The Importance of being fast

League of Legends is a game in which every second matters. Remember that one time when your skillshot missed by just a millimetre? Remember the grief you felt when you dropped that ward over the dragon pit, just so see it die in this exact moment or when you tried to reach a minion wave out of base and arrived just after the canon minion died? Whenever you died with your enemy having 10 HP left, you came to gank just when your enemy decided to move back, whenever this happens, you know that you were just that one Teemo away of achieving something. Let me show you some scenarios in which you can get a clear advantage by being aware how speed matters. I’ll start with mid lane and the importance of waveclear and will follow up with teleport and last (and least if we trust reddit) the AD Carry.

The mid lane is a lane with blue hair, green eyes, and an ever-changing body. No one really knows how the mid lane looks, at one time it’s a Zed going up against Talon, creating a Faker-Ryu-like lingering for assassination, another time it’s Xerath versus Ziggs and you get the feeling that people must have had during the First World War. The flashy 1on1’s beside, amongst the most effective moves a player can pull off from mid are to roam to other lanes, to invade the enemy jungle or to pressure so hard, that the enemy tower simply disappears within half a minute. Interestingly enough, all three of those moves are depended on at least one similar quality: waveclear.

It doesn’t matter how strong of a roamer your champion is, whether it might be Twisted Fate, Talon, Ahri, Fizz or whatever annoying piece of... you get my point. Before you can roam, you need to clear the minions. If you don’t clear the wave, your enemy can get your tower or even follow you, without you being able to handle it. This can lead to very awkward situations where you don’t even pull off a successful gank and still lose your mid tower, allowing your enemy to apply a lot of pressure for the rest of the game, or he counterganks your careless cheeks and snowballs out of control. It’s the same for jungle invades, obviously. Another important quality for roaming and invading is the speed and the kill/cc potential you bring to the table.

Waveclear

Pressuring the enemy tower is somewhat different but also relies on waveclear, not only yours, but also your enemy’s. Let’s say you’re playing with Azir against that annoying fish with his stupid staff. What he is intending to do, is to either kill you straight up, which shouldn’t happen in the early to mid game – I mean come on, if it happens, try to practice the laning phase, this really shouldn’t happen – or to roam, to get kills on your side lanes. As we learned before, he can’t roam without risk losing his tower, if he can’t clear the wave before. This is where Azir’s strength comes in. Azir kills those filthy minions within seconds and can even zone his enemy from his own ones AND he can attack the enemy tower from a safe distance. Almost the same goes for Viktor. So here is the plan: Tell your Jungler that you are going to push hard, buy some wards, maybe ask your team for some ward coverage as well, try to keep track of the enemy Jungler’s movement and be careful when your own one is not in the area – which he should be, but can’t rely on that, can you – and get this tower. His lack of what you have: waveclear and zoning ability, allows you to get the structure down pretty fast and as soon as he is pressured in, he can’t hope to assassinate anyone any time soon.

Last but not least waveclear allows you to prevent enemies from doing exactly those things and to protect towers against fed enemies or an enemy force that is bigger in numbers than you. By being aware of your own and your enemy’s waveclear ability, you can get huge advantages or prevent your enemy from having them.

Teleport

There is no worse feeling for an AD carry than to get trampled over from behind by a Hecarim, out of a bot lane bush. Teleports can break a team’s neck faster than Muhammad Ali. Again it’s all about the speed and the timing; split seconds can decide whether your teleport is going to successfully win a fight or to make yourself look like a bronze newbie. There are some things to consider when going for that kind of play and some neat tricks you might or might not already be aware of. First of all it is important to communicate with your team. Make sure that your mates place wards deep behind the enemies, don’t rely on them figuring that out by themselves. Your teammates have enough in their head themselves, they have to farm, to position themselves, to trade and to be aware of Jungle movements.

When the wards are in place don’t be shy to ask, if the enemies have vision on the bush you want to teleport in. If your team can ensure that the enemy has no clue of your little ambush, your attack is going to be way more effective. Nothing is more surprising than a wild Hecarim in full gallop out of the tall grass. Other tricks are more obvious, like buying the homeguard enchantment. Always be aware of possible teleport plays and communicate with your team as a top-laner, you need to make a difference, don’t just sit and farm for 40 minutes.

Last and least: the AD Carry.

Marksmen have a broad variety of different situations in which speed matters to them immensely. Like in mid lane, pressuring turrets is one of the core strategies in the AD’s lane. Champions like Caitlyn, Sivir or Jinx have similar qualities to Azir and Viktor; they can clear waves very fast, can poke from a safe distance and therefore zone and pressure enemy champions who lack these abilities themselves. High waveclear Carries also have the advantage that they can clear waves and group way faster than a Vayne. But where speed matters the most for AD Carries is in fight and siege situations. These are two different kinds of situations and I will explain the difference by using the respectively more useful boot enchantments. When setting up or defending against a siege, you need to move fast as with the alacrity boots. You need to be able to dodge skillshots, which gets easier the faster you move and to rapidly attack minions or towers before falling back behind your tanks again. The other situation is kiting. When kiting the furor enchantment or phage passive is more effective than alacrity. It’s all about attacking once, then moving back, then attacking again. To pull of a successful kite both you and your champions need to move very fast, you with your clicks, your character with his feet or whatever he may use to move – looking at you Corki.

What you have to take with you from that little guide is that speed matters. This means that you can’t just take a break and farm for 40 minutes on top lane, this means that you can’t just walk around randomly in the river and lose your tower, this means: you need to use the time spent within the game efficiently and get a step ahead of your enemy. You have to be first to arrive in bot lane as a mid- or top-laner. You have to be the first to have cleared a wave, so that you are able to roam, to invade or maybe just to get freaking scuttle crab and ensure vision control on your flanks. Always try to be first and never stop getting more efficient with your movements.

Think well and think fast - leDachs

Are you into fantasy leagues? Then check out AlphaDraft and put together your allstar lineup!