- Added in some stuff from comments.

- Added in a Team Fighting section.

- Added a "counter the comeback" section.

- Made the ashe build legitimate to stop trolling :D

- Added a new "counter the gank" section.

- Expanded the "the enemy is backdooring" section.

- Added a "You are at the disadvantage: Countering the advantaged" section.

- Added some icons to make the guide more "visually appealing."

- Added a chapter entitled, "Turtling."

- Added a chapter entitled, "Map Control and Values."

- Revamped the counter jungling section.

Last Checked: October 24, 2011

I recently wrote an entire guide that went champion by champion with counters, but then the site F**Ked me and it's gone. (the site randomly logged me out and didn't save the guide, EVEN THO I SAVED IT MULTIPLE TIMES!)

So, I present to you a somewhat shorter guide detailing counters.

PLEASE! UPVOTE AND OFFER SUGGESTIONS FOR I WILL SURELY MISS SOME COUNTERS! The community needs to know this stuff. I will often update this guide as needed, or as people point out things I am missing.

Akali, Evelynn, Shaco, Twitch:
- All can be hard countered with vision wards and oracles elixir.


Dr. Mundo:
- any form of healing reduc, will be listed later.


Karthus:
- Hard counter pick is soraka. Her ult also scales better than his. A soraka with about half the AP of a karthus can undo his ult completely.
- Red elixir can potentially save you from his ult
- Banshees can save you from his ult
- Hexdrinker can also save you from a karthus ult.
- Zhonyas

Malzahar and Warwick:
- All are countered well by quick silver sash. It completely ruins their ultimates. Malzahar's ultimate will still do damage, but you won't be focused as easily or sit in his W (according to LoL wiki).

Mordekaiser:
- His ult is also countered by QSS. If you are a dps carry, you better have a quick silver sash or your team will HATE you.

Other counters:

LeBlanc and Veigar
- These champs are based upon insta bursting down 1 champion. Banshee's Veil could stop this from instakilling you squishies!!

If the enemy team has:
- Swain
- Dr. Mundo
- Soraka
- Fiddlesticks
- Nidalee
- (Maybe even Janna, Taric, or Sona)

Then you better have some form of healing reduc.

Take for instance: Swain
You can basically counter this champion and lock him down with 2-3 ignites, a simple summoner spell. WHY WOULDN'T YOU DO THIS?! (ranked games of course)

Ways to reduce healing:
- Ignite
- Executioner's Calling (if you don't have the ignites, someone should probably get this item)
- MF's W Impure Shots
- Katarina's W Preparation
- Tristana's E Explosive Shot

I'm a tank and I know my build is the best!!! I refuse to not build my set 6 items.

You know what, 90% of the time, that's fine. How often do your enemies run 100% magic damage or 100% physical damage? Not often. However:

Build ORDER should be altered based upon what's going on.

If you are laning against a Mage, build that Negatron Cloak first!
If you are laning against a tough physical carry, get that Chain Vest first!

If the enemy Master Yi is rising up as the main power on the enemy team, get the armor now!

- Executioner's calling is a pick that is normally frowned upon. But if you're in game and no one brought that ignite and you know the soraka/swain/etc is going to be your downfall, BUY THIS. It may be your only chance.

- Thornmail
If the enemy yi is tearing you up and hard carrying, I recommend everyone on your team build a thornmail. It may change the tides of your game. Even an ashe grabbing this may not be a mistake.

- Elixir of Fortitude
This item may save your life against a: Caitlyn ult, Karthus ult, etc. Consider it if you are fearful of some select champions.

- Banshee's Veil
a great item to save you from so many things. If mumu/blitz is their primary initiator, you might wanna buy this!

- Force of Nature
If their team is full of harass/poke, you might wanna pick this over banshee's simply because it will mitigate more damage with movespeed and higher res, than simply stopping 1 harass.

- Quicksilver Sash
This has the ability to counter so many champions ultimates. Consider it more often PLEASE!

