After playing League of Legends for over two years and accumulating
over a thousand normal games, I finally entered ranked play. In my own,
totally objective, assessment, I am skilled enough for Gold. My
placement matches disagreed, and threw me into Bronze II. This is the
story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.
I fear my journey has taken a turn for the worst. I'm perilously close to being demoted back down to Bronze II. In my very first post in this series, I mentioned that I started out in Bronze II, but pretty quickly climbed the ladder and made it into Bronze I. I've been stuck in Bronze I ever since. I've gotten close to the top, but never actually managed to reach a promotional series, because I'd run into a losing streak. Lately, it's gotten worse. I did win a few games and I thought of this as just a temporary setback, but it's now it's worse. So very much worse.
I queued up for another game, hoping to get back on my way to the top. I had first pick, so I was able to secure my Karthus. As the draft progressed, I thought we had the better team. So did one of the enemies, because Summoner 5 dodged. I ended up lower in the pick order this time, and mid was available, but I couldn't safely pick either Karthus or Kassadin. I decided to try Swain. I ended up laning against a Malphite. First time I've faced a Malphite mid. But their jungle was Master Yi. He destroyed us. Also, my teammates seemed to wander around aimlessly and I was always caught alone. It was a terrible game. I went 0/5/1. No more Swain for me. Not for a long time. This game was too depressing. We were so thoroughly annihilated.
For some reason, I opted to try another game. I was desperate to get out of the hole I'd fallen into. Well, for my next game, I was last pick. I was forced into the support role with an Ezreal, so I took Alistar, not really knowing what to do. We laned against a Quinn and a Leona. I bullied them with my Pulverize and took a lot of damage in return, but I figured it would give Ezreal a chance to farm minions and harass Quinn without any reprisal. He didn't really do that. I got hurt and had to back off, but I had potions, so it was fine. Ezreal finally started attacking, but he got caught by Leona repeatedly. I saved him with Pulverize and Headbutt multiple times. He was confused and wondered what the hell I was doing. Eventually the pressure was too much. None of my teammates seemed to be very good or do very much damage. Our Shen solo top was the only one getting kills, and we fell way behind. Ezreal raged at me and Udyr. Udyr raged at me and Ezreal. I tried to just let it go and move on with the game. Of course, it only got worse. I ended up going 1/4/4. Other than the low number of assists, that's about normal for a support tank. We did make it past the 20-minute mark, as there was a surrender vote, but we didn't last long after that. It was another annihilation.
I now have 38 wins, 44 losses. I have a 46.3% winrate. This is all bad. But the worst part is my current LP: 2. I'd say something like, "If I can't turn this around, I'll be demoted." It seems like the appropriate thing to say, but it's not quite right. I can't turn this around. It's not possible. I want to take responsibility for this. I want to be the force that moves me up the ladder and toward Gold. I don't want to be the person blaming others for failure. Still, there's a point where reality interferes too much with that ideal, and I passed that point a long time ago. I can't win these matches. Either the matches change, or I get demoted. It's not within my power to turn this around. Coming to terms with this helplessness is a bit grating. I am done for now. I don't know when I'll play more Ranked games, but it won't be today. I'll probably play a couple of games tomorrow, but they won't be Ranked. Some day soon, I'll get back to this. For now, I need a break.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Going for the Gold Part IX: Attack of the Trolls
After playing League of Legends for over two years and accumulating
over a thousand normal games, I finally entered ranked play. In my own,
totally objective, assessment, I am skilled enough for Gold. My
placement matches disagreed, and threw me into Bronze II. This is the
story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.
For some reason, LOLReplay never captured the first three games that followed my last update, but I remember them to some extent...
First there was a Sivir game. I can remember this one because I whined to Nick about it. The last pick was going to support. At the last second, the person who had volunteered to support picked Shyvana and took Clarity. Shyvana rushed Aegis of the Legion and charged aggressively into our lane opponents, feeding them. Before that could really get going, our jungler, Lee Sin lost a close fight in our jungle and immediately left, never to return to the game. On top of all that, our solo top was apparently playing Nasus for the first time, asking the team questions about what skills to prioritize and what items to build. My gripe was that the Nasus player, someone who apparently plays champions in Ranked to try them out, the Shyvana player, someone who played a non-support champion as a support and took Clarity on a manaless champion and seemed to have no clue how to play at all, and the Lee Sin player, who left the game early on, probably didn't have a history of playing particularly well. Maybe Lee Sin just had a sudden, severe connection problem. Our mid, a Lux, seemed convinced that he ragequit, but I can't prove that was the case. If the matchmaking program had enough information to determine that these players would be dead weight, and that does seem kind of likely, why throw two other people in with them against a team of five that all seem to be competent? We had an unwinnable matchup, and that's no fun.
My next game, I played Karthus against an Annie mid. I was apprehensive about it: most times I see Annie, the person is either very good or very bad. Annie can outfarm Karthus early on and threaten him with her burst, although eventually he becomes stronger. That's what happened this game. She got an early kill on me with Ignite, then got fed off my teammates, but eventually I started killing her. It didn't matter though, because two of the players on my team trolled hard. Our first pick had already taken Cho'Gath solo top, I took mid, and another person took support. These two players, who were probably working together, both insisted on going top. At the last second, one of them, a Master Yi, switched to jungling. The other took Warwick. They threw the game, feeding my lane opponent and two other enemies. I ended up going 4/3 or so. It was another unwinnable game.
My next game was an easy win as Kassadin. I actually had a final score of 2/3/7. My first negative Kassadin game in Ranked so far, although that was only because my teammates kept barely taking kills I was about to get, and I sacrificed myself to get the two kills I did obtain. I forget what was wrong on the enemy team. I don't think they had an AFK, but I guess they had a feeder or two. They surrendered early on, preventing me from improving my K/D ratio. I won my lane against a Viktor, outfarming him and killing him, but the game was practically won for me by our bot lane. I now have 7 wins, 0 losses with Kassadin in Ranked.
I have more information on the following games, as LOLReplay did record them.
I was forced into a support role as Sona. We had Varus ADC, Mordekaiser top, Tryndamere jungle, and Annie mid. They had Caitlyn and Nami bot, Jax top, Volibear jungle, and Orianna mid. They outclassed us everywhere and won every lane. I couldn't stop our Varus from overextending, so bot was lost pretty quickly. I ended up going 0/4/6. I felt like I was at the mercy of my team's incompetence. I could heal, speed them up, and try to save them with my ult, but ultimately, I couldn't stop them from being overpowered.
