TESTIMONIALS
Will
Master 0LP to 1560 LP (Rank 1 NA)
“I wouldn’t have joined if Nathan was never challenger himself”
Eashan
Gold IV to Master
“After going through Saltu, I realized it’s really about discipline towards your champion identity every second of the game”
Spenser
Gold IV to Diamond IV
“After joining Saltu I realised there were so many gaps in my jungle knowledge”
Samuli
Gold IV to Platinum IV
“Saltu helps you improve as a player, but Nathan and the community also keep you accountable”
Matty
Gold I to Diamond IV
“It can speed up the learning process and make it a lot more fun along the way”
Matt
Plat IV to Diamond IV
“Saltu principles can extend past just League of Legends and help you improve your life outside the game”
Killian
Plat IV to Diamond IV
“One of the best parts is meeting other people with the same goals and processes to learn from and talk to”
Kevin
Plat IV to Diamond IV
“I honestly believe that this coaching program is the best jungle educational resource for English speakers”
Chandler
Gold IV to Platinum III
“The community in Saltu is amazing and everyone is very helpful”
Rob
Gold IV to Diamond IV
“The Saltu community is a great group of people with the same goals in improving in league”
Andrew
Silver III to Gold IV
“Since joining Saltu I’ve had 75% winrate over my last 25 games”
Joe
Platinum I to Diamond I
“Having someone to turn to with as much experience as Nathan is incredibly valuable”
Tristan
Master 112LP to Challenger 728LP
“Being constantly challenged to be a better player and a better person”
Adam
Platinum I to Diamond I
“Having someone to turn to with as much experience as Nathan is incredibly valuable”
Quentin
Platinum IV to Diamond IV
“Saltu helped me understand losses better”
Logan
Gold IV to Master
“I think Saltu is probably the best value league coaching resource, period”
Jonah
Gold I to Diamond IV
“Joining Saltu showed me just how much I didn’t know about the game”
Nicholas
Gold IV to Diamond IV
“The Saltu principles are life changeing, absolutely”
Cody
Bronze III to Platinum IV
“During my very first review, during my very first gank, I found out that I had no clue what a good gank was!”
Jesse
Plat I to Grandmaster 550LP
“Saltu will give you a better relationship with the game, and give you better long term results than any other place out there”
Silas
Platinum IV to Master
“The quality of the discussion in the discord is something you won’t find elsewhere in the League community”
Jared
Silver II to Platinum IV
“It’s natural for me now to just play the game and try to improve. The ‘process’ works”
Ahmad
Silver IV to Gold II
“I finally started getting better at the game because my brain wasn’t focused on piloting my champion. It was at this point that the concept of mental stack clicked for me”
Sarah
An appreciation for Champion Mastery
“The consistency of advice and attitude towards league of legends in Saltu makes it so that your skill is a general trajectory upwards throughout your adventure”
John S
Cultivating a Growth Mindset
“You have to get into the details of your own self, fix the issues, and show the rift that you have grown.”
Gwen
A Message to Nathan
“I just wanted to let you know that you and your program have made such a huge positive impact on me and my life and I’m super grateful!”
Harris
Plat IV to Master Tier
“The reviews is what kick started me and opened my eyes on my own gameplay. Showed me how much I am overcomplicating things and guided me.”
Dest
Reframing the journey
“I can say for sure that the Saltu model of weekly reviews, daily resources, and a discord community is a tremendous improvement from a coaching standpoint over the oldschool ways of doing League coaching.”
So Why Join Saltu?
I’ve said enough about the program and myself, now lets meet real people and find out what is so unique about Saltu.
Read the stories and testimonials below and see the results for yourself.
"I wouldn't have joined if Nathan was never High Elo himself"
I started working with Nathan at the end of 2019 after finishing my Season 9 in Diamond 1. Learning how to solve complex in-game problems in real-time, identifying correct win conditions, pathing efficiently, jungle matchups, mechanics were all things I was able to refine to a Challenger level by working with Nathan in Saltu. I found getting another perspective on my gameplay was the biggest benefit of the program.
A mental block I had was the classic victim mindset, trying to find any excuse that wasn’t me for my rank. Saltu helped me overcome it by figuring out why I had it, what triggered it and shifted me towards a mindset that allowed me to improve and climb the ladder. I simply stopped sabotaging myself.
Working with Will: What made it so easy to work with Will was how driven he was to improve and how he understood the importance of having someone to help him get to the next level. When Will first joined Saltu, we focused working on early game pathing and identifying win conditions, as well as focusing on his champion mastery on Rek’Sai and Elise. As Will gained more experience and learned how to review himself, he expanding his pool in 2021, maining Kindred and Graves that took him to Rank 1 NA.
Discussing Will’s climb to rank 1 on the Broken by Concept podcast
Spenser: Gold IV to Diamond IV
"After joining Saltu I realised there were so many gaps in my jungle knowledge"
Before Saltu
Before joining Saltu, I tried improving on my own by watching jungling YouTube videos and I wasn’t getting anywhere. The problem with these videos is that they are so general that they are almost useless. The videos would tell me that “if X happens, you should do Y.” In reality, it’s not that simple. There are so many variables that go into decision making that sometimes “doing Y” is the absolute wrong thing. Saltu gets into specifics like these. You aren’t watching a generalized jungle strategy video. In Saltu, you are literally getting into the details with your games – your champion and your actions. I honestly don’t think I could’ve made it past Platinum on my own had I not joined Saltu. Prior to joining I was so lacking in knowledge that I didn’t even know what mistakes I was making; what questions to ask myself, how to review games, or how to improve. Sometimes it takes someone higher elo than you to point out specific mistakes you are making in your own games to hammer the lesson home. This is impossible unless you hire a private coach, which is stupid expensive and doesn’t necessarily come with a community-backed process and proven success like Saltu. Truth be told, after going through Saltu, I can tell you that SO MANY “high elo coaches” with videos on YouTube don’t give the best advice and aren’t worth the money.
Starting his journey
The only thing that would have prevented me from joining Saltu is dedicating the time required to improve. I found that playing and reviewing every day was essential to champion mastery, reinforcing my learnings, and keeping micro/mechanical technique sharp. I also knew that my journey wouldn’t be a matter of weeks, but of months. I had to ask myself if I was serious enough to dedicate about a year to playing and reviewing League games roughly every day. Luckily, my schedule was accommodating, otherwise the time commitment might have prevented me from joining. I should note that I estimated the time commitment based on my own rank goals. These might vary for different people.
Mental blocks
The first mental block was a narrative that I had in my mind that I was better than my elo suggested, and that the reason I couldn’t climb was because of unlucky matchmaking and bad teammates. The narrative was quickly dispelled after joining Saltu because I realized just how much I didn’t know about the game. It’s actually laughable that I used to blame my teammates when now, with my current skill and game knowledge, I can look back on those games and find SO MANY mistakes I made. I learned to focus on what I can improve about my own gameplay rather than focusing on uncontrollable variables like the actions of my teammates.
The second mental block was a sense of doubt. There were several times when I questioned if I had the skill to hit my rank goals. Being a part of Saltu and seeing the success of other members kept me motivated and inspired me to do better. After watching reviews of higher ranked players and seeing their mistakes, it instilled a sense of confidence in me that I could emulate their (level of) play while avoiding the same mistakes.
Getting into the details
After joining Saltu I realised there were so many gaps in my knowledge: jungle fundamentals, overall League macro, champion identities/roles, and how to view the game with a growth mindset. The resource videos were super helpful at the beginning, specifically the short clips covering a specific jungle fundamental were really easy to digest.
As for improving my champion mastery, I found the community discord champion channels to be most helpful for improving my champion mastery. In these I could post questions about a specific champion or build and there would always be someone knowledgeable to help me.
