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How to survive League of Legends’ early game 1v1s in top lane
What you can do to slow down any bleeding if you start to fall behind in the laning phase.
What if you were playing top lane, but you were losing 1v1 hard in the laning phase. Impossible situation, right? What can you do to bounce back in these situations? Do you keep trying to force a fight? Do you play safe? Do you call for jungle or mid assistance? In these occasions where you are behind your enemy toplaner, what options do you have? Freeze waves and hope you don’t get tower dove? Look for good Teleport plays across the map? Hope the enemy messes up and you can capitalize off of it?
It seems the results are in.. you should stop dying 1v1.
© Pixabay
In most cases, people play solo lanes expecting to smash their opponents (yes, even top laners) or, at the very least, go even. It is not assumed that they will fall behind their opponents and have little to no preparation for the worst. What if you lose the 1v1 and become a liability for your team?
Here are a few things you can do when you start to fall behind 1v1 in the top lane:
Don’t be afraid to give up CS
Watch the video above on how to CS effectively during the laning phase. The content of this video covers everything from farming safely to how to handle split push (1-3-1) situations. Video by ProGuides.
While gold is important, it is perfectly fine to give up a few minions or waves if playing forward puts you in risk of getting tower dove, ganked, or just getting bursted down in the 1v1. Any minions you miss would be mirrored by your death anyway, and you wouldn’t get gold or XP during this time. In this scenario, playing safe is better because you can still get XP and potentially waste the enemy jungler’s time if they are pressuring a possible tower dive on you.
Alternatively, if the enemy top laner is playing very aggressively but you can clear waves effectively, try to put yourself in position to freeze the wave, with the intent of putting the enemy top laner in risk of getting ganked by your jungler. Assuming you can survive a tower dive or you warded your lane properly (so the risk of getting tower dove is lower), you should be able to claw your way back into relevancy purely on playing safe and not letting the enemy run you over with their lead, regardless of how big it might seem at the time.
While this video, by challenger coach and content creator NEACE, is about freezing the waves with the intention to stop someone from hugging their tower, the same logic can be applied to freezing waves closer to your own tower with the intention of putting the enemy top laner in a position to be ganked by your jungler.
Missing out on XP is a lot worse than missing out on gold, especially in the 1v1, so it doesn’t mean you have to get every single minion wave. Only get the minions that pose a low-risk of getting poked and harassed out of lane, while only stepping forward for cannon minions and when you actually get team assistance. The XP range is fairly far, so you don’t even have to put yourself in direct danger if the enemy is one of those jerks who plays a ranged marksman top lane.
Try to avoid skirmishing with the enemy top laner, especially if you are unsure you can win
Please stop playing Kayn jungle and Lucian ADC.
© Riot Games.
This one seems the most obvious, but the amount of times people pick a fifth fight after losing the first four times is baffling. *cough* the Yasuo players you come across in solo queue games *cough*.
“Stop feeding” is a term that has become synonymous with League of Legends players (as well as most MOBAs) and the dark entity known as the “solo queue teammate”. But what happens when you’re the person who’s down 0-2 and 30 CS in lane against your opponent by the 10 minute mark? In a lot of cases, this doesn’t necessarily mean the game is over, assuming the enemy top laner isn’t already 5-0 and pushing into your top inhibitor. In most cases, a bad early game can be neutralized by reducing the risks you take and playing with the mentality that you are just trying to enable your team. So please, stop taking losing trades.
Something that is overlooked in these pure 1v1s in top lane is runes, masteries, and their interactions in different matchups. For example, picking runes and masteries designed to help you survive the lane instead of doing extra damage can completely change laning phase, while making mid and late-game team fights a bit harder for that person if they haven’t built a huge lead off of early lane dominance. This is commonly seen in high-ranked and professional play, because optimizing your damage isn’t always the best option. An example is Lissandra players going Aftershock if they know they’ll be trading at close distances a lot, vs Electrocute to do more damage against squishies.