I took Karthus against a LeBlanc and actually ended up being a bit proud of myself. LeBlanc is a very dangerous lane opponent. This one wasn't worse at roaming and killing my teammates than the assassins I'd faced in previous games: if anything, she was better at it. She used her passive and her combos. She teleported onto wards to pick up double kills in bot lane. But try as she did, she couldn't kill me and she couldn't stop me from farming. Their jungler, Jarvan IV, tried to trap me in his ult so LeBlanc could kill me, a scandalous instance of Noxus and Demacia working together, but I always escaped. The game was pretty even for a while, but we had Nasus, Kog'Maw, Amumu, and Karthus, all very strong lategame champions. My final score was 6/0/7 and I had the highest CS. Basically, I carried this one, although I can't take credit for that, really. What made this game work, unlike so many of my other Karthus games, was having teammates that didn't feed aggressively at the first sign of trouble. We had a team that actually worked together to win fights, and we were more coordinated than they were.
Knowing that I'd be bot lane and that my lane opponents would be Tristana and Zyra, I took a risk and picked Kog'Maw. Our last pick asked me which support I wanted, and then listed a bunch of champions that weren't supports at all (Kayle was one of them and is potentially a support, but the others were all bruisers with no support functionality). While I was typing, my non-support instalocked Jax anyway. It turned out that Jax support worked about as well as anyone would think: he fed. I was overwhelmed, so then I fed too. Our whole team, other than our solo top Nasus, was dominated from the beginning. To make matters worse, the enemy mid was a Kassadin, which quicky became a fed Kassadin. We lost. I went 2/8/4. Not a great showing for my first Ranked Kog'Maw game.
In my most recent game, I was assigned to jungle. I took Maokai. Our bot was a Tristana/Leona combo that did quite well. I did well too. We thought that we were going to win, but our Diana mid had other plans. She lost lane to Fiddlesticks, then raged at my temerity by stealing the enemy blue buff that she wanted. Diana quit, leaving us to fight a 4 vs. 5. Since we had three champions that were all still doing well, we were actually handling the game adequately (although it wouldn't have lasted) without a fifth person. Diana then came back and threatened to quit again if she didn't get all the blue buffs. I said, "The United States does not negotiate with terrorists" at some point. Diana started intentionally feeding, giving the enemy team eight easy kills. Our Tristana raged at Diana, but of course that didn't help either. Just before the end, one of our opponents called it a "6 vs. 4." My final score was 4/2/9. Not bad for a tank, but irrelevant since our mid decided to make us lose. I really hope that player gets permabanned.
My current total is 38 wins, 42 losses. I am at 21 LP, the lowest point I've been at since I initially started climbing this ladder. These games have been a pretty blatant attack of the trolls. Not only did I mostly lose: I mostly lost specifically because I had teammates that actively caused me to lose.
For some reason, LOLReplay never captured the first three games that followed my last update, but I remember them to some extent...
First there was a Sivir game. I can remember this one because I whined to Nick about it. The last pick was going to support. At the last second, the person who had volunteered to support picked Shyvana and took Clarity. Shyvana rushed Aegis of the Legion and charged aggressively into our lane opponents, feeding them. Before that could really get going, our jungler, Lee Sin lost a close fight in our jungle and immediately left, never to return to the game. On top of all that, our solo top was apparently playing Nasus for the first time, asking the team questions about what skills to prioritize and what items to build. My gripe was that the Nasus player, someone who apparently plays champions in Ranked to try them out, the Shyvana player, someone who played a non-support champion as a support and took Clarity on a manaless champion and seemed to have no clue how to play at all, and the Lee Sin player, who left the game early on, probably didn't have a history of playing particularly well. Maybe Lee Sin just had a sudden, severe connection problem. Our mid, a Lux, seemed convinced that he ragequit, but I can't prove that was the case. If the matchmaking program had enough information to determine that these players would be dead weight, and that does seem kind of likely, why throw two other people in with them against a team of five that all seem to be competent? We had an unwinnable matchup, and that's no fun.
My next game, I played Karthus against an Annie mid. I was apprehensive about it: most times I see Annie, the person is either very good or very bad. Annie can outfarm Karthus early on and threaten him with her burst, although eventually he becomes stronger. That's what happened this game. She got an early kill on me with Ignite, then got fed off my teammates, but eventually I started killing her. It didn't matter though, because two of the players on my team trolled hard. Our first pick had already taken Cho'Gath solo top, I took mid, and another person took support. These two players, who were probably working together, both insisted on going top. At the last second, one of them, a Master Yi, switched to jungling. The other took Warwick. They threw the game, feeding my lane opponent and two other enemies. I ended up going 4/3 or so. It was another unwinnable game.
My next game was an easy win as Kassadin. I actually had a final score of 2/3/7. My first negative Kassadin game in Ranked so far, although that was only because my teammates kept barely taking kills I was about to get, and I sacrificed myself to get the two kills I did obtain. I forget what was wrong on the enemy team. I don't think they had an AFK, but I guess they had a feeder or two. They surrendered early on, preventing me from improving my K/D ratio. I won my lane against a Viktor, outfarming him and killing him, but the game was practically won for me by our bot lane. I now have 7 wins, 0 losses with Kassadin in Ranked.
I have more information on the following games, as LOLReplay did record them.
I was forced into a support role as Sona. We had Varus ADC, Mordekaiser top, Tryndamere jungle, and Annie mid. They had Caitlyn and Nami bot, Jax top, Volibear jungle, and Orianna mid. They outclassed us everywhere and won every lane. I couldn't stop our Varus from overextending, so bot was lost pretty quickly. I ended up going 0/4/6. I felt like I was at the mercy of my team's incompetence. I could heal, speed them up, and try to save them with my ult, but ultimately, I couldn't stop them from being overpowered.
I took Karthus against a LeBlanc and actually ended up being a bit proud of myself. LeBlanc is a very dangerous lane opponent. This one wasn't worse at roaming and killing my teammates than the assassins I'd faced in previous games: if anything, she was better at it. She used her passive and her combos. She teleported onto wards to pick up double kills in bot lane. But try as she did, she couldn't kill me and she couldn't stop me from farming. Their jungler, Jarvan IV, tried to trap me in his ult so LeBlanc could kill me, a scandalous instance of Noxus and Demacia working together, but I always escaped. The game was pretty even for a while, but we had Nasus, Kog'Maw, Amumu, and Karthus, all very strong lategame champions. My final score was 6/0/7 and I had the highest CS. Basically, I carried this one, although I can't take credit for that, really. What made this game work, unlike so many of my other Karthus games, was having teammates that didn't feed aggressively at the first sign of trouble. We had a team that actually worked together to win fights, and we were more coordinated than they were.
