Hey everyone.
A while back, we challenged Hector to 1v2 lane phase to prove you don't need a support
to carry in low elo.
One of the complaints we saw from that challenge was 'well hector got an experience lead because
his support is afk, so of course he wins'.
While we didn't believe that to be a strong argument, since he *literally* 1v2'd the laning
phase, we appreciated the opportunity to make his life just a bit harder.
So this time, we had his support feed during lane phase but also attach himself to Hector
without skill-ing any abilities, just to leech experience while also feeding kills to simulate
a support from hell.
During this experiment, Hector had to willingly lose lane while his teammates were feeding
across the map.
All of this, just to create a guide and show you how to carry games when: 1) Your support
is totally useless 2) Your team is inting during lane phase 3) You fell behind in lane
as well, so your whole team is losing including yourself.
Before we go further, this guide will feature real-time commentary from Hector while he
was doing this challenge.
If you want to see more, then check out our full commentary games over at Skill-Capped.com
after this guide, we send challengers into elo hell to see if they can climb out of it
while commentating their actions and decision making.
We'll also be asking you questions throughout so you can see if you're able to think like
a challenger.
So, what we want to target with this guide is your mentality when falling behind.
ADC probably has the least influence of any role in the game during lane phase.
They're very reliant on their support's skill, and jungler's pathing a lot of the time.
Even Challenger ADCs may fall behind in low elo, but ask yourself this.
If a Challenger ADC fell behind in gold or platinum elo, do you think that they'd be
worried at all?
Obviously no.
Most of the time, climbing through low elo is about exploiting mistakes, not playing
super well yourself.
The players you're up against aren't good at closing out games, so you shouldn't be
worried either.
We'll be discussing the mindset you should actually have, and make sure you can carry
more often, whenever your lane phase goes boom.
As we've mentioned, Hector got even more weights strapped onto his back this time.
We sent him along with one of our friends and had him, well, have a bit of a bad game.
With the laning phase nice and lost, let's hear Hector's thoughts so far.
So, no surprises there.
Hector wants to stay relevant and just not lose too badly.
The interesting thing though, is that he actually *wants* his tower to die as soon as possible.
You heard that right, he actually wants his tower to die as soon as possible when things
are going south.
Let's get his real-time insights as to why this is key to carrying as an ADC when behind.
This may seem like a weird mindset to have, but it's actually very smart way to think
about getting back into a game, if you consider it.
What does taking tower give the enemy ADC in terms of gold?
600ish, plus all the turret plates they got?
Let's say best case scenario they got like 1000 gold total from taking your whole tower,
since they had to share some gold with their support.
That most definitely sucks, but the upside is that you no longer have to lane with your
support.
Once that tower falls, the laning phase ends.
The enemy duo is likely to rotate around the map, your support will maybe follow them,
and you'll often find yourself alone in bot.
This is good for multiple reasons, and exactly how you'll be getting back into the game.
Try to remember that coming back into a game isn't really about making any proactive moves
yourself.
You're mostly waiting for the enemy to throw their lead.
So, after the tower falls, what always happens?
Yea, the enemy bot is probably going to rotate around the map and try to pressure towers
putting your team at a numbers disadvantage.
That's not good...but it's also not bad.
Let's explain.
Instead of being stuck in a lane being zoned from farm, you'll be alone most of the time
farming.
No longer are you being zoned from farm, instead, the enemy who does come to pick up the farm
in your lane will likely shove the wave and rotate back over to mid or something.
That means you're just farming and catching back up on CS, while the enemy pressure mid
or something.
An immediate concern is that this will just leave your team vulnerable, since they'll
always be at a numbers disadvantage.
But is an ADC who has fallen behind going to make any difference being mid anyways?
So that's an irrelevant concern, yes?
Therefore, since the negative isn't really a negative, let's break down the positives
of when this happens.
For starters, even if the enemy duo successfully runs around and takes towers, they're likely
sharing a ton of tower gold and farm with their teammates.
We've mentioned this before.
Even if the enemy brute forces down the top lane tower with 4 members and earn a shared
800 gold in total, that's not necessarily better than you earning 600 gold alone in
bot lane.
That would put you at 400 gold ahead of the enemy ADC.
Keep in mind these are just arbitrary numbers for the sake of proving a point.
Two, there's an even better reason why letting your tower fall is good.
It's not inherently obvious, but the enemy minions actually get buffed whenever they
manage to take your tower.
For this, there's 2 formulas to look at.
The first basically says that your minions will deal more damage based on the how big
of a level and tower lead you have.
There's no need to over think the numbers here.
If you have a level and turret lead, then the minions in that lane will deal more damage.
The second is quite similar.
If your team have a level and turret lead, then the waves in that lane will take less
damage The intended idea behind this mechanic by
riot was to help the winning team snowball and end faster, but it literally has the exact
opposite effect.
We'll go back to this mechanic at the end of the video as this statement may raise some
questions.
But yeah, losing your tower just funnels more gold to you in the long run.
Sure, you're losing that immediate 625 gold or so when your tower dies, but if the enemy
team is doing a poor job of managing their sides waves, which hello araming in low elo
is all people do, then they'll be bleeding out more gold in farm throughout the game.
Their minions will more consistently overpower yours, allowing you to collect side waves
more often than them.
