Vision Controlling Is Key to Success in S4

In S4, the commonly used vision controlling tactics have been completely overturned: Oracle's Elixir has been removed. Vision Ward has got a price cut and been not in stealth. The item in the seventh cell has been added. All these changes make players feel uncomfortable at first, especially for those ADC players who totally have no idea about team vision controlling and some junglers who aren’t aware of the importance of team vision controlling.

Today, we will discuss how important to control the vision for a team with two renowned US server players’ ranked games as the illustration. One player is the ADC Doublelift who totally doesn’t know how to control vision. The other is the best North American support Xpecial.

We have made detailed statistics about Doublelift’s 20 ranked games from December 3 to 7 and Xpecial’s 20 ranked games from December 6 to 9. Doublelift got 12 wins and 8 losses. He played as a support two times. Xpecial got 13 wins and 7 losses. He played a mid-solo champion in two of the 20 matches and played as an ADC in one match.

As a support, Xpecial is a big fan of Lens Trinkets. His team didn’t use any Lens Trinket only in one of the 20 games. It owned 1 Lens Trinket in 12 games and had 2 Lens Trinkets in 7 games. In 8 of the 20 games, each team had more than 3 Lens Trinkets.

When Xpecial’s team got some advantages, they were able to use Lens Trinkets to destroy enemies’ turrets, remove their Vision Ward and get their materials in the jungle area, thus it was easier for Xpecial’s team to get the victory.

As for Doublelift, his performance in recent ranked games was not so good. Compared with Xpecial’s team, Doublelift’s team used Lens Trinkets less frequently. They didn’t use the item in five games and use one in 11 games. They used two only in four games. Both sides owned more than 3 items just in one game.

Lens Trinkets is less used compared with other items, which is a common problem in the North American server. It should be mentioned that it is rare to see less than 3 Lens Trinkets in advanced ranked games. Without Lens Trinkets and Vision Ward to control the vision, your team will be difficult to get more advantages in favorable situation and in unfavorable situation. Enemies will enter your team’s jungle area freely as your vision is destroyed. You will be easily ganked. Therefore, vision controlling is important in S4 but it’s really hard to master.

Totem Trinkets are the safest and commonest choice but when you are a support or a jungler, you should pay more attention to the protection of your jungle area and the way to control enemies’ vision.

Orb Trinkets are not helpless. In the studied ranked games at the tier higher than Diamond, one Orb Trinket will be used every 12 games, but according to the current situation, Orb Trinkets are less useful than Lens Trinkets and Totem Trinkets. 


Tag: S4, Vision, Doublelift, Xpecia