So you’ve fallen behind in the midlane. You’ve lost all pressure you had in lane and can barely farm minions safely. If your lane opponent even looks at you then you die. What do you do? Well, depending on what champion you’re playing, you have several options on what you can feasibly do.

The first rule that applies not just to midlane champions, but to every champion in the game when you’re behind, is to accept that you are behind. It’s the truth. You are not the only person on the team. You are not the star. You have four other people who are perfectly capable of carrying. Let them.

Playing from behind as Ahri, Aurelion Sol, Lux, LeBlanc, Syndra, Twisted Fate, Zoe

If you’re playing from behind as one of these champions (or a similar one), then fear not! For you still bring enough utility to the table where you can contribute to the team. You have one skill with hard CC and that’s enough to be useful.

What you’ll want to do during laning phase is play safe in lane and roam at every opportunity you can. If your jungler’s heading bot, then go with him. If he’s heading top, then go with him. Getting your team ahead is worth much more than the gold you’ll get from farming the waves and not influencing the map at all. Take towers, take dragons, and most importantly do not fight your lane opponent if you are alone and can avoid it.

If you see your lane opponent roaming, call out the roam and make sure your team is aware of it. Then, roam to another lane if you can after shoving in your lane. Force your lane opponent to lose out on as much gold as possible to try to equalize the difference.

After laning phase, assuming your still behind, you’re going to want to stick with the team and protect and peel for the carry. Use your CC on whoever is gunning for your carries, or at the very most use your CC to engage and then shift gears to defending your carries. Don’t go for the enemy carries unless they’re horribly out of position and the rest of your team can follow up on them.

Build Alternatives

Consider going for cheaper alternatives for items, such as instead of Luden’s Echo get a Hextech GLP-800. Hextech GLP-800's active gives you a little more CC in the form of a icy bolts that slow and damage enemies, and it has the added benefit of being 400 gold cheaper. Twin Shadows is a good second item too if you’re on a budget build. It offers more utility in the form of the spooky ghosts that seek out enemies and slow them.

Playing from behind as Annie, Cassiopeia, Morgana, Orianna, Lissandra

If you’re playing from behind as one of these champions, then fear not! For even when behind you bring a lot of utility to the team in the form of CC. Your role won’t be as a damage threat but more of as an initiator. You’ll be starting the fights so that your team can clean them up. Just don’t go off on your own, as you won’t be able to get kills by yourself if you’re behind.

Early game, once you hit level 6, you’ll want to be roaming around the map assisting your team. All of these champions have fight-changing ultimates if used properly, even if you yourself do not have the damage to back it up. Annie, Cassiopeia, and Orianna can CC the enemy team almost instantly and for long enough for the rest of your team to unload onto them. Cassiopeia offers even more utility with the “grounded” effect that her W has, preventing all movement skills while inside of it. Morgana offers one of the best shields in the game with her E, which prevents crowd control on its target so long as the shield is up. Morgana also has an AoE (Area of Effect) slow that turns into a stun on her R and has one of the longest CC spells in the game on her Q, which is a snare that lasts for 2/2.25/2.50/2.75/3 seconds. Lissandra brings a targeted stun with her ultimate that lasts for 1.5 seconds, giving you great utility for peeling. She also has a slow on her Q and a root on her W, giving her good peel and catch abilities.

Build Alternatives

For all of these champions, consider going for a Hextech GLP-800 and a Twin Shadows for more utility, depending on how far behind you are. You'll also want to prioritize getting max cooldown reduction too.

As Annie and Cassiopeia, go for an early Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment to provide a burning, damaging slow on your abilities that'll keep you relevant in terms of damage.

As Morgana, you're still going to want to rush your Zhonya's Hourglass for the synergy between it and your ultimate.

As Orianna and Lissandra, you'll still want to build your usual items, but prioritize the cheaper AP items, such as Void Staff and Morellonomicon, over the more expensive ones like Rabadon's Deathcap. With Orianna, you can also go for an Athene's Unholy Grail for a little bit of healing to give to the main carry on the team when you shield them.

