The Science Behind Lvl 1 Strats and Openings (5/5)

I. Observations on what TPA does in their openings

1. Group as 5:

In all 9 games TPA groups after leaving fountain. As I mentioned previously if you 5 man steal something against a team that is split, you will usually come out ahead a smite on your Jungler, which can either facilitates another steal or prevent one.

2. Put a Wraith Ward:

Taipei Assassins always goes for this ward, without exception. This Ward has been described by casters as the “Throat of the Jungler”. Note that the Ward position discussed here is actually referring to two Wards at once, one the Ward which is placed directly in front of Wraiths, and second the Ward that is placed inside the Wraith Brush. Teams prefer the later one, however due to the extra possibility of being assaulted when approaching this bush, the former one is the more commonly placed.

This Ward does several things for you:

a. Allows you to see where the enemy jungle starts.

b. Allows you to track their Mid as well as their Jungle. Wraiths are by far the most farmed camp of all, you can see when the enemy mid is there, if he is going bot, when the enemy jungle is there is he going mid or bot or to the blue side of the jungle. It is very hard to avoid this Ward as a jungler without wasting time.

c. Allows you to counter Red steal. Every time Lil_ballz had his Red stolen he was able to counter steal the enemies Red back. This is due to him having vision on when the opposing jungler was approaching through Wraith bush.

3. Penta Wards on Tanky SUP Champs:

Penta sight wards on Tanky supports like Blitzcrank and Taric. Mistake believes that a single GP10 item with these are supports are adequate and that GP10 should be Hog. Going Penta wards means you don’t have to back after an intensive Lvl1 opening, and you don’t have to waste money on a Faerie Charm, buy a mana pot instead. With the removal of Hog in S3 however, I see everyone reverting back to the Faerie charm build, unless they come up with some novel ways of Gold Income for supports.

This has caught on very fast, before the worlds I didn’t see many teams do this, afterwards the Korean teams have sometimes opted for Penta wards on even the non tank supports and triple ward the enemy jungle in the first minute.

Trivia

The Taiwanese casters say that Bebe and Stanley bring a crit chance mark just in case they get lucky in a lvl 1 team fight. They believe its existence would be removed come season 3 due to the amount of QQing if they actually got a lvl 1 crit off (so far they haven’t). Personally, I think it would be awesome to see, as well as hilariously retarded. Dat 0.93% too stronk!

II. Basics

1. The Map:

The map can be divided into four quadrants where the first 4 buffs are located; these four quadrants are separated by River and Mid Lane. Every opening will be centered near one, or multiple of these buffs. Controlling 3 of these areas will tell you where the enemy team is by process of elimination. How safe an opening is can be determined by how many quadrants you have knowledge of, giving you the whereabouts of the enemy team.

2. Lane Swapping:

Lane swapping can occur for various reasons. In the Standard EU style, the bottom lane of Blue side will always acquire an advantage through taking Double Golems. If you are on the Purple side, you can lane swap your bot lane to top lane and do the same, evening out the openings. Typically speaking, Purple side usually opts for a more interesting strategy to offset Blue side’s inherent advantage, which is something I will miss seeing in Season 3. Most of the openings mentioned here are for Purple. Blue side tends to Ward heavy and start normal.

Lane swapping can also be done to avoid unfavorable matchups. This can be further delved into three categories. First: to abuse certain bruiser champions that have a hard time going 2v1, especially those with short range and little wave clear. Second: to shut down certain players who are deemed too strong. Lane swapping was done 5-6 months before the NA scene in GPL to shut down Stanley; in a standard meta Stanley would win the lane, in a reverse meta at least both tops got no farm. Third: To give your AD an easier time through the first few levels. Note that both times TPA picked Vayne on Blue side she was sent top.

Lane Swapping in the Korean fast push meta is also meant to give a team wide advantage by pushing the towers down. It was not uncommon to see both sides with a tower down by 5 minutes into the game.

 III. The Openings

1. Passive Opening:

This is probably the safest opening a team can have, and is applicable to both Purple side and Blue side. The team starts off split in a 4-1, with the Support placing an early ward down at your own Red (close to the pit so you can see an invade if they come from Wriaths), and then joining up with the team through Mid lane, where you then 5 man move into the enemy Wraiths and drop a Ward. By doing this you will gain vision of three of the four quadrants. Please remember however, to send some skill shots toward the Red Back Bush when doing so. You can finish This start hard-counters early and late invades into your Red, just wait for one of the enemies to eventually back and jump on them 5v4.

