Twisted Treeline: Wut

After getting my flex and solo to Gold, I decided I'd go play some treeline and get it to gold too before the season ends. Here's my experience (Oh man)

First: What kind of players did I encounter the most?

A. People who haven't played in awhile and/or just felt like trying the treeline. Nothing wrong with that. Its a videogame after all. If you're playing rank though don't expect a.) teamwork b.) fast reactions c.) knowledge of the map from these players. They simply don't have the experience but most of them are nice and just trying to avoid a hardcore match. I really don't have a problem with these players, but if you're reading this because you're pondering the climb, figure out who on your team is noob to treeline and be helpful.

Sidenote: Treeline does have a jg. If you see a premade skipping out on the smite tho, you'll need to get your allies to play super safe and possibly have the jungler group to keep the lane even. If you're not in premade and your team isn't figuring out jg at the get go say something lol or pick jg yourself

B. Players that are good at 1v1ing and really really want to win a bunch of duels. Normally this wouldn't be so hot on the rift, but in treeline its a viable strategy to roam and snowball fight after fight. Zed, Yas, Riv, Rammus, Cho; basically anyone who walks out of bush and is an immediate engage threat is pretty good on this map. If you see your team pick all ranged squishies, you're probably toast as your opponents will be just waiting to prey on you. You'll never get enough bans to stop this from being a viable strategy, and the most deadly comps are like a Riv in the lane and a Rammus/Kayn in the jg with the last person being AP (tank or assassin/burst).

Sidenote: Range still works on this map. Good teamwork can still beat the guys who want to fight all day, but unless your "main" is a high tier champ for this map you might not want to pick them consistently (RIP my Teemo record here).

C. This group is pretty frequent and wow. Boosters/ suspicious players, mainly boosters. I scope enemies whilst on the climb, and some of these guys go from winning nothing to hitting that treeline and shooting up. They didn't win every game or anything, but the frequency of seeing it is disturbing. The suspicious players I've come across are possible scripters. I could be wrong too Riot will sort out my reports and see if I was right or just using salt vision, BUT Bottomline don't be surprised if you see a few players who seem WAY better than you and your team. You can still win but you won't be doing it by forcing team fights or chasing and dueling.

Sidenote: If you can get a 3 man team with discord on this map, you can still trump most games through sheer teamwork. Weird comps work fine with teamwork just keep your enemy's comp in mind when building them. On the flip side, if you're playing solo and can tell your enemy is all in team together, don't bank on the game being an easy one. Hug towers and expect ganks to come super frequently

Aaaand that's my twisted treeline experience so far.

TL:DR Its fun and a lot different than the rift. Paying attention to the mini-map is so much more of a priority because of the vision differences. There's a crazy mix of casual/serious grind players and a lot of people looking for good 1v1's. Its got some flaws and could use some TLC from Riot (like ARAM).

What are your experiences? What are your strats for treeline?