Going for the Gold Part XXXII: At Long Last, Qualified

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. More recently after failing to climb out of Bronze I, the ladder was reset and I found myself placed lower still, all the down way at the bottom of Bronze V. The Ranked matches I've played so far have clearly marked me as a Bronze player. This is the story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.

I got some more Ranked games in. I had a plethora of  trolls, but still managed to account for myself in these games, I think. I started out getting first pick, which gave us Karthus (me), Kayle (top), Lee Sin (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Thresh (support). Our opponents had Vel'Koz (mid), Volibear (top), Vi (jungle), Corki (ADC), and Janna (support). While Vel'Koz isn't particularly problematic for me, the enemy Vi was quite good and, for some reason, the Kayle player was completely out of place here, feeding with a baffling intensity. Lee Sin took to raging rather than playing the game, and Lucian, the only player besides me not to become completely outclassed from the start, was arrogant. I was initially a bit ahead on my kill/death ratio, but I purposely went into deadly situations trying to swing teamfights, which never actually worked. I'm trying to prioritize giving my team a chance to win the game, rather than just going for kills. I think I did a good job of that, but this just wasn't a game that we could win. In the end, I went 3/4/5.

I tried another game. This time, I got mid, but without Kassadin banned. Haven't seen one in a while, actually, but I'm not risking it. I picked Veigar. I was up against a Lux, and I was narrowly beating her in lane, but she abandoned the lane early and became a roamer, which worked marvelously for her, as our bot lane repeatedly fed her. I pinged that she was missing. I did it a lot. They just kept dying and then our Lucian would whine about "mia." He and his Annie support were facing a Caitlyn/Alistar lane, which didn't get many kills but was able to feed Lux and the enemy Master Yi (jungling) kills. Our Garen top decisively beat a Xin Zhao, but our Tryndamere wasn't doing much. In fact, he fed Lux some of the kills that let her get going in the first place, going for stupid ganks that weren't going to work, then getting snared and killed by her turret. There was a lot of bickering between Tryndamere and Garen. It started in the lobby when Garen first-picked, then waited for Tryndamere to lock in before switching away from Smite and declaring "top." Ultimately, Tryndamere failed to adapt and had poor decision-making. Garen was a better player, but was all in it for himself, refusing to help the team or coordinate in any way. With those two and a feeding bot lane, I didn't stand a chance. I went 7/6/2 because Veigar can dish out the pain, even with a fed Lux trying to stop him, but we lost and it wasn't even close. I called it a night, frustrated that I'd fallen behind.


For my next two games, I did a duo queue with Justin (Schweizerhof). Our team composition was Xerath (mid), Urgo (top), Udyr (me), Varus (Justin), and Thresh (support). We were facing Talon (mid), Lissandra (top), Jarvan IV (jungle), Ezreal (ADC), and Orianna (support). Our bot lane came out ahead and our mid also did better than the enemy, although top did a bit worse. But skirmishes started to go against us, so this was actually a pretty close game for a while. The other jungler did pretty well for himself, which might have salvaged the game for them, but the combined poking power of Varus and Xerath helped us control objectives. And then there was me. I revisited my characteristic Udyr farm-intensive jungle domination. I assembled my full build and was able to annihilate any opponent I caught alone. A couple of times, two of them tried to team up against me, thinking that their combined power would stop me, but I'd kill them both instead. Fights in which I could find and opening quickly became very one-sided. In the end, I went 13/4/8.

In the second game with Justin, I jungled again, taking Maokai this time. He went top as Aatrox. Our mid was Malzahar and our bot laners were Vayne and Soraka. The other team had Heimerdinger mid, Darius top, Pantheon jungle, and Tristana/Karma bot. Justin can take most of the credit for this one. He tore Darius apart in the laning phase. Pantheon made some effort to turn that around, but not enough. I earned some assists, but wasn't doing very much for my team. I did serve as tanky bait to net Justin a few more kills, though, which put him over the top. This game was marred by both Malzahar and Tristana getting one kill each and then disconnecting. As Justin dominated the match and it drew to a close, the other team whined about it being 4 vs. 5, failing to notice that it was actually 4 vs. 4. I think Tristana did disconnect earlier, though, which might have given us a substantial boost, allowing Vayne and Soraka, neither of whom did particularly well, to control their lane and then go mid with me to help win skirmishes against Heimerdinger and Pantheon. I only went 1/2/7, but that's not so bad for a generally starved tank in a very short match. The other team surrendered at 25 minutes in.

