the difference between red and blue side?

ArcingWind·9/12/2015, 8:11:01 AM·1 votes·17,483 views

first ever forum post

So as I'm trying to learn this game bit by bit I run across the posts and quotes and things about "ban thing blue side" "pick this red" and I just really don't understand it and cant find any threads on it that aren't almost a year old or just don't explain the difference. I understand that the dragon faces one way and the baron faces one way so its a minor benefit to facing teams or whatever and I can understand jungle champions being a little better off on one side than the other, but when it comes to supports or solo laners being better on this side over that, i just don't understand why. Could someone throw a little knowledge my way because this has had me confused for a while.

8 Comments

SpartenA79919/12/2015, 8:15:55 AM3 votes

I personally hate being on the upper side of the map because my HUD blocks some of my vision. I play with locked screen and it only just makes my vision shortened. That's really all there is. baron and dragon really don't matter too much which ever side you're on. At least in my experience.

Kouga9/12/2015, 8:26:57 AM2 votes

I'm not a pro player so there are some higher tier strategies & tactics that I'm not intimately familiar with. However this is my basic understanding of it:

The shape of the map, the lanes, and the positioning of the objectives are all interconnected. For example - Why are there 2 Champs on each side in the bottom lane (in most mid-elo "meta" games) instead of 2 at top? Because Dragon is an early objective that a team needs to control, so having 2 Champions there gives the team greater "Dragon control" - you can pull your mid laner and jungler in and have 4 Champs to either take or contest dragon, instead of 3 if you only have 1 laner at bot.

The Jungler can also benefit from one side or the other. If you are a jungler who starts at the Gromp (the frog, and usually goes to take the Ancient Golem buff next) then it is usually an advantage to be on Red Side because your 2 bot laners can easily help leash or damage the Gromp to help you clear faster. If your jungler starts at Krugs (to then take the red buff) they usually benefit from Blue Side because, again, your bot laners can help you. 2 helps are better than 1.

When I jungle it also usually determines who I'm going to gank first. If I am Blue Side, and I start at Blue Buff, I'll probably have to go back and recall instead of ganking after my first set of camps. That means that my first gank will come after I take Red Buff. That means I'm more likely to gank mid or bot lane, since I'm already on that side of the map. If I know that I really want to gank top lane (say they have a Nasus and I want to camp him) I might try to start red instead so that my second clear will be at blue buff and I can immediately run to top lane and gank.

What about bot ganks? At bot lane, the position of the bushes can make it easier or harder to gank. Tri-Bush is often a highly contested area to ward because if the Blue Side bot lane is pushed, a jungler can easily flank them from the tri-bush instead of river, catching them between the 2 laners and the jungler. So Blue Side wants to ward it & the river if they're going to push up. Red side, on the other hand, can usually ward just the river bush and the lane bush and be pretty safe even if they're fairly pushed forward (all of this depending on the Jungler. Junglers like Rek'Sai or Zac can come at you from anywhere)

Also Dragon is on the Blue Side of the river, meaning that if Red Side is trying to take Dragon they run the risk of the other team either jumping over the wall into Dragon Pit or trying to steal it from that direction, which is why Red Side teams will usually ward over the wall behind the dragon pit.

These are all just a few examples but there is actually a ton of depth into the specific placement of every piece of terrain in League. Try to figure out, for example, why they changed the top lane bush from 2 bushes (like bot lane has) and instead has 3 smaller bushes. Think about how it changes ganks (such as the jungler trying to "lane gank" from a bush)

Archon X9/12/2015, 8:20:58 AM1 votes

Red side is better. I just won 4 ranked games and the 2 I was on blue side I got 20 LP each and the 2 I was on red side I got 25 LP each.

Kurosai9/12/2015, 9:00:47 AM1 votes

in soloq it doesn't matter it has very little impact on pro lvl it's as you said about positioning of baron/drag and mainly about bans, in theory all pro players have equal skill so all that matter is getting as many "op" picks as possible, in which case red side has the advantage cause on first rotation they can pick 2 "op picks" while blue side can just 1 all the red side needs to do is simply not ban the "op" meta picks and ban comfort champs for some players that are not meta but are strong in the player's hands so blue side will pick 1 meta pick while red side 2 then there will most likely be non left for second rotation on blue side :p and ofc red side has last pick so it leaves potential to counter pick ^^

Aeolian Melodies9/12/2015, 12:00:17 PM1 votes

BLUE SIDE

According to many people, better camera angle (due to the HUD positioning) Able to safely ward dragon through the wall (easier to get vision when the enemy team is doing it) Easier access to Baron, and easier, safer retreat path from it (through their own jungle) Gets the very first pick in draft

RED SIDE

Gets 2 picks as their first pick in draft Gets very last pick in draft (so ultimately one guy cannot get counter picked) Able to safely ward Baron through the wall (easier to get vision when the enemy team is doing it) Easier access to dragon and easier, safer retreat path from it (through their own jungle) Due to the small disadvantage of that side, gets slightly stronger minions (red will always push blue without any champion interaction with the waves), and slightly better average MMR (probably does not count in premades)

Personally, I might be the only person on Earth who likes red better. I prefer the angle, and I find bot lane a lot easier to ward on that side. Due to the angle of the lane bush that is closer to the blue side turret, I find that you are more easily zoned on blue side by "skillshot of death" supports sitting in the bush so I'd rather be red side.

TurquoiseYoshi9/12/2015, 3:20:08 PM1 votes

In Solo Queue, there is no difference. Maybe for junglers as it decides where they get their buffs and where they start, but it's a tiny difference.

In pro play, there is a huge difference, as it decides whether something should be banned instead of letting it for first pick, or (when Rek'sai and Gragas were the best junglers) you could ban one, and force a first pick from the other team. There are a lot of mind games that go into it, but in Solo Queue, when everyone just picks who they like and in seemingly random orders.