Here we go again. I forget how many times I've done this and how many times I've rewritten this stupid intro text. I suck at Ranked and have done worse every season. Now it's a new season, I'm getting an even later start than normal, and itemization in League of Legends is so different that I have no idea what's going on. Despite all that, I apparently still call this blog "Going for the Gold."
Placement match 1
Mid: Lissandra
Top: Vladimir
Jungle: Nunu
Bot: Graves
Support: Sona (me)
vs.
Mid: Aurelion Sol
Top: Volibear
Jungle: Aatrox
Bot: Caitlyn
Bot: Teemo
Our Graves was terrible and my attempts to keep him alive were futile, but it was our Nunu that really fed the other team. They snowballed and easily defeated us. Unwinnable match to start things off, of course. I went 2/5/13.
Placement match 2
Mid: Yasuo
Top: Wukong
Jungle: Vi
Bot: Jinx
Support: Sona (me)
vs.
Mid: Annie
Top: Ekko
Top: Amumu (mostly roaming, but not using Smite)
Bot: Ezreal
Support: Blitzcrank
Well, this was mostly a worse version of the previous game. Jinx fed aggressively from the start, constantly amazed that Blitzcrank was able to pull her and kill her whenever she overextended, which was most of the time. I went 1/3/8. Two losses down, eight to go.
Placement match 3
Mid: Ekko
Top: Illaoi
Jungle: Nunu
Bot: Ashe
Support: Sona (me)
vs.
Mid: Fizz
Top: Garen
Jungle: Nidalee
Bot: Tristana
Support: Morgana
Finally got to support an ADC that had actually played the game before at some point in the person's life, unlike the first two placement matches. It went something like this...
"Out of mana. Be back soon. Take care."
"Sona, you're amazing."
"Farm, my love."
"Marry me."
And then I went 2/0/17.
Placement match 4
Mid: Fizz
Top: Akali
Jungle: Vi
Bot: Quinn
Support: Sona (me)
vs.
Mid: Kassadin
Top: Gnar
Jungle: Pantheon
Bot: Kog'Maw
Support: Bard
I thought that maybe the trend had reversed, but I got another bad lane partner. Quinn died frequently, often when it would have been easily avoidable. We were behind nearly the entire time. Final team kill score was 52:78. Other team had earned over 5,300 gold more than our team. We were seemingly doomed. But that's why I never give up in Ranked. We were losing here by any metric, and the other team had just killed Baron and were closing in to finish things. To make matters worse, our team split, with Akali and Quinn pushing bot toward an undefended inhibitor turret while the rest of us tried to defend our own base. Baron buff and fed enemies made short work of Fizz. Vi used the nexus turrets to protect herself somewhat, fighting them off briefly before they got her too. I wove between the nexus turrets, fought with everything I had, and ulted from underneath the turrets. With both turrets gone, I shielded myself as the enemy champions jumped on me, then activated Zhonya's Hourglass before they could kill me, then flashed around the corner of the nexus. They gave up the chase and changed targets. Powerful enemies were attacking the nexus, and I had no health and no allies left to stop them. As I watched Sona drift to the platform, the camera whipped up. I assumed that it was showing our nexus destroyed, but it kept going, all the way across the map. My stalling had worked, albeit barely. The backdoor push had gone all the way to the enemy nexus and destroyed it, just as we were about to lose. I went 3/12/20. So yeah, never give up or something.
Placement match 5
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Yorick
Jungle: Warwick
Bot: Kog'Maw (Lithormane)
Support: Nautilus (Thatgermanguy45)
vs.
Mid: Cho'Gath
Top: Pantheon
Jungle: Jax
Bot: Varus
Support: Lux
I forget the details or never learned them, but the new Ranked queue system allows for trio-queuing. Our bot laners were Paul (Lithormane) and his friend, whose name now escapes me. I was playing my best champion and got fed. Paul was playing his best champion and got fed. His friend provided a formidable tank for us. How could we lose? Well, one way for us to lose would be for the other two players on our team to leave the game. We had a lot of power, but not really 3 vs. 5 power. And of course, that was exactly what happened. As an aside, hey Riot, it sure is cool that in a placement match, I can have my placement affected because I lost a 3 vs. 5. Placement matches sure are cool and a great way to establish ranking or whatever. Anyway, I went 6/4/5. For those keeping track, that's 2 placement match wins, 3 placement match losses.
Placement match 6
Mid: Ahri
Top: Riven
Jungle: Master Yi
Bot: Jinx
Support: Sona (me)
vs.
Mid: Cho'Gath
Top: Nautilus
Jungle: Olaf
Bot: Miss Fortune
Support: Karma
And the feeder marksmen strike again! How do these algorithms work, anyway? Our Jinx was even worse than the would be ADC players in my other placement matches. Karma would run and hide in the brush, Jinx would overextend, lose 3/4 of her health, retreat under the tower, run out again even after I provided vision of the brush in which Karma was hiding, and die. And then she'd do it again for good measure. Later, they'd almost kill her, but she'd barely survive, then start recalling under the turret with almost no health, at which point Karma would snipe her. And then Jinx would do that again too. There was a complete lack of awareness. If I'd really cared about this, I suppose that I could have been mad at Jinx for feeding, but it didn't matter because the other players on my team fared just as poorly. I went 2/5/5, which was easily the best record of the bunch, even though I was playing support.
Placement match 7
Mid: Brand
Top: Nasus (me)
Jungle: Vi
Bot: Lucian
Support: Braum (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Akali
Top: Tryndamere
Jungle: Darius
Bot: Ashe
Support: Anivia
This one was a duo queue with Scott (IMLRG), for the first time in the season. We got off to a strong start and built a team that could win in a fight, but the fight never happened all game because our team couldn't be bothered to cooperate. We lost skirmish after skirmish, objective after objective, until our base was flooded with Baron-empowered super minions and we lost. In terms of mechanics, no one on our team played that badly. But because our opponents used the power of friendship, we were completely trounced. I went 6/5/10. My Nasus gameplay is fine, but I'm a bit torn on itemization. Still, it could have and should have worked here.
Placement match 8
Mid: Aurelion Sol
Top: Wukong
Jungle: Ekko
Bot: Sivir (me)
Support: Sona (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Yasuo
Top: Malphite
Jungle: Volibear
Bot: Vayne
Support: Nami
For the first time in years, I brought Bandit Sivir back to Ranked. Her voice is ruined, but now her lines are wittier. For the uninitiated, I should explain the idea behind Bandit Sivir. The minions, you see, are merchant caravans. Sivir is a bandit leader, hungry for gold. The enemy champions are caravan guards, intent on killing Sivir. But Sivir doesn't want to actually fight carvan guards, so she avoids them and picks off any vulnerable caravans she can reach. If an easy opportunity arises, Sivir will kill vulnerable caravan guards. She actually prefers to allow her personal bodyguard (support) to strike the final blow in those cases, so they can claim the loot from these enemies and buy more gear to better protect Sivir, who should be getting plenty of gold from merchant caravans anyway. As she accumulates more wealth, Sivir destroys fortifications built along the highway, increasing the vulnerability of the merchant caravans. Once she is filthy rich enough, Sivir elects to retire. So she gathers her bandits and invades the city, destroying everything in her path. Of course, with Scott's help and a greedy enemy Vayne, my return to my bandit ways of old was quite successful. I went 12/4/8.