- Randuin's Omen
It is an excellent counter to dps. Slows their movespeed and attack speed on it. They won't know what hit them.

- Frozen Heart
excellent on burst tanks (like morde). This slows the enemy attack speed by 20% for a 1000 range.

Exhaust is an excellent pick against Melee dpsers, because they are easy to reach and usually rely on attack speed and damage. Excellent against:
- Master Yi
- Xin Zhao
- Tryndamere
- etc.

Some junglers are heavily dependent on blue buff. Some are just weak (like Olaf) - by weak I mean that he has low health while he jungles.

Mumu must start at blue, so stealing his golems are easy.

If your enemy chooses a weak jungler, it may be a good idea to choose a strong jungler, like Nunu & Willump.

If you are running a champ that can spare (doesn't need 2 escapes, and you have taken care of Ignite/ Exhaust countering if necessary) you can grab Clairvoyance. This greatly helps anticipate ganks and set up counter jungling.

You may also ward the enemy's buff and group up to take it. then you can get it on a timer (that the enemy won't have) and keep taking it all game long.

I recommend stonewall008's youtube videos for jungling experience, it is a huge subject all on its own.



Counter jungling:
There are two types of counter jungling
1 - killing the enemy jungler
2 - stealing the enemy jungler's camps

1 is higher reward but greater risk.
2 is pretty good reward and low risk.

1 - To cover this topic I'll give a few examples. Many junglers get red at the end of their jungle, meaning they have very low health. Around 3 minutes, you can camp out their red and wait for them to get low enough to kill. Also, particular junglers have cool tricks, like shaco. Shaco can do blue, then immediately head to the enemy wraith bush. There he sets up boxes and kills the enemy jungler as he heads to wraiths.


2 - Killing the enemy camps, imo, is the best way to counter jungle, PARTICULARLY the enemy buffs. (red and blue).

A - Prioritize based on the enemy jungler. Stealing fiddles blue > red. Stealing ww red>blue.

B - Many junglers like to hand blue buff off to the allied mid. If you sit in the river bush, just behind blue buff, you can smite it over the wall while the mid tries to hit it over the wall.

C - Be aware of the location of the enemy jungler AS BEST AS YOU CAN!! An unseen jungler pressures all of the map that is not warded. As soon as the jungler is spotted, almost all of the pressure is relieved. This is why stealing camps is LOW RISK. Say you're doing your wolves (you're the team on bottom) and the enemy jungler appears bot for a gank. Does he have his red buff? If he does not, head to his red and see if it's up! TAKE IT!!! He cannot protect his jungle if he's bot ganking.

D - Ward enemy buffs!!! The best way to set up plays is to have data!


3 - Dragon control. Here is a list of things that make dragon low risk (or "doable")

A - Enemy mid or bot recalled (and your's did not!! And is at decent health/mana)
B - Enemy mid or bot recalled (ditto)
C - Jungler appears top
D - Your top has teleport and the enemy's doesn't

Any combination of the above makes for a very low risk dragon. Even if it is warded. Just one makes for medium risk. If their jungler is top and 1 bot recalled, easy dragon. ALSO, do dragon when you have smite up! AND DON'T SMITE BIG WRAITH OR SOMETHING IF YOU EXPECT TO DRAGON SOON!!!


4 - Helpful information:

A - Dragon respawn: 6 minutes
B - Baron respawn: 7 minutes
C - Buff respawn: 5 minutes
D - Any other jungle camp: 2 minutes

We've all been ganked, we all hate it. I will be a bit redundant, and then pose some things that people hate to hear.

- MAP AWARENESS
When you can only see your lane opponent(s) and one other person, EXPECT to be 4 man ganked, no matter how improbable, EXPECT it and prepare for it. If you don't get ganked, you missed a few minions, if you DO get ganked, you fed them 300+ gold, and then you stop farming and could lose a tower, massively widening the gap.

