It is not unusual to play ranked games together with a friend, but most of the time when I see a duo team fighting on the rift, they play not remotely different than when they are alone. Of course there are the people who play jungle and camp for their buddy or the occasional duo bot lane, but most of the time the two players approach the game as if it was a normal solo queue match, only that they are in it together. This guide is here to show you a big time opportunity you are missing out by doing this.

Champion Synergies

One of the easiest but most effective options you have as a duo queue team is to pick champions who have synergy with each other. You are playing together, you are probably talking in Teamspeak or Skype, this gives you the ability to pull out compositions which boost your team’s strength and improve your chance of winning drastically. I will give you a few examples of possible combinations, but don’t be shy do try out own combinations with your duo queue partner!

<iframe style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/pD_imYhNoQ4" width="398" height="327"></iframe>

Wombo Combo

The most popular combinations of champions are those who can create a so called Wombo Combo together. If you are curious about the origin of this term watch the video that is linked above and enjoy a wonderful combo in Super Smash Bros. Melee. A Wombo Combo is a combination of two or more abilities which create havoc together and decide a whole teamfight and maybe the game. Obvious examples are Malphite plus Yasuo or Malphite plus Orianna. Malphite in general is a very nice pick up for many Wombo Combos because his Area of Effect (AoE) Knock Up is one of if not the best setup for other AoE abilities like Orianna’s Shockwave, Yasuo’s Last Breath but also Rumble’s Equalizer and many more. But he is not the only possible pick for such a combo; you could create a similar combo with Leona, Amumu and many more instead of Malphite. A once very popular combination was Jarvan plus Orianna or Jarvan plus Rumble. By picking a combination like that you and your duo queue partner get the chance to carry a teamfight even when behind, simply due to the strength of your Wombo Combo. When ahead of course, this can be even more disastrous. Key thing is the communication. One of you, the one who starts the fight, has to call his engage clearly and the other one has to follow instantly. The communication is what creates the strength of the Wombo Combo, because timing is all important when pulling off the move.

Just a Sivir Comp

Sivir compositions are simply brutal, not only in LCS or 5v5 ranked games, but also in solo and duo queue. Picking a Sivir allows your team to go fast wherever and whenever they please, in short: Sivir allows her team to go full Mundo with just a click on her ultimate button. But while this is something that Sivir can do all the time, also without a good champion combination, her ultimate gets even stronger when combined with the right champions. There are many champions in the game who are really powerful and have game changing abilities, but lack the needed speed to get to their opponent without them being able to react. Sivir, but also maybe Karma, Lulu or Zilean, are the key for these champions to open the door that holds them back and unleash their full power. I consider Sivir and Lulu being the strongest of those four champions, but of course you can tryout the other ones as well, especially if you aren’t a marksman or just not into Lulu. Champions like Skarner, Volibear, Udyr and so one thrive when given the needed speed and Sivir is the one to give it to them. I for myself found a lot of recent success by playing duo ranked games as Sivir together with a friend of mine who picked Skarner. These two champions allow you to pick any enemy who is out of position and burst him down immediately, thus making this composition a very successful choice in the solo/duo ladder at any level. Just watch out for enemy Jannas, Janna is pretty much a hard counter for this strategy.

Mission Impossible

The last Synergy I want to mention here, while there are still dozens of others, is the beautiful pair of Rengar and Orianna. This couple is another one which also saw play in many LCS games in Season 4 and while its success was very insignificant in North America and Europe it was an absolute blast in the eastern Regions. Even with some hits by riot towards Rengar the relationship between these two remains intact and strong, maybe even for competitive play with the Meta changing away from tanks again. Imagine a Rengar lurking around to jump you as a Marksman. The only reasonable thing for you to do is to look for teammates to get some help, because alone you stand no chance against the ruthless predator. But in a Rengar plus Orianna combination, this is exactly what the enemy wants. You are alone? Good luck not getting eaten by the cat. You are surrounded by teammates? Free 3000 elo Shockwave.

Conclusion

I hope this text showed you some of the opportunities you have by playing duo queue but also 5v5 ranked games; it’s all about the communication basically. Don’t just go into ranked games together without using the communication advantage that you get or you risk missing out important chances. Always try to get the most out of your situation and try to be creative with champion combinations. I hope to see you and your buddy on the rift soon.

Are you into fantasy leagues? Then check out AlphaDraft and put together your allstar lineup!