Justin took a break but came back to spectate most of my next game. It was Karthus (me), Fiora (top), Amumu (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Morgana (support) vs. Cassiopeia (mid), Ryze (top), Udyr (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Janna (support). I was worried about facing the new Cassi, but I've had Karthus vs. Cassi lanes in the past, especially practicing with Nick. This Cassiopeia player was rather bad and I was easily able to control my lane. I got farmed and tried to carry, but everyone else on my team did poorly. Fiora lost to Ryze, badly. Lucian built the wrong items in the wrong order and fell behind. Morgana fed. And then there was Amumu. He had a habit of entering my lane either just as I was returning or just in the middle of a fight. These weren't ganks. He'd stick around and get cozy, stealing CS from me and pushing the lane. Once it was pushed all the way out, I'd usually have to back off, either because I spotted Udyr or because I had no ward coverage at all. Then Amumu would run off into the enemy jungle, get ganked by three or four opponents (because they had wards), and rage at me. Lucian was begging Amumu to help bot, but Amumu continued this pattern of failing to counterjungle despite those pleas. Udyr and Ryze easily carried this for their team, with the other three doing their share to help ensure victory. I only went 7/3/13. Not bad, but it would have been better if my teammates ever tried to pick a fight when my ult was actually available.

Later on, I tried solo queue again and got first pick. Since I refuse to learn my lesson, I took Karthus again. My allies were Nasus (top), Hecarim (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Fiddlesticks (support). My opponents were Lux (mid), Dr. Mundo (top), Kha'Zix (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Soraka (support). Lux played passively and I was able to farm against her, which was good because kills were slow in coming. I saw very few ult opportunities, and most of my attempted ults didn't pick up kills. So I was forced to get up close and personal for this one. Fiddlesticks actually got fed the quickest, but Hecarim and I weren't far behind, and Lucian eventually got fed too. On the other team, Mundo held his own, but none of the others could. I went 9/2/5. Well, at least I finally won a Karthus game again.

I'd struggled with trolls and I knew that I was, yet again, one match away from qualifying for a promo series. I tried again. It was Ahri (mid), Singed (me), Udyr (jungle), Ashe (ADC), and Braum (support), against Ziggs (mid), Riven (top), Fiddlesticks (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Thresh (support). I actually picked Singed into Riven, which was risky on my part, but I'll explain. Riven isn't a good matchup for Singed, as she is manaless and has a much stronger early game than he does, as well as winning games if she gets fed. With the help of a good jungler, Singed is in a pretty bad spot against Riven. But I also know that most players in Bronze are liable to feed Riven kills and make her dangerous. I was banking on being more skilled than the enemy Riven, or at least on not being pressured by her jungler, and being able to survive and help my team. Singed outfarms Riven if the pressure isn't on him, and he can control teamfights. Another top, such as Mordekaiser, could potentially bully Riven, but I thought I could make this work. My choice was vindicated. A lot. Riven won a few early exchanges against me, but got tossed into my turret, which she survived, but that allowed me to catch up. Rather than recalling, she stuck around in the lane with low health, which let me take control. She attempted to coordinate with Fiddlesticks to circle around behind me for a gank, but I saw it coming and popped my Ghost. They chased me, but I use Fling. Riven used Flash to escape my turret, and Fiddlsticks managed to run away with low health. I teleported back and Riven refused to leave. Eventually, I killed her under her turret and took over top lane completely. I farmed up and was able to get Singed to do what Singed does best: run around causing mayhem so that his team can easily clean up. In the end, I went 5/2/17. And that win propelled me into a promo series.

Going for the Gold Part XXXI: Slow Progress Is Still Progress

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. More recently after failing to climb out of Bronze I, the ladder was reset and I found myself placed lower still, all the down way at the bottom of Bronze V. The Ranked matches I've played so far have clearly marked me as a Bronze player. This is the story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.

