Ranked PTA renekton vs Conqueror trundle: window shopping cereal killer croc

So, I've done some thinking and experimenting - the result? PTA is still better than conqueror on renekton - at least in some matchups. Renekton wants short trades where he can get off his burst and leave. That's exactly what pta can give you. Conqueror doesn't deliver this quite as easily - it is more about sustained damage. As you can see in the vid, pta is still pretty damn good if you get a lead despite conqueror being all the rage.

Key plays breakdown: 15 sec in - don't invade if you have 2 people sitting afk in base. If you are going to invade, don't delay forever or you will probably be spotted and the enemy can set up a bushwhack

1:30 - trundle actually hard wins lvl 1 trades via his q stealing your ad and amping his; land q poke as renekton and just look to stay healthy for lvl 2-3.

2:23 - if you are the trundle here, there is literally no reason to not just sit at tower beyond my slice-n-dice range and wait for the wave. Doing so prevents me deleting you and makes any dive of you extremely risky due to your pillar and the fact I must assume your jungle is topside due to starting at his bot jg and working his way top. You literally miss maybe 1 minion max to play safe like this and avoid giving me a kill. Instead, you are far behind, get nothing from shop, and have to burn tp.

6:10 - as trundle, just pillar me away if anything and farm the minions. Attacking me here - which is what I'm BAITING him into doing - causes him to tank damage from my huge minion wave and gives me the extra damage to ensure the kill. Now based on buff timers and stuff, I predict camille is probably topside. Due to huge fury bar and my massive lead, I feel safe enough to finish clearing that wave and be able to escape any camille gank. But I still need to LEAVE. A bit later, you will see camille come top to check for me backing. Had she found me she MIGHT have killed me if I'd stayed longer due to fury bar falling off and trundle coming back to lane soon.

7:20 - their bot lane is fed. The minion wave will push to our bot tower. The enemy bot lane is about to hit 6 while our bot lane's lvl 6 is still a way's off. Just back off to tower; the last thing you want is for their lane to hit 6 and grab a kill - denying you all the xp and gold from the minion wave, getting ahead from the kill as well, and potentially taking first tower.

7:36 - we roughly know their blue buff timer. We have a winning toplane with massive pressure, mid is close to equal and our jg has a 2 lvl lead on the enemy jg. That is the perfect scenario for when it IS good to invade and take enemy buffs. I pinged enemy blue and let jg know I have his back for the invade.

9:46 - trundle ults me under his tower. This is good because otherwise he was dead. But he should just farm the minions and then base. Because he chases me and I kite away he thinks he can win. Little does he know, he's just dead. He tp's back to save first tower which is good. I might have stayed and finished it off, but he has sheen which is immensely powerful for him in dueling and makes me actually have to respect his damage. I don't want to risk giving him shutdown gold or have to blow flash just to get first tower gold.

10:55 - a great roam by ekko to help out his toplaner. The pillar by trundle actually forced me to blow flash to ensure I stayed safe and avoid ekko's stun bubble. I have udyr in my back pocket though so I THINK I can tp back in and 2v2. But alas, udyr doesn't listen to pings and just get in there. If he had, I have 0 doubt we win the 2v2 and get first tower. But since he doesn't listen, I look like an idiot. He does soak the minion wave though which is good.

12:45 - udyr takes herald but it gets him very low. This leads to him dying 1v2 before I can get there to help. I then get caught and have to fight, so I target the ekko to force him out of the fight and away from me first. If he has ult and uses it, he'll end up far away from me and leave me 1v1 vs a trundle I can easily smash. Just imagine if udyr had helped me out at 10:55 instead of standing in the brush. We'd have taken the first tower already, shoved in to their tier 2, and could 2 man herald. If the enemy had facechecked us then, we would get a 2 for 0 and the herald. And that is why LITTLE things are a big deal. One small mistake can lead to a waterfall of consequences good or bad. Ekko does a bm recall though, so I teach him not to keep ganking my lane if he knows what's good for him.

14:15 - again, greed strikes people. Trundle needs to just leave and give up first tower. Staying almost guarantees he dies and does nothing to stop him giving up first tower gold.

16:25 - proof I'm still wood division. Orianna plays way too agro and positions where she can be pincered by terrain and 3 fed enemies. Like a fool, I don't stop the channel of my tp even after she dies and try to 1v4. And like an idiot, I die. Don't let your lead go to your head and do stupid things. I also gave up about a full level worth of cs top and massive tower damage to... suicide. And best of all... the kill goes to draven. Orianna flamed our team for not collapsing to help her and me. But I told her the truth - we screwed up and it was 100% our stupidity. This ended up costing us a bunch of damage on mid tower and varus's life too. Again - little things make a big difference. Speaking of which - bm recalls. Janna does a nice tornado to try to save teammate, but it's not enough.

Which leads to... almost stealing red, catching camille, and rotating to a pushing bot wave to help varus snag a tower. Deciding to not potentially end up 2v5 and die, we back off.

21:35 - giant wave top pushing in to tower. Sure I could run up there and snag some of it or burn tp if I have it, but it's better (and good map awareness) that orianna just soak it so I can save tp and base to buy.

22:40 - udyr gets ahead of himself and dies for walking into several enemies to chase a kill. We could have just pushed in as a team, gotten baron vision control and forced a fight, but he rushed. Then, despite being 2v4, orianna flashes after an enemy to kill them. Not something I'd recommend when it's her and me vs the world with no backup nearby, but it works out. It's one of those high risk, high reward plays instead of low risk high reward. But thanks to me having her back, the other enemies can't just collapse on her and pop her. Meanwhile varus turned back from heading bot to collapse on the fight mid and lands a great ult. This leads to more kills for us. That's a great heads-up play by our adc. Lux gets a good binding leading to an ace, but then splits bot instead of stay with varus and me. She dies for this. I burned tp stupidly to save the minion wave and ensure we get inhib tower, but better safe than sorry I guess.

25:20 - we can now easily 5 man force baron thanks to mid inhib being down for them. I have my flash back up which means I can literally 1v5 zone them off contesting baron while my team secures it after setting up vision control. Since the enemy went to clear minion waves and is nowhere nearby, I go help with baron. Now I COULD go take the minion wave top as we push in, but I already have enough farm for now, so I give it to my teammates who are less ahead than me. Plus an unseen crocodile is a dangerous crocodile and the enemy can't really look to flank as we take top inner tower with baron minion wave if they don't know where I am in their jg. I attack wolf camp just to keep up my fury bar. The enemy makes a desperate engage at their inhib tower, but good layered cc and burst onto their frontline quickly puts a stop to that. Again, janna has a some nice use of abilities, but it's not enough. Now, one could argue for me splitpushing here to maximize baron and my tp; however, my team is too fragile without me due to udyr going full on-hit damage build and no durability. The only way the enemy stands even a remote chance of making a comeback is by getting a 5v4 while I split. Thus, grouping 5 top was the way to go.

Little decisions have a big impact. You don't need to be challenger or plat or diamond to think about your situation and try to make the best decision possible. Hope you enjoyed the vid and the insights into the little decisions this game.