Twelve minutes into the game, and everything isn’t going as well as you like. Your tank is sitting at 0-3-0, mid has been ganked a few times successfully, and the solo is being pushed back against his tower. A few botched engagements have resulted in 1-8 in their favor. Luckily as an adc you’ve repositioned yourself well and you’ve survived most of the enemy jungler’s attempts to murder you in cold blood. It seems hopeless as your team is behind in experience and gold, and snowballing is a pretty big factor in Smite. What should you do in this situation?

1. Farm Up

You want to close the gold and experience gap as safely as possible, so try to farm as efficiently as possible. If you’re a tank and you went for mark of the vanguard, maybe consider getting Midas Boots, Watcher’s Gift, or Hand of the Gods to boost your income. For the jungler, make a few rounds before trying for a gank. Don’t try to force a gank either. If there’s no kill potential, simply leave and continue farming.

Team Dignitas' Drew 'Lassiz' Boyd kills middle camp furies, getting stronger despite his team's last engagment.

2. Be Patient

Too many times the losing team gets even more aggressive, desperate for kills. Because the enemy team is winning most of the engagements, you have to be patient until the opposing team makes a mistake. Then capitalize on that mistake. Dual lane pushing too far up? Gank them from behind with your jungler. Mid missing or slow to get back in lane? Put some aggro on their tower or take midcamps. If you deny them any more kills by playing conservatively and cautiously, you will slowly close that gold and experience gap and be able to play more aggressively later.

3. Get Vision

If their jungler is getting big and you’re getting ganked by other lanes, then buy some wards or even Eye of Providence. Keep your eye on the mini map. You want to see where their players are in order to reposition yourself in time to avoid ganks, or to even gank them when they are out of position. Lighting up the map will also help you with objectives.

Lassiz places a ward on the Gold Fury, ensuring that the enemy team won't complete this objective without a fight.

4. Go For Objectives

Towers can really pull you ahead or keep you in the game by awarding both experience and gold to all players. If you have vision on the map, your team’s map control can be that much greater by taking down towers. Need a boost of gold? Put a sentry ward on Gold Fury and when a few of the enemy gods are down, group up and take Gold Fury. This will help close the gap even further as killing the Gold Fury awards 300 gold to each player.

5. Small Victories

If you successfully gank a few enemies and win that engagement, retreat unless you’re close to full health. Chances are, your enemies are going to be rotating over and may catch you and end your life. Same goes for objectives. Once that tower is down or that gold fury is dead, go back to base or back to lane if you’re healthy. You don’t want to give the enemy team any opportunities to regain the lead.

6. Stay Positive

Don’t let the fact that they are ahead get to you. Keep your head in the game, and stay level. Play carefully, take less risks, and you’ll be able to catch up.

7. Late Game

If they are really ahead and have several levels on you and your teammates, take a look at your team comp. If you have gods like Freya, Chronos, He Bo, Bakasura, Artemis, etc, then your late game may be significantly better than early or mid. One final option you can try is to farm as much as you can and hope that late game you will be able to blow them up. Once you hit level 20, differences in experience will not be as important, and objectives will become much easier. Towers will melt, Gold Fury will be faster to kill, and if one of your teammates has Hand of the Gods, you will be able to contest Fire Giant or even steal it away. Group up and push together, and pick your engagements carefully.

Even though Trendkill's team is down one kill, his team has a better late game. It's best to see this one through, TK!

Good luck and have fun! Please feel free to comment below and share what you think are some of the most important tips to stay in the game even if you're down kills and experience.

Streamers: Lassiz (1 pm - 4 pm EST), Trendkill.