Score of both teams are even but 1-2 members of your team are off doing something random (farming jungle camps, hitting lane minions etc.) while the other team is going for dragon/baron/tower.
Do you even bother going there? Or do you let the other team just take the obj and hope your team groups later
This is in plat and above games, looking for some higher elo input
from a diamond 2 player that mains both jungle and bot lane:
You have to analyze every situation to see if you can even contest baron/dragon. If you know 1-2 people are not there to contest the objective, DON'T contest unless you know the rest of the team who can go are able to win the teamfight or at least, safely poke the enemy away from the objective. If your jungler has a better smite than the enemy jungler (example: lee sin vs. malphite), you should let your jungler attempt a steal. I'm tell you this as a Diamond 2 jungler who has stolen multiple barons/dragons that its possible and easier than you think. You simply have to recognize when you have the superior smite capabilities (when i say superior smite, i mean you have another ability that u can cast together with smite to deal more dmg to the objective).
If you know that the enemy is rotating to an objective that you can't contest/defend, take another objective. You can always trade objectives, something done so rarely by players at diamond 5 and below. Why waste your time trying to defend an objective you can't protect when you can trade it for another objective?
There are much easier ways to obtaining free objectives with smaller groups of allies. I'm talking about early-mid game during laning phase where the enemy hasnt grouped up yet. If you're a jungler/mid lane/top lane , gank bot lane and after u succeed, rush dragon or take down the enemy turret. If you're the bot lane, ping for dragon after you kill your bot lane or at least, force them to recall. You have alot more control in the early phase of the game and you don't need your entire team. You can also just go around and split push if you're playing a major threat champion. Pick off people so you reduce the amount of enemies alive and you can pressure objectives off of that.
from a diamond 3 player:
you never ping dragon except if some ganks got down and enemies died so you can take it for free with enough hp and mana to fight the remaining living enemies off easy.
you never wait for your teammates to come anywhere. you keep up pressure and gold income at all times and then go to your allies once they need you. and they need you not after lee sin hits his Q on them but they need you before lee sin reaches them so you are there to protect them. it doesnt matter what lane or role you play, if you want to win, you have to track the enemy jungler and the enemy laners and be where they want to go if you can make a difference. if you cant make a difference because you are too weak/no cooldowns/resources, then you apply pressure elsewhere.
when your enemies go to dragon and your allies are not immediately grouping by themselves without needing pings, you go and apply pressure somewhere else. also, whenever dragon is up/about to spawn, think to yourself if you are actually stronger than your enemies and if you would win a fight if you engage on them and/or they engage on you. who has the range damage advantage, who has the burst advantage, who has more zone control, more cc, etc. if you are likely to lose the fight (anything below "im absolutely certain we can take them on" is likely to lose) you dont even go near that objective.
lets say they are taking a tower but at the same time you are pushing in a minion wave and stealing their jungle + buff on the opposite side of the map, they dont get that tower for free since you got some gold and mini-objectives aswell. sure they will got the much better trade, but its not free. if you stand behind that tower or stand in a brush while they are taking dragon, they essentially get that objective for free while you have been afk. you didnt contest and you didnt defend, you were literally doing nothing. always think to yourself "can i do something?" and if the answer is no, find a place where you can do something.
Fine! I didnt want to give my input anyway! rubs his silver medal with anger brewing inside
You spam ping till they come. Some people are just blind as fuck. It's not that they don't want to contest it, they're just too focused on getting their 6th infinity edge...
If you know the enemy is gonna do drag, baron, etc. in the next 30 sec or so, you want to type it out in chat, "Guys drag soon, lets group." This is so you don't have to rely on last second spam ping, when your support/adc is on the other side of the map farming, and its too late. If some teammate has consistent trouble grouping, just tell them in chat kindly. Most of the time they will listen, especially if you have been making good shot calls throughout the game, and are not being toxic to them.
For me what happens most the time is my team trys to contest mid when they should be trying to bust top and bot towers, and we end up losing :(