The recordings of past review sessions made learning a new champion easy. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of recorded reviews (roughly 10 minute each) for every champion with key takeaways. Although infrequent, whenever I picked up a new champion, I would watch a dozen review vids to get the basics ASAP.
This one might sound weird, but a major benefit is “accountability.” Joining Saltu is a signal to yourself that you’re committed to improving. Just being part of a jungle community with a growth mindset does wonders for your mental attitude because you know you’re not going at it alone. It’s like going to the gym by yourself vs. going to the gym with a coach or gym buddy. I wholeheartedly recommend the program for anyone serious about improving.
Locky: Bronze I to Gold IV
"This program has been game changing for me"
Starting his journey
Some important things I found when going through my own gameplay with the reviews that I was not checking lanes before I ganked them as often as I should to see if crucial spells that would make the gank not work out have been used, for example Zed W. I was also taking fights that i couldn’t or shouldn’t have at the time and have vastly improved on both of these things since reviewing and joining Saltu. The informative nature of all the lessons but also keeping them still simple enough to follow and execute, the lessons that Nathan has put together are amazing and have helped me a tonne.
Another huge benefit of Saltu is the welcoming and helpful nature of the server, it’s amazing to be somewhere like this where everyone is just the most amazing people to work alongside and how helpful everyone is. It is awesome to be somewhere that everyone has the same goal they are working towards and its super helpful to not be around any toxic narratives surrounding the game we all play and love. The second thing I can think of is how affordable it is and how much information you are getting out of it as a result, it is truly amazing the amount of work and info that Nathan supplies.
Mental blocks
The biggest mental block I had that Saltu helped me overcome would be my ranked anxiety, I was terrible with it last season and would only play if i had a duo to play with. Where as now, with the help of Saltu and the 3 block process I feel I have overcome that ranked anxiety I had, and am able to queue up solo at anytime to play my 3 block now.
Reccomendation
I would absolutely recommend Saltu to others that are looking to improve at League. Why? because this program has been game changing for me, from the absolutely awesome lessons put in place by Nathan that are super informative. To the amazing community that is involved, that will try to help you out as much as they can. And finally cause of the mindsets that Nathan teaches us to have about the game, once you abandon the toxic narratives surrounding ranked and your team mates. To finding a champion that makes you enjoy the game, that also makes the progress you make also feel so much more rewarding. I absolutely loved this program and am looking forward to working more in the Gold+ program now and hopefully go above that in the future.
Samuli: Gold IV to Platinum IV
"Saltu helps you improve as a player, but Nathan and the community also hold you accountable"
Starting his journey
The Broken by Concept podcast introduced me to the way Nathan (and Coach Curtis) view the game, and the discussions there convinced me that Saltu would help me on my league journey. Without the podcast I might not have come across Saltu. I found it way easier, faster and clearer to improve and climb on a champion (Wukong) with a clear identity and reference points vs a difficult to pilot champ with fluid gameplan and big knowledge requirements on top of being hard to execute (Nidalee)
Samuli's Identity
I had committed to playing Nidalee and formed my lol identity around being “the Nidalee guy” and avoided easier options until I hit rock bottom and realized after 800 games and a year of being in Saltu, that I was not going anywhere on Nidalee. Nathan had made it clear from the start, that it would be a hard and messy journey, but only after giving it my all I was able to face that truth.
Reccomendation
I recommend Saltu for those who want to improve on league long-term and are willing to accept their level of play and take responsibility for their wins and lossess. Saltu helps you improve as a player, but Nathan and the community also keep you accountable, if and when some false narratives and bad habits pop up in or out of game. The thing I liked the most about Saltu, is how it is geared towards long-term improvement instead of “quick fix gain LP now” content that saturates league content on the internet. Affordable price, Helpful community and access to reviews and useful resources posted by Nathan on the Saltu website.
Matty: Gold I to Diamond IV
"It can speed up the learning process and make it a lot more fun along the way"
Starting his journey
What stopped me from getting coaching previously was mostly ego protection. I didn’t want to believe I couldn’t easily do it on my own so I wanted to try to get my goal without getting coaching. After joining I found that I had a tendency to think very rigidly about what should happen in my games. Also, I had a difficulty adapting to the actual circumstance I’m faced with, rather than what I believed would happen and how I wanted to play if it did.
Saltu provides exclusive tips and tricks with examples from Nathan that offer lots of insight into things I might not have been thinking about. There is a huge library of resources to review for any champion you’re interested in. I really enjoy the joy of seeing everyone progress together in Saltu.
Mental Blocks & Recommendation
The biggest mental block was getting past the narrative that my team was to blame for my losses. Yes, they will always do something extremely questionable, but so will you. If you eliminate the extremely questionable mistakes you will win 70% of games in platinum. Saltu gave me a community of people who are as excited about the game as I am – and who are going through similar struggles. If I ever wanted one of my games to be reviewed, it was always done on the first review session I had time to make. If anyone is struggling with their climb, I definitely recommend Saltu. It can speed up the learning process and make it a lot more fun along the way.
Matt: Platinum IV to Diamond IV
"Saltu principles can extend past just League of Legends and can help you improve your life outside of the game"
Starting his journey
The biggest obstacle stopping me joining Saltu would have been paying money, was it worth it? Even now my friends think it’s silly that I would actually spend money on coaching to get better at a video game. I’m glad I did it though, as they don’t appreciate the game anywhere near as much as I do. I love having knowledge about the game and using Saltu to improve.
The biggest thing i found i was lacking in was not helping out my laners. Understanding wave states, knowing when i need to be their to hover/counter gank to get a wave in. Before Saltu i didn’t even think of these concepts. I would play selfishly, always have good farm, perfect sequencing on my camps, would always have insane KDA’s, but my teammates would always be struggling. I would have multiple losing lanes consistently. When i started watching your content on youtube, i started to question that maybe i wasn’t doing enough to help my laners and that’s when i signed up for Saltu.
What Matt likes about Saltu
What i liked most about Saltu was the value for money, if you really squeezed Saltu for all the content its got. Show up to every review, look at all the past vods for champions you play, Use the resource tab. You can get a lot of knowledge about the game and your champion for a fair price compared to other coaching where you could pay more for one single review. Other benefits of joining Saltu would be:
- You are part on a community, gives you an opportunity to make new friends.
- You are able to see other peoples struggles and follow their journey, which can help you improve with your own journey.
- Saltu’s principles can extend past just League of Legends and can help you improve your life outside of the game.
Mental Blocks & Recommendation
The biggest mental block i had was getting tilted by smurfs/boosters ruining my games. I would get so pissed off when the game was just a free loss because the enemy team had one of these players. It was actually one of these games where they had 2 smurfs playing duo with each other on the enemy team. I looked up their ranked later down the track and they had hit master tier with an 80% winrate. After the game my midlaner added me and proceeded to tell me to hang myself because i played poorly. I vented about it in the Saltu discord and another member helped me see that fact that there is still learnings from this game. Try to look at why they beat me so convincingly, what did they do that was so successful against your play. His advice helped me recover my mental but even with my mental recovered this loss was the start of a massive loss streak from top of Plat 1 all the way down to mid Plat 3.
Through out my entirely league journey i have never experienced such a loss streak, never dropping more than 1 division at a time. I’m still struggling with this mental block but at least now i am able to use it as a learning experience to help better myself. After objectively looking at my gameplay and trying a new learning objective i went on a ridiculous winstreak all the way into Diamond.
I would recommend Saltu to others only if they were serious about the game and serious about improving at the game. I think if you don’t come into Saltu with the correct mindset then you’ll get nothing out of it and just be running in circles getting nowhere.