Placement match 9
Mid: Orianna
Top: Graves
Jungle: Rammus
Bot: Sivir (me)
Support: Sona (IMLRG)
Mid: Yasuo
Top: Darius
Jungle: Amumu
Bot: Draven
Support: Morgana
This one didn't go quite so smoothly at first, in large part due to Morgana, who just seemed to be bonkers good. I eventually farmed up, but then I kept dying because Amumu had a knack for appearing out of nowhere. I never saw him coming until his Bandage Toss had already hit me. Draven started snowballing, but our team was holding out and if I'm going to play Sivir, I have to trust that she can hang in there and keep farming for the late game. Because I wasn't fed, I wasn't the team-destroying multikill machine that I'd been in the previous game, but I didn't really need to be. Graves and Orianna picked up most of the kills. I went 5/5/12. I also dunked four turrets, most of them all by myself. Also, I think that four of my five kills happened after I'd already died five times. So yeah, Bandit Sivir, welcome back. 100% winrate, although that could be attributed to Scott's Sona.
Placement match 10
Mid: Karthus
Top: Garen
Jungle: Wukong
Bot: Miss Fortune
Support: Alistar (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Katarina
Top: Gragas
Jungle: Tryndamere
Bot: Vayne
Support: Braum
Well, the problem with this one was that, as with the Nasus game, we couldn't organize. I got fed and was dominating Katarina, but Tryndamere kept jumping on me. Even if I took him down with me, Katarina would then annihilate my whole team. We would have lost this one, but Vayne went AFK, so we managed to win the 4 vs. 5. I went 11/10/13. For those keeping track, this match took my record to an even 5 wins, 5 losses. And of course, such a record warrants placement into Bronze V, because nothing about Ranked gameplay makes any damn sense. In previous seasons, I'd be annoyed. Now I just find it a bit odd. But it doesn't really matter where I am and I don't really think that I can make Gold. So yeah, just hoping to have some fun with a lot more Karthus games and Sivir games.
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Sunday, March 27, 2016
I'm back
With all of the changes to the game, I anticipated needing a break and some preparation, but it dragged on and on, with work and other things delaying my return to playing League much at all. I've played some games, albeit not always Ranked, in every season of the game. I've seen a lot of changes, adjusted to some and failed to adjust to others. But my waning commitment to put in the hours for this activity combined with the expanse and scale of these new changes has made the game overwhelming. I have a lot of thoughts. I've finally returned to Ranked play, but before I post on that subject, I want to expound on those aforementioned thoughts...
- I no longer believe myself to theoretically belong in Gold. This is not so much because I think that my circumstances have changed. Gold seems to be a place for serious players. I haven't adapted, and part of my failure to adapt has been due to a need to focus on other priorities. There have probably been some points at which, if my raw gameplay skills were properly harnessed and if I'd played enough games and if I'd had a reasonable amount of good luck, I'd have made Gold. It didn't pan out, but that's fine. Those days are gone. I might never make it out of Bronze and I'm fine with that. I'm just going to try to play and have fun.
- The above point does not mean that I suck at the game or that I don't think I'm good enough. On the contrary, I'm quite good at some of the things I specialize in. Despite not fully adjusting to the new environment, I have enough experience doing some of the things that are still perfectly good, and doing them well, that I do think I have my own minor claim to some bits of excellence.
- My Karthus game is still quite good. It's not at its peak just yet, but I think I can surpass my best Karthus gameplay soon enough.
- I really miss Sivir. Out of all the reworks and champion nerfs and changes, losing my Sivir hurt the worst. It's been a long time and I'm definitely better at the game than I was when I was playing her, but in some ways, I've never fully recovered. When I was maining Sivir, my two preferred roles were mid and marksman, as Karthus and Sivir respectively. When her rework hit and I decided to switch over to other carries entirely, I lost the success of my bot lane performance and never got it back. Now, I did eventually find a niche with on-hit bot laners, mostly Kog'Maw and Kayle. But it's not the same. I've been hoping against hope that I could somehow salvage what I had with Sivir. So I'm going to try. I'm prepared for a frustrating experience, but I really think that with Death's Dance, it just might work.
- The new draft format seems to have a hidden double-queueing setup in its algorithms. For three normal drafts and then four Ranked drafts, I selected mid as my first choice and fill as my second choice. I was relegated to support in every single match, and nearly all of the failed lobbies, except one in which I was sent bot to be a marksman. When I queued with teammates in my most recent game, I did get mid, but they'd chosen to duo bot together as their first priority. I believe that the algorithms search for matches to both. Since more lobbies that are being built lack supports, it throws any "fill" options into those lobbies, which happens too quickly for the first priority to even matter. If this is the case, so long as supports are in high demand, selecting "fill" as a possibility is tantamount to selecting support. I might be wrong, but something must be going on here.
- I now own all champions besides one. Pretty cool. Now if only I knew how to play them.
- My best champions are probably Karthus and Malzahar. My Singed is still quite good too. And yet, I'm primarily an on-hit specialist, even though none of my top three fall into that category. My on-hit junglers are pretty good (especially Udyr, Skarner, and Shen). When I go bot, rather than playing a crit-focused marksman, I go on-hit (particularly Kog'Maw, Kayle, and Kennen).
- I'm getting sick of the endless barrage of champion reworks. I take a break from a champion and find out that everything I'd practiced is out the window.
- League of Legends is trying too hard to force counterplay and finesse into the game with minigame-like aspects of new champions and reworks. My favorite champions to play are all older style champions with simple, clean kits that have their own depth of usage.
- The current, and relatively stable metagame as it now seems to be revolves a lot around big, early plays to snowball into dominance. Farming for extended periods is frowned upon and is now less likely to pay off than in the past. This, perhaps as much as my own inactivity, quashes my dreams of League Gold. I've always been a late game player. And while I don't want to hurt my teams in Ranked, this is not a point on which I'm willing or able to adapt. I play champions and build them with the long game in mind. It's what I do and it's what I know.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Going for the Gold Part XLIX: The Fall of the House of Stephen
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: Annie
Top: Shen (IMLRG)
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Kog'Maw (me)
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Cho'Gath
Top: Nasus
Jungle: Diana
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Thresh
Sadly, Scott couldn't deal with Nasus, which became a big problem for us. The bigger problem was that their jungler was making plays and ours wasn't doing much of anything. And even more annoyingly, Blitzcrank fed, raged at me, and stopped supporting me in my lane, leaving me way behind against powerful opponents. They pulled ahead and it could have been completely dominant, but I farmed and got caught up, while Annie racked up some kills to offset our disadvantage. In the end, I suppose that it was reasonably close, and we even came out ahead on total kills, but our team just got outplayed and there was way too much stupidity going on with Xin Zhao and Blitzcrank. I went 9/6/16 despite the oppressive laning phase, but it wasn't enough.
Mid: Vel'Koz
Top: Pantheon
Jungle: Wukong
Marksman: Kog'Maw (me)
Support: Nautilus (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Karma
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Volibear
Marksman: Graves
Support: Leona
I don't remember much about this one. I was sure that I'd sworn off going bot, but I guess I was forced to or something. Looking at the statistics, it seems that they won every lane except top and that their Volibear ran a clinic on our whole team. I went 3/6/4 and of course, we lost. That was four losses in a row.