- Know the enemy team
Is there a Shaco? Expect a level 1-3 gank. He WILL gank someone, or he is BAD and you need not worry.
Is there an enemy xin, are you mid? Be practical with that one ward you bought (if you only bought 1). Around level 3 drop the ward in the bushes that are closest to HIS RED BUFF! He most likely wont try to gank you from the bush closest to his blue, unless he just fail ganked, in which case, BE AWARE of where his fail gank occurred.

- SIGHT WARDs
Obviously. Sight is OP! When you recall, buy the items you want, and then with whatever you have left, grab some wards. More than one if you can afford (as in it will let you click twice and get 2 wards, not, oh I wanted to save 75 gold b/c that helps me somehow more than a ward would have). Refer to ward guides on how to do this well.

- Clairvoyance
If you are a champ that has this, it is your job to TRACK THE JUNGLER! Don't sit there and spam CV on the bush that YOUR gank will come from. Find the jungler and help your whole team by tracking him. Learn junglers paths and keep tabs on him. If you lose him, just try to find him. Combined with wards, you can shut down most junglers (except maybe nocturne).

- Don't AUTO ATTACK!
I can't tell me how many teammates I've had or friends that I've watched that sit there and auto attack minions. Unless you have a really good reason for pushing, DON'T. It makes you vulnerable to ganks, LEARN TO LAST HIT! it could save your life and your lane partner's.




Here are the more controversial parts where I offer my OPINION on what not to do, and I will offer explanations as to why not. WARNING: My opinions may be counter culture like or unconventional.


- Don't go top as Mordekaiser.

---

This sounds oddly specific, but I wish to make a point, it's not just mordekaiser. Mordekaiser has no inherent escape. A lot of champions have no inherent escape, they should NOT GO TOP unless they have GHOST+FLASH. Not one or the other, BOTH.

There are a few exceptions. Say you are brand and you run Flash Teleport. The enemy top is nasus and the jungler is gangplank. Neither of those players can stop your teleport from channeling, so you may go top, considering you could just teleport out of the gank while they attack you.

Some people get sent top that should never be there. If you are Nasus top, and you have Flash+ Exhaust then you are excused, IF YOU GET Wither AT LEVEL 4. You have two ways to stop the enemy from ganking you before you recall for wards.

Some champions need to go mid or suck it up and go bottom. If you want to play morde and refuse to go bottom, people won't let you mid, and you don't run ghost flash. Either go top and recall EARLY to make sure you buy a stack of wards, or PICK ANOTHER CHAMPION. A team of 5 solo lane champions WILL STRUGGLE.



- KNOW THE ENEMY TEAM, AGAIN!!!

---

Really learn to apply this. I once played against a Taric + Nunu & Willump double jungle. They ran in the jungler together, both with Smite. They ganked as a pack, unstoppable if you were even halfway down your lane. They would pop out of the bush and stun+slow+kill you. If you happened to push your lane a little bit, dead.

The obvious solution, you might say, was to ward. They bought Oracle's Elixir early and took out every ward they passed over. If there was a ward top, they'd kill it then gank mid and then go back top. It seemed uncounterable. It seemed like our 5 man was going to lose some ranked elo to this ridiculous strategy. At least, this is what my team thought.

I was Warwick and I was mid lane. My normal strategy, that I stole from Guardsmanbob, was to rape mid and ensure their carry was underfarmed, look him up if you want, MidWick OP! Anyway, that was out of the question this game, but no one could switch with me in this particular game, it would just make it worse for me. I had to play it safe. I noticed the enemy mid was a bad farmer (THANK GOD, right?).

So I concluded, I couldn't do what my teammates were doing, I COULDN'T FEED. It would ensure the loss. I had to suffer some last hits if it meant pushing. I had Boots, and I was mid lane, so I could go to about the middle of mid lane and that was far enough. I bought a philosopher's stone (I never do this on WW and I don't recommend it under other circumstances) and tried to let the enemy push. I missed some last hits when the enemy pushed or when I knew they were trying to gank me (killed my ward).

