Hey, everyone!
Today, we'll be looking at the strategy used to achieve insane winrates effective all the
way from Iron to Challenger.
The core idea of this playstyle is to pick a scaling Jungler capable of 1v9ing once ahead,
then to take complete control and responsibility over your early game success--making it impossible
for the enemy Jungler or team to punish your weak early game as a scaling champion.
This is one of the biggest issues this style of Jungler usually faces--being very exposed
to early invades, which can easily snowball the game against them, preventing them from
ever catching up or becoming relevant.
By following specific steps to protect yourself and pathing perfectly--which we'll teach you
exactly how to do--you'll never be put behind in the early game and will always have the
advantage as the game goes on.
And, just as a quick side note, even though we're talking about a specific strategy for
scaling, 1v9 champions, this strategy will be all about tracking the enemy Jungler and
adapting your route--which are amazing skills to have on any and every Jungler, not just
these ones.
So, let's jump into it--and this all starts at level 1 as you take complete control over
vision control by yourself without relying on your team at all.
The first decision you'll need to make is whether or not to buy potions...we're not
kidding.
This decision is based on whether or not you think there's a chance you'll be invaded at
level one.
If there is, like if the enemy support is Morgana or Blitzcrank, for example, or if
they have an Olaf who likes to invade and fight at level 1, then you're going to instantly
running to your red side pixel brush and trinket warding there.
Then, you'll recall, buy a pink ward, place that at your blue, before returning to start
at your red.
So, by skipping potions you'll be able to have vision on both sides of the map, ensuring
a clean start to the game against invading comps.
But, let's say that you're up against a team comp like this, with little to no level 1
invade, then you can buy potions and simply drop your trinket ward on your blue since
you don't need to worry about your red being invaded.
Now, if the idea of a no potion clear scares you, we recommend trying it out first--it's
really not as scary as you might think as you'll see throughout the video, so we're
confident that the vast majority of players will be able to pull it off.
Anyway, following these exact steps instantly at the start of every single game will ensure
you never lose the game at level 1.
And, it really is important to move instantly...this game our Challenger consultant was AFK for
just 10 seconds and paid the price, giving up first blood and losing his flash.
Anyway, with your level 1 safety secured, you'll start at Red before moving to Krugs,
at which point you're just waiting to see where the enemy Jungler started.
If they started Red, this is great.
This means that they will either naturally be pathing to their blue as you path toward
yours, allowing you to cleanly full clear, or they will try to invade your blue which
you have warded.
If they do invade, you can either collapse on them if your team has prio nearby, or simply
invade their blue to trade.
Now, if you see that they start blue instead of red, what we're worried about is the potential
that they could do something like Blue, Gromp, Red, then invade you at your blue.
This is a problem and something that we want to avoid--so we're going to head straight
up to blue after Krugs to secure that, then take Gromp, Wolves, Raptors, and scuttle.
This ensure that we secure our top camps ahead of time while heading back to our red side
jungle to be away from the stronger early game Jungler.
So, you can see that, with these routes, we're very clearly pathing to the opposite side
of the map as the enemy Jungler.
This is going to allow us to always secure a scuttle crab--and also will allow you to
go for ganks early if there's a good opportunity without worrying about that stronger enemy
Jungler counterganking you.
Now, that being said, if you're up against a weak early game champ who won't invade you,
like a Zac, and your lanes have priority, instead of doing that roundabout skip Raptors
play, just do a normal full clear route and contest the scuttle--potentially securing
a double scuttle off of that.
Ok, so that may have seemed like a lot of info and a lot of variables, but it really
is pretty simple and also still has room for you to flex your jungle knowledge and call
an audible--so, let's just check out a bunch of examples of our Challenger executing this
strategy.
In this first game, here's the enemy team comp--should we buy potions or save for a
control ward?
What do you think?
So, we will see him skip potions because the enemy team does have a nautilus, running straight
to the pixel brush by his red, backing up into the brush to recall, buying the control
ward, dropping it perfectly in the corner of the blue brush, then heading back to red.
He clears red and runs to Krugs, seeing the enemy bot lane arrive lane, indicating that
Graves started Red.
So, what's the plan here having seen this?Take a second to think back.
So, when the enemy Jungler also starts Red, the plan is to just full clear normally, since
if both Junglers do that, you'll end up on opposite sides of the map, which is what we
want.
But, as Eve is finishing up Krugs, we do see that Graves decided to invade blue--which
is why we place the ward!
How would you respond to this?
Take a second.
Ok, so Eve immediately starts to spam ping, seeing that bot lane has prio, moving down
and using Raptors to heal up, which is a great trick for a no potions clear.
But, as the fight breaks out, he sees that the enemy bot lane isn't moving, meaning that
his team has a 3v2 and don't need him, so he just farms Raptors then moves toward the
enemy Jungle, knowing that Graves lived with only 100hp.
Now, this is a really confident play from our Challenger to not help his team--if you
had gone to help them that would have been a fine, safe play as well.
However, this allows him to punish Graves as much as possible.
So, he moves in and uses his sweeper to check that Graves isn't on Wolves.
This is once again a really nice tactic to let him know that he's safe to take the blue
uncontested.
At this point, how would you continue to adapt to this wild early game?
Ok, hopefully you noticed that top scuttle is spawning in 11 seconds and that we can
secure that.
So, Eve just checks a gank mid before coming back to grab the crab.
After this, eve knows that Wolves and Gromp are still up, so he does a driveby mid, heading
to Gromp.
He kites down, seeing hte missing pings bot lane, and once again getting huge payout from
that control ward we placed at level 1.