Killian: Platinum IV to Diamond IV
"One of the best parts is meeting other people with the same goals and processes to learn from and talk to"
Starting his journey
Before I first joined Saltu, I was unsure if I even wanted to main jungle, so I didn’t know if I wanted to commit to it. One of the biggest takeaways from Saltu was that I learned what to look for in my reviews. Simple concepts such as a good gank vs a bad gank, wasting time and efficiency, jungle tracking, etc. really simplified the game for me. With this toolkit I could figure out how the game went wrong in my own reviews using those concepts I learned in Saltu.
The Saltu Difference
Some of the biggest benefits of Saltu is the community and how accessible and frequent the review sessions are. Saltu allowed me to learn a lot about the game that I wouldn’t have learned easily elsewhere. It also helped with keeping good mental and meeting other people with the same goals/process to learn from and talk with
My biggest mental block was probably just getting frustrated with short term results. Nathan does a great job emphasizing that the process of improving is long term, and understanding the nature of your mistakes (and why you make them) takes the focus away from results and into the process.
If you really enjoy the game and are committed to improving, I definitely recommend joining Saltu.
Adam: Silver I to Platinum I
"What I liked most about Saltu was how readily available Nathan is to answer my questions and review my games"
Starting his journey
With Saltu I found lots and lots of errors and misconceptions that I had with my own gameplay. Sometimes as simple as pathing, sometimes larger misconceptions or invisible narratives like feeling the need to constantly force plays or try to be the hero and 1v9. I went from randomly running around the map, to asking myself “is this necessary to win the game” before I make any play.
I would recommend Saltu to anyone that is seriously committed to grinding and improving at League. Reviews are short and concise. Nathan is very good at identifying consistent issues and helping members work them out and implement the solution in game. Nathan holds high expectations for all Saltu members which I think is important as well. Nathan turned me from the average silver / gold player to smashing low diamond games with ease in about a month and a half, and I think I can go much further in season 11 with my newfound mindset and skills.Saltu is a friendly community of like minded individuals.
Everyone is always willing to help each other or give advice on their best champs or the game in general.
Quentin: Platinum IV to Diamond IV
"Saltu helped me to understand losses better"
Starting his journey
Initially I never knew about Saltu or the BBC podcast. I think I first discovered Nathan and Saltu through a Coach Curtis video. I was like “I really like how this guy articulates the game, I whish something similar existed for jungle”. Being mentally ready to commit paying money for getting better at the game was a hard choice for me. Game is still a hobby for me, not a career (that ship has sailed) – so if I invest time and money in it I had to be sure that this is what I wanted for myself – and that it would actually makes me happier in life.
Before joining Saltu, my gameplay was way less structured. I had lots of “I am doing things in game but I don’t really know why”. Now for me a good game of League of Legends is when I play with intent 100% of the game and feel that I’m in the drivers seat. I also had a lots of narratives that were pretty hard to break on my own. There were some concepts I started barely to grasp on my own, but being parts of Saltu and actually getting answers to my questions sped up the learning process by a tonne.
The Saltu Mindset
The “Saltu mindset” and the whole community was a huge factor for my improvement. There is no flame, we’re all students of the game and here to learn, everyone is cheerful on each other success. Many people are accessible to ask questions or review with. Saltu is a big pool of knowledge. I used to doubt myself on every loss being like “Oh god I lost this game I am worthless, maybe I should change everything at once in my gameplay, maybe pick another champ”. Saltu helped me to understand losses better. It’s okay to lose, learn from it and grow. People keeping you accountable. Having so many external eyes on your gameplay can help identify narratives you have about the game that you may not even realize. Review is the best medicine, and Saltu is the best place I know to ask for review. Being able to setup clear learning objectives and work on them one step at a time. Climbing is a long process, don’t rush things.
Mental Blocks and Recommendation
I don’t think I had any strong mental block. I was mostly eager for knowledge and full of questions about the game, and Saltu was the perfect place for me to learn. If anything I remember coming in with the “I don’t think I can climb with Zac, I need to play more aggressive champs” mentality. After showing these results I was obviously wrong.
If you are willing to stick to the process and ready to put aside ego to learn, I 100% recommend Saltu. Having your mistakes pointed out is not easy and it can be a bit rough sometimes. But I believe I learned in ~6month in saltu what would have taken me maybe two years on my own, and I might have quit out of frustration of having a hard time finding answers.
Joe: Platinum I to Diamond I
"Having someone to turn to with as much experience as Nathan is incredibly valuable, if you have the option to join the program you should take it"
Starting his journey
Saltu helped me find so many pointless deaths that was losing me games and how much time I was wasting on early game champions which was putting me behind UNLESS my ganks were successful. What I enjoyed most about Saltu was having someone I could bounce ideas off of between/after games as it helps me find my mistakes and what to improve on. My biggest mental block is probably that I play too much without breaks, which I am still working to overcome. But while being in the Saltu I have improved as a player to the point that I can still reach higher ranks with this mental block.
Kevin: Platinum IV to Diamond IV
"I honestly believe that this coaching program is the best jungle educational resource for English speakers"
Starting his journey
When I joined Saltu I attended only a handful of coaching sessions, but what I liked out of the reviews were: checking my own decision-making, being able to ask specifics on your decisions when our conclusions were different, and the possibility you’d notice aspects of gameplay that I didn’t know existed. On this last point, one you highlighted was my evelynn Q usage and the cost of unstealthing without gaining value. I hadn’t been attending the coachings because I had been leaving my games with a sense of a couple things I could be doing better.
The Saltu Difference
My favorite thing was the today in Saltu series. Having you curate certain scenario patterns, noticing which aspects you emphasized & didn’t emphasize. They helped me to build a better sense of how to think about my laners.
I like the community overall, and the opportunity to engage with players above my skill level.
Personally, I never tilt and always focus during my games. I view my mistakes and inconsistencies as simply an expression of my best level of play (just as much so as my best plays). My biggest struggle instead was that i probably approached each game with too much intensity and struggled to click Play. What i “needed” was some way to turn consistency of performance into motivation.
I would absolutely recommend Saltu. I honestly believe that this coaching program is the best jungle educational resource for English speakers. I have confidence that this program will help dispel all unproductive ideas players have about the game and set them on the proper path to improvement (and with it, rank)
Chandler: Gold IV to Platinum III
"The community in Saltu is amazing and everyone is very helpful"
Starting his journey
I found out that my Hecarim ability usage was suboptimal within just a couple of reviews with Nathan. Over the next month we worked on fixing it through intentional reviews, resulting in me reaching a new peak of plat 3. The community in Saltu is amazing and everyone is very helpful, the champion mastery page (especially the Hecarim section) really helped me in my climb. Saltu is great if you want to improve your jungling, s yes I would recommend it. The community is always there if you need some help or have any questions as well.
Tristan: Master 112LP to Challenger 728LP
"Being constantly challenged to be a better player and a better person"
Starting his journey
Nathan helped me develop a professional mindset towards the game but also in real life. I developed discipline, learned how to review my games properly and gained very good jungling habits.
I really appreciated Nathan’s long guides. A lot of guides out there are just 10 or 15 minutes explaining the basics, but Nathan always goes the extra mile in his research to cover all small details and never stops pursuing perfection.
League of Legends is a very complicated game and Nathan has a talent for expressing his teachings and ideas in a way that the client can understand. What I also liked about Nathan’s approach was that he is always looking to improve his own individual skill to be able to better teach us.
Working with Tristan
Tristan was the highest elo player I started coaching on a long term basis through Saltu. I worked with him to perfect every detail of his Olaf, which I built off of my 2 hour Youtube guide, helping him apply the material against better players. Tristan was very open to my feedback and able to quickly apply the learnings we covered in his reviews which was a major reason as to why he was able to climb to top 100 of LAN. I look forward to seeing Tristan in the pro scene in the near future.
Eashan: Gold IV to Master
"After going through Saltu, I realized that it's really about discipline towards your champion identity every second of the game"
Before Saltu
If I didn’t have enough time to commit to the game, I wouldn’t have joined Saltu. I think with any long term coaching program I wouldn’t feel comfortable joining unless I could put in at least 10-15 high quality games a week, with room for personal reviews and pro VODs.
