Challenging the Twisted Treeline: an interview with a Challenger ranked TT player

The Twisted Treeline (TT), and the 3v3 game play that takes place there, has long been a favorite of many summoners, myself included. While we know all about the high level play that occurs on Summoner's Rift, I have found that most people know very little about high level threes play. To learn more about how to best play threes and what it's like to be a Challenger level player on the TT, I sat down with Voosha of team Captain America x Ironman to learn more.

Hi Voosha, thanks for taking the time to chat with me about the TT. Before we get into the stuff I think we're all curious about, tell me a bit about yourself. How long have you been playing League? Where are you ranked right now? What is your favorite champion across all the maps?

Voosha: I've been playing League since early on in season one. My Challenger threes team that I am on, Captain America x Ironman, is currently ranked 2nd on the NA servers. In solo que I am only in Diamond 4. I do not bother climbing in solo que since I'm not even going to try and fight the hundreds of players going for Challenger. My friends always criticize me when we play team games since all of them are Diamond 1 and I am this lowly level Diamond 4. My favorite champion across all maps is Annie. She was the champion I first started playing and the one I am most comfortable with.

 

Oh Annie, what is it that you like about her?

Voosha: She has a stun and pretty decent aoe damage. With the right team composition she is as deadly as any mid lane. She is easy to pick up, and unlike chess, easy to master. All you need to do is get used to her spell ranges.

 

I can definitely see why you like her. Ok, now that I've asked you what League of Legends considers to be the personal questions, let's get to the TT.

I want to know a little bit about you and the TT. What first got you started/interested in the TT and what kept you playing it? I know a lot of people play it casually or when they start playing League, but not many people actually stick it out and truly become elite players.

Voosha: What first got me interested in TT was that it was difficult to assemble a team of five to play together on Summoner's Rift, so me and some of my friends just started playing TT instead. My Diamond friend asked me to support his team when I was still just a little plebeian among the giants of League. That is when I met StevexTony Yaoi. Just like trying to keep five of my friends playing, players on my high elo fives team started to not show up. So Steve and I decided to make a threes team and start playing.

One game when we were dominating we suddenly had an epiphany - we could get to Challenger. Our synergy and team comps just clicked. StevexTony Yaoi has been a very good friend and mentor, and I hope we can achieve the #1 ranking in the near future.

 

What role do you usually play on the TT?

Voosha: I usually play the bottom lane, so mostly AP casters. I play champions such as Lulu, Zyra, or Annie.

 

Clearly your team does something amazingly well to have made it to the Challenger level. What is it about your team that has led to your success?

Voosha: TT is really about teamwork and helping each other out. I've known StevexTony Yaoi and my other teammates for a long time, so we know everyone's play style. We never "rage" at each other. There is either a goofy laughing mode or serious don't fool around and listen to instructions mode. Usually most games we are always laughing and fooling around on Skype.

 

That really sounds like the best way to play League. Speaking of Challenger teams, can you tell us a bit about the pro scene in threes. I guess, firstly, is there really much of a scene? I know that there used to be a lot of tournaments, even Riot sponsored ones. Do you and your team take part in anything outside of the standard queues?

Voosha: The threes pro scene is very under advertised. Yes there are tournaments, but no one really participates. You see the same people every time. I've also had bad experiences with threes tournaments that are poorly run. For example, and these teams shall go unnamed, one tournament we had to wait three hours for our next opponent to play the previous team we had just beaten in another tournament. When we contacted the admins they did nothing about it. Once the other match was done, one of our members had to leave and the admins tried to give us some "hush skins" to keep this quiet. We did not take them, and we never participated again.

If you are high ranked and know people organizing these tournaments, it can be extremely unfair to those who don't have an in with the organizers. I really hope Riot will take threes more seriously and can host some sort of Challenger series. What's the point of having a ranked threes if there is no LCS or something for it? You get the #1 ranking and then what?

People generally do not care about threes since they make these random assumptions about it, like there is nothing more to it than picking bruisers to win. There is definitely more to it than that, and I wish people had more chances to see everything that happens in a threes match.

 

So what specifically would you like to see Riot do to either create or strengthen the scene surrounding threes?