Do not put the Ward down at your own Wraiths, you won’t be stopping someone from putting the Ward down there. MVP lost the ESL Korean Qualifiers to KT2 because their Wraith ward didn’t see the Red invade, top laned got killed, and tower went to half.

I believe that this is a superior opening than the ultra passive 1-1-1-1-1 cover all entrance strat. The reason being that you cannot counter ward the enemy wraiths if you are you are playing Purple side reverse EU. Your side lanes are also prone to being pinned under tower where the enemy team swings as a group. It is impossible to transition out of this opening , while you can do Red steal, or swing around for a late blue invade due to being grouped in the Passive opening. TPA never does the 1-1-1-1-1-1.

2. The 2v1 mid, Teleport Opening: 

This opening gives blue side a very strong start. Take teleport on you AP, who is usually Karthus(who can farm from super long range), and also a CC heavy support that can roam, like Leona and Taric. The reason you do this on Purple side is because you can get a 5v3 advantage at the enemy Blue in a late invade. 5 man steal the blue and teleport your AP bot. Their jungler is now forced to start at his Red. Try to shut down their mid lane, and roam your support when you can.

The common response for Blue side is to roam their own support mid as well, however this defeats the purpose of having a solo lane for your AP. Beware of what happened in M5 vs TPA game 1, where M5 was able to steal the Blue back uncontested. The Korean 1v2 laners now start with buying a ward sometimes to prevent being dived by the Jungler. The Koreans have also been giving their initial Blue to Mids who are against 2v1s. This is actually quite smart because the top lane is really the only gankable lane in when one team goes 2v1 mid, so the JG isn’t that mana strapped since he only farms.

Teams tend to transition back into a more traditional set-up with this build. The reason being that Mages tend to have strong AOE ult bursts, so having the two of your squishes in mid lane is dangerous post 6. Another reason is that Mages start to have good wave clear after 5. You will also lose farm on your ADC due to him/her having to roam around.

There are a number of variations you can do with this strat as well. SAJ vs. DIG, Karthus didn’t bring Teleport, and instead they opted for a four man steal on to red. When the enemy is likely grouped and over all stronger in a lvl 1 fight you can forgo the steal and send Karthus bot immediately, forcing a lane switch if they have a Mid that is bad at dealing with 2v1.

3. The Najin Opening:

Ok, the Najins probably didn’t invent this opening, and are probably not the first to use it, but it was executed to such perfection in their civilwar that I had to name it after them. This is basically a slightly risky Purple side Red invade that you should attempt when both sides have a traditional Blue start Jungler. Start off as a five man in River bush, start the invade at 1:40 with a vision ward into bot tri, top should back at this time. Steal the Red on to your Jungler and make it seem like your mid and bot gave a hard leash to you Jungler. Do this by approaching the lane from bot river bush and walking into mid lane from the entrance right of the tower.

This works against the Blue side advantage in multiple ways. First off their bot lane will be doing Golems at 1:40, and the other three members are likely at their own Blue + Wolves. Second, Bot lane on Blue Side has a tendency to go aggressive on Purple side due to them having a lvl advantage. Your Jungler will be able to swoop in and net a double if this happens.

4. Late Blue Steal

TPA will does this quite often when they are on Purple Side in a reverse EU start. After taking your own Wolves with 4 people, Vision ward ML2 and then invade at 1:55 with 4 people. You have a chance to catch their mid, and a high chance of forcing their Jungler off blue. Don’t do the Passive start here, leave someone to grant vision of your Wraith entrance so it isn’t seen.

This is a highly solo-que friendly strat, being easy to execute and with few wards coming from the enemy team. It also screws over 2 people from the blue side, the top laner who is giving a hard leash and planning to let the lane push towards him, and the Jungler who has to start Red. See Game 2 vs NJS.

Notes: All in-game icons and pictures are copy-righted materials belonging to Riot Games. Combinations of these icons with arrows and other such marks are of my doing, please contact me for usage.