PSA: You actually can win games from behind

Thünder·2/16/2017, 2:34:28 PM·64 votes·2,958 views

People need to stop being so negative if they give a kill or two early ffs. I played a game last night where the enemy Lucian built lethality and got 38 kills and my team spammed /ff. Problem is, the rest of his teammates were all doing poorly and I kept telling my team we could win if we kill him. Sure enough, we came back and won

The vast majority of us play this game at a low to mid-tier level. That means teams that are ahead will make mistakes that will give you a chance to get back into the game. I've often found my teams perform better when behind (aside from stomps) because the pressure is on the winning team NOT to fuck up

I get that we're in a snowballing meta that can be frustrating, but this open-mid mentality after giving up a kill early is pretty toxic and has become overbearing lately. Keep faith people :)

EDIT: Just wanna address that yes, some games are not winnable and I'm not saying you should blindly drag the game on for another 20 minutes refusing to /ff if it's clear you won't win. However, people tend to overreact to falling behind early. You'll lose 100% of games if you open mid or decide to int, not to mention you make losing a more toxic experience than it already is. If you give it a shot, unless you're Challenjour who knows what can happen [slayer-jinx-wink]

37 Comments

Oleandervine2/16/2017, 2:38:51 PM14 votes

This may be true, but the mind is half the battle. If your team has already accepted defeat, your odds of comeback are really slim.

I7A6X2v22/16/2017, 9:15:59 PM6 votes

**It's winnable if the adc is fed BUT, if Yasuo Riven Ekko Fizz have 20+ Kills @ 20mins, we r wasting our time! **

notmebuthim2/17/2017, 1:50:00 AM3 votes

Out of the last 10 games my team forced me to play out, we actually got back into one of them. We lost all of them. I don't think a close game even exists anymore, its just one team either stomps or gets stomped.

Stars Shaper2/16/2017, 2:39:42 PM3 votes

Usually comebacks are from the mistakes of the winning side that prolongs the game too much and doesn't give the right care about objectives letting the enemies luck out some kills while farming.

What ppl don't really understand in this game is that you can't win alone, doesn't matter if you are carrying. the best way to ensure a whin is to keep give kills and assists to as many team mates as possible, try to overwhelm by numbers the enemy and be almost always together unless the isolated guy can come back almost instantly.

Raiyza2/16/2017, 6:46:47 PM3 votes

Two kills is nothing. Recovery becomes impossible when our top lane Darius doesn't understand warding and he gets camped over and over. He ends the game 0/9. Enemy Kennen ends 11/3 and the enemy jg ends 2/0/14. We can't fight them if Darius melts before he can tank. You cannot carry that.

AMYS GRAVE2/17/2017, 4:05:38 AM2 votes

/ff@20 is an outdated concept, it has been replaced by the open mid for good reason.

The Ecdysiast2/17/2017, 3:49:22 AM2 votes

Depends on where you are behind.

If it's a terribly failed invade, there's still hope.

If it's 20 minutes in and the opponent's Shyvanna has all the dragons and they've all been Infernal, plus the enemy Nasus has 400 stacks then there's no winning.

OMGSoAnnoying2/16/2017, 8:08:19 PM2 votes

I agree. The problem is usually identifying the win condition.

I was in a game yesterday where I was playing MF. I got focused down over and over and over... but hey, I had a whopping two kills.

Meanwhile, Xerath, Renekton and Master Yi all had kills in the double digits and in the case of Yi was split pushing his face off.

But hey, clearly MF must die first, right? lol...

Tattersall2/16/2017, 8:31:14 PM2 votes

One time I was in a game where at 30 minutes, the enemy destroyed both of my team's Nexus turrets.

10 minutes later, my team destroyed the enemy's Nexus.

Lothàrs Edge2/16/2017, 11:24:52 PM1 votes

How many kills is the cut-off point for people?

I mean it all depends overall, but generally if a minimum of 2 lanes is 0/3 or 1/3 or 1/4 or 0/5 or you get the point, when does it become ridiculously unlikely that a comeback will happen? Given that the other team is capitalizing on shoving all your lanes with a massive gold lead/kill advantage/level advantage.

