Learning ADC from LPL
Riot·7/26/2014, 12:38:27 AM·1 votes·14,311 views
If there’s one Chinese player the casual western Esports fan knows, chances are he is an AD carry. In terms of the scope and breadth of the talent pool, it’s hard to argue that China hosts the greatest number of top tier AD carries in the world. Why is that?
Chinese AD carries are so powerful because, over the years, Chinese teams have consistently focused a large portion of gold earnings onto them and given them the necessary tools to succeed. As a result, the role has developed more in China than anywhere else, and there are insights into the way AD carries play that one can only glean from watching the masters at work. If you want to build your AD carry game, look no further than LPL.
StarHorn Royal Club’s composition provided Leona for area of effect lockdown, Gragas for disengage, and Lulu for a team fight reset (as well as to give Uzi’s Kog’Maw extra health and protection if he fell under fire). LGD’s composition came with Kayle’s invulnerability-granting Intervention and Braum’s ultra protective influence. Both teams knew this map was a war of AD carries, and whoever managed to keep theirs alive long enough would emerge victorious.
This AD carry-centric mentality has long been prevalent in LPL. Even last split, before the changes to AD carry items, when many would argue that the AD carry role was weaker than it’s ever been, OMG made the shift to focus more on san as their star player. At the time, OMG’s coach told lolesports that he believed that more gold for the jungle and support role could serve as an indirect buff to AD carry players. More gold for those roles meant they could better help the AD carry succeed.
This mentality speaks volumes regarding how the AD carry role managed to develop so much in China. While other regions began to focus more on the mid lane, China continued to provide every possible tool to its bottom lanes to succeed, and the players rose to meet the challenge. They could either perfect their play or let their teams down.
This situation might not seem initially applicable to the typical League of Legends solo queue experience, as an AD carry main isn’t about to convince every member of his team to play champions that give him tools to succeed. Yet in solo queue, one has to perform better than the average player in his ELO to advance through the ranks. This puts a great deal of pressure on the individual to succeed, and if you want to “carry” yourself as an AD carry, LPL is the best competitive scene to watch.
As so much emphasis is placed upon LPL’s bottom lane duos, junglers will also make frequent visits downwind. These AD carries know how to work with their junglers during ganks, and this includes the LPL trademark: diving. Juggling tower aggro in the early levels isn’t just for tanky supports and junglers in LPL; AD carries know how much damage they can withstand from the tower, and they’re willing to burn all their summoner spells in a dive to get the early kill.
The goals of these first blood trades are often to pick up the immediate advantage and start building for hard damage. Since LPL has made the switch over to Patch 4.10, many AD carries have picked up double Doran’s Blades and immediately begun the arms race to complete the Infinity Edge. Kog’Maws are usually the exception, as the early Trinity Force followed by Blade of the Ruined King provides a great deal of safety and utility.
Some players, like san and Kid, will focus on positioning abreast of the fight and dealing damage from a distance at which no one on the enemy team can reach. This kiting ability makes them well-suited to the late game hyper carry role. Other AD carries, like Uzi, will often position forward as bait and rely on team fight resets in the form of abilities like Lulu’s Wild Growth from their teams to tip the fight into their favor.
Many of the most impressive AD carries in LPL, however, can use their champions to make plays rather than relying on their team to start fights for them. NaMei and WeiXiao both have continued to pick Twitch despite him falling out of favor with other players, as they both understand his potential for engagement. They’ll find an over-extending target, pop stealth, and go in to use the Blade of the Ruined King active. Follow up from their teams will then ensure a victory.
Make no mistake, a lot of maneuvers in LPL team fights require a great deal of coordination, but taking queues from where the likes of NaMei and WeiXiao position in fights and how they use their champions can still improve your game.
WeiXiao’s positioning in team fights and his playstyle in lane tends to be much more self-reliant than other AD carries in LPL. This doesn’t make him the best AD carry in China. It does, however, mean that WeiXiao is an excellent AD carry to learn from when you’re watching a professional game.
WeiXiao trades intelligently, knowing he might not always have backup, often tanks the turret in dives for his own kills, and finds positions in team fights that are less reliant on peel from his team. Since WeiXiao is so self-reliant, he often favors champions with escapes or champions that can build a Trinity Force for more kiting potential. Ezreal was once one of his most iconic picks, and he’s had some of his most successful games this split on Corki and Lucian. All three of these champions come with a get-out-of-jail free card on their kits and let you build for both safety and damage.
To get started on your journey to AD carry stardom, check out WeiXiao’s Corki and NaMei’s Twitch in the second game of World Elite’s LPL match against Edward Gaming. You can watch WeiXiao take on both StarHorn Royal Club’s Uzi and Young Glory’s ZhenLong this weekend in LPL.
THE CENTER OF A COMPOSITION
To understand why LPL consistently produces Chinese AD carries, it’s important to understand the context in which they play. Often, Chinese teams will structure their compositions so that their AD carries are the focal point. In Week 6, in a game between StarHorn Royal Club and LGD Gaming, both teams ran compositions focused on keeping hyper carries alive long enough to continue to do sustained damage through extended fights.
StarHorn Royal Club’s composition provided Leona for area of effect lockdown, Gragas for disengage, and Lulu for a team fight reset (as well as to give Uzi’s Kog’Maw extra health and protection if he fell under fire). LGD’s composition came with Kayle’s invulnerability-granting Intervention and Braum’s ultra protective influence. Both teams knew this map was a war of AD carries, and whoever managed to keep theirs alive long enough would emerge victorious.
