Chasing Victory: An Analytical Look into Chaser's Jungling

Despite a shaky start during the first half of the Spring Split, Team Dignitas ended the Spring Split on a high note after exhibiting some strong performances. While the team as a whole managed to step up to the mark, a large part of any team’s success depends on their jungler, and Team Dignitas’ Chaser is no exception. This article will be taking a look some of Team Dignitas’ Lee “Chaser” Sang-hyun’s jungle performances, looking into what makes him a highly proficient jungler. 

 

Context: The Lethality Jungle

Following the buffs to lethality early this season, bursty, high-damage bruisers and assassins became highly contested picks. Formerly, CC-focused junglers were dominant picks, facilitating allies’ damage through knockups and displacements. Tank junglers fell out of vogue, giving rise to picks like Kha’Zix and Rengar, while staple jungle bruisers Lee Sin and Graves remained strong as ever.

Art courtesy of Aths-Art

With the prevalence of these high-impact warrior junglers, the Spring Split’s meta accommodated Chaser’s aggressive playstyle. With years of previous competitive experience with high-pressure early-game junglers such as Elise, Lee Sin, Rek’Sai and Nidalee, he’s especially prepared to flank, counter-jungle and burst through carries.

Early-Game Aggression

During Match 2 of Team Dignitas vs Team Liquid (Link), Chaser had a huge early-game impact, securing two kills with two ganks within the first three minutes of the match.

Level 2 ganks are powerful as they capitalize on the laners before they have their key abilities, with junglers hitting level 2 before laners typically. In this scenario, Ssumday has leashed Chaser’s Red Buff, giving a relatively long leash aided with Titan’s Wrath (W) for a quick and healthy clear. Chaser takes his Safeguard (W) next and proceeds to mid lane.

While Chaser could have taken his Tempest (E) for the added damage and slow, he instead opts to take Safeguard (W). In doing so, he can immediately close the gap against Cassiopeia with a ward hop from the visionless lane bush, applying Red Buff procs with auto attacks. In doing so, he can hold onto his Resonating Strike (Q) in case Cassiopeia opts to Flash away.

Thanks to the leash from Ssumday, Chaser was able to make this gank happen. If he arrived just moments later, Cassiopeia would have placed the ward and likely have survived. Although Cassiopeia was warding in anticipation of a level 2 gank, the efficiency and perfect mechanical execution enabled Chaser to reach mid especially fast, able to secure first blood without wasting any Summoner Spells.

Following this kill, Chaser proceeds to hit level 3 through securing his Blue Buff and Gromp. In this example, Chaser will land a kill on Jhin thanks to his awareness regarding the enemy’s warding and behaviour. Chaser moves into his bot-side jungle, positioning himself by the Blast Cone in preparation to move onto the river. The enemy Rek’Sai is spotted by a ward top-side, and therefore isn’t a threat to bot lane. Chaser knows that the river is currently warded, as Jhin was seen moving to river to ward upon pushing their wave. As Chaser lies in wait, Karma is seen leaving lane to move up river.

Since the river is already warded, he knows that Karma must be intending on moving further up river to either secure a deep ward or assist a gank on mid. For this reason, he waits a few seconds before detonating the blast cone, knowing that Jhin will then be vulnerable and sufficiently separated from his support. This culminates with Chaser, LOD and Xpecial engaging onto Jhin before Karma can help. Another successful gank, largely due to map awareness and deductive reasoning.

Recovering From Setbacks

A crucial skill for a jungler is the ability to recover from setbacks. In this scenario, we’ll look at a gank gone wrong, while looking at how to appropriately respond to the resulting XP deficit. During Match 1 vs Immortals (Link), Chaser is playing Kha’Zix, a strong pick alongside a composition with frontline, a balanced damage spread, hard crowd-control and a Lulu to aid Kha’Zix’s dives.

Similar to the circumstances in the Team Liquid match, Chaser begins his clear with Red Buff, but opts to clear it solo as to not give away his starting position. He takes his Leap next, and moves straight to mid lane for a risky level 2 gank on Taliyah.

