Being scared of your own shadow and vulturing
Once again, my rage train rolls in. I don't like making these but as long as these issues in League are epidemic, I'm going to keep pointing them out, hoping someone out there gets a clue.
This new one keeps happening whenever we get an all assassin team, but this time it wasn't all assassin; we were mostly tanks. Once the outer turrets go down, everyone freezes and suddenly gets so terrified of their own shadow, everyone suddenly refuses to defend lanes and scuttles off into the jungle to basic attack the jungle monsters, as a group, for the rest of the game. If the enemy attacks, everyone runs in circles without putting up any resistance and everyone gets slaughtered as a result. This usually happens whenever I'm support, and I end up trying to push or defend a lane completely alone while Leblanc basic attacks the Razorbeaks in the corner for a minute and a half.
Does it sound stupid and fake? It is, and it should be, but it keeps happening with alarming frequency. The game I just got out of had most of our team get slaughtered in the jungle near dragon while I was in the fountain. Without Homeguard, I trundled all the way over to the dragon while my team was scattering. I save Sejuani just in time so she could escape while I take on the enemy basically 4 to 1, killing one, nearly killing a second, and then fending off two more champions before finally getting mowed down. As support Braum.
The entire time, I noticed that our Nunu was waddling around the whole fight, not doing anything, even though he was within melee range of Irelia and Vayne most of the time, and he had plenty of mana and HP to go around; more than 3/4 of both. But that's all he did, was just run around, pretending to be useful. Then I realized when the same thing happened later, that he was vulturing. He was waiting for someone to get low enough that he could steal the kill. Other than that, he just remained out of the fights most of the time.
It's one thing if the support or whoever gets the kill when concentrating on an enemy; if you're the support and your carry is attacked, it doesn't matter who gets the kill, so long as they aren't. Same with if you lay down one last spell to ensure they won't survive with a sliver. It's another thing entirely to intentionally hold back in a fight so you could get the kill instead of someone else on the team, even going so far as to let others on the team die. I've seen this, too. Usually it's an assassin-type that does that, since they have the skills and abilities to kill fast. It's an exceptionally douchebaggy thing to do, especially to your teammates who require your assistance or are setting you up for the kill while you hang out back and wait for them to do the hard work before swooping in to finish off the enemy once they're low enough, IF you even can; I've seen it fail miserably. Why do you do this? Is it because you're afraid you'll get an assist? Is the idea of getting an assist so horrifying and insulting to you that you'll let your teammates die so you could score the kill?
Incoherent raging aside, there are two things to take away from this. One, move with a purpose. If something needs defending, go defend it. If you have an opportunity to attack, attack. If you need gold, move with a purpose and don't be afraid to waste a bit of mana to kill the jungle camp. The second is don't vulture for kills. Ever. No exceptions.