I came back to Ranked play with a rather uneventful game. I mean, it was uneventful for me. I was fourth pick and our fifth pick wanted ADC, so I obliged and took Sona, supporting what ended up being Jinx. Our allies were Akali mid, Sion top, and Warwick in the jungle. I laned against Miss Fortune and Malphite. I tried to support Jinx and keep her alive, but she made some bad misplays and fell behind. It happens. Fortunately, the enemy Ahri fed severely, allowing Akali and Warwick to snowball. Sion was up against Riven top, a matchup I'd be worried about, but he came out decisively ahead. The other team had a Xin Zhao jungler who managed to pick up some kills, but not enough to turn the match against us. Warwick and Sion really carried this one, with Akali picking off enemies too for good measure. I just wandered around trying to keep my teammates healthy and had an easy, nonchalant sort of game. Warwick had Blade of the Ruined King, Feral Flare, Frozen Mallet, and Wit's End. On-hit junglers are fantastic now. It's beautiful. I went 3/1/10 in the end. The 24 LP I just got takes me up to a total of 77.

I started another match. This time, I got first pick, so I took my Karthus of course. It was Karthus (me), Darius (top), Udyr (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Braum (support) vs. Fizz (mid), Rengar (top), Lee Sin (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), and Thresh (support). I was able to farm effectively against Fizz. Udyr went in for a gank when I was only level 3, so I stayed back (I don't take a point in Wall of Pain until level 4 and Fizz wasn't that low anyway). Fizz hurt Udyr and stuck around to go for the kill, so I flashed in and got first blood on Fizz. From there, I won my lane handily, but the other lanes fell behind. I thought we were doomed, but Lucian, who was way behind against the enemy Caitlyn, finally got going. He backdoored and lured enemies out of position. I got fed and would have carried hard if I'd gotten any help at all, but my teammates (except Lucian, who was doing his own thing that was working) practically ignored me and continued to lose fights. I went 15/10/12 and, of course, it wasn't enough. Darius, Braum, and Udyr were really all pretty bad. I don't know why matchmaking keeps putting me with these people. And I'm not saying that because I think I'm so good. It's just that while one bad game on occasion is inevitable, there's a clear, consistent pattern I'm observing here, and I get inept, bickering allies way too often. That loss drops me 19 LP, to a total of 58. The stagnation continues. Or perhaps now that I've pointed it out, I'll lose more and plummet in the ladder. The worst part of it all is that Fizz carried the other team to some extent. Caitlyn and Lee Sin got fed too, but I kept ahead of Fizz and killed him repeatedly throughout the game so much that he really shouldn't have been able to snowball. It didn't matter: my teammates gave Fizz his own catering service.

Coming back after a hiatus consisting of half of July, I did a solo queue match. I'm hooked on Feral Flare junglers now, so I grabbed Udyr. My teammates were Vel'Koz (mid), Olaf (top), Draven (ADC), and Leona (support). The other team's jungler was Amumu. Olaf was up against Tryndamere, Vel'Koz against Diana, and the enemy duo bot lane was Jinx and Lux. Olaf got off to a good start, but our bot lane struggled. I helped out a bit early while clearing jungle camps more quickly than Amumu could. Eventually, Tryndamere disconnected. From there, I mostly farmed jungle camps, occasionally putting pressure on lanes to keep my team ahead. It was 5 vs. 4 and we had already been winning, so the other team caved in and surrendered after 21 minutes. I went 2/1/2 in this silly free victory. I gained 19 LP and am now up to 76.

Work had me too busy to bother with any Ranked games, so I went on another hiatus for the rest of July. Came back on August third and jungled as Udyr. I was with a Nidalee mid, Brand solo top (I thought he was going mid, but he eventually noted top and we were able to fill the other roles after some confusion), and Caitlyn/Nautilus duo bot. We were up against Syndra, Renekton, Amumu, Tristana, and Karma. However, both Renekton and Amumu were no-shows. A 5 vs. 3 could have been an easy, uneventful game, but my allies did poorly early on and then proceeded to freak out. I just kept calm and picked up kills where I could. I went 4/1/0 and was the only person on my team with a positive K/D ratio. Syndra and Karma both got fed and were able to hold my teammates off when they panicked and tried to force objectives at unfavorable times. But of course, it was 5 vs. 3, so we still won. A bit annoying, but a win is a win. And now that I've switched to on-hit Udyr as my nearly exclusive jungler in Ranked, winning is apparently what I do. That's 19 more LP, taking me up to 95. If I win my next match, I get a promo series. But who knows when that will be? I don't have time for this right now.

