The biggest culprit to losing matches on any tier or division is in my opinion lack of grouping and fighting as 5. It’s very difficult to establish the right team communication in solo queue and in Bronze or Silver tiers players tend to get caught and fight individually rather than grouping with their team. It happens less often as your rating goes up but even in Diamond players still have their own ideas and attempt to fight or push alone without proper vision and get punished for it (as they should).
Preventing it can be difficult as well as calling out the players who refuse to go with their team can often backfire resulting in them not grouping as a matter of principle. Such is the LoL community unfortunately and many players would lose the match intentionally rather than admit and rectify their mistakes. Telling a player to group up with the rest of his or her team can actually work, but unfortunately that’s all you can do. The point of this article is not to tell you how to force players to do your bidding because frankly I have no idea how you’d go about doing that, instead considering how a vast majority of low rated players often don’t group up I’ll just try to convince you it’s the best way to win a game.
I estimate that 90% of my matches are lost only because my team doesn’t group up and fight 5v5. There’s always that top lane who needs to clear his wave in the worst possible time or the AD carry who would rather farm a few minions in bot lane instead of preventing the enemy team getting Baron. Clearing minions and making sure they push towards the enemy towers or trying to get some tower damage done yourself aren’t bad ideas, but understand that there’s a time and a place to do that: when five enemies are grouped in your mid lane and sieging your turret that certainly ain’t the right time.
Take a guess as to what the enemy team is waiting for: chances are the moment they see you separated from your team they know they have the numbers advantage and one of two things can happen at that point: either you give away your turret for free or your team tries to fight 4v5 which in most cases ends up further increasing the opposing team’s gold lead. Always try putting yourself into your opponent’s mindset and think about what you’d do in their place: if you think there’s a chance they will initiate a fight when they see you’re not with your team then make sure you be where you’re supposed to.
And if your team gets wiped out that may further lead to enemies getting Baron or an inhibitor, all because you decided to farm a few minions in another lane. It’s almost never worth the risk: even when the enemy team is significantly ahead in gold you may still have a stronger team fight presence and a better composition and wipe them out. They make mistakes too and a reckless tower dive can easily change the balance to your favor.
It’s not a secret that players get way too cocky when they have a gold or kill lead and tend to split-push lanes or roam the enemy jungle alone hoping for an easy kill. When your team is ahead in gold there is absolutely no benefit (in Bronze or Silver especially) to not grouping up with your team, in fact in a majority of matches going alone can only hurt you. I wrote this someplace else awhile back but it’s very fitting so I’ll repeat it here: when the enemy team is ahead in gold the best way to try and come back is to fight grouped as five, and when you’re ahead in gold there’s no reason to risk your team losing a 4v5.
I encourage you to read that last bolded sentence again. Do yourself and your team a favor and don’t let them down. They need your help in teamfights regardless if you’re ahead or behind in gold so group up with them and do your best. You have the biggest chances of winning if you fight grouped.