Mid: Cho'Gath (IMLRG)
Top: Vi
Jungle: Amumu (me)
Assassin Bot Lane: Talon
Support: Malphite
vs.
Mid: Malzahar
Top: Cassiopeia
Jungle/Top: Shaco
Roaming/Jungle/Bot: Katarina
Marksman: Draven
The problem with doing this when I wait too long to blog the results is that I forget a lot of what happened, and I don't recall how this bizarre match got started, although I do remember some events. For whatever reason, both teams had unorthodox position-filling, as can be seen in the roster. Shaco and Katarina both initially went after jungle stuff and attempted to counterjungle me, but I avoided them. Meanwhile, Draven was alone and picked off in the bot lane. I helped Vi early on and both of our side lanes snowballed. Things went pretty crazy after that too, but we started coming out ahead a lot because Talon and Vi were both really fed. Malzahar stomped on us anyway and somehow Draven caught up, but we had enough CC to keep that from causing an upset. I went 4/6/12 and finally broke my losing streak.
Mid: Annie
Top: Singed (me)
Jungle: Rumble (IMLRG)
Marksman: Ezreal
Support: Lulu
vs.
Mid: Zed
Top: Cho'Gath
Jungle: Nunu
Marksman: Miss Fortune
Support: Nautilus
I was bullied by Cho'Gath and whined that I needed ganks, but Nunu counterjungled hard and shut down that possibility. I was sure that I was screwed, then Cho'Gath and Nunu executed this beautifully stupid tower dive on me and gave me a double kill, which gave me the edge I needed to stomp them some more when we met again. Since they couldn't touch me, they proceeded to flawlessly dominate everyone else on my team. No, really, they were behind after failing to kill me in multiple attempts, but somehow, after that, they would instantly blow up anyone else on my team that they met. That led to moments like, "Cho'Gath was 0/2 before I drove him out of lane. I go bot to save it, then go back top to clear the minions, and now he's 10/2? What did you guys do?" I mean, I didn't say that in the chat because I try to be nice, but I sure was thinking it. It seems like we've been here before, but my Singed couldn't become strong enough quickly enough to save my aggressively feeding team. In the end, I went 6/5/13. And I just want to emphasize, since it was so unusual, that the vast majority of my 13 assists were kills that Ezreal sniped last hits on before my poison could finish them off. That sounds petty, but it was done to such an extent that it was surreal. And ordinarily, I'd be fine with the marksman picking up kills anyway, but it was like, nearly all of his kills were ones that I did all the work for and he only showed up to pick off the last hit, which is annoying and not very productive.
Mid: Karthus
Top: Cho'Gath (IMLRG)
Jungle: Trundle
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Sona (me)
vs.
Mid: Swain
Top: Fiora
Jungle: Maokai
Marksman: Ashe
Support: Alistar
I had a bug splat and died because of it early in one of my Ranked games and I think it was this one. But I came back and supported the crap out of Vayne, who was good and didn't really need that much help anyway. So she snowballed and carried the match. We worked well together and practically moved as a unit. I went 1/5/20 and I think I only missed assists on one or two of Vayne's 19 kills. That's the kind of bot lane I can handle.
Mid: Orianna
Top: Cho'Gath (IMLRG)
Jungle: Udyr (me)
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Janna
vs.
Mid: Annie
Top: Jace
Jungle: Master Yi
Marksman: Tristana
Support: Leona
Scott and I did fine. Mid fed, bot fed, and our team was thoroughly trounced. I went 2/2/3, which isn't bad for a game we lost in 21 minutes.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Olaf
Jungle: Volibear
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Tahm Kench (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Lissandra
Top: Vladimir
Jungle: Shaco
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Blitzcrank
I don't know what it is about Lissandra, but it seems like whenever I lane against one, I put up with a little initial bullying, begin outscaling her and win my lane, and then my teammates run in and drop like flies against her. That would have been manageable, since I was Karthus, but our bot lane failed and Shaco snowballed hard. Olaf killed them a lot, but overall, our team was beaten pretty badly. I went 12/5/7. Ugh.
Mid: Zed
Top: Singed
Jungle: Tahm Kench (IMLRG)
Marksman: Kog'Maw (me)
Roaming: Bard
vs.
Mid: Veigar
Top: Shen
Jungle: Lee Sin
Marksman: Varus
Support: Lux
Well, yet again, I got last-picked into taking the marksman role. And then my supposed support bailed on me after feeding our lane opponents a few kills. Varus was out of control, and no one could get to him with Shen and Lee Sin destroying them if they tried to initiate. I did eventually farm into a full build, but by then, they were way, way ahead. They tried to take our nexus and I fought the fed Varus and Lee Sin by myself, killing both but dying to Cinderhulk's burning damage right as I did so. Then Shen showed up and finished the nexus off. I went 9/12/9 and swore off the bot lane for the umpteenth time.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Feed: Heimerdinger
Jungle: Kha'Zix
Bot Feed: Vayne
Support: Braum (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Cassiopeia
Top: Pantheon
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Alistar
Vayne and Heimerdinger decided to feed early and feed often. We didn't stand a chance. I went 2/4/7 because when I play Malzahar, sometimes it's fun to keep almost killing them so that you can stay gold-starved and not actually pick up kills. Yay. At this point, I thought that I'd be demoted, but Ranked matchmaking hadn't finished having its way with me yet.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Cho'Gath (IMLRG)
Jungle: Jax
Marksman: Miss Fortune
Support: Sona
vs.
Mid: Viktor
Top: Lee Sin
Jungle: Tryndamere
Marksman: Sivir
Support: Thresh
Viktor is a pretty easy lane for my Karthus. If he throws his laser at me and misses, he has no damage. If I throw my Lay Waste at him and miss, I've lost virtually nothing. Meanwhile I can farm better and stay at a sufficient distance to avoid most of his damage. As usual, this doesn't stop my idiotic teammates from running up to Viktor and feeding him. To be fair, that's not all that happened. The biggest problem was that once Lee Sin barely scored a kill against Scott, he was able to quickly go in and kill anyone on our team with impunity. Fed Lee Sin is one of the most obnoxious things that League of Legends has to offer. So I went 4/7/5. These negative kill/death ratio Karthus games, formerly so rare, seem to crop up a lot now. But what can I do? My first death was Lee Sin running in through our jungle, tower-diving me at full health, and easily surviving what should have been a suicidal gank.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Pantheon
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Tristana
Support: Morgana (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Veigar
Top: Darius
Jungle: Master Yi
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Lux
Veigar used to be a matchup where I didn't want to pick Karthus. I didn't like the idea of being outscaled, and Veigar is the one mage that can become an even bigger threat than Karthus ever can. But Veigar was nerfed and while he still packs a punch, I value my team-destroying potential as Karthus enough to brave the king of late-game burst damage. His ult might instagib me, but my ult can pick off his team. And things would have been fine. I was farming well and easily dealt with the aggressive Master Yi. Our Pantheon had what amounted to a bye, with Darius feeding and generally having no lane presence (something that shouldn't be difficult for Darius ordinarily, but maybe the player was really bad). We had this. But my teammates had a dream and that dream involved feeding Yi and the enemy bot laners as much as possible. Scott got pretty frustrated with how stupid Tristana was, and there wasn't anything he could do. So, of course, we lost again. I went 7/6/4. That makes six losses in a row. And it also means a demotion to Bronze III. How couldn't it? I've been losing games with a remarkable consistency, so I'm surprised that I wasn't demoted sooner.
