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Strategy: Holding the Line in Duo Lanes

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Kyrie 1594 Posts January 13 2014 23:48 GMT #1 Below is my attempt at describing what I consider to be a core bot lane strategy. I've made an effort to format the post to fit this forum, but here is the original post just in case. Strategy: Holding the Line in Duo Lanes Overview In my first strategy piece, I’m going to tackle an often overlooked fundamental of bot lane play - positioning. In standard 2v2 bot lanes, the importance of the carry and support having one mind is well understood, but even the pros make small errors in their positioning relative to their lane partner that results in lost trades and even deaths. OGN color commentator MonteCristo has used the phrase ‘holding the line’ to describe the positioning dynamic of bot lane, and I agree that this is a good descriptor of the strategy. I will be using three total case studies out of game 1 of Samsung Galaxy Ozone v. Naijin White Shield and game 2 of SKT T1 K v. KT Bullets to illustrate my points, but will only be addressing the early laning phase, so there will be no spoilers. The first case study will demonstrate the absolute basics of holding the line, the second will discuss how it is used as the basis of all other actions, and the third will be a more detailed breakdown of how the line can shift, and how an inappropriate shift can have disastrous results. The ‘line’ can be understood as the simplified representation of effective threat ranges - the ranges from which champions can autoattack, use their skills, path block their opponents, block skillshots for their teammates, and so on. Which ranges are most important will clearly depend on the situation and role - path blocking can be an important task for melee supports during all-ins, while autoattack range is always critical to the carry. Therefore, while the horizontal line is the firm norm of bot lane positioning, slight deviations in order to suit a given situation are common. For example, melee supports will sometimes stand in front of their carries, especially during engages, to guard their carries as well as to compensate for their shorter ranges. However, even in these cases, the vertical distance remains quite close, as autoattack range is a secondary concern for melee supports. The sought after balance is for a tankier support to be far enough ahead of the carry to dissuade and absorb aggression while being close enough to avoid taking unnecessary damage from the enemy lane that the carry cannot return. Such a balance necessarily dictates that the duo stay closer to each other than to the enemy team unless fighting. While fights can result in some disarray and a diagonal tilt to the line as the supports lead into melee range while carries attack from afar, the line is eventually reformed as one side falls back and the other attempts to give chase or also disengages. Although the line on the offensive will often have a more severe tilt to the lane due to the enemy teaming falling back, maintaining the line and moving up together in a chase situation is crucial to avoid being turned upon. Case Study 1: SKT v KT Game 2 The default position throughout much of laning phase for most duo compositions is for the carry and support to stay on the same horizontal line. This standard formation allows all four champions to take action with minimal telegraphing as well as to immediately split into situation-specific formations, which are often just slight variations on the line that retain this familiar shape - hence 'holding' the line. Trading in the line formation, as seen below, makes it easy for both roles to have an impact in the fight. Should one partner push or retreat without the other following suit, the broken line results in an undesirable 1v2. Case Study 2: SGO v NJWS Game 1 This situation nicely illustrates how to reestablish the line immediately after breaking it to suit a given situation. Lee Sin (yes, support Lee Sin is considered a viable pick in Korea) has just roamed mid and takes the opportunity to surprise Ezreal by engaging on him out of the river. Sivir did not move up to avoid telegraphing the gank - another option would have been to move up to establish the line with Lee Sin, but that is a riskier play. Ozone's bot lane chooses not to engage here, as Ezreal is no longer in range of Lee Sin, and Lee Sin Safeguards back to Sivir. Note that Ezreal has meanwhile moved back up to be closer to Thresh, who has Flayed in case Lee Sin chose to continue fighting. Both sides have reestablished their lines. Ozone's duo hits 6 before Shield's, so they elect to engage. Lee Sin Safeguards to the ward seen just above the minimap, while Sivir runs around the left of the minion wave and activates her ult. Note that, despite their differing approach angles, both champions will arrive in autoattack/skill range simultaneously. Case Study 3: SGO v NJWS Game 1 An example of a broken line having a big impact on the result of a fight is seen in a level 1 all-in in this lane, which starts off with Thresh moving in to land a Flay on Sivir. Lee Sin immediately moves up to hold the line, as Sivir is under attack by both Ezreal and Thresh and is unable to quickly escape. Ezreal is running backwards to move out of Lee Sin's range, making it harder for Ozone to reestablish their line in an example of an offensive (despite the movement being a retreat!) line modification. The diagonal tilt of the line is often a good indicator of how extreme the offense/defense of a given situation is, as it shows the basic line being broken in order to seize a temporary advantage. Having comfortably won the trade, Ezreal and Thresh move backwards while Lee Sin continues moving forward to establish space for Sivir, who is now outside Ezreal’s attack range and has freedom to move in on Thresh. Cognizant of the danger, Thresh and Ezreal begin a coordinated retreat to stay away from Sivir. Ozone's line breaks as Lee Sin continues to move forward without Sivir, taking more damage from the enemy duo lane than he is able to deal to Thresh. this gives Shield the opportunity to turn on Lee Sin while Sivir runs into attack range. As a result of the 1-2 lost Sivir autoattacks due to Ozone breaking their line, Thresh gets the first kill on Lee Sin. Thresh goes down shortly afterwards and the carries eventually disengage from each other, but Shield’s superior line management while retreating allows them to pick up the first kill in a situation where Ozone potentially could have killed Thresh for free if they had been able to more effectively coordinate the all-in. That's the end of this writeup. I hope the points written here were worth learning (or reviewing, for many), and take a close look at line formations in future games! Viewing competitive 2v2 lanes with this strategy as a focus is a good way to understand how the lane is playing out, and seeking to emulate this coordination in solo queue might prove highly beneficial.

