Hey everyone.
This week we're gonna do a unique video showing you how to execute a late invade, which is
a consistent early game play where you 3 man invade the enemy jungler at their first buff
while they're getting a leash.
I personally late invade as much as I can when climbing in ELO ranges below Diamond.
Here's a few reasons why:
1.
Getting an early lead helps you play your own game when you have a bad support
2.
Players in low ELO don't know how to fight a 3v3 while they're leashing
3.
Late invades benefit yourself, your jungler, and your laners (since their jungler is screwed),
and spreading advantages is crucial to a solo queue strategy
and 4.
It works, often.
I spent a couple days playing on a Silver-Gold ranked smurf duoing with a Bronze 1 Nami one
trick (who really wasn't a smurf), and it worked in 5 out of 8 games.
And, in those 3 games it didn't work because my team refused to come, which happens.
So, if you're looking for a strategy to help make your solo queue games a bit more consistent
in your favor, keep watching.
Before we break down some of my own replays and show you how it's done, let's start by
talking about when to late invade and how to get your team to follow.
You can late invade from both red and blue side, and it's a relatively safe strategy
in any ELO below mid to high Plat, as long as the 3v3 isn't one-sided in their favor.
But, here are some red flags that might indicate you shouldn't late invade:
1.
If your jungler is like a Shaco, Fiddlesticks, or Amumu; basically any champ who either really
needs a secure start in their jungle, or are just plain weak in level 1 fights.
2.
If the enemy has god mode champions Braum, Draven, and Cassiopeia, which are the strongest
level 1 champs in bot lane
3.
If your team doesn't answer the call, then you wouldn't want to ignore your jungler and
invade without leashing
4.
If the enemy sees you getting in position for some reason, which shouldn't happen if
you directly follow our path.
As for convincing your team to invade with you.. this is probably a more common problem
than finding a game where you shouldn't late invade.
Usually, typing "Let's invade" at the end of champ select, pinging "on the way" on the
bottom river bush level 1, and typing something like "Follow me for some free money" as early
as possible works out well enough.
From there, explaining the invade plan (which we'll go over shortly) usually helps to convince
my teammates that it's a good idea.
That being said, in nearly half my games I just get ignored or flamed for making the
call.
These things happen.
But in the games where the call gets followed, it works out way more often than not.
Alright, now that we know why and when to late invade, let's go over how to late invade
red side's blue buff.
Step 1 is figuring out if you should invade.
This starts in champ select, and involves the red flags we mentioned earlier in the
video.
In this game our 3 man of Nami Lucian and Kha'zix, are all solid at level 1.
On the other hand, their 3 man of Volibear, Tristana and Zyra have no huge threats like
Braum or Cassio.
So, the invade looks good.
Step 2 is to convince your team to invade.
Ping and explain the invade as early in the game as possible, like in the opening seconds,
so that it's more likely your team will respond and follow in time.
Remember to be nice and considerate when playing team diplomacy in the chat, and to brush it
off like a champ if anyone flames you for trying teamwork out for a change.
Step 3 is to get to the bottom river bush as fast as possible.
If you run straight there from fountain at 15 seconds, you should always make it there
undetected, even if the enemy rushes to spot for you.
But if someone DOES manage to see you running there, chances are you should call off the
invade in higher ELOs.
In Gold and below, you can probably still get away with the late invade even when detected,
but only if you're confident and have executed a few already.
Once you're in position, sit and wait for the invade timing, and explain the gameplan
to your team if you haven't already.
Speaking of, the gameplan is to start walking out of the bush to invade at exactly 1:28.
This way, you'll meet the enemy right after they use their first round of spells as they
start leashing the buff.
This cooldown advantage is what we'll use to win the 3v3 consistently, game after game.
It helps to explain to your jungler to focus on securing the buff during the invade.
Kills are great and common, but our primary goal is to take the buff and force the enemy
jungler to base.
The reason is this invade can backfire hard if their jungler secures the buff anyway and
manages to escape with enough HP to jungle safely.
If that happens, your jungler ends up at a significant tempo disadvantage and will have
to play the rest of the early game from behind.
We really don't want that, so make sure your jungler is only thinking about the buff while
you focus on dealing damage.
Once its 1:28, Step 4 is to walk in and start the invade.
Here's some tips to help you win the fight: First, let your melees and CC champions lead
the way.
It also helps to ping targets as soon as you see them; the target priority should be whoever's
closest, and/or the enemy jungler.
Remember, the goal is to get them off the buff and secure it, not to chase them a screen
away.
Let's roll the clip first.
Nice, that went smoothly.
Let's review what happened real quick.
As we walk in, Zyra isn't watching and is our closest target so we focus her first.
With Zyra gone, the next priority is securing the buff.
If Volibear stays within range of the buff then all damage should be focused on him.
