Exorcising the Solo Queue Demons

I think the first way to start this article off is to state something: not all League of Legends games are winnable. You will lose games. Everyone does. But I want to go on record and say: most games are winnable. Anyone watching streams will often hear the phrase “throwing the game” tossed around when mistakes happen. People will blame the loss on lots of things: OP champs, dumb teammates, luck, etc etc. But people rarely blame themselves.

Sometimes there’s nothing you can do. All lanes get killed, your jungle dies early and they just keep rolling you. Nothing much you can. But sometimes there is. First thing to do: Don’t surrender. Tons of times I’ve been in situations where some enemy carry will be fed, one of our lanes is doing really poorly and our bot lane decides they hate each other. At this point someone will issue a surrender vote, two people will say no and the rest of the team will complain about how this is a waste of their time.

It’s never a waste of time if you learn how to come back. If you just surrender every time you’re down, all you’re saying is, “I have no idea how to play this game. Everytime I’ve won it’s been because everyone on my team does well in laning phase and I’ve been carried since then.” If you’re good at this game, you realize there are things you can do to come back.

Let’s say you’re losing top lane. You’re absolutely getting destroyed This could be for any number of reasons: perhaps a close first blood fight, an early Lee Sin gank or just wrong/runes masteries. What do you do? Do you continue to get zoned top lane complaining to your team that you can’t do anything and then after the game feel better saying you did all you could but their jungler was just better. Try to do something different.

Top lanes with dominance will usually become complacent with their upper hand and when sending their weaker opponent back might not call MIA. A three man gank mid between the top and the jungler can often net a good kill on their mid laner, at which point you can force dragon. Now you have a kill or an assist, a dragon and some good experience gained.

You’re the jungler and your bot lane is getting destroyed. Focusing on another lane might help, making sure that your solos are strong enough to offset the bot can help. Another way is to get an oracles. You’ll see lots of high level players grabbing early oracles, removing wards and gaining map control. This sets up for easier ganks as well as securing global objectives. And make no mistake: Global objectives are the most important part of this game.

They have an assassin team comp that’s doing well. Your team keeps getting picked off. Time to group. I’ve been ahead so far, and the other team groups and forces team fights when we’re out of position. This swings the momentum to their side and they keep forcing when they’re stronger. Teams without a tank line do well in ganks, less well in team fights.

Know what’s happening on the map. You don’t have to be the jungler to see that they have 3 top. At this point you know that sneaking a dragon is a good play. Inform your team, ping them, tell them, do whatever you can to make them see the play they have been offered.

Know how to build. If you’re behind your lane grab a few dorans, maybe an elixir. If you’re being killed, build some magic resistance, rather than finishing your Sheen. If you can’t complete your Rabadons by the time the next fight is going to happen, grab a Void Staff and a blue pot instead. The important thing in close fights is being as strong as possible. Often I see people only buy elixers in a last ditch effort, but you can buy them throughout the game.

So far I’ve been talking about how you can come back from what you might have considered a lost fight. But what about getting ahead and maintaining that lead? It’s harder than it sounds.

Force the right fights. When your team is ahead, you want to stay that way. If you’re stronger don’t split up and farm all the lanes with no wards. Force the next dragon. Grab an oracles, remove map control. Siege towers. Know where your teams strengths lie. If you have a fed AP carry you want to try to force fights. If you have a fed AD carry you want to push towers. AP carries will dominate a early dragon fight, while a fed AD will completely decimate a tower.

If you have a team focused on early game dominance (Shaco, Le Blanc, Pantheon, Miss Fortune, Taric etc) make sure to push your advantage. Don’t get cocky and let the other team farm for 10 minutes, because the game could swing.

Know what phase of the game you’re at know what is important then. Pushing a tower at five minutes might seem like a big accomplishment but often leaving it to deny experience is a stronger play.

This is the actual goal of the game.  No matter what your kill hungry Shaco says.

Many things swing the game from one team to the other. Camping a bush and picking off their oracled support is a strong play. Stealing the enemy blue buff helps you and weakens them. These small advantages will turn into larger advantages later. But be careful of when you pursue them or not. Wanting to take the enemy blue is a great plan, but if baron is about to spawn it could be disastrous. Know the risk/reward of your ploys and do your best to minimize the risk, be it through warding, good play or effective team communication.

Through all of this you must talk to your team. Tell them what’s happening. Keep their spirits high, tell them you can still win. Pitch plans ahead of time: “Ok their blue is about to spawn in a minute. Everyone go buy and we’ll contest it. Soraka get an oracles and we’ll camp it. We’ll catch someone and then take the blue and force drag.” These kind of plans will get the team grouped, get everyone on the same page and give more focus.

Sometimes it doesn’t have to be that specific. “Ok guys, 3 more minutes to dragon, farm and play safe until then.” Let’s the team know what’s happening. “It’s time to get baron control, need to get an oracles and go sweep. We can ward around and try to bait them.” Try to keep the plans civil, simple and to the point.

Little bit of last advice
Don’t talk to the enemy team. This is something I personally have trouble with. When I’m playing normals I try to have fun with the game and joke around. However, more often than not, the other team takes it as offense and try to trash talk back. It’s a toxic aspect of the game, but I’ve found that talking to randoms produces more problems than benefits.

Obviously this is a harsh piece of advice. I wish I didn’t have to say, but I’ve noticed I do better when I don’t waste time or energy thinking about my next clever comeback to the enemy Yi. Most people play this game solely to win. This means they’re in a competitive mindset and will be “tryharding.” If they perceive you as insulting them they will get angry, since they’re doing their best and you’re mocking them.

Don’t get mad at your team. You ranting about how bad your Caitlin is won’t help her. Feel free to tell her what she did wrong. “Cait, in that fight we needed to sit back not run in.” is far more useful than “OMG CAIT LEARN TO PLAY.” The other side of this coin is, feel free to congratulate your teammates when they do good. Your bot lane get first blood? Type “Good job guys!” make the team feel better, build camaraderie, it’ll help and make your gaming together more pleasant.

Just to reiterate: Don’t surrender. The game isn’t over until your nexus explodes.