What Should I Do in a Teamfight?

What do we need to do in teamfights? What’s my role in teamfight? Why did I win or lose the teamfight? These are all the questions we ask ourselves on a regular basis. Knowing how you can win a teamfight depends on the role you are playing and is not always the same. This is why I will show you an explanation of how each role should behave in a teamfight in order to win.

First of all, let's introduce the positioning lines that will be formed in teamfights – front line, mid line and back line. The front line’s job is to make an impermeable wall and initiate the teamfight. If possible, front line champions should dive into the enemy back line and zone opponents away from your mid and back line. This means front line should usually be really tanky. By kiting and peeling, the mid line should protect the back line and kill enemies in any way possible. This is the line for those who are perfectly balanced between tankiness and damage. The back line, of course, is made of champions who deal tons of damage but are most likely to be killed quickly. Now, that you understand the main teamfight positioning, let’s go into more details.

Toplane is usually the most snowballed and most ganked lane in the early phase of the game. Although it does depend on the champion you are playing, Toplane champions are often those who are most likely to carry the game when it comes to teamfights.  There are (mostly) two kind of champions picked for Toplane, Bruisers or Tanks, and which one you should pick depends on the opponent’s team. The role of the champion you will pick for the Toplane is extremely important for teamfights. If the opponent’s team has a lot of crowd control, your job in the teamfight is to be tanky and protect your carries by all means. In addition, if your opponents do not have a strong front line, you have to all in on the carries in their mid and back line. It’s the important to remember there are two objectives – if you can’t kill and get to the opponent’s carries, protect your carriers, and vice versa.

As a Jungler in teamfights, you should be doing everything to protect your team. You don’t have as much gold as if you were playing in a lane due to lack of farm, but you should remember to build more offensive than defensive items, especially if your team is squishy. The Jungler’s role in both laning phase and teamfights usually ends up being protecting the teammates.

Let’s go over to the Midlane. Midlane is mostly played by AP Carry champions and hence we will start with their positioning in teamfights. As an AP Carry you want to be able to burst somebody down as fast as possible. AP carries can be both short ranged and long ranged champions, and your range will affect whether you should position in the mid line or back line during a teamfight. For long ranged AP Carries, it’s important to go for some poke before the real teamfight starts, so that your team would be in a better situation when it does. Moreover, you should never be anywhere near the front line. The front line is for tanks, and that is not you! You need to stay on the back as long as you don’t have an opportunity to kill someone, and when I say kill, I mean burst it to death really quickly. If you’re playing an AD champion in the Midlane, which should be an Assassin, the rules are the same. The front line is not for you, and we are mentioning it for a few times because it’s a common mistake that people make and that often loses them the teamfight.

Image credit: Report Teemo by HeadcrabeD

The second role made for the back lines of a teamfight is the AD Carry. Unlike the AP Carry, AD Carry should deal constant damage. With an AD Carry in teamfight, you should never stop auto attacking your opponents. You should also remember to move, remaining on the back line and near champions who can peel for you. “Focus ADC” is a phrase that doesn’t apply to you. As an AD Carry, you need to be dealing damage to anyone you can, which oftentimes means the ones who are nearest to you. If you can get to opponent’s carries, go for it, but never risk your life for that. AD Carry should be the most valuable and most protected role in a teamfight. Furthermore, you should be positioned as far as your auto attack range goes so you can juke your opponents and hit them from your maximum range.

Last but not least is the Support, who should be using all of its spells to help the AD Carry. No matter if you’re playing, whether it be a tanky Support like Leona or utility Support like Nami, you need to be positioned next to your AD Carry for the whole duration of a teamfight. Your most important job is to keep the AD Carry alive. If you die and all of your spells are not on cooldown, you did something wrong.

One last thing is that you should never forget to have full vision around the place the teamfight is occurring. Good luck, Summoners!

 

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