Boards›Gameplay

Your thoughts on Snowballing

Leadpaintchips·12/11/2015, 4:33:53 PM·3 votes·2,915 views

http://www.clearpointcreditcounselingsolutions.org/wp-content/uploads/Debt-Snowball-Method-Building-Momentum.jpg

So after reading a couple of posts on balance, I had a question for the community.

When should we start snowballing? When should your lead ahead of your lane opponent reach a point of no return? When should levels and items matter more than a champions kit and identity? When should comebacks in lane not be possible?

This thread about couterplay and balance Really got me thinking, and I wanted to ask this question without derailing that thread , but when do you think it's acceptable to snowball?

I know that snowballing SHOULD be there, you should be rewarded for being the better player, but where do you want to see that point reached? Too soon and there's no chance of a comeback, too late and it won't matter. So where's your happy medium?

We've all been in those games where a champion who seems to be built around snowballing gets a tiny bit of a lead and theres' nothing you can do about it, and we've all had those games where we thought we had the lane, but someone pulls something out of somewhere and takes away that lead.

Please keep it to this topic, I really would like to hear some thoughts from all of you instead of a " / OP NRF PLZ".

24 Comments

Ichinose12/11/2015, 4:38:01 PM3 votes

We should start snowballing in Winter season , your level is the MOST IMPORTANT THING in snowball because items , armors , masteries etc. won't work , you'll still eat that snowball in your face.

Yeah , you should be rewarded to drink a hot chocolate by your mom if you won that ferocious and dangerous snowball war. Becuse you saved your neighbourhood from deadly snowball throwing soldiers. Your happy medium should be the moment when you hit 3 or 4 enemy with snowball. And after that , say ''my mom is called sorry bb'' , go to your house , watch that poor kids still snowballing each other while you playing League of Legends inside.

Oh and , the kids which has items like air cannon , huge snowballs , 3x jacket with gloves and hat , a fat body can make snowball them very much , so just calm down and don't feed them too much and eat lesser snowballs , poke them with small ones and they will fell down after few minutes.

Oh also , NERF AIR SNOWBALL CANNONS AND SNOW CASTLES PLS.

Greetings ;

Ichinose

JRobin3112/12/2015, 7:55:55 AM2 votes

There is simply no good answer to the question of when a game "should" snowball. It isn't about a having a certain amount of cs or kills. Champions are already not equal in power at level 1. Let that sink in: champions are already unequal in power at almost every stage of the game and that means that "snowballing" is something to do when the champions you are playing hit their respective windows of power. This question of how much lead until a snowball is acceptable sounds to me like someone trying to decide when to spam surrender votes in game. The game "should" always be worth playing until the Nexus falls.

If I play Teemo into Trundle and die 3 times in lane and people think that means Trundle "should" win the game by snowball, then there's something wrong in the way those people are thinking about the game. There are many dynamics that open up as a game progresses and we should avoid a simplistic formula that says so much cs, kills, levels, gold, items, or whatever equates victory before the Nexus falls.

BluePolarizer12/12/2015, 8:03:53 AM2 votes

You are talking only about individual snowballing.

I personally think that team snowballing is way more serious than individual snowballing, since individual snowballing can be countered by simply leaving lane and ganking elsewhere if you are any non-ADC role.

Most snowballing occurs top, since mid can always farm under turret against non-Fizz non-Zed opponents or in the worst scenario, either roam or call "all mid lets push". Top is much more isolated and punishing.

Right now the biggest thing isn't dying once, get zoned for rest of lane. The biggest thing now is "die once, lose tower, and the whole enemy team is up" and even lanes that were previously even or ahead, are now behind.

DeathBurst12/11/2015, 5:11:13 PM2 votes

It depends on Champs. Some are strong early but weak late unless they manage to snowball before they fall-off. So they should of course snowball easier than hyper-late game scaling champs.

As a very rough average, I'd say if you have 3 or 4 kills and 20 CS more than your opponent, you shouldn't lose a fair fight, whatever the match-up. Except that if he is half-decent, he will refuse to fight fair and wait his jungle under his turret. And when 2v1, you need much more than 3 kills to win, except on some specific champs.

I'd say that at 5 kills and 40 CS, you should be able to dive under their T1 tower.

Very rough numbers, just ballpark estimates.

Irelia Bot12/12/2015, 8:04:55 AM1 votes

It should slightly start after a first kill but not really start rolling until after the second kill.

LeviathanElite12/11/2015, 4:41:50 PM1 votes

It does not matter. Balance in the game is fine. Your own skill will trump any perceived game imbalance.

ThePartyLeader12/11/2015, 6:08:01 PM1 votes

I don't think snowballing is far off from where it should be. The first kill in lane is currently a little too much though. I like the thought of two strikes your out. So if you get two kills on your lane opponent, one kill and large cs lead, or a kill and a successful roam,etc. It should be hard for them to catch up. Where as last season you had to continually out play the other team for 30 minutes to win.

Maximum Morde12/11/2015, 4:35:35 PM1 votes

Came expecting spam ad due to text preview. Left thread because Riven is in it. Nobody cares about ur Waifu m8.