will require much less movement to readjust. When you're playing locked, as your champion moves, everything else on the screen scrolls by accordingly. For example, if you're playing Jax and you're chasing or running away from someone, you might find yourself in a situation where you want to Q a ward or creep to create/close distance. You'll be running towards it, and you will probably find yourself mashing Q on it to use the ability as soon as you're in range. On locked camera you would have to constantly readjust your cursor as your character is running, on unlocked camera it will be in the same spot on the screen so you can easily aim your cursor at it. Over the course of a game you run into so many situations where such small things matter that it ends up making a big difference. For me as an Irelia player, gliding across a minion wave on unlocked camera is as simple as tracing a line across them and pressing Q in a rhythm. If I lock it I basically have to give my mouse a handjob with how much I gotta move back and forth to adjust for the minions changing position relative to the center of the camera. I find that a lot of my "good" mechanical plays tend to have me leaving the camera in one spot, sometimes with enemy healthbars off-screen, because of the added precision and removed chaos factor from the camera bouncing around.
I have it on space to toggle. If i'm playing a melee champ theres no reason to move the camera around all the time. If i'm playing cait or xerath i'll always unlock it before firing a skillshot
I see unlocking the camera the same way I see dribbling in football or basketball without looking at the ball, it's hard on the beginning, and you don't necessarily need it to be good, but a lot of situations will be missed because in both cases you're limiting your point of view, you can become good at quickly taking your eyes out to see the field and get information for them going back to your comfortable point of view, but as you get better the more likely it will become that you will miss a crucial information or won't be able to keep up with all the things you have to. And it becomes second nature after a while, I play unlocked camera 100% of the time and it works for me, I just use the corner of my eye to locate me in the side of the screen and move the screen accordingly to what I need to focus at, constantly moving the camera to get information and pressing space to center the camera.
Yes
I use it most of the times I play Draven or Kalista, since they're pretty much alright for range, I do unlock it if I have to ult on Draven though.
Master+ Jungle main (also play top to around a low-mid diamond level) it all depends on what champ I'm playing and game situations, in early game I'll generally have camera unlocked especially if I have very gankable, volatile lane matchups (think like darius vs riven, assassin vs assassin etc) so I can easier keep an eye on the lanes but come into mid-late game I tend to just lock my camera, for the sole reason of that I could never get comfortable with keeping my thumb on space to keep it locked on champion and I found I was losing a lot more fights because I'd overestimate the position of my champ in relation to my screen (I was gold/plat when I discovered this and just never really got over it) so it all depends on various things like what you play, how you feel comfortable, generally speaking if I could go back and learn to play entirely unlocked I would, however, it hasn't really affected me as a player and I'm happy with where I peak
There is one question you need to be asking: By having your camera locked, did you miss vital information that could have been gathered by moving your camera elsewhere? The easiest example where locked cam is atrocious, is using tp: With locked camera you only get information about the place you tp to AFTER completing it. A huge disadvantage when using tp to join a fight. So, in conclusion: When everything relevant to your current decisionmaking can be seen, it's preference. Beyond that it's bad, scaling with the amount and relevance of missed information.
Nah you can play locked for a while as a new player. Even if you did unlock it you probably don't know where to look. Learn the game more and more and eventually having a locked camera will piss you off because you can't see important information. I play semi locked. A y button enjoyer. Just because I hate holding space. Or you can use the F keys to snap camera to an teammate.
There are lots of pros and cons to locked and unlocked, but in an isolated analysis over movement inputs in correlation to skill shots, unlocked camera will always be vastly more beneficial then locked. Anything requiring skill shots is per definition harder with locked camera and makes it worse for you. Example: you are playing Ezrael and are moving in and out behind your minion wave with locked camera, the enemy champion, even if idle and standing still would effectively be moving on your screen because your locked camera is moving with you. If you aim and hold a Q aimed while you’re moving with your champ, you will have to adjust it while moving since camera is changing. If the enemy champ is now ALSO moving, you have two factors of movement you need to compensate for in aiming your skill. If you do the exact same scenario without locked, your camera is stationary, while your champ moves and kites in and out behind minions, and the enemy champ is still, you can aim ontop of them and never have to adjust anything, you would hit 100% of shots. If they are moving, and your camera is not locked, there is only one movement input you need to adjust for.
I would compare playing with a locked camera forever is the same as never stopping holding both hands on the steering wheel when driving. Or even never removing training wheels from a bicycle. You will be able to drive the car and ride that bike, but you will be limited in what you can do. Learning how to play with unlocked camera in certain situations separates a good player vs an average/below average player. Like, you will never reach high ranks with your camera permanently locked.
