Three seasons in a row, I sought Gold, but remained stuck in Bronze.
Am I delusional? Let's see what happens this time around. I got a late
start to this season and I've been thrown into Bronze again by placement
matches. This is the story of my attempt to turn reverse the trends of
previous seasons. This is Going for the Gold.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Nasus
AFK: Nidalee
Marksman: Graves
Support: Thresh
vs.
Mid: Katarina
Top: Dr. Mundo
Jungle: Nocturne
Marksman: Draven
Support: Nunu
Our
Nidalee was a no-show, so of course they were able to eventually grind
out that advantage and beat us. We held on four nearly 45 minutes, but
it was a doomed effort. I won lane decisively (I'm finding that enemy
assassins are easy to lane against with Malzahar, whereas I have to be
careful when playing Karthus), but eventually fell behind as we lost too
many teamfights. In the end, I went 3/7/5. Well, I'm back down to 0 LP.
The dance with demotion continues.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Warwick
Marksman: Graves
Support: Leona
vs.
Mid: Vel'Koz
Top: Fiora
Jungle: Vi
Marksman: Ezreal
Support: Volibear
I
was easily able to farm against Vel'Koz, but he did a good job of
keeping me starved. Vi came in for ganks, which I avoided, but that
damaged my turret badly. Early on, it looked to be a stalemate, but that
was broken in a few ways. Fiora was too aggressive, which did get her
some kills, but also helped Teemo get fed and gave Warwick a gank
target. Volibear was bad and allowed our bot lane to pull ahead. And
while their team pushed mid to take my outer turret, I picked up kills
on them that allowed me to get going. Soon we had a fed Karthus, Graves,
Warwick, and Teemo. They tried to backdoor us, but we killed them too
much for it to succeed. In the end, I went 13/6/10.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Nidalee
Jungle: Rammus
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Braum
vs.
Mid: Orianna
Top: Nasus
Jungle: Vi
Marksman: Graves
Support: Nautilus
Farming
against this Orianna was easy, so I pulled ahead and snowballed. Our
Nidalee was weird and I thought the player might have been high, but
ultimately, Nidalee farmed well and picked up kills. The other players
on our team held their own, but before we could come close to actually
finishing the match, the other team surrendered. By that point, I was
6/1/3. The total team score was 20 kills to 10, so they were hurting,
but I didn't expect all five of them to give up after only 23 minutes.
Oh well.
Mid: Zed
Top: Rumble
Jungle: Skarner (me)
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Morgana
vs.
Mid: Jayce
Top: Nasus
Jungle: Hecarim
Marksman: Kalista
Support: Nautilus
This
one started out fairly close. Hecarim began ganking way before me, and
Rumble overextended a lot, which made it easy. Zed was bullied in lane
by Jayce, but survived. Our bot lane did better than theirs, though. I
helped Zed get an advantage in the laning phase, but died to a Hecarim
gank soon after. As bot struggled, I went there and helped defend the
turret, killing Nautilus and then going back to the jungle. For some
reason, Rumble flipped out about my build, raging at how idiotic I was
not to build Skarner as a full tank like all the pros are apparently
doing. Then my build got going, as usual, and I destroyed the enemy
team. Well, not single-handedly or anything. Actually, Zed, Caitlyn,
Rumble, and I all got fed. We took Baron and pushed for the win. In the
end, I went 7/1/9. That takes me up to 61 LP.
Mid: Zed
Top: Garen
Jungle: Vi
Marksman: Tristana
Support: Sona (me)
vs.
Mid: Yasuo
Top: Darius
Jungle: Sejuani
Marksman: Ashe
Support: Morgana
Our
first-pick Vi immediately requested to have someone else dodge (because
apparently somewhere, at some point, this has worked), as the Garen
player was bound to feed, so we'd save time. No one dodged. Then we won
all of the lanes but mid, did well enough there to survive, and began
utterly dominating the other team. Pretty easy to support when your
whole team is fed. In the end, I went 6/3/22. This takes me up to 80 LP
and brings my total season win/loss ratio to neutral, with 20 wins and
20 losses.
Mid: Brand
Top: Singed (me)
Jungle: Volibear
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Diana
Top: Cho'Gath
Jungle: Vi
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Alistar
My
teammates raged and I hate to just pin all the blame on one person, but
they were right: Brand was a terrible feeder. If we'd picked up early
kills, that might have helped compensate for Brand, but the other team
had nine or ten kills before I finally picked one of them off. I held my
own, even against fed enemies, but my teammates were all worse off.
