EB24 about League of Legends #2 - Macrostats - Use your presence to win the game on Patch 9.22 - from the Booster perspective

(This guide was written by one of our boosters called "dontknowme")

On patch 9.22, there weren't any major changes to the towers as well as objectives on the map. But it is important to realize some general strategies that one can use to dominate their games. Most of us have played a game, where we experienced a phenomenon called “jungler difference”. This means that the enemy jungler completely out jungled ours. However, this isn’t always necessarily due to the enemy jungler being much better than yours. Often times, it can be the presence that the enemy laners have on your team and game.

Early Game

There are a few ways in the early game in which you can mark your presence. One way is obviously is by winning your lane. But even before that, there’s something you can do that can really help your jungler win. And that is: placing a ward in the enemy jungle or even scout the enemy jungle. These acts can provide 2 things for your team:

1. You know where the enemy jungle is starting,

2. Your jungle is now able to counter jungle more safely.

Your jungler will be able to work a lot better and farm his jungle a lot more efficiently with this information. This can also increase the chances for your jungler to provide a successful gank and “outjungle” the enemy jungler. Now as we head into the lane, you’ll most likely already know if you are going to get pushed in or if you will be pushing them. This leads to the mid-game.

Mid Game

Mid-game is where your presence will really matter. In this phase of the game, both teams will start to look for objectives (turret, herald, dragons). At this point, if you are losing your lane or getting pushed in, you shouldn’t just focus on playing safe and farming under the tower. Whenever you can, try to get a ward in the middle of the lane (towards their turret). This ward gives you a lot of information such as:

1. Did my opponent recall?

2. Is my opponent roaming any near lane?

3. Is my opponent trying to hide in a bush to cheese me?

It also opens up the option for anyone on your team with Teleport to be able to TP Gank your lane. If you are winning and pushing towards their turret, you now have the ability to fully use your presence to take control of the game.

This is when your champion choice, as well as enemy team composition, matter. Take for example, when you are playing top lane as a Renekton. You’re smashing your lane and have forced your enemy laner to hide under the turret and tremble in your presence. Do you roam? Or do you continue to pressure your lane? This depends on the enemy composition. If the enemy composition has champions that are very weak in lane, like Kayle or Anivia mid, and you have a strong mid laner like Talon or Fizz. You can easily look for a dive mid and then force a drake or herald to snowball your lead.

On the other hand, if the compositions are reversed, you are better off not roaming mid as Talon or Fizz can easily turn the tides on your gank and you won’t be able to kill them quickly. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t roam!

What I mean with this is: Use the fog of war to your advantage. The feeling of their “jungler is everywhere at the same time” is created by the fog of war. If you are constantly hidden on the map and pop up randomly in different places, you will also create the illusion of being everywhere at the same time. Once you’ve pushed in your lane, even if you can’t gank mid, bot or top, you should hide in the fog of war.

When you are missing on the map and the enemy knows you are missing, they will feel pressured. Just by hiding from vision, you create enough pressure to dissuade their laners and jungler from making a risky dive on your team. Even if that didn't win your lane, you can use the effect of shoving your wave and disappearing into the fog of war. The fog of war is a double-edged sword though. If you use it unwisely you may just die alone in their jungle, so be sure to put deep wards and keep an eye on the mini-map.

Late Game

If your team has now reached the late game, chances are neither side of the map will really know how to play the macro game. This is where you, as someone who has read this guide, can shine. Most teams at this point will be looking for Baron or Elder Drake. What you should do is to be aware of the timers and see which one comes up first. This will determine which side of the map you should push. If you have Teleport up, then splitting the opposite side of the map would be generally the most optimal play to make.

Remember that, once you’ve pushed the wave or built a large minion wave, you can use the Fog of War to your advantage and simply wait in a bush. When someone comes to match that wave, you can easily TP to the objective and rush a 5v4 with your team, or you can engage on the enemy opponent that came to claim the wave you created.

However, if you don't have TP, it would be better to build a wave and quickly rotate to start pushing on the side of the upcoming objective. Although, split pushing is a go-to option here and will generally deliver positive results, you should be aware of the enemy team composition. If the enemy team comp is extremely heavy on engaging, your TP may not reach in time. In which case, the best option would be for you to stick with your team and be ready for the engage.

Cheese Strategy

A lot of people don’t know about this cheese strategy. It’s a great strategy for rushing baron at 20 minutes but it does require that you have a cooperative team and rift herald.

At 19:45, right before Baron spawns, make sure your team is prepared and ready to do it. Have them stand around the pit and clear the vision. Anyone can do this, as long as they are the ones with the rift, whether it is the top, mid, support, adc or jungler. Go to the bot side inhibitor turret and drop rift herald there. The second you drop the rift herald, you need to rush to the baron and have your team start it upright when it spawns. It will take you around 20 seconds to get to baron from there, which is around the time it takes for your rift herald to reach to the minion wave.

The enemy team is now stuck with two choices, have someone matching the rift herald or stop your team from doing baron. If they send one person down to match herald, they are forced into a 4v5 and your team can do a quick engage and close out the game. If they all come to baron then, you can simply back off and they are forced to either waste a teleport or lose a turret to rift herald.

Either way, the enemy team is forced to make a decision and there is no positive outcome for them. Most of the time, a 19-20 minute rift herald drop will make the enemy team think that your entire team will be with herald and that it was a rushed herald drop due to its timer running out.

Hence, they’ll often send more than one person to match the herald and won’t suspect you doing baron at all. From the multiple times that I have used this strategy from Gold all the way until Diamond 1/Masters, I have found a success rate of over 80%. The more you can coordinate your team, the better this strategy will work.

And this is it! A great guide that will help you dominate the game just by using your presence and pressure on the map! Make sure you understand every aspect of these tricks and you'll be setting yourself to be a star on your games! If you want to learn more about League and don't like do simply watch your replays over and over, you can always buy a coaching session and select your specific role, you won't be disappointed, we promise! You can even assign to the booster that brought you this guide called "dontknowme", he will be pleased to help you get better! And also, make sure you follow us on our social media below and always stay tuned for more content and guides!

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