Hey everyone and welcome to a special guide where we'll be teaching you concepts and techniques
the world champion Funplus Pheonix Doinb uses to win in solo queue.
As well as putting you to the test with 10 questions to see just how much you know about
league of legends and whether you're as good as a world champion.
Make sure to keep track of how many you get right and let us know how you did in the comment
section below. Enough hype, let's jump straight into it with
Doinb playing Lissandra against Pantheon mid.
The game starts just like all of our solo queue games, with a level 1 invade that goes
horribly wrong. With all of them dying, and if this wasn't
enough, Doinb even used his Flash, which is now on cooldown.
Oh yeah, and he has to then use his Teleport to get back to lane.
So before the game even starts, he's down 3 kills, and has no summoner spells.
This is exactly why we chose this replay, to show you how even when you're behind, with
proper decision making you can come back to victory.
So as we get back to lane as Lissandra there are a couple pieces of information we want
to take into consideration. First, since Pantheon got kills and assists
he'll have received a bit of experience from them.
Second, since we got to lane late it means that minions died when we weren't there, giving
Pantheon an even further exp advantage. So this is our first question, and we're going
to keep it simple to help you warm up. What is Lissandra's biggest concern between
levels 1 and 2? Well, since Pantheon has an exp lead, it's
that he'll hit level 2 first, unlocking a second ability in the form of his stun.
This is why Lissandra is playing so far back and safe, making sure not to get caught by
surprise by Pantheon hitting level 2 and then engaging on her.
So the wave crashes and Lissandra hits level 2.
Now I want you to pay special attention to the next minion wave, notice how the enemy
Pantheon isn't damaging it, only looking to last hit
Isn't this a bit strange? I mean, sure, Lissandra's summoner spells are on cooldown, but so are
Pantheon's from the early level 1 fight. Isn't being this pushed up dangerous for Pantheon?
He could be ganked by the enemy jungler while having no flash.
Wouldn't he want to push the wave to get it to reset and so he would be in a safer position?
Well let's jump back into the game, hold on, let's pause it here. There's a certain rule
at play with the minions. Look at the minion wave. I want you to tell me, which direction
are the minions pushing towards? And what is causing it to push in that direction?
This is a concept we've taught you before, called the even minion rule. When we look
at the minion wave, we can see both waves have the same amount of minions, 3 casters
and 1 siege minion. Whenever two waves have the same number of
minions it means it will push towards the tower it's furthest away from.
This is due to the fact that the reinforcing wave will arrive sooner for the tower it's
closest to, causing them to group up and damage much earlier, and begin to push towards the
opposite tower. We can see this even minion rule come into
effect on the next wave, it's pushing towards Pantheon's side of the lane and a big wave
is building up for Lissandra.
And this leads into our third question, is the fact that it's pushing towards Pantheon
a good or bad thing for Lissandra? It's bad for several different reasons.
First, as we've already mentioned, our summoner spells are on cooldown and so being pushed
up leaves us more vulnerable to a gank from the enemy jungler.
Second, it has to do with the matchup. Pantheon is an aggressive lane bully that is an early
game threat. Third, Pantheon already has an experience
and gold lead from the early level 1 fight. Our greatest risk, is that Pantheon thins
out this wave, damaging some of the minions, but leaving around 3 caster minions alive,
settting up a freeze on us. This would leave us extremely push up the
lane, both vulnerable to a jungle gank, as well as being run down the lane by Pantheon.
And so in this moment, we have to make an important decision, and this leads into our
fourth question: what does Lissandra need to do to get out of this risky position?
The answer is crash the wave into the tower. Crashing a wave is just another way of saying
she needs to hard push. This way, she gets the wave into the tower before Pantheon can
thin it out and set up a freeze. This is the battle going on beneath the surface
between these two players. Lissandra uses a Q to start pushing the wave,
but then Pantheon engages. This is to prevent Lissandra from continuing
to damage the wave and buy time for the next upcoming wave to arrive, cementing the freeze
outside of his tower.
Now, a common question or complaint players have, is how do challenger players keep track
of all of this information at once in real time, as it can seem very overwhelming.
And the trick is, they really don't. Let's go back to explain what I mean.
You see, what they do instead is recognize patterns in the game then instantly draw on
knowledge they've already memorized. For example, when this wave gets to Lissandra's
tower and both waves have an even number of minions.
Doinb will have instantly recognized the even minion rule is in effect, and that it's now
pushing towards the opponent. So he's already anticipating that on the next
wave, he's going to run into some issues with Pantheon potentially looking to set up a freeze
in front of his tower. This is the trick challenger and pro players
use. They aren't analyzing and coming up with answers in real-time, they are looking for
patterns in advance and then instantly recalling the answer they already know.
And now look at how much extra time he has to use his brain to focus on other things
since he already knows his gameplan for the next 30 seconds.
Suddenly, we can watch the map a bit more intently, realizing our jungler is nearby,
hmm, maybe we can use that to our advantage. Oh wait, Elise has just showed up on the minimap,
maybe we have to fight a 2v2. As you can see, this is the trick, there are
certain parts of the game you can learn and memorize, and by doing so, it frees your brain
to then focus on things you can't know in advance, like changes on the minimap.
Still, we're in quite the predicament. Pantheon got us low. At the same time, Lee Sin got
pushed out of the jungle by Elise who's a level up.
