Lesson 4 of 6 · 6 min
Trading Objectives
You do not have to contest everything. The strongest macro move in League is taking something else while they take theirs, and knowing which trades are actually in your favour.
// What you will be able to do
- Price an objective against what you could take instead
- Recognise the moment contesting is a coin flip you are paying to enter
- Say the trade out loud so four strangers make it with you
Something happens in silver and gold games that never happens in professional ones: both teams fight over every single objective, every time it spawns, regardless of who is set up. It feels like the correct competitive instinct. It is the single most expensive habit on this list, because half of those fights were unwinnable before anyone walked into the pit.
| Objective | Contest when | Trade instead when |
|---|---|---|
Early  (1st, 2nd) | You are set up and they are not | Anything at all is off, they are worth less than a  |
| Soul point | Almost always | You are three players down in items and have no front line |
 | It is free, or it is nearly free | It costs a fight, a is a , not a game |
 | You won the last fight, or you are set up first | They set up first with vision, take two instead |
The middle row is the exception worth memorising. A soul point is not a ; it is a permanent team-wide buff that decides every fight for the rest of the game, and that is the one objective where the coin flip is correct. Everything above it in the table is a resource. Everything about the fourth row is timing.
// The rest of this lesson is Pro
Trading Objectives: the practical half
Everything above is the concept. Behind the gate: the situations where it applies, the mistake that costs the most, the interactive drills, and a field assignment measured against your own ranked games.