I sacrificed a bit of gold not last hitting, but the philo stone provided for the few that I had to miss. I played it safe and watched my team die. I tried to instruct them to just hang back and wait until teamfighting broke out. You see, it may make you feel disadvantaged not last hitting sometimes (the side lanes had a bigger burden when it came to not pushing), but think of the nunu + taric. If their ganks fail, they will be underleveled and underfarmed, meaning you will be ahead. Eventually, my team listened, to some avail and we managed to come back and win.


This is one example of a situation where you must be versatile and do the counter intuitive thing and sacrifice your farm a bit. It isn't about farming the most all the time, sometimes, it's just about farming more than your opponent. Allowing them to farm YOU won't accomplish that.

Things that prevent/fight this:
- Anything with tenacity
- Cleanse
- Morgana's shield
- Olaf's ult
- Banshee's Veil
- Quicksilver Sash
- Poppy's ult
- Irelia's passive
- Dr. Mundo's W
- Singed's ult
- Nocturne's W
- Sivir's shield
- Alistar's ult
- Trundle's W


Just soft CC:
- Master Yi's ult.

Banshees counters this.

Movespeed is the hard counter to skillshots. The ability to dodge can render a skill shotting champion useless against you.

Countering your enemy's every move is made possible with vision.

sight ward

WARDS WARDS WARDS! Many guides tell you to do it, follow their advice. - The Attila

The above was my advice pertaining to wards and map control when the guide first came out. I decided that this was not enough. I will now provide my own warding guide and a "zones of control" guide.

First:
- Zone of control - this is effectively "uncontested territory"
For the enemy to venture into "uncontested territory," is typically regarded as a MISTAKE or PLANNED OFFENSE.
- Ward - sight ward (green)
- Pink ward - vision ward (pink. it reveals stealth and other wards)
- Purple team - the Team on the top right hand side of the map.
- Blue team - the Team on the bottom left hand side of the map.
- Late game perma-wards - these are wards that should ALWAYS BE UP ONCE LATE GAME BEGINS.
- Defensive ward - a ward that is used to defend your "territory."
- Offensive ward - a ward that is used to aggressively assault your opponent.

Now, a bit of explanation:
1 - The Wards expressed in the Where to Ward map are identical if you are Blue Team or Purple EXCEPT the offensive and defensive wards ARE REVERSED.

2 - Purpose of a pink laning ward: These are usually places in the bushes right outside your lane (in the river). The benefit to putting them there are: You reveal the enemy ward which
A - Makes ganking easier
B - APPLIES PRESSURE TO THE LANING OPPONENTS

3 - Purpose of the regular laning wards: These are to provide extra protection to the laner.
A - They provide protection against enemies that try to "gank up the lane" (ganking up the lane is a type of gank that a jungler uses on a lane that is pushed. He runs all the way to the tower then enters the bushes inside of the lane and is unseen because the enemy minions are at the enemy tower. Then the enemy tower restarts the lane and he is concealed in the bush right next to the enemy and minion waves.)
B - Particularly in bot lane, they provide protection from enemy bush huggers and open up opportunities to kill the laning opponent. For instance, if you have a poppy, alistar, or vayne in your lane, Alistar can headbutt, poppy can wall slam, and vayne can stun them against the wall, making them vulnerable. Wall collision is easily achievable if the enemy is revealed in a bush.


Zones of control:
The point of a ward PERIOD is to aid in maintaining "contested territory." You and your opponents' collective zones of control establish contested and uncontested territory. Contested territory is territory that falls neither within your zone of control nor within your opponents' zone of control. Uncontested territory is territory that falls within you or your opponents' zone of control.

What the above basically means is that you should ward in areas that are not covered by a zone of control.

4 - defensive wards. A defensive ward is meant to defend contested territory that was ORIGINALLY your uncontested territory (see map). For instance, if you lose top tower, you should ward your blue buff and the bush (on the other side of blue) that extends to the river (see map). The reason you ward there is because top tower is no longer functioning as a zone of control so you need wards to protect that area. (Given you can ward defensively if you expect counter jungling for any reason. You cannot "over ward.")

