SUP DAWGS

ARE YOU STUCK IN ELO HELL?

ARE YOU TIRED OF NOT KNOWING HOW TO CARRY YOUR TEAM?

DO YOU ENJOY MAKING THE ENEMY TEAM'S LIFE MISERABLE?

THEN YOU HAVE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE

Quick introduction to how I came up with this:

Very beginning of season 3, I got stuck in what you guys would call ELO hell. Now, mind you, I don't believe such a thing exists when matchmaking is done properly, as it usually is. However, during placement matches and the the first couple of games afterwards, all of the players have been scrambled, and I've been forced to face MULTIPLE diamond players as far down as 1470 ELO, and ended with a negative win/loss record, dropping below 1400 at one point.

Due to a tiny bit of frustration and also because I never really gave a flying f*ck about my games, I started to go overly aggressive to see what I could get away with at low ELO once my games started to stabilize. After playing quite a handful of games with this strategy, we arrive at where are today, and this guide.

Why the support role? Because by nature of what I'm gonna be teaching you how to do, support works best. Most of my games nobody wants to play support anyways, so I just take it because I don't really care. It's easier to carry games with support anyways.

Since I've been doing this at the 1400-1600 ELO range, I will testify that it works very very well here. Here are my most recent 6 games that can be found in my match history:

Overall stats:


Whether it works in higher or lower ELO, I don't know. In lower ELO it will be harder for your teammates to follow up, but you'll be able to get away with more ridiculous stuff. In higher ELO, the enemy team might react faster or be smart enough to prepare for your invade ahead of time. WHO KNOWS? TRY IT AND FIND OUT

But in all seriousness, only be a d*ck in the way you play. You should be respectful to both your team and the enemy team at all times. If you truly are the better player, there's no need to talk smack because your playing should be doing the talking. No need to demoralize them more than you already have. It's still just a game.


AND NOW WE BEGIN

In order to be a d*ck, you must THINK like a d*ck.

Remember:

• BE A MAN
• ITS OK TO DIE. DEATHS MEAN NOTHING
• THE ENEMY TEAM IS BAD. ABUSE THIS
• YOUR TEAM IS THE DREAM TEAM AND YOU ARE THE LEADER. LEAD THEM TO VICTORY
• MANMODE
• SACRIFICE WILL BE NECESSARY
• YOU ARE NOTHING WITHOUT YOUR TEAM
• BALLS DEEP

ok. moving on.

Lemme explain my reasoning for runes and masteries.

You basically want to take as much passive gold while still having enough durability and offense to do what you need to do. You need just enough durability to take the upfront initial combo of damage to bait people and just enough offense for your team to be able to follow up and secure the kill.

As long as those two criteria are met, feel free to take any build you want.

In order to be a true d*ck, you only need 3 items in particular: your tier 2 boots (whatever they are), (to chase down people like the *sshole you are), and (to ward the deepest of your opponents' nether regions). You can count if you want, so I guess that would be 4.

Begin with boots and wards so you can roam around the map faster. If you can get before Philosopher's Stone, do so. You already have plenty of passive gold from your masteries and runes, there's no need to rush more.

Then prioritize in this manner: if you can afford it, otherwise tier 2 boots, then .

I have given builds for two champions in particular in this guide. Why these two? They both have a particular trait about them that makes them very attractive for the purposes of this guide, the fact that one of their basic skills is hard crowd control. Here I will explain which one to pick, but just keep in mind that generally, any champions with hard crowd control as a basic skill can work as well.

Super Smash Bro: - Hard crowd control that interrupts. Can heal teammates. Makes teammates slightly stronger and slightly more durable.

Brobasaur: - Overall better crowd control, can snare and slow multiple champions as well as knockup, but cannot interrupt immediately. Cannot heal teammates.

Get if you need immediate interrupt or need to heal poke damage or if your team is generally squishy. Get if you want strong zoning power and counter engagement.

Consider the level of aggression you will put out and what your team needs. If you plan on being hyper-aggressive very early and/or your team needs very strong peel against a particular champion (such as a Haircream or Crocod*ck), take the . However, if the team doesn't have a lot of diving champions and your engage is very good, also works exceptionally well. As aggressive as you want to be, you still need to protect your team, because YOU ARE NOTHING WITHOUT YOUR TEAM.

