So short story for context: I recently played a match of league and on a certain point of the game, my friend casually commented about how our jungler (shyvanna) was doing nothing and she had it easy since she didn't even need to gank mid (ahri) because she would most likely get nothing out of it anyway because of ahri's kit.

The important thing here is that this made me realize how much I don't do this kind of thinking. I mean, it's kinda obvious in this case: Ahri has movspeed with her Q, charm and an ultimate that makes it pretty much impossible for a Shyvanna to gank her, but I never gave it much thought before my friend mentioned, I was kinda jush playing my lane on auto pilot.

And I guess this kind of stuff is probably happening as well, for other games that I enjoy like TFT. So I started wondering... this must be one of the differences between us mere mortals and the guys that are good at this game. And I'm not even talking pro players, but grandmaster level. Sure, there's mechanics involved and how good your reflexes are but I fixated on it because I lack it and it was never... clear for me that I lacked it, in a way.

So this is a mix between a question for good players and a discussion about it: What is this skill? Actively thinking during the game instead of being passive. Like, paying attention to the info you know about the game and figuring out how things might go or what you can expect and improve your decision making based on it? Can I even get good at it, somehow or am I doomed? Of so, how can I improve that? I feel like most of the time I'm not really thinking while playing and that is true for most games I play but I'd like to change it.

This is not a question on how to climb, by the way, I don't care much about elo, just think that being able to develop this skill, if possible, would make me smarter and a better person in general.

What are you guys opinion on it?