League of Legends team fights explained: engage, peel, positioning and roles

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Team fights in League of Legends can look chaotic, but strong teams follow a simple structure. Everyone has a job, and the team that does its job better usually wins even with less gold. Champions, items and numbers change with patches, but the roles in a fight stay recognisable.

The roles in a team fight

Most team compositions include some of these:

Engage: champions who start the fight, usually tanks or initiators with crowd control. Their aim is to catch key enemies out of position.
Frontline: durable champions who stand between the enemy and their own damage dealers and soak up damage.
Damage dealers: marksmen and mages who deal sustained or burst damage from a safe distance.
Assassins and divers: champions who reach the enemy backline to kill a priority target.
Peel: champions who protect their own carries by stopping divers with shields, heals, knock-backs or crowd control.

A champion can do more than one of these jobs. Knowing which jobs your team has, and which the enemy has, tells you how the fight should go.

Before the fight

Most fights are decided before the first ability lands.

Know your win condition. Does your team want to engage, wait for the enemy to come to you, or split up?
Fight for vision. Ward around the objective and clear enemy wards, so you see them coming.
Check cooldowns. Fight when your key abilities and summoner spells are ready and theirs are not.
Count numbers. A four against five is usually a loss. Do not start a fight while a teammate is missing unless you have a clear advantage.

Engaging

A good engage catches a valuable target, such as a carry, without spreading your team too thin.

Engage when your team is close enough to follow up.
Look for enemies who have stepped forward or are separated from their group.
Avoid engaging into a team that can easily disengage or punish you.

Peeling

If the enemy dives your backline, peeling can decide the fight.

Stay close enough to your carry to react.
Save crowd control for the champion diving them rather than using it on the frontline.
A carry who survives usually deals more damage than a support who chases kills.

Positioning for damage dealers

Hit the closest safe target rather than walking forward to reach a priority one.
Keep track of the enemy engage and assassins before stepping forward.
Move between attacks to stay at maximum safe range.
If you are the main source of damage, staying alive is your most important job.

Target selection

Focus on whoever you can damage safely. Chasing the enemy carry across the map while their frontline hits you is a common way to lose. If the carry comes into range, switch to them.

After the fight

A won fight is only worth what you take with it.

Take an objective such as a dragon, tower or Baron if it is available.
Do not overstay with low health; the enemy may respawn faster than you expect.
If you lost the fight, retreat and defend, protecting waves and towers instead of fighting again outnumbered.

Practise reviewing fights

Watch replays of fights you lost and ask: who started it, was everyone present, and did each player do their job? Patterns usually show up quickly. How do you decide when to take a fight? Share your thinking in the comments.