We’ve all been this situation in League before. Your base is being broken into, you’re behind in gold, kills, and objectives, and it seems almost hopeless. However, I am here to tell you not to forfeit or give up. I know that can be difficult for some, trust me I know, but when you coordinate and put any animosities with your teammates aside, a comeback from any stage of the game is entirely possible. Today, I’ll be giving you all some tips and tricks in how to stage comebacks on the rift. So sit back, relax and lets dive into it!

Don’t be Tilted/Motivate Your Team

This one is probably the most difficult for anyone to overcome in a losing game. It is natural for us to blame someone in a blind anger for the team losing the match, but in doing so, you would only doom yourself. Don’t try to drown in the tilt whenever you see a teammate not perform to the standard. Not only with that affect yourself, but it would in turn affect the rest of the team and will turn it into a torrent of unnecessary hate. We all have bad games every once in a while, there is no need to flame someone because of that.

Instead, you should provide them with support, whether it’d be telling them how to approach a lane or battle differently or going down and giving them help via a gank or a teleport. Find ways to help them overcome their earlier defeats in the game and they can potentially become an essential tool to your path for a comeback. This also goes for any other teammates, motivate them not to forfeit, because all it takes is one pick, one teamfight, one objective steal to completely turn a match around. While we are on that subject…

Emphasize Targeting Key Champions and Picking Right Times to Fight

One of the key components to staging a comeback is setting priorities. The first priority is choosing which champion to target when a team fight starts. When your team has a clear idea on who they need to target in order to win the teamfight, you have a better chance of success in getting them off the battlefield and back to their fountain. If you prioritize the wrong champion, your team could be vulnerable to that champion and the others that are around to support them. So make sure you choose your targets carefully and make sure it has a purpose when you are behind. One kill can give you multiple avenues for slowly getting back into the game, but more on that later.

Furthermore, it is also paramount that you know when a fight is a good one or a bad one to go into. It is also key that you understand the boundaries of what you can do. For example, you cannot go out into unwarded areas of our jungle without your team to back you up unless you have knowledge that the opposing team is somewhere else. Doing so without that knowledge could be a death sentence. So, it is imperative that your team sticks together, as you will have a better chance at winning fights when you are together rather then separated. If the opportunity presents itself however and you find an opening to attack, like you are playing a 5v3 in the mid lane or landing a hook onto a big carry for the team, like an ADC for instance, that would be the perfect opportunity to attack. If successful, it will provide your team with multiple options to counterattack objectively, which leads into my next point.

Take Any Neutral Objective Advantage You Can

Whenever you get a key pick or if you have knowledge of the enemy team’s whereabouts, you should use that and take any neutral objectives you can. Doing so will help your team immensely, both in gaining gold and experience needed to match lane opponents if under leveled. The main priorities, if they available, are dragons, the Rift Herald and the Baron. Those neutral objectives will help you in the long run rather than just running down to get a tower, but if none of those major creature options are available to you with the time you have, then go for towers. Doing so will give you a lane to focus on and pressure if your team can get successful teamfights or crucial picks.

Funnel Gold Into a Carry

If you have someone on your team that can late game carry, like an Azir, Vayne or Kassadin for example or who is far ahead in kills, CS, gold or any of the sort, it might be a good idea to let them have a majority of the gold you accumulate. Scaling champions and champions who are having a positive impact on the game for your team will benefit the most out of a stalemate because downed inhibitors is a gold mine of farm to them. If you have an inhibitor down, let that carry use it to farm up and buy items that will be crucially needed for the fight to come back and win. It also is a good idea to wait for them to join a fight before you intend to start one. It gives them an opportunity to gain kills, assists, gold and experience. A fed carry is a good carry!

Utilize the Split Push

If you have a champion, or champions, that can self-sustain and has avenues of escape, like Jax for instance, they should be put on split push duty if they can. Split pushing is one of the more well-known strategies in League of Legends and rightfully so. It has been the downfall for some teams and the savior for others. With split pushing, it forces a team into an uncomfortable position because they would have to send someone to answer the split pusher.

This can give your team the advantage to do multiple things, force a teamfight, take neutral objectives, get vision in needed places, etc. There are some big drawbacks to split pushing, as you will be shorthanded if a fight was to break out and the opposing team is all grouped up. So use the split push only as a last resort to come from behind. Most of the time it is better to be together then to be apart in a dire situation like that, but that one champion that can effectively split push, can open your team up for an avenue to a come from behind victory.

Build Items to Counter the Strongest Enemy Champion

This should be a standard for anyone. Building items to negate the damage of a strong enemy champion will do wonders for you in a fight. If you’re an AP against an AD champion, simply build an Hourglass. It does not provide that much armor, but its Stasis active ability will do you wonders in a fight to avoid damage and ultimate’s like Zed’s Death Mark or Talon’s Shadow Assault. If you’re an AD against an AP champion, you have many more options. You can get a Stopwatch yourself, but unlike the Hourglass, it’s one time only, so use it wisely.

You can also use items like the Maw of Malmortis to gain a huge magic shield to avoid things like an Orianna's Shockwave or Syndra’s Unleashed Power, a Wit’s End for ADCs or attack speed based champs to gain some health back, or a Mercurial Scimitar to escape things like Malzahar’s Nether Grasp and even Mordekaiser’s Death Realm. Build items to specifically counter the stronger enemy champions and you could see yourself victorious against them.

Establish As Much Vision As You Can

Vision is the name of the game in League of Legends. As previously stated, if you walk into a blind jungle with no information on enemy whereabouts, you are seriously tempting fate. That is why it is very important that you try to lay out as much vision as possible. Having the knowledge of where you enemy is, is crucial to League, especially if you are trying to get that come from behind victory. First though, you must buy control wards and some need to get sweepers, so that you can scout out enemy wards and wipe them out, because more than likely, they will ward your base hard and you won’t be doing anything if they know you have left. After you clear wards near your base, work on your jungles and then start to place wards on neutral objectives, like dragon or baron.

Having this knowledge of the enemy team starting an objective can act as a turning point, because lets say for instance, the enemy team is at Dragon. Your team can go to Baron and pressure that to either get the enemy team off the Dragon to answer your Baron call or finish the Dragon and potentially lose out the Baron to compromise. Vision is the name of the game for a comeback and if you nail that part down to a tee and all the other parts previously mentioned, then you will be on the march to a comeback you will likely not forget. Best of luck summoners and see you on the rift!