Last week, we discussed Ganking, which is most beneficial for junglers. Today, we’re going to take on a topic that can help you climb the ladder even further as a team player — Closing Games.
This article aims to teach you how to close games and what objectives should you focus on. You’ll also learn how to pressure different objectives to help you win. As always, there are some handy tips that’ll be useful in your games.
HOW TO CLOSE GAMES
One thing you’ll notice in higher tiers is that, their games are much shorter on average. This is because the players know how to close out the game and snowball their advantages. They do this by looking for the next available objectives and knowing what those are. Once they get a small lead, they will use it to get objectives to make the lead bigger. Then, they use that to grab more objectives, so on and so forth.
This is very important because taking objectives gives your team an advantage. Also, you are taking away the opportunity from your enemies. This establishes gold and power offset between you and the enemy team. Once you accumulate a big enough advantage, it allows you to steamroll right over the enemy team. You can then take anything you want, allowing you to win the game.
But, some objectives can be tough to secure by yourself, so you need to always be sure to have the numbers backing you up. Something that you should remember is that, it is always better for 5 players to be on the same page at the same time. You don’t want to have 3 or more players trying to take different objectives. That is why teamwork is important.
IMPORTANCE OF OBJECTIVES
I’ll be explaining to you guys which objectives are the most valuable. This will be in order from the least valuable one to the most valuable one. If you memorize all these, then while playing you should always know what you are going to get next. Some of these objectives will change depending on the game timer. But for the most part, this is how you should focus on objectives.
— Gives 14 gold
— Gives 21 gold
— Gives 60–90 gold
4) Jungle Camps
— Priority from Lowest to Highest:
Wolves/Raptors < Gromp < Krugs
— Gives 85–135 gold
— Gives 70–126 gold
— Grants vision for 90 seconds
6) Red Brambleback / Blue Sentinel
— Gives 100 gold
— Grants Crest of Cinders/Insight for 2 minutes
— Gives 500 gold to the team
— Grants extra map access which adds more vision for the team
— Allows your team to get Rift Herald / Baron Nashor easier
— Gives 500 gold to the team
— Grants extra map access which adds more vision for the team
— Allows your team to get Elemental Drakes / Elder Dragon easier
— Gives 25 gold
— Gives your team a stack of Dragon Slayer (permanent team buff)
— Denies the Dragon Slayer from the enemy team
10) Rift Herald
— Gives 100 gold
— Gives your team the Eye of the Herald
— Denies the Eye of the Herald from the enemy team
11) Mid Outer Turret
— Gives 500 gold to the team
— Grants greater map access which adds more vision for the team
— Allows your team to get objectives easier
— Gives 25 gold
— Gives your team another stack of Dragon Slayer (permanent team buff)
— Denies the Dragon Slayer buff from the enemy team
13) Top Inner Turret
— Gives 550 gold to the team
— Grants extra map access which adds more vision for the team
— Allows your team to get Rift Herald / Baron Nashor easier
14) Bot Inner Turret
— Gives 550 gold to the team
— Grants extra map access which adds more vision for the team
— Allows your team to get Elemental Drakes / Elder Dragon easier
15) Mid Inner Turret
— Gives 500 gold to the team
— Grants greater map access which adds more vision for the team
— Allows your team to get objectives easier
— Gives 25 gold
— Gives your team another stack of Dragon Slayer (permanent team buff)
— Denies the Dragon Slayer buff from the enemy team
— Gets you to Soul Point
— Gives 300 gold to the team
— Pressures their inhibitor
— Adds minion pressure
— Gives 300 gold to the team
— Pressures their inhibitor
— Adds minion pressure
— Gives 300 gold to the team
— Pressures their inhibitor
— Adds minion pressure
— Gives 25 gold
— Gives your team the Dragon Soul (powerful, permanent team buff)
— Denies the enemy team from taking Elemental Drakes
21) Nexus Turrets
— Gives 250 gold to the team
— Increases the value of inhibitors
— Increases reward for pressure
22) Baron Nashor
— Gives 1525 gold to the team
— Grants massive map control
— Gives your team the Hand of Baron buff for 3 minutes (helps your team in poke/siege)
— Denies the Hand of Baron buff from the enemy team
23) Elder Dragon
— Gives 1350 gold to the team
— Grants massive map control
— Gives your team the Aspect of the Dragon buff for 2.5 minutes (helps your team in winning teamfights)
— Denies the Aspect of the Dragon buff from the enemy team
24) Top Inhibitor
— Grants massive map control
— Restricts the enemy team’s movement
— Applies constant lane pressure
— Allows your team to get Elemental Drakes / Elder Dragon easier
25) Mid Inhibitor
— Grants massive map control
— Restricts the enemy team’s movement
— Applies constant lane pressure
— Allows your team to get objectives easier
26) Bot Inhibitor
— Grants massive map control
— Restricts the enemy team’s movement
— Applies constant lane pressure
— Allows your team to get Rift Herald / Baron Nashor easier
27) Nexus
— Wins you the game
To reiterate, these are often the best choices from a theoretical standpoint. But different situations can cause the importance to change. There will be a separate article to go with this one that will come out in the future. It will be explaining all the objectives mentioned in detail and what they give. This is to help you understand the importance of the different objectives of the game. But this is a general rule only and there are a lot of nuances to consider in practicality.
The importance of objectives is completely subjective. One must base it on the state that the game is being played. Generally, this list is correct. But you should always focus on objectives that you can secure, to cut the risks involved. It is worth contesting objectives that are worth taking that doesn’t present a larger risk to you.
PRESSURING OBJECTIVES
Now that you know which objectives you need to get, you need to know how to get them from your enemy. Chances are, they won’t let you take them lying down. There are a few ways you can do this.
One way is by moving around the map. For example, you can shove a lane to tower and retreat as they try to defend that lane. You can then run towards another lane to start pushing there. Doing these many times will allow you to whittle down the objectives. The community refers to this as “Rotations”.
Another way to pressure objectives is to pressure many objectives at once. There will come a time where running the enemy team around won’t work. You can have someone splitpush on one side while the rest of the team pressure objectives. This means that they can only stop one of your attempts, so you end up at least getting something. It’s important in these situations that you don’t overextend. It is likely for a side to get outnumbered so you have to disengage. Doing so will allow the other side to secure objectives.
Another thing is to maintain vision, which outlines why vision is so important in games. In higher tiers, if you know where your enemies are, you can exploit them while they’re in the wrong spot. This will usually allow you to grab objectives. For example, you maintain vision in their top-side jungle and you spot their jungler. Now your team can go get Dragon because he won’t be there on time. Your team is already around and that’s an uncontested big win, all because of a little ward.
TIPS AND TRICKS
You can bait your enemies using objectives. One of the best ways to secure objectives is to have the entire enemy team dead. If you can bait them into thinking you are doing objectives, then it can force them to face check into your team. You can usually wipe them out and grab something even better if they fall for it.
There is a trick you can do with minion waves to make them auto-push. This is good for setting up a lane while the rest of your team pressures other lanes. The enemy will have to choose which lane to respond to but they will not be able to stop them all. This is actually called an ultimatum because no matter what they do, they lose. To set these up, you need to find a wave and kill all the Caster Minions. Caster Minions do the majority of the damage in a wave. If you can take them all out, your wave will stack up and become a crazy unstoppable force.
That’s all for today’s article! I hope you guys learned something after reading this. Good luck on the Rift!
