Hello I am Voosha. I am currently in one of the top 10 3v3 challenger teams (currently ranked 2nd but that can change at any point). My fearless leader Gary wants us to become the very best there ever was, so please enjoy the evolving content of this guide.

Let me first explain a little bit about the map. Unlike summoners rift, there are only 2 lanes, a small jungle, and an epic boss to defeat (Vilemaw)



On average twisted treeline games are considerably shorter than summoners rift, and therefore played at a much faster pace.

AN IMPORTANT FACT TO NOTE!!! There are no wards in this map, however there are some items such as Grez's Spectral Lantern or Hextech Sweeper that temporarily reveal an area.

Located on each half of the jungle are altars, which are points that players stand on and cap in order to gain certain buffs. With one altar controlled, you obtain +3 gold per unit killed. With both altars controlled you gain +10% AP and AD.




In the very middle of the map within the jungle, there is a health pack that replenishes a small amount of health, mana, and gives a small speed boost for a few seconds.

Being familiar with the map and where to approach certain objectives is the key towards succeeding in this Twisted Treeline.

I feel there are many misconceptions about 3v3. There is indeed a handful of champions that excel above all others, but really 3v3 is about communication and team fights. This means that you usually can play whoever you're good with. Therefore, there will not be a tier list in this guide in order to emphasize my point of playing whoever you're comfortable with. For example, with my top challenger team, we have a Vayne in our team comp. In many other guides that have tier lists, you can clearly see Vayne being listed as one of the weaker champs.

These are the champions I believe are the best for 3v3. However, I cannot stress this fact enough, play whoever you are best with. If you end up getting one of these champs, it does not necessarily mean it will be a victory.


In my opinion, team comps should be built around these champions, however, many of the listed champions are usually banned.


Team Composition

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For junglers, champions with abilities that can jump over walls are quite good. Although I did not list Kha'Zix above, the leap ability can be great for ganks. In general, most champions with gap closers are good.

Crowd Control champions are also usually a good pick. For example, one of my favorite team comps is Lulu + Renekton + one other. Lulu has her polymorph, slow from glitterlance, and an aoe knockup from her ult. This synchronizes very well with Renekton, because he can dash into the team and use his ult while being lulu ulted. At level 6 this is more than a giants belt worth of health and can help maximize the damage from Renekton's ult.


Here are some of my personal favorite team comps:

This was actually the first team comp that me and my friends tried that really clicked with us. We had Jarvan IV ult at least 2 or the main priority target, followed by a Rumble ult. Malphite would simultaneously chain his ult and aoe damage for a nice wombo combo.

Capitalizing on good acceleration gates, Xin Zhao and Renekton with their already amazing gap closers become even scarier. You have a giant crocodile along with a guy with a big polearm coming at you at 10000 mph. Who wouldn't be scared?

This was the team comp that really made me and my friends realize we could get to challenger. It's a beefy enough team to outlast burst comps, and has enough damage to demolish tankier teams. This, I believe, is the most well rounded team comp.

Finding a team comp that really clicks with you and your friends is a key feature in the success of Twisted Treeline.

Different teams use different strategies, however, what seems to work best is 2 solo lanes and one jungle. Some teams do run no jungle and have 2 people in a lane, but this is not seen as often.


Level 1 Fights

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I generally tend to stay away from level 1 fights since I see it as a gamble. If you don't react quickly enough as a team you can be at a huge loss before the game even begins. As you will see later on in the guide, I typically just wait in base along with my teammates for an extra pot. This gives extra leniency during laning phase if you trade incorrectly or get poked down too much.


Push Push Push

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This is a strategy that the team I am on uses. Early on, you want one lane to push as fast as they can for an early level 2, while you keep the other frozen as much as possible. Once one lane is 2, the jungler should be as well. You would then converge on the frozen lane for an easy 3v1 gank.

As stated earlier in the guide, Twisted Treeline games are short, so these early kills give a tremendous advantage.


Altar Fights

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Controlling both altars is a HUGE advantage. One strategy is to force fights around altars since grouping is very important in this game mode. If the enemy team is not grouped up when they come to contest the altar, choose a side and attack the 1 or 2 champs not grouped. If they are grouped, however, you need to use your best judgement on when to fight and when to back off. This is an important skill not only in 3v3 but all game modes.


Vilemaw

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Vilemaw is somewhat important, but nothing game changing. It temporarily gives health and mana regen,30% attack speed, and 20% cooldown reduction. Vilemaw can lose games if it is not contested at a proper time, and likewise can win you games. Vilemaw does apply a stacking debuff that reduces both armor and magic resistance. If the enemy team catches your team doing Vilemaw, that could very well end your game.


Towers

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Likewise with summoners rift, towers give a huge amount of map control, and global gold. It will be easier to invade the enemy's jungle and gank more easily as well.


Mid/Late Game

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Once your team has taken down the first tower, you should be grouped and poke at the second tower. Never dive a 3v3 team fight under their tower unless they are low, or in a position where you can quickly nuke down one of them. Dieing late game is very advantageous for the opposing team since death timers are around 30 seconds or more. Teams can easily push down 1 or 2 turrets as well as an inhibitor within this time. Be aware and make the best judgement depending on the situation.

What do you do when there is a stalemate under the tower? Neither team wants to engage and everyone is just clearing the wave.