The defensive ward grants you a nice edge. If the enemy roams in your jungle because your zone of control is down (which they are liable to do) you can catch them. If three are mid and you defensive ward catches the other two enemies on the other side of your base, you know it is safe to initiate 5v3. The defensive wards also grant you the security to move through your own jungle.

5 - offensive wards. The offensive ward is meant to move into contested territory that was previously your opponents' uncontested territory. If you take out your enemy's top tower, you can place your wards at his red and the bush between their mid lane and their wraiths.

What this does is it grants you the ability to push their top lane while monitoring their movements through their jungle (to ensure your safety). It also allows you to catch them moving alone in their jungle.

6 - The purpose of late game perma-wards is to grant vision in critical points. I chose the two very common teamfighting spots in the river (that aren't covered by the other wards that you should be using) and BARON. Ward on top of baron himself (that ward is hard to target for enemies with pink ward or oracles).

7 - Tower values: I'm now going to assign values to towers, supplemented with reasoning, of course.

ALL SCALES ARE BASED UPON 0-5 (0 being worthless and 5 being absolutely game changing and 2.5 being absolute advantage to even playing field) Exception is rank 6 = you cannot come back. Also note that if you lose something that is worth 6 in exchange for something the enemy had that was worth 3, then you are not beyond the point of comeback since their difference is 3.

Also - IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE that these values do not include team composition. For instance, a strong teamfight team values an inhibitor tower as worth less than a split push team because they can fight 5v5 to defend the inhib and win without needing any tower help.

These scales are also based upon a team that ABSOLUTELY UTILIZES ALL THEIR OPPORTUNITIES WITH THE ZONES OF CONTROL. A ZONE OF CONTROL IS WORTHLESS IS NEITHER TEAM UTILIZES IT!

(NOTE: All first and second towers are worth almost nothing LATE GAME because of tower decay.)

A - Top tower has a value of 1 because it offers little zone of control advantage until late game (in which you still need the late game ward on baron).

B - Bot tower has a value of 2 because it's zone of control's value is twice as valuable as top's given that it contains dragon access.

C - Mid tower has a value of 3 because it equally involved in top tower AND bot tower's zones of control.

D - 2nd Top tower is worth .25 because it controls a small zone between 2nd mid tower and itself.

E - 2nd Bot tower is worth .25 because it controls a small zone between 2nd mid tower and itself.

F - 2nd mid tower is worth .5 because it is involved in both zones of controls listed in D and E.

LATE GAME NOTE - it is very very difficult to weigh first towers against inhib towers and inhibs because they are focal points at different points in the game, usually. Please note that if you compare a number that I assign to an inhib that it is only capable of being roughly comparable to other towers depending on the game clock.

Note here that the inhib towers are going to be valued (in addition to previous criteria) relative to how well they protect the inhibs and the value of the inhibs behind them.

G - Top inhib tower: is worth 1. The lane is long, requiring less protection because it takes the enemies minions longer to get there and your's get there quicker. The inhib behind it is also the least valuable, hence a value of 1.

H - Bot inhib tower: is worth 2.5. The lane is long, requiring less protection (as said above). Although, bot inhib is the most valuable inhib in the game (discussed later in the inhib section).

I - Mid inhib tower: is worth 2.5. The lane is shorter, requiring more protection because it is pressured more often, requiring more attention to protect. Although, the inhib behind it is the 2nd most valuable inhib (discussed later in the inhib section).

Inhib Section:
Please note that the inhib values are much more concrete than previous ratings. These are much less debatable.

J - Top inhib: 3. The reason is top tower puts super minion pressure on their nexus, making them have to think twice about any decision they make. It doesn't really open up an opportunity for the team that gets the inhib to baron because the enemy will be top, near baron, and if they have wards (like they should) or clair, they can stop you from baroning. It does, however, open up the opportunity to split push on the team that lost the inhib. If team had an absolute advantage, they would maintain a very slight advantage after losing top inhib (all else equal of course). Also, the minion push from top will focus top nexus tower, increasing your chances of killing a nexus tower. (mid splits between both nexus towers.

