Some thoughts on playing from behind

 

The biggest suggestion I can say about playing from behind--every move you make is amplified. How do you win from behind? Make better of all the variables of the game than your opponents...every dumb item they buy--on top of each item you buy in the game already being diminishing (very few heroes ramp up per item...you get your 'best' item 1st or 2nd and each item afterward is usually less important.

Spend your gold well

Have a 5k gold lead? Bought a Dagon5...don't have the mana to use that + your ult + your damage move in a fight...waste of a 5k gold lead. Everything you buy when behind if it's dumb costs you more.

Do not sit in the base...unless it makes sense. Exceptions to every rule.

If the opposing team is smart and owns the map control...they will farm everything while you sit in base. If you're only slightly behind, fight for control of half of the map + rosh. Why is this important? Say the game is close and your team has 30k networth and opponents have 35k networth...say this is the 30 minute mark (low farm I know but it's an example). Say the game goes 30 more minutes...if the opponents have map control and farm both jungles it might be 40k to 70k at 60 minutes, they push and win + probably hold aegis when they do. If you hold your jungle, you already have base lane farm too--that's at least 2-3 heroes you can support with farm and that's nearly even...so a 5k gold lead at 30 might still be a 5k gold lead at 60 minutes...HOWEVER! Their % networth compared to yours is now halved...everyone will be at endgame items and you can take a fight. Also, contesting roshan buys you time and space...if your farmer has aegis and isn't stupidly out of reach of your team...you can use aegis to buy space/safety.

Know that every move you make is amplified

Because you have less and that 1 single mistake by anyone on your team can throw the game away. This rule is critical...and knowing what's a good move or a bad move is mostly from experience.

How do you learn what's optimal and suboptimal? Keep the other rules in mind as you play and learn from your mistakes.

Ward and counterward

Losing a ward outside your base is less important than a hero but NEVER stop warding. Smart opponents will ward inside and outside your base because whenever one or two of your guys leave--their entire team can easily wipe them out. If you have to 5 man smoke to go ward....do it. Also, if they are counterwarding--look at a good ward map or learn some places where you can keep wards off where sentries are commonly placed...key things to protect of course are Roshan and your jungle...but anytime you can confirm where an enemy is...that's a potential 5 man fight you can take somewhere else.

Know what the enemy built

This will go hand in hand with rule 6, what do the enemy supports have...do they have Force Staff? do they have silly 'carry'/straight damage items? does the enemy team have a Mekansm? Are they carrying wards? You really never know in pubs what teams will build...look at their items and look for items that counter or things you really must have to fight them effectively (i.e. a Gyrocopter with 2 Butterflies you need magic burst or an Monkey King Bar)

Do not be afraid to build unusual items, if it makes sense

Was Monkey King Bar not in your build but the enemy Gyrocopter has 2 Butterflies? If you can afford it and survive in fights to take him down...you just made his 6k+ gold item nothing more than stats.

Can you afford an Assault Cuirass against a team that didn't build armor and you're the only guy on your team that has 4k gold to buy something important? You might be rubick but this may not be a terrible idea---if it massively increases the chance you win a fight...ignore the idiot on your team that says 'hex on carry, wtf?'...This is again an experience thing and knowing the limits of your hero, the enemy heroes, and how far you can stretch things. I've turned games on selling luxury items to buy a Scythe of Vyse to shutdown that out of control carry.

Know thy enemy a little better

What exactly has spun out of control in this game...is it 1 hero that's 6 slotted at 30 minutes and the rest of the enemy is broke? Is it their entire team? This is an important question because as per #6, Scythe of Vyse + Abyssal Blade, etc. that shuts down a single out of control enemy pretty good. But what do you against an entire team that has let's say--each enemy has 1 Force Staff  over your team (aka each has 2250 more than you each). To me, that's a game that's a lot harder to win BUT it's also not completely out of reach....because of the next rule

Hero advantage is almost always more critical than item advantage

If you're down those force staves to each member of the opposing team...you're probably not winning the team fight unless you have dangerous initiation ( Black Hole and burst) or they throw...use those smoke ganks, use the vision...someone on their team is going to be more ballsy...ward by himself, do rosh by himself, farm your jungle by himself...if they aren't 5 manning and you want enemy heroes dead, go in groups of 2 and 3...scooby doo gaming is next level! (Did I just coin it? YUP!) If an enemy has ~+20 more damage, ~+1-2 levels over you...how are they going to beat your team in a 2v1? Very few heroes can win a 2v1 unless they have massively spun out of control.

Too fed for 2v1, what about 3v1 or 4v2? Hero advantage is a fantastic way to turn a game...but with all these rules in mind--you have to take the steps to create situations and then take advantage of situations where you can shut down stray enemy heroes.

If the enemy is 5 manning, they probably cannot be farming faster than you.

Remember the 4 protect 1 strat? Let's think for a sec why this works...1 farmer can clear a jungle before they all respawn. That's somewhere about 700 gold per minute, thinking each camp is worth roughly 100-150g. If they are pushing with 4 men, you now have a problem...each tower you drop is space lost, time lost, and money given.

If you don't respond...a smart jungler knows something is up and runs off before you kill him. So how do you deal with this? Early on, it can be a struggle because you cannot create the tempo to trade off a tower or you know you can't take that fight-- farm...find a solo opponent out of position..make something of the lost time and space. Losing towers is not losing the game and although it's a visible objective-- if while giving up that tower that took your opponents a minute of time together to take...your team farmed the other 2 lanes perfectly (+200g each) and your jungle(rs) got a total of ~700g (350g say each)...oh look at that that's worth about as much of a tower and that gold respawns! Not to mention you got experience points too, whereas the other team 5-way split a couple waves of lane creeps.

Say we're past that pub farming phase and they're 5 manning, you're losing space but your base is intact and your team isn't 5 manning against it. Always keep in mind what you absolutely have to defend--almost always a barracks, and of course your throne...but if the fight's not there, don't take it--if your team has a good amount of gold, you can always win a fight and push down the same lane they just raxed you on....of course losing early rax costs you a lot of money but wiping because you were 'defending a rax' means you lose the game probably...the biggest advise here is don't halfsies it--key objectives you 5 man or don't...if 2-3 people die defending, now you lose more objectives because you couldn't make the enemy run.

Treat late game fights as an all-in scenario.

Be careful with this one...it means a lot of things...if you are 300 gold from a necessary Black King Bar, by all means tell your team to wait (unless they're throning or something) because that bkb is fight-turning.

If initiation is important--think of smoke...think of how you want to take this fight...in your base? just outside your base?

Here's the key thing to think of--is my team better prepared for this fight than we are? Great players find ways to have buyback and have that big item--and in a pub they tell their team they're ready...when you take that fight--5 extra lives and being able to get your men back into that fight when the other team can't...remember hero advantage? a full team buyback is probably going to win that fight. Why is this important? 5 man down middle, with at least the t1 and a little bit of t2 down...given 60 seconds to do their bidding is AT LEAST a barracks, if not 2, and if not throne/megas, at the very very least a team wipe == rosh which buys a team behind 6 minutes of control of where the next fight takes place if they cannot win outright...Late game fights turn games...gold lead doesn't matter when you're dead.

So there's some thoughts in stream of consciousness as I eat my breakfast. I still advocate the need for surrender option--because defense and playing from behind is a team effort--if your team doesn't want to play...why bother. But it is definitely a very satisfying victory. I could write so many more rules and remember these are guidelines...different game situations are going to weigh the importance of doing one thing over the other--after the basic idea of squeezing every last drop of the lemons you've been given, it comes down to practice.