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IMA Analysis Competitive 2v1 Lane swap explained

MattAkhavan·1/14/2015, 3:50:54 AM·3 votes·4,028 views

This is going to be MY analysis of a 2v1 Lane swap in a competitive scenario. Feel free to chime in where you feel necessary, I am open to criticism

What is a 2v1 Lane swap?

The lane swap is classically when you switch the duo bottom laners, marksman and support, with the top laner. There are many variations of this lane swap and there are certainly different intentions for these variations.

Why lane swap?

  • You want to avoid an unfavorable match up in the lanes

    • The most recent example I can think of is Game 1 of CLG vs ROCC @ IEM Cologne.
    • In this match CLG's bottom lane (Vayne Alistar) was weaker than ROCC's Bottom lane ( Corki Janna). In this instance, CLG potentially swapped lanes to cut their losses in the bottom lane.
    • However ROCC called the lane swap and CLG's lane swap failed, but that is besides the point of explaining the idea of swapping for the reason of the match up.

  • You want to avoid being outclasses by a lane

    • Lets face it, if you get stomped by a duo lane every time you play them, I wouldn't want to go into the lane knowing you are going to get demolished. This can go for any lane's skill match up. If you are going to like 99% of the time, you should swap it out.
    • A lane swap for this reason is not very common, but is a solution to being out classed. Most of the time if you are playing at a competitive level, you can at least keep up with the competition and go even in lane at best. This doesn't happen often because it's pretty unacceptable to be playing professionally and being outclasses in 9 out of 10 lane phases.

  • To Deny farm from a serious threat on the opposing team

    • Lets say there is a player that has DAMN NEAR CLOSE mastery of a champion and his or her lane match ups. This player will likely win lane and snowball the game in a normal lane. The idea here is to deny xp and cs from that player so they can't ramp up as fast as they normally do. This will give your team enough of a window to gain a lead in the meantime and minimize that players effectiveness on that champion.

  • ** To take a team out of their comfort zone**

    • Some teams always play standard and especially newer teams have trouble when the game isn't played standard. The lane swap could mess with the enemy team's flow and shot calling. Tower dives, dragon timers, and tower pressure are just a few things that change when a 2v1 is initiated.
    • Additionally, if the lanes being swapped are inexperienced in the situation then they can make crucial mistakes that could give the enemy team an advantage. Some examples are freezing when you should be pushing, pushing when you should be freezing, improper minion manipulation, or tower dive executions.

This is all that i can come up with for now, but i am sure there is a lane swap that favors trading dragon for towers or map control. So many things can be done with a simple lane swap.

** Goals when lane swapping As the DUO**

  • ** Minion manipulation**

    • This is a very broad term and it changes a ton as the game progresses in a lane swap. This is also one of the most important things to do as soon as you enter the lane to ensure a efficient lane swap.
    • You want to stop the enemy minion wave before the lane's halfway point, somewhere between that half way point and the enemy tower. The positioning of this wave is absolutely CRUCIAL because it does so much for you. You don't want to stop the wave too close to the tower or else the enemy top lane is going to be in range to get xp and maybe a few cs without being zoned. (due to turret range). You also don't want to stop the lane too close the middle or else the enemy minion wave might not push when the second wave comes.
    • i am going to explain how the minion wave pushes because a lot of people don't know about wave manipulations. by stopping the wave somewhere between the enemy turret and the middle of the lane the enemy wave pushes to your turret. This is because, assuming you are last hitting at the last possible moment, the second wave of enemy minions will arrive and start attacking BEFORE your minions arrive and start attacking. This means the enemy minion wave will kill your minions faster and therefore push to YOUR turret.
    • Lastly, it is important to know when to shove the lane and when the freeze the lane. There are too many situations to learn how to discern whether or not to push and if I get enough questions about when to freeze and shove I will go into my detail, but for now you need to be able to judge the game flow. In the most basic sense, you should shove the wave when you want lane swap back to bottom , if you want to take an objective like dragon, or take their top tower.

  • Past the first few minions

    • The most important thing to do in a 2v1 is deny the enemy top laner from getting the xp and cs if he is in the lane. Once the first few waves come there are a few things you can do.