K - Bot inhib: 5. The reason is that this gives you the option to baron now. And you have a good minion push for pressure in a lane far away from baron. It also opens up options to split push. If a team was disadvantaged and then got bot inhib, they would now be slightly advantaged. They just obtained many options to win.

L - Mid inhib: 3. Mid inhib has the fastest push, putting the most pressure on mid, forcing the enemy to put more attention on mid. It also opens the opportunity to split push. But does not full open the ability to baron if the enemy has sight.

Each character in itself has a role: which is really a counter to another champion.

Roles are important, don't pick an Alistar, build tank, and then chase down the enemy carry.

RANGED CARRY:
- Your role is to shoot whoever is closest to you that IS NOT a tank.
- Your job is also to shoot towers while the tanky people stand in front of you.
- You may also kite the people who focus you. (Example: you're in the river, enemy singed runs at you, run around the cliff in the river and flash back into the teamfight when singed reaches you. Proceed to shoot his team to piece while he is gone.)
- Your tank determines when fights start, not you.

OFFTANK:
- Your role is to be tanky.
- You must also have 1-2 damage items so that you are not ignorable.
- You relieve some of the burden of the main tank.
- You MUST NOT run away and leave your ranged carry behind.
- You MUST do everything in your power to get people off of your carries.

AP CARRY/ASSASSIN:
- Your role is to SLAY THE ENEMY CARRY.
- You are the ranged carry's counter. You beat him down.
- You hit towers hard, use that to your advantage during the siege.
- You do not decide when fights start, your tank does.

TANK:
- Your role is to guard the carry at all costs.
- You are not a durable killer.
- Your job is not to kill people.
- Your job is not to kill people.
- Your job is not to kill people.
- Save your carry at all costs. Sit next to him the entire teamfight and CC/ Beat up people if you need to.
- You initiate teamfights, then keep everyone off of the carry.
- YOU ARE A MEATSHIELD/CROWD CONTROLLER.

SUPPORT:
- You babysit the carry.
- Throw out fat heals.
- Save your teammates with whatever skills you have.
- Let your teammates get fed, don't KS or farm hard.

If your team does not have all of these roles, say by having 2 assassins, that team is at a DISADVANTAGE in TEAMFIGHTS. Be aware that your team should be balanced, and notice when the enemy team is not. Grouping up early could end the disadvantaged team comp.

So you're ahead eh? Gonna keep farmin it up right? Get a full build and pwn noobs? Wrong. This is not how you win. This is how you let your enemies have a chance to beat you. When I'm losing, I pray the enemy jungles/farms lanes/whatever it is they do so that I may
- pick them (kill an out of position enemy)
- baron
- farm hard and catch up
- backdoor

You don't want me doing those things to you, you want to counter that and take me out fast. Here's how:



THE ART OF THE SIEGE:
Sieging is a tower standoff. It is when you are staring at an enemy tower while the enemies stare at you.

This is what you need to do AS SOON AS YOU KNOW YOU HAVE THE ADVANTAGE! NOT A SECOND LATER OR SOONER!

You just checked the score, 16 to 9. You are ahead and up by 1 tower and 1 dragon. It is time to make a move. You check and notice you are slightly ahead in minion kills. Now is not the time to go farm some wolves/golems. It is time to USE YOUR ADVANTAGE!

But Attila! They are pushing top lane!
If it is not at your tower, go get one of their towers! You have the advantage, you set the pace. You eat their towers faster, who cares if they want to push your lane, you can do it better, YOU HAVE THE ADVANTAGE!

