Playing From Behind: The Comeback in League of Legends

Other than total domination, the most impressive plays in League of Legends are often comebacks. They are as exciting as they are remarkable for the player or the spectator. Being a member of a really great comeback is one of the most satisfying moments playing the game and there’s absolutely nothing better than watching your favorite team pull off a win from 10k gold behind. Despite this exciting nature, playing from behind is truly a strategic art.

Knowing your options when the enemy team has a huge advantage isn’t easy, and being able to execute those actions can be even harder. In this article I’d like to use this article to delve into the philosophy of the comeback in League of Legends with examples from professional play of the types of options these ideas open up.

The Competing Extremes of Playing from Behind

In League of Legends the losing team tends to be faced with a decision between two competing philosophies of play. Correctly recognizing and deciding between these two, when you can coordinate effectively with your team, is often the difference between a comeback and a defeat. When you are playing from behind in power the enemy team should, in a perfect world, win at every area of the game. Their champions should be harder to kill, do more damage, and in some stages of the game even be quicker. That situation means that you are pushed into an extreme of play, you can’t coast into victory once you’re behind. The two big possibilities in that position are absolute defense, and absolute aggression. In order to understand these two strategies time and place, and where they are most effective let’s first look at their prevailing philosophies.

Absolute Aggression:

This extreme relies on the losing team being as “in your face” as possible. You may have heard pros say in the past to buy offense when you’re behind and defense when you’re ahead, well ths is the philosophy that follows. When your opponents are ahead of you, their mistakes and your ability to capitalize on them is what allows you to get back into the game, and to beat out the perfect world scenario. Absolute aggression tries, by means of letting no opportunity pass, to force your opponent into making mistakes. The losing team following this train of thought makes the plays with the highest risks and the highest rewards. If the opponent has a gold and experience advantage you are already past high risk, you are on a solid path to losing.

This high risk playstyle draws your opponent into strange positions where it is the losing team which has little to lose, putting the winning team in a position to defend their advantage. This strategy is most useful when you feel you are in a position, where unless something drastic changes, you will lose the game. This is a strategy you can see in solo queue and in professional play. The most dramatic example of this in my recent memory is game three of Cloud9 v. Najin White Shield at S4 World Championships.

In this game Cloud9 was spiralling into a massive experience and gold deficit against their Korean opponents. In this iconic game they took absolute aggression to another level, executing insane strategies that could have instantly lost them the game if they didn’t pan out. Despite being completely incapable of standing up to their opponents by running around the map in a chaotic pattern and splitting lanes in ways that guaranteed them losing objectives of their own, they pushed Najin into a position to respond to Cloud9, the losing team, instead of the other way around. That is how absolute aggression works. Take the riskiest plays, be okay with losing some ground to the opponent and try to force your opponents into making the mistakes by taking the first action.

Absolute Defense

If, in the aggressive scenario, you are taking the biggest risks for the highest rewards you are trying to take actions with as close to zero risk as possible. This philosophy would have you wait for the opponent to trip up and then allow you to jump on it. Where with aggression you want to force your opponent to make mistakes, this philosophy assumes that all teams will eventually make a mistake and allow you back into the game so long as you are not risking any more disadvantages in the meantime.

This philosophy is much more suited to a team that you might see as having a better late game. You could also refer to this strategy of the come back as “stalling” or prolonging the game, waiting to become stronger or your opponent weaker. The most classic comeback in League of Legends history was done through this idea in Dreamhack Summer 2012 between CLG EU and Moscow 5. In that game CLG.EU stalled at their inhibitor towers taking almost zero risk until Moscow 5 tripped up and allowed CLG to win a fight and then the game. This is the ideal of absolute defense, never giving your opponent the chance to do anything at all until you’ve beaten them.

Flaws of Each Philosophy And Simple Tips to Avoid Them

Each of these two strategies come with their risks. In the game I mentioned where Cloud9 sent Najin White Shield all over the map to try and deal with their chaotic and confusing aggression, Cloud9 ended up losing anyway. In the end they took just one too many risks and were caught in a 5 v 4 situation, ultimately losing them the game. Absolute aggression can quickly turn from forcing your opponent to make mistakes. This is an avoidable experience but it is also part of the territory. Though you have to take big risks try to take the ones with the best reward, like winning the game or getting baron since you might not win out on those risks every time. Also, of course, try to take the least risky of your insanely risky options.

Absolute Defense can also turn into your opponent simply rolling over you as it can become that not taking a risk is the same thing as doing nothing at all. This is often a way strategically sound teams will take victories, by forcing the opponent into defense mode and never allowing them a good opportunity out of it. You can avoid this by recognizing it’s happening. Basically, if you are being rolled over it might be time to start trying to make a play. It’s never the best idea to roll over and be beaten.

Applying these ideas

Next time you get behind playing League of Legends try to keep those two ideas in mind. The comeback is also involved with conviction and a willingness to keep trying your hardest even when the game seems hopeless. Try to recognize when you’re behind and coordinate with your solo queue team or your ranked team to decide which way to play. Lead the charge into an aggressive action or try to get everyone to back off and play it safe. Either way if you keep in mind that playing from behind isn’t just a defined set of ideas but instead a philosophy and a mindset, you can keep your head on straight and pull out those games, or put on a really awesome show for your future fans!