But since he's out of range and running, the next priority is to put as much damage on
the enemy AD as we can, without running too far from the buff.
But to be clear, if both of them were already out of range at this point, I'd help take
blue buff while zoning the Volibear.
We basically want to either force a back or have them start the lane with no HP.
These are both advantages that we can use for a calculated all-in early in the lane
phase.
So, I chase Tristana for as long as she's willing to let me hit her, while returning
to the buff once it's getting close to Smite range.
When Volibear goes on a suicide mission to get the buff, I kite up over the wall so that
I can finish him if he flashes over.
By the end, Tristana ends up blowing Heal and her health pot both of which are super
important.
Now that we covered the invade, we'll briefly show how I use the Heal and potion advantage
to secure a couple kills early.
Since my summoner spells and health potion are up, as long as I hold Heal and whittle
her HP down patiently, I should be able to create a decent advantage.
My first main objective when starting the lane with an advantage like this is to keep
the wave outside Tristana's tower before she hits level 2, so that I can force a kill early
before her Heal comes back up.
To do this, I focus on last hitting and walking up to zone the Tristana between last hits.
I'm not really trying to pick a fight, I mostly just want to push her away from CS.
When I'm zoning, I position aggressively but I avoid crossing the enemy's ranged line so
I don't overextend, and I back up to my minion line when I need to take a last hit so that
I conserve my HP advantage and don't take a free auto from Trist that I can't punish
her for.
This is something we've consistently noticed players mess up on in lower ELOs when they
feel they have an advantage and want to zone.
You might be stronger, but it won't matter if you leave openings while farming!
After I'm done clearing last hits, I walk up for a short trade since Zyra is out of
position and can't punish.
I actually lose in damage here, but since I have a health potion and Heal compared to
Trist having neither, it's worth to pick a short fight like this.
With my Kha'zix nearby and certainty that the enemy jungler is top, I keep dancing outside
their range inbetween backing off for last hits..
but moments later, Nami misplays and overextends before I'm level 2.
Since she walked up into their minion line at the same moment I walked back for a CS,
she made herself a free kill.
Fortunately, I hit 2 during the fight and Zyra doesn't bother flashing away, so I manage
to trade one kill by using dash as an auto reset.
As I crash the wave, I know Tristana has no health pots or Heal, so I'm thinking of how
to secure the kill under tower without dying.
As soon as she stops moving for a last hit, I take the chance for a W flash into double
shot.
From here the Tristana is pretty screwed; I was able to deny a massive wave while also
staying even on tempo.
Thanks to the late invade, by 3:30 I'm already 3-0-1 with a Cutlass, against a 3 CS Tristana
with Dagger.
Let's go over a shorter example of the same invade so you guys get the idea down.
Again, Step 1 is to figure out if we should invade.
Our Lucian Nami Volibear should have no problems fighting their Jax Bard Twitch, as long as
we walk in after Bard uses his first Q on the buff, so the invade is a go.
Like last time, I start by pinging the invade early and starting some good ol team diplomacy
tactics in the chat.
As you can see, Renekton initially wanted to tag along.
But, when we're late invading red side, we never want any solo laners to come with us.
This is because it makes them late to their own lanes, which puts them behind.
The point of this invade is to create advantages for everyone, not just us at bot lane, so
we ping him back and explain nicely that top laners aren't allowed.
This is also a good time to explain what the enemy team should be doing to avoid this invade.
The solution is actually pretty simple.
If one of the duo bot just stands at the river entrance to their bot side jungle *here*,
until 1:27, and drops a ward on scuttle crab once they leave to go leash, this invade will
never work.
In fact, you should approach most of your games watching for invades like this.
You don't need to actually be leashing at the buff until 1:30 on the dot, so it doesn't
hurt to keep vision of the river before then.
Anyway, once Volibear is in the bush with us, he eventually gets too antsy and started
walking out too early; thankfully a few back pings and a CALM re-explanation that we should
invade at 1:28 to avoid their cooldowns convinces him to wait a bit.
At 1:28 we start walking up.
Initially Bard is our closest closest target so we focus him first.
From there, Jax is the next priority so we can make it easier for Volibear to secure
the buff.
Nice, another success.
However, this time we didn't manage to get an HP advantage on the Twitch during the invade
since he escaped in time.
No problem, this means there's a chance for us to chunk him level 1 if we're patient.
Since I know Bard died and Twitch is going to get to lane on time, I sit in the bush
and wait for him to walk up for a ranged minion before walking into lane.
At the same time he extends a bit for a ranged minion, I walk into lane and cut him off just
enough for a few autos and both of our W's.
Now we've met all our goals: we got our jungler ahead, and secured an HP lead bottom.
From here the goal is the same as last game: maintain the HP lead, try to stay opposite
side of the lane from Bard, and last hit to keep the wave outside of his tower as long
as possible, then look for an all-in at level 2.
