Nilah Taric vs Kai’Sa Leona (6/4/10)
Rank: Diamond 3 33LP

Summary: Had a significant lead bot due to enemy mismanaging wave 3, but squandered it and ended up going even. Was able to get a huge gold lead with the team’s assistance towards the midgame, but was unable to translate it into anything and just got carried instead.

Gameplay Notes

At the start of the lane, Kai’Sa crashed wave 2. This should be fairly neutral for both sides, but then on the third wave she decides to hard-shove it again. Playing the wave this way instead of letting it push back and playing safe should be game losing for Kai’Sa since we can get level 3 advantage and run them down.

While this should be the case, I play the fight very poorly. Here’s the video:

The biggest mistake here was wasting an entire E charge to get onto Kai’Sa. Since she was stunned, I could’ve just walked up and pressed E. Instead, I used the first charge on Leona, and then the second on Kai’Sa. This made Kai’Sa able to walk away without even having to use flash.

A smaller mistake that fight was casting W when Leona E’d to me. I had done it in anticipation of her Q, but she had already used it on Taric and I didn’t notice.

But besides that, we’re still left with an advantage. Both Leona and Kai’Sa are brought down to 25% HP while we both are fully healthy. However, I choose to shove and crash the wave. This not only allows them to catch up in cs/levels for free, but they’re also able to bounce wave 2+3 which is difficult to thin.

The correct solution would’ve been to sit on wave 1, crash wave 2, and then recall on 700g for 2 long swords. There isn’t going to be any 2v2 kill potential in this lane anymore, so it’s better to use the winning trade for a tempo advantage. If I were to reset after that crash, it would also open up Taric’s roam timer to make an advantage elsewhere.

Takeaways

• When there’s a CC’d enemy, try to conserve E charges for chasing. (This should be obvious to me, but for some reason it wasn’t..?)
• After taking a winning fight that isn’t killing, assess whether or not a kill will be possible in the lane. If it isn’t, shift focus towards playing the waves in such a way where a favorable reset can be taken.
• A winning trade bot can also be used to open up the support’s roam timer if the waves are played correctly.

Closing Thoughts

Once again, somehow I wonder if I even know how to play this game…