xLucker Playbook — Support and team macro for competitive League of Legends
A learning playbook for players who want to play support competitively: the lane, vision, roaming, objectives, team macro, communication and the mental game, in that order. It is written to be read in an evening and used as a reference afterwards.
Season 2026 (patch 26.1 and later). Last checked against patch 26.11 and Coach K's mid-2026 material.
How to read it
- Chapters 1–4: the role and the lane. Start here if you are new to support.
- Chapters 5–8: the map. Vision, roams, objectives, fights.
- Chapters 9–11: the team. Communication, mentality, review. Read before your first scrims.
- Chapter 12: one-page cheat sheets to keep open while you play.
- Appendices: reference tables (per ADC, per enemy support, per jungler) taken directly from Coach K's spreadsheet.
Every chapter ends with Key takeaways and Sources. Text marked (playbook) is our synthesis; everything else is attributed to a coach, Riot, or the League of Legends Wiki.
Contents
| # | Chapter | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The support role | What the job is, the two rules for every fight, the 2026 clock, the mistakes coaches see most |
| 2 | Champion pool and archetypes | Enchanter, engage, neutralizer, pick, mage; building a pool; a draft routine; Coach K's per-champion VODs |
| 3 | Runes, summoner spells and items | Keystones, vision runes, Ignite vs Heal vs Exhaust, summoner timers, first base, anti-heal, every support item and when to buy it |
| 4 | Laning phase | Bush control, level 2, trading by ADC, wave states, recalls, weak side, playing vs each support archetype |
| 5 | Vision and warding | 2026 vision rules and Faelights, trinket at level 1, Control Ward rules, ward maps for every phase |
| 6 | Roaming and early game | The four checks before a roam, 2026 roam timers, where to roam, playing with each jungler type |
| 7 | Objectives and team macro | The objective loop, first Dragon, Voidgrubs, Herald, Baron, cross-map trades, wave assignments |
| 8 | Mid game, late game and teamfights | Your job in the fight by archetype, three checks before an engage, positioning, item actives, snowballing, playing from behind |
| 9 | Team communication | Coach Renim's shotcalling method: who calls, two voice levels, what to say, what never to say, role checklists |
| 10 | Competitive mentality | Tilt, process over results, growth mindset, focus routines, being a good teammate |
| 11 | Review and improvement | Coach K's review formats, a 20-minute VOD review, templates, pros to watch, a study plan |
| 12 | Cheat sheets | The clock, trinkets, Control Wards, roam checks, shop rules, timers, comms words, checklists |
| A | Playing bot lane by ADC | 40 ADCs: early strength, synergies, game plan, how to trade, when you may roam |
| B | Support matchups and counters | 60+ supports: strengths, weaknesses, counters, how to play the game against them |
| C | Playing with your jungler | 65 junglers: level 1 vision, pathing style, synergies, game plan |
| — | Maps | All ten schematic maps with their spot tables |
| — | Sources | Every source used, what it was used for, and how much we trust it |
The map
The playbook uses ten maps (vision by phase, roam paths, a cross-map trade), drawn as overlays on the Summoner's Rift map image. They are drawn from the blue side; mirror them for red side. Marker positions are approximate on purpose. Each map comes with a short "recipe" so you can rebuild it on the interactive map at map.riftkit.net. The maps are generated by tools/maps/make_maps.py (or npm run maps); run it after editing to regenerate the image files and assets/maps/MAPS.md.
Sources and trust
The playbook is built on three kinds of material:
- Coaches' material provided for this playbook. Coach Karakal's Support full Season 16 Guide spreadsheet (Hendrik "Karakal Jr" Méndez Rijpsma: former pro, former head coach of MAD Lions Madrid, now a full-time support coach) and Coach Renim's Communication in Team presentation (Renim "Retiveo" Altala, Czech coach with head-coach and assistant-coach roles at Go Elements, Maverix and Reveal Multigaming).
- Official and reference sources for every game fact: Riot's patch notes and season previews, and the League of Legends Wiki.
- Trusted coaching sources for further study: Skill Capped, CoreJJ's Aimlabs course, the Broken by Concept podcast, Mobalytics and Dignitas articles, and two books on the mental game.
Numbers that could not be confirmed against an official source are either left out or marked as a coach's estimate. The full list is in sources/SOURCES.md.
The website
The playbook is also a website, built with VitePress (Node.js) from the same Markdown files: sidebar, search, dark theme, and the maps inline.
npm install
npm run dev # local site with live reload at http://localhost:5173
npm run build # static site in .vitepress/dist
npm run preview # serve the built site locally
npm run deploy # build and publish to Cloudflare PagesCloudflare Pages: npm run deploy builds the site and uploads it to the xlucker-playbook Pages project, live at https://xlucker-playbook.pages.dev/. It needs a Cloudflare login once (npx wrangler login).
GitHub Pages: the workflow in .github/workflows/deploy.yml builds the site and publishes it to GitHub Pages on every push. To turn it on once, open the repository's Settings → Pages and set Source to GitHub Actions; the site then appears at https://stastpa.github.io/xLucker-Playbook/. For a custom domain, set BASE_PATH=/ in the workflow.
Keeping it current
Champion balance moves every two weeks; the decision rules in this playbook move much more slowly. When a new patch lands: check Coach K's latest tier list and item video (links in Chapter 2 and 3), re-check the objective timers in Chapter 1 against the patch notes, and update the "last checked" line above.
Repository layout
README.md this page (home page of the site)
chapters/ the twelve chapters and three appendices
assets/maps/ rift.jpg (the map image), the ten maps (JPG + SVG) and MAPS.md
tools/maps/make_maps.py regenerates the maps
sources/SOURCES.md bibliography
.vitepress/config.mts site navigation and settings
.github/workflows/ GitHub Pages deployment
package.json npm scripts (dev, build, preview, maps, deploy)