Playing from behind as Katarina, Zed, Talon, Akali, Kassadin, Fizz

Unfortunately, if you decide to play one of these champions and you fall behind in lane, you're going to be in for a struggle. These assassins bring very little to the table in terms of CC. Your best bet is to try to get as much farm as you can so that you can get the items you need and become relevant to the game.

During laning phase, if you can't fight your lane opponent or even farm safely, you'll have to roam around the map and try to get kills and assists and set up your other lanes for victory. However, even this will be hard for you as you'll be mainly reliant on your team to set up the engagements and you'll just be following up with more damage.

After laning phase, if you're still behind then your main goal will be to protect the carry on the team (not you). Because you don't have any reliable CC, the best way to accomplish this is to assist the team in killing whoever is trying to dive your backline. This should help relieve the pressure on your carry, and enable them to stay alive and win the teamfight for you and your team. What you do not want to do is try and dive the enemy backline. Because you're behind, the most you'll accomplish when diving the backline is getting blown up by the enemy team. Maybe you'll get lucky and get them to blow a Flash, but overall this is definitely not worth it.

Build Alternative

Unfortunately, there's not much that you can do in terms of alternate builds. Your best options for alternate builds are the defensive items such as Abyssal Mask and Maw of Malmortius. Otherwise it's just trying to get enough gold to get your damage-dealing items.

Playing from behind as Anivia, Ziggs

Playing from behind as Ziggs and Anivia is pretty simple. All you have to do is waveclear until you're relevant again. That's it. These two champions can be so obnoxious due to the fact that they can waveclear with ease, making it difficult for the enemy team to dive you. Plus, Ziggs is also one of the best tower pushers in the game, so when you get the opportunity, you can take down towers very quickly.

Build Alternative

Because if you're playing as Anivia or Ziggs, your gold income from minions should be relatively higher compared to any other midlaner when behind. So stick with your usual build.

Playing from behind as Karthus, Vel'Koz, Veigar

Playing from behind as either Karthus, Vel'Koz, or Veigar is probably one of the better lanes to play from behind as. You'll be a damage threat no matter what.

When playing from behind as Karthus, you're not going to want to roam really. Your main goal is to farm up as much as you can to hit level 11 as soon as possible, because the damage difference between rank 1 and rank 2 ultimates is huge. The times you do want to roam are when you shove your lane in and are just sitting around midlane doing nothing. Also, if you see a fight going on, use your ultimate early to secure assists and aid your team.

When playing from behind as Vel'Koz, your focus is going to be getting max cooldown reduction as fast as possible. Thanks to Vel'Koz's high base damage and passive, even when you're low on items and AP, you'll still be able to put out a lot of damage. Your ultimate in particular will still shred through the enemy team if you can get a full channel off.

As Veigar, when you're behind you'll still be focusing on what Veigar wants to focus on: getting stacks on your passive to increase your AP. You can do this by farming it with your Q, harassing enemies, and forcing teamfights. Veigar's E is one of the best CC abilities in the game. You can use it to zone enemies or catch them and allow your teammates to collapse on them.

Build Alternative

For Karthus, after you finish your first item you'll want to go for a Rylai's Crystal Scepter and a Liandry's Torment. This'll allow you to stick to enemies and burn them down in a teamfight with good positioning.

For Vel'Koz, focus on getting max cooldown reduction and magic penetration. A Twin Shadows will help you a lot too so feel free to pick up one.

For Veigar, you can just keep on building whatever you were planning on building. Veigar's unique in that he'll always get stronger the longer the game goes on, so your item choices shoud reflect the state the game is in when you're building it (as in an early Zhonya's Hourglass if you're getting dived a lot or a Twin Shadows if you need more chasing potential).

Thanks for reading and I hope this helps! Comments and criticisms are, as always, appreciated.

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