The game's not a 1v9; an example of teamwork and interdependence
Fast forward this game to the last teamfight. Simply put, the early game sucked for us, and we began to break even in the mid game. On the last stretch, as a team, we chased the enemy team's siege of five back to their base. As Braum, I watched, as we began that chase, at our Riven. She was running faster than me ever so slightly, but she had her many lunges. I knew if I could get my ult on the enemy, we'd have them dead to rights. I couldn't run fast enough, though, to catch up with them, but Riven could. If she could catch up to them, I could jump to her and land my ult, so she was my gap closer.
The very instant she catches up to them and is almost out of my target range, I jump to her and fire my ult. I catch about three and maybe four enemies in the hit. Jinx took the full brunt. I move past her; she's as good as dead, the team will see to that. I throw up my shield to deflect Annie's attacks and move as fast as I can to the front to lay down stacks on everyone and slow anyone else trying to escape. Our Shyvana is right behind us and ults in on Jinx and Amumu, who grapples me and moves in vain to try and save Jinx. He's been stacked; he goes down once Vayne unloads on him. Lissandra comes in from the side, but at this point Annie, Amumu and Jinx are all dead and she follows suit quickly, as our numerous shields and my tanking power deflected most of the response to our initiation.
Garen is the only one that survived the slaughter, and we're all still alive and nearly at full health. He fights valiantly, but in a 1v5 he stands no chance. With him out of the way, we destroy three turrets, an inhibitor and the Nexus and win the game.
This is indicative of the interdependence and teamwork that's supposed to go on in every game. I needed Riven to close that gap, the team needed me to ult the enemy and lock them all down, and I needed the team to jump in with us once I had the enemy dead to rights. If we didn't have one of those elements in action, the ensuing fight would have gone a lot differently, and it might have even swung against our favor. Interdependence; we all needed various elements of our team for different steps of the process. It doesn't do anyone any good, ESPECIALLY yourself, to assume it's a 1v9 game and that everyone is an enemy determined to make you fail. It's very important that you learn and understand everyone's strengths and weaknesses; that includes the enemy, your team and especially yourself.
