Hey everyone and welcome.
Many of you have been praising how our videos have helped you improve and climb the ladder.
That being said, our content has been primarily focused on how to acquire massive leads during
the early game.
This has a created a demand for more information on the mid game and how to further your early
advantage.
I'm excited to announce that this is exactly what this guide will be focusing on: How to
push your lead to a victory in the mid game, so stay tuned.
We're going to be breaking this down into 3 missions you should be looking to execute
in the mid game if you have a lead.
Our first mission is to destroy all 3 of the outer towers.
Many people assume that this is due to the gold they would give us.
Although that's true, there's actually more to it.
When both outer towers are up the lane is relatively short.
However, when one tower is destroyed you more than double the length of the lane.
This allows your teammate to push the minions further to the enemy's side of the map.
In turn, it will take that enemy more time to push the wave back to your tower.
During this moment, the extra distance results in more time for your teammate to pressure
the map while the enemy is pushing the wave back.
Where they can look to roam, gank a lane, or take an objective like Herald or Dragon.
For example, let's say we take top tower.
Our top laner can then push the wave into roaming.
Let's say he ganks mid with us while the enemy top is stuck pushing the wave back.
If this is successful we can then take the Mid Tower.
Which in turn, free's up our Mid laner to use the same tactic of pushing into then pressuring
bot lane and taking that tower as well.
This creates a domino effect where we go one-by-one taking each turret.
Once we do this we then move to our Second Mission: farming the enemy's jungle.
When all the outer towers are down it often results in your laners being more pushed up.
This creates a problem as a jungler since our camps are now further away from where
fights are going to occur.
This is one of the most common ways players throw their leads so listen carefully.
Let's say your adc and support are ahead and they just finished recalling and are heading
out to push bot lane.
During this time, you can farm your Wolves and Gromp and then time an invade into the
enemy's Red Side jungle while your bot lane starts pushing to the second tower.
This way you can protect them from any flanks while farming efficiently and being able to
react to any fights that occur.
The reason why this is so powerful, is that it's impossible for the enemy jungler to steal
your camps while you're doing this.
This is because your camps are too far away from the area you're currently pressuring.
This not only results in you ready to fight with your advantage, but at the same time
if the enemy is playing defensive you can slowly starve them of resources.
Doing this will allow you to take a few if not all of the inner turrets.
We then begin our Third and last mission when Baron spawns at 20 minutes.
At this point, you should have pink wards and a sweeping lens.
You'll use this to control vision of the area around Baron.
This can allow you to sneak Baron, especially if you have Mountain Dragons, a fed AD Carry,
or mages like Cassiopeia or Heimerdinger that take Baron really fast.
However, that's not our only goal.
Since the enemy will have no vision of Baron they'll have to move to ward it.
We'll look to make picks on them during this time.
Often, you can then take Baron after these picks.
I can't emphasize enough how important Baron Nashor is to turning your lead into a victory
- it's essentially the nail in the coffin.
A really common mistake players make is acquire a large lead into the mid game, take everything
except the inhibitor towers and then suddenly they find themselves stuck in limbo not knowing
what to do next.
This results in players getting caught a lot, giving up bounties, and farming inefficiently.
You need to realize that Baron is the key to ending the game.
Alright, let's quickly recap our missions in the mid game.
Mission 1 is to take all of the outer towers.
Mission 2, is to farm the enemy's jungle while being nearby your laners that are pushing
an Inner Turret.
Mission 3, is to get vision control around Baron, using it to make picks or to sneak
it if the enemy isn't reacting.
Now let's jump into a replay of me smurfing in Platinum 2 elo where I follow these missions
to push my early game lead into a decisive mid game victory.
It's around 9 minutes into the game and I'm playing Kindred and have a 1300 gold lead
on the enemy Udyr.
Our team also has an Ocean Dragon and a 3000 gold lead in total.
As you can see, all the towers are still up and this is definitely not a free win.
Many of you are probably wondering at what time in the game should you be looking to
execute Mission 1: destroy the outer towers.
Usually you want to do this between the 10 and 15 minute mark.
Any earlier and the Turret plating combined with low death timers will often make it too
difficult.
That being said, you want to use your successful ganks during the early game to chip away at
the turret plating and weaken the towers setting you up for Mission 1 later on.
If we go back a minute to when I first decided to gank Urgot you can see most of my camps
are up, including my Blue.
Isn't this gank really inefficient since I'm leaving my bot side open to being counter
jungled?
Here's the thing, once the game starts to get around the 10 minute mark you want to
change your mentality to one that is a bit more objective focused.
For example, if the Dragon was up in this position I wouldn't gank top since Udyr could
take it.
Instead, I've set my sights on a different objective.
Can you tell me what it is?
The answer is Rift Herald.
For those of you who don't know, Rift Herald spawns at the 10 minute mark.
I really can't overstate just how valuable Rift Herald is.
Mission 1 is to take all the outer towers.
Herald perfectly aligns with this strategy.
So after my gank top I move to take the Herald as I see Udyr got baited into stealing my
blue and then went bot afterwards.
It's important to note that I wouldn't have gone for this if I didn't have priority in
my mid lane.
Even though Urgot ended up collapsing on me I was able to secure it with my smite and
kill him afterwards with the priority I had mid lane.
After recalling, I begin heading towards the bot side.
This is due to the fact that the Dragon is going to be spawning soon and I want to help
pressure lanes around it so that we're able to take it.