Knowing that I'd be bot lane and that my lane opponents would be Tristana and Zyra, I took a risk and picked Kog'Maw. Our last pick asked me which support I wanted, and then listed a bunch of champions that weren't supports at all (Kayle was one of them and is potentially a support, but the others were all bruisers with no support functionality). While I was typing, my non-support instalocked Jax anyway. It turned out that Jax support worked about as well as anyone would think: he fed. I was overwhelmed, so then I fed too. Our whole team, other than our solo top Nasus, was dominated from the beginning. To make matters worse, the enemy mid was a Kassadin, which quicky became a fed Kassadin. We lost. I went 2/8/4. Not a great showing for my first Ranked Kog'Maw game.
In my most recent game, I was assigned to jungle. I took Maokai. Our bot was a Tristana/Leona combo that did quite well. I did well too. We thought that we were going to win, but our Diana mid had other plans. She lost lane to Fiddlesticks, then raged at my temerity by stealing the enemy blue buff that she wanted. Diana quit, leaving us to fight a 4 vs. 5. Since we had three champions that were all still doing well, we were actually handling the game adequately (although it wouldn't have lasted) without a fifth person. Diana then came back and threatened to quit again if she didn't get all the blue buffs. I said, "The United States does not negotiate with terrorists" at some point. Diana started intentionally feeding, giving the enemy team eight easy kills. Our Tristana raged at Diana, but of course that didn't help either. Just before the end, one of our opponents called it a "6 vs. 4." My final score was 4/2/9. Not bad for a tank, but irrelevant since our mid decided to make us lose. I really hope that player gets permabanned.
My current total is 38 wins, 42 losses. I am at 21 LP, the lowest point I've been at since I initially started climbing this ladder. These games have been a pretty blatant attack of the trolls. Not only did I mostly lose: I mostly lost specifically because I had teammates that actively caused me to lose.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Going for the Gold Part VIII: The Server Crashed, and With It, My Dreams
After playing League of Legends for over two years and accumulating
over a thousand normal games, I finally entered ranked play. In my own,
totally objective, assessment, I am skilled enough for Gold. My
placement matches disagreed, and threw me into Bronze II. This is the
story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.
Since my last update, well, things have gone poorly...
I had my first Ranked loss as Sona. I was supporting a Corki just like my more successful game earlier, but this Corki wasn't nearly as good. I ended up going 1/3/8 and being frustrated at not being able to do anything, despite, I think, outplaying the enemy support pretty well.
So I tried a Karthus game. I was ahead on farm and was confident that I would probably carry the game. I lagged out near my turret, but it ended after several seconds and I didn't seem to be in any danger. My lane opponent, an Ahri, asked in the allchat if anyone else had just lagged out. I tried to respond, "Yeah." It didn't go through. Three other people's responses did show up. Then I was completely stuck. I was stuck for over three minutes. It was a server-side crash of some sort. Everyone in the game was affected, but I was affected the most. For whatever reason, I was the last one to reload. We were slightly ahead before the crash, but behind after the last person (me) showed up again. We eventually lost. That this game wasn't a loss forgiven is just wrong. My final K/D/A was 4/3/4. I'm still pissed off about this one. If we'd lost all on our own, that would be one thing, but to be ahead and then have technical difficulties right before we started losing makes it really irritating. After this game, which shouldn't have counted, my LP plummeted into the 30's.
Anxious to make up for what had happened, I tried another game. I was last pick again. Seems like I'm first or last a lot. Anyway, I needed to jungle and didn't want to go full tank. I played Udyr, got some ganks in, and dominated in midgame skirmishes. In the end I went 10/5/10. It was a good game and alleviated some of my rage about the bullshit before it.
My next game was another first pick Karthus. My lane opponent was a Lux and was under the mistaken impression that my passive laning was helping her because Lux would be such a monster in the late game. I thought I'd carry, but the other lanes faltered and we fell behind. The enemy team had a lot of CC, which they used to win fights, but I think that wouldn't have been a big problem if my allies hadn't overextended so much. I went 7/4/13. Yet another in my long line of Ranked defeats as Karthus in which I got fed, but couldn't salvage the game.
Late at night, I did one more Karthus game (not first pick this time, but it worked out). I laned against a Kennen. So far, I haven't seen a Kennen that can stop a Karthus from farming. I only went 4/1/9, but my lane and our top and jungle went well enough that we dominated the whole game.
I'd salvaged my ladder position somewhat, but I was still behind. Since then, I've played one more Ranked game, this time as Kassadin mid against a Viktor. I had a Leona jungler that helped mitigate Viktor's early advantage and keep my lane under control, and then snowballed and started killing everyone. The enemy Singed disconnected, making an advantageous game turn into a free win. 9/1/5 and I denied Viktor CS so hard that I actually ended up with more than him. I'm back to baseline, with 36 wins, 36 losses. I now have 61 LP. Working my way back up...
Since my last update, well, things have gone poorly...
I had my first Ranked loss as Sona. I was supporting a Corki just like my more successful game earlier, but this Corki wasn't nearly as good. I ended up going 1/3/8 and being frustrated at not being able to do anything, despite, I think, outplaying the enemy support pretty well.
So I tried a Karthus game. I was ahead on farm and was confident that I would probably carry the game. I lagged out near my turret, but it ended after several seconds and I didn't seem to be in any danger. My lane opponent, an Ahri, asked in the allchat if anyone else had just lagged out. I tried to respond, "Yeah." It didn't go through. Three other people's responses did show up. Then I was completely stuck. I was stuck for over three minutes. It was a server-side crash of some sort. Everyone in the game was affected, but I was affected the most. For whatever reason, I was the last one to reload. We were slightly ahead before the crash, but behind after the last person (me) showed up again. We eventually lost. That this game wasn't a loss forgiven is just wrong. My final K/D/A was 4/3/4. I'm still pissed off about this one. If we'd lost all on our own, that would be one thing, but to be ahead and then have technical difficulties right before we started losing makes it really irritating. After this game, which shouldn't have counted, my LP plummeted into the 30's.