Hector wisely predicted this happening during his Ashe game.
Caitlyn does indeed end up aimlessly running around the map, while Hector is picking up
waves.
He quickly catches up in farm, proving his point.
However, this 8-2 Caitlyn got some inspiration from Hector's Soraka and basically ran it
down, getting caught for no reason and making Hector's comeback way too easy for him.
While effortless comebacks like that will happen
when the enemy ADC ints, that's not really how easy it should look.
So, off we go onto another gold elo game.
It won't be so easy this time.
At just 25 minutes, Hector's team is down 34 kills to 15.
They've lost the Infernal Soul.
And Hector is against the nastiest anti ADC comp in existence with each member on their
team very fed.
This is normally a GG go next kind of game, but let's see how we got here first, and then
how Hector carries anyways.
Let's quickly recap how the game has gone so far.
Like before, Hector's duo runs it down once.
And then a second time.
While making sure to stick around and leech experience just like last time.
Hector's frail old man fingers fail to press E on this Pyke ultimate, having him die.
Definitely not part of the plan.
Finally his tower does fall at 11 minutes, which as we know by now is exactly what he
wants.
And do keep in mind that when you're farming side lanes, especially vs certain comps that
it won't always look pretty.
Even skilled players will make mistakes when it comes to staying safe in a side lane.
But it doesn't matter how many obvious shaco clones you willingly kill, the point is that
in low elo you will almost have a side wave to go farm, because waves are naturally pushing
towards you.
The main idea behind this strategy is that while your teammates may be getting munched
by the fed enemy bot, you'll be farming just as much, if not more than the enemy ADC.
Yes, it's going to look super troll and your teammates might sometimes think you're trolling.
Hector was just crashing a wave into the enemy's tower and then recalling, while the enemy
team is taking his mid tier 2.
But look at the long term effects of doing so.
A minute or so later, there is a huge wave amassing in bot lane.
The entire time no one on the enemy team has fixed the wave, so it's just a pile of gold
waiting to be picked up by Hector.
Or...his Kha'zix.
Whatever.
Ideally you're the one who goes to pick up those waves, but you can't control what your
teammates do.
The game does continue to fall apart around him though.
His teammates keep dying to the fed Lucian, and everything continues to go wrong.
Not only that but more and more of his team's towers continue to go down.
Even if Hector is picking up a kill or 2 every now and then, things are looking bleak.
But if you've noticed.
Even with everything going wrong, Hector is *always* farming.
Nearly every bad situation he's been in, there's almost always a wave for him to pick up.
This is so much more impactful than being behind and going to aram with your team in
mid hoping for the enemy team to somehow lose a 5v5.
Strategies like these give you more resources to work with while also making it much more
likely the enemy team throws.
Not just for himself.
Almost his entire team is keeping up in farm with the enemy team.
This most definitely shouldn't be possible with how disastrously far behind they are.
Sure, ignoring your team early on can cause you to lose the game rather quickly, especially
if they just continue dying.
That's because when all of your towers are down, it just makes it much more likely that
the enemy team overextends and throws.
The proximity of fights that occur will always be closer to your own base, rather than theirs.
Of course throws are more likely to happen on your side of the map.
But, on the off chance your team survives, by spam farming, you'll actually be relevant
when team fights roll around.
If you've noticed by now, Hector's damage is most definitely not ignorable.
Whenever someone gets near him, he's instantly deleting them.
In fact, he's probably the strongest player in the game because of how much he's farmed.
They can actually start to trade objectives.
Little by little with more and more throws, the game starts to look a little hopeful.
Hope continues to rise as the enemy continues to throw.
We're not going to lie.
Hector definitely has above average mechanics for this elo range, but he's far from clean.
We believe it's perfectly clear that it was just him following basic macro fundamentals
that allowed him to catch back up to relevancy.
And just like that a literal unwinnable game for most ADCs, while still really difficult,
was won.
Until, eventually, Hector is so farmed he's sold boots for 6 full items, *before* Lucian
has even completed his normal 6th item.
Even through the infernal soul, he's able to mow people down instantly.
Alright, so before we close this one out, let's address some of the questions you may
have.
First you may be wondering how to avoid being an AFK farmer that's never there when your
team needs you?
The main point of this guide was to display the true power of farming efficiently as an
ADC during the windows where your opponents are struggling to snowball their advantages.
You want to farm waves when they've pushed into your side of the map.
While they're pushing towards you, you should group with your team in the meantime.
Next, we mentioned that riot's minion buff mechanic to help teams close out games often
has the opposite effect.
This may leave you wondering, should you actually let your tower die to help you win games even
if you're ahead?
That is a very interesting question that can definitely be argued for both ways.
Losing your own towers can be very beneficial for many of the reasons stated in this guide.
We don't feel confident answering that here, but if you have an opinion on it feel free
to comment below.
We'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on self sabotaging your towers for future
farm advantages.
Alright, that's it for this one guys.
Let us know what you thought of this topic and if you'd like to see more guides for how
to play from behind.
Thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next video!
Alright, that's it for this one.
If you want to check out our full commentary games be sure to check us out at Skill-Capped.com,
we have a brand new page for them being launched next week with weekly uploads!
Also, we've just uploaded an epic guide over on our Valorant channel, so definitely check
that out as well.
Thanks for watching!