I'll also be looking for opportunities to use my Herald on mid or bot.
After I clear Gromp I notice that the enemy Nami is low on health from a fight bot lane
and the Udyr is pushed up so I move to gank even though I'm a man down.
I'm able to make a few outplays and with the help of Thresh win the fight.
What do you think I should do next?
I place the Herald to break the bottom tower and then move to solo Dragon since I know
that we just killed 3 enemies and Vayne is getting back to lane to help push with Thresh.
I could have made the mistake of staying and pushing with Thresh.
Although it may seem like a minor difference, these little optimizations add up over time
and make a big difference.
While I was fighting bot lane Ziggs was able to take the mid tower.
This may seem like good fortune, I actually ganked mid lane early and helped take turret
plating, which is why he has the lead in the first place.
Now that both bot and mid towers are down our next goal is the top tower.
I made sure to type to my bot lane to tell them to rotate top.
You should be doing this as well since most teammates aren't aware of what to do.
That being said, sometimes your teammates just don't listen.
What would I do if Vayne and Thresh stubbornly decided to go bot again?
I would not try to take the top tower and instead transition into Mission 2: invading
the enemy jungle.
This is due to the fact that my Gangplank lost lane to the Urgot.
Instead, I would be looking to pressure Udyr's bot side jungle to hover near both my Mid
and Bot while they pushed with their lead.
Fortunately, my bot lane listened, and so when a fight broke up in the river we were
able to easily win with our man advantage.
After this, we took the top tower, and were even able to take the next inner turret.
We now begin Mission 2: invading the enemy jungle.
As I'm recalling, Vayne and Thresh are overextended and for no reason.
It's extremely common for your teammates to get caught during this phase.
The important thing is to do your best to back ping them and don't try to save them
as you'll only end up getting yourself killed.
Once I get back on the map I take my blue and Gromp while I wait for Thresh and Vayne
to respawn.
A lot of laners low to mid elo will do a terrible job picking up side lane farm and in general
have slow inefficient rotations.
For this reason, I want you to pay attention to how much farm I'm picking up in the next
minute.
I go bot lane and push out the wave there.
Afterwards, I take the scuttle, check the enemy raptors, and cross through mid lane.
Now I can take the enemy's top side jungle while hovering near my teammates.
As I leave I make sure to spam back pings as sieging is a terrible idea since Ziggs
isn't with us.
I now pick up the mid lane farm.
Pushing lanes like this is great not only to generate gold and experience, but it also
applies pressure on the map and forces the enemy to respond to the wave.
For example, in this position if the enemy players start chasing my teammates I can go
for the open inhibitor.
With the pressure I generated from the pushed wave I now look to clear the enemy's bot side
jungle.
This prepares me to not only take the upcoming Dragon, but also to take these camps when
they respawn soon.
After clearing two wards, I'm able to make a pick on the enemy Udyr and get his flash.
After which, I take the Dragon, and then steal his Red and begin to recall.
Thresh then tries to engage a fight and I spam back ping as this is a bad idea considering
Vayne and Gangplank aren't close to us.
Despite this my team still decides to fight, but I still commit to recalling.
Again, we don't want to get baited by our team's poor decision as right now I have a
1000 gold bounty.
As I'm leaving my base I know Baron will be spawning soon so I'm preparing for Mission
3: Get Vision Control Around Baron.
Once I get my Red I hop into the Baron pit and place a pink ward.
Afterwards, I activate my Sweeping Lens to get rid of vision in the enemy's top side
jungle.
After stealing the blue I start pushing the wave in top lane.
Again, I'm picking up side waves and pushing them when I can as I know in this elo laners
are really bad at picking up side lane farm and I trust myself to make better use of it.
After getting some tower damage I ping on Baron and I've typed to my team how I want
to try taking it since we have so much vision control.
That being said, I see Udyr moving towards it and so I set a trap, which let's me pick
up an easy kill.
This is the second time that this has happened and is due to using my Sweeping Lens while
I invaded his camps during Mission 2.
With the enemy jungler dead, full vision control of Baron, and a Mountain Dragon, we easily
take Baron with very low risk.
After which, we group to push, win an easy fight, and end the game.
We went over a lot in this video, so let's recap.
Our first mission to destroy all the outer towers.
By doing this we let our teammate's push further up the lane giving them more time to roam.
This creates a domino effect, where by taking 1 tower leads us to be able to take another
tower.
In the replay, I was able to secure an early Rift Herald, which helped facilitate this
strategy.
With the pressure we had from taking both Bot and Mid Towers we were able to focus top
where a fight broke out that we were able to win from our man advantage.
Once we destroyed all the outer towers we moved to mission 2 where we invaded the enemy
jungle, hovered near our pushed laners, and used our sweeping lens to clear any wards.
This allowed me to make a pick on Udyr into taking Dragon and stealing more camps.
Two things you should keep in mind are first, don't follow your teammates if they're overextending
and starting poor fights
And secondly, look to pick up lane farm when you can as your teammates most likely won't
make use of it unless you're in high Diamond elo.
We then executed Mission 3 and placed a pink ward at Baron and swept the enemy's nearby
jungle.
This let us make an easy pick on the Udyr into taking the Baron.
After which, we simply pushed to victory.
That will be it for this video.
We hope you enjoyed it and learned a lot.
As always, good luck, and have fun on Summoner's Rift.