Eventually, Brand ragequit, waiting for us to lose so he could tell the
other team to report us in the lobby. I went 5/5/1. Well, the winning
streak had to end some time.
Mid: Malzahar
Top: Singed (me)
Jungle: Malphite
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Lulu
vs.
Mid: LeBlanc
Top: Renekton
Jungle: Shaco
Marksman: Ezreal
Support: Morgana
I
shouldn't blindly pick Singed into an unknown enemy top. Renekton is
stupid. He's a beefy, manaless, AD caster with mobility, excellent wave
clears, and a stun. Singed has no early game to compete with that. I
struggled, but bot was worse off. Our team was behind, but Renekton's
bullying eventually drew a Malphite gank that gave me our first kill of
the game. From there, I was able to fight back and start controlling my
lane, picking up a few more kills. Malphite snowballed and the enemy
team just couldn't touch him. Overall, this match was a nice comeback
for us. Although our bot laners didn't really manage to become strong,
Malphite, Malzahar, and I dominated in fights. In the end, I went
7/6/11. I did pretty well for the terrible start I got against Renekton.
Malphite, though, was something else. He went 8/0/17. Cinderhulk OP?
And that gets me up to 89 LP.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Lissandra
Jungle: Warwick
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Janna
vs.
Mid: Syndra
Top: Gangplank
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Kalista
Support: Annie
I
have to admit that I didn't do as well as I should have here. Three of
my early plays were botched and I was killed, almost getting away with
what I was trying to do, but almost doesn't help, and that gave my lane
opponent first blood and kept me behind for much of the match. This was
one of my crappiest Karthus games, but I eventually started dominating.
My allies, though, couldn't keep up. This time, I'm not raging at
feeders or anything. Yeah, our Warwick was bad, but the other three put
up a reasonable effort. They tried and they failed. Ultimately, the fact
that the enemy jungler was much better than our jungler was the biggest
deciding factor. So yeah, I lost, but it was a good game. I'm not happy
about this one, but it happens and I accept it. In the end, I went
18/12/9, scoring more kills than anyone else, but dying too much for my
liking. This loss brings me down to 75 LP.
Mid: Vladimir
Top: Swain (me)
Jungle: Teemo
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Ziggs
Top: Cho'Gath
Jungle: Rengar
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Janna
The
enemy Cho'Gath wasn't great, but he was smart enough to bully me in
lane. I played conservatively and eventually started killing people. Our
Teemo got fed faster, but the two of us weren't enough to compensate
for the other laners, who couldn't catch up. Toward the end, Caitlyn
started picking up more kills, but our lackluster Vladimir and feeder
Blitzcrank weren't much help in fights. Jinx was the only individual
enemy we had that did particularly well, but her team helped her to
control objectives. In the end, I went 6/2/8, failing to save our base.
Down to 61 LP.
Mid: Diana
Top: Nasus
Jungle:
Marksman: Kalistawa
Support: Sona
vs.
Mid: Morgana
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Volibear
Marksman: Graves
Support: Thresh
Our
Diana was fine. The rest of my teammates were rude, uncooperative,
stupid, and unskilled. We lost heavily from the beginning. I went 0/4/6
trying to support the unsupportable. Down to 43 LP, I've just lost three
in a row. Guess I won't be promoted anytime soon.
Mid: Diana
Top: Nidalee
Jungle: Amumu (me)
Marksman: Graves
Support: Leona
vs.
Mid: Lux
Top: Nasus
Jungle: Sejuani
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Annie
Lux
bullied Diana a bit at first, so I killed her and then helped Diana
kill her a few times. Fed Diana usually wins. I spent the rest of the
match securing dragon, dying to let my allies escape, and
suicide-bombing with my Q and ult to win teamfights. My final score was
2/9/24. I died a lot, but it was almost always worth it. Now I have 67
LP.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Vi
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Zed
Top: Darius
Jungle: Amumu
Marksman: Tristana
Support: Lulu
Somehow,
Zed easily got two kills against me with his ult under my turret and
escaped, even though I wasn't very hurt and he should have been under
the turret long enough to die multiple times. It was bullshit. For the first one, he even flashed after me and attacked me under my inner turret, but escaped dying mysteriously.
Hacks. The third time, I was ready and killed him back when he killed
me. As with my previous Karthus game, I was 1/3 before I finally
snowballed. Unfortunately, this time our Caitlyn was lagging and our
Teemo fed constantly. Then I started lagging too. There was obviously
some server-side issue, but Riot won't give out a loss forgiven because
they are jerks. In the end, I went 11/10/10. Well, I'm down to 52 LP.