This AD carry-centric mentality has long been prevalent in LPL. Even last split, before the changes to AD carry items, when many would argue that the AD carry role was weaker than it’s ever been, OMG made the shift to focus more on san as their star player. At the time, OMG’s coach told lolesports that he believed that more gold for the jungle and support role could serve as an indirect buff to AD carry players. More gold for those roles meant they could better help the AD carry succeed.
This mentality speaks volumes regarding how the AD carry role managed to develop so much in China. While other regions began to focus more on the mid lane, China continued to provide every possible tool to its bottom lanes to succeed, and the players rose to meet the challenge. They could either perfect their play or let their teams down.
This situation might not seem initially applicable to the typical League of Legends solo queue experience, as an AD carry main isn’t about to convince every member of his team to play champions that give him tools to succeed. Yet in solo queue, one has to perform better than the average player in his ELO to advance through the ranks. This puts a great deal of pressure on the individual to succeed, and if you want to “carry” yourself as an AD carry, LPL is the best competitive scene to watch.
MINION WARS
In solo queue, teams rarely are coordinated enough to lane swap, so more often than not you’ll end up in a 2v2. LPL is full of AD carries who love to test their mettle in situations where most other players would go for a lane swap for an easier time. So if you want to crush your opposition in solo queue, LPL is the league to watch. You can think of the laning phase as a mini-version of the entire match—only instead of jockeying for position around dragon, Baron, and towers, it's the minions that receive all the focus. The goal of the laning phase is to end it with more gold than your opponent, and minions are the key. To win lane, you must both deny minions from your opponent by zoning them away and secure them for yourself. If your jungler comes down to give your champion first blood, that’s just a bonus. NaMei and Uzi are considered some of the better laning AD carries in China, and their aggressive play styles mean they are constantly looking for an opportunity to zone the opposition away from the minion waves. If they know they have a laning advantage in champion picks, they’ll push hard until the opponent has only a few minions remaining before moving for an engage to zone them away from this last bit of gold.
As so much emphasis is placed upon LPL’s bottom lane duos, junglers will also make frequent visits downwind. These AD carries know how to work with their junglers during ganks, and this includes the LPL trademark: diving. Juggling tower aggro in the early levels isn’t just for tanky supports and junglers in LPL; AD carries know how much damage they can withstand from the tower, and they’re willing to burn all their summoner spells in a dive to get the early kill.
The goals of these first blood trades are often to pick up the immediate advantage and start building for hard damage. Since LPL has made the switch over to Patch 4.10, many AD carries have picked up double Doran’s Blades and immediately begun the arms race to complete the Infinity Edge. Kog’Maws are usually the exception, as the early Trinity Force followed by Blade of the Ruined King provides a great deal of safety and utility.
UNLEASH THE HOUNDS
It’s no coincidence that Edward Gaming and World Elite, the teams featuring NaMei and WeiXiao, are said to have both the strongest AD carries in China and the longest laning phases. But not all LPL AD carries operate this way; LPL teams allow their AD carries to ramp up any way they can. OMG’s san is considered a less talented laning AD carry, and his team will often favor the 2v1s and intentionally lose an early turret to open a lane for san to free farm without pressure. This is because, despite some of his weaknesses in lane, san is extremely potent in team fights, and if there’s one thing LPL teams love to do, it’s fight.
Some players, like san and Kid, will focus on positioning abreast of the fight and dealing damage from a distance at which no one on the enemy team can reach. This kiting ability makes them well-suited to the late game hyper carry role. Other AD carries, like Uzi, will often position forward as bait and rely on team fight resets in the form of abilities like Lulu’s Wild Growth from their teams to tip the fight into their favor.
Many of the most impressive AD carries in LPL, however, can use their champions to make plays rather than relying on their team to start fights for them. NaMei and WeiXiao both have continued to pick Twitch despite him falling out of favor with other players, as they both understand his potential for engagement. They’ll find an over-extending target, pop stealth, and go in to use the Blade of the Ruined King active. Follow up from their teams will then ensure a victory.
Make no mistake, a lot of maneuvers in LPL team fights require a great deal of coordination, but taking queues from where the likes of NaMei and WeiXiao position in fights and how they use their champions can still improve your game.
WHO AND WHAT TO WATCH
LPL is full of proficient AD carries, and sometimes we can't watch as many games as we would like, so which teams have the best AD carries in LPL? The better question is which AD carry is the best to learn from? The answer is WeiXiao. World Elite often plays roaming support compositions, and WeiXiao cannot always rely on Conan to be in lane with him as much as he might like. In solo queue, players are often put into situations where their teams aren’t as coordinated as they are in the professional scene, which means that they don’t always have a great support to reset a fight or a top laner to zone and provide peel.
WeiXiao’s positioning in team fights and his playstyle in lane tends to be much more self-reliant than other AD carries in LPL. This doesn’t make him the best AD carry in China. It does, however, mean that WeiXiao is an excellent AD carry to learn from when you’re watching a professional game.
WeiXiao trades intelligently, knowing he might not always have backup, often tanks the turret in dives for his own kills, and finds positions in team fights that are less reliant on peel from his team. Since WeiXiao is so self-reliant, he often favors champions with escapes or champions that can build a Trinity Force for more kiting potential. Ezreal was once one of his most iconic picks, and he’s had some of his most successful games this split on Corki and Lucian. All three of these champions come with a get-out-of-jail free card on their kits and let you build for both safety and damage.
To get started on your journey to AD carry stardom, check out WeiXiao’s Corki and NaMei’s Twitch in the second game of World Elite’s LPL match against Edward Gaming. You can watch WeiXiao take on both StarHorn Royal Club’s Uzi and Young Glory’s ZhenLong this weekend in LPL.
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