In League of Legends, one of the most efficient uses of time is to do what you can to deny enemies from as much gold and experience as possible. While denying gold can be through wave management, it can also be done with counter jungling! Here's how!

What is Counter Jungling?

First, before explaining how and when to counter jungle, it's essential to establish what counter jungling is and why it's useful.

Counter jungling is a strategy where a player invades into the enemy's jungle to take the spawned camps. Usually, the player invading is the jungler, but it can be done effectively by any team member!

Invading when Enemy Jungler is on Vision Elsewhere

Why Counter Jungle?

Counter jungling not only gives access to more gold than you would otherwise have access to, but it also denies that gold from enemies. Unlike minions, only one team can get gold from each jungle camp. Players can manage the wave to make last-hitting much more challenging but can never deny them from the farm the same way you can with jungle monsters.

Overall, not only will counter jungling deny the gold and experience from enemies, the player counter jungling can take it for themselves. The difference between gold and experience is twice as significant as it is when denying minions!

How to Counter Jungle?

To counter jungle properly, players must understand the state of the map and analyze the risk-reward ratio of your plan beforehand. At a basic level, players can examine the state of the map through some simple but critical questions.

First, knowing where the enemy jungler is and what jungle monsters are even left up to take. As many junglers already know, tracking the enemy jungler is the best way to have the most information to make the correct decisions, and counter jungling is no different.

Second, junglers must know how much time they have to counter jungle and how long it will take them. By first addressing the first step, players will assess their options in the second step much more straightforward.

Finally, using the knowledge of where the enemy jungler is, you can predict where they are going in that period and whether or not counter jungling is the best course of action to have the most significant impact on the game!

Essentially, the questions can be boiled down to this:

Where is the enemy jungler, and where have they been?
What camps are still available to take, and how long will it take to steal them?
Where will the jungler be when I am counter jungling, what will they be doing, and is there something more efficient for me to do with my time?

Following these questions in order makes the course of action clearer and makes counter jungling easier to plan!

When is the best time to Counter Jungle?

Once you have figured out your answers to the questions above, the next step is to determine your odds in a 1-on-1 scenario. In case of a miscalculation about how the enemy jungler will spend their time while you plan to counter jungle, you'll need to know if you can fight them or not. If you can, then the relative risk of the plan is relatively low. If not, the risk of counter jungling increases.

If you can accurately determine that your time will not be better spent elsewhere (like counter ganking), counter jungling is your best bet. Players can follow a general rule of thumb of considering what type of jungler you are playing against and what kind of jungler you are playing as.

Against a farming jungler, you should expect them to fully clear their jungle and rarely leave it until they have completely removed their camps. If the enemy jungler is a farming jungler, the odds are they are weaker early in the game. Therefore, it's a good idea to take advantage of this fact and counter jungle them whenever you can. Although ganking lanes may seem ideal, ganks are not guaranteed to work out, and if you take the time to leave the jungle and gank, that farming jungler will look to spend that time counter jungling you instead!

Thus, the optimal plan of action is to counter jungle them as they are both weaker, and there is not likely to be a better use of your time doing something else. Compound both of these reasons, and not only will counter jungling put you further ahead, but since the enemy jungler is a scaling jungler, they will fall significantly behind in their tempo, and your advantage will be even more significant. This principle will work while playing any jungler, but generally, control junglers will do this job better than farming or ganking junglers.

Against a ganking jungler, you will often find time to counter jungle because the enemy will be ganking whenever possible. Therefore, depending on the type of jungler you are playing, you will have different options to consider. As a farming jungler, it's the easiest option which is: counter jungle whenever possible! As a farming jungler, the ideal game involves getting as many camps as possible, as fast as possible. Therefore, tracking the enemy jungler well and efficiently pathing to incorporate enemy camps into your clear while they take the time to gank is optimal. As a ganking jungler, you have two options available to you. Either gank lanes whenever optimal for you or counter jungle when the enemy is elsewhere on the map. In stylistic mirror-matchups, the best plan is to make a play of equal or greater value on the opposite side of the map.

A typical example of this would be trading Rift Herald for a Dragon. Another example is ganking bot lane when the enemy jungler ganks top lane. However, there are countless ways to gain value over your opponent in the same manner. For example, while tracking the enemy jungler's clear, if you notice they are ganking top lane when their bot-side jungle is about to spawn, then take their entire bot-side jungle! Making this play is guaranteed value for you and guaranteed denial for them while they are attempting a gank that might not even be valuable in the end.

Finally, as a control jungler, the best course of action is to counter gank whenever possible. Control junglers are exceptional at counter-ganking, so prioritize it over counter jungling. However, sometimes the timing isn't right, or the tracking leading up to the gank isn't perfect. When that's the case, the control jungler must determine if any objectives can be taken in the meantime, if counter jungling is an option, or if there is another better use of time.

