League of Legends: How to counter Teemo top on Patch 9.21

So, how do you deal with something so annoying, obnoxious, and oppressive? Here are our solutions to shut down Teemo on Patch 9.21:

Ban Teemo

Obviously, a quick fix would be to ban out Teemo and not let him see the light of day. There are three small problems with this however. Firstly, you’ll never learn how to play against a champion if it never makes it through champion select, so are you really improving as a player with this strategy? Second, you’ve wasted your ban on Teemo rather than banning out a specific champion that counters your own pick. And finally, you’ll probably get flamed, or at the very least tilt your team-mates, for banning Teemo at any elo.

Camp Teemo

An alternative, is of course, to camp the vulnerable little Yordle. With no escape tools (and probably no Teleport to return to lane quickly) you won’t have an easier opportunity to repeatedly gank a champion and shut him down in the laning phase. There’s also an immense level of satisfaction to be gained when you see Teemo’s lifeless corpse laying on the ground over and over while you rake in the rewards of killing the most annoying champion in League of Legends.

If you can, bring a duo partner to jungle and focus solely on reducing Teemo’s impact on the game to zero. Freeze your wave, control vision, and gank at every opportunity to limit your lane opponent to nothing but scraps in the early game. Be careful though, an ill-advised tower dive and well-timed Q – Blinding Dart could spell disaster, resulting in a couple of deaths, handing Teemo a hefty gold lead early on.

Fight Fire with Fire

The main issue with facing Teemo is his auto attack range. Melee champions are instantly poked whenever they approach the minion wave and fall behind as a result, so why not pick your own ranged champion in retaliation? Kayle, Quinn, Gnar, and Heimerdinger are all excellent options if you want to go toe-to-toe with the Bandle City scout as they have the opportunity to trade while melee champions would have no response to the never-ending poke from Teemo’s blowgun.

Go All In

Finally, a more aggressive approach to the situation. Take your pick of the several early game, skirmish-favoring champions in the current top lane meta and pick fights with Teemo whenever an opportunity presents itself. Use Jax, Olaf, Rengar, or anyone with the ability to start a fight and trade into the Yordle to shut him down through favorable fights or instantly blowing him up. This is probably the riskiest of the four options, as if it goes south, it’s a long way back into the game for you and your champion.

All in all, there’s no sure-fire way to prevent a Teemo from taking over a game, especially with his current power level. However, as long as you’re wary of his Blinding Dart and Ignite in the early game, and focus on not falling behind, then you should be fine. Punish his lack of escape tools and Teleport by ganking and killing him early, then use your gold lead to snowball it out of his control.

And most importantly, don’t let his laugh tilt you.

Have you suffered from Teemo abuse over the last few patches? Do you think this guide to counter the Yordle is adequate? Let us know what you do to counter Teemo in the comments, on Facebook, or on Twitter!