Level One Bot Lane Cheese Strategy

Today I'd like to talk about an occurrence that happens around once every 10 games, which is...

The Level One Death Bush Camp Bot Lane 

(TLODBCBL for short)

Since almost every Blue Team jungler starts at their Red and every Purple Team jungler starts at their Blue, most of the time both sets of bot laners provide a decent leash for their junglers.

However, once in a while, you'll end up with a nasty camp bot lane instead, ending up with one or both teams getting chunked hard. The biggest problem is, it's nearly impossible to avoid and super effective when it does if you're up against the right match-up.

If you're the aggressor on the Purple side, the death bush is as pictured above. VS the Blue side, here's the matching spot:

The Bullys

While almost every 2v2 match-up at level one will likely come out ahead as long they get the jump on the other team, certain champions have INSANE level 1 damage output and/or utility.

Pictured above, these champions are the primary offenders when it comes to TLODBCBL and great care should be taken whenever you see two of the above on the same team.

Ways to Avoid

1. Walk the Long Way

The easiest way to avoid this is by taking the long way around, which for Purple side is fairly easy, however, for Blue side means they have to walk quite far if they leash. In this scenario, one of the other methods below may be preferable, especially if you have a very squishy lvl 1 pair like Zyra + Kog'maw.

2. Ward Early 

As a support, having extra pots to poke and soak damage is extremely important in solo queue, which is why purchasing an early green ward isn't optimal unless you have built-in sustain like Sona. This means that you'll likely want to trinket ward around 1:20 so that it doesn't run out. However, be sure not to facecheck the bush or you might just ruin the point of warding early. Pictured below, this is the safest way to ward for blue side:

Meanwhile, if you hit just the right spot, this is the safest purple side ward. However, as you can see below, this one's not that easy to land, so walking around the longer way is probably a better idea. More info on warding over ledges available at this link.

3. Use Spells To Check

Between most AD carry  + support combinations, one generally has the ability to check the bush before walking in, particularly with mages using the blue gold item. However, as reaction time has to be swift in solo queue, this method doesn't always succeed, and can actually lull the unwitting pair into a false sense of security.

4. Wait them Out

This method tends to lead to at least one CS lost and it's hard to get both AD and support on the same page, but this simply means waiting until the enemy team appears in lane before walking through the bush or in range of a Blitzcrank hook.

5. Send in the Tanky One First

Although this method is mentioned last, this one's by far my favorite. If you're playing a champion like Leona, or even 21 defense Janna, sending in the support first may actually be extremely beneficial and result in a winning trade. Generally, the offensive team will blow all their initial damage on the first one into the bush, and if it happens to be someone tanky enough to shrug it off, the hope is that the allied marksman can then dish out some damage of their own.

Conclusions

While rare, a successful level one camp can spell disaster for the opposing team, especially if the AD carry runs off to lane to prevent losing CS while the support gives the jungler a few extra hits to help out.

Even though most teams won't set up to do this unless their jungler is starting with the opposite buff, if you see any of the enemy champions pictured above then it's worth playing cautious and preventing that early game cheese. That first CS isn't worth losing lane; you're probably going to miss another one real soon anyway.

Meet me in the bush behind the ledge! DRRRRRRRAVEN

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