Anxious to make up for what had happened, I tried another game. I was last pick again. Seems like I'm first or last a lot. Anyway, I needed to jungle and didn't want to go full tank. I played Udyr, got some ganks in, and dominated in midgame skirmishes. In the end I went 10/5/10. It was a good game and alleviated some of my rage about the bullshit before it.
My next game was another first pick Karthus. My lane opponent was a Lux and was under the mistaken impression that my passive laning was helping her because Lux would be such a monster in the late game. I thought I'd carry, but the other lanes faltered and we fell behind. The enemy team had a lot of CC, which they used to win fights, but I think that wouldn't have been a big problem if my allies hadn't overextended so much. I went 7/4/13. Yet another in my long line of Ranked defeats as Karthus in which I got fed, but couldn't salvage the game.
Late at night, I did one more Karthus game (not first pick this time, but it worked out). I laned against a Kennen. So far, I haven't seen a Kennen that can stop a Karthus from farming. I only went 4/1/9, but my lane and our top and jungle went well enough that we dominated the whole game.
I'd salvaged my ladder position somewhat, but I was still behind. Since then, I've played one more Ranked game, this time as Kassadin mid against a Viktor. I had a Leona jungler that helped mitigate Viktor's early advantage and keep my lane under control, and then snowballed and started killing everyone. The enemy Singed disconnected, making an advantageous game turn into a free win. 9/1/5 and I denied Viktor CS so hard that I actually ended up with more than him. I'm back to baseline, with 36 wins, 36 losses. I now have 61 LP. Working my way back up...
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Going for the Gold Part VII: Support OP
After playing League of Legends for over two years and accumulating
over a thousand normal games, I finally entered ranked play. In my own,
totally objective, assessment, I am skilled enough for Gold. My
placement matches disagreed, and threw me into Bronze II. This is the
story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.
I got some more ranked games in. Five of them, actually. My position in the ladder is a bit better than it was before. I now have 73 LP. My overall record is 33 wins and 33 losses. By using arithmetic and paying attention to these posts one could hypothetically ascertain that I must have won three games and lost two since my last update. But who has time for that?
My losses were, well, losses. I wasn't happy with them, although one of them may have potentially been avoidable, but probably not. Both were frustrating. Two of these wins though, might be personal favorites of mine. Last post ended on something of a sour note, albeit hopeful. I had won four in a row, then lost three in a row. What happened after that was different.
The same day that I'd lost one ranked Karthus game, but after I posted my previous update, I tried Karthus again. Our jungler was a no-show. Our bot lane was dominated and the enemy jungler was able to help compound that problem. I played carefully, hoping for something to turn things around. I did pick up some kills and assists, but the pressure of playing 4 vs. 5 was too much and we were easily beaten. My final score was 3/2/6 (it actually should have been 4/2/6 since Caitlyn and I were killing each other, but Renekton took our nexus down so quickly that Caitlyn was made invulnerable a tiny fraction of a second before she would have died).
So at this point, I had just lost four in a row, and the last two had both been as my main. I'd thought I accounted for myself in both, but the games were impossible to win (feeders in the first and a leaver in the second). It was getting late and I was not in the mood, but I clicked to play another anyway. I got first pick again, but someone left the lobby. I thought about leaving the queue since I didn't feel like playing anymore, but I stuck around. I got into another lobby, this time as the fourth pick. I moped around while my teammates made their picks. It got to me and the only roles left were ADC and support. I picked Kog'Maw. At first, I thought our last pick was AFK, but then the person picked Caitlyn, which led to argument in the chat. I invoked pick order because I was already frustrated with how my games were going and didn't want to add to that by supporting some random that didn't even seem to communicate (that was unfair, since I hadn't been communicating much either, but whatever). It didn't matter, since the Caitlyn-picker insisted on having "called it" and wouldn't budge. Two people wanted me to pick Thresh for some reason. I guess because Thresh wasn't banned, but they weren't clear on it. At the last second, I switched from Kog'Maw to Thresh. I made a show of being pissed off about being bullied into supporting Caitlyn, but it was a ruse: I had no intention of supporting. I have never played Thresh as a support, although before this point I'd only played him against bots. I tried a Thresh build that looked good and I've stuck with it ever since.
I started out not taking Exhaust, like half my allies demand when I play a support and taking boots and potions instead of wards, which did get some commentary but no real rage. It wasn't that I was trying to make my team rage at me, but I figured it was a foregone conclusion. They'd see me rushing Bloodthirster and they'd flip out. That, or my lack of experience with Thresh would cause me to fail miserably. Or both. I'd take too much CS or too many kills and the ADC would start the rage. Only it never happened. Instead, I went into the lane and got fed. I carried the fuck out of this game. My final score was 13/2/9 right before the enemy team surrendered. I built The Bloodthirster, Mercury's Treads, and Frozen Mallet, but by the time anyone noticed, they were too busy cracking up about how apparently Thresh was carrying and Caitlyn was supporting (technically, I'd let her have most of the CS, but I took the kills). So yeah, my first PVP Thresh game ever turned out to be a Ranked game, I faked out supporting, and I thoroughly dominated. I'm not saying Thresh is OP, but I just might be focusing on him more in the future.
I came back the next day still pretty thrilled about my ridiculous Thresh game. I didn't focus on Ranked, but I did get a Mordekaiser game in. My lane opponent was no problem, but they had a Hecarim jungler, so I had to be careful. Hecarim camping me cost me one death (they got me with a tower dive, then killed our mid when he showed up to help only after I had died, then took the tower). But I recovered. Unfortunately our bot lane fed and we were outplayed as a team. My final score was 3/4/4.
At this point, my wins were lagging behind my losses by two games. I was hoping to dig myself out of the hole. I took Kassadin mid against a Fiddlesticks, a lane that I figured would be annoying, but probably wouldn't stop me. I outdamaged Fiddlesticks, but neither of us could really kill the other at first and I had to give up some CS in order to keep my health high. My problem was that their jungler was a constant threat while mine decided to give my lane opponent a couple of free kills. That left me two levels behind Fiddlesticks for a while and I was worried, but it became apparent that our Vayne was going to carry anyway. This was the closest Ranked game I've had to a "get carried" experience. I won lane, more or less, and my final score was 4/2/4, but I was partially piggybacking off someone else's dominance. Still, a win is a win.