What Saltu Showed Eashan
- Missing opportunities to counter jungle or trade objectives. After I hit plat, my default reaction was always to contest everything, even when it was impossible to do so.
- Champion specific mechanics. Missing axes, re-entering stealth too slowly, not utilizing the absolute edge of stealth on Eve, and so on.
- Playing towards the wrong side of the map. Identifying the wrong lanes to pressure, and as the game adapts, failing to adapt my win condition.
- Playing at odds with my champion identity. For example, on Olaf, I would give up objectives and scuttle crabs for no reason without realising I could fight for them. (Fixing this took me from gold 2 to platinum 4)
The Saltu Community
All high achieving people say that the best thing you can do to succeed is to surround yourself with other people that want to succeed/have succeeded, and I see the difference with Saltu. I used to spam games with my bronze/silver friends (still do sometimes) even though I wanted to improve and reach higher ranks.
Watching everyone else try to improve, I found myself naturally trying to play more games and work harder – I’ve played more ranked games of league this season than seasons 3 – 9 combined, and on only two champions.
After going through Saltu, I realized that it’s really about discipline towards your champion identity every second of the game, and that there was no “secret”. I really had most of the knowledge already – I learned that the game was simple and the most important thing was to execute.
There was things I was doing “perfectly” and there were things that I would do “terribly” – even one “terrible” moment could mean the game. I think I came to this realization mostly through the coaching approach that Nathan used, the reviews always ended after the first critical mistake.
While I do believe it can be useful to watch past the first mistake if there are specific aspects in mind, Nathan’s approach really hammers home the fact that even one stupid blunder can mean the game.
The Saltu Mindset
I’ve had “coaching” before and the two biggest problems I’ve had with them are:
- Heavily theory focused, which can be good, but after the session I’m stuck trying to figure out how to use those findings in a real game.
- Heavily results based, they’ll point out the mistakes I’m making in a single VOD based on very specific situations. After that, I start a new game, all the variables change, and I’m back to square one.
I like how Nathan’s coaching focuses on generalizing, instead of listing x y z scenarios. By understanding what my champion wants to do, what my team wants to do, and what the opponent wants to do, I can come up with my own solutions to in-game problems, and then run them by Nathan to see if they made sense.
For example, if I’m playing Evelynn I know I want to be looking to trade objectives against strong early game junglers, while on Olaf I should try to contest (really generic, but the idea still stands). This approach is also much more fun, just rotely memorizing matchups is boring and unintuitive.
Logan: Gold IV to Diamond IV
"I think Saltu is probably the best value league coaching resource, period"
Before Saltu
What held me back getting coaching was probably knowing ahead of time whether I would get value for the money and time investment. In retrospect, it definitely makes sense since you get 3-5, 10-15 minute reviews a month if you attend many of the sessions. The example reviews on the Nathan Mott channel and watching BBC gave me a sense that the coaching philosophy was something that aligned with my values as well.
What Saltu Showed Logan
I think my biggest problem was not thinking enough about the big picture of the game and what my game plan was. I was doing early game vod reviews before Saltu, but I was mostly focusing on the concrete things happening in the game (i.e. why did I lose this fight) when a lot of the things that came up in Saltu reviews were bigger picture (i.e. Why did you path to top this game, you should have pathed bottom because xyz). Even after joining Saltu, I struggled a lot with implementing my game plan. I often would get distracted by low percentage fights happening or thinking that I “had” to do something coinflip like skipping a lot of my camps to path to a losing lane. Identifying and removing a lot of the low percentage stuff from my early game is probably what helped me improve the most.
The Review Process
I really like the emphasis on the review philosophy and process. It’s really easy to get caught up in the toxicity of the league community and blame your teammates and have a miserable time playing the game. Having an objective coach that can really drill into me that the results of my games–in the long run–are my fault is great. It seems like it would be a discouraging thing, but it is really encouraging actually since it puts the control back in your hands. I really fell back in love with League during my time in Saltu and I’m having fun playing the game again.
Saltu Benefits
- There are often several live game streams of much higher elo players than me. Making it easy to pop in and have someone to ask about their decision making process. This really sped up my learning as it’s really important to see how better players play and get their reasoning for decisions when they differ from your own.
- Watching others get coached. A lot of what I learned wasn’t actually involving my own games. There are really common themes at every level of play that you can learn about even when watching someone else get coached. Watching all of the games in a review session is really helpful.
- Community. I really like the community. Everyone is bought in on Saltu philosophy so it is really encouraging to be improving and trying your best with other supportive members.
Mental Blocks & Recommendation
I have a tendency to kind of give up and get bored of the game when I’m convinced that my teammates are bad. This kept me stuck in Platinum for almost a year. Going into review really opened my eyes to how many completely game losing mistakes I’m making every early game. When it’s pointed out to you so clearly, it’s really humbling and changed my perspective on how I perceived my climb. I’m in the elo that I am because it’s where I belong. Often when I’m convinced otherwise it’s just because I don’t realize what mistakes I’m making.
I think Saltu is probably the best value league coaching resource, period. You get access to educational videos, several game reviews per month, and the ability to watch and ask questions to other players in the program much higher ELO than you–all for less than the cost of a single game review from other coaches.
Jonah - Gold I to Diamond IV
“Joining Saltu showed me just how much I didn’t know about the game”
Before Saltu
I could afford the price per month to join but I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of paying to get a coach for a free to play video game. I then compared this to some of my other hobbies like going to the gym and learning a musical instrument. Both of these have a cost to them. For me I pay a personal trainer to schedule my lifts and ensure I am lifting with proper form. I hired an instructor to teach me how to play a guitar and I had to buy one myself. Then once I joined I kicked myself for not joining sooner. The coaching sessions alone are worth the price, the community, and extra resources are just a bonus. Nathan could be charging Neace rates every month and I’d still invest in the program.
What Saltu Showed Jonah
I play a pretty “basic” and “mechanically easy” champion Vi. One of the huge things Nathan pointed out immediately to me was that even though I thought my mechanics were bad and I could use Vi to band-aid, I could not. I needed to guarantee I was landing every Q. Resetting my autos properly with E and most importantly not using my R in stupid ways. I have played in gold since season 4 when I started. Always getting to G1 and never breaking into Plat. Once I joined Saltu and was taught how to really focus on my mechanics I instantly skyrocketed to P2. Then I was able to slowly add new things to my mental stack which eventually took me up to D2. I also had a mental block about what being “good” at league meant. I thought I needed to play every champion to a gold/plat/diamond level. I was playing 100s of games on multiple champs every season. This year I have 400 games of Vi and my next most played is amumu at 50. I’d always heard being a 1-Trick was the best way to climb but it wasn’t until I’d attended a few Saltu review sessions and I was able to see that even after 7 years of Vi being my most played champ there was still a lot to learn about the champion and her limits
The Review Process
Saltu is a breath of fresh air in the community. I’m not saying it’s all sunshine and rainbows… occasionally someone tilts and vents in general but anytime that happens or toxic narratives creep in at least 5 people in the server will respond and talk with you to help dispel the narrative and prevent you from sabotaging your ELO. I really appreciate being surrounded by other like minded individuals who are focused on improving and bettering themselves. Like any discord server there are fun extra channels, like fitness/esports/memes, and even these channels are filled with extremely supportive people who are always up for a good time and a quality discussion about league or lifting or laughs.
Saltu Benefits
- Win-con and game-plan assessment channel is crucial for me. I don’t always post a full vod for others to critique but anytime I’m confused about lanes and matchups I can always drop a screenshot of team comps and 2 to 3 other people who I deem trustworthy will chime in with how they would approach that game. Adding extra viewpoints to my game plans has helped me open my mind and put better plans in place.
