PSA: How to carry a game as the Support

tl;dr: Learn to support lol.

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Here's the BS scenario: Top: vs Mid: vs Jungle: vs ADC: vs Support: vs

Look at my icon, of course I was (however, with my beloved Muse skin, but that's not important).

Backstory: I had previously just lost a game in random solo queue (norms, don't get your panties in a twist now) with the Katarina and Varus players (who had played Fizz and Sona, respectively). In that previous game, Fizz was running around recklessly chasing enemies down in their jungle and getting himself killed, refused to group, blamed everyone else for not helping him do his stupid plays, etc etc. My team had reported him for unskilled/verbal abuse/whatever. He was an asshat...so figures I would get lumped with him again after REPORTING him (rito plz). The Sona had abandoned bot lane after she and our ADC fed at least 3 kills and lost tower...and then came top? I'm not sure what that Sona was doing, but at least she was trying...I guess.

Whatever, so this Katarina played almost exactly how he played Fizz, which is...less than optimal, I would say. Varus didn't connect until 5 minutes into the game, fed two kills while complaining he was behind in level and was trying too hard to get fed, and then disconnected (purposefully?) for the rest of the game. Therefore, this was a 4v5 from about 10 minutes in. Throughout the majority of the game, my team was behind in gold and objectives and were mostly on the defensive.

How to carry as the support:

1) Secure the main carry.

Katarina was feeding and complaining (she would get her kills, and then get greedy and go for more while she was low and alone...and we all know how that ends). Irelia was partially living in the jungle. That left Garen, who was having some trouble top (and got executed early, lol. That greed). Bot, of course, was gone (that Nami could land Qs, gg).

Regardless, Garen was doing fairly well. He and Aatrox were about even. After Katarina was deemed weak, Gragas started going top to gank. But then I come zooming in with my Mobi boots + E and we won that fight easily. Did I steal a few kills during this process? Of course. No regrets. But that only made the enemy team focus me rather than my carry. So while they chased me down trying to kill me (succeeding only once), Garen would jump on them (sometimes I would get the kill, sometimes Irelia would pop out of the jungle and get the kill...either way, assist gold is a thing and the Garen was on board with the KS = "KILL SECURED").

Carry secured.

2) Secure the secondary carry.

Now that we had our frontline/carry in a comfy place, it was time to bring back Katarina. Not that hard to do, all it takes is a really good teamfight...which we had plenty of without Katarina as she kept...running elsewhere and doing other things...? However, with a few dedicated pings and "STAY WITH THE GROUP" chatting (from both me and Garen), we finally got Katarina her steady flow of kills so she could finish her build (I gave that girl a quadra. Didn't even get a "thank you" ).

Secondary carry secured.

3) Secure primary objectives.

Lol, what's dragon? Despite the wards, keeping an eye on the timer, and lots of pinging, I could not get my team to get the dragon. They tried instead to get baron, only to have the enemy team steal it. It was now or never, ace the enemy team and push really hard mid lane, the only lane we had sufficiently pushed. With Garen's and my careful warding (Garen was hip enough to upgrade his trinket early...Irelia upgraded hers, too, much later into the game) we were able to track down the enemy team as they roamed to push lanes with their baron buff. Luckily, we ace'd them in mid lane, so it was easy for us to push and take their inhibitor. With one more ace, we won the game.

Victory.

Things to consider for my role as support:

Did you change your typical support build?

Not really. I kept my and throughout the entire game. When it came to the point where I had my usual items of (AP Mage Support Sona, lol) I decided, since I was doing particularly well in the damage department, to start my Lich Bane, so I built . I never finished my Lich Bane, though, and I don't normally buy it on Sona when I support.

Why is Garen your "carry" and Katarina not, when Katarina got the most kills?

Garen is safe. Garen can tank and deal lots of damage. Garen can push. And Garen can do all that, generally, without a lot of help (not that I'm recommending Garens should 1v4 the enemy team, as our Garen learned the hard way what that leads to). Katarina, on the other hand, is not safe. She cannot tank while dealing lots of damage. She's not the great at pushing. Sure, she's great at securing kills, but she needs a hand to get them, or a tank to take all the damage while she goes in. I figured, before securing the main damage dealer (Katarina), I had to secure the best asset to the team (Garen), which in turn greatly benefitted our Katarina (who stopped her whining and complaining and started listening to us after we got her fed).

Daily reminder: Kills don't win games, objectives do. And teamwork. Dear Rito, if this Garen was not cooperative...

How can you carry if you didn't get the kills?

I did get kills. 8 of them. 7 of which were in a row, so I got "Legendary." After that lovely announcement I got hella focused. However, I had gotten Katarina and Irelia fed. My total assists: 23. Is that a bad thing? No, because I did what I had to do, especially with Katarina: Get the enemies low, have Kat jump in and clean up. And honestly, who would be better off with all those kills anyway? The support who can deal massive amounts of damage consistently to one target at a time...or the Garen and Katarina who can swing to win?

You can't carry if you're off warding all the time!

What is this, season 2? I checked the statistics for that game, and I warded the most between both teams (as a support should. Shoutout to the Nami, who had the most wards placed on her team, but I had ten more than her in total). Luckily, my teammates were also warding when they could. And yet, despite my warding, I contributed 69% of the total damage on my team, second only to Katarina (who also had the most kills on our team) at 73%.

The moral of the story

Be nice to your support. Support OP.