If your AD wants to take or he's wimpy and needs , is also an attractive option. If you're getting early kills, you'll snowball into mid-game and you'll carry your team on your back.

Okay, by now I'm guessing you guys are tired of reading stuff about setup, and you wanna dive right in. SO LETS DO IT

First thing you do, as soon as you enter the game, buy your and Sight Wardx2. Now you need to do some thinking. You need to figure out where you should ward, whether to invade first or wait a bit to catch the enemy jungler off-guard, and how to interrupt them.

Here are good places to ward before minions spawn:

Preferably, you want to maintain control over the enemy buff on your side of the map. So if you're blue, ward their blue. If you're purple, ward their red. Preferably. It's ideal, but if it won't help you much, don't bother.

Do you invade?

• Does the enemy team have crowd control at level 1?
• Does the enemy team have good damage/burst at level 1?
• Does the enemy jungler need to start blue in order to be effective in the jungle?
• Does this imply a high chance that the team will be protecting the jungler?

If after knowing the answers to all of these questions, you find that it is a good idea to invade, go for it. Take a couple of your allies and go straight in, no fear. If you get a kill, wonderful. If you get them to burn a flash or two, great. If you get caught off-guard and need to retreat, no sweat. If you somehow get REALLY caught off-guard and die, no worries either.

If, however, you don't think it's a good idea to invade, just ward the enemy red (or wherever the enemy jungler will be after clearing their initial camps) and wait for them there.

If you have warded the enemy blue, check to see if they are protecting their precious jungler. If not, feel free to start making his life a living hell. Go up to him as he's killing the golem, and as he starts to get low, before he can finish off the buff, stun his *ss. This will most likely scare the living cr*p outta him, and if it doesn't, auto-attacking him probably will. A threesome with you and the golem will most likely be too much for him to handle and he'll run away like a little girl if he isn't already dead. Make sure that while all of this is happening, you're keeping an eye on the rest of the enemy team so you don't get sandwiched and g*ngbanged yourself.

If you haven't warded the enemy blue (or wherever he starts first), I presume you warded the enemy red (or wherever he goes next). If you have not, you're doing it wrong. Go back a chapter. Normally, junglers hit their second buff around 2:30-2:50 or something like that. Be ready to camp their sh*t. Watch the enemy bot lane as you go to interrupt them, make sure they don't follow you. If your jungler is near, tell him to come with you. As he is about to finish the buff, stun him and he should drop pretty fast. If he has up, make sure you account for it and cut off his escape. An early will not only drop his armor and magic resist but make chasing him down much easier.

Whatever buffs were taken at this point. Time them. Should be easy, blue buff tends to die around 2:05, red buff dies around 2:40ish. Buffs respawn in 5:00.

If the enemy jungler (and the rest of the enemy team) hasn't been demoralized by now, they have some pretty strong wills and you can expect a fun match to come.

And now you are left with a choice. You can either continue roaming, or head back to your lane.

Do you go help your AD?

• Can the AD still farm at tower?
• Does the enemy bot lane have good poke?
• Can the enemy bot engage hard on your AD, maybe even tower dive?
• Can you accomplish anything if you roam?

If the enemy bot lane's poke isn't phenomenal, chances are your AD can at least farm at this tower. HAVE FAITH

If the enemy bot lane cannot tower dive or hard engage your AD, they will almost guaranteed push the lane, allowing your AD to not only farm, but get ahead in levels. This will keep him in the game. More often than not, he will actually manage to keep up in CS with the enemy AD.

SO IN THIS CASE WE GO ROAM

First check to see if mid lane is gankable. Gank him like you would if you were the jungler. Camp him. Make him too scared to go up to his minion lane to farm if you can't kill him outright. Because let's face it, who would expect the support to go up there at level 1-3 to gank?

If mid lane isn't gankable, see if top is being pushed. Go through your jungle up to the top lane and gank as usual. If you can't kill him, at least do enough damage to make him have to recall or burn a couple of potions. Perhaps he'll even miss a few minions. Just make his life miserable. Because let's face it, NOBODY expects the support to go all the way to top lane to gank.