- Saltu Resources were an unexpected gold mine. I didn’t realize then when I joined there would be something like 50+ videos that break down large complex jungle fundamentals into small bite sized topics. This made the start of my learning journey incredibly easy. All I had to do was go to the Saltu site, look for the fundamental idea I was struggling with and then pick a video. I’m still a Saltu beginner after a year in the program. I’m still focused on my mechanics and my review process. I’m slowly learning to embrace the chaos of solo queue and adapt when plans fail, but for now I’m loving my growth and can’t wait to keep the climb going.
- Finally, the review/vod library. Every review is uploaded to the Saltu website. Being able to go watch other people in higher elo’s play your champ and then being able to reach out to those people is incredibly helpful for developing your champion mastery.
Mental Blocks
My biggest mental block was my ego. Joining Saltu showed me just how much I didn’t know about the game. I would always flame laners for dying early and not knowing what to do. After the first review session I learned to flip the question on its head. Instead of asking why my laners didn’t see their deaths coming, I would ask if there was a way I could have prevented it. One problem I used to do a ton, and still do, was watch my bot lane get dove or 2v2’d under tower while I was waiting for the large krug to explode into the 4 small ones. Did I need those small krugs? No, of course not, once I learned to let go of the greed and ego I started to save my bot lanes in almost every game and set myself up to carry through the rest of the game. A big help in combating my ego was eliminating duoq from my play. Saltu is able to show you how playing with others is just a way to protect your ego. In your reviews it’s hard to honestly tell if it’s your call or your partners when a play goes wrong. You can easily tell yourself that your other teammates and even your partner are the reason you are struggling. By eliminating duoq you are forced to confront yourself.
Recommendation
I absolutely recommend Saltu to others and am actively promoting it to my other friends who play jungle. I can’t force them to join but I get asked how to climb all the time. They ask me for tips and secrets. I give them all the same answer, join Saltu, get coaching, learn to review and main one champion, maybe two. If you are on the fence about the program. Give it 3 months. If we know each other I may even send you the cash for the first month. Best – JBeach NA Server Gold to Diamond in 2023 after 6 years of being hardstuck gold.
Nicholas - Gold IV to Diamond IV
"The Saltu principles are life changing, absolutely"
Saltu Reviews
Reviews in Saltu exposed how I was sabotaging my own games. I remember when I started here in high gold, I was confused why my team never followed my ganks or engages, when in reality I was the one singlehandedly losing my team the game with terrible ganks and engages. Nathan was able to point out my lack of champion mastery and taught me so much about what a good gank is vs. a bad gank, what junglers I should be looking to invade and how to do so.
After putting these concepts into practice, I reached another plateau in high platinum. Here, Nathan was able to identify I was forcing way too hard with the leads I was generating. Most of our reviews then turned into learnings about how to keep leads and close out through playing patient, saying no to bad plays, and taking small wins. After taking learnings from Wukong reviews, I was able to hit Diamond when I finally achieved the learning objectives discovered from reviews.
The Saltu Difference
I love the review process. Nathan has a cut-the-crap solution and eye-opening perspective of the game. No other coach has ever helped me see my major mistakes and taught me how to approach fixing them as well as Nathan has. Yes, I don’t kite my camps properly every time. Yes, I cancel auto attacks sometimes during skirmishes. Yes, I do spend a few seconds too long in the shop sometimes. These are not the reasons I was stuck in gold, and I definitely don’t need a coach to see these issues. In Saltu we get into the details and find the meat of what wins and loses games. I never felt like i was undermined, only that Nathan really understands what it takes to improve. He not only points out glaring issues, but gives great insight on what to work on so its very clear on how I can solve what is losing me games
Saltu Principles
The Saltu principles are life changing, absolutely. When you learn that to improve at league it takes some sort of process. It’s easy to see how that can be applied to learning anything. Skills require time, patience, and concentration, and I can’t expect myself to learn something overnight. You can never truly know how long it’ll take, but as long as you have some process with consistency, the results will come. Whether it be weight loss/gain, some personal project, career promotion, or league of legends peak rank, trust in the process.
I also love that Saltu community members keep you accountable. I joined saltu with years of toxicity and bad narratives. Whenever I complained about trolls or bad teams, I was immediately called out for focusing on the wrong things, and members requested I upload the game to get into the details. Majority of the time my gameplay was exposed and I had no excuse to be blaming teammates with the mistakes I was making. It is a no-bullshit, improvement-focused community and I wouldn’t enjoy the game nearly as much as I do today without their support.
Thridly, I think I benefited from having peers that were of all sorts of ranks. Among my friends, Im the highest rank, so theres a lack of motivating pressure there. Peers within the same ranks were great friendly competitive motivators, while higher elo members were great resources and felt prestigious. Other members below my rank gave me a way to feel I can contribute, helping with their review process and learnings.
Mental Blocks
My biggest mental block was my own ego. Since I was the best player in my friend group, I would typically never take responsibility for losses, blame bad matchmaking, blame feeding teammates, the common pitfalls of many players. I came from other League communities and had other coaches before Saltu. With countless hours with coaching sessions under my belt, I thought I knew it all and was just getting unlucky. Saltu was the first place I’ve been where anyone actually talked about mindset heading into games and issues outside of the game (stage 4 issues). I was exposed by the community for having many toxic and flat out delusional narratives about the game, and I learned how you can be addicted to league. Nathan, the bbc podcast, and Saltu gave me a really important task: ask myself “why do I play league?”
I realized I wasn’t even having fun with the game, and outside of it I was miserable. I was using league as an escape, something to avoid an uncomfortable truth about the way I was living life. Learning to 3-block was a life saver, as it actually freed up time for me to focus on things outside the game. For over a year and a half while I was still working on improving in league, I made it a point to put everything else first. My career is back in order, I have a wonderful relationship with my girlfriend and my family, and I highly doubt I would have been able to fight my terrible toxicity or negative narratives without having the peace of mind that my life is good regardless of my league of legends rank.
Recommendation
I would encourage anyone aspiring to be not only a better jungler, but a better person on the rift to join the Saltu program. I am so happy I stumbled upon this community because the perspective they have makes league such a blast to play! I have never had so much fun playing league of legends than I do now!
Cody - Silver IV to Gold IV in one month
"During my very first review, during my very first gank, I found out that i had no clue what a good gank was!"
Before Saltu
When i joined Saltu I had 1200 games played in the current season alone and had played the role since season seven, so you can see my suprise when during my very first review, during my very first gank, I found out that i had no clue what a good gank was!!!!. THE CROCODILE MINDSET is something that i lacked for all those years, in all of the thousands of games i played and was indeed why ganks felt like coinsflips to me and naturally the results of these games were coinflips because of it. I had no understanding of why a gank worked or why it didn’t, and more importantly no way to asses a gank before i executed it. There was no thought behind it aside from “I’m a jungler and my job is to kill laners that cross this invisible line in lane.
Secondly i learned about RED LIGHT GREEN LIGHT SITUATIONS, and how i was losing games because of it. I can think of another of my first reviews where i ganked bot lane killed them and then proceeded to ofcourse go take drag at lvl 5. I was quickly killed along with my midlaner and already low mana low hp botlaners. I had no idea i was taking to many chess turns. I also became hyper aware of my counter part trying to do things on the map while their light was red and mine was green and would quickly assist them in there journey back to the fountain.
Thirdly I learned how important champ mastery is and how it directly can cause you to win or lose games. Alot of focus in our review sessions went into ability usage combos and the importance of playing to my champions identity and strengths. understanding when i was strong or not when i should fight or not and what i was fighting for all seemed to tie right into this and i saw the effects of bad skill usage poor comboing and fighting before a powerspike.