Mid: Annie
Top: Shen (IMLRG)
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Kog'Maw (me)
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Cho'Gath
Top: Nasus
Jungle: Diana
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Thresh
Sadly, Scott couldn't deal with Nasus, which became a big problem for us. The bigger problem was that their jungler was making plays and ours wasn't doing much of anything. And even more annoyingly, Blitzcrank fed, raged at me, and stopped supporting me in my lane, leaving me way behind against powerful opponents. They pulled ahead and it could have been completely dominant, but I farmed and got caught up, while Annie racked up some kills to offset our disadvantage. In the end, I suppose that it was reasonably close, and we even came out ahead on total kills, but our team just got outplayed and there was way too much stupidity going on with Xin Zhao and Blitzcrank. I went 9/6/16 despite the oppressive laning phase, but it wasn't enough.
Mid: Vel'Koz
Top: Pantheon
Jungle: Wukong
Marksman: Kog'Maw (me)
Support: Nautilus (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Karma
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Volibear
Marksman: Graves
Support: Leona
I don't remember much about this one. I was sure that I'd sworn off going bot, but I guess I was forced to or something. Looking at the statistics, it seems that they won every lane except top and that their Volibear ran a clinic on our whole team. I went 3/6/4 and of course, we lost. That was four losses in a row.
Mid: Cho'Gath (IMLRG)
Top: Vi
Jungle: Amumu (me)
Assassin Bot Lane: Talon
Support: Malphite
vs.
Mid: Malzahar
Top: Cassiopeia
Jungle/Top: Shaco
Roaming/Jungle/Bot: Katarina
Marksman: Draven
The problem with doing this when I wait too long to blog the results is that I forget a lot of what happened, and I don't recall how this bizarre match got started, although I do remember some events. For whatever reason, both teams had unorthodox position-filling, as can be seen in the roster. Shaco and Katarina both initially went after jungle stuff and attempted to counterjungle me, but I avoided them. Meanwhile, Draven was alone and picked off in the bot lane. I helped Vi early on and both of our side lanes snowballed. Things went pretty crazy after that too, but we started coming out ahead a lot because Talon and Vi were both really fed. Malzahar stomped on us anyway and somehow Draven caught up, but we had enough CC to keep that from causing an upset. I went 4/6/12 and finally broke my losing streak.
Mid: Annie
Top: Singed (me)
Jungle: Rumble (IMLRG)
Marksman: Ezreal
Support: Lulu
vs.
Mid: Zed
Top: Cho'Gath
Jungle: Nunu
Marksman: Miss Fortune
Support: Nautilus
I was bullied by Cho'Gath and whined that I needed ganks, but Nunu counterjungled hard and shut down that possibility. I was sure that I was screwed, then Cho'Gath and Nunu executed this beautifully stupid tower dive on me and gave me a double kill, which gave me the edge I needed to stomp them some more when we met again. Since they couldn't touch me, they proceeded to flawlessly dominate everyone else on my team. No, really, they were behind after failing to kill me in multiple attempts, but somehow, after that, they would instantly blow up anyone else on my team that they met. That led to moments like, "Cho'Gath was 0/2 before I drove him out of lane. I go bot to save it, then go back top to clear the minions, and now he's 10/2? What did you guys do?" I mean, I didn't say that in the chat because I try to be nice, but I sure was thinking it. It seems like we've been here before, but my Singed couldn't become strong enough quickly enough to save my aggressively feeding team. In the end, I went 6/5/13. And I just want to emphasize, since it was so unusual, that the vast majority of my 13 assists were kills that Ezreal sniped last hits on before my poison could finish them off. That sounds petty, but it was done to such an extent that it was surreal. And ordinarily, I'd be fine with the marksman picking up kills anyway, but it was like, nearly all of his kills were ones that I did all the work for and he only showed up to pick off the last hit, which is annoying and not very productive.
Mid: Karthus
Top: Cho'Gath (IMLRG)
Jungle: Trundle
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Sona (me)
vs.
Mid: Swain
Top: Fiora
Jungle: Maokai
Marksman: Ashe
Support: Alistar
I had a bug splat and died because of it early in one of my Ranked games and I think it was this one. But I came back and supported the crap out of Vayne, who was good and didn't really need that much help anyway. So she snowballed and carried the match. We worked well together and practically moved as a unit. I went 1/5/20 and I think I only missed assists on one or two of Vayne's 19 kills. That's the kind of bot lane I can handle.
Mid: Orianna
Top: Cho'Gath (IMLRG)
Jungle: Udyr (me)
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Janna
vs.
Mid: Annie
Top: Jace
Jungle: Master Yi
Marksman: Tristana
Support: Leona
Scott and I did fine. Mid fed, bot fed, and our team was thoroughly trounced. I went 2/2/3, which isn't bad for a game we lost in 21 minutes.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Olaf
Jungle: Volibear
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Tahm Kench (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Lissandra
Top: Vladimir
Jungle: Shaco
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Blitzcrank
I don't know what it is about Lissandra, but it seems like whenever I lane against one, I put up with a little initial bullying, begin outscaling her and win my lane, and then my teammates run in and drop like flies against her. That would have been manageable, since I was Karthus, but our bot lane failed and Shaco snowballed hard. Olaf killed them a lot, but overall, our team was beaten pretty badly. I went 12/5/7. Ugh.
Mid: Zed
Top: Singed
Jungle: Tahm Kench (IMLRG)
Marksman: Kog'Maw (me)
Roaming: Bard
vs.
Mid: Veigar
Top: Shen
Jungle: Lee Sin
Marksman: Varus
Support: Lux
Well, yet again, I got last-picked into taking the marksman role. And then my supposed support bailed on me after feeding our lane opponents a few kills. Varus was out of control, and no one could get to him with Shen and Lee Sin destroying them if they tried to initiate. I did eventually farm into a full build, but by then, they were way, way ahead. They tried to take our nexus and I fought the fed Varus and Lee Sin by myself, killing both but dying to Cinderhulk's burning damage right as I did so. Then Shen showed up and finished the nexus off. I went 9/12/9 and swore off the bot lane for the umpteenth time.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Feed: Heimerdinger
Jungle: Kha'Zix
Bot Feed: Vayne
Support: Braum (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Cassiopeia
Top: Pantheon
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Alistar
Vayne and Heimerdinger decided to feed early and feed often. We didn't stand a chance. I went 2/4/7 because when I play Malzahar, sometimes it's fun to keep almost killing them so that you can stay gold-starved and not actually pick up kills. Yay. At this point, I thought that I'd be demoted, but Ranked matchmaking hadn't finished having its way with me yet.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Cho'Gath (IMLRG)
Jungle: Jax
Marksman: Miss Fortune
Support: Sona
vs.
