What’s going on in a teamfight?
Riot·8/15/2014, 12:43:26 AM·1 votes·7,606 views
Teamfights are chaos. There’s spells flying around, champions jumping and leaping through the air, and lifebars being chunked down at a rapid pace. It can be downright impossible to follow if you don’t know what to look for.
We figure the best way to figure out exactly what’s going on is to know what each champions’ role is in a teamfight. So, let’s lay it all out.
In any teamfight, it’s very important to not die. Tanks are very good at not dying. As such, those tanks are incredibly important for team-fighting compositions.
The job of the aggressive tank is very simple: Run headfirst into the opposing team and cause trouble. Often, they want to find the squishier, high damage dealing members of the opposing team and make their lives as difficult as humanly (or gatorly, if they’re Renekton) possible. If done properly, they’ll soak up much of the damage the carries put out, making it easier for their allies to stay alive.
Ideally, they’ll be able to get directly to the opposing carries and start laying down some hurt. Granted, tanks don’t typically do a whole bunch of damage, but carries tend to be very squishy, so that doesn’t matter too much.
Alternatively, if a team is on the defensive, they can sit back, soak up poke, and make sure their own squishies don’t get jumped on. Tanks with crowd control will “peel” for their carries, making sure they have enough time to get to a safe position in a teamfight. Some tanks can even block incoming damage - think Braum and his big ole shield.
These peelers are important when the allied carries lack mobility skills, like Kog’Maw or Jinx, who are relatively easy to track down and kill.
Often referred to as AD carries, marksmen thrive by tossing out sustained physical damage from afar. When you see champions like Jinx, Kog’Maw, or Lucian firing off shots from over the tanks’ shoulders, that’s usually an AD carry. They want to survive for as long as possible, making sure to do as much damage as possible before they go down. If they pull off their role properly, everyone else will die before they do.
Mages
As their name suggests, mages toss out magic spells to deal their damage. Some focus on hurting large groups of enemies from afar, while others focus on immediately taking a single target. Think Ziggs for the former and Syndra for the latter.
Fighters
These guys fall somewhere between tanks and carries. They can’t take the same amount of a beating that a tank can, and can’t deal quite as much damage as their squishier carry cousins, but they can still be a huge pain in the posterior for whoever they’re jumping on. When a Jax or an Irelia heads towards a team, they better be ready to take care of them quickly, or they’ll tear the back line apart.
Assassins
Typically, assassins don’t like to get into teamfights. They prefer to find just one out of position enemy, kill them, and get the heck out of there.
However, if they’re forced into a 5v5 situation, it becomes a bit sketchier for them. Because all of their damage is front loaded, they’re forced to wait until an enemy with a small amount of HP either gets caught by a teammate or wanders just far enough away from the pack. Then, they’ll pick them off. It’s not ideal, as they’ll regularly die in the process, but hey, at least they’ll have taken someone down with them!
Finally, there’s the utility teamfighters. There’s a variety of champions that can serve this purpose, but they all share one thing: The ability to improvise and make things happen.
Whether it’s Lulu dropping shields and knocking up opponents, Thresh moving them around at his leisure, or Nami drowning them in crowd control, utility champions exist to create opportunities for their teammates to slay opponents - or simply stay alive. They excel at both catching out enemies and peeling for their buds, making them invaluable in any teamfight.
Last time: What's up with vision control?
Next time: How do pros close out a game?
The frontline
In any teamfight, it’s very important to not die. Tanks are very good at not dying. As such, those tanks are incredibly important for team-fighting compositions.
The job of the aggressive tank is very simple: Run headfirst into the opposing team and cause trouble. Often, they want to find the squishier, high damage dealing members of the opposing team and make their lives as difficult as humanly (or gatorly, if they’re Renekton) possible. If done properly, they’ll soak up much of the damage the carries put out, making it easier for their allies to stay alive.
Ideally, they’ll be able to get directly to the opposing carries and start laying down some hurt. Granted, tanks don’t typically do a whole bunch of damage, but carries tend to be very squishy, so that doesn’t matter too much.
Stand behind
Alternatively, if a team is on the defensive, they can sit back, soak up poke, and make sure their own squishies don’t get jumped on. Tanks with crowd control will “peel” for their carries, making sure they have enough time to get to a safe position in a teamfight. Some tanks can even block incoming damage - think Braum and his big ole shield.
These peelers are important when the allied carries lack mobility skills, like Kog’Maw or Jinx, who are relatively easy to track down and kill.
Get carried
Assuming they manage to stay safe, the carries of the team will be the main damage output in any teamfight. Essentially, there’s four types of damage dealers: Marksmen, mages, fighters, and assassins. Marksmen
Often referred to as AD carries, marksmen thrive by tossing out sustained physical damage from afar. When you see champions like Jinx, Kog’Maw, or Lucian firing off shots from over the tanks’ shoulders, that’s usually an AD carry. They want to survive for as long as possible, making sure to do as much damage as possible before they go down. If they pull off their role properly, everyone else will die before they do.
Mages
As their name suggests, mages toss out magic spells to deal their damage. Some focus on hurting large groups of enemies from afar, while others focus on immediately taking a single target. Think Ziggs for the former and Syndra for the latter.
Fighters
These guys fall somewhere between tanks and carries. They can’t take the same amount of a beating that a tank can, and can’t deal quite as much damage as their squishier carry cousins, but they can still be a huge pain in the posterior for whoever they’re jumping on. When a Jax or an Irelia heads towards a team, they better be ready to take care of them quickly, or they’ll tear the back line apart.
Assassins
Typically, assassins don’t like to get into teamfights. They prefer to find just one out of position enemy, kill them, and get the heck out of there.
However, if they’re forced into a 5v5 situation, it becomes a bit sketchier for them. Because all of their damage is front loaded, they’re forced to wait until an enemy with a small amount of HP either gets caught by a teammate or wanders just far enough away from the pack. Then, they’ll pick them off. It’s not ideal, as they’ll regularly die in the process, but hey, at least they’ll have taken someone down with them!
Utility players
Finally, there’s the utility teamfighters. There’s a variety of champions that can serve this purpose, but they all share one thing: The ability to improvise and make things happen.
Whether it’s Lulu dropping shields and knocking up opponents, Thresh moving them around at his leisure, or Nami drowning them in crowd control, utility champions exist to create opportunities for their teammates to slay opponents - or simply stay alive. They excel at both catching out enemies and peeling for their buds, making them invaluable in any teamfight.
Last time: What's up with vision control?
Next time: How do pros close out a game?
to victory