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PSA: You win a lane hard by zoning when ahead, not by going all in over

The Sword Saint··28 votes·2,268 views

This essay is listed in my "Master List of Essay Threads" under the title "On Zoning When Ahead"

If you have a lead in lane against an enemy who outscales you, the way you win is to pull the minion wave close to your tower and freeze it, then position yourself to all in the enemy any time they come to get a cs. They will either back off and fall sooo far behind in xp and gold that they will become worthless midgame and you can end before they get a chance to catch up and scale or they will get greedy and try to cs anyway (at which point you all in them and either get a kill or force them to b) or they will fight you (and lose) or they will call the jungler and try to 2v1 you right in front of your own turret which should be heavily in your favor to live and escape.

The way to throw a lead is to chase the enemy to their tower trying to kill them over and over, because even if you don't die stupidly diving or getting ganked, you'll push the lane and they will be able to close the gap in gold and xp safely under their turret.

21 Comments

Saianna4 votes

PSA: Too many PSAs lately. PSA2: They are exhausting. PSA3: I don't even know what PSA means

Thryale4 votes

Public Service Announcement

High51 votes

{quoted}

PSA: Too many PSAs lately. PSA2: They are exhausting. PSA3: I don't even know what PSA means

I rank them all down. Wave mgt inbthe laning phase and lane mgt mid game is attrocious at lower levels though.

youngjake933 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Sword Saint,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=GFcgLXXF,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-09-24T05:04:00.613+0000)

If you have a lead in lane against an enemy who outscales you, the way you win is to pull the minion wave close to your tower and freeze it, then position yourself to all in the enemy any time they come to get a cs. They will either back off and fall sooo far behind in xp and gold that they will become worthless midgame and you can end before they get a chance to catch up and scale or they will get greedy and try to cs anyway (at which point you all in them and either get a kill or force them to b) or they will fight you (and lose) or they will call the jungler and try to 2v1 you right in front of your own turret which should be heavily in your favor to live and escape.

The way to throw a lead is to chase the enemy to their tower trying to kill them over and over, because even if you don't die stupidly diving or getting ganked, you'll push the lane and they will be able to close the gap in gold and xp safely under their turret.

That's what you do in high elo. But in low elo you can amass the biggest CS advantage you've ever seen and it won't matter because your team 4 man dove a Heimerdinger and gave him a quadra. Or 0-10 Lee Sin still tried to duel 12 kill Kha'Zix in the enemy jungle. Or whatever. The point is that widening your lead in lane will not hard carry low elo. Diving, killing them, then tping bot might.

The Sword Saint5 votes

It's the way to make hyper scaling champs fall far behind, assuming you can't just walk into lane and kill them instantly. Of course that is always preferable if possible. The thing is, it's going to be hard to do that against competent enemies so instead of trying to force a kill you can always zone.

Realistically you will be doing a combination of strategies all game, but it helps to at least be aware that zoning is an option.

Slamurai Jack1 votes

{quoted}

That's what you do in high elo. But in low elo you can amass the biggest CS advantage you've ever seen and it won't matter because your team 4 man dove a Heimerdinger and gave him a quadra. Or 0-10 Lee Sin still tried to duel 12 kill Kha'Zix in the enemy jungle. Or whatever. The point is that widening your lead in lane will not hard carry low elo. Diving, killing them, then tping bot might.

I don't know how low of elo we're talking, but I've found it works pretty well during my time smurfing in silver. Just go top lane, win early, and then have triple their CS at 30 minutes. I've been winning pretty much every game doing just that.

Hayaishi21 votes

Unless it's Jinx because all she needs is a lucky kill with her rocket to get back in the game.

#Nerfjinx

Carnage1 votes

lol Katarina in low elo

Chaotic Reks1 votes

who?

Thryale1 votes

aw now, don't be lettin tiensinoakuma hear you sayin that.

hgjkdlsaf jeldvb2 votes

please, she tears ass in plat

Joquan1 votes

so far can not confirm, haven't seen kat in about 100 or 200 games

High51 votes

{quoted}

lol Katarina in low elo

Feeding kat is like feeding blitz. Kat is a weak champ that is highly susceptible to hard cc or dodge abilities.

You shouldn't play norms if you can't easily counter kat.

