Many players who try TT are surprised by the reversal of roles and tiers. A closer look reveals a much larger strategic environment than the small map appears to offer.
Twisted Treeline is a love it or hate it sort of map. Players who think they have Summoner's Rift down are lost in the TT metagame that is dominated by the same few champions.
Is this poor planning or a completely different gameplay style?
First of all, the following champions are used very often in TT:
Tryndamere
Mundo
Singed
Jax
Xin Zhao
Renekton
Jarvan IV
Vayne
The important thing to remember is that early game is very important in Twisted Treeline. Whether you go for a first blood gank or not, you cannot be a late-game carry in a match that lasts 20 minutes.
So why is Singed, a character well known for his late-game power, so popular? To find out, we have to examine his skillset a little closer.
1. His poison is extremely effective in the narrow lanes of TT. It also lets him control his lane very well, and with the compact nature of the map, losing a tower can be devastating.
2. In Twisted Treeline, slow is king. A small map with a winding jungle means characters with good escape mechanisms will escape. Slows, stuns and other hard CC is necessary to kill slippery targets. A powerful slow in the middle of the lane will mean it will be harder to get to the edge to Flash into the jungle.
3. Flinging an enemy is easier to pull off than in 5v5. Initiating a fight with Singed in SR requires much more prowess and timing than in TT. Two champions will have a hard time bursting down Singed before his teammates make short work of whoever he flung.
4. His ultimate makes him a well-rounded player.
Number four is very important, because the golden rule of TT is:
Be good at what your champion does, but be great at everything. You have a THREE man team which means you composition must be excellent. You have no room for Sona simply because you need a swiss army knife on your team.
Can you win with Sona? Yes. Would Taric be a better pick? Yes.
You need someone who can push, fight, tank and assassinate, AND have a good escape mechanism. Having a dedicated tank will work, don't get me wrong, but if your tank can't deal any damage then your teammates will have a harder time.
So what can you do?
First of all, Malphite is an amazing pick on TT. I play him often on TT, and would recommend him to anyone to try. Why?
1. Very tanky. He can tank for your team easily.
2. Excellent chaser, can steal movement speed.
3. Excels with armor, meaning you can counter 75% of TT games.
4. Combined with thornmail, he can shut down Tryndamere. This is a biggy because Trynd can fly through walls, clean up a squishy champ and leave before your team can react, especially on a small map. Malphite was made to shut down tanky, burst AD DPS which is the exact metagame of TT. He has an AOE move that cuts attack speed in half, that is buffed by Armor. Amazing champion on TT.
5. He can move through walls with his ultimate, push a lane, kill towers quickly and deals powerful damage with no AD items at all. Although you should be focused on protecting your teammates, he also poses a threat himself.
That is how you win in TT, that is the difference between SR and TT. You need hard counters to nearly everyone and you need to excel in small team fights. LeBlanc is another good choice, as is Xin Zhao (good tossup, tanky, can jump into fights, powerful 1v1 or in a team fight) and Jarvan (his standard is almost like a free flash through any walls).
Ezreal is a fickle choice. While he can be a powerful top lane and avoid death with his arcane shift, his contribution to the team is technically an 'anti-carry' and there are very few situations where he can take a ranged carry out in TT.
Vayne is a powerful choice because she has many stun situations, but Poppy is a weaker choice (not a bad one though!) because she cannot fulfill all the roles she needs to in early game fights.
Sion is another example of a powerful counterpick. He is AP, which forces the enemy into MR, can take a great amount of early-game damage due to his passive and has a powerful stun and shield. One stun takes out a third of the enemy team for a considerable length of time.
Zilean absolutely shines in 3v3 due to his ability to turn a fight into a 4v3 by giving someone another life, as well as harass well early-game with his bombs. Morde is also often used because of his ultimate, but these champions can be countered in obvious ways.
Mundo is often used because of the reason we all love Mundo, he can go where he pleases with his skillset. He can attack through walls, deal % magic damage, tank very well, stay in a lane forever, block CC, push towers, deal heavy early game damage...he is an excellent teammate.
What's the perfect team?
Here lies the beauty of TT, there is no perfect team. Whatever you select, due to the small team sizes, there is always a near-perfect counter. The champions that are oft-played are played because players don't know how to counter them. A Trynd will very rarely be used in competitive 3v3 because he can be shut down very easily.
The tiers are complete garbage when it comes to playing Twisted Treeline. It completely depends on your enemy and while competitive play will give you a powerful back-and-forth dynamic to counterpick your enemy, playing a Normal game of TT might leave you with a bitter feeling that you'll never counter your enemy completely. You might play Malphite and end up facing an AP heavy team, but you'll have to adapt. Adaptation and being a jack of all trades is paramount in Twisted Treeline because you can't lean on your teammates as you can in SR, can't falter because it will be instantly noticeable in a fight.
To me, at least, this is a much more fun gameplay style. Players who were turned off of TT by boring or hard games should take this advice and try again, keeping this different metagame in mind. Find two friends, create a strategic composition and try a Normal game, you'll see, it's like playing a whole different game.
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