Unsung Heroes: The Anti-Carry

Hey everyone, I just thought I'd do a write-up on the unsung-role of anti-carry. People play by matchups and lanes, but little do people seem to know about their unappreciated roles, such as the anti-carry. In a teamfight, you take down the frontline and work you way to the backline. Everyone knows this. But people, no matter what ranked, forget their individual roles. You may be a support, but what does your support do? If you are Leona, you are initiator/peeler. Thresh and Blitzcrank are not true initiators, they do not force teamfights the way true initiators such as Malphite and Amumu do, they catch players and hopefully give their team the advantage in numbers when a fight breaks out. They also peel very well. You are a jungler? Sweet. Which jungler are you? You have jobs as a jungler such as ganking, warding, obtaining objectives, etc... but what else? This depends on your pick. Are you Tryndamere, Olaf, or Jax? Then you play the role of anti-carry in teamfights. You don't initiate, and contrary to popular belief you don't carry either. Carrying is your Marksmen's job, they are well protected by their team and through means of sustained damage output melt through the enemy team if left alone. If a teamfight breaks out, nobody says "Protect our Tryndamere! He does the damage!" They protect the carry while the Tryndamere/Jax/Olaf/etc.. charge in. They don't tank, atleast not as well as a true tank such as Malphite Mundo or Alistar. So if they aren't carrying or tanking, just what are they doing? They are destroying that pesky ADC. If the ADC attacks your anti-carry... THEN AWESOME!!! They aren't attacking your other 4 teammates, who should be DOMINATING the other team because your well-protected ADC is melting through them.

Here is an excellent example of the role of anti-cary. I just typed in "Jax Challenger Gameplay" on youtube and viewed this video, its of Dyrus playing Jax and proving my point. The anti-carry for the enemy team is Tryndamere, Jax the anti-carry for his. In most situations, yes, you are correct you should focus the people on the front line. The job of anti-carries however, such as Tryndamere, Jax, and Olaf are meant to charge through the frontline an kill the carry. That is why Jax is given multiple techniques which assist in his ability to do so (700 range leap that can be used both as an escape and as a gap closer, also his dodge technique which is meant to avoid auto-attacks and a stun.) This is why Olaf has a strong slow on a low CD that allows him to stick to the ADC and the ability to break all CC with his ult in his kit. He is relentless in chasing ADCs away from fights and killing them and can charge through the frontline to do so. Tryndamere has a gap closer, a slow to stick to targets (the slow also lower the attack damage of every in range by 80 attack damage. Notice how it doesn't lower AP? He is meant to dive the ADC) and the ability to prevent his death. This means Tryndamere has ATLEAST the duration of his ult to kill your carry, and it will take you ATLEAST the duration of his ult to prevent him from doing so. There a many more examples of anti-carries, but all have 2 things in common: The ability to close gaps, and the ability to stick to targets through means of CC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cijo5PLInuk

I stopped counting at 4 times Jax (played by Dyrus) charged through the enemy frontline to get to the enemy Jinx. My personal favorite moment is at 35:45.

Notice how he jumps into an obviously bad situation? He charged into a Nidalee, Tryndamere, and Jinx (Jinx has Guardian Angel) What do you think he did? He jumped on the Jinx that had Guardian Angel, and despite being focused heavily by Tryndamere and Jinx, he was still able to remove her Guardian Angel before dying. Because of this, his Draven was able to clean up afterwards and land a kill on said Jinx. Speaking of, Tryndamere is obviously a good player, having played well vs a pro like Dyrus and is a Challenger-ranked player, but the difference between him and a pro like Dyrus is that Dyrus knows how to play the role of anti-carry better. Look at the map again. After Jax had taken Jinx's GA and leaped over the wall using a ward, Nidalee and Jinx continued chasing Elise and in doing so gained vision of Draven. What does Tryndamere do? He chases Jax and lands the kill, which did nothing for his team in the end. Had he gone with his team, he would have killed the Draven and possibly secured the kill on the Elise. Instead, Jinx and Nidalee both die because Tryndamere chased a low priority target. If Tryndamere charged Draven throughout the game the way Jax was on top of Jinx that whole game, perhaps Tryndamere's team would have won the game.