Mid: Viktor
Top: Lee Sin
Jungle: Tryndamere
Marksman: Sivir
Support: Thresh
Viktor is a pretty easy lane for my Karthus. If he throws his laser at me and misses, he has no damage. If I throw my Lay Waste at him and miss, I've lost virtually nothing. Meanwhile I can farm better and stay at a sufficient distance to avoid most of his damage. As usual, this doesn't stop my idiotic teammates from running up to Viktor and feeding him. To be fair, that's not all that happened. The biggest problem was that once Lee Sin barely scored a kill against Scott, he was able to quickly go in and kill anyone on our team with impunity. Fed Lee Sin is one of the most obnoxious things that League of Legends has to offer. So I went 4/7/5. These negative kill/death ratio Karthus games, formerly so rare, seem to crop up a lot now. But what can I do? My first death was Lee Sin running in through our jungle, tower-diving me at full health, and easily surviving what should have been a suicidal gank.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Pantheon
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Tristana
Support: Morgana (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Veigar
Top: Darius
Jungle: Master Yi
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Lux
Veigar used to be a matchup where I didn't want to pick Karthus. I didn't like the idea of being outscaled, and Veigar is the one mage that can become an even bigger threat than Karthus ever can. But Veigar was nerfed and while he still packs a punch, I value my team-destroying potential as Karthus enough to brave the king of late-game burst damage. His ult might instagib me, but my ult can pick off his team. And things would have been fine. I was farming well and easily dealt with the aggressive Master Yi. Our Pantheon had what amounted to a bye, with Darius feeding and generally having no lane presence (something that shouldn't be difficult for Darius ordinarily, but maybe the player was really bad). We had this. But my teammates had a dream and that dream involved feeding Yi and the enemy bot laners as much as possible. Scott got pretty frustrated with how stupid Tristana was, and there wasn't anything he could do. So, of course, we lost again. I went 7/6/4. That makes six losses in a row. And it also means a demotion to Bronze III. How couldn't it? I've been losing games with a remarkable consistency, so I'm surprised that I wasn't demoted sooner.
Friday, October 2, 2015
Going for the Gold Part XLVIII: Never Go Bot
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: Swain (me)
Top: Irelia
Jungle: Jax
Marksman: Caitlyn (Scott)
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Talon
Top: Nidalee
Jungle: Pantheon
Bot something: Mordekaiser
Support: Lulu
Our bot lane didn't really work out, but we came out ahead elsewhere and I was unstoppable. My initial plan was Swain top, but we decided to switch and it worked out pretty well. I wen 8/0/5.
Mid: Malzahar
Top: Vladimir
Jungle: Warwick
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Tahm Kench (Scott)
vs.
Mid: Lee Sin
Top: Kennen
Jungle: Diana
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Braum
It was back and forth, and this made our Vladimir really upset, because he was absolutely convinced that we had lost and should just surrender, and also that life is meaningless and devoid of hope or something. We won anyway. I went 9/4/7.
Mid: Yasuo
Top: Cho'Gath (Scott)
Jungle: Maokai (me)
Support: Mordekaiser
Other Support: Thresh
vs.
Mid: Fizz
Top: Rammus
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Sivir
Support: Morgana
Another stupid game with the new Mordekaiser crap. Scottt did well, but our bot fed way too hard and Yasuo couldn't accomplish much. We fell too far behind for me to tank much, and lost horribly. I went 3/6/5.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Morgana
Jungle: Cho'Gath (Scott)
Marksman: Tristana
Support: Nautilus
vs.
Mid: Lux
Top: Nasus
Jungle: Shaco
Marksman: Lucian
Support: Gangplank
Another weird one involving people who couldn't cooperate to build a team. And another rare game in which I went negative as Karthus and couldn't even score a single kill. This time it wasn't so much that I missed opportunities as it was that my team collapsed early to Shaco ganks and then I was overwhelmed by multiple fed opponents. I went 0/5/1. The team score was 24-2. This is stupid.
Mid: Fizz
Top: Cho'Gath (Scott)
Jungle: Jax
Marksman: Miss Fortune
Support: Sona (me)
vs.
Mid: Annie
Top: Renekton
Jungle: Vi
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Blitzcrank
Well, this was another brutal, unremarkable loss. I couldn't support the incompetent Miss Fortune. I'm really thinking that having me ever go bot lane in Ranked is a bad sign. Yeah, I've had some bad games in other lanes, but they're not the norm. I went 1/7/4.
Mid: Talon
Top: Swain (me)
Jungle: Elise
Marksman: Sivir
Support: Nautilus (Scott)
vs.
Mid: Blitzcrank
Top: Fiora
Jungle: Volibear
Marksman: Tristana
Support: Lux
Scott managed to get Sivir fed, and I snowballed too. I went 8/2/12 and we dominated.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Cho'Gath (Scott)
Jungle: Master Yi
Marksman: Varus
Support: Zyra
vs.
Mid: Annie
Top: Fiora
Jungle: Olaf
Marksman: Nidalee
Support: Leona
This one was close. The final score was 40-37 with our team slightly ahead on gold, but we lost. Scott and I did well, but our bot lane did poorly. The real problem was Yi: he kept running in and killing someone, then dying. Our team couldn't capitalize on the distraction, so we were left with fed opponents after those exchanges. I went 8/4/3, but it wasn't enough.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Nasus (Scott)
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Nautilus
vs.
Mid: Ahri
Top: Rumble
Jungle: Wukong
Marksman: Ezreal
Support: Leona
Scott carried this one. Not that I did badly. I helped out and went 5/3/7. But Rumble, for whatever reason, fed Scott hard and he dominated the other team. Scott went 13/1/5.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Gnar
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Caitlyn (Scott)
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Ahri
Top: Azir
Jungle: Malphite
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Morgana
Vayne got fed and carried her team. I went 10/3/7, but couldn't stop my teammates from continually feeding Vayne.
Mid: Viktor
Top: Swain
Jungle: Zac
Marksman: Kayle (me)
Support: Braum (Scott)
vs.
Mid: Anivia
Top: Vladimir
Jungle: Yasuo
Marksman: Ashe
Support: Blitzcrank
Again, I should not go bot. It just doesn't work. This time, Zac flew in and fed our lane opponents some kills, then Anivia and Yasuo got fed too. I eventually farmed enough to pick up a few kills, but it was way too late. I went 5/6/5.
Mid: Swain (me)
Top: Irelia
Jungle: Jax
Marksman: Caitlyn (Scott)
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Talon
Top: Nidalee
Jungle: Pantheon
Bot something: Mordekaiser
Support: Lulu
Our bot lane didn't really work out, but we came out ahead elsewhere and I was unstoppable. My initial plan was Swain top, but we decided to switch and it worked out pretty well. I wen 8/0/5.
Mid: Malzahar
Top: Vladimir
Jungle: Warwick
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Tahm Kench (Scott)
vs.
Mid: Lee Sin
Top: Kennen
Jungle: Diana
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Braum
It was back and forth, and this made our Vladimir really upset, because he was absolutely convinced that we had lost and should just surrender, and also that life is meaningless and devoid of hope or something. We won anyway. I went 9/4/7.
Mid: Yasuo
Top: Cho'Gath (Scott)
Jungle: Maokai (me)
Support: Mordekaiser
Other Support: Thresh
vs.
Mid: Fizz
Top: Rammus
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Sivir
Support: Morgana
Another stupid game with the new Mordekaiser crap. Scottt did well, but our bot fed way too hard and Yasuo couldn't accomplish much. We fell too far behind for me to tank much, and lost horribly. I went 3/6/5.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Morgana
Jungle: Cho'Gath (Scott)
Marksman: Tristana
Support: Nautilus
vs.
