If you really think about it, support position has always been a funneling strategy...

GelsominoKiller·Jul 3, 2018·5 votes·3,214 views

The difference is that now it isn't a laner giving up gold to another laner, but a laner giving farm to the jungler.

7 Comments

nyakasgoodsJul 3, 20182 votes

Support isn't really a funnel strategy since they don't have any gold to give up. There's only 4 reliable sources of gold on the map (3 lanes and jungle) but 5 people, so either several people share a single source or one person is just left out. The funneling strategy isn't defined by one person not getting gold, but by one person getting two of the sources.

Zone of EndlessJul 4, 20181 votes

{quoted}

Support isn't really a funnel strategy since they don't have any gold to give up. There's only 4 reliable sources of gold on the map (3 lanes and jungle) but 5 people, so either several people share a single source or one person is just left out. The funneling strategy isn't defined by one person not getting gold, but by one person getting two of the sources.

i mean in a way OP isn't wrong. Support could be taking the gold, too. Nothing stop them from getting the minions beside the fact it's just better that the ADC have it.

Ðeath XIIIJul 3, 20182 votes

No it isn't. You don't understand funneling if you think so. The game has four sources of constant income, lanes and jungle. They created gold generation items to subsidize supports, creating a 5th stream of gold that can't be shared. For it to be funneling, it requires that a position 1-4 gives up farm. Just because we originally had 0 CS supports not making money doesn't mean they were funneling.

Dota 2 actually has funneling built in, where the support gives up time and EXP to generate more jungle farm for the carries to take. Babysitting isn't funneling, so stop calling it that.

GelsominoKillerJul 3, 20181 votes

My reasoning there is that, if there is a duo lane and only one wave, the two partners should split the gold.

Instead in classic lol botlane one champion gives up completely his share to funnel it into his lane partner, so i considered it funneling, albeit a more "justified" form of it.

You got a point though.

Ðeath XIIIJul 3, 20181 votes

{quoted}

My reasoning there is that, if there is a duo lane and only one wave, the two partners should split the gold.

Instead in classic lol botlane one champion gives up completely his share to funnel it into his lane partner, so i considered it funneling, albeit a more "justified" form of it.

You got a point though.

But if the support roamed the entire laning phase, you wouldn't say that? You're taking the assumption that you must share gold because of manners, when in reality the game functions off optimizing gold value through completed items. It's actually more funnel like back when ADC's bought Targons in order for the support to get Ardent Censor earlier.

Side note, Twisted Treeline has had funneling for a long ass time, but since nobody cares about it... Sigh.

GelsominoKillerJul 3, 20181 votes

I am assuming that players are supposed to share gold on a mathematical point of view more than anything. Champions get stronger with gold, so it is in their interest to hoard it. The simplest way to do so is to distribute the gold evenly by placing a certain number of players on every gold source and then share it equally.

As you rightfully said, obviously this is not optimal and it is no surprise that the meta in lol has historically shifted to pair a champion that needs gold and items with a partner giving up "his share" that, instead, is specifically evaluated by his ability to function on a budget (low dependency on items).

This however is no different from the recent funneling examples, save for the fact that one player is chugging up two gold sources instead of one. This is an important difference indeed but I think that the essence of funneling is not in how many gold sources there are but instead on the idea of depriving a champion of gold in order to give it to someone that scales better with it.

TegashJul 4, 20181 votes

Firstly, your point is a non-sequitur because the point of the gold-funneler is to stay with the person they're funelling gold to. There's a reason why double junglers are joined at the hip, excepting Yi and Taric. You obviously have no idea how the strat works.

Secondly, the Targon Bot meta was an attempt at making ADC's tankier, giving them better ward coverage, and keeping their supports somewhat on the same income level as them. That's not a funneling strat, since ADC's are the target of the funnel to begin with. It was a shortlived cheese strat to go double Targon and get high income and increased gold per second, and therefore powerspike before the enemy could.

The two-champ botlane meta goes back to when ADCs were played mid and mages were played bot with a support, because the mage was considered the "carry" in the early years of Legaue. It was only after people realized ADCs had superior objective control that it changed to have them int he bot lane instead, and mages in mid.