7 minute read
Introduction (Why Comebacks Are Difficult)
It's barely 6 minutes into the game and your mid already got solo killed twice, your offlaner is crying about the enemy carry free farming, and your "support" Mirana's only apparent goal in this game is to farm role queue tokens (just like she's farming neutral creeps every time Sacred Arrow comes off cooldown).
Most players give up when the game gets to this point, mindlessly farming the jungle while using all chat to encourage the enemy team to finish the game quickly, ready to ctrl+v the disconnect command into the console which saves them 2.84 seconds before they can mash the "find match" button again.
Most players are also convinced that these games are either completely unwinnable, or potentially winnable, but only after a gruesome 60+ minute slugfest. And yet, most of these players still wish they were able to achieve a higher MMR.
The fact is that if you actively avoid playing from behind while doing your best to play when you're ahead, you will eventually create a gap in your skill level when it comes to the two different game states.
Every time you fall behind in a game you play worse, because you don't know how to play from behind.
Since you often lose when you fall behind, you often give up and don't even try playing your best.
Because you don't try your best, you don't learn how to play from behind
And so on, and so on - the downward spiral.
You are responsible for creating the self-fulfilling "lose if you fall behind" prophecy that you despise.
However, that's the problem that this article will help you tackle. The fact you're reading these words means you're already on the path to learning how to play from behind, making more comebacks, increasing your win rate, and ultimately climbing the chaotic MMR ladder.
Table of Contents
Playing From Behind
Risk Taking
Trading Farm, Kills, and Objectives
Forcing Enemy to Split vs Group
Pick-offs vs Teamfights
Delaying vs Finishing
Delaying the Game
Spotting Openings
Avoiding Impatience
Turning the Tide
1. Playing From Behind
The first thing you must understand is that playing from behind is part of the game; you're still playing Dota, it's just that the rules have changed.
For example:
When you're ahead, you can often kill some enemy heroes on your own and kill any enemy hero if you have an ally with you. Also, you can usually do this without expending long cooldown ultimates, allowing you to save them for bigger fights.
When you're behind, you often cannot solo kill anyone, and you may even need 3 or 4 heroes to kill a single farmed enemy. Also, you usually need to use everything you have, including big ultimates, in order to get the kill.
Obviously, having the advantage is a lot more fun than playing from behind. But you know what else is fun? Winning. Considering the fact that you will be falling behind in at least half your games - why not embrace that game state as well, and become good at it?
The image below outlines the key differences between the two game states:
I. Risk taking
Making a risky Rosh attempt without vision, smoking to surprise your opponents even though you are weaker and are missing a hero, jumping an enemy without being sure whether they have back-up hiding behind them or not...
The further ahead you are, the fewer risks you wanna take. After all, if everything goes according to plan you're going to win, so why rock the boat?
On the other hand, the further behind you are, the more risks you want to take. If nothing happens and the game state doesn't change you're guaranteed to lose - so why not at least try some risky maneuvers that may shake things up and bring you back into the game?
This also applies to item choices.
Don't buy reactive defensive items that will help you "not lose" like Linken's Sphere, Aeon Disk, Guardian Greaves.
Instead, buy offensive items that will help you win and turn the game, like Scythe of Vyse, Nullifier, Orchid Malevolence, etc.
II. Trading Farm, Kills, and Objectives
When you're ahead, you should be getting more out of the map than the enemy team. If you trade a pos3 kill for a pos3 kill, or a tier 2 tower for a tier 2 tower - that's you losing your advantage. You should not be making equal trades if you are ahead - you want to maintain the game state.
Naturally, when you're behind you should be happy with anything you can get. Lost 4 heroes but managed to kill their mid and carry in the process? Great! You're behind, so a 4 for 2 (cores) trade will often be in your favour. You want to shake up the game state, and that's not gonna happen if you don't trade kills / objectives / farm. Even taking a tier 2 tower but losing a tier 3 tower is better than not taking any objective at all.
III. Forcing Enemy to Split vs Group
This one is pretty simple - when you're ahead, you are stronger in 5on5 fights. That's why you want to force the enemy team to group up (for example by pushing objectives), because that creates the situation for those 5on5 teamfights where you are stronger.
Conversely, when you are behind you want to avoid 5on5 fights at all costs, because you have no chance of winning them. This means, for example, split pushing and cutting waves on multiple lanes at once, fully accepting that some of your heroes may die in the process.