GrandInquisitor New York City13113 Posts January 14 2014 00:14 GMT #2 I think the guide is very good, but you should look into having smaller images in the post that link to larger ones, so we can see it clearly without having to open images in a new tab.

Kyrie 1594 Posts January 14 2014 00:46 GMT #3 Sorry about that - the images are resized to fit the thread on my screen, so I thought the forum automatically did that for all readers. Is there any way to resize the images for the post short of resizing the linked images?

InfSunday United States735 Posts January 14 2014 03:50 GMT #4 Question - in lanes with a melee support like Leona, I assume in fights it'd be obvious to not hold the line and just have her in front soaking up all the damage, but what about when she isn't engaging? Still a line to pressure threats of grabs and make room for the adc to farm?

Kyrie 1594 Posts January 14 2014 15:02 GMT #5 the 'line' (while it won't be horizontal) still needs to be held even in fights in that leona should avoid moving outside her carry's attack range after the initial engage, which may briefly carry her out of her lane partner's threat zone - and with a proper line formation prior to the engage, even this positional disadvantage can be minimized. breaking the line would result in a repeat of case study 3, where lee sin moved too far ahead of his carry and took unanswerable damage as a result. look at thresh's positioning in cases 2 and 3 for a good example of how tanky supports should position themselves during engages - note that he remains quite close to ezreal when leona is not engaging, the situation is exactly as you describe. the general idea is discussed in the last two paragraphs of the overview, but to be specific to leona - zenith blade has a range of 700 (and solar flare 1200), which exceeds the base auto range of all ad carries and allows her to threaten the enemy duo's rear champion while standing level with her own ad carry in a trade scenario. whether she stands slightly in front of (usually this, unless her lane is likely to lose in an engage), behind, or level with her lanemate will depend on her immediate goals and the lane matchup, but in any case she will want to be within a few hundred vertical units in order for the carry to also be able to respond to any actions she might take.

Solaris.playgu Sweden480 Posts January 14 2014 18:24 GMT #6 Cool, thanks a lot for this =) I guess I had some sort of intuitive understanding of this before, but I've never thought about it like this. Will actively try to implement this when I play botlane and see if my laning improves!

ketchup 14521 Posts March 21 2014 05:03 GMT #7 This is actually a very cool write up that I finally got around to seeing/reading. Maybe you should have used pictures before the in game examples to show auto attack ranges for Sivir and Ezreal. Possibly even for Thresh's primary initiation skill vs Lee Sin's initiation skill. That way, the reader forms an idea/opinion of what the "line" is to them, and they can compare it to what happened in game. It's interesting subject to read about. Other than that, you provided very good examples of what you are writing about. Thanks for the write up.

AsianEcksDragon United States1036 Posts March 21 2014 07:33 GMT #8 Most experienced players already instinctively knew this but this is the first I've seen it written in words. Bad players will often break formation in order to finish off what they perceive as an easy kill. They becomes a brief 1v2 situation while their partner is still trying to catch up.

AsianEcksDragon United States1036 Posts March 21 2014 08:01 GMT #9 I think this is a good example. Blitzcrank missed a Q that gave both Annie and Lucian the cue to start their aggression, they managed to chunk Ezreal down and win a huge trade. However, Blitz despite having no Q started zoning Lucian by simply walking into melee range. Annie did not recognize this immediately and kept going after Ezreal, who wasn't afraid to trade back in a 1v1. She only let off when Blitz switched his target to her. Annie wasn't afraid of him because she knows he does not have Q. She was still right to continue the aggression on Blitz and Lucian probably should've followed up when his dash was still up. But Lucian didn't and Annie, after throwing her Q, should've backed off and reestablished the line with him. Not only did she continued moving forward and drew all the minion aggro, but her Q was down and Lucian was too far to back her up.

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