How to win the jungle race as Vi against Graves · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Read from Vi's seat: the race windows this plan plays for against Graves.
| Stage | Read | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Clear | Respect Graves | The window at the first buff belongs to Graves: End of the Line plus knockback autos shred melees holding a buff pit. Your own line is real — Vault Breaker charge poke plus the Blast Shield wins the first short trade — but it arrives second here. Fight him in the open where his pellets spread, never inside a tight buff pit, then skip the level-1 crossing. |
| Level 2 Skirmish | Respect Graves | At level 2 this window belongs to Graves: Quickdraw (E) True Grit armor stacking lets them out-trade in tight jungle lanes, and True Grit armor plus point-blank double-shot autos win any close-range brawl. Fight him in the open where his pellets spread, never inside a tight buff pit. Refuse the level-2 skirmish and bank tempo on the opposite side of the map. |
| Level 3 Route | Respect Graves | True Grit armor plus point-blank double-shot autos win any close-range brawl — Vi has no answer to that at level 3. Smoke Screen's blind caps a kit that wins almost every close-quarters exchange on their half of the map too, so give up the level-3 river fight and answer the pressure cross-map. |
| Levels 4-5 Macro | Respect Graves — Path Opposite | Do not trade windows with Graves here: he uses 4-5 to take your camps, because True Grit stacking makes him the better invader. Path opposite, keep your entrances warded, and answer the map, not the champion. |
| Level 6 Breakpoint | Even Ult Window | Both sixes are real: Cease and Desist is point-click lockdown — your engage can no longer be juked, while Collateral Damage adds a dash-reset execute to their close-range shred. Whoever lands their ultimate first wins the window — track the level race and never be the one caught at five and a half. |
| First Item Spike | Sundered Sky Spike | Completing your core item triggers a massive damage, health, and sustain multiplier that completely overpowers traditional brawlers or isolated targets. Graves' first item is a large step in raw damage — the double-shot at point blank starts removing squishies outright. |
| 2+ Items Scaling | Danger — Graves Outscales | You lose the long game outright: he shreds anything in a corridor and holds a side lane against most of the map, and no build path of yours answers that. Convert every early lead into an objective immediately. |
Start your clear at the Red Buff camp utilizing your E resets to maximize early clear speed. Graves has one of the fastest clears in the game — End of the Line through two camps at once means he is level three early.
Ranked by the race windows in Vi's plans — the jungle race carries no win-rate sample.
The full Vi vs Graves report continues with scuttle & dragon rules, invade windows and safety boundaries, the top-side objective fight, macro rotations and the win condition — plus the live enemy-jungle tracker that shows their start, clear and gank timers in game.
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Graves pressures 5 of the 7 windows in this race — survive the early game and scale into your windows.
Not exactly — Graves pressures 5 of the 7 windows, so Vi is playing catch-up and has to lean on the map.
Playing the other side? Graves vs Vi guide →
All Vi jungle matchups →
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