IV. Pick-offs vs Teamfights
When you're ahead, you want to stay ahead by forcing teamfights where you can leverage your advantage into taking objectives. If you are a 7-0 Pangolier it's not worth it to jump in and kill the 0-5 Witch Doctor for the sixth time, even if you can do it safely with your ult.
Instead, you'd rather group up and save your ult for a significant fight.
When you're behind, however, things swing in the opposite direction. Say you're a 0-4 Pangolier who got crushed mid and has no items - if you see the enemy Witch Doctor on a Mega Kill streak farming the wave with half HP, you're definitely going to use everything you have including your ult to get the kill and streak gold, even if there's a chance you'll die afterwards.
Why? Because your team is behind and is obviously not looking for a 5on5 teamfight any time soon, whether your ultimates are ready or not.
V. Delaying vs Finishing
Lastly, another point that is fairly straightforward:
The later the game goes, the more equalized the win opportunity gets for both teams.
Especially once tier 5 items and level 30's start coming out, you can definitely no longer "safely" guarantee a win.
This is why the team that's ahead wants to finish the game and prevent it from getting to that point, while the team that's behind wants to delay the game and get as close to that point as possible.
2. Delaying the Game
How does one delay the game, exactly? What you can and cannot do will of course be different every game, but the following rules of thumb should help.
Do not defend tier 1 and tier 2 towers. If you're playing a support hero like Winter Wyvern, Rubick or Jakiro that can significantly delay the enemy team's push, go for it - but be ready to die in the process and definitely do not call for help or bring the entire team. You are behind and therefore cannot win a fight with equal numbers!
Instead of defending towers, pressure the other lanes that the enemy team is not pushing, forcing a trade. Even if they take your tower but you cannot take theirs in time, dealing some damage to it is still better than nothing. Note: the sooner you realise that the enemy team is about to push, the sooner you can start pushing a different lane yourself, the better your chances of getting a decent trade. Being able to quickly figure out what the enemy team is going to do before they do it - that is one of the skills that separate stronger players from weaker players.
Do not let the enemy team reach all the way to your tier 3 tower while grouped up as 5 without you having also pushed the other two lanes. You have to do this in order to force them to TP back, or, again, force a trade.
In line with the points above - do not farm jungle camps, unless there is absolutely no lane or tower that you can pressure. You won't come back by passively farming the jungle, you can only come back through counter pressure.
3. Spotting Openings
Let's face it: you're not playing at The International, your enemies are far from professional players and they are bound to make many mistakes, which means ample opportunities for you to punish them and come back into the game.
Be patient, try to avoid making mistakes of your own and simply wait for them to overextend - once you think they have done so, punish them immediately. Even if you're not sure, there's no point in hesitating.
Remember, you're trying to shake up the game state - being scared while passively hiding in your base is not going to amount to anything other than a loss.
What's the worst case scenario? You make a wrong judgement, get killed instead of punishing the enemy and end up losing. That's no big deal, you were in a losing position regardless, and at least you tried changing that.
4. Avoiding Impatience
After being ahead all game, the enemy team fails their highground push, overextends and you kill 4 of them. Feeling elated you charge through mid, leaving your base for the first time in 10 minutes only to get teamwiped as soon as the enemy team respawns.
In these moments you need to avoid getting impatient. Losing for 30 minutes and then winning 1 fight does not mean you are suddenly ahead, especially if the single fight that you won was in your base with a high ground advantage.
Maintain composure, start playing more and more aggressively and perhaps even force fights once you have completed some new items, but don't rush it - you are probably still behind.
5. Turning the Tide
Once you have managed to win more than one teamfight in a row and evened out your net worth with that of the enemy team, you have successfully changed the game state and put yourselves in the driver's seat once more. This is the time to play the way you are used to, and close out the game effectively.
Keep in mind that the enemy team will often have trouble adjusting to the fact that they've lost their advantage and are now finding themselves in the opposite gamestate, which means they'll be prone to making mistakes that you can capitalise on in order to finish the game.
And how do you ensure the win when you're ahead? A new article on closing out the game will be coming out soon!
If you want to see all my other content and make sure you don't miss out on any new content, make sure to join my discord at http://slashstrike.com
For personal coaching, check out my profile right here at Metafy: https://metafy.gg/@slashstrike
Or message me in discord with any questions you may have!