Effective outcomes of a level 2 gank may include First Blood, an enemy Flash or damage to pressure the opponent out of lane. In this circumstance, the gank fails since Keane’s Cassiopeia is still 2 creeps away from level 2, and Taliyah employs a well-timed Ghost without having to burn Flash. Immortals comes out victorious in this trade, with Taliyah’s damage on Chaser forcing him to recall, due to the looming threat of the enemy jungler while at low health. Furthermore, knowing that Chaser’s been pushed away, Taliyah takes this opportunity to ward Chaser’s blue buff. As a result of this failed gank, he’ll fall behind on a lot of crucial farm and XP due to time spent ganking and recalling. It’s now up to Chaser to keep up with the opposing jungler’s gold and experience.

Early game setbacks are incredibly debilitating for a jungler, and the two key things that Chaser must focus on are maintaining farm and taking a comeback opportunity. With what little gold he has from clearing Red Buff, he purchases a Vision Ward and moves to clear his blue side jungle, followed by Raptors. The opposing Lee Sin will punish and pressure Chaser knowing that he’s behind, so he moves to and clears his blue side jungle so that he doesn’t lose control of these camps, cautiously deploying a defensive pink ward in case Lee Sin opts to capitalize on his lead by contesting Blue Buff.

5 minutes in, after recalling and purchasing his upgraded Smite, Chaser moves down bot lane to accompany LOD and Xpecial, on Varus and Lulu respectively. The enemy bot lane has established a significant lead with kills, farm and XP, and Dignitas’ minion wave is pushed out and frozen unfavourably. If this continues, LOD and Xpecial will continue to fall behind.

If LOD and Xpecial push ahead here, they’ll be vulnerable to a gank.

LOD facechecks river to ward so that he can farm safely, but is struck with a gank from Lee Sin. This risky decision nearly costs his life, but he makes it out by the skin on his teeth.

Lee Sin attempts to dive to land a finishing kill, not knowing that Chaser prepared to retaliate with a counter gank. He upsets the opposing Lee Sin’s attempt at killing LOD, putting Immortals’ jungler behind while reducing their bottom lane’s advantage.

Chaser proceeds to farm the adjacent Krugs, and over the next couple of minutes, he catches up on farm entirely and is able to gank and roam more freely, knowing that he’s on a similar level to the enemy jungler. The crucial decisions made by Chaser in this early-game situation are that he focuses on farming and playing reactively according to his disadvantage, seeking to punish his opponent’s mistakes rather than proactively initiating a gank, which could set him even further back.

Coordination & Seizing Opportunities

The mid-game phase of the match is when laning playstyles start to phase out, and teams begin to group up to fight, siege and contest objectives. At this point, coordination is crucial to successful engages and victorious teamfights. During Match 2 of CLG vs DIG (Link), we can see a well-executed kill on the enemy Caitlyn, thanks to Chaser and the support of his allies.

The set-up prior to this play is critical to understanding how it happened. CLG had warded river in preparation of the Ocean Drake. In response to this, Team Dignitas sweeps through the front of Dragon Pit, quickly sneaking their way into the red-side tri-brush. CLG proceeds to ward Dragon once more, perhaps assuming that Team Dignitas is just further down river.

CLG with river warded, DIG sweeping it and sneaking through, then collapsing onto Caitlyn hastily

At this point, Chaser and company need to act fast before CLG realizes that there’s something fishy taking place. Caitlyn uses Farsight Orb to check the brush, but at this point it’s too late. Xpecial on Lulu manages to Whimsy (W) Chaser’s Rengar during On The Hunt (R), enabling him to follow up and secure the kill, followed by a fast and mostly clean ace against CLG thanks to their misplayed follow-up. In this scenario, communication, quick-thinking and execution were instrumental to success, and through this they managed to win a major teamfight and secure Drake.

Chaser is a versatile jungler capable of playing a variety of champions, and adapting accordingly. Skilled with a variety of meta champions, his performances have often decided Team Dignitas’ victories during the Spring Split. Jungling may be a dynamic and complex role, so hopefully this piece has shed some light on higher-level play. Hone your mechanical play and apply the concepts reflected in Chaser’s performances, perhaps you too can be a master jungler. Good luck!