Mid: Lux
Top: Nasus
Jungle: Shaco
Marksman: Lucian
Support: Gangplank
Another weird one involving people who couldn't cooperate to build a team. And another rare game in which I went negative as Karthus and couldn't even score a single kill. This time it wasn't so much that I missed opportunities as it was that my team collapsed early to Shaco ganks and then I was overwhelmed by multiple fed opponents. I went 0/5/1. The team score was 24-2. This is stupid.
Mid: Fizz
Top: Cho'Gath (Scott)
Jungle: Jax
Marksman: Miss Fortune
Support: Sona (me)
vs.
Mid: Annie
Top: Renekton
Jungle: Vi
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Blitzcrank
Well, this was another brutal, unremarkable loss. I couldn't support the incompetent Miss Fortune. I'm really thinking that having me ever go bot lane in Ranked is a bad sign. Yeah, I've had some bad games in other lanes, but they're not the norm. I went 1/7/4.
Mid: Talon
Top: Swain (me)
Jungle: Elise
Marksman: Sivir
Support: Nautilus (Scott)
vs.
Mid: Blitzcrank
Top: Fiora
Jungle: Volibear
Marksman: Tristana
Support: Lux
Scott managed to get Sivir fed, and I snowballed too. I went 8/2/12 and we dominated.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Cho'Gath (Scott)
Jungle: Master Yi
Marksman: Varus
Support: Zyra
vs.
Mid: Annie
Top: Fiora
Jungle: Olaf
Marksman: Nidalee
Support: Leona
This one was close. The final score was 40-37 with our team slightly ahead on gold, but we lost. Scott and I did well, but our bot lane did poorly. The real problem was Yi: he kept running in and killing someone, then dying. Our team couldn't capitalize on the distraction, so we were left with fed opponents after those exchanges. I went 8/4/3, but it wasn't enough.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Nasus (Scott)
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Nautilus
vs.
Mid: Ahri
Top: Rumble
Jungle: Wukong
Marksman: Ezreal
Support: Leona
Scott carried this one. Not that I did badly. I helped out and went 5/3/7. But Rumble, for whatever reason, fed Scott hard and he dominated the other team. Scott went 13/1/5.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Gnar
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Caitlyn (Scott)
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Ahri
Top: Azir
Jungle: Malphite
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Morgana
Vayne got fed and carried her team. I went 10/3/7, but couldn't stop my teammates from continually feeding Vayne.
Mid: Viktor
Top: Swain
Jungle: Zac
Marksman: Kayle (me)
Support: Braum (Scott)
vs.
Mid: Anivia
Top: Vladimir
Jungle: Yasuo
Marksman: Ashe
Support: Blitzcrank
Again, I should not go bot. It just doesn't work. This time, Zac flew in and fed our lane opponents some kills, then Anivia and Yasuo got fed too. I eventually farmed enough to pick up a few kills, but it was way too late. I went 5/6/5.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Going for the Gold Part XLVII: For the Void!
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: Zed
Top: Vayne
Jungle: Amumu (me)
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Lux
vs.
Mid: Veigar
Top: Garen
Jungle: Malphite
Marksman: Ashe
Support: Leona
I couldn't believe that they picked a third tank after I'd already picked Amumu into a team with two of them. I've noticed that when I don't play farm-focused junglers, it's better to camp a lane than it is to try to help all lanes equally and it's better to help a winning lane snowball than to rescue a faltering lane. I feel a bit like a jerk playing in that way and it's taken me a long time to come to terms with it, but the trends have been pretty obvious. Vayne got first blood on Garen, so I helped her get even further ahead. It was a close match at first, but we kept beating them in fights and they let us (me, specifically) make most of the initiations, which gave Vayne and Zed the freedom to clean up. In the end, I went 8/4/25. Up to 24 LP in Bronze II.
Mid: Viktor
Top: Xin Zhao
Jungle: Udyr (me)
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Leona
vs.
Mid: Azir
Top: Wukong
Jungle: Pantheon
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Nautilus
Xin Zhao whined that Wukong was being aggressive, so I went top and picked up first blood, then farmed some more, occasionally picking up a kill. It would have worked, but the top and bot lanes collapsed too early. While I was picking up a kill bot, top would be dying. I'd go top, get interrupted by Pantheon's counterjungling attempts, kill him, then watch as our bot laners died. Viktor eventually got fed, but it was too little, too late. Vayne and Wukong demolished my teammates, and even though my Udyr is powerful, he's not that powerful. In the end, I went 11/5/8, but we lost and I dropped 13 LP, down to 11. After the match, the enemy Vayne, "2k15MegaPlays" sent me a friend request, and our next match was a duo queue.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Jarvan IV
Jungle: Amumu
Marksman: Vayne (2k15MegaPlays)
Support: Alistar
vs.
Mid: Talon
Top: Wukong
Jungle: Sejuani
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Thresh
I forgot to switch to my Statue of Karthus skin on July 4th! Well, I'll just have to use it in a co-op for first win of the day once that comes up. I'm ashamed, though. Anyway, things were looking grim at first, but we kept farming. Talon had the lead on me in CS and managed to roam a lot to pick up kills, so I was no threat to him early on. I had to play patiently and wait for opportunities. I picked up a couple of kills and started carrying teamfights, which opened things up for Vayne to do the same. In the end, I teleported into the brush near Baron, but the other team had it warded too. They converged on me and I assumed that my allies would do likewise, which they didn't. I was summarily destroyed, and then my allies finally got around to attacking them. Jarvan IV ulted onto the enemy team, which was still near me in my passive form, so he picked up a pentakill and was dumbfounded at how it happened. My teammates took the enemy nexus before the other team respawned. I went 11/4/21. That earned me 21 LP, so now I'm up to 32 LP.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Fiora
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Braum
vs.
Mid: Katarina
Top: Heimerdinger
Jungle: Sion
Marksman: Ashe
Support: Leona
I picked up first blood on an AFK Katarina to start things off, then we invaded the enemy red buff and killed Katarina again. While Udyr and I tried to farm after that, everyone else went very aggressively. In Fiora's case, she came out a bit ahead, but bot lane fed non-stop. The enemy Ashe got so fed so quickly that she gathered her teammates around her as a barrier, went mid, and took my turret about ten minutes in. With the laning phase prematurely ended, I tried to defend against sieges. Of course, Karthus takes too long to get going and Ashe was way, way too fed. We couldn't even hold out for thirty minutes. It was brutal. I went 2/1/6 and lost 13 LP. Down to 19 LP in Bronze II. This was the kind of match that kept me in Bronze in previous seasons. It's really annoying. Braum whined about Fiora flaming bot lane, and while I'm not in favor of flaming, at some point it is outweighed by egregious feeding.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Cho'Gath (IMLRG)
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Kalista
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Orianna
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Jarvan IV
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Lux
Coming back a month later, and with some recent non-Ranked Malzahar practice under my belt, I took him mid. Orianna was no problem, and I won my lane, but I got blown up in teamfights and lost my lead. Scott continued to become more fed, though, and my CS was so high that I was able to put out a lot of damage despite a dearth of kills. Udyr got fed as well, followed by Kalista. Mostly assists for this one, but it got the job done. In the end, I went 4/5/12. This win propelled Scott into Bronze I.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Cho'Gath
Jungle: Sejuani
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Nautilus (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Fizz
Top: Shen
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Tahm Kench
This is why you ban Shen. Anyway, this match was disappointing. I won my lane decisively, drawing focus from the enemy jungler, killing my lane opponent multiple times, farming up, and pushing through the turret. I became strong enough to carry a reasonable game, but my team fed too aggressively. Fizz, despite losing lane and dying whenever I ran into him, easily wiped out my teammates repeatedly. Scott helped me maintain my lead by protecting me after it became clear that our Jinx would only continue to force-feed the other team, but 2 vs. 5 wasn't working out for us. Sejuani sometimes managed to make it 3 vs. 5, but Jinx and Cho were just fodder here. In the end, I went 10/5/10 and was still killing my initial lane opponent, who went 12/11/9. Yikes.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Gnar
Jungle: Nunu
Marksman: Lucian
Support: Braum (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Lux
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Fizz
Lux put out a lot of early damage and kept me in check at first, but I was surviving and becoming stronger. Scott reported that bot was going well, so I wasn't too worried. Top faltered early, though. I started to pull ahead of Lux, and soon after, she ragequit, presumably because of some argument with her teammates. We won the 5 vs. 4, with Lux even showing up in the post-game chat to make some cryptic remarks. Reported, obviously. I went 5/2/5 this time. I'd do better with Karthus, but my Malzahar has some advantages and I'm having a lot of fun with him.