We'll fast forward a bit as Twitch starts autoing the wave and pushes me in.
I actually ended up letting his wave get a little too big, which will change how I can
fight at level 2.
Once I'm 2, they still have a strong enough minion advantage that I can't just walk up
and force an all-in.
But, if they overextend away from their minions and into mine, I should be strong enough to
win a fight.
So I stay back behind my ranged minions, and when Bard eventually walks up, I start by
taking a small step back to bait him in before turning aggressively.
As I'm about to proc Press the Attack on Bard, Nami misplays by walking away and not igniting
or autoing with me for a moment, which makes this a much closer trade than it needed to
be.
As soon as the Bard drops ignite on me, I realize I have to trust Nami to finish the
kill and run away to stay alive, flashing out early to stay out of lethal range from
Twitch E.
Twitch loses it ends up overextending by flashing forward, so I eventually manage to secure
a double kill by using dash for an auto reset again.
From here we'd usually say you should leave the wave pushing towards you and back to keep
the freeze going while staying even on tempo, buut I get lazy while I'm smurfing so I just
farm the wave for a bit more gold before backing.
Now, let's move on to how to execute this invade from red side.
Once again, Step 1 is to figure out if we should invade or not.
In this game, our Udyr Tristana Nami should fare well against their Kindred Lucian Alistar,
especially since Alistar's level 1 is booty, so the invade is a go.
Step 2 is to convince your team soon as the game starts.
Especially from this side, it helps to ping the pathing we'll use to invade with.
Speaking of pathing, this invade is just a bit different.
We still start by rushing to the same bot river bush.
It's not impossible, but it's super unlikely they'll see us enter the bush as long as we're
hugging the river wall as we walk in.
Then, follow this path to walk around the edge of the river up against their wall, into
the tri bush, warding the bush over the wall the second before your team facechecks.
This allows us to avoid their line of sight if they were sitting in the tri bush, and
gives us the maximum opportunity to catch someone if they're sitting there.
If you find someone here, pay attention to if they ward or not.
Chances are they're outnumbered and you'll end up forcing a summoner spell, which is
already a success.
But if you do find someone and they manage to ward, you'll probably have to call off
the late invade to play it safe.
If they didn't ward, or if you didn't find anyone, then we're in a good position to execute
the invade.
Go ahead and wait here until 1:21.
Walking out at 1:21 will allow us to avoid being seen by the enemy minion wave when it
spawns, while still arriving to the red buff right after they start their leash.
Akali ends up walking over to join us, despite me pinging her back and telling her it'll
screw her lane.
She ignored me, so there's not much else to be done except to go for some kills together.
Anyway, at 1:21 we start walking down and around so that we come from an angle that
they can't kite away from.
I'm fine with leading since we have 4 people, and I start by warding the bush (which I forgot
in the last 2 clips and you should always do when invading) to help set up a nice bubble.
Thanks to Tristana jump and some resets, we eventually end up killing all 3 of them.
From here I simply back for a couple of daggers and a refillable pot, and the lane is pretty
much done.
But, we'll go ahead and play out some of the lane to show how I take advantage of their
Lucian having no summoners.
Again, I don't really bother fighting until level 2 since I'm more concerned with last
hits.
I make sure to position opposite the lane from Alistar though, and once Alistar hits
level 2 and whiffs his Q, I can switch to position more aggressively while playing to
the same minion zones we described earlier.
Once I hit 2, I see Lucian is level 1 and still has to secure the cannon minion, so
I decide to all in off that.
I walk forward as he walks up for the last hit, and hold my jump until I'm sure he's
about to dash so that I land my jump on my E, which gives me the reset I need to eventually
close the kill under tower.
After crashing the wave and backing, I'm now 3-0-1 with Berserker's boots and a Dagger
vs. Lucian's 6 CS and a Doran's blade.
All because of a cheesy invade, and since he couldn't sit back and wait for level 2
in lane.
Alright, you guys should be able to go forth and try this strat out in your own games now.
Here's a few closing notes though:
1.
If you want to avoid getting cheesed like this, remember to sit at the river entrances
to your jungle during level 1 (outside of tri bush if you're on blue side so you don't
get screwed by line of sight),
and to walk to your leash as late as possible; around 1:27 on red side, and 1:23 on blue
side.
2.
Remember to focus on getting the buff!
The worst thing that can happen, besides you all dying, is losing that first buff.
If you do lose it, it's not the end of the world, but that's the risk that comes along
with such a momentum based opening strategy.
and 3.
This strategy may not always work out, but I really do stand by it and try it every game
I can in lower ELOs.
In the games where it's possible, I've had an absurd success rate of around 80%, and
it's been instrumental in winning games before anything difficult has to be done.
Hopefully with some practice and guidance, you guys can integrate this cheesy play into
your own games and enjoy similar results.
Thanks for watching, and hope to see you all next time!