Top Team Comps #145: Small Fights Only (Jax & Pyke)

This draft never wants a five on five, and it shouldn't take one. It wants three small fights happening in three places at the same time, and it wants to win all of them.

Top Team Comps

Small Fights Only

Jax · Graves · Yone · Lucian · Pyke

There's a version of League where both teams walk down the middle lane at thirty minutes and one big fight decides the game. This draft loses that game. It's built so that game never gets to happen.

The thread is even numbers. Every champion here wins a two versus two, a one versus one at a dragon, or a three versus three in the enemy jungle, and none of them needs a teammate to set anything up first. That's a real drafting choice with a real cost: no reset, no wombo, nothing that scales into the late game, and a fight this team joins one player at a time is a fight it loses.

Team Composition Score Card

AOE DamageC

Crowd ControlB

Diving PowerA

Dueling PowerS

InitiationB

Poke PowerC

Pushing PowerA

SustainB

SynergyA

WaveclearB

Difficulty

Power Curve

Early GameA

Mid GameS

Late GameB

Super Late GameC

SAmazing AGood BAverage CBelow Average FBad

Check out how to play it below!

Champions

TOP

Top Lane – Jax

Jax is the side lane, and the side lane is the point. He beats almost anyone the enemy sends to hold him, and when they send two, the other four members of this comp are now playing a four versus three somewhere else. Holding Counter Strike [E] until the enemy actually commits is the single habit that separates a Jax who wins these fights from one who doesn't.

JNG

Jungle – Graves

He wins the fight over the enemy's own camps, which is where this draft would like the game to be played. Graves also solves the comp's biggest practical problem: somebody has to be able to take a neutral objective quickly while four teammates are busy elsewhere, and he does that faster than most junglers do it with help.

MID

Mid Lane – Yone

The mid laner in a comp like this isn't a damage slot, it's a rotation slot. Yone shoves a wave and arrives, which is what turns two of these small fights into three versus two. He's also the one member who can start a real fight when the map forces one, since Fate Sealed [R] collects a whole group that was standing too close together.

ADC

Bot Lane – Lucian

Most marksmen ask their team to survive twenty five minutes on their behalf. Lucian doesn't. He wants the two versus two at level two, he wants the enemy support to walk up once, and he wants the game decided before anyone finishes three items. Pair that with a support who wants exactly the same thing and the bot lane stops being a place the comp has to protect.

SUP

Support – Pyke

Death From Below [R] hands gold to the ally who helped, which is why this comp's ahead players keep getting further ahead instead of the lead sitting on one person. He also disappears from the map on purpose, and a Pyke the enemy cannot see is a Pyke every enemy has to play around.

Key Concepts

• Never all five in one place. That sounds obvious and it is the mistake this comp actually makes, usually around twenty five minutes when somebody says to group. Five of these champions standing together is the weakest formation available to them.
• Waves are the tool, not the objective. Push three lanes at once and the enemy has to answer in three places, and every one of those answers is a fight on your terms. A team that gets to choose where the map is even has already won the draft.
• The clock is the enemy. Every member here is at their scariest between ten and twenty five minutes, so a game that reaches forty is a game this comp lost slowly. Turn leads into towers immediately rather than banking them.
• Vision in the enemy jungle is worth more than vision around your own objectives, because that's where the fights you want are. Pyke roaming without a ward ahead of him is the version of this that throws games.
• If the enemy refuses to split up, take the trade anyway. Give them a tower somewhere and take two on the other side of the map. A comp built on small fights still wins by not taking the big one.

Countering

Refuse the terms. This draft needs the map broken into pieces, so the counter is a team that groups early, clears waves faster than they can be pushed, and forces the one fight where numbers are equal and coordination decides it. Every champion below is worse than their opposite number in a duel and much better than them in a five on five, which is the trade you want to be making.

Here is an example team that may succeed:

TOP

Top – Malphite

He survives the side lane he was never going to win, and Unstoppable Force [R] means the grouped fight arrives on your schedule.

JNG

Jungle – Sejuani

She loses the skirmish and wins the game, because a jungler who is unkillable in a five on five makes the enemy's whole plan optional.

MID

Mid – Orianna

She clears waves faster than three lanes can be pushed, and she shields the teammate a roaming Pyke was hoping to catch alone.

ADC

Marksman – Jinx

Losing lane to Lucian is fine. Reaching the point where one teamfight ends the game with three towers still standing is not fine for him.

SUP

Support – Braum

Unbreakable [E] turns the early two versus two this whole enemy draft is built around into a lane they cannot break.

Working out what the other team drafted is half of playing against it, and this guide walks through the questions worth asking in champion select.

Browse the full League of Legends team comps archive.