5 Unconventional Strategies Used in Tournaments

Information may not be reliable

Arena of Valor (AOV) is one of the most popular 5v5 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games wherein the objective is to destroy the opponent’s base as you make your hero stronger through item purchases. Each player in a five-man team has a unique role with tried-and-true strategies.

If you are an AOV fan who watches a lot of tournament games, you will notice that some of these strategies are discarded in favor of unique tactics that may still show some synergy in team fights and securing secondary objectives. Here are five examples of such unorthodox tactics used in AOV tournaments:

Tulen as a jungler

Tulen is a mage hero who shines best in esports games when his passive is triggered. He can teleport up to three times making him a reliable hero when it comes to harassing opponents.

Recently, pro players are picking him as a jungler instead to maximize the bonus damage from his passive. Since jungle creeps don’t move too much, Tulen can pull off his combos easier and kill them quicker. When it comes to team fights, his reliability is even stronger with burst damage coming from his ultimate.

Wonder Woman as a mid laner

Wonder Woman is probably the most versatile hero in AOV because she can be a support or a jungler aside from her intended role as a Slayer laner. But in recent tournaments, the Amazon Princess has also been used as a mid laner. 

Using Wonder Woman as a mid laner usually involves having a mage like Tulen as the jungler since the mid lane is usually covered by heroes that deal magic damage.

Elsu as a mid laner

Elsu is a marksman whose weapon of choice is sniper rifle. Obviously, sniper rifles aren’t used in situations that call for rapid firing action to continuously whittle down the opponent’s HP. With this, his attack speed is incredibly low. To make up for this, he has the highest base damage output of any marksman in the game.

Due to his slow attack speed, he is usually played in the mid lane where mages are positioned. Mages aren’t that concerned with attack speed and they have low mobility and defense, so they are the perfect targets for Elsu.

Backdooring

This strategy has occasionally seen competitive play not just in AOV but in similar games on other platforms. Backdooring involves one or two heroes sneaking in one lane and attacking the opponent's base by themselves to win. 

Backdooring involves baiting the enemies into a team fight where the advantage is clearly in their favor. Distracting the enemies allows the backdoor teammate to push the lane and go for the base.

Lane swapping in the beginning of the game

AOV players have different roles to fulfill depending on where they are on the map. The Slayer laner goes to the Slayer Lane, the Dragon laner goes to the Dragon Lane, and the mid laner in the middle. Pretty straightforward, but recently, pro teams swap the two opposing lanes right from the start of the game. This means the solo laner is at the Dragon lane while the carry and the support are at the offlane.

The reason for this is that the changes to the map provide the Slayer Lane with greater advantage when it comes to securing jungle creeps, specifically with the Spirit Sentinel spawning so quickly. This allows a new pathing for junglers and subsequently a new team fight setup.

Esports games like Arena of Valor continue to excite fans with new combos and strategies for each match. Even when they pick the same heroes over and over, there’s no way of knowing exactly how things will turn out which is why each game is worth watching.