TO continue i learned how to punish enemy junglers that show on the map and how to get advantages on them while they are failing or sucsessfully ganking my lanes . If i see a jungler gank my bot lane im looking to take everyone of there top side camps and herald. To many games i would let plays go unpunished not knowing how much i could actually be doing . This also really made me understand what i could be giving up if i made a play on the map and have to really consider if the risk was worth it.
What Saltu Showed Cody
What i liked most about Saltu is the community, ive made alot of freinds here in a very short amount of time and its great being surrounded by people that share common goals.Accountability – you can set goals and learning objectives for yourself here and the communitity will help you stay on the pathPeer review sessions- this has helped me the most. Watching my own games and my peers games be reviewed by a high quality player and learning and applying it to my future games. The champion guides- These guides are priceless and made me really understand what my champion wants and how i can play and review games with these reference points.
The Review Process
The biggest mental block i had was getting into the details. I never wanted to review games i never wanted to get specific. I only wanted to look at my big plays if i ever did hit download replay. i wanted to forget a loss happend and quickly move on without pulling out important learnings in the vod. Joining saltu has changed that for me by reviewing games with freinds and you and seeing how much i was missing in game. My biggest mental block is now my biggest joy. i love reviewing my games now and seeing what i could do better. I have a respect for this game i never had before because of it.
I would and already have. One of my friends joined after seeing my rapid climb, because the process just works. Saltu helps get rid of toxic narratives and makes you a better person in and out of the game.
Jesse - Platinum I to Grandmaster 550LP
"Saltu will give you a better relationship with the game, and give you better long term results than any other place out there"
The Saltu Difference
It’s the little things in Saltu that made the difference. The most notable would be how often I lost sight of the win condition due to things like hunting kills. The coaching is zero bullshit. In my opinion Nathan is the GOAT at ignoring all the unhelpful nonsense and looking at your game and finding something simple and actionable that you can actually understand and work on.
All other coachings I’ve seen try to be correct and smart and elite and cover everything which wastes soooo much of the students time and you leave their sessions with a brain overflowing with ideas that mean nothing to you and will never see light in your gameplay. Nathan will put his ego and appearance aside to figure out a way to actually help you.
Respecting the Game
Saltu will teach you that any excuses are a waste of time and effort that could be better spent on learning and improving Saltu teaches you to respect League of Legends as a skill that takes effort to improve at. So many people fall into the trap of thinking the game is easy, leading to a host of issues (playing different champions, messaging people during game) because they think it doesn’t matter. Blink their eyes and they’ve played 5000 games and gotten nowhere all because they didn’t respect the game.
The Saltu community is supportive and understand all of the above, which can give you that little extra push needed to spend the time doing the things you know you should. Or to give a new perspective and keep you from getting stuck on something.
The Saltu Process
I had a mental block about teammates not following my engages. I used to think it was pure coinflip and it infuriated me. By just going over each instance one at a time over and over again and hearing the hard truth from Nathan and others. I learnt the various things I could do, that I wasn’t doing consistently. Now when someone doesn’t follow my engage I have a long list of checks to think about how I did, so I’m focused on my own gameplay instead of others.
Nathan is the best JG coach in the world, no cap. The only coaching in the world that truly respects clear instructions, repetition and effort. What will give you more gains? A gym membership or a stephen hawking lecture? If you are able to believe in the saltu principles and do the work. Then Saltu will give you a better relationship with the game, and give you better long term results than any other place out there.
Alex - Silver IV to Platinum IV
"Saltu provides a place of like minded people who help and support each other with any aspect of the ranked journey"
Joining Saltu
When I joined Saltu I found that I was not playing the game in a structured way. I would prioritize the available options wrong. For example I used to have a heavy bias in favor of ganking and objectives. During the reviews it became clear that ganking often is not the ideal option and that there is often time to clear camps before objectives. Additionally I had a huge issue with impatience which affected a lot of aspects of my gameplay. The reviews showed me that most of the time there is no need for any rushed action. It is much better to wait a bit for a better gank angle, or hold my abilities.
I am inclined to name the review sessions here but ultimately the best aspect of Saltu is the community. Saltu provides a place of like minded people who help and support each other with any aspect of the ranked journey. The members of Saltu always helped me to solve questions about specific gameplay and kept me on track when my mental deteriorated. Having a place of like minded people who are at different stages of my own journey has proven to be invaluable.
How Saltu Helped Alex
While the community is what makes Saltu stand out from other programs, it also offers a huge amount of well created resources which taught me a lot about the theoretical aspects of jungling. Combined with the massive VOD library it helped to expand my knowledge about the game and common situations which I could then draw from while playing.
I used to get too frustrated about the game too quickly. Having no mental or theoretical framework for the game made learning and progressing very frustrating and slow paced. Saltu allowed me to deal with my own gameplay in a much better way. It enabled me understand why I lose games and as a result tilt much less.
I would definitely recommend Saltu to others. It offers a framework and community to support your ranked journey you can not get anywhere else. The combination of community, targeted reviews and theoretical resources will benefit your ranked journey. The pricing is very fair considering the amount of value the program provides.
Smith Ramone - Platinum III to Master 200LP
"It changed my relationship for the better in many areas, especially with the game,"
Why Saltu
Through the reviews I found out that most of the games lost were my fault due to not executing the fundamentals properly. Nathan showed me that my gameplay was very unstructured. I shifted my mindset to think more about win conditions, like who should I protect in the early game? who do I play with in the mid/late game (peel) or Can I invade and play more selfishly?
Now I’m always trying to make a gameplan and thinking about what’s my role in that game. It’s tricky because you can’t be too rigid, I had to learn to adapt too. Another huge mindset shift was to not give up on my main champion and try to come up with a solution even in games you got countered, there’s always a way to play the game.
I really like the Saltu resource videos, I learned many game concepts through them that completely changed how I play. The concepts that caused the most change was the chess turn, red light green light, however the other videos were important too. Many of the games I brought to review were games where I thought I couldn’t have done anything to contribute to the win – but Nathan and the other saltu members would always find a mistake that I couldn’t spot. That makes me excited to join reviews because I wanna know how you will solve that game that I wasn’t able to. That’s when I feel I learn the most.
Only by writing this I noticed that, to me personally, a very important part is the community aspect. I don’t chat much or am very active in the server but I know that everyone that’s taking Saltu seriously have a specific set of habits to climb the ladder like playing in blocks, reviewing your own games, joining review sessions, sticking to a small champion pool etc. and basically I don’t wanna be the one that can’t follow the tribe let’s say.
Relationship with the Game
When I joined Saltu most people weren’t from my region. However, once more brazilians joined in I started taking climbing more seriously and I wanted to be better than them. I think just by watching how the review sessions were conducted I learned to review by myself. I don’t bring games that have obvious mistakes to review sessions, I bring only the ones where I struggle the most to solve how to win the game. Another cool thing is that in review sessions you get to see games from ppl with more elo than you. This demystifies high elo and makes you see that it’s possible to get there.
Overall, I think I fixed most of my mental blocks when I started watching the BBC in 2020 prior to joining Saltu. It changed my relationship to better with many things, especially with the game, with my career and with long term goals. By watching the BBC, I realized I struggled with a fixed mindset since I was really young, before that I had never heard about this idea. It helped me to learn a lot about my behavior in and out of the game.
Now regarding the game, in the past if I’d get a match where I couldn’t find a solution to win I would get pretty tilted and go downhill, like blame others, change my champion pool, get new builds and look for shortcuts etc. I don’t blame myself because all that was I didn’t really know what was happening in the game, due to lacking fundamentals and not knowing how to review. That makes league feel out of your control. It’s miserable. I feel that when I learned to jungle track properly, identify all the wave states, and what to do with these information that’s when I improved. Also to think about what’s gonna happen 1 to 3 minutes ahead. That means having intention in every move I make in the game and even if it’s wrong, we can fix it later in the review. That was huge because I’ve been playing on autopilot since I started in 2012.
