I am the head coach of Pentanet who placed 6th at MSI in 2021
I was also a professional player in OCE (Jungle). I competed at worlds in 2018 under the name "UDYSOF" for the team Dire Wolves. I have played Xin Zhao in competitive matches and played him to top 10 in my region. And currently playing him a lot in season 14.

This is a photo of me playing Xin Zhao on the World Championship stage in 2018 against infinity in Korea.

This is a new chapter to my guide and I think it's the most important one.

Xin Zhao is a very versatile champion. He can be built for any situation. The way to play Xin Zhao is to be permanently checking your lanes. I usually start on either red or blue and farm till I am level 3, as you I am walking to the opposite side of the map to continue my clear I am always looking at my lanes to see if they're trading. If your laners are taking trades you can easily gank and blow flashes or achieve early kills. When i path as Xin Zhao I aim to focus lanes who have hard CC to set up ganks or damage to follow up on my gank as Xin Zhao has his own CC on his E slow, W slow and Q knockup. Once I have ganked early I would have at least blown a laners flash which means I will path towards that lane again and look to repeat gank them either killing them or putting them far behind in XP as they have to base after my gank.

Xin Zhao is about finding fights with his Q, look to fight when you have more teammates meaning you can engage without the threat of the enemy engaging onto you, Xin Zhao struggles to disengage without his ultimate so pick your fights with caution in the early game, but also do not be afraid to take 1v1s, 2v2s and 3v3s since Xin Zhao has exceptional early game dueling.

I take Lethal Tempo because it allows you to win almost all early game skirmishes, some people enjoy taking Conqueror which is also a fine option especially due to its scaling power in the mid to late game. But overall my preference is Lethal Tempo as it allows me to use its early game power to snowball and establish a lead which is what Xin Zhao is best at. If you are struggling to win your games early and find that your matches end consistently past the 25 minute mark then I would start to consider Conqueror as your keystone since it is superior in longer teamfight focussed matches.

Triumph is great for increasing longevity in skirmishes, as Xin Zhao you will be fighting a lot so having Triumph may be the difference between you surviving in a skirmish or not. Legend: Alacrity is my rune of choice because it allows me to deal the most possible damage combined with the attack speed of E. But in some games I will also choose to use Legend: Tenacity against champions such as Nautilus or Morgana. Champions with stuns, roots etc can make Xin Zhao's life incredibly hard so if the enemy team has 2 or more champions with hard crowd control then I will typically take Legend: Tenacity . Last Stand Allows me to do high damage while remaining on low HP. Xin Zhao's ultimate tpyically allows for low HP skirmishes and teamfights which means you can get high value out of Last Stand but also that being said I prefer this rune against melee champions. If I am facing many ranged champions such as an enemy composition with 3 or more ranged characters then I will typically take Coup de Grace as Xin Zhao will be typically assassinating these types of champions quite quickly so you will find my value from this rune instead of Last Stand since you will not often be fighting on low HP vs ranged carries.

For my secondary runes I like to take Magical Footwear free boots is always incredibly efficient and the extra movement speed these boots provide feels great on Xin Zhao since the champion is all about going forward, the more movement speed you have the better, also since you don't have to pay the 300 gold for boots you can focus on itemising more damage to snowball the early game. Approach Velocity is my other rune of choice in the inspiration tree becuase it provides you a large boost in movement speed when you slow enemies with your e and the 2nd portion of your w. This movement speed combined with great movement in between auto attacks allows you to consistently stick onto your opponents in skirmishes and teamfights forcing flashes or securing easy kills. Another option is Cosmic Insight if you feel like you need flash up more often this could be a great option too. For example you are facing an Ezreal and it is incredibly hard for you to stick on him in fights because he has his Arcane Shift and Flash to kite you in teamfights. Utilising Cosmic Insight will reduce your flash cooldown and allow you to more easily chase him in teamfight.

My plan for every game I play on Xin Zhao is to be aggressive early - we have gank threat level 2 and can fight many junglers in the early game. So I usually aim to either invade early if the enemy jungler is weak, or secure early pressure in my lanes by ganking with little counterplay from the enemy jungler as they will typically be a weaker champion than Xin Zhao in the early game.

If you have weak really weak laners like Kassadin you can full clear the jungle and wait for enemies to give you easy ganks. Do not feel pressured to always do something in the early game. Sometimes doing nothing is better than doing something in League Of Legends. You may get flamed because you are the jungler but that's just your job. If you have weak laners identify that your role is to just make sure they get through the laning phase. Defend dives, gank overextended lanes, take dragons when the enemy takes grubs or herald. Trade sides and try to gain advantages without blowing up the entire game by taking a bad fight in the early game that you don't win due to your weak laners.

Invading early game

Invading in season 14 is very valuable as killing your opponent stops them farming, which is super important due to the decreased XP of jungle camps meaning it is very easy to fall behind in jungle.

