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How do you kill the enemy nexus without winning in a big teamfight?

HKT Saber·11/18/2018, 1:55:11 AM·11 votes·8,600 views

While winning teamfights is a major element of the game and you shouldn't lose the game without losing in a fight against the enemy team, it is genuinely difficult to do anything meaningful other than elder dragon and teamfighting when both teams have their nexus open, but with all inhibitors alive.

In these types of scenarios, teams are generally grouped together in a defensive position, so you can't really pick off anyone. Therefore, if the enemy team happens to have a slightly better teamfighting comp than you do in solo queue, chances are that you're gonna lose the game in this rare situation.

While I know that this is an intended feature of the gameplay element of league, I would like to know if there are any viable (or weird) strategies to win in these types of situations other than waiting for the enemy team to mess up or attempt to base race with you.

Would really appreciate any sort of strategies, even if they may not always work.

Edit: I should have said this more clearly, but the enemy team has 0 towers but all inhibs up whilst your team can't win in teamfights.

16 Comments

ValyrianBlade11/18/2018, 3:41:05 AM5 votes

In your specific scenario (both teams bases open with inhibitors, enemy team has stronger teamfight in open space) - get all 3 lanes (or at least 2 of 3) pushing towards the enemy base. Get whichever inhibitor is being defended the least.

Note that I'm assuming you have priority. Otherwise they're just going to group as 5 and walk down mid together. Where your response is going to have to be to have your top lane backdoor while the rest of you defend 4v5 and hope to win the race.

If you have priority, then you're going towards their base. You need to pressure multiple inhibitors so they can't just 5v5 teamfight you. Refuse to fight. Disengage wherever they engage and just try to chip at the inhibitors as much as possible. As soon as you get one, you get a free lane of pressure and open up the possibility to backdoor if they get to your base.

Although, at the end of the day, if you let the game get to that situation when they have a better team fight, you probably lost after having an opportunity to win it earlier. Better to focus on learning how to close out those games instead.

saltran11/18/2018, 2:18:14 AM3 votes

https://youtu.be/oB63Bgod34g

32 minutes, 4 kills, 0 mistakes.

The best example of how you can win just by preassure and push, slow but constant.

The game with lowest kills ever in the LCK was this Summer, done by KT against JAG.

Silly Neeko11/18/2018, 2:12:27 AM3 votes

two words..... wave management.

Ive won a game where we were 30 kills down and we were STILL ahead in gold nearly all game, due to us having wave management, and lane pressure. We could not win a 5v5, but we could get mid having a wave going, and then have a 3 2 split on top and bott with 3 people i think having ZzRot portals (and was also when we had banner of command, but still works).

This made it so that the enemy had to wave clear against the waves, while poking down their towers, and them unable to do anything after killing us due to all the lanes being pushed.

They could not take baron or elder because they needed to clear waves. We eventually had the stuff pushed enough that as they were clearing we took baron. This pretty much ended the game there.

DaBooosh11/18/2018, 2:41:06 AM2 votes

Macro. Forcing the enemy team to leave and do something elsewhere(clear a wave perhaps) Lower their health to force a recall. Bait them into a neutral objective and backdoor

Carbone Carbone11/18/2018, 7:44:42 AM2 votes

We're talking Gates, when you avoid the team bronze chasing and wasting time trying to get a kill. When i hear you say "the enemy team has 0 towers...can't win temafights" you just go gates! that's what would trick2g would do and he's a master at that, but you gotta find the right videos where he explains the strategy because he has a lot of other videos just fking around. i hope u find the way to open up those GATES. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

WoodenCreature11/18/2018, 12:19:12 PM1 votes

Because either way the game will be boring af if only 1 playstyle worked half the champs wont be even viable and the game will just die real quick. Only 5-6 teamcomps would be viable. Another shitpost.

CaptainSeto11/18/2018, 12:21:20 PM1 votes

So, I've got two fun examples of this.

First off, the valid example. My team just got destroyed, down to inhibs and behind against a team that had a much better team fight potential. I'm playing Sion, I'm not exactly doing to well. But I've got a bright idea, using his passive and his ult. If you know the current meta, it should be obvious, but this was like a year ago, so it wasn't "THE META". I figure that I'm a big dumb tank they need to kill twice, and my ult allows me to crash into their mid inhib turret and beat on it forcing them to deal with me. That's exactly what happens. My suicides into their tower destroys it, and their mid inhib is now completely open. I'm serving as this annoying distraction as the rest of the team defends and slowly but surely catches up. They've caught on to me, and now travel as a pack down mid, with only one or two missing at a time. I use this to my advantage, ult into them, and if I hit, I flash forward dragging myself to their inhib. If I don't hit any of them, I hit the inhib and drag them back. I do this a few times, and the inhib falls. My team has caught up, and can now fight decently enough that they win fights as I keep assaulting them with my want to die. Turns out, that effort actually won us the game.

