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Shutdown gold - dying is a mistake?

B1GTYMER·12/31/2018, 1:39:05 AM·1 votes·2,105 views

I keep reading this in threads explaining the shutdown gold. They say that the player on the killing spree made a mistake and that is why the other team gets the gold. Does this mean that dying is always a mistake? I have not generally played League that way. For instance suppose I am a 15-0 Pantheon. I am in bronze league and my team is killing golems while the other team is killing baron. I drop onto them and kill three of them at once, but die. Did I make a mistake? I don't understand this. If I am a 15-0 Pantheon, there is a teamfight, and I jump their Caitlyn and Lulu and kill both at once, but their Veigar kills me in one combo, did I make a mistake? I am genuinely curious about this. I have never seen any further discussion about this beyond "the person that kills you gets 1000+ gold because you made a mistake or he outplayed you." Quite on the contrary I generally think it is a mistake to play so passively as an assassin that I only dare to attack their Mundo on the front line with my finger on the flash key in case their Veigar flashes at me, for fear that I will be shutdown and give their team a thousand gold. Will someone please explain the meaning of the shutdown gold to me? How am I supposed to play my role as an assassin without ever dying? If I see an opportunity to kill two people and heavily wound another in a teamfight I am inclined to take it, and don't think that is a mistake. Why am I penalized for this by giving another player a thousand gold?

6 Comments

Cats Are Food12/31/2018, 2:09:12 AM2 votes

Because it was another excuse for gold growth earlier in the game.

There has ALWAYS been some form of shut down gold, it just wasn't always this high.

Zone of Endless12/31/2018, 1:43:14 AM1 votes

Because Riot want to encourage teamplay. If you decide to pick a 1v3 fight while you're team are not there and died then yeah you made a mistake.

Marshbouy12/31/2018, 2:06:11 AM1 votes

Because most of the time when someone dies it is because they misplayed, got caught out, miscalculated their damage output, got collapsed on under tower, etc. Most of the time it is a mistake.

Sure, every once and a while there is a niche scenario where you made the correct choice and still died, like the one you listed, but the vast majority of the time you die because of a mistake.

Moonscourge12/31/2018, 2:11:03 AM1 votes

It's a mistake if your team doesn't capitalize on your plays. In that case you just sacrificed yourself and gave potentially a shutdown and big gold reward to the enemy for absolutely nothing.

Killing 3 at Baron would be worth it, because denying the buff by either killing some of the people who have it or forcing them to leave before killing it is good, taking people with you is even better. That decisionmaking is part of what makes a better player. Ideally you don't want to die, but that's obviously impossible most of the time.

B1GTYMER1/1/2019, 4:01:23 AM1 votes

Thanks for the replies. I suppose this is a calculation that needs to go into everything. Should I defend my turret if I would risk giving someone 1000 gold? Should I kill three people in a teamfight if it would risk giving someone a thousand gold? It is an odd calculation in many cases though. Pantheon especially is likely to die if he initiates, but sometimes that seems to be the most effective and deadly way to play. The question then is whether that team fight is worth it or not. Will it secure us important objectives, or am I simply funneling gold into certain of the enemies while my team gets nothing (all the kill gold will go to me)?

You are right Cats, there has always been some kind of shutdown gold, but nothing at all this extreme. The other day I was "shut down" when I was 0/0/4, and someone got 450 gold for that kill. Back when I played most I would always continue to lane after I took down their turret, these days I would be much more hesitant if I had won lane. A loss of a thousand gold to one of their carries could be devastating, and there is very little chance that any significant objectives would be taken by my teammates in the time that it took them to send two or three people to the top lane to kill me.

As I do the math now, even killing three people you still come out behind. You would gain 900 gold (assuming they were worth their full value), but lose 1000-1300 gold.

Illabethe1/1/2019, 6:25:42 AM1 votes

Long Answer: It depends.

In your example, by the very merit of going 15/0, you denied the other team enough gold to validate suicide tripling, because your 15/0 bounty was capped at about 8/0 for the 1000 gold bounty. You did nothing wrong there innately.

However, that's a pretty extreme example, and if you say go 1/1 feeding and think that 10/10 is a good score, that's much worse. 10/10 is 3000 gold in bounties, reset every time you kill someone. This penalty is really important on its face up until at least about 6/0 monetarily, because the bounty is growing by less than it would be if you were just trading kills. After that...... in sequence..... you probably aren't hurting your game by dying...... especially if you say die to a no damage support..... who has limited options for building or is building some cheap support meta....

That being said: There are other things to consider:

Did a death achieve an objective important enough to justify it on its face?

Did your Triple suicide enable your team to push a mid inhibitor? Probably worth.

Did your team just sit back and farm? Probably not worth.

Did your death enable the 2 remaining of the other team to take a drake or Baron or turret? Definitely not worth.

There's exact math behind all these decisions. And they will all tell a different story about your 1000g Takedown the other team earned.

The time of the game is also a consideration. Should you be suiciding at 35 minutes? Probably not. Unless you can GUARANTEE your team will use it to end the game.

P.S. I need to stress that in your example, you aren't being penalized by giving the other team 1000g. They actually were for not consistently killing you. 15/0 is 4500 denied gold from trades. A 1000g death hurts in that it gives them purchasing power, but it certainly has a long way to go before its as penalizing as 15 trades. Try to give the support (a non mage) the kill though. Not a Veigar.

P.P.S. The other day I had a Nocturne on my team go 22/7 overall. We lost the game purely because of him too. Why? Because literally 100% of his game up to 22 minutes was spent ganking an already winning top lane, while the other team's jungler focused on feeding off our Mid, and Bot, taking drakes. I as support ganked more than he did. He even promised ganks, but when his ult was back up...... he went right back to top lane. I get the feeling if that Nocturne was you, you would have done the same thing...... arguing that getting kills is more important than balancing your team and enabling them to exist. In this situation no. Your suicide wouldn't be worth it.