Below are a list of champions you want, and arguably need to invade in the early game:

Amumu

Cho'Gath

Fiddlesticks

Gragas

Hecarim

Jax

Kayn

Maokai

Master Yi

Rammus

Sejuani

Shyvana

Skarner

Vi

Wukong

Yorick

Zac

What commonalities can you guys see in that list? I can see a few to be honest...
-> Tanks
-> Farm heavy
-> Slow clear
-> Weak 1v1

Generally, if the enemy jungler is/has at least one commonality listed above then we definitely want to be invading them early and piling on the pressure. In the 'Early Game' chapter I will talk about HOW we go about invading, but for now it's important to talk about WHERE to invade.

Most junglers start bot side of the map for an easier leash, especially in lower elo, so you guys can easily predict where the enemy jungler is starting and look to invade. Therefore, if they start bot side of the map we want to invade them in their top side at their second buff, and vice versa. Now the champions above will be on their second buff from anywhere between 2.30-3.00ish depending on if they want to hit level 3 as soon as they can or if they full clear.



As you may have noticed, some champions are not on that list, and these include:

-> Elise
-> Ezreal
-> Graves
-> Jarvan IV
-> Kindred
-> Lee Sin
-> Nocturne
-> Rek'Sai
-> Udyr
-> Warwick
-> Olaf

Again, what do these champions share in common?
-> Strong duelers
-> Fast clear

The junglers just mentioned are to be invaded with caution if you choose to do so. I invade pretty much every game regardless of which champion I'm against but I've done it so often that I'm used to it. If you guys aren't comfortable with taking on these guys earlier in the game there's nothing to be ashamed of - and trust me, when I started out playing Xin Zhao and tried invading every game it wouldn't be uncommon to see me 0-3 at 5 minutes.

For champions like Nocturne, Olaf, Udyr, their clear is insanely quick. Normally they will start bot side of the map, clear one other camp and finish their 2nd buff and then pressure that side of the map so we only have a small window to invade. Also, they are strong early game champions so if we get spotted by a ward or hit by a crowd control (CC) ability then we may have to ff at 15.

Those champions in the second list, most of them at least, will get their 2 buffs and level 3 as soon as possible and gank a lane - a bit like us but we're slightly quicker since we can gank at level 2. Therefore, we can get to a lane without threat of being (and I'll show you guys the best clear for Shaco in the 'Early Game' chapter if we want to gank) and pick up easy kills. This will be easier to envision in the forthcoming chapter but we need to think about WHICH LANE to gank. I'll list a few reasons why we'd want to gank a certain lane early...
-> Our laner(s) has CC
-> Enemy champion(s) has no Flash or their Flash is on cooldown (CD)
-> Enemy champion(s) will push the lane early (making them more susceptible to a gank)
-> The matchup is 'snowbally' - one kill might decide the lane
-> We anticipate that the enemy jungler will gank that lane early, so we want to counter-gank IF we win the 2v2 or we try to get there first of course
If a lane has only one reason I listed then it's still worthy of a gank early game!

This is not going to be a huge section. But if you would like private coaching dm me on discord "udysof" or check out my website https://www.udysof.com

Mentality is a key part of being a professional player wether you want to be a soloqueue player, amateur player, platinum player any type of player having good mentality will always better you. Ways to improve on these can include focusing on the external parts of your life. Things I did was only play a maximum of 6 games per day, eat only healthy food and worked out every second day. My schedule and life was incredibly strict around performance when I was a professional player and I recommend all people who love the game to also take care of themselves.

Sleep deprivation can easily disrupt concentration, not to mention other cognitive functions, such as memory and attention.

Occasional sleep deprivation may not cause too many problems for you. But regularly failing to get a good night’s sleep can affect your mood and performance at work.

Being too tired can even slow down your reflexes and affect your ability to drive or do other daily tasks.

A demanding schedule, health issues, and other factors sometimes make it difficult to get enough sleep. But it’s important to try and get as close to the recommended amount as possible on most nights.

Many experts recommend adults aim for 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night.

Improving the sleep you do get can also have benefit. A few quick tips:

Turn off the TV and put away screens an hour before bed.
Keep your room at a comfortable but cool temperature.
Wind down before bed with soft music, a warm bath, or a book.
Go to bed and get up around the same time each day, even on weekends.
Exercise regularly, but try to avoid a heavy workout just before bed.

How can taking a break from work or homework increase your concentration? This idea might seem counterintuitive, but experts say it really works.

Consider this scenario: You’ve spent a few hours on the same project, and suddenly your attention starts to wander. Even though it’s hard to keep your mind on the task, you stay at your desk, forcing yourself to keep going. But your struggle to focus just makes you feel stressed and anxious about not completing your work in time.

You’ve probably been there before. Next time this happens, when you first feel your concentration drop, take a short mental break. Refresh yourself with a cool drink or nutritious snack, take a quick walk, or go outside and get some sun.

When you return to soloqueue, don’t be surprised if you feel more focused, motivated, or even creative. Breaks can help boost these functions and more.