How to siege:
Have good siegers:
- Zilean (put bombs on everyone!)
- Anivia (wall behind tower, Q people, ult behind tower)
- Karthus (wall behind tower, spam Q)
- Trundle (place his pillar behind tower)
- anyone with good harass

While all this harass is going down, the ranged units should be pounding on the tower. Especially the ranged casters because they hit hard. Offtanks/tanks should be standing in front of them SOAKING UP HARASS. I repeat, SOAKING UP HARASS! NOT TOWER DIVING!!!

Hardcore siegers (should have at least 2 on a team) will help you change that advantage into a win, instead of a comeback for your enemies.

Towers win games.

Are you top? mid? bot? Try your best to take a tower!

If you have 3 people near top and you know you cannot stop the enemy from dragoning, trade dragon for a tower! It is your best chance to get something out of this, and some would argue it is worth more than dragon (offers more map control, etc.)

- Send 1 person back if you think it's an issue.

- But think about the situation for a bit.

Is Shaco backdooring your 1st bot tower? Is anyone dead? Can you take advantage of this and push one of their inhib towers? Can you turn his backdoor into a baron for your team? So many teams make the mistake of sending anywhere from 2-5 people after him instead of taking baron or fighting 4v5 or pushing one of their towers. That Shaco could have ruined his team's chance of winning by separating himself.



- Also realize you probably could have stopped this. First Let's separate backdooring from pushing:
Backdooring: killing towers without a minion wave
Pushing: sending your minion waves all the way to the enemy tower

Alright, most people who are "backdooring" you, are really just pushing. Which means, you could have seen the enemy minions pushing and determined the seriousness of the threat/how long the wave will take to reach your tower.

An example, you see a massive minion wave that the enemy yi just sent towards your top tower, their location is top lane by the enemy blue buff (you are the top team, they are bottom. I think this makes you purple?). You know you have about 2-3 minion waves to protect your tower before it needs your assistance. This is a good time to dragon if you are all together, or take a tower/win a teamfight if you can. But by the time the said minion wave reaches your ruined tower, you should be heading back to stop the push, UNLESS you can do something game changing that is worth more than that particular tower, like take another one of their towers+inhib.

There is definitely a bit of evaluating your situation. It is okay to lose a tower, if your enemy loses 2. It is not okay to lose a tower for no reason. Be aware of which lanes are pushing and when the push will arrive, then you can make informed decisions for your team.

This may be your chance to turn the game around! Attack them after they have committed to baron or when you know you can take them. Baron makes it a 6v5 in your favor.

Sometimes teams can easily push to win, but they baron while all 5 enemies are up (perhaps they lack balls). This is a chance for their enemies to turn the game around and ace them at baron or even steal baron.

- You must WARD WARD WARD - I cant stress how important this is to winning games! Sometimes the enemy has an oracles and a strong advantage, those games are going to be extremely difficult to win.

- Catch an enemy out of position. This generally requires wards. If you know 2 are bot and you happened to see an enemy wandering through your jungle, END HIM! Many things can be done with a 4v5, like take a tower or even baron if you are very far behind.

- DO NOT LET YOURSELF GET OUT OF POSITION. The best way to continue losing is to be caught out of position in your UNWARDED JUNGLE while the enemy is mia and you are missing several towers. Sometimes even wolves are a dangerous place if you only have inhib towers and NO WARDS.

- Be very watchful of baron. Your enemy may try to grab it to get a greater advantage to end the game. This is your chance to strike. Make sure baron is at around 1/3-1/2 health that way the enemy will stay committed to it but can't get it immediately when you show up (if you have this luxury).

- Be watchful of dragon. Sometimes when games go for a while, the advantaged team will send 1 or 2 people to dragon while everyone else pushes lanes. This may be your chance to 5v1-2 them and turn it into a 5v3-4. This is more probable than catching them at baron and winning, considering the entire enemy team will baron instead of 1-2 players.

- Monitor the minion pushes well. Push as hard as you can if you are greatly disadvantaged without over extending and then meet the pushed lanes at your towers. This can be done fairly easily if you monitor the lanes!