I’d recommend Saltu and the Broken by Concept podcast because it makes the journey to learn the game less painful and more guided. It becomes harder to self sabotage which I used to do very frequently in many ways like most league players do. It’s a game that is incredibly easy to self sabotage.
Ohm - Gold IV to Diamond I
"With the sheer number of people in the program, you will learn faster by absorbing the knowledge of others’ mistakes"
Before Saltu
There were a few key concepts that I have learned from Saltu such as wave priority and its importance in setting up for objectives even if your team is there to back you up. I also learned about the illusive concept of “tempo” which every jungle player has heard of but nobody seems to know what it means. I vaguely understood the concept but never had a concrete grasp of it until Saltu. In fact, that’s how I would define many concepts before saltu – I had a vague understanding, but Saltu would hone in and iron out the little details of jungle principles in my mind.
The Saltu Community
The community was easily the best part about Saltu. I hardly read the messages or interacted with the members, but when I was feeling down or unmotivated in my journey, the Saltu members were always there, passionate and outspoken about their climbs and the game. It really helped to motivate me again and again, to find my passion and continue my climb even when it was hard. There’s always a lingering reminder that there are people out there with a process and path drawn out in front of them, and everyday they try and achieve what they have set out to do with enthusiasm.
The Benefits of Saltu
On an individual level, there are amazing people in Saltu who are just as, if not more passionate about the game as you are. I’ve met a few people who have similar stories and struggles to that of my own, and seeing them work through it helps in trying to conquer those obstacles yourself.
With the sheer number of people in the program, you will learn faster by absorbing the knowledge of others’ mistakes. Whether you join a review session and learn from the gameplay of someone else or simply converse in the channels about learnings from fellow students, you’ll be on the fast track to improvement because there will be other like-minded players who help each other grow.
As somebody who travels often, it’s nice to have a learning platform be accessible from the palm of your hand. I watched far more Today In Saltu’s on my phone/laptop rather than sitting down at my computer. Most people don’t talk about this, but it’s nice that Saltu is hosted on a cloud-based site and can be accessed easily. This makes learning about League of Legends far more convenient.
Mental Blocks & Recommendation
Ranked anxiety was by far the thing that was holding me back the most in my League of Legends journey. I oftentimes wouldn’t queue until I was forced to by ranked decay. This made me a far worse player and only made me struggle to get my footing when playing the game. It’s no use learning a concept if you can’t train to apply it in your games. Being a Saltu member helped push me towards wanting to dedicate more time to League of Legends. It taught me to be more confident in my gameplay and trust that as long as I improved as a player, my rank would as well.
I would highly recommend Saltu to others. The community, combined with plentiful knowledge and ease of access, allow Saltu to be an effective tool towards achieving your ranked goals. Other coaching programs do exist, but none have a shared set of goals and beliefs that Saltu does. Members are encouraged to ask for help, be curious, get into the details, and really hone in on what makes their champions tick. I have yet to witness a single negative conversation in my time in Saltu. The whole program is a well-oiled machine and its members are the cogs that keep it running smoothly; always forwards, never backwards. For me to have gotten as far as I have, there couldn’t have been a better program than Saltu.
Silas - Platinum IV to Master
"The quality of the discussion in the discord is something you won't find elsewhere in the League community"
Why Saltu?
Nathan helped me understand that even on champions that you would think are mechanically simple to execute, there are always things to improve that will really level up your game. Honing in on improving key ability usage single-handedly pushed me from a P2-P1 to a D2 level player in a matter of weeks.
I really liked that you were able to have frequent short and concise check-ups on your gameplay, instead of maybe having one long review a month. It allows you to consistently improve to be held accountable. It is hard to get away with faking your process if you turn up to every session. The community aspect of it is something that kept me going – improving alongside others and finding friendships that I have kept even after I and they left the program.
I really enjoy the friendly atmosphere in the review sessions which allows students to chime in with comments/questions. This helped a lot with getting into the specifics and not moving on from a review with unanswered questions.
Another crucial aspect is being held accountable for both your gameplay and your mentality by both coach and the fellow students – and the zero-tolerance of pointless venting. The quality of the discussion in the discord is something you won’t find elsewhere in the League community – besides probably the MLA
The Saltu Difference
The biggest thing was realizing that champion mastery truly is king when it comes to climbing in league. Even though it is tempting, you can’t get distracted by wanting to play meta/flavour of the month champions, as in the long run, sticking to your pool is key. If you’re serious about getting better at jungling, there’s no better place to do it than Saltu. It cuts the bullshit and gets straight to what matters – getting into the details.
Jared - Silver II to Platinum IV
"It's natural for me now to just play the game and try to improve. The 'process' works"
Why Saltu?
Some of the things that resonated most for me were focusing on missed opportunities. I tend to have a “i’m the main character” mindset/playstyle and I would too often focus on what I had hoped or wanted to happen during a play, but would be blind to what I’m missing on the map. That really helped me make better decisions and be more aware of how i’m impacting the rest of the map with my play.
One easy champ specific example would be making dragon plays as Shyvana. I play alot of Shyvana and of course she is incentivized to stack dragon buffs, but I would almost always be too eager to just go right into the pit and start a drake, relying on Shyvana’s solo dragon taking capability. I try to be a lot more aware of the map now before I start a dragon and do less ‘coin flip’ dragon takes.
I think my favorite part is just being part of a community that all play the same role and all basically have the same goal, to improve at this game. Pretty basic answer but I do really enjoy having that group in discord of like minded folks all just trying to improve at jungle.
The Saltu Difference
I was not a jungle main prior to joining saltu, I think I had only been jungling for a short few months. It would take a life time of playing all the other jungle champions to learn some valuable lessons I learned in saltu just by simply being a member. Watching other’s VOD reviews or your guides on the website are a great resource. Review sessions are very productive. Obviously it’s pretty helpful to have a higher elo jungle look things over with you and give you some pointers. Another great part is the community – everything about it is great, to be a part of a jungle community where people are positive and trying to improve.
This may be long winded, having a hard time putting this into words.. but basically my mental state while playing League was my biggest mental block. I would tilt at teammates if they didn’t play well, I would blame teams, and just make any excuse as to why we lost rather than focusing on myself. Getting a better perspective of the game as a whole (and jungle role especially) helped me with this naturally. I had never been the type of player to seek out coaching or try to learn the game the right way, I would just spam games and tell myself that my past rank is still deserved, and everyone on my team is trash and matchmaking is horrible.
Seeing the game from either Nathan’s or other higher ranked saltu members point of view helped me a lot with this. There were SO many things I was missing or didn’t even know to look for. Having a better mental while playing and understanding alot more about the game/jungle just makes it kind of natural for me now to just play the game and try to improve. The ‘process’ works. I would 100% recommend Saltu to others and have. I can’t say enough good things about Saltu, thanks for everything.
Ahmad: Silver IV to Gold II
I’ll preface by saying that I started way back in season 3 and was stuck in silver for the longest time before taking a 2 year break from the game. When I came back my rank plummeted from silver 3 to bronze 3. The game had me stuck at silver 4 0 lp during a huge loss streak and when I finally got demoted I was at +8 – 25.
I tried to learn the game using everything from reddit to YouTube to paid sites, but I didn’t feel like I was improving at all and eventually decided to create a new account which got me back to silver.
At some point I stumbled on your podcast and you guys were approaching getting good at the game in a way that’s completely different from other people whose advice is usually “don’t die so much” or “try to get 10 CS per minute”.
It was then that I decided to abandon my new account and go back and fix my main account and try to get better at the game. I managed to eventually fix my mmr and crawl my way back to silver 4 at the same time that you announced that you would start a new program for people below gold and I knew that I had to be a part of it.