Came back on September first for another Ranked game. I got first pick, so I tried a Karthus game. I had an easy lane against a Katarina. Top lane we had Vladimir against Riven. Our jungler was Vi and the enemy jungler was Maokai. The bot lane consisted of our Lucian and Braum against Tristana and Leona. The other lanes didn't do particularly well, but they weren't feeding at first either, although bot eventually did. I had enough time to farm up and start wrecking the enemy team. I even teleported in and ganked them when they chased my team, picking up a quadra kill. Of course, it wasn't enough. Lucian was particularly obnoxious, but the whole team was pretty clueless, picking fights when there was no objective for us to take or when we were split, while failing to take objectives unless I led the way personally. Vi held her own for a while, but my whole team, save for myself, became outclassed and died far too much, which doomed us. In the last teamfight, Lucian ran off by himself into the jungle while the other three charged on ahead of me into the middle of the map. They died, of course, and left me alone to defend the nexus against an entire team, which wasn't possible. I went 14/2/4, scoring more kills than the rest of my team combined. But I didn't really need them to pick up kills. I needed them to stop dying so much. They died eight or nine times each. This really was a case of that "can't carry noobs" cliche, although I hate to fall back on it. And this is why I hate Ranked. Even though I kicked ass all game long, all I have to show for it is the loss of 13 LP, which puts me back down at 82. I get the feeling that this will be another entirely Bronze season for me.

A week later, I tried another Ranked game. Guess what happened? If you guessed that I got Karthus but couldn't carry my feeding team to victory, well, it's become such a cliche at this point that you really aren't demonstrating any sort of prescience. I had a Pantheon top, Xin Zhao jungle, Lucian ADC, and Morgana support. The enemy mid laner was Brand, who played passively other than when Sejuani was trying to gank me, so I was able to hold the lane and eventually outfarm him. The enemy top was Malphite, who easily dominated our Pantheon. The enemy jungler, Sejuani, kept aggressively ganking people, which wasn't going to work on me, although I did have to flash away from the first attempt (didn't expect it so early). The enemy bot laners were Tristana and Blitzcrank. For a while, we were ahead on kills solely because I was dominating, but eventually a coordinated team outscales a single Karthus. My allies tried to do some sort of collaboration, but it was haphazard and often stupid. On several occasions, they engaged when they shouldn't have, and I died after picking up kill or two while the rest of my team perished. But they also refused to initiate when we needed it, such as when the enemies were grouping up to push down our mid inhibitor or when they were taking Baron. Essentially, the impression I got throughout this match was that my teammates, while trying their best, were of a lower skill level than me. If even one of them had done well, this match would have been a cinch. But they just kept feeding. I went 18/6/14. At the end, my teammates were wrongly going on about how the enemy inhibitor respawning stole our victory (the nexus had plenty of health left and they all dropped like flies in the fight that took place at it, mostly because they bullied Pantheon into ulting onto it long before the rest of us could get there, so it was 4 vs. 5 in their base). The enemy team was just saying, "gg." It wasn't. It was a stupid game with stupid people in it. I think I blocked most of them. Yeah, I'm bitter. This crap keeps happening! And now I've dropped 20 LP, down to 62.

