Initiation: What and Why

There were (and are) bands of elo or summoner levels where the prevailing concept of team composition is this: Whichever team has the tank wins. There are several reasons for this idea, and like all rumors there is a nugget of truth at its source. In my opinion, the nugget of truth is based on initiation potential. For the sake of this discussion, I'll define initiation in my own words.

Initiation – Noun.
An ability, abilities, or tactic that allows one player or team to force another player or team into a fight, generally in the initiating player's advantage.

Initiation is probably the most powerful trait a champion can have. Just by the nature of champion design in League of Legends, any champion can contribute significantly to a teamfight, in damage if nothing else. However, a good initiation prevents one or more players from fully contributing to a fight, forcing an artificially unbalanced situation. For example, if a Malphite ult hits three champions, then the fight is essentially 5v2 while those champions are unable to act. That more than anything else is the power of initiation.

There are weaker, 'soft' initiations that are not as effective in one way or another, but that is the heart of initiation; preventing the enemy from having a 'fair fight'. In my experience, there is no greater determination of the ability of a team to win than the measure of initiation.

We've all been in a game in which both teams end up in mid lane, and neither team has the poke or bravery to start a fight. It's annoying, if hilarious, and tends to result in a stalemate. In general, the first team to have a teammate leave to farm a lane is vulnerable to an engagement by the other team, if and only if the engaging team has strong initiation.

So then, there are two main questions to ask here.

First, is “When should I (or my team) use their initiation?”

Some general guidelines include:
-When a valuable/squishy enemy player is vulnerable
-When the enemy has fewer teammates in the area than you do
-When the enemy is under your tower or fighting baron/dragon

However, when to initiate is a very important skill that can only be learned through experience.

The second question is much easier. It asks, “Who should I pick for initiation?”
While many champions have some soft initiation (such as Anivia walls and Lux fishing for Light Bindings), I'm mainly going to name champions with very strong initiation, sufficient that they don't need help of a second initiator to do their job.

Here's a short list of some of the strongest initiators in the game:
Alistar
Amumu
Ashe
Blitzcrank
Cho'gath
Galio
Hecarim
Jarvan
Leona
Malphite
Maokai
Morgana
Nautilus
Orianna
Rammus
Sejuani
Shen
Skarner
Sona
Thresh
Urgot
Varus
Veigar
Vi
Wukong

As long as at least one champion on your team has some initiation potential, you have a solid chance of winning. Try to keep that in mind the next game you play. Good luck out there.

 

Article icon by Eduardo Gonzalez.