Mid: Azir
Top: Swain (me)
Jungle: Nautilus
Marksman: Graves
Support: Braum (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Xerath
Top: Gangplank
Jungle: Diana
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Blitzcrank
I didn't do as well as I should have early on against the new Gangplank, which did set me back initially, but lesson learned on that one. I didn't stand a chance anyway, because the enemy Diana was ganking everywhere and wrecking our team. Scott thought that Diana was camping bot because she kept killing him, but really, she was everywhere, making sure all of her lanes won. With such a dominant jungler causing our lanes so much trouble, Nautilus had a few options. Behind Door #1, there's attempting counterganks, as Nautilus has excellent crowd control. Behind Door #2, there's camping a lane to negate much of Diana's influence and ensure that we have an advantage somewhere on the map. Behind Door #3, there's smacking wolves with an anchor while your team rages at you. Guess which option our Nautilus chose! So yeah, I went 8/8/10, but Gangplank, Vayne, and Diana all became fed. We lost.
Mid: Ahri
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Kayle (me)
Support: Braum (IMLRG)
vs.
Zed: Mid
Tryndamere: Top
Sejuani: Jungle
Vayne: Marksman
Thresh: Support
I forget who cracked first with this one, but we had some lag that disrupted us early on (for my first death, I completely disappeared from my own screen for a few seconds with no apparent cause, and other moments of big visual hiccups followed. We were still fine, but our teammates fed and blamed me because I picked Kayle. Ahri fed Zed like crazy and Xin Zhao was unhelpful, but somehow it was all my fault in their minds. I think that I accounted for myself, but that our team was outplayed. Part of that was Zed being fed so much so quickly, part of it was that the enemy Thresh was quite good, and part of it was just that our team couldn't seem to agree on anything. I got no respect from anyone besides Scott, but I did get my build going and could have done my job under less extreme circumstances. I went 6/3/4.
Mid: Lux
Top: Singed (me)
Jungle: Poppy
Marksman: Kalista
Support: Thresh (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Zed
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Annie
This one was stupid. I held top in a stalemate while the rest of the game snowballed out of control faster than I could believe. Poor Scott went 1/14/9, which he didn't deserve, but Udyr and Caitlyn were picking him off whenever he tried to help anyone. I went 2/1/3, trying to make my Singed happen but unable to deal with that much firepower showing up that soon in the game.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Xin Zhao
Jungle: Jax
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Shen (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Xerath
Top: Darius
Jungle: Rengar
Marksman: Draven
Support: Soraka
This one got botched from the start because Jax decided that he had to jungle even though we already had a jungler and needed a support. So Scott switched to support and Xin Zhao switched to top. I performed poorly at first and even gave up a kill to Xerath's ult out of sheer clumsiness, but I corrected for my mistakes and went on to dominate. My teammates, particularly in the bot lane, also did well. With how much we killed them, I was surprised that they held out for as long as they did. I went 15/5/13.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Cho'Gath (IMLRG)
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Corki
Support: Braum
vs.
Mid: Yasuo
Top: Pantheon
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Tristana
Support: Mordekaiser
Just hold your lane and wait for opportunities. That's pretty much how I do it, and sometimes it works out even when things initially go badly. Scott and I both had problems early on with our lane opponents and the enemy jungler, but we were able to hold our own anyway. Corki and Udyr both snowballed, then we were there to help them in skirmishes. It's not that we got carried here, but we had slow starts and weren't the stars of this show, for sure. I went 5/4/6, which isn't great, but it's fine. And hey, a win is a win.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Darius
Jungle: Lee Sin
Marksman: Tristana
Support: Nautilus (Braum)
vs.
Mid: Orianna
Top: Vladimir
Jungle: Shen
Marksman: Kalista
Support: Alistar
This one went really badly. I do still think that Orianna is an easy lane for Malzahar, but the problem here was that my lane opponent was smart enough to keep me in check for long enough that she could capitalize on other opportunities, which worked out in a seemingly miraculous fashion. My teammates couldn't wait to feed Orianna, even though most of her attention was devoted to keeping me occupied. But she wasn't the real problem anyway. I went 5/5/7, and every death I had, and actually every fight I was in that we lost, was caused by Shen. He didn't pick up many kills for himself, but he force-fed his team and was generally unstoppable. He's one of my default bans for a reason.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Talon
Jungle: Nunu
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Leona (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Annie
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Trundle
Support: Thresh
Surprise Double Support Thing: Mordekaiser
Annie isn't even good against Malzahar and the enemy bot lane was bad, but we managed to lose this one anyway. Annoyingly, Talon managed to snag most of the kills in every fight, but then he'd keep going and die, so he was feeding just as much as he was killing and then some. I just couldn't cope, and went 4/7/6. This one was really stupid.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Shen (IMLRG)
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Annie
vs.
Mid: Yasuo
Top: Lulu
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Graves
Support: Nautilus
The mother of all bad games. Fortunately, this one was so bad that it was surreal, so I couldn't even be despondent about things. Everything went wrong, at every turn. I almost never go negative as Karthus, and when it happens, I'm sure that I remark on it here. Well, this time I went 0/6/2. It was actually kind of fascinating how nothing could go right, and I even managed to test my abilities in what I'd normally think of as unrealistically adverse circumstances.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Irelia
Jungle: Sejuani
Marksman: Ezreal
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Ahri
Top: Darius
Jungle: Hecarim
Marksman: Ashe
Support: Bard
Back to reality, I made Ahri my bitch, as I'm wont to do. The other lanes struggled more, but with Scott's babysitting, Ezreal eventually got fed, which led to a decisive win. I went 10/5/20 this time.
Mid: Zed
Top: Vayne
Jungle: Amumu (me)
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Lux
vs.
Mid: Veigar
Top: Garen
Jungle: Malphite
Marksman: Ashe
Support: Leona
I couldn't believe that they picked a third tank after I'd already picked Amumu into a team with two of them. I've noticed that when I don't play farm-focused junglers, it's better to camp a lane than it is to try to help all lanes equally and it's better to help a winning lane snowball than to rescue a faltering lane. I feel a bit like a jerk playing in that way and it's taken me a long time to come to terms with it, but the trends have been pretty obvious. Vayne got first blood on Garen, so I helped her get even further ahead. It was a close match at first, but we kept beating them in fights and they let us (me, specifically) make most of the initiations, which gave Vayne and Zed the freedom to clean up. In the end, I went 8/4/25. Up to 24 LP in Bronze II.