Voosha: As I addressed a bit in my last statement, I really hope Riot can bring threes to a higher level, like the LCS. League of Legends is a vastly growing game, yet they focus all their efforts on Summoner's Rift. I can absolutely understand why, since they are growing eSports as a whole and not just League of Legends itself, but they should show the world some of the other things their game has to offer.

 

I think that's a fair point. Ok, now let's talk a little bit about the game play itself, because I have read some of your guides and I know that you have a great understanding of how matches are played. If you had to describe the TT meta using only 140 characters how would you sum it up?

Voosha: The only meta I can think of is either one top, one bot, one jungle or one top and two bot. However, you really can play whatever you're good at and achieve a high level.

 

Good summary. Now I would like you to elaborate on that a bit. What do team compositions usually look like? What kinds of champs are you seeing getting the most play (and why)? What objectives are you prioritizing?

Voosha: Most team comps are one top, one bot, one jungle. The 2v1 lane at bottom is viable but not played as often. There are many, many different types of team comps but they usually focus around champions who have crowd control or have high burst damage. Would you really want to team fight after one of your teammates just got nuked down in less than half a second? Good dueling champions are often played, such as Jax and Cassiopeia. Cass has insane 1v1 damage and her ult is a potential three man stun. Jax is a monster since it takes a lot of effort to keep him contained due to his dodging skill and the magic resist and armor boost from his ult.

The main objectives to prioritize, like in Summoner's Rift, are the towers, followed by the altars. Just like in Summoner's Rift, map control gives you a huge advantage. Obtaining both altars gives 10% bonus ability power and attack damage. Vilemaw gives a decent buff, but it runs out very quickly.  It's short duration has led to it not being as sought out as Dragon or Baron would be in Summoner's Rift.

 

Could you briefly describe for us how a typical game plays out for your team, starting in champ select.

Voosha: We typically ban out champions we have trouble with, such as Tryndamere and Cassiopeia, however you clearly cannot ban out all the champions that are OP for TT. You just need to learn match ups and adjust accordingly. Once the game has started, we defend our jungle in case the enemy team decides to invade. We push our lanes and clear the jungle as fast as possible. Getting the level advantage is key to controlling the lane and obtaining objectives early on. We are always communicating on whether to group and what our plan of attack is. We group quickly when we feel it is appropriate.

This is more of a team game than Summoner's Rift. Sticking together everywhere you go after mid game is the key to success. Our jungler will gank as much as possible to help get towers early on. Once someone is low on their team, or if we get the tower, we will fight for the altar since the 10% buff is very huge. Games are very quick and usually end by mid game. Most games I don't even get to level 18 or finish four items.

 

What is one common mistake that you see lower level teams making on TT?

Voosha: Not grouping or communicating. Communication and teamwork is very crucial in TT, even more so than in Summoner's Rift. Getting caught out by yourself is also a killer mistake. We have won many games with a quick 3v2 push after catching someone on the other team where they shouldn't be.

 

With Season Four fast approaching, is there anything you would like to see Riot change to make the TT better?

Voosha: Add a solo queue to it and make it more competitive, please! By adding solo queue more people can play and hopefully Riot will see just how competitive TT really is.

 

That would definitely be something I wouldn't mind spectating or taking part in. Finally, if you were pressed for one piece of advice to give aspiring TT teams to help them get better what would it be?

Voosha: Stay grouped as often as possible and play frequently to create synergy with your friends.

 

Thank you for your time, Voosha. I hope to see yourself and Captain America x Ironman ranked #1 in the near future.

 

A big thanks to Voosha for agreeing to this interview. You can catch him streaming at twitch.tv/voosha , though I'm told he doesn't stream super often. You can also check out some of the guides he has written here. I can tell you that they are very useful.

If you have any questions for Voosha, or about the TT in general, feel free to put them below. If Voosha doesn't answer them, and if there is enough interest/questions, I would gladly interview Voosha again to get some answers. The only thing I love more than learning about the TT is getting together a couple of friends and playing on it. I hope you have found this interview as useful as I have, and it helps take your TT games to a whole new level.