Match ID: 8802500436
A lane scenario where the offlane duo become stronger (at level 2), push out the wave and utilize the small camp:
- It was an underlord and hoodwink vs kez and ringmaster. The first thing I noticed was how the hoodwink felt out-traded by the ringmaster. I thought that was the only reason why she didn't block the small camp. Just by walking towards it at 1:35 she took a lot of damage. It happened that ringmaster had pulled, so underlord was free from cs-ing and walked towards his hoodwink during that downtime. But with their level 2, they were able to kill the ringmaster and after that, they pulled the wave into the small camp and farmed it. So that's occurence #1 of farming the small camp.
- At 3:20, both the underlord and the kez had creeps from the previous wave. But they do very different things, which end up being at the offlane's advantage. Underlord killed the opponent ranged creep first (the creep that deals the most damage to his creeps) and kept his alive.
But kez dragged the creeps to his ranged to deny it (hoodwink secures it though).
Underlord's creeps turned into a double wave which made kez busy dealing with creeps under tower, leaving underlord free to farm the small camp again, get the madstone, and with his hoodwink, kill the ringmaster again. He also makes sure the small camp spawns at minute 4 to farm it again. At this point, although underlord and kez are similar in levels, hoodwink is a level ahead of the ringmaster. Combining their spells, they use them on kez and the coming wave, killing it and kez. Underlord has a clear gold lead by minute 5. Though the ringmaster sacrifices himself to keep the wave alive till the Kez spawns to even it out.
For that reason, maximizing your potential in lane won't always look like that, especially if you're not exactly stronger.
Match ID: 8802615564
The second replay looks pretty different. It's a primal beast and kotl vs kez and enchantress. Here we see complete avoidance in the early levels while maximizing efficiency. The offlane duo kill the wave before they meet with both their spells.
Then as the second wave approaches, primal drags it, being the melee tanky guy and kotl harasses the kez who's tanking the wave. Instead of being ready for plays like the duo were able to do in the previous game, kotl stacks the tricamp in between. This does give the ench the opportunity to open the small camp. So knowing that she'd be pulling at 2:22, and because they have the big camp as well, kotl uses his illuminate to push out the wave to pull as well. I think it's a bug but the creeps return to the camp too early so the pull doesn't work. Regardless, the wave push helps them contest the pull as the kez has to deal with the wave.
This lane they definitely don't feel as strong. They keep the small camp blocked and avoid interactions early. They play for efficiency, since that's primal's strength, by sometimes dragging the wave and farming it with the the big camp.
I'm sure the more we look at replays the more ways we'll see lanes being played differently. It depends on strengths, timings, opportunities.