Lesson 1 of 6 · 6 min
Where You Stand Before Anything Happens
Most teamfights are decided in the ten seconds before they start, by who is standing where. Positioning is not reflexes, it is arriving in the right place with the fight still in front of you.
// What you will be able to do
- Stand at the distance your champion actually needs, not the distance that feels brave
- Arrive at a fight already positioned instead of repositioning inside it
- Name who on the enemy team decides where you are allowed to stand
Watch your own deaths in teamfights and count how many of them happen in the first two seconds. For most players it is more than half. That is not a reaction speed problem, two seconds is not enough time to make a mistake. It is a standing problem: you were already in the wrong place when the fight started, and the fight simply arrived.
| If you are | You stand | Your failure mode |
|---|---|---|
| The front line | In their face, first, on purpose | Arriving second: the engage only works if it is yours |
| A ranged carry | Behind your front line, outside their engage range | Walking forward to secure a kill that was already dying |
| A mage | Range of your longest spell, sideways to the fight | Standing in the middle so every ability lands on you |
| An assassin | On the flank, waiting for the front lines to commit | Going in first, before there is anything to punish |
The word that does the most work there is 'sideways'. Fights collapse toward the middle, so a champion standing directly behind their own front line is standing exactly where every area ability is aimed. Standing off to one side, at the same distance, means the same spells have to choose between you and the front line, and most of the time they choose the front line, because that is where the fight looks like it is.
The fight begins, you realise you are too far forward, and you walk backwards. Walking backwards in a fight is how you die twice: once because you are not attacking, and once because you are still inside their range while doing it.
The fix
Position before the first ability is cast. Once it has started, your options are commit or leave entirely, the slow shuffle backwards is neither, and it is the single most common way a carry dies with full health bars around it.
Both teams are standing either side of the mid lane at 28:00, nobody committed. You are the ADC. Their engage is a hook support who is standing behind their front line, and there is a wall on your left.
- Five versus five, nobody engaged
- You are the ADC; their engage is a hook
- Hook support is behind their front line
- A wall on your left
- Find their engage, who on their team starts fights, and is that ability up?
- Stand outside its range, off to one side, before anyone throws anything
- Check what is behind you: a wall you can be pinned against is worse than open ground
- If you cannot do all three, the fight is not one you should be near yet
Why do more than half of carry deaths happen in the first two seconds of a fight?