Everybody knows that from the title, right?
But strangely, a lot of players forget this obvious fact while they're actually playing.
The reason is simple:
"Destroying the Nexus is a far-off goal. The immediate problem staring you in the face is your lane opponent, or the enemy carry who's having a good game."
And if you keep playing this way, you naturally fall into a habit of focusing your picks, gold spending, and spell choices toward 'just destroying the first turret.'
Why? That's simple too:
"I'll get fed, beat my lane, and carry."
Then you start to play with only your lane opponent and the 'laning phase' in mind.
Folks, don't forget: this game is about destroying the Nexus, not the first turret.
So what do we need to do to reach that distant goal of destroying the Nexus?
First, let's think about the flow of a League game as we know it.
- Ban/Pick Phase Queue pops, you think 'Hmm, what champ should I play?' and then you ban a 'counter to your champion or a meta OP champion.' Then you go through the pick order, checking your team's hovered champions and the enemy and allied picks. Sometimes you're first pick yourself.
In the ban/pick phase, the most important thing is the first pick. It determines more than 30% of the game's flow and the outcome of the draft.
I'll save that for another time.
Today's post is about 'how to play the game with the Nexus in mind,' so let's think about how we should choose our pick here.
You're top or mid, and you get the last pick on your team. That means you've already seen most of your team's picks. At least the jungle and bot, or maybe mid and jungle support.
Here, you have two scenarios: 1) You see your lane opponent's pick before you pick. 2) You have to pick without seeing your lane opponent.
In the first scenario, the choice is easier.
'Just counterpick the enemy!'
On the surface, that's correct.
But let's take a closer look at the word 'counterpick.' In the laning phase, you have an advantage in skills, range, and other factors.
For example, Illaoi vs. Mordekaiser: Illaoi's devastating ultimate is completely negated by Mordekaiser's ult, which takes her to a tentacle-free zone, turning the fight into a one-sided beatdown.
If you're the type to think a lot about the laning phase, you'll pick with that in mind. However, 'counterpick' doesn't only refer to the 1v1 matchup.
What I mean is, there's also a 'counterpick' that makes your lane opponent's positioning and teamfight impact completely useless.
For example, Malphite's ultimate is a powerful multi-target knockup. It launches you really high.
Common counters to Malphite are Shen, Anivia, Urgot, Maokai, etc.
But these champions are simply strong in lane and have 'solo kill potential.'
Now, in a multi-man skirmish with your jungler during the laning phase — like a Voidgrub fight or the first dragon fight at 10 minutes — can Anivia, Shen, or Urgot really stop or counter Malphite's role and impact?
It's a bit more nuanced, right?
For Anivia, unless she can perfectly wall off Malphite's engage, put down her R, land a Q on the follow-up, and poke the squishy carries with E — that's an ideal scenario. It's hard to call her a 'definite counter' in practice.
Because if you could consistently set up that situation against a Malphite engage, you'd be a god on Anivia no matter what lane or role you played.
I sometimes see posts saying that once the game transitions to teamfights, Malphite recovers and turns the game around. Or that you can safely first-pick Malphite, survive the lane, and carry the game if you play the teamfight well.
But those were common a few years ago, and then that idea died out.
So why is it coming back now? Did Malphite suddenly become a god through minor buffs?
I think the reason is that the mindset of laners has changed.
The mindset of 'I'll win the 1v1 lane and end the game fast.' The mindset of 'If I take first turret gold and get a solo kill or two, I win the game.'
(Getting 5+ solo kills would snowball you so hard that the game would be over in the early-mid game, so I'm just saying one or two.)
What's funny is that Malphite's rune choices have been the same for years. Arcane Comet + Manaflow Band are mandatory, and secondary runes are preference. And it's still the same now. Malphite's mindset has been consistent for years:
"Survive lane, max Q to poke, ult if they're low, ult if the jungler comes, build slowly, and try to land a good ult in teamfights."
That's where the mindset differs from the opponent's.
'Try to land a good ult in teamfights.' That's already thinking about teamfights.
Why is this important? Because to destroy the Nexus, you have to take the first turret, then the second turret, the inhibitor turret, the inhibitor, and the twin towers.
In other words, it's hard to destroy all those buildings quickly by yourself.