When we look at mid, we can see pantheon has the freeze set up. If we go back to lane,
we can easily be killed by Elise. So I want you to tell me, what is the correct
play in this position? Your first goal should be to call for your
jungler's help in pushing the wave into the enemy's tower.
This will then give you a timing window to recall and head back to lane.
I know, I know, don't spam the comment section, your jungler would never do this for you.
Still, this is something you should always at least try, as this is one of the safest
and most effective ways to break a freeze. Just get your jungler to come into lane and
push with you. However, if your jungler isn't able to do
this, then Lissandra can actually just recall in this position.
Pantheon doesn't have teleport or any way to get back into lane fast, and given how
low on health he is, he needs to recall as well.
Sure, Lissandra would lose a few minions, but if she instantly recalls, Pantheon will
be forced to recall shortly after, she'll get to lane first, and finish shoving out
the wave before Pantheon gets back, breaking the freeze.
So Lee Sin starts helping Lissandra push and hold on, Elise then shows up, let's pause
it.
Tell me, what should Lissandra do in this position?
The answer is engage on Pantheon. Remember, he has no summoner spells to escape and is
low enough on health to instantly one shot.
This allows us to trade 1 for 1, with the kill leveling up Lee Sin to 3, not to mention
that with such a large minion wave built up, that also helps Lee Sin win the fight and
kill Elise shortly after.
Just as important though, is that it then allows Lee Sin to finish crashing the wave
into the tower, breaking the freeze.
Hold on though, when we take a closer look, we can see something very peculiar taking
place. Sure, the big wave of ours got pushed into
the enemy's tower, but the enemy's wave ends up getting caught on it.
Much like the even minion rule we went over earlier, this minion state also has a specific
effect associated with it. So I want you to tell me, when a wave gets
caught like this under tower, what does it cause?
It causes a push towards the other tower. This is what's referred to as a "Rebound".
The reason it's called a "Rebound" is that we push a big wave into the enemy's tower,
the enemy's wave gets caught on it, and causes it to "bounce" back in our direction.
This is for similar reasons to the even minion rule. The minions are too close to one side
of the map, therefore reinforcing waves arrive sooner, damaging and grouping up earlier,
and causing a push in the opposite direction.
Again, Doinb will be aware of this as he walks back to lane. Realizing that a "Rebound" has
occured and that the wave will be pushing back to him.
This is an almost identical situation that we saw earlier, just reversed, remember when
Lissandra was the one pushed up? Our biggest worry was Pantheon setting up
a freeze. Well, in the current position, Lissandra can
now thin out the wave and set up a freeze of her own.
This is why Pantheon immediately begins auto attacking the minions and using abilities
on them. He needs to prevent the freeze and crash the wave into the tower.
Here's the thing though, by Pantheon pushing the wave in the tower, it frees him up to
leave the lane and roam since there are no more minions left in lane.
At the same time, Lissandra is pinned to the tower having to still clear the minions left.
So we should immediately be on Red Alert, Pantheon can roam during this moment.
Looking at the minimap, which lane do you think Pantheon is most likely to gank?
The answer is bot lane, they are the ones pushed up the furthest. Additionally, we have
a ward on the top side of the map that Pantheon would have shown in.
Lissandra throws down a back ping bot side, as you should always do when your laner roams.
However, we're now faced with another decision of what we should do next.
Tell me, do we follow Pantheon's roam to the bottom side of the map?
Or do we push the wave mid? We want to push the wave mid. Whenever your
laner pushes into roaming, it pins you down and makes you too slow to react.
It's a waste of time to try and move bot at this point. Instead, our priority is to push
the wave mid, this way Pantheon gets punished for his roam by losing minions to his tower.
Additionally, we can take turret plates, helping make up for any kills he could have gotten
bot lane.
And this will be a common theme for the rest of the laning phase. Pantheon is a lane bully
that's ahead, it's nearly impossible for Lissandra to get control of the lane.
Additionally, Pantheon has his ultimate which makes his roaming even more effective.
But what's pivotal is that Lissandra doesn't make the mistake of trying to follow him.
Instead, pushing out the wave each time to deny Pantheon minions and getting a turret
plates. Sure, Lissandra's bot lane is now behind,
there's no argument about that. But what's more important, is that Lissandra
kept herself in the game enough that she can actually win a 2v2 against Pantheon and Elise.
And it's after this moment, by answering all of the questions we asked correctly, she gets
Pantheon and Elise's shutdowns, and is now actually ahead of Pantheon by 400 gold.
Still, the enemy bot lane successfully snowballed, taking the bot tower, and has now rotated
mid lane. This leaves us with one final question. How
should Lissandra react to the fact that the enemy bot lane has now rotated mid?
Should she stay mid looking to hold pushes by the enemy bot lane and defending the tower?
Or should she go into the side lane bot, pushing and pressuring the lane there?
You almost always want to swap with your bot lane when their tower falls.
This is for several different reasons. First, with the enemy bot lane ahead, you want to
avoid them. Staying mid means you'll only be able to take fights around the enemy's
strongest players - not a good idea. By swapping with your bot lane, you'll be
able to look for plays on the bot side of the map away from the enemy's winning bot
lane. Second, with the enemy bot pressuring mid,
it means there are 2 players there. Your support will have to rotate from bot lane and suddenly
you'll find yourself splitting experience with your teammates.
Getting into the side lane prevents this and lets you keep getting that sweet solo exp.
Doinb actually uses this side lane pressure to stall the game out, create advantages for
his own team, and eventually net them the victory.
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