Not every game of League of Legends is going to start out strong. Sometimes kills and assists that you had no way to prevent will fall to your opponent. Or as is the case in Top Lane especially, you’ll be on the end of a bad matchup where you don’t have much influence. Keeping our lens focused on Top today, we’re going to talk about how to play from behind and what you need to do to survive rough lanes and come out ahead of your opponent!

Play for Creeps and Avoid Fights

Top Lane’s home to a ton of snowbally-1v9-why did Riot even design this-style champions. From Riven, to Irelia, to Darius, to Renekton… the list is a long one. And many players see these Champions and immediately think, “I have to be able to outplay every situation presented to me!”

Well, that’s where you’re wrong, bucko. Often when breaking down this mindset with players I coach, I ask them, “What’s the surest way to build a lead over your opponent?” Many answer through kills and assists, others answer through turrets and objectives, but the answer that I look for from my players is “CS”.

CS-ing in Top Lane is just as important as is it for a Mage or Marksman trying to reach their item spikes, and for us on the island, Minions are often our only comfort in the trying times of bad matchups or already fed opponents. Through proper wave pushing and freezes we create avenues to allow our Jungler to influence our lane, while also being in position to catch as much CS as we can and deny our opponent from taking advantage of their strength.

So, to maintain stability against bad matchups and fed opponents, your mindset shifts from, “What’s my outplay on them?” to, “How can I catch this wave with minimal interaction?” It’s a boring mindset to adopt, I know. But in cases where Gold and EXP are in favor of your opponent, interacting with the wave is going to be the surest way to prevent you from slumping and being useless come late-game.

Build Tank Stats

Even if you’re playing a Fighter or Bruiser, you can still prioritize Tank items in bad situations. Though lane focused picks often start with the goal to press their will over their opponents, many can opt for tankier builds when the matchup or situation calls for it.

Take for example a pick like Renekton. He’s an excellent lane bully and is very much known for his ability to wax an opponent out and then in teamfights dive important carries and delete them before they know what’s happening. Well, what happens when Renekton can’t win lane? Is he just useless? Absolutely not.

At the core of Renekton’s kit is a diver’s toolset: two sustaining abilities (Q/R), a point and click stun, and two dashes on his E. And though he can abuse these abilities when he’s ahead to nuke the backline, he’s just as capable of being a disruptor of a fight when building tanky!

Though he may not be able to outright kill everyone opponent, when you’re behind you’re playing for your team, and to set up for them. So this mean, that Renekton will be using his kit to lock down and soak priority targets so that his team can get closer and take them out. Or, he’ll be dashing for disruption only to dash back and use his stun for peel while still soaking damage.

You can adapt Renekton’s gameplay for multiple situations, and if you’re clever you can adapt other Champions into their ‘off-roles” to be effective. So, players that play Fighters and Bruisers, don’t stay focused on those damaging all-in builds, take what is presented to you, and use your items to overcome and adapt to what your team needs when you’re behind!

Get Vision and Roam

When behind, and especially if being frozen off waves, sometimes it feels like you aren’t providing anything to the game since interacting with your lane state can mean you death. Well, how do we fix a game we can’t play? Through vision and roaming! Yes, again Fighters and Bruisers might not like playing for this, but in the event that we can't abuse our lane opponent, we’ve got to adopt a team-based mindset and focus on what we can do to help our team carry us through the rough times.

So, this means maintaining vision over the river and into the enemy jungle to watch out for the enemy Jungler and call out his pathing. This means moving with allied Jungler into the opposite side to provide support and kill the opposing Jungler. This means using our great diving abilities for sneaky and clever roams onto Mid to abuse the lack of mobility present in that lane. This means taking advantage of the Jungler being on Bot to roam to tier camps and steal them!

Sometimes playing from behind, means ‘abandoning’ or playing as a ‘Second-Jungler” and in cases where you can’t be a force in your lane, you’re already looking for your team to carry you. So, adopting these gameplans will only serve to boost your primary carries up while also keeping you in the game! (Champions like Kled and Camille are GREAT at this!)

Be In The Right Place

After the plates have fallen and your team is breaking down for fights across the map, it’s time for you to figure out where to go. This decision depends primarily on your ability to get back to your team when needed though, so consider your big cooldowns like Teleport or your traversal abilities if you’re on a Champion like Kled or Shen.

So, for split-pushers, you want to be in a side lane. If you’re behind and looking to pick up from a bad lane phase, you’ll want to match the weakest opponent the enemy has to offer so that minions can be picked up without interference. Once you push out your wave, if the enemy responds by sending the stronger opponent to answer, back and swap to the opposite lane to pick of EXP and gold. The same goes for Tanks that are rocking TP.

However, for Tanks out there, where do you think your presence is best felt? It’s certainly not glued to a side-lane. Your abilities are often dictated by ‘what they do’ and not how much damage they do. This means, your presence is felt through CC, soaking damage, and being a general disruptor. And this is all best expressed within a teamfight setting. So, if you’re the team’s primary Tank or are shifting your build to adapt to be better in teamfights, being closer to your team is more important than pressuring towers in a side-lane.

Sure, you can roam over and catch a wave, but don’t walk the wave into the turret or try to fish for extra damage on the tower. You want to be near your team to provide your peel, engage, and disengage, so slap the wave towards the enemy’s side of the lane, and then roam back to your team by walking through safe zones on the map, or if something breaks down quickly without you, using Teleport.

Closing Out

So, what do we do when we’re behind?

1. Play for the Wave. Try to set freezes and time our pushes so our opponent misses CS and EXP.
2. Get Tanky! Defensive stats allow us to survive and disrupt teamfights!
3. Secure vision over the Top-Side, roam to help the Jungler, or pull of dives on Mid!
4. Be in the right position by utilizing Teleport properly for sidelane pressure or being a teamfight presence.

And that’s pretty much it! I hope these tips help you survive those dreaded Darius matchups! Good luck in Solo Queue!