Normally, I know why my team loses. But this match, we just lost almost every engagement and I couldn't figure out why. We ended up struggling to hold even one outpost.

Our team (top)
Wukong
Kayle
Hecarim
Brand

(bot)
Chogath

Enemy team (top)
Talon
Irelia
Shen
Taric

(bot)
Karthus

I'm sure a lot of it came down to skill, but in engagements my team seemed to do the right thing - fight on turret, Brand built tanky AP held in back, we focused Talon etc. So, I was wondering if maybe it had to do with team comp.

Anyone provide some insight with the limited information available?

1. 4 hard CC vs 1
2. 2 tanks vs zero
3. AOE support auras

the other team had taric

im guessing cho lost bot lane due to karthus just pushing him out...

brand has a better chance at that match up which would have saved you 2 aoe CC's for windmill and a faily decent single target nuke that would be pretty effective versus their tankiness.

Yeah this makes sense. Thanks.

And Cho did get pushed out around middle of the game; after that, he couldn't lane bot anymore.

Oh any tips vs. Maokai bot? Lots of sustain, good pusher.

Based on the information, I would guess they got a fair amount of armor and mostly initiated onto Hecarim who isn't that great at defending himself from bursts. Taric and Shen can do easy initiations and if no stealth reveal is bought, focusing Talon can cause team fights to be lost due to his ult coming out so fast. Kayle may have been CC'd at inconvenient times -- they have a lot to do that with.

I'm also guessing at least Shen had Garrison, and that Karthus was smart enough to move a good distance away from Cho before ulting.

Neither of the teams are particularly geared for an early game steamroll, but they would be able to initiate far better than yours, and Garrison would have pushed their tanking abilities to the point where its simply a lockout.

I haven't seen any evidence of Cho'Gath being a particularly good bottom laner. Karthus is very gankable though, so if he's pushing Cho out of bot lane then he's an easy target (Karthus's game is supposed to be a stalemate so he can just support with ult).

In short, your nexus reached 0 health before your enemy

In long, your team has no tank. Brand is probably not dealing enough / any damage simply because Talon / Ireila can kill him in 0.0000001 sec
The rest of your team are AD, which their 2 tank can easily handle your damage (esp. Shen taunt + Taric Aura)

Cho bot is not a bad choice against Karathus, but probably simply just got outplayed by missing skillshotz / getting ganked