The first piece of advice we got was to stick to a single champion. This was a huge issue for me as I switched champions way too much because whenever I try to one trick a champion I eventually hit a wall and feel that the champion I’m playing isn’t meta or doesn’t fit my playstyle. After some time of never playing anything other than Hecarim and mastering him, I finally started getting better at the game because my brain wasn’t focused on piloting my champion. It was at this point that the concept of mental stack clicked for me and I realized that the reason I wasn’t getting better was because I was utilizing most of my brain function on what moves to use instead of macro.
After coming to this realization I started focusing on improving my jungle basics such as clear time, tracking the enemy, and ganking until they became muscle memory and I can free up my mental stack to improve on a new thing.
I eventually hit gold and decided to take a break from the game after finally achieving my goal after years of trying. I still feel that I have much to learn and would have benefited more from the program. But I decided that I’d only join after I get stuck again which still hasn’t happened even when trying new champions and roles. I’m currently breezing through gold and I’m expecting to hit a wall eventually but I keep carrying games even as my rank goes up and I’m almost platinum.
Sarah: An appreciation for Champion Mastery
The most important thing was learning to relax and play properly. I was very anxious about my laners doing bad or blaming me if they didn’t get ganks so I’d force plays that were unreasonable. A big theme in our reviews was getting me to relax and farm more and it definitely translated to wins.
I liked the emphasis on self improvement, not blaming other people, and never being toxic. A large portion of league creators and communities are so focused on blaming other players in their games, but saltu is all about accountability and I respect it.
I got access to in depth character discussions among other saltu members which restructured how I thought about eve and kayn. The community and vibe of saltu made me feel more competitive and excited over all. The constant availability of reviews, advice, blitz coaching, single questions, and more made it consistantly easy to improve.
The biggest mental block I had prior to Saltu was having too large of a champ pool. I’d always pick my champion to round out a team comp but that resulted in me being hardstuck gold/plat every season with over 80 champions played. This season over 95% of my games are only on kayn and evelynn, per saltu recommendation of playing 2 champions max, and the difference in my confidence was astounding. I knew how my trades would go with most other champions and I was able to make plays because of my champion mastery.
The consistency of advice and attitude towards league of legends in Saltu makes it so that your skill is a general trajectory upwards throughout your adventure. The community is quick to help eachother out, and Nathan is a wonderful coach.
John S: Cultivating a Growth Mindset
I found that I didn’t truly understand the game of jungle. It is very regimented and structured once you begin to see the patterns. That and ganking. I didn’t know what a good or bad gank was and it held me back as I kept forcing bad ganks.
I loved the community of like minded individuals. There is no room for ego or blaming other people and we are there for each other to work through bad narratives and mindsets to open the path up to truly see what League is through the lens of jungle and self-improvement.
Learning the process of three blocks – review and learning how to learn. Finding discipline through the community to stick to a small champion pool and turn down the noise. Thousands of reviews and tips and lessons through the video archive on the website giving you a wealth of knowledge and learning without having to show up for a personal review.
The biggest mental block was learning that I was the reason I wasn’t climbing. I kept switching champions, fake processing, and blaming others for my mistakes. Saltu really wouldn’t let me believe all of this and kept making me be introspective about my own responsibility that lead me to be stuck in Silver 1.
I would absolutely suggest Saltu to others solely for the community and knowing you’re not alone in trying to become better at the game through a healthy and wholesome process. You have to get into the details of your own self, fix the issues, and show the rift that you have grown.
Gwen: A Message to Nathan
Good morning! I wanted to share how much I’m enjoying the soloq journey these days – it used to make me quite anxious and stressed, which I pushed through because the game can be so fun, but the times when it wasn’t fun were so rough.
Now I am so excited to queue up for every game regardless of the outcome – it feels like sitting down to a beautiful, complicated jigsaw puzzle. Every game it’s like I’ve picked up a puzzle piece and have a chance to figure out where it goes. Some games I can’t find it’s place and have to put it back in the pile, some games I end up losing the piece under the couch, and some games I flip the puzzle table and scatter pieces all over the living room, undoing any progress I may have made! But SOME games, I find where the piece goes, it thunks into place and it is just so satisfying.
I’m now almost two months into my resolution of a 3 block/day. While I’ve had to miss a few, overall I’m amazed I’ve managed this level of consistency/discipline as it’s very much out of character for my adhd self. It’s absolutely thanks to you, Saltu, and the BBC for helping me see how fun and deeply intellectually satisfying this hobby can be.
In addition to the 3 blocks, I’ve now kept up an every other day weight lifting routine for the last two months as well, and added a pilates session on my off days.
A year or so ago I had a mystery illness that kept me in bed for almost 6 months, and I’ve struggled to regain my fitness since, so I’m also so grateful for the structure that League and Saltu have brought to the non-gaming parts of my life. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that you and your program have made such a huge positive impact on me and my life and I’m super grateful! Thank you for doing what you do, and being so generous about sharing your enthusiasm and passion for this game.
Harris: Plat IV to Master Tier
The reviews helped me to take my mistakes more seriously and showed how much impact each decision has. For example one of the first ones where I would gank just because “I had nothing to do”. Now I can find solutions in my reviews easier and instantly go “ahh I know what I should have done here instead.”
The reviews is what kick started me and opened my eyes on my own gameplay. Showed me how much I am overcomplicating things and guided me.
The gym example. You go to the gym and you see other people pushing themselves and trying their best to improve, same thing for Saltu and seeing people on the “practice dojo” where they stream games or review vods and review sessions.
Community helping each other to prevent/help with typical soloq narratives like “mmr” or “meta”. Guiding you towards the healthy path.
“Today in Saltu” daily tips that are broken by concept, seems like nothing but days go quick and it really adds up. Also makes you more consistent and get into details learning fundamentals.
This one goes back to 2021 right before I joined Saltu. I didn’t believe anything was possible. No healthy lifestyle, no improvement and no process. For me jealousy was at it’s peak and thought everyone who has accomplished anything were just “lucky” or “born that way”. The first thing that planted a seed in my mind was watching Eashan a Saltu member have a interview where he went from gold-masters.
I was about to demote to gold at the time so I thought it looked realistic. I still thought that “oh he just is naturally smart nothing I would be able to do about it”. But then I saw more and more people who were improving and taking it seriously. Putting in effort, being curious and open mind. The community in general was a SHOCK to me compared to what I was used to seeing everywhere. Glad I found it.
Dest: Reframing the journey
I was losing games due to enemy invades or poor decisions in my first clear. I saw how impactful the first 4 minutes of the game are from a jungle perspective, and Nathan helped me develop tools to deal with difficult early game situations. This helped me transform my gameplay from jungle guesswork to going into every game with a clear plan and the tools to adapt when that plan was disrupted.
Nathan shifted my mindset entirely. Before I was focused on what I thought was best due to my own experience playing the game, combined with various youtube or mobafire guides. But taking the time to sit down with a coach over several sessions unlocked my understanding of jungle fundamentals. Now, I can think holistically about optimal pathing, tempo, punishing the enemy jungler’s mistakes. I know the game times my camps respawn at, and I can track the enemy jungler just by their CS in the scoreboard. I really feel proud of what Ive been able to accomplish as a jungler since joining Saltu.
I was considering quitting Jungle altogether because of how frustrating getting invaded early was. Over the course of multiple review sessions, Nathan walked me through how to problem solve each situation, and by the end I understood how to counter each type of invade. Now I feel much better about loading up a jungle game on a scaling champion.
Saltu is a coaching program that respects your time and wallet. Ive gotten challenger level coaching in the past, but the high cost of 1:1 sessions with other coaches leads to very few or only single sessions, and improving in League is a journey, not a single realization. After being in the League community for 13 years and getting coaching from high level players since season 2, I can say for sure that the Saltu model of weekly reviews, daily resources, and a discord community is a tremendous improvement from a coaching standpoint over the oldschool ways of doing League coaching.