The second example was an AURF game, so it's not entirely valid, but the core is. I got heim, and well, I know how to heim. The games pretty even, they've started winning the team fights though, and they are down to their nexus turrets, but have quickly pushed us back to our own through team fights being lost and them getting good picks. So we are in the final legs of the game, a few teamfights have us on the defensive. That is, until they go to baron. My team goes to defend, and fight for it, but I decide that no matter who wins, the game is ending, and use that chance to sneak through their jungle and flash into their base to avoid vision as long as I can. The fight is going on, and if any of them back they lose baron. I throw down turrets and my ult turret, and take two towers as the fight finishes. If I remember right, they won but are down by a decent amount of people, and their jax backs to stop me. It's too late, the distraction paid off and I've won the game for my team.

Point of the both examples, is that in low elos, distractions can do wonders. Doesn't matter if you are just buying time, or actually making an effort to push and you just so happen to draw their ire. A good enough one, repeated or not, can win the game for your team if you are behind. It's not going to be easy, and depending on how good the distraction is and if it can be constantly done, it may not be enough. But it's a strategy that is pretty common, and is part of the reason Inting Sion and Trynda are so damn good. Not only are they good distractions that can soak up damage, but they require at least a few people to fully stop because they have a quirk that is difficult to put down solo, Trynd's ulti and Sion's immunity to the first death cc applied to him mean that you need a decent amount of CC or insane burst to put an end to them.

Fnatic ComeShot11/18/2018, 2:17:00 PM1 votes

Sion + titanic hydra, sterak, zzot, gargoyle sp, randuins. Split,split.

Pixie Storm11/18/2018, 4:07:50 PM1 votes

My team forced them to respond at baron while I split and ended the game with a pretty sick backdoor on Kennen ; 3 of my team mates went down in the fight so did theirs and by the time they noticed I was halfway through their nexus

BestPudgeNA11/18/2018, 5:37:51 PM1 votes

twitch.com/trick2g

Tr4shB4NSYST3M11/18/2018, 2:00:30 AM1 votes

Tryndamere splitpush to nexus and keep an eye on your team to see if they stop enemy backs: If yes keep pushing, If No run, rinse, repeat.

Edit: Splitpush/base race (especially if you start smacking their structures first and the other 4 on your team can try to defend) is defintiely a viable strategy, along w/ warding in the enemy base for potential backdoors.

I have won games as an 0-10 Yasuo or similarly bad score Jax purely throught splitpushing (as well as keeping all 3 lanes pushed) and taking down the enemy structures while the enemy team tunnel visioned on killing my 4 team-mates

Handy Sandy 11/18/2018, 6:12:27 PM1 votes

Let's say your teamcomp is Aatrox Xerath MasterYi Twitch Nami vs Ornn XinZhao Velkoz Ashe Braum

you already know you can't win a teamfight on equal terms because the enemy team is great in 5v5s and you don't have a decent engage. in this case you should go 1 3 1 to abuse the immobility of their team and skirmishing weakness. If Aatrox and Yi are taking towers and inhibs, they'll have to stop their siege. while this is happening, your mid/bot are in a waveclear fight mid lane and avoid being engaged on.

DuskDaUmbreon11/18/2018, 3:53:02 AM1 votes

Pretty much through backdooring to grab inhibs, and constantly pushing the waves out.

There's not much else you can do if you can't win the teamfight and can't win a base race.

Ifneth11/18/2018, 6:16:09 AM1 votes

Team macro differs based on composition. Teamfighting comps want to group, engage, and then kill the enemy team. Pick comps want to find an isolated enemy, kill them, and then press a numbers advantage. Siege comps want to push waves while keeping the enemy away. If your team is pick or siege, then play toward those win conditions by finding a pick or threatening multiple lanes to deny the enemy teamfighting comp the 5v5 it wants.

HungryAngry2SPP11/18/2018, 6:26:53 AM1 votes

1 guy with high mobility goes TOP to take inhib 1 guy with high mobility goes BOTto take inhib 3 take baron/elder.

Note that it's really hard to win with inhibs down

Tolinar11/18/2018, 6:27:25 AM1 votes

You push. If you have a composition which relies on winning teamfights, and you can't do that, you're in trouble. But otherwise, you motion that you are going to start baron, and when they go to defend it, you scatter and either crush their base or pick people off.