DREEZY5621 votes

no shit sherlock

Meep Man1 votes

Dont even have to zone, you just know when to trade. If you dont, you lose that advantage. If you do, you keep it and further it. Team fights are actually the same way except 5 people have to know how and when to trade against 5 people.

SpecterVonBaren1 votes

Indeed. And this is the main secret that a lot of people forget when they pick Teemo into Nasus. Yes, Teemo is very good at making Nasus's life a living hell, but if you push the lane too much then not only will he be able to farm more safely but more importantly, the enemy jungler will gank you and a destroy your advantage.

Kamai1 votes

My only problem with the plan of freezing it at your tower is that it means you can't take your lead and use it to bail out teammates that are struggling, or make another even lane snowball. Winning is not just about having 1 person stupid fed.

The Sword Saint2 votes

The idea is that if you're facing someone who is like a jax or a nasus or something that scales really hard compared to you, you are benefiting your team more to make them worthless for 40 minutes then roaming a bit and maybe getting a kill would.

Plus you draw jungle pressure top to break your freeze, which is the best kind of jungle pressure because not only does it free up the rest of the map but the odds of you dying are super low since by definition you are both way over leveled compared to the enemy and also at your own turret.

N0rth Wind1 votes

#And now, real life scenarios from Bronze and Silver:

  • Person ahead gets ganked and dies. Calls enemy jungler a "omg 1v2 noob", then asks them or their lane opponent to 1v1 them after.
  • That usually never happens and the person usually just loses their game trying to prove their skill in chat, while making spiralling mistakes in-game.
  • The 1v1 actually happens, and they likely lose, at which point they commonly report their opponent for picking a "counter champion" and ragequit.
  • Person ahead pushes like hell, gets ganked or dives a turret... and dies. Brief pause to absorb the shock, then says "wtfffff" in chat and proceeds to rage about:
  • No ganks
  • No wards
  • Noob other lanes that fed the enemy jungler to the extreme and irreversible point of 2/1/1 (including the kill the jungler got on themselves)
  • The OPness of enemy champion(s)
  • Person ahead applies zero pressure in lane, allowing their enemy to farm. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it happens. Usually after a succesful gank which results in our champion's death, they get so scared that they simply stop harassing their lane opponent altogether, despite their score being 4/1/0 and 50 CS ahead.
  • The enemy Fiora/Vayne/Darius, if we're in the top lane, simply walk in and farm, and the fate of the late game is sealed -- and our lovely laner, who does not grasp the concept of _compositions _ and how we can play around them, never knows what happened.
  • The Hypercarry / Juggernaut soon reaches the point where they start getting kills, and all hell breaks loose: "OMG U NUBS!!!!11!! I HAD DAREUS 1/3 AT TOP AND NOW HES 13/5, U FED HIM!11! NOW WE LOSE!1!!! i REPORT!!1"
  • **Person ahead gets bored of all zoning and no action, and proceeds to leave lane to go get kills elsewhere. ** Usually not needed in other lanes, if the jungler is any competent, our champion secures _earns _ kills and CS they do not need, but their allies might. In the meantime, their lane opponent farms like there's no tomorrow, but they're only noticed by the time the first turret falls. The possible reactions are diverse:
  • "Noobs! I come to help u but noone go to defend! Jungler sit and wach turrent die!!! OMG!"
  • (ping) (ping) (ping) (ping) (ping) "DEFEND TURRET. DEFEND TURRET FFS. SOMEONE TP. TP NOW. TP AND DEF NOW." (no one has TP)
  • "GET DRAGON, GET DRAGON, GUYS, THEY HAVE 2 DRAKE, WE MUST GET SECOND, WE MUST GET IT NOW, LEAVE THE TURRET, GET DRAKE, DRAKE PLS".
  • "omg nasus 600 stacks / Veigar 1000 AP / Yasuo 17-5 / Zed 500 AD / (soon) Kindred 15 stacks..." (1) "...u noobs u feed!!!!!!!!!!" (2) "...wtf broken champion!!!!!!!!!!!"

##Elo hell exists, and it's not because people have no mechanical skill. It's because they have no mechanical knowledge. Aka, no idea what they're doing.

Xydan1 votes

I don't find that works at all in Mid. More often than not your job is to shove the lane as hard as possible, then roam bot and grab a few kills. If you try freezing your lane your opponent is going to roam and you'll lose out.

Joquan1 votes

if they roam

ping lane that is most likely to be targeted

destroy tower

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