League of Legends Gank

A gank is a surprise attack on an enemy champion. Ganks are usually coordinated and executed by the jungler or a roaming laner as well as the laner receiving the gank. Early gank attempts often try to catch the enemy champion off guard and kill them before they can reach the safety of their tower or teammates.

Late game ganks are often ambushes by multiple champions against one or two lone enemies (this can also occur earlier or even at level one if one team invades another's jungle). Usually the ambushing team will make use of a Brush to hide their position until the target strays in range of their CC.

To pull off a successful gank, you'll usually need some damage, CC and sometimes a gap closer between the ganker and the teammate receiving the gank.

A gank's success is often measured by the advantage you gain for your team as well as the disadvantage given to the enemy champion. Successful ganks don't always have to land Champion Kills; sometimes pushing the enemy champion out of lane can create an opportunity to kill Dragon or push down a tower. The retreating champion won't be available for any team fights or objectives and the enemy jungler will often be forced to stop what they're doing and defend the vacant lane. Causing an enemy champion to use their escape summoner spells like Ghost or ultimate ability like Enchanted Crystal Arrow can create an advantage for your laner and will make the enemy champion more vulnerable to ganks and aggression until their cooldowns reset.

The simplest way to avoid being ganked in laning phase is to make sure you have an escape spell like Flash or an escape ability like Valor and avoid pushing your lane. Pushed lanes are much easier to gank, so last-hit and keep close to your tower in case you need to escape.

Another way to foil a gank attempt is to spot the enemy ganker(s) before they are in position to ambush you. Warding ( ) is a common way to gain map vision of key ganking routes, but some spells like Clairvoyance and Hawkshot can also provide map awareness to protect against ganks.

A countergank is an attempt to punish an enemy for attempting a gank. If you spot the enemy attempting to gank, you can coordinate with your allies to cut off their retreat and ambush them instead. Usually your jungler and nearby laners can help you accomplish this.

The key to counterganking especially is to catch the enemy in the act of ganking and quickly coordinate a response. Counter ganks can be initiated by Baiting, where the would-be target of the gank makes themselves vulnerable enough to initiate the gank, then their allies ambush the gankers before the bait is killed.

Counterganks can be made more effective with global or semi-global spells such as Teleport, Stand United and Destiny.