In this particular case, I will deviate from my "always be grouped rule." For example, let's say your team comp consists of Lulu Jayce and Jarvan IV. You can have the Lulu and Jayce safely clear the wave and poke at them under their tower while the Jarvan IV clears the other lane up to another tower. Lulu and Jayce can quickly disengage if the enemy team decides to fight in the absence of Jarvan IV. The two champions poking, must be very careful and keep their distance. This is a dangerous strategy, but it will eventually force at least one memeber to fight off the Jarvan IV that went to the other lane. This keeps both lanes pushed and your team can then proceed to make plays by grouping and diving one of the separated champions.

Once an inhibitor has been destroyed, your team should stay grouped in the other lane. You do not need to engage any fights at this point and should just set up camp in front of their tower. The super minions will push all the way into their base which forces one of them to defend their base. Take this time to either finish off the second inhibitor tower or dive them in a 2v3 fight. Be very cautious when diving 2v3, because you will be fighting underneath their tower. Losing the 2v3 dive could prove to be fatal and your team may end up losing the game. In my opinion it is better to just poke down the tower, but I do dive when opportunity arises. Everything is situational, and this is a game about reaction. Use your best judgement on when to dive and when to poke.


Defense

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There are a few strategies to employ if your team is behind. First you can drag out the game, by playing passively under tower and near teammates. Since you are behind, you must drag out the game as long as you can so that the gold advantage is not as detrimental as in early or mid game. For example, a giant's belt at level 6 with few items has a pretty big impact on a champion, but a giant's belt as a 6th item does very little.

Another way to come back is to catch the enemy team at Vilemaw. As stated previously, Vilemaw applies a stacking debuff that reduces both armor and magic resist of champions within its attack range. That means if you are able to catch the enemy team doing Vilemaw, one of the is significantly squishier so your team may be able to burst one of them down. In my opinion, Vilemaw is not worth losing a teamfight over, especially during late game. You typically see champions diving into Baron 1v5, smite stealing it and dieing. This is indeed worth it for the team, however, in Twisted Treeline, you could lose more than you gain. A 2v3 is nearly impossible to fight after midgame. The consequences greatly out weigh the benefits of Vilemaw.

Jungle

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I am basing the jungle strategy based off of the section labeled Push Push Push above.

Start at the Wraith camp and get one damaging spell and an auto from the bottom laner. This will help you do the Wolves camp next more easily, which will lead to a cleaner and more confident gank. General ganking paths are either going from the Vilemaw area to the top laner from behind, or obtaining the health pack and flanking the bottom laner from the middle brush.

I have illustrated some of the paths a jungler should take above. The path in the color red shows the Push Push Push strategy. The color pink shows a ganking path to consider when ganking for top. You can do this one throughout the game but make sure the creeps do not see you. The green path is for ganking bottom. If you take the longer route, be aware of the map. Make sure top lane is there and be prepared to face the enemy jungler. If you end up dueling against the enemy jungler make sure your bottom lane calls whether or not their lane is coming to assist. Have good communication and with practice your teamwork will vastly improve.

Be Aware of the Map.

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Generally you should not invade by yourself unless you see the enemy top laner and bottom laner present. You have 2 objectives when invading. You either deny the enemy jungler of a camp or big creep worth of exp, or catch the enemy jungler and attempt to gank them when they're low. Denying enemy junglers of their camps is very devastating since there are only 3 minion camps in the jungle. Denying them early of a big creep can put them very behind in their ganking path. They would have to clear the little minions you leave behind and clear another one completely before getting to the right level to gank.

Despite invading the jungle, the main role of the jungler is to gank. Even if ganks are unsuccessful, just coming to the lane will make the enemy second guess some choices. However, you must be careful not to fall to behind, because failed ganks could result in a huge loss of exp.


Laners

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Laning is very similar to Summoners Rift, however, the map and lane is considerably smaller than Summoners Rift so you need to be even more aware of the map. Ganks are easily done and this could have a negative snowballing effect if you're not aware.

You should designate before the game starts who will be freezing the lane and who will be pushing the lane. Coordination is the key to victory in all games. You must make sure you are not pushed up too far later in the game when the enemy jungler isn't present on your minimap. Besides these few simple rules, you should team fight as much as possible.

Typically in Twisted Treeline there are no pure support roles. For example, I play Lulu the most often where Lulu is considered to be a support champion in Summoners Rift. However, in Twisted Treeline Lulu is built for damage with AP. You do use your spells to "support" but you must build enough damage to duel 1v1 in lane.

What to build?

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One key difference from Summoners Rift and Twisted Treeline is that instead of starting off with 475 gold, you start off with 825 gold. Since I typically play Lulu,I start with 2 Doran's Ring and wait in base for a [Health Potion. Items for bruiser's can be a Doran's Blade and Boots and some Health Potion's.



Some items are unique to Twisted Treeline and some items from Summoner's Rift are removed. For example Wooglet's Witchcap replaces both the Rabadon's Deathcap and Zhonya's Hourglass. It is essentially both items combined into one. Wooglet's Witchcap should be rushed by most AP champions, but not all.

For more specific builds check out my other guides!

Lulu Guide
Zyra Guide Lee Sin Guide
Renekton Guide Lissandra Guide Jax Guide Kha'Zix Guide


Masteries

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Only tanky junglers or tanky laners should be building into the defensive tree, otherwise it should be typical Summoners Rift offensive masteries.

Thank you for reading my guide and good luck in 3v3! This is just a general guide of playing 3v3, champion specific guides will be coming. I will also take requests if you want a guide for a specific champion.

9/24/13: Updated champions that are good for 3v3.
10/3/13: Updated with a picture of jungler ganking paths.
10/28/13: Updated with more champion guides.



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