Closing: How to Close for a Team Gorging on Swag?

RookPusher··2 votes·237 views

These days I get nervous when my team starts stomping every lane. It's almost a guarantee that these idiots will laugh off every death they give the enemy until all of a sudden we're on the losing end. Then it's just rage rage rage.

I start early with the "don't get arrogant" comments, and the "press the advantage" but no one cares. It's almost certain defeat if we go 10v0 in the first 15 minutes because most enemies change things up, and these dopes are roaming for kills while one savvy Fighter split pushes every one of our towers into the ground.

If I'm a conscious human with an interest in winning, how do I take my teams advantage and parlay that into a win even as a mage support?

3 Comments

ApexInTheCircle2 votes

you cant fix stupid :-\

MorganFreemanBot2 votes

Understanding how to use a lead to close out the game is what prevents innumerable silvers from actually making it all the way through gold and into platinum.

With that said, I have two big things which I do.

1: Phrase it right. "Don't get arrogant" is kind of.. negative, for lack of a better term. It's putting your team mates in the context of "can't", rather than "can". We, as people, do not like being told what we cannot do; this amplifies when it comes to strangers on the internet trying to control our leisure activities.

When I find myself in your situation I personally say "We have a lead, play to win before the lategame.". Where as your words can tap into negative emotions of being controlled, mine is acknowledging their lead (and therefor skill), and trying to direct their focus. It's a subtle difference, and it doesn't matter to everyone, but I've noticed it can help.

2: Looking through your games, I see you play mostly damage. Even going so far as to build your xin and j4 basically as glass. This isn't bad, and in fact works fairly well, but it comes with a problem.

You're dependent on other people to start team fights.

You can make picks, you can duel, but once the enemy starts grouping.. Any team fight you start is probably a team fight you die in.

I, personally, have the best success when I'm someone who can successfully force fights, or at least make the enemy choose to fight or give up an objective. In the past I've played a lot of trundle, currently I'm stuck primarily on Sion.

Once the laning phase is over, your team is going to (generally) naturally gravitate towards their front line. The default hierarchy of pub games is that the tank player tends to be the one who calls the shots and makes the decisions, with the rest of the team GENERALLY following suit. Being that player allows you a measure of control over your team, and allows you to force them to close out the game. It's still often times like herding cats, but it's a lot easier to herd tanks as Sion with 3k hp at 20 minutes than as Zed.

BobaFlautist1 votes

I do this to sometimes - after we hit a threshold of actually throwing, I say something like "Ok this is fun but let's win now - actually throwing this would be embarrassing."

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