58697132DEL12/17/2017, 12:27:56 AM1 votes

Another issue there is most players in these low areas dont KNOW when that is, for every 1 or 2 games that are comeback possible, i got like 10 others where 2 laners fed, jungle is 3 levels behind, and we lost 3 towers and barely took one before they aced us and got drag. Those games are pretty clear cut and yet everyone is always like "oh man never give up!!!! We can do this with the power of friendship!!!" yeah friendship doesnt magically make the ezreal top stop phasing into their team and missing ult while the tank stays in the backline and the healer only just left base.

Sometimes a game is just bad and I think more people need to recognize lost causes just as much if not more than comebacks. Especially ones with silly "I want to try it" things like okay you tried, and you went 0/11 in 7 minutes, can we ff? "LOL NO WAY I GOTTA GET DA FULL BUILD!!!!!"

I could play twice as many games a night if people would recognize when to fight and when to move on.

rtbf2216514122/17/2017, 3:24:50 AM1 votes

Once or twice I have been wrong about surrendering. That is it.

On the other side:

My team had like 30 kills and enemy had 52. We won based on objectives. But herp derp k/d/a means everything in an objective based game.

Theiki Kayle2/17/2017, 8:13:28 AM1 votes

Even worse, when somebody says "gg" when they get FB on a tower. Sure, that gold is good, but it doesn't MEAN anything. Tristana demolishes turrets and can easily First-Blood one but she's so bad it won't mean anything in teamfights later.

Sire Hippington2/17/2017, 1:11:54 PM1 votes

I would put it different: You can't really win if behind, but there is always the option for your opponents to throw, and the lower elo you are, the more often they will use that option. If you manage to stall well, it's usually only a matter of time till your opponents start throwing. The hard part is then not to start counterthrowing. However, if your opponents know hoe to close games and don't go for massive throws, there's usually no way to come back. Currently, we reach pretty fast the point where it's no longer your game to win, but the opponents game to loose.

xelaker2/17/2017, 11:16:52 PM1 votes

I've come back from 3 inhibs down before, buuuuuut the enemy team just couldn't win a teamfight, if they had just been a touch smarter if would have been no contest

Borbland2/18/2017, 10:26:54 AM1 votes

That is true, even though comebacks are way way harder in the current meta.

KoggyStyle2/16/2017, 5:11:21 PM1 votes

yup just farm better than them.

PhDs Nuts2/16/2017, 8:06:20 PM1 votes

Extending games when behind is everything. Having 38 kills and being one item up is no different than having 7 kills and being one item up. Kill leads don't matter at all if everyone is full build.

AdeBug2/16/2017, 8:10:55 PM1 votes

not all the time, when every1 is doing bad and ur tons of objectives behind, not just kill and gold, then ur fkd everything else i agree it's worth going on

idontgiveabother2/16/2017, 10:05:25 PM1 votes

Same thing for me, last night I had a game where the caitlyn got super fed. I was also extremely fed and was working with my team to win. We dragged thee game out to 56 minutes and all open inhibs and won the game. It is very possible.

MunchCrunchLunch2/16/2017, 10:05:57 PM1 votes

You will most likely climb faster if you surrender and you start a new game faster.

a few kills behind is no problem. a cpl towers. no problem. but when you look at the scoreboard. and even the enemy support and every teammate has twice the amount of their deaths in kills. and ahead in cs. approaching inhib towers. and we didn't even take tier 1s. then those kind of games you win 1% of. its not worth it

Narasimha2/16/2017, 10:43:27 PM1 votes

You can come back from almost anything sure. But, at the risky of sounding lazy, theres a limit. After that limit, it's just too much effort to try. If I wanted to try that hard, I'd be playing a ranked match. If I think its doable, sure, I'll go for it. But don't expect me to just fight on blindly irregardless of the circumstances. You can't expect to win if you can't even accept your loss.

PlanetWarwick2/16/2017, 10:52:11 PM1 votes

Anally An ally Like allies can help u

FireDrizzle2/16/2017, 11:11:33 PM1 votes

I think people are less optimistic because games are snowballing so hard at the moment. With towers getting oneshot, lethality adcs and assassins.

If you're extremely far behind and its a normal, JUST SURRENDER! It's no fun playing, for example, Rammus and getting wiped out by a fed Miss fortune and other bullshit that happens when you are extremely far behind.