His team rotates, so he engages the Graves, dodging his autos by standing behind Thresh
until E came off cooldown.
At just 4 minutes and 30 seconds into the game, Evelynn has already won this game against
a much stronger early game Jungler.
And, you might just be saying that this was because lanes rotated, which definitely did
help, but it was far from necessary.
Even if Eve's lanes had afk'd, she still would have been able to take Graves' top side and
the top scuttle.
Anyway, let's move on to another game, this time on Shyvana.
And, here is the enemy team comp--once again, do you think we should buy potions this game
or save the gold for a control ward?
What do you think?
So, we are going to skip the potions and drop our trinket ward in the river just in case
the enemy team decides to invade with Lux Q, leading to the same level 1 plan from the
last game.
Once again, we start at Red, clear out the Krugs, and while heading for Raptors, see
Kayn invading blue.
How do you think Shyvana will handle this situation?
So, despite Diana having prio mid, Wukong has the push top side.
Beyond that, Kayn is a weak early duelist who relies more on his mobility to invade
rather than raw dueling power--so for this reason we are going to see Shyvana contest,
healing off Raptors on the way.
Kayn backs off after seeing he was on a ward and that WK was rotating, so we've successfully
defended our blue.
After quickly checking that Kayn Hadn't done his Krugs instead of Raptors, Shyvana naturally
returns to clear out Blue and Gromp, killing them together toward the end.
Now, as Gromp is about to die, you should already know what your next two moves are...see
if you can come up with the same plan our Challenger made!
Take a few seconds to think.
Well, let's check it out as Shyvana finishes Gromp and moves to Scuttle, which was the
easy one.
But, after clearing the crab, he also immediately runs in to counterjungle Kayn's raptors, which
he knows is safe since Kayn would have had to go bot side for his blue.
So, not only did Shyvana not fall behind from Kayn invading blue, but he was actually able
to turn the situation into a positive just by correctly warding at level 1 and making
pretty easy choices after.
In this game, we just want to quickly show you a basic, simple example of this strategy.
At level 1, we see Karthus simply trinket warding his blue since the enemy team has
very low invade threath.
And, just as a small tip, notice how he recalls THEN places his ward right before it finishes.
This is just a nice little trick to get a few more seconds of vision.
Next up, he heads back to red and just...full clears his whole jungle since he never sees
the enemy Jungler or any info to change his plan.
And, once again, since we're pathing to the opposite side of the map as the other Jungler
by starting red, we get a free scuttle as well.
Just a great, simple start to the game for Karthus.
Alright, jumping into the next game, we're going to skip straight to Krugs as they get
polished off and we head for Raptors, start those, and see Lee Sin ganking top.
And, here's what we can see from Lee Sin right now level 2 with blue buff and 8 CS.
How do we adjust our route to match the potent, dominant level 2 blue buff Lee Sin gank.
Ok, let's see what Shyvana does, finishing raptors, then running straight to Lee's, taking
them and Red in the process.
And, you might think this was a bit risky or greedy to go for two camps, but Shyvana
knows that Lee still had a camp to clear top side and scuttle was spawning soon, so it's
a pretty reasonable prediction that he would grab those instead of running to his red.
Even if he did, Shyvana had smite to speed this up if needed.
But, why do you think Shyvana saved smite?
Why not use it to get out of the enemy Jungler faster and heal up?
Well, where do we think Lee is going to go when he comes to his bot side and finds Raptors
and Red missing?
Well, he's probably going to run to check bot scuttle, right?
And, we can see that it's a good thing that Shyvana saved smite, as he's able to secure
scuttle with it.
This is also a nice example of something we've talked about before, which is pushing the
scuttle toward the lane that has prio--just a reminder of this super important tactic.
Now, a fight breaks out mid with Shyvana up a level and with a red buff, able to easily
win and pick up a kill onto Lee.
So, once again, we've turned a dangerous early Jungle matchup into a clear advantage by simply
adapting well.
In our next game, we're back on Evelynn and facing off against a smurf Rengar one trick
with roughly a 90% winrate with a high diamond MMR.
We're going to instantly run to ward the pixel brush because Rengars love to invade at level
1, and sure enough, we spot him out.
The ward dies, but thankfully Urgot comes to stand guard while he recalls for the control
ward, dropping at blue before running over and defending a bit before finally cleanly
starting red.
Now, at 1:42 we see Lulu in the bot lane--way too early to have leashed, so we know that
Rengar has started blue.
So, think back to the start of the video, why is concerning, and how do we counter it?
Take a second.
So, the concern is that Rengar can do a quick level 3 clear with Blue, Gromp, Red, then
invade you at your blue with your slower full clear.
So, to counter this, we'll see Eve finish Krugs, and just drive-by heal of Raptors on
his way to Blue.
And, we can see, moments after finishing blue, that a mysterious ward appears.
And, if we take a look at Rengar's PoV, we can see that he did exactly what we we were
worried about, going Blue, Gromp, Red, then invading.
Had Evelynn stopped to clear Raptors or Wolves first, this could have really been a problem,
so this is why it's so crucial to adjust our route this way against champions who can invade
us when they start at blue.
Aaalright.
That wraps it up for this video on how to take games into your own hands by playing
scaling, 1v9 champions who can solo carry...and how to not lose the game during their most
vulnerable moments during the early game.
Now, obviously there's a lot of work left to do to fully carry a game past what we've
looked at today, but this way, you'll never lose a game right from the getgo, and you'll
always have a chance to carry.
This is the exact strategy one of our consultants used to climb to high ranks with insane winrates,
so we're excited to see how you all do--so let us know in the comments below.
Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time.