If neither lane is gankable, see if you can cut off the enemy jungler somewhere. If he's going to gank somewhere, counter gank. If he's doing wraiths, either steal his wraith or just go scare him. If you can't reach the enemy jungler or you have no idea where he might go, then I guess just head back bottom to help your AD. If you're good enough and the enemy bot lane is bad enough, you can probably score a kill or two. If not, at least you can get a couple of levels before you go hunting again.

You should go back now if you can or need to buy something (and chances are you do because you don't have any wards left).

Regardless of whether you choose to wait for your or get parts for your Philosopher's Stone, or maybe you can already buy one straight up, get some more wards. This is because you want to be ready to pounce on the enemy jungler as his buffs respawn.

Bring some friends if you can. The more, the merrier. Wouldn't be a party without them, since YOU ARE NOTHING WITHOUT YOUR TEAM. Basically the same rules apply. Do what you can to interrupt the jungler and maybe kill him. If the enemy team starts to converge, back off. Otherwise, start catching people off-guard. BOOGIDDY WOOGIDY BOO

So by now the game can open up in countless possible ways. You pretty much get the gist by now:

• Ward the everything. No such thing as too many wards.
• Take and time objectives. (buffs 5:00, dragon 6:00, baron 7:00)
• Gank people.
• If there is too much pressure bot lane or they're going to take the tower, go back bot.

Keep roaming until you win. Remember to use dat and jump people. Clear critical wards with . YOUR TEAM IS THE DREAM TEAM AND YOU ARE THE LEADER. LEAD THEM TO VICTORY. Avoid taking buffs if possible since you're probably going to die a lot, and you don't want to pass those to the enemy. ITS OK TO DIE. DEATHS MEAN NOTHING

Here's how you can tell how you are doing.

Gold count:

• Check creep score of everyone in the game by holding down TAB
• Check levels with TAB
• Check items with TAB
• Count up the global objectives each team has taken (towers and dragons give about 200 gold each, baron 300)

Aggression:

• If you find yourself tower diving and succeeding, you're probably really far ahead.
• If you can be aggressive in roaming and ganking and succeed with few casualties, your team is probably ahead.
• If you find that your roam ganks are somewhat weak or fail too often, you're probably a bit behind. Play more conservatively. Ward more and make sure to fall back immediately if an engagement should fail.

The reason why this is important is because if you're too aggressive when you're behind, you're only going to fall more behind. You can still be aggressive but you have to be smart. Keep track of this throughout the game. You're the one making the calls on your team, so you gotta keep yourself informed.

Obviously try to catch people off-guard and pick fights where you outnumber your enemy. Don't get caught too far out and die for nothing. If you're gonna initiate or get picked off and die, make sure that the enemy has to burn a lot of critical summoner spells or ultimates to get to you. ITS OK TO DIE. DEATHS MEAN NOTHING. If a 5v5 fight breaks out and they have to use too much to get you, your team will clean up. YOU ARE NOTHING WITHOUT YOUR TEAM

However, sometimes you might find that your initiations don't work the way you plan as you start falling behind. If this is the case, start falling back into more of a traditional support role. Rather than trying to reach the back line for their carries, protect your own carry. A simple stun might prevent a bruiser from using their entire combo on your AD and saving his life.

As long as you keep winning fights, it will strike fear and despair into the hearts of your opponents. If you don't, it's okay. You went BALLS DEEP so YOU ARE A MAN. Try again next time.

Here are general tips that will help you along the way.

• Gank with your jungler if you can. You guys make a cute couple.
• Gank with your team if you can. Orgies are fun.
• Count the cooldowns of your opponent. If all of their escapes are down, guess what? THEY CANT ESCAPE
• Objectives are important. They globally give your team more power. There is no such thing as taking a tower too early. MANMODE
• Always keep track of the enemy team. Just as you can catch them off-guard, they can catch you off-guard too. Try not to get caught.
• Pings are your friend. If you see enemy champions about to gank, don't type in the chat. Nobody is going to be reading that because reading is for squares. Ping it like a madman so your team actually sits up and takes notice. Hell, just ping everything.
• Your team will most likely harass you for roaming because they don't understand what it means to be a man. Ignore them, you know best. Do what you can to keep them from ragequitting, but outside of that, keep being a man.

AND THAT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IS HOW TO BE A D*CK IN SOLO QUEUE

GOOD LUCK ON THE FIELDS OF JUSTICE

I EXPECT TO SEE MORE MEN IN MY GAMES

will update when I feel like it