Game Of Throws: How To Avoid Comebacks

Hello lads! Our Heroes of the Storm boost team is on duty again, and today we will talk about one of the most frustrating scenarios in the game. No, we are not talking about the guy trying Lunara for the first time in your Hero League game - I am referring to comebacks.

During our duo queue boost sessions I’ve seen dozen of “unlosable” game ending with a comeback of the enemy team: even the greatest advantage can be recovered if you stop focusing and make silly mistakes. We decided to show you five mistakes to avoid in order to stop comebacks from the enemies.

Overextending or going alone

First of all, let’s start on an individual mistake that is pretty easy to correct. I’m sure that you got caught many times deep in the enemy territory because you were isolated from your team. Maybe you were trying a not-so-sneaky gank, or you went to greedy to push a lane. Let me be clear: it’s never worth it.

I had games where I was dominating as a strong pusher and tried to go 1vs5 feeling invincible, but this game doesn’t work like that. Even the strongest pusher according to our HotS tier list can’t do anything again five underleveled heroes.

As a rule of thumb, ask yourself these questions: am I close to at least two allies? Do I have vision of the enemies on the mini map? Do I have a mobility spell available right now? Am I doing the best thing to win the game right now?

If the answer is no, surprise. You fell for this trap. Try to regroup with your allies before it’s too late, and never go alone in the dark again. Five people push faster than one, don’t they?

Not finishing early versus a late game team comp

We talked about team composition many times in the past, and now I want to highlight a different perspective. Even after the hp and damage scaling tweaks, that surely are beneficial to early-mid game comps, on top of our HotS tier list there are a few viable late game heroes.

Many of these guys may be weak in the early game, but have an incredible power spike at level 16 or 20. May team comps have wombo combos that only work in the very late game. Winning the game in the first 10 minutes doesn’t imply that you will win at the very end. If you recognize that the enemies have a late game oriented team comp, try to play around that. Force a lot of team fight in the early-mid game, where you are sure to have an advantage, and after every skirmish try to get something - take a fort, a boss, just don’t sleep and try to snowball the pressure.

Giving to your enemies time to scale is the easiest way to get destroyed in the late game. After a teamfight don’t recall immediately, don’t be lazy. You should always try to increase your advantage. If your team isn’t on the same page, spam pings and call them out - politely! - in chat.

Focusing too much on map control

This point is a little complicated, so make sure to understand. Elaborating on the previous concept, many players will start to avoid taking risks when they are ahead, because they are confident in their ability to snowball their advantage only taking “calculated risks”. Surprise surprise, throws are a thing, late game team comps are a thing, and winning early doesn’t mean winning later on.

Playing too passively is never a good strategy, unless you have a late game team comp yourself. Sitting on your lane just trying to capitalize on enemies’ mistakes is an appealing strategy, but it’s a double edged sword. The later the game goes, the longer death timers become, and a single mistake in a late game team fight can cost you a game.

According to our HotS boost team, having control is an essential requisite to win the game, but it’s not enough - as soon as you have map control, you need to do something with that. Keep a win-focused mindset and encourage your allies as well: ping the enemy core or the closest objective and close the game as soon as possible.

Underestimating the “Throw Pit”

I mean, come on, it’s called “Throw Pit” for a reason. In my career, I’ve seen an incredible amount of games lost because of a wrong boss call - even if the enemies have one or two heroes dead, they can still take advantage of the boss damage to win a fight and steal it.

The boss is a very important neutral objective, but it has probably the worst risk to reward ratio. Sure, it’s a win condition, but you should never try it when you have a lead and the enemies can counter your move: many heroes with AoE spells dominate our Heroes of the Storm tier list because they can wipe out instantly many enemies with only a few spell (who said Kael’Thas?). Positioning yourself in the small pit with low health points is straight up suicide.

Writing too much and not playing

I’ve played a lot of MOBAs, and let me tell you, HotS it’s not different from other games. Bitching, flaming, shit-talking or how you prefer to call it is still a major problem. Complaining in chat about how horrible the matchmaking is or about Blizzard’s balance won’t help your game - if anything, it will help your enemies. Flamers are more prone to tilting, and usually mad people lose their focus and play poorly.

At this point, it’s your job to keep a positive mindset and try to lighten up the mood. Make compliments, try to make things better for your team and again, don’t lose your mind. Hell, even lie if it’s necessary - after all, you are never going to see those four strangers again. But your rank will stay with your forever.

With all these tips, you should be able to prevent the enemies from coming back more often. If you want more guides and article, check our site in the next few days for more content, and don’t forget to follow our Heroes of the Storm tier list.