Hello and welcome to my guide for the "Twisted Treeline" (TT). I write this Guide, because many people play only Summoners Rift and don't know anything about the TT, although it is a lot of fun. It will give you some information about how to play on the 3vs3 map. Please leave a comment if you think something is wrong/you know a better way.
Some general informations:
- The TT is a lot smaller then "Summoners Rift" (SR)
- There are 4 buffs in the TT; the Dragon is one of them
- The TT has 2 lines with 2 Towers on each and 1 Nexus Tower
- The chars aren't as balanced as they are in SR
- The Top Lane is the Solo-Lane

In the TT there are 4 Buffs:
The Dragon:
The Dragon Buff gives you more damage% (for each Lvl 1%; Lvl 18 = 18% more damage). It is a really nice buff and can, like the Nashor Buff in SR, change games. Additional to that, it gives your whole team gold and EXP.
The Lizard:
It is the same as in SR: your auto-attacks will slow the enemy. The Lizard is in the center of the map, so care if you get him, you might get ganked. The physical DD's should get this Buff, if they don't have a Frozen Mallet.
The Ghosts:
The Ghosts give you a 30% Movement-speed-Buff. I don't think I have to say much, its good for chasing and escaping.
The Wolfes:
The give you CD and AS. That is really a nice Buff and I don't know why it is in most cases only used to farm. Good for everyone.

http://www.pic-upload.de/view-9359542/Buffs.png.html
Red = Lizard
Blue = Dragon
Green = Ghosts/Wolves

As it is in SR, you shouldn't have only physical damage, only magical damage or only Tanks. In 5vs5, a team should have at least 1 physical and magical DD, 1 tank, a lot of CC and optional 1 Supporter. It's hard to cover all this with only 3 characters, so go for characters that have more then 1 of these things (Amumu: tank + CC; Kayle: Support + Hybrid DD; Morde magical DD and Tank). If you do not have that, look that you cover it with items (for example Frozen Mallet for CC).
Your team MUST have:
- Off-Tank
- physical damage
- magical damage
Your team SHOULD have:
- CC
- Support

Example: Mordekaiser, Tryndamere, Sona
With Tryndamere you have tons of physical damage. Morde does some magical damge, not as much as for example Karthus, but he is a really nice tank. Sona does the rest of the magical damage, has a nice CC with her ult and is a good supporter

I think some Summoner Spells are kind of useless in the Twisted Treeline, like "Teleport". The map is very small and its not worth to teleport those short distances. Maybe its good for the final Push in lategame, but I think ghost is the better choice. Flash is really Nice to backdoor the Nexus. I also like Fortify, because you have less Towers then in SR, so each of them becomes more important. Clairvoyance is a good choice too - You will often find someone walking in a bush and get the victim of a gank.

The balancing of the Characters is made for SR. In TT you have 2 players less, so some chars get stonger while others lose strengh. Mundo for example is nearly unkillable with "Spirit Visage" + his ultimate. Karthus Ult does less damage, because it only hits 3 targets and there are less situations to use it. A list of the chars that prefer from this map and from those who get weaker:
Good:
- Dr. Mundo (Ult)
- Mordekaiser (Passive)
- Teemo (I'll explain in Ganks & Wards)
- Caytlin (There isn't always someone who blocks the Ult)
- Tryndamere (if he is a little fed he can kill a whole team without any problems)
- Poppy (everywhere is a wall for Heroic Charge)
- Chars without AoE
- Off-Tanks
Bad:
- Karthus (Ult)
- Soraka (Ult)
- Veigar (not good last-hitting, stun is worse then in 5v5)

Items:
If you go for the first gank, go and buy Dorans Items (depending on the Char). One of The Team HAS TO buy a ward (I'll explain in "Ganks & Wards"). This one should not be the one who goes top.