Got second pick in my next game and mid was wide open with no real bans, but the enemy team had taken Jax and Udyr, so Singed seemed like a safe pick. We ended up with Fiddlesticks (mid), Singed (me), Master Yi (jungle), Tristana (ADC), and Blitzcrank (support) against Xerath (mid), Jax (top), Udyr (jungle), Sivir (ADC), and Orianna (support). Jax didn't bully me enough early on, so I got a couple levels into my Poison Trail and took over the lane, damaging the outer turret badly and keeping Jax underfarmed while I cleared his minions by running around. I messed up and let Udyr gank me, then Xerath went for a gank as well, which he got, but not before I killed Jax. I took the outer turret and kept farming up for a while. I was annoyed to be 1/2, but the rest of my team was doing well, while the only enemy that wasn't falling behind was Sivir. That let me get enough items to initiate with impunity. Once that happened, the match that was already going our way became so one-sided that the other team surrendered. I went 5/2/9 and got 20 LP, taking me back up to 82, which cancels out the match I lost with Karthus earlier today. Not progress, but it's better than nothing.

For some stupid reason, I tried to do better than breaking even, and joined another queue. This time, it was Ziggs (mid), Gangplank (top), Udyr (me), Draven (ADC), and Blitzcrank (support) vs. Veigar (mid), Riven (top), Lee Sin (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Braum (support). Well, my good fortune with Udyr had to give out at some point, and when it did, it gave out with obnoxious intensity. I did everything I could, but this was not the sort of game for me to be jungling in. I got no help from my teammates, while our opponents took over our jungle. I was ganked in the jungle repeatedly, sometimes by the entire team. I bought a bunch of wards and tried to place them for coverage, but I was ganked before I could. I went 4/11/4, but like I said, I did what I could. This was a doomed, one-sided matchup all around. Losing 14 LP takes me down to 68. Oh, and this match was filled with toxic players too. Riven was fine and Draven tried to help out on our team (although his notion that I should hide behind turrets with him so that I couldn't get killed in the jungle as a jungler wasn't really tenable). And I don't remember Blitzcrank being egregious. The rest of them were jerks. Ranked is starting to get unfun again. I'll try once more anyway.

Well, I should have known. Yeah, I did another Udyr game. This one wasn't quite as egregious in most aspects, and I was able to go 2/6/5. Mid we had a Katarina that mostly outplayed Lux, but got too aggressive when she shouldn't have. Top we had a Nasus that fed Akali like it was his mission, then pretended that it was everyone else's fault. The enemy jungler was Amumu, and my teammates handed him kills too. Our ADC was Caitlyn, the primary offender in giving Amumu kills, exposing herself to obvious Bandage Toss kills on multiple occasions and then expressing surprise that Amumu killed her. We had a Teemo support who griefed us, hogging CS that Caitlyn was trying to take, then counterjungling me (at one point, I used my Smite to take blue, then ran in and got the wight down to a sliver of health before Teemo sniped it over the wall). The enemy Jinx and Blitzcrank easily won their lane, so mid was the only one that held out at all, and none of us could hope to stop a fed Akali. Not only was this profoundly unfun, but I got a lot of senseless blame for things, even by the opposing team. Ordinarily I'd think, "Hey, if even the other team is saying it's my fault, maybe I'm wrong." But these guys were just slinging insults and saying things that made no sense. I muted six people in this one, but that's probably less than average for today. I'm done. I'll come back some other time. No point in playing a game that is only going to torment me. Well, now I'm down to 53 LP. Thanks, matchmaking.

On September 28th, I was invited to a Ranked game by Scott (IMLRG). We did Team Builder with other people after that, but I did get a Ranked game in anyway. So there. Mid was open and Scott suggested I grab Karthus, but mid was still open on the other team and I didn't want to get counterpicked. Unsure of what to do, I picked Veigar in the Ranked match for the first time ever. The enemy team tried to do a counterpick of sorts, taking Zed in hopes of assassinating me out of the game. Top we had Jax vs. Akali, and our Jax got an early lead on her, from which she eventually recovered. In the jungle we had Kha'Zix (bad) and they had Master Yi (dangerous for us). The bot laners were Lucian and Leona (Scott) vs. Caitlyn and Nami. I built up a lot of CS and nuked people, of course. I went 7/4/8 in the end, which was a bit better than my teammates, but not a lot. We were actually behind on kills in the end, but won key teamfights on account of an awesome Veigar deleting enemy damage-dealers as soon as the fights broke out. I really think Veigar could be one of my go-to alternate mid laners. With that victory, I'm up to 72 LP.