Tips for Playing from Behind in League of Legends
Not every game goes as planned. Here are a few tips to find success in the face of defeat.
League of Legends is a complex game. There are many strategies and playstyles one can use to find success, but not every match goes as planned. The game changes when you are behind and you must adapt your playstyle in order to win. These tips will mostly focus on you as an individual rather than a team, as it is sometimes hard to coordinate team play in solo queue.
Laning Phase
Many players believe that they have to win laning phase in order to win the game. This often leads to over-aggression and making mistakes. Don’t worry; we’ve all been there. Maybe you’re losing your lane because of factors outside of your control, such as your lane opponent getting first blood on an invade or killing your jungler on a bad gank. Let's get you back into the game!
- Most importantly, don't tilt! The game isn’t all about you and your lane, and it can still be won. It isn’t over until the Nexus is taken. I myself never surrender, as there is always a chance the enemy will throw. I understand many people surrender as they want to save time and move on to the next game, but think of being in a hard game as practice. Decide what needs to be done to win that game. It is true, not every game is winnable, but there are very few games that are decided before laning phase is over. Assess the situation and don’t give up. Let your team carry you. If you play passively and don’t give your lane opponent too much of a lead, it will give your team more of a chance to carry you.
- Adapt to your opponent being stronger than you. Do not focus on killing your enemy, but rather focus on making sure they don’t become any stronger. Avoid trades or only take trades you know you can win. A good way to safely win a trade is to keep track of your opponent's cooldowns and try to put out damage while they cannot retaliate. In a losing lane, keeping track of your opponent’s cooldowns is vital, as this downtime is also when you may be able to farm without the threat of them fighting you. A strong enemy will zone you from the wave, so you must decide if it is worth taking damage for potential gold. It is always better to play it safe and get what gold you can while also getting experience than it is to risk getting that cannon minion and also dying.
- Try to play under your tower as much as possible. Let your opponent shove the wave to your tower so you can farm safely. You may lose a few CS, but it is still better than giving a kill. If your opponent is freezing the wave, try to make them use their abilities on your minions. A good way to do this is to take a trade while standing in your minions. Of course this is only recommended if you won’t die in the process. A good example of this would be playing Nasus into Riven. Nasus is a very weak early game champion and Riven has high kill potential. In order to farm safely, a Nasus can stand in his minion wave and if Riven goes for any trade, her area of effect abilities will push the wave towards Nasus and his tower. Then you can attempt to stall the wave at a safe point near your tower. This will help keep you safe from not only the enemy laner, but will also deter the enemy jungler from ganking. At some point, your lane opponent may also adapt to you playing safely and will try to bring their lead to other lanes. This is the only time you should shove out the wave. You want to bring the enemy back to your lane to relieve their pressure on your team. Make sure to get the wave all the way to their tower so it bounces back to you and they can’t freeze it again.
- Build defensively. Defensive items are generally cheaper than offensive items. Your defensive stats will mitigate a lot of their damage and you will still have your base damage for trades. While your overall kill pressure may still be low, trades between you and your lane opponent will now be a lot closer. When choosing items just make sure to build for the game, not just your lane. This also doesn't mean if you give up a few kills on Draven you should drop everything and build Sunfire Cape. Build defensively according to your class. An ADC may build lifesteal instead of armor pen, while a mage may build Abyssal Scepter or Zhonya’s Hourglass rather than Morellonomicon.
Accept that your lane may be a lost cause. Don’t be the feeding player that is flaming their jungler for not ganking. It is much more beneficial for a jungler to go and help a winning lane and help snowball their lead than it is to risk ganking a losing lane. Ganking a losing lane risks potentially trading one for one or even worse getting counter ganked and giving up two kills. That is time that is wasted for the jungler when the odds of success are much higher when ganking a winning lane.
For Junglers
Many of the same concepts for losing laners apply to junglers. Avoid the enemy jungler and don’t contest camps with them. This especially means do not invade to take their camps. If you are behind, odds are good that they will have greater vision control than you and your team, so it is too risky to go behind enemy lines. Transition your playstyle into being supportive. This also means altering your build to fit the needs of the game. Remember, defensive items are usually cheaper and will still allow you to help your team by lasting longer in teamfights. You can buy Tracker's Knife instead of the other smites to help give vision to your winning lanes. Play around these winning lanes and try to gank for them. However, don’t gank unless you have knowledge of where the enemy jungler is, as you risk losing a two on two otherwise.
Mid Game
While mid game is more about team play than individual performance, there are still some things you can do by yourself to help keep your team in the game.
- You need to stall out the game as much as possible. As you get later in a game, a gold lead means less and less. This means shoving lanes as safely as possible. Keep enemies off your towers as much as possible. Wave clear becomes very important when you are behind. Only clear minion waves when it is safe to do so. Let objectives go if you can’t contest them. If the enemy team has Baron, it is much better to lose a tower or two rather than lose the game. If you and your team kite backwards from objectives, their push will be slower than if you all die defending the first tower that they go for. Inhibitor turrets are a different case, as they are harder for the enemy to maneuver around and more important to protect. Of course it is much better to lose an inhibitor than lose the game, so decide if it is something your team has a chance of defending before you take that fight.
- As a final tip, always ward and control vision as much as possible. This is something that should be done in all situations, win or lose. It is very important to ward when you are losing, as it prevents you from losing even harder. In lane it may protect you from being tower dove and during the mid game may save your team from being picked off. It is also an avenue to get back into the game. Warding your jungle may let you find a pick on an enemy or take a fight where you have a numbers advantage. Clearing the enemy’s wards will also slow their progress onto your side of the map. In the end, if you have an empty slot and some spare gold, always leave base with a pink ward!
I hope some of this will help you in those harder games. Feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comments. Good luck and I hope to see you all in Diamond soon!
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