How to Unlock Camera in League of Legends [Step-by-Step]

A locked camera in League of Legends is the default state of the game. It's also one that a lot of new players don't even realize needs to be changed to fully experience the game.

There are a few ways to have your camera unlocked in League of Legends:

• Press "Z" or "Y" in-game, which is the default key for unlocking your camera.
• Click on the small camera icon in the bottom right corner next to the mini-map.
• Toggle Camera Lock Mode into Per-side Offset.

The last way will ensure you start all of your games off with an unlocked camera from the very beginning, making it your new default mode.

Is it Bad to Play LoL With a Locked Camera?

There is a reason all new League of Legends accounts start off with their camera locked. It's simply easier to find your bearings and learn how to play League of Legends.

However, while the skill floor for a locked screen is lower, so is the skill ceiling, and you will never get to high-elo with a locked camera. This means that you must learn camera control to be able to have a better overview of fights, especially team fights, in the game.

How else will you use global abilities and spells like Teleport, if your camera is locked anyway?

How to Learn to Play With Unlocked Camera in LoL?

Toggle Camera Lock Mode When Safe

Starting off small is the easiest way to learn this skill and, well, you don't need to have the best LoL settings right away. You need to build habits, and then, at some point, these habits might take you to a Challenger rank. So, I recommend you to start off by unlocking the camera when you are absolutely safe, for example, while in lane farming, to get a feel for playing the game this way.

Only Lock the Camera When in a Team Fight

Unless you are playing with bot bullies, where fights are mostly 2v2, the next step is to keep our camera unlocked while fighting in lane 1v1 against an enemy champion. This way, it's harder to lose your bearings, and even if you do, you can always use the space bar to get your camera back onto your champion.

Use Semi-Locked Camera Mode

The Semi-Locked camera mode serves as an intermediary step towards mastering the play with an unlocked camera.  However, it comes with the constraint that your champion must always remain within your field of vision. Unlike the fixed central position of your champion in the fully locked mode, Semi-Locked allows your champion to move freely within the screen's bounds, ensuring they are always in sight but not necessarily at the center.