Mid: Viktor
Top: Xin Zhao
Jungle: Udyr (me)
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Leona
vs.
Mid: Azir
Top: Wukong
Jungle: Pantheon
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Nautilus
Xin Zhao whined that Wukong was being aggressive, so I went top and picked up first blood, then farmed some more, occasionally picking up a kill. It would have worked, but the top and bot lanes collapsed too early. While I was picking up a kill bot, top would be dying. I'd go top, get interrupted by Pantheon's counterjungling attempts, kill him, then watch as our bot laners died. Viktor eventually got fed, but it was too little, too late. Vayne and Wukong demolished my teammates, and even though my Udyr is powerful, he's not that powerful. In the end, I went 11/5/8, but we lost and I dropped 13 LP, down to 11. After the match, the enemy Vayne, "2k15MegaPlays" sent me a friend request, and our next match was a duo queue.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Jarvan IV
Jungle: Amumu
Marksman: Vayne (2k15MegaPlays)
Support: Alistar
vs.
Mid: Talon
Top: Wukong
Jungle: Sejuani
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Thresh
I forgot to switch to my Statue of Karthus skin on July 4th! Well, I'll just have to use it in a co-op for first win of the day once that comes up. I'm ashamed, though. Anyway, things were looking grim at first, but we kept farming. Talon had the lead on me in CS and managed to roam a lot to pick up kills, so I was no threat to him early on. I had to play patiently and wait for opportunities. I picked up a couple of kills and started carrying teamfights, which opened things up for Vayne to do the same. In the end, I teleported into the brush near Baron, but the other team had it warded too. They converged on me and I assumed that my allies would do likewise, which they didn't. I was summarily destroyed, and then my allies finally got around to attacking them. Jarvan IV ulted onto the enemy team, which was still near me in my passive form, so he picked up a pentakill and was dumbfounded at how it happened. My teammates took the enemy nexus before the other team respawned. I went 11/4/21. That earned me 21 LP, so now I'm up to 32 LP.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Fiora
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Braum
vs.
Mid: Katarina
Top: Heimerdinger
Jungle: Sion
Marksman: Ashe
Support: Leona
I picked up first blood on an AFK Katarina to start things off, then we invaded the enemy red buff and killed Katarina again. While Udyr and I tried to farm after that, everyone else went very aggressively. In Fiora's case, she came out a bit ahead, but bot lane fed non-stop. The enemy Ashe got so fed so quickly that she gathered her teammates around her as a barrier, went mid, and took my turret about ten minutes in. With the laning phase prematurely ended, I tried to defend against sieges. Of course, Karthus takes too long to get going and Ashe was way, way too fed. We couldn't even hold out for thirty minutes. It was brutal. I went 2/1/6 and lost 13 LP. Down to 19 LP in Bronze II. This was the kind of match that kept me in Bronze in previous seasons. It's really annoying. Braum whined about Fiora flaming bot lane, and while I'm not in favor of flaming, at some point it is outweighed by egregious feeding.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Cho'Gath (IMLRG)
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Kalista
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Orianna
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Jarvan IV
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Lux
Coming back a month later, and with some recent non-Ranked Malzahar practice under my belt, I took him mid. Orianna was no problem, and I won my lane, but I got blown up in teamfights and lost my lead. Scott continued to become more fed, though, and my CS was so high that I was able to put out a lot of damage despite a dearth of kills. Udyr got fed as well, followed by Kalista. Mostly assists for this one, but it got the job done. In the end, I went 4/5/12. This win propelled Scott into Bronze I.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Cho'Gath
Jungle: Sejuani
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Nautilus (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Fizz
Top: Shen
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Tahm Kench
This is why you ban Shen. Anyway, this match was disappointing. I won my lane decisively, drawing focus from the enemy jungler, killing my lane opponent multiple times, farming up, and pushing through the turret. I became strong enough to carry a reasonable game, but my team fed too aggressively. Fizz, despite losing lane and dying whenever I ran into him, easily wiped out my teammates repeatedly. Scott helped me maintain my lead by protecting me after it became clear that our Jinx would only continue to force-feed the other team, but 2 vs. 5 wasn't working out for us. Sejuani sometimes managed to make it 3 vs. 5, but Jinx and Cho were just fodder here. In the end, I went 10/5/10 and was still killing my initial lane opponent, who went 12/11/9. Yikes.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Gnar
Jungle: Nunu
Marksman: Lucian
Support: Braum (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Lux
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Fizz
Lux put out a lot of early damage and kept me in check at first, but I was surviving and becoming stronger. Scott reported that bot was going well, so I wasn't too worried. Top faltered early, though. I started to pull ahead of Lux, and soon after, she ragequit, presumably because of some argument with her teammates. We won the 5 vs. 4, with Lux even showing up in the post-game chat to make some cryptic remarks. Reported, obviously. I went 5/2/5 this time. I'd do better with Karthus, but my Malzahar has some advantages and I'm having a lot of fun with him.
Mid: Azir
Top: Swain (me)
Jungle: Nautilus
Marksman: Graves
Support: Braum (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Xerath
Top: Gangplank
Jungle: Diana
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Blitzcrank
I didn't do as well as I should have early on against the new Gangplank, which did set me back initially, but lesson learned on that one. I didn't stand a chance anyway, because the enemy Diana was ganking everywhere and wrecking our team. Scott thought that Diana was camping bot because she kept killing him, but really, she was everywhere, making sure all of her lanes won. With such a dominant jungler causing our lanes so much trouble, Nautilus had a few options. Behind Door #1, there's attempting counterganks, as Nautilus has excellent crowd control. Behind Door #2, there's camping a lane to negate much of Diana's influence and ensure that we have an advantage somewhere on the map. Behind Door #3, there's smacking wolves with an anchor while your team rages at you. Guess which option our Nautilus chose! So yeah, I went 8/8/10, but Gangplank, Vayne, and Diana all became fed. We lost.
Mid: Ahri
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Kayle (me)
Support: Braum (IMLRG)
vs.
Zed: Mid
Tryndamere: Top
Sejuani: Jungle
Vayne: Marksman
Thresh: Support
I forget who cracked first with this one, but we had some lag that disrupted us early on (for my first death, I completely disappeared from my own screen for a few seconds with no apparent cause, and other moments of big visual hiccups followed. We were still fine, but our teammates fed and blamed me because I picked Kayle. Ahri fed Zed like crazy and Xin Zhao was unhelpful, but somehow it was all my fault in their minds. I think that I accounted for myself, but that our team was outplayed. Part of that was Zed being fed so much so quickly, part of it was that the enemy Thresh was quite good, and part of it was just that our team couldn't seem to agree on anything. I got no respect from anyone besides Scott, but I did get my build going and could have done my job under less extreme circumstances. I went 6/3/4.
Mid: Lux
Top: Singed (me)
Jungle: Poppy
Marksman: Kalista
Support: Thresh (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Zed
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Annie
This one was stupid. I held top in a stalemate while the rest of the game snowballed out of control faster than I could believe. Poor Scott went 1/14/9