In daily League of Legends matches, when someone gets taken down early, the first reaction from teammates is to ping frantically at that person, followed by advice like “just farm, buddy” and thinking that’s the best way to prevent losing lane. However, the reality is far from their imagination; if you’re behind and keep passively farming, you’ll only lose faster.
The reason is extremely simple: when you get taken down and play passively, you’ll always be forced to farm under your turret, pushing your lane, and the risk of being dived will always loom over you. If the opponent doesn’t dive, they can comfortably roam, wiping out your teammates while you’re busy farming.
“If you’re losing lane, how can you fight back? Just farm” – many players might say. It’s true that you can’t win fights when the opponent has better items, but there are many ways to close the gap between both sides without needing to kill the opponent. One of the most effective ways is to find ways to trade, gaining something equivalent whenever the opponent makes a move.
First, regarding major objectives, if the opponent takes the dragon, instead of calling your jungler to contest a 50/50 situation, let them take the Rift Herald and do the opposite. If the enemy successfully ganks the bot lane, look for ways to gank the other lane to balance the advantage. This will give you a winning lane to establish a basis for victory instead of passively farming, having a lane with no advantage while the opponent is dominating in another position.
That’s the job of the jungler; so what about the laners? The answer is similar: always trade with the enemy. Remember that at early levels, the skill damage of ranged champions (often mages) is not very high. As a melee champion, especially a high-damage champion like Zed, you need to rush in to attack the opponent whenever they try to poke you with skills.
When using abilities, they cost energy, you lose health but can take some from the opponent. This way, trades can gradually turn in your favor as the damage from champions comes from basic attacks, which are free, while the opponent has to use skills and expend energy. This is the best way to win your lane and create pressure back on the opponent; never let them poke you for “free”.
This also applies right from the ban/pick phase before the match starts; if the opponent picks a counter champion to yours first, pick champions that counter their picks. This leads to never picking passive farming champions when climbing ranks; you often won’t have enough time to get strong because the opponent can easily dominate if you choose such a passive playstyle.
Of course, everyone has a bad game, and you can’t always win fights against opponents. However, try to leverage your champion or the map to gain certain advantages, instead of just being pushed under tower and overly pressured leading to inevitable losses.