I wanted to get one more in for the day, hoping to catch my wins up to my losses. In the lobby I was last pick. I had a feeling that I'd end up supporting, and I was right. I played Sona. I guess so far, and I hadn't realized this, my undefeated champions in Ranked are Kassadin (five wins), Sona (three wins), and Thresh (one win). It was a very good game for me and I'm probably somewhat bigheaded right now about my Sona gameplay. I protected our Corki, got him fed, and made sure we controlled objectives, putting pressure on mid and helping two of our lanes to snowball simultaneously. Our Corki decided I should leave him and babysit our Garen, who was failing. I went top and helped Garen catch up. In teamfights, my auras and my ult gave us a huge advantage and we ended up with a very decisive victory. My final score was 2/1/31, which is fine, but what I liked about this game was that I gave us advantages in so many aspects, making use of my poke, my healing, my speed boosts, my stun, my auras, Clairvoyance, wards, securing two Flash/Hymn kills, knocking over towers with Power Chord, and generally doing what I envision a support doing under ideal circumstances.
So yeah, two great wins (both as supports, although technically that designation probably doesn't apply in the Thresh game), an unremarkable one, and two losses. Well, this ladder is grueling but I just might be making progress.
I got some more ranked games in. Five of them, actually. My position in the ladder is a bit better than it was before. I now have 73 LP. My overall record is 33 wins and 33 losses. By using arithmetic and paying attention to these posts one could hypothetically ascertain that I must have won three games and lost two since my last update. But who has time for that?
My losses were, well, losses. I wasn't happy with them, although one of them may have potentially been avoidable, but probably not. Both were frustrating. Two of these wins though, might be personal favorites of mine. Last post ended on something of a sour note, albeit hopeful. I had won four in a row, then lost three in a row. What happened after that was different.
The same day that I'd lost one ranked Karthus game, but after I posted my previous update, I tried Karthus again. Our jungler was a no-show. Our bot lane was dominated and the enemy jungler was able to help compound that problem. I played carefully, hoping for something to turn things around. I did pick up some kills and assists, but the pressure of playing 4 vs. 5 was too much and we were easily beaten. My final score was 3/2/6 (it actually should have been 4/2/6 since Caitlyn and I were killing each other, but Renekton took our nexus down so quickly that Caitlyn was made invulnerable a tiny fraction of a second before she would have died).
So at this point, I had just lost four in a row, and the last two had both been as my main. I'd thought I accounted for myself in both, but the games were impossible to win (feeders in the first and a leaver in the second). It was getting late and I was not in the mood, but I clicked to play another anyway. I got first pick again, but someone left the lobby. I thought about leaving the queue since I didn't feel like playing anymore, but I stuck around. I got into another lobby, this time as the fourth pick. I moped around while my teammates made their picks. It got to me and the only roles left were ADC and support. I picked Kog'Maw. At first, I thought our last pick was AFK, but then the person picked Caitlyn, which led to argument in the chat. I invoked pick order because I was already frustrated with how my games were going and didn't want to add to that by supporting some random that didn't even seem to communicate (that was unfair, since I hadn't been communicating much either, but whatever). It didn't matter, since the Caitlyn-picker insisted on having "called it" and wouldn't budge. Two people wanted me to pick Thresh for some reason. I guess because Thresh wasn't banned, but they weren't clear on it. At the last second, I switched from Kog'Maw to Thresh. I made a show of being pissed off about being bullied into supporting Caitlyn, but it was a ruse: I had no intention of supporting. I have never played Thresh as a support, although before this point I'd only played him against bots. I tried a Thresh build that looked good and I've stuck with it ever since.
I started out not taking Exhaust, like half my allies demand when I play a support and taking boots and potions instead of wards, which did get some commentary but no real rage. It wasn't that I was trying to make my team rage at me, but I figured it was a foregone conclusion. They'd see me rushing Bloodthirster and they'd flip out. That, or my lack of experience with Thresh would cause me to fail miserably. Or both. I'd take too much CS or too many kills and the ADC would start the rage. Only it never happened. Instead, I went into the lane and got fed. I carried the fuck out of this game. My final score was 13/2/9 right before the enemy team surrendered. I built The Bloodthirster, Mercury's Treads, and Frozen Mallet, but by the time anyone noticed, they were too busy cracking up about how apparently Thresh was carrying and Caitlyn was supporting (technically, I'd let her have most of the CS, but I took the kills). So yeah, my first PVP Thresh game ever turned out to be a Ranked game, I faked out supporting, and I thoroughly dominated. I'm not saying Thresh is OP, but I just might be focusing on him more in the future.
I came back the next day still pretty thrilled about my ridiculous Thresh game. I didn't focus on Ranked, but I did get a Mordekaiser game in. My lane opponent was no problem, but they had a Hecarim jungler, so I had to be careful. Hecarim camping me cost me one death (they got me with a tower dive, then killed our mid when he showed up to help only after I had died, then took the tower). But I recovered. Unfortunately our bot lane fed and we were outplayed as a team. My final score was 3/4/4.
At this point, my wins were lagging behind my losses by two games. I was hoping to dig myself out of the hole. I took Kassadin mid against a Fiddlesticks, a lane that I figured would be annoying, but probably wouldn't stop me. I outdamaged Fiddlesticks, but neither of us could really kill the other at first and I had to give up some CS in order to keep my health high. My problem was that their jungler was a constant threat while mine decided to give my lane opponent a couple of free kills. That left me two levels behind Fiddlesticks for a while and I was worried, but it became apparent that our Vayne was going to carry anyway. This was the closest Ranked game I've had to a "get carried" experience. I won lane, more or less, and my final score was 4/2/4, but I was partially piggybacking off someone else's dominance. Still, a win is a win.
I wanted to get one more in for the day, hoping to catch my wins up to my losses. In the lobby I was last pick. I had a feeling that I'd end up supporting, and I was right. I played Sona. I guess so far, and I hadn't realized this, my undefeated champions in Ranked are Kassadin (five wins), Sona (three wins), and Thresh (one win). It was a very good game for me and I'm probably somewhat bigheaded right now about my Sona gameplay. I protected our Corki, got him fed, and made sure we controlled objectives, putting pressure on mid and helping two of our lanes to snowball simultaneously. Our Corki decided I should leave him and babysit our Garen, who was failing. I went top and helped Garen catch up. In teamfights, my auras and my ult gave us a huge advantage and we ended up with a very decisive victory. My final score was 2/1/31, which is fine, but what I liked about this game was that I gave us advantages in so many aspects, making use of my poke, my healing, my speed boosts, my stun, my auras, Clairvoyance, wards, securing two Flash/Hymn kills, knocking over towers with Power Chord, and generally doing what I envision a support doing under ideal circumstances.