  • Once the wave hits your turret it will start to push back towards the enemy turret. At this point you can set up a tower dive and take the tier 1 turret. This turret will likely be traded with the 1st dragon of the game, but depending on who is diving and how many resources you have to exhaust bottom lane it is contestable. Make the dragon contestable requires a ton preparation and coordination or else you might just lose dragon + a few kills and snowball the game out of your favor.

  • ** The duo bottom lane**

    • The support does not necessarily need to stay top with the adc, especially if the enemy top laner is jungling. Actually in most cases leaving the adc alone top lane is advantageous. After the first few waves you are deny enough xp and cs from the top laner that the adc can zone him by himself. For example a level 3 adc vs a lvl 1 adc is favored towards the adc.
    • This does a few really cool things for you, but first i'll go over the supports role in the swap back bottom. So basically after the duo has denied enough xp from the top lane we can swing bottom and help the top laner farm. He does this both with relic shield and the pressure of being in a 2v2 lane again. having a support and top laner in the same lane makes it much less likely to get dove as well. Additionally this mitigates the loss of dragon pressure if you are blue side doing the 2v1 swap. NOW you are in a position where the enemy top lane is being severely denied and your top laner is getting farm and xp.
    • The real importance is the adc, because now that adc is theoretically a solo laner. He has been getting solo xp for most of the lane swap as well as denying the heck out of the enemy top laner. The only REAL danger of doing this is the fear of a 2v1 dive. If the dive is successful it is not a trade for dragon because the enemy duo lane is bottom. So it's just a free kill and free xp/cs.
    • Most importantly, when the lanes swap back to standards (assuming nothing crazy like a tower dive or dragon trade has been made) the adc has 1-2 levels on the enemy adc. This is a HUGE power spike for the bottom lane and allows you to not only bully the other bottom lane and dominate lane from there, but it allows you to have MORE dragon control. If the enemy bottom lane is always pushed into turret then you are causing map pressure as well. As an example, imagine a lvl 7 graves vs a lvl 5 corki. They are on completely equal footing other than the level discrepancy. Further, the support isn't too far behind because he has been laning with the top laner the whole time. Your support should only be maybe 3-6 creeps behind the enemy duo in experience. (you gain more experience when you are under leveled, AND when you have the that mastery in utility that gives you a % more it evens up the playing field a ton)

  • The classical 2v1 lane swap

  • i'l keep this short a simple

    • The standards 2v1 is just swapping the lanes and pushing the tower and kill it as fast as possible and swap back, or stay bottom lane to maintain dragon control. That's basically it, from there the game accelerates into mid game which is past the means of this thread

  • The top laner

  • GET XP ANDMONEY

    • There are TWO real things for the top laner to do, both revolve around getting money and MORE IMPORTANTLY XP XP is your one goal because the money you have is gonna be shit no matter what. you JUST NEED TO BE LVL 6 FOR THE DRAGON FIGHT. Then past that or if that doesn't happen, you need to farm yourself back into the game.
    • The first thing you can do is farm the jungle with the your jungler so you can help him out and get some xp for yourself. You guys can being a roaming gank squad and take a tower if you decide to shove the wave your duo is in or you can just farm farm farm.
    • The second option is to stop the freeze with the jungler. So the ADC and the support have manipulated the wave to push to their turret denying an amazing amount of XP and CS. You want to walk into that lane with the jungler, because if you do alone you're gonna die, and push the wave into the enemy turret. Once you do that there is a timing where you can come back to the turret and get a million xp from the wave stacking up. The only thing you need to be aware of is of getting dove. if you get dove you are screwed. basically screwed. You lost all the Xp and cs, and you just gave them a kill and likely a turret. It's possibly the worst outcome ever.
    • I super simplified the role of the top laner because there is so much you have to know about the 2v1 situations. A lot of these situations are not foreseen and rely on intuition. EXPERIENCE IN THE 2v1 IS A MUST. You just don't have wards sometimes and you need to be able to read the game flow and understand the flow of the enemy jungler or the power spikes and threat of the enemy duo lane.

1 Comments

Godkoz10/23/2015, 5:37:45 PM2 votes

Thank you for this so much. It really helped me as I'm trying to teach my team about how to do laneswaps. It's a real shame no one else has commented on this in 9 months. It's high quality material.