When you are fairly disadvantaged, a lot of the game is waiting for your opponents to make a mistake. Sometimes it feels bad to just wait and do nothing "productive" but it is a must if you are behind. If you are in solo queue and your team has demonstrated that it fails, constantly getting picked, etc. consider the surrender.

---

When you are only SLIGHTLY DISADVANTAGED

This is almost always mid game (unless you're in the process of coming back in the late game).

- When you start to notice this mid-game, change your farming patterns.
Your enemies will likely try to push all lanes hard then 4-5 man gank. WARD UP DAMMIT! Also, this is a controversial opinion I have of what to do in this situation. Try it and you may find success:

DO NOT PUSH AS HARD AS YOU CAN IN RETURN. Say you have lost your first mid lane tower, and you are mid. When the enemy mid pushes hard to you, fall back to just in front of your tower. Make sure you don't over extend and ONLY LAST HIT. This makes sure the minions balance around YOUR BASE, denying your enemies farm. This may grant you the edge you need to catch up. Your enemy will have to find alternate means to farm which may get them out of position in your jungle or other places. MAKE SURE TO CALL THE ENEMY MIA, BECAUSE THEY WILL LIKELY NOT FOLLOW THE PUSH TO NEAR YOUR TOWER FOR FEAR OF BEING GANKED. If they DO push to your tower and stay with the minions, instruct your jungler to gank him, he is likely over extended and is a good target for you.

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Little warding tip: when you are behind and wish to go on a "warding mission" wait for the opportune moment. Don't go running to ward baron when all are missing. When you see 2 bot and maybe 1 top, you can go ward baron.

When you know you know you cannot win a teamfight or when your enemy refuses to teamfight (and instead split pushes then runs from you when you approach).

1 - it is okay to give up some of your outer towers. Inhibs and inhib towers are of your primary concern. Here's what to do:
A - make sure you know where the pressure is coming from, respond accordingly.
B - if they are pushing top and mid, one person on your team can go bot to try to push it out a bit (without over extending. just relieve some pressure).
C - Try to have your jungle warded. If you know a part of your jungle has no wards or the wards there are about to go down, have the support clair to ensure safety and smack a few wards down.
D - if you can, ward baron and pay good attention to your enemy's behavior. (IE - they all walk away and go afk for 10-15 seconds. Expect baron, save clair for this or for the previously spoken of warding mission.)

All of the above leads to a number of the following:
1 - your enemy splits up. Example: 5 are mid and one goes top and one goes bot. So you can easily see that there are only 3 mid and two are splitting up. Once they are out of range, you can immediately initiate on the 3 mid and take them out.
2 - the enemy goes for baron - stop them, steal it, have a 5v6 fight against them (with baron's help).
3 - three fall back waiting for a wave as one enemy moves through your jungle in a location opportune for jumping on him and picking him.

While turtling you are
1 - taking in farm
2 - possibly waiting out an enemy baron buff
3 - WAITING FOR THE ENEMY TO MAKE A MISTAKE
4 - waiting for an inhib to come up

You cannot counter your enemies if you are getting golems at 35:00 minutes into the game.
Pros rarely waste time on golems or wolves later in the game. If they are ahead, siege and win! Take baron, take a tower, an inhib, etc. Wasting time on golems separates your team and gives your enemy a chance to pick you or gives their inhibs time to come back up. So many things are wrong with doing golems that late in the game. (given, sometimes it's okay.) But realize, doing golems just makes your team feel like you aren't ready to fight, meaning they may recall or go kill wolves...

Next time you see the enemy pick annie and brand, you might consider being Cho'gath instead of rammus. (rammus is better against physical champs, cho'gath has an AOE silence...)

This mindset may win you many games or increase your elo far from what it was before.

THIS MAY BE THE BEST VIDEO I'VE SEEN AT COMMUNICATING THE CONCEPTS:
http://www.own3d.tv/video/217072/RS_vs_CLG_3_Chaox_Commentary

Remember, this is a living guide. Suggestions/criticism/pointing out things I've missed are all greatly appreciated. Help the community!