Earlygame:
1 goes top and 2 bot. The top lane lvls until Lvl 6. After he put 1 point in his Ult, he goes bot and gank (maybe earlier, if the enemies are greedy or low HP). Until then you play as you do in SR
Midgame:
If you ganked the enemies succesful, you can start to gank top lane. Whenever you can push towers; look out for misses.
Lategame:
Sometimes its hard to finish them, because the base is a lot smaller then in SR and they can go to their towers very fast. Don't get greedy and do something supid, but wait for a good moment to backdoor or give them the feeling like they have no chance and make them surrender. Sooner or later one or two of them want to push. Kill them and it will be a GG.

In the Twisted Treeline the teams often gank before minions have spawned with the whole team.
Mostly they do it in the under bush (1). If you want to gank there, you have to be quick, because if you run in the bush and they are already there, they will kill you! So this is always a risky method. If you want to get a safe kill, go to the bush number 2 and wait till the Top-Laner from them arrives. You wont lose much EXP, because this map is very small and you can switch lanes very fast.
If you wanted to gank in bush 1 and they didn't come, they might gank you, so go the marked way to get sure you arrive the tower alive.

http://www.pic-upload.de/view-9359684/Firstgank.jpg.html

As I said before, the TT is a ver small map. So it is very easy to gank: With 2 Flashs (Like Kassa, LeBlanc, Random Flash+ Summoner Flash) you can change lanes in about 3 seconds. You should gank very often to get kills. If you succeed, the enemy will fear you and its easy to keep him from leveling, BUT smart enemies will do the same, so care! You have to say miss ALWAYS, its even more important than in SR.
Nearly all ganks go over the mid way, so place you ward there (1). The nice bonus effect will be, that you can see if the want to kill the Lizard. You will notice, that this ward will change the game!
Another important ward is the one by the dragon (2). The main effect is that you see if they want to get the Dragon-Buff, but it you will also get aware of activities in the uper jungle, like if they want to gank you. Wards are very important on this map, it's totally worth the money.
http://www.pic-upload.de/view-9359711/Wards.jpg.html

If you have a Teemo in your team, you can replace the wards with his Mushrooms. The enemies can't walk without walking into one of them and you see everything they do. If you play against a Teemo, get Banshies Veil.

In the TT, there are a few very interesting ways of backdooring, but it is more difficult than in SR, because everyone can go everywhere very fast, so make sure youo know where all enemies are if you want to backdoor. Of course you can use your backdoor-strategies from SR, but also a new one, which is my favorite: The Nexus is right behind the wall that protects the base. You can put a ward behind that wall and jump in with Jax' "Leap Strike" or Katharina's "Shunpo" and attack the base. You can do the same thing with all other flashs.
I don't know if it works, I don't have Kog'Maw, but maybe you can attack the base from the jungle if you put a ward in there. Of course you must have destroyed an Inhibitor.
http://www.pic-upload.de/view-9359796/Backdoor.jpg.html
Marked places are for the backdoor wards.

Your team: Dr. Mundo; Mordekaiser; Teemo

The builds in the top are just examples, I didn't think about it a long time or something.

Mundo gets a Ruby Cristal, Teemo a ward and Boots and Mordekaiser a defensive item. Go to the Lizard, place the ward and get ready to gank the Sololaner. After the gank Morde goes top and the others bot (and go back if needed). Mundo buys the next ward and then MOrde, then Teemo again, until Teemo reaches Lvl 6. Teemo puts his shrooms to blocks all ways from and to the Lizard, so you don't have to buy any wards. At Lvl 6 you start to gank regullary, both top and bot. After a while Teemo starts to put shrooms in the uper jungle. In lategame you will have 2 strong Tanks with high damage-output and one good DD, who gives you map awareness. GG

To summerise it all: use wards, kill Dragon whenever its possible and gank very much.

Of course it is not as easy as it sounds in this guide. The enemies will try to stop you from doing all this things and you should stop the enemies.

Sorry for my bad english, leave a comment, don't flame but give constuctive feedbackand have a lot of fun.

MfG MysteryPower