So yeah, two great wins (both as supports, although technically that designation probably doesn't apply in the Thresh game), an unremarkable one, and two losses. Well, this ladder is grueling but I just might be making progress.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Going for the Gold Part VI: The Clamps
After playing League of Legends for over two years and accumulating
over a thousand normal games, I finally entered ranked play. In my own,
totally objective, assessment, I am skilled enough for Gold. My
placement matches disagreed, and threw me into Bronze II. This is the
story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.
Since my last update, I've played seven games, spread out over, well, however long it's been. The first four were wins and the last three were losses. I won as Malphite, then Karthus, Karthus again, and Sivir. I lost as Malphite, then Sivir, and finally Karthus. Yes, I only played three champions. I don't really have much else to say about the games in particular. The losses were generally made unwinnable by my teammates.
When I was winning, I encountered something I'd heard about, but not actually experienced. In Division I of each league, LP gains decrease dramatically toward the top of the ladder. This is called clamping. Without clamping, people would eventually have lucky streaks that would promote them out of Bronze I and into Silver V. Since they couldn't be demoted back into Bronze by losing games, they would stay there. Eventually, Division V in every league would grow much larger than all other divisions. Clamping is the system's way of making sure that only players who are ready actually make it out of Division I.
Right now, I have 30 wins and 31 losses. I'll eventually win enough games to overcome clamping, but it may take a long time. And I've come to terms with that. The end of Season 3 is coming up, and I'll probably still be in Bronze when that happens. If I had thought about how close the end of the season was, I would definitely not have started Ranked yet. I was hesitant to already, but this would have been a dealbreaker. Now, though? I don't mind so much. The reward for being Gold now would be an Elise skin, and I already have an Elise skin that is one of my favorite skins in the game (Death Blossom Elise). If I make it to Silver before the season ends, which is unlikely, the reward will be a ward skin, and I've never really bothered with those. The thing that would have left me balking before I started this is that the "reward" for being in Bronze is a border. So if I make it to Silver or even Gold in Season 4, I'll still be branded as a "bronze baddie." And that possibility would have been enough to keep me out of Ranked for the remainder of the season. But I've already expounded on my view that Bronze players are underrated.
Well, that's it. This is a short one. Oh, I was at 86 LP and now I'm down to 66, but I hope to climb back to the top and update this series soon.
Since my last update, I've played seven games, spread out over, well, however long it's been. The first four were wins and the last three were losses. I won as Malphite, then Karthus, Karthus again, and Sivir. I lost as Malphite, then Sivir, and finally Karthus. Yes, I only played three champions. I don't really have much else to say about the games in particular. The losses were generally made unwinnable by my teammates.
When I was winning, I encountered something I'd heard about, but not actually experienced. In Division I of each league, LP gains decrease dramatically toward the top of the ladder. This is called clamping. Without clamping, people would eventually have lucky streaks that would promote them out of Bronze I and into Silver V. Since they couldn't be demoted back into Bronze by losing games, they would stay there. Eventually, Division V in every league would grow much larger than all other divisions. Clamping is the system's way of making sure that only players who are ready actually make it out of Division I.
Right now, I have 30 wins and 31 losses. I'll eventually win enough games to overcome clamping, but it may take a long time. And I've come to terms with that. The end of Season 3 is coming up, and I'll probably still be in Bronze when that happens. If I had thought about how close the end of the season was, I would definitely not have started Ranked yet. I was hesitant to already, but this would have been a dealbreaker. Now, though? I don't mind so much. The reward for being Gold now would be an Elise skin, and I already have an Elise skin that is one of my favorite skins in the game (Death Blossom Elise). If I make it to Silver before the season ends, which is unlikely, the reward will be a ward skin, and I've never really bothered with those. The thing that would have left me balking before I started this is that the "reward" for being in Bronze is a border. So if I make it to Silver or even Gold in Season 4, I'll still be branded as a "bronze baddie." And that possibility would have been enough to keep me out of Ranked for the remainder of the season. But I've already expounded on my view that Bronze players are underrated.
Well, that's it. This is a short one. Oh, I was at 86 LP and now I'm down to 66, but I hope to climb back to the top and update this series soon.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Going for the Gold Part V: A New Approach
After playing League of Legends for over two years and accumulating
over a thousand normal games, I finally entered ranked play. In my own,
totally objective, assessment, I am skilled enough for Gold. My
placement matches disagreed, and threw me into Bronze II. This is the
story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.
For previous installments in this series, I played a bunch of ranked games and then analyzed them in varying levels of detail afterward. I'm taking a new approach this time. I'm starting a blog post right before playing a ranked game, and I'll add text to this while I'm in every lobby and between the games. I probably won't get very many games in today (planning on maybe three), but if I like this way of doing things, I may return to it for future updates. Part of the goal here is to see if I can encourage myself to remain alert, keep myself from falling into habits, and remain positive and communicative throughout every game. I don't know if it will work, but it's worth trying. Here we go...
I am second pick. Well, we got Yi. They picked Tryndamere and Vayne. For some reason, I'm picking Kassadin even though I'm not counterpicking anything this time. I hope I'm not being stupid.
Our bans: Blitzcrank, Amumu, Malphite
Their bans: Shen, Thresh, Darius
Our team: Master Yi, Kassadin, Zilean, Caitlyn, Pantheon
Their team: Tryndamere, Vayne, Vi, Leona, Talon
Well, I've heard mixed things about Talon countering Kassadin. I'll try not to feed...
Well, we won. So the idea about Talon countering Kassadin is that if Kassadin tries to go in with his combo, before he can silence Talon, he get silenced himself and then takes Talon's full combo. If they both build glass cannon, Talon wins the trades and can very plausibly kill Kassadin, who won't be able to spam his spells as much and whose passive will be useless against Talon. For this game, I switched my usual starting items of a Sapphire Crystal and one of each potion to a Sapphire Crystal and two health potions. The health potions were my key to beating Talon in lane. He outfarmed me and tried to soften me for a killing combo, but it never showed up, so I was able to keep up with him, harassing with my Q and sometimes landing my E. I picked up an early kill on him with Ignite, then another once we got our ults. Even though he outfarmed me, the kills helped me keep pace with him. Eventually, we were both roaming and trying to pick up kills elsewhere. My team was ahead on kills the whole time, but he still ended up doing better at first. Eventually, my damage output was definitely greater, and I fed a lot less than my lane opponent (I ended up tied with the two AD carries for fewest deaths).