Familiarize yourself with your power spike and the enemy top laner’s power spike. Are you strong at level six? Are you strong after you complete two full items? When does the enemy top laner become too strong for you to handle? When do you become too strong to handle? Playing within your limits and knowing when to back off is a skill that many players lack, meaning the enemy is bound to mess up or throw the game eventually if you play safe.
Try to make plays across the map
Sometimes, you simply cannot lane, and your only option then is to take jungle camps or find plays across the map. Whether that be Teleporting bot lane, diving their tower, and forcing a fight, grouping up for early objectives, or simply sprinting it straight to midlane and diving the enemy with your team, it is important to try and get the rest of your team ahead while also putting an enemy player behind. Whether you find yourself in this position because you’re just losing the pure 1v1 or getting hardcamped, try to look for team fights across the map, especially when objectives like Drake are being pressured by your jungle and bot laners.
Don’t stress about losing a wave or two of minions and a tower plate if you can make plays on the other side of the map. Your own income, as important as it may be, is directly counterbalanced by the assistance you can give to the rest of your team, even if your deficit is increasing. Being able to trade objectives is very important, especially because you will always have the number advantage for skirmishes, unless the enemy top laner blows their Teleport to join their team. In this situation, a wasted Teleport is good because then you can pressure the next Drake or even Rift Herald/Baron.
Try to keep your head up, even if you feel like you’ve fallen far behind your lane opponent
Tilt is something that curses most competitive video games, and has most likely lost you a few games in your day. The term was popularized by poker and other traditional games and sports, but became a staple term in esports over time.
While the video above revolves around Counter Strike, the key terms and concepts remain the same across all competitive videogames. Watch this informative video by Counter Strike ex-pro and YouTube creator FPSCoach (Ronald ‘Rambo’ Kim).
Tilt is essentially a state of frustration, aggression, and negativity where a series of bad plays and decisions can repeat themselves over and over, spiraling out of control and spreading among the rest of the team. Many things can trigger this aggression and streak of bad decisions, like bad teammates, rude teammates, rude enemies, getting unlucky, or simply losing. Something that you can do when you start to get tilted is remind yourself that lashing out at teammates actively sabotages the game for you. If you really want to win, tilt is something you will need to overcome, as League of Legends is a team game and matches are sometimes completely out of your control.
Many winnable games go down the drain because a player is tilted and either ignores/abandons their team or starts flaming and arguing with people in chat. This will never accomplish anything positive and will actively sabotage your chances at the comeback. Anyone can throw the game at any minute, regardless of how big the lead may be. Just wait it out and let your opponents outplay themselves, honestly.
Simply put, there is no need to give up or get angry if your lane opponent is beating you. If you can slow the bleeding, it is possible for your team to find advantages in other lanes, gain map control, or take objectives. There are plenty of ways to make yourself useful in the game without being the star player. There is no shame in getting carried sometimes. A dub is a dub and we take those.
How does it feel to feed my butt off and still win? Pretty good.
© @FakeGod
Don’t focus on stopping the bleeding, but rather slowing it down
This is a culmination of any and everything above and a natural progression to playing safe and/or playing for the team when you’re losing the 1v1. But something that can’t be stated enough is to focus on slowing down any bleeding and deficits in the top lane, instead of forcing fights and trying to make up for your early game struggles. This sounds obvious enough but there is a reason why people that feed in lane go 0-4, down 40 CS and not 0-1 but almost even in minion kills, because people often play to win and not to avoid losing, especially when tilted. This is why game mechanics like freezing waves and lane swapping is super important at higher level play.
Something you can do to help slow the bleeding down is being aware that you are becoming tilted, taking responsibility for your actions, focusing on your own gameplay, and taking the game as it is instead of shifting blame towards the rest of the team. At the end of the day, League is a team game and playing the antagonistic top laner will never contribute anything positive to the game.