Finally, against control junglers, there are several strategies to timing the counter jungling. First, it's essential to understand that control junglers generally have a kit that allows them to move across the map rather quickly. Their fast rotations mean that the time you have to make a play before they can respond is much less than it would be against the other two. Therefore, it's crucial to be sure of the enemy jungler's location before committing to a play. As a farming jungler, you must be ready to take advantage of a camp available when the enemy jungler is not going to be able to punish you for it. It does not happen often, but these opportunities will be there if the enemy is not keeping track of you. This matchup tends to be the clash of styles that emphasizes 'jungle gaps.' When the farming jungler is significantly better than the control jungler, the control jungler will be ganking and attempting to secure objectives.

In contrast, the farming jungler is free to clear both team's jungles with little punishment. On the flip side, when a control jungler is leagues better, the farming jungler will be severely behind in tempo because they will be adequately counter jungled and unable to assist teammates who will also be behind in their matchups because of the enemy jungler. Therefore, make sure to track the control jungler well to help teammates avoid ganks and buy you some time to counter jungle and free farm whenever possible.

As a ganking jungler against control junglers, you must account for their desire to counter gank you. Therefore, you must avoid being easily tracked at all costs and be creative with your pathing to make it more difficult for the enemy. It's not good to sacrifice efficiency in pathing. Still, modest sacrifices can be the difference in the enemy jungler believing you're headed for top-side Scuttle Crab when you're ready to gank bot lane!

This matchup is quite tricky to get a lead in if you're not familiar with your Champion's flexibility in clearing routes, so make sure to understand what options you have available to you. For example, as Jarvan IV, it's prevalent at the beginning of the game to do a three-camp clear and then gank. However, Jarvan IV can also fully clear his jungle before Scuttle Crab spawns. By prioritizing that instead, it can maximize the time spent in the Fog-Of-War and leave the enemy jungler finding it difficult to track you until they meet you at the Scuttle Crab when it spawns and is a level lower than you!

Strategies to Counter Jungle Clearing

There are several strategies that junglers use to stay one step ahead of their opponent. First, players must know the most efficient way to clear the camps they are counter jungling. Against a farming jungler, you will want to leave one small monster left at the camp to prevent it from respawning for as long as possible. Farming junglers require as much gold and experience as possible as soon as possible if they want to stay ahead. So, by counter jungling and leaving the small monster up, they are forced to waste their time to clear that one small monster so that the full camp will respawn where they can get as much gold and experience as possible. The only circumstance that this is not the ideal clearing strategy is when you are confident that you will be back to clear the camp as soon as it spawns again. If that's the case, then by fully clearing the camp, you will prevent the enemy jungler from knowing when it will respawn and make it easier to counter jungle again in the future. If you did leave up one small monster without the vision of the leftover monster's clearing, you would not have a timer for when that camp will respawn again, making it more challenging to counter jungle again in the future.

As a farming jungler, since your goal is to gather as much gold and experience as quickly as possible, your goal is to clear jungle camps as soon as they spawn! Therefore, whenever you get the chance to take the enemy's camps, you'll want to do it and fully clear them. That way, you'll deny them the gold and experience, gain it yourself, and have the timer for when it respawns and the enemy jungler will not, making it much easier to counter jungle again!

As a control jungler against a ganking jungler or another control jungler, you'll always want to be a nuisance! Whenever you're not counter ganking, you'll be stealing camps and leaving small monsters behind to force the enemy to waste time while you continue to snowball your lead to victory!

Finally, the last aspect of the matchup to help determine the best strategies to counter jungling is knowing who will win the 1-on-1 fight between you. Adjacent lanes' priorities will come into play with this, but if you know you will win a battle, sometimes it's best to use your knowledge from tracking to go for the risky play and try to kill the jungler instead of counter jungling camps. Player's using this strategy will not only get more gold, experience, and potentially a buff or two but will also deny them the gold and experience of their camps and make it tricky to come back from behind. There are multiple ways to mess with your opponent when doing this strategy that can throw them for a loop.

For example, after killing the enemy jungler bot-side while Dragon is up, they may assume you'll go straight to the Dragon because it will be uncontested! But, instead, you can clear their remaining bot-side camps and wait for them to return either thinking the camps are still up (because you're doing Dragon) or that you removed them but are not doing Dragon. Then you can kill them again when they are walking to Dragon and then do the Dragon. By making plays like these, you're effectively stretching the slight advantage you gained. Instead of accepting this lead and moving on, you use that lead to create an even more significant advantage before moving on!

Conclusion

Overall, counter jungling is a very tricky part of the game to figure out because of how many variables play into it! But, with enough proactivity and forethought, you'll start to understand what your Champions are capable of and what plays tend to work for you over others. Learn the style that best suits your gameplay and lean into it rather than try to cover your weaknesses!

Do your best, and keep asking questions. Good luck, Summoners!