I didn't communicate a whole lot with my team, but I commented and made suggestions occasionally. In particular, I tried to keep them from getting into disadvantageous fights, which failed pretty miserably once (they ran into a 3 vs. 5 right after I told them not to do just that), but overall might have helped, and certainly didn't hurt. We had a pretty big lead at first, but Tryndamere's ult and Vayne's lategame damage started to catch up with us, with Talon picking off some of my teammates. I made a few serious mistakes, such as trying to Riftwalk in and activate Zhonya's Hourglass one time, only to have the Hourglass never go off. As our advantage started to diminish, they invaded our base, and I dished out enough damage to kill four of them (Caitlyn's ult took one of those kills, which was fine, and the kills were far enough apart that it wouldn't have been a quadra anyway). What eventually won us the game was luring them into a push on our base through mid. Our mid inhibitor and their top inhibitor had both been destroyed and respawned. Master Yi let us defend against their push while he went to backdoor top. The idea was to force them to retreat in order to defend their base, but they opted to try to push through us, which was a huge mistake on their part. Two survivors of their aggressive push did recall and try to stop Yi, but it was too late.
My final score for this one was 10/4/10. I gained 19 LP for this game and I'm currently sitting at 59 LP. My Kassadin record is 4 wins, 0 losses. My lifetime ranked record is now 26 wins, 26 losses.
Well, I'm going to try at least one more. And so...
Well, I'm second pick again. They first-picked Karthus, but our last pick was begging to be allowed to play Jayce mid. I've explained that I think it's a bad idea, but the begging continued. I've given in. I really hope my being amenable here isn't going to backfire. I like trying to be nice to people instead of forcing my way. Well, I'm Maokai.
Our bans: Blitzcrank, Malphite, Master Yi
Their bans: Amumu, Thresh, Hecarim
Our team: Lulu, Maokai, Ezreal, Ryze, Jayce
Their team: Karthus, Singed, Sona, Sejuani, Tristana
So weird that four of their champions are my four first champions that I ever played. I'm really uneasy about not having taken Kassadin mid. But whatever. Game's started...
Well, it turns out my fears were totally realized. Not only was Jayce a feeder, he also insulted me and other teammates in the chat. I tried to remain positive, saying something like, "We need to change something up, guys. Right now we're getting destroyed." Jayce responded by blaming me for it. I wanted to remain constructive, but our team was being shut down at every turn and I was too far behind to really help. I don't think I played that well this game, but I did get first blood (and then I died because I tried to recall in our jungle and their jungler found me, which was totally my mistake) and did try to execute some ganks, but I wasn't getting help on them from teammates, and my attempts at initiating in fights just resulted in me being swarmed and killed with no help from allies. It was a very one-sided game and we probably would have lost no matter what I did. Still, what annoys me is that I want to be a nice player that tries to accommodate allies, but games like this make me more inclined to do whatever I want and shove it down everyone else's throats.
I went 1/6/2 this game. My total record is now 26 wins, 27 losses. I should stop trying Maokai. I should stop playing full tank junglers. I have absolutely no way to pull my team out from a bad spot when I do this. A more damaging jungler could at least try to pick off weakened to squishy opponents. Even though I think Maokai can work really well, it might be the case that I need a more coordinated team to make him really work. I lost 11 LP from this game, so my LP is now sitting at 48. Oh, one more note: someone (probably Jayce) badgered our Ezreal about playing badly and owning the Pulsefire Ezreal skin, to which our Ryze asserted (Ryze seemed to know Ezreal, but I can't be sure that this claim is true) that the Ezreal player was actually playing on friend's acccount, and that the player was really below level 30. If that's true, what the fuck? Why do that to people?
Well, my new approach hasn't really produced any results. I won a game that I think we were going to win anyway and I lost a game that I think we had no real hope to win anyway. Well, I'm going to try again...
I forget what was banned, but it doesn't matter.
Our team: Nidalee, Varus, Leona, Evelynn, Mordekaiser
Their team: Singed, Darius, Miss Fortune, Teemo, Alistar
This game sucked. I wish I could say I stayed positive, and I really tried, but my teammates were very unhelpful. I took Mordekaiser top against a Singed that played aggressively. I didn't get any ganks, but Singed had a Darius to come in for a double-pull gank that I couldn't fight. Since Singed got ahead and was so fast, I started losing lane completely. But my allies still didn't gank for me, instead they would show up after I died and try to kill Singed, which actually worked twice. I continue to believe that Nidalee is a bad pick for a solo mid champion. Their Teemo built up massive amounts of AP and was probably the biggest contributor to our defeat. I started to farm up and try to negate my early disadvantage, but Singed is such a strong pusher that I kept having to babysit lanes to keep our turrets alive, and yet we still won most of the fights for a while. Eventually, we were completely crushed. People were saying it was a good game, but no one wanted to get organized on my whole team and we got stuck in some terrible fights that turned things around and let the other team get ahead. Our Varus was initially stronger than Miss Fortune, and raged and cussed out the entire team when she pulled ahead of him, as it must have been everyone else's fault. I felt like I was behind almost the entire time, although I did go from 0/3/0 to, eventually, 5/5/5. That's not too bad, really. Well, that loss set me back to 28 LP. My total record is 26 wins, 28 losses.
And that's it for my new approach. I think it had no effect whatsoever on the outcomes of these games. I've had another losing day and now I'm feeling all bummed out about it. I think it's time to move on to other activities. I'll get back to being demoted to Bronze II some other day.
For previous installments in this series, I played a bunch of ranked games and then analyzed them in varying levels of detail afterward. I'm taking a new approach this time. I'm starting a blog post right before playing a ranked game, and I'll add text to this while I'm in every lobby and between the games. I probably won't get very many games in today (planning on maybe three), but if I like this way of doing things, I may return to it for future updates. Part of the goal here is to see if I can encourage myself to remain alert, keep myself from falling into habits, and remain positive and communicative throughout every game. I don't know if it will work, but it's worth trying. Here we go...
I am second pick. Well, we got Yi. They picked Tryndamere and Vayne. For some reason, I'm picking Kassadin even though I'm not counterpicking anything this time. I hope I'm not being stupid.
Our bans: Blitzcrank, Amumu, Malphite
Their bans: Shen, Thresh, Darius
Our team: Master Yi, Kassadin, Zilean, Caitlyn, Pantheon
Their team: Tryndamere, Vayne, Vi, Leona, Talon
Well, I've heard mixed things about Talon countering Kassadin. I'll try not to feed...
