A roam is a trade with a price
The price of a roam is whatever the lane loses while you are gone: the wave that dies to the tower, the plate the enemy takes, the experience your laner keeps and you do not. The payoff is the play you make elsewhere: a kill, an objective, a tower. The roam is good when the payoff is bigger than the price and it actually happens. Most roams in reviews fail on one of the two.
What it looks like in your footage
- The wave was pushing toward the enemy tower when you left. The frames after the roam show your minions dying to the tower and the plates untouched. That is 200 to 400 gold given before the roam has gained anything.
- You arrived after the play resolved. The fight you roamed to is over when you get there, won or lost without you. The price was paid; the payoff did not exist.
- The enemy laner followed. Your opponent shadowed the roam, so the play was even and the lane was lost anyway.
- Nobody was expecting you. The lane you roamed to was not set up: the enemy had vision, the ally was not in position, and the roam became a walk.
Why roams fail
Roams are decided by the wave and the timing, and players decide them by the opportunity. Seeing an enemy low in mid lane is the trigger, and it is the wrong trigger: by the time you arrive the enemy is not low or not there. The right trigger is the wave crashing into the enemy tower, which is the moment the price of leaving is zero. From that moment, roam to wherever the next play is going to be, not where the last one was.
The one change
Two conditions on the price, one on the payoff. A roam that meets all three almost always pays. One that fails any of them usually costs a wave for nothing.
A drill for your next five games
Before every roam, say the two things: what state the wave is in, and what you expect to happen when you arrive. If the wave is pushing out, do not go. If the expectation is "the fight will be over", do not go. When you do go, note on return whether the payoff happened. Most players find that half their roams fail the first question and would never have been made.
How the coach catches it
Leaguio Coach tags roaming when the footage shows the player leaving lane with the wave in a state that made the leave expensive, or arriving at a play too late to affect it, and the match record shows the lane loss that followed: the plate, the tower, the gold swing. The storyboard shows the wave on the frame the player left and the minimap on the frame they arrived. It sits beside wave state, because the roam decision is a wave decision first, and beside tempo, because a late roam is a tempo error with a lane price attached.