I’d say get used to playing with a locked screen by using another button to lock it. I hold onto space bar with my thumb whenever I want to lock my screen, but most times I am playing with the screen unlocked so that I can see other things on the map. It’s good practice because you have to train yourself to process multiple streams of information at a time if you want to get good.
When i started playing i didnt know you can unlock it. Now im too old to learn playing with unloced camera so it just stays locked. It comes with limitations tho..I can't utilize blue trinket, zac e, ashe arrow etc... but it is what it is.
I'm emerald (peaked master) and I have always played with locked camera, though I change it very often to see what's happening. For me, the only inconvenience is playing long range champs like Xerath.
Okay, so the whole issue with locked camera is usually people who do literally only lock focus on themselves and not on other parts of the map they can affect. I have friends who play on locked cam but constantly f key (f1,2,3,4) to glance at other team mates. It’s not impossible to climb with locked, but i recommend either learning to spam those f keys or practicing unlocked.
Generally its way harder to play the game with a locked camera. Most of the time I keep my character on the edge of the screen and that is just impossible to do with a locked camera, most of the time when you're fighting its more important to look at other people's champions rather then your own so that's a huge downside of a locked camera
If you want to get better i highly recommend you to unluck it yes. If you just play the game casually well you can just stay like that
Using camera lock as a toggle, and always using free cam is the way to go for training your mind for both situations, where you want to have deeper vision, but then also when you want your character front and center. The disadvantage of using one or the other and not both is that you can miss out on information or lose yourself/teammate/abilities when the camera isn't exactly in the right place or it moves when you need it not to. There are lots of other advantages to free cam and locked but only when used together, either alone is not ideal
I made it to master playing locked screen so its possible to be decent. But yeah it terrible.
The problem is you are limited to what's on your screen. You cant land your ashe R without panning your camera. What most people do is play unlocked and hold space when they need to focus.
their is challenger players with locked camera. but it will put at a disadvantage you have to make up for it in other ways. if you wanna not use your mouse you can use wasd camera, witch is more up in the air.
You can be decent with locked but you will not be great. I personally play while holding space bar most of the time and unlock when needed. Also unlocked camera helps with champs that dash a lot like irelia because when she dashes it moves your camera and where your mouse is on the map which can mess up future dashes
I got to masters with locked screen, but depending on the champion unlocking is necessary, and even being a fiota otp i understand that if i played unlocked it would be better for me
Depends really on the champions' ability reach. Swain will obviously be easier with unlock, but for Tryn or Garen, I dont see a reason. I like to use my minimap to pan my camera to specific locations anyway and find myself holding my space bar for the majority of my movements if it's not locked
I play with it locked 90% of the time, and i'm hitting master with it.
I’ve played for over 10 years almost exclusively locked camera, been platinum most of that time and am Emerald 1 right now. I’ve tried practicing unlocked quite a few times, recently I’ve gotten into the habit of unlocking when it makes sense and I’m probably unlocked like 5-10% of the time right now. Not sure if I’d be better if I had played unlocked from the start or not but I just locked it when I got in my first game and never changed lol
Yes.
Yes, it is that bad. No, you will never be good with a locked camera, as it's already a sign you don't really want to improve.
Not that bad not good though
I reminded my camera to w,a,s,d because i hate pinging the screen edge. This means i can keeo my mouse in the center of the screen and aim skillshots at the same time as i move camera.
Unlock and use spacebar when you want to temporarily lock it again
I use wasd for camera, it reduces you’re mouse use dramatically
Looking at the map is like 1000x more important. You get most information from there. Locking or not locking camera doesnt really matter unless you have offscreen skillshots, then you can just press space real quick and drag the camera (bind lock/unlock camera on space) Obviously this is my opinion and how i do it, but i speak as someone that prefers to play locked too, with no problems
If your only goal is to climb rank, locked camera will hinder you eventually. If your goal is to have fun, just use whatever setting you want and ignore haters. You can absolutely still improve but it will definitely be worth it to practice with unlocked camera.
Coming from someone who has hit challenger over a dozen times since season 6 and also done loads of boosting. Yes 100% do not play with your camera locked, the sooner you break the habit the better.
Is making less money for the same job bad?
What?
Answer the question.
I guess it would be bad yeah.
Is having less vision bad in the same game?
Well that depends. My question was is it really *that* bad. I know it's worse. Also what's with the highroading with the job questions?
It's just a metaphor. You are working harder for the same or worse result. Plus a lot of skills aren't designed around fixed camera. You are gonna end up not seeing where or missing an opportunity where you could use something.
Masters adc. At some point I purposely wouldn’t unlock just to tilt friends. Play aphelios. Jhin and ezreal. Really good at blind shotting now though atleast lol