Well, we won. So the idea about Talon countering Kassadin is that if Kassadin tries to go in with his combo, before he can silence Talon, he get silenced himself and then takes Talon's full combo. If they both build glass cannon, Talon wins the trades and can very plausibly kill Kassadin, who won't be able to spam his spells as much and whose passive will be useless against Talon. For this game, I switched my usual starting items of a Sapphire Crystal and one of each potion to a Sapphire Crystal and two health potions. The health potions were my key to beating Talon in lane. He outfarmed me and tried to soften me for a killing combo, but it never showed up, so I was able to keep up with him, harassing with my Q and sometimes landing my E. I picked up an early kill on him with Ignite, then another once we got our ults. Even though he outfarmed me, the kills helped me keep pace with him. Eventually, we were both roaming and trying to pick up kills elsewhere. My team was ahead on kills the whole time, but he still ended up doing better at first. Eventually, my damage output was definitely greater, and I fed a lot less than my lane opponent (I ended up tied with the two AD carries for fewest deaths).
I didn't communicate a whole lot with my team, but I commented and made suggestions occasionally. In particular, I tried to keep them from getting into disadvantageous fights, which failed pretty miserably once (they ran into a 3 vs. 5 right after I told them not to do just that), but overall might have helped, and certainly didn't hurt. We had a pretty big lead at first, but Tryndamere's ult and Vayne's lategame damage started to catch up with us, with Talon picking off some of my teammates. I made a few serious mistakes, such as trying to Riftwalk in and activate Zhonya's Hourglass one time, only to have the Hourglass never go off. As our advantage started to diminish, they invaded our base, and I dished out enough damage to kill four of them (Caitlyn's ult took one of those kills, which was fine, and the kills were far enough apart that it wouldn't have been a quadra anyway). What eventually won us the game was luring them into a push on our base through mid. Our mid inhibitor and their top inhibitor had both been destroyed and respawned. Master Yi let us defend against their push while he went to backdoor top. The idea was to force them to retreat in order to defend their base, but they opted to try to push through us, which was a huge mistake on their part. Two survivors of their aggressive push did recall and try to stop Yi, but it was too late.
My final score for this one was 10/4/10. I gained 19 LP for this game and I'm currently sitting at 59 LP. My Kassadin record is 4 wins, 0 losses. My lifetime ranked record is now 26 wins, 26 losses.
Well, I'm going to try at least one more. And so...
Well, I'm second pick again. They first-picked Karthus, but our last pick was begging to be allowed to play Jayce mid. I've explained that I think it's a bad idea, but the begging continued. I've given in. I really hope my being amenable here isn't going to backfire. I like trying to be nice to people instead of forcing my way. Well, I'm Maokai.
Our bans: Blitzcrank, Malphite, Master Yi
Their bans: Amumu, Thresh, Hecarim
Our team: Lulu, Maokai, Ezreal, Ryze, Jayce
Their team: Karthus, Singed, Sona, Sejuani, Tristana
So weird that four of their champions are my four first champions that I ever played. I'm really uneasy about not having taken Kassadin mid. But whatever. Game's started...
Well, it turns out my fears were totally realized. Not only was Jayce a feeder, he also insulted me and other teammates in the chat. I tried to remain positive, saying something like, "We need to change something up, guys. Right now we're getting destroyed." Jayce responded by blaming me for it. I wanted to remain constructive, but our team was being shut down at every turn and I was too far behind to really help. I don't think I played that well this game, but I did get first blood (and then I died because I tried to recall in our jungle and their jungler found me, which was totally my mistake) and did try to execute some ganks, but I wasn't getting help on them from teammates, and my attempts at initiating in fights just resulted in me being swarmed and killed with no help from allies. It was a very one-sided game and we probably would have lost no matter what I did. Still, what annoys me is that I want to be a nice player that tries to accommodate allies, but games like this make me more inclined to do whatever I want and shove it down everyone else's throats.
I went 1/6/2 this game. My total record is now 26 wins, 27 losses. I should stop trying Maokai. I should stop playing full tank junglers. I have absolutely no way to pull my team out from a bad spot when I do this. A more damaging jungler could at least try to pick off weakened to squishy opponents. Even though I think Maokai can work really well, it might be the case that I need a more coordinated team to make him really work. I lost 11 LP from this game, so my LP is now sitting at 48. Oh, one more note: someone (probably Jayce) badgered our Ezreal about playing badly and owning the Pulsefire Ezreal skin, to which our Ryze asserted (Ryze seemed to know Ezreal, but I can't be sure that this claim is true) that the Ezreal player was actually playing on friend's acccount, and that the player was really below level 30. If that's true, what the fuck? Why do that to people?
Well, my new approach hasn't really produced any results. I won a game that I think we were going to win anyway and I lost a game that I think we had no real hope to win anyway. Well, I'm going to try again...
I forget what was banned, but it doesn't matter.
Our team: Nidalee, Varus, Leona, Evelynn, Mordekaiser
Their team: Singed, Darius, Miss Fortune, Teemo, Alistar
This game sucked. I wish I could say I stayed positive, and I really tried, but my teammates were very unhelpful. I took Mordekaiser top against a Singed that played aggressively. I didn't get any ganks, but Singed had a Darius to come in for a double-pull gank that I couldn't fight. Since Singed got ahead and was so fast, I started losing lane completely. But my allies still didn't gank for me, instead they would show up after I died and try to kill Singed, which actually worked twice. I continue to believe that Nidalee is a bad pick for a solo mid champion. Their Teemo built up massive amounts of AP and was probably the biggest contributor to our defeat. I started to farm up and try to negate my early disadvantage, but Singed is such a strong pusher that I kept having to babysit lanes to keep our turrets alive, and yet we still won most of the fights for a while. Eventually, we were completely crushed. People were saying it was a good game, but no one wanted to get organized on my whole team and we got stuck in some terrible fights that turned things around and let the other team get ahead. Our Varus was initially stronger than Miss Fortune, and raged and cussed out the entire team when she pulled ahead of him, as it must have been everyone else's fault. I felt like I was behind almost the entire time, although I did go from 0/3/0 to, eventually, 5/5/5. That's not too bad, really. Well, that loss set me back to 28 LP. My total record is 26 wins, 28 losses.
And that's it for my new approach. I think it had no effect whatsoever on the outcomes of these games. I've had another losing day and now I'm feeling all bummed out about it. I think it's time to move on to other activities. I'll get back to being demoted to Bronze II some other day.
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