'Without your team's help, even if your lane opponent is gone, the remaining four enemies will harass and stop you. And in today's League, even if you're massively fed, it's hard to survive a 2v1 or worse fight.'
To win games and raise your win rate, you need to start picking with the post-laning phase in mind.
So, back to the example of the enemy first-picking Malphite. What is the 'teamfight counter' to Malphite?
Malphite has a lot of counters.
Among them, I recommend Ornn. In fact, Malphite's pick rate dropped significantly after Ornn was released.
Ornn's ultimate is easy to hit multiple people from a distance, his skills deal damage based on max health, and he can protect allies or create conditional knockups with his E. Plus, his Q, a skillshot, slows everyone in a line and creates a terrain wall at the end.
Most players consider Ornn a direct upgrade over Malphite, and I agree — I'm level 46 on Malphite, and I still agree. The one thing Malphite does better than Ornn is that he can reduce the attack speed of ADCs, significantly lowering their DPS. He also has a slow + armor-scaling physical damage W auto, and a magic damage E, letting him chunk enemy health and set up kill angles for your assassins.
(But Ornn does everything else better, except the attack speed slow. So honestly, most of the time when you'd pick Malphite, you're better off picking Ornn — unless it's a full AD comp for fun.)
So you should get the idea of a good counterpick when you know the enemy's pick.
The key points are simple:
1) You should not get pushed around in lane, and ideally have a favorable matchup. 2) You should not be outclassed in teamfights, or you should be able to stop the enemy's key plays.
(For example, there are even fun picks like Tryndamere into Urgot: when Urgot pulls you with his ult, you can pop your ult to ignore the execute, close the gap on the enemy ADC, and say 'Thanks, I'll take it from here.' After all, both Urgot and Tryndamere are sidelane split-pushers + AD damage dealers in teamfights, and they both serve as frontliners in siege situations. Laning is also a spacing battle, and Tryndamere doesn't get destroyed.)
Anyway, I'll skip the details — you get the rough idea.
2) Picking when you don't know your lane opponent's pick.
In this case, you can just 'play your main,' 'play what you're confident in,' or 'play what you feel like.' But let's also consider looking at your team's picks and thinking, 'I can survive even if I get countered, and if I do X, we can win.'
For example, if your bot is Brand and Xerath, your mid is (you pick at the same time as jungle), and your jungle is Sylas. Enemy bot is Zeri and Lulu, mid is Syndra, jungle is Lee Sin.
With draft like this, what do you need?
1) A scenario where Brand and Xerath can freely poke from a distance, and after Brand's ult, Xerath can safely finish with his ult. = A position and environment where Brand and Xerath can deal damage safely. -> What makes this difficult is Syndra (similar long range) and Lee Sin (can flank or close distance quickly). -> If the enemy top picks Malphite or Galio, it's a headache.
If you pick a ranged AD or Teemo in this situation, or if you pick Renekton or Yone because 'you feel like it,' you'll have a hard time contributing in teamfights.
(Of course, if you can execute that picture perfectly, those picks are fine too.)
2) A champion that can either force a one-sided engage, or quickly split-push while the main group holds, and can also serve as a frontline. That would be ideal.
If it were me, I'd pick Sion. Sion with Demolish has excellent turret damage. He can force engages with his R depending on the situation, he's easy to survive in 1v1s, and even against a hard counter, he can overfarm and use 'suicide Sion' to keep up in XP and gold. And most of Sion's lane counters are worse than him in multi-man skirmishes.
Or you could pick the Ornn I mentioned earlier. Or Olaf is also fine. In the end, someone has to bravely jump in and 'hold the line long enough — the situation will resolve within 15 seconds.'
The conclusion is:
Your pick should be one that 'creates synergy' with your team, filling what's missing. Or a pick that can stop the enemy's strategy or counter them in return. Or a pick that gives you an advantage in teamfights, or at least doesn't fall behind — a pick with high teamfight win rate and high survivability through champion synergy and matchup.
If we can pick like this, it's obviously easier to destroy the Nexus and win than if we tried to push turrets alone. Because multiple people hitting a building brings its health down faster.
That's the end of my first post in a long time.
Next time, I'll talk about the role each lane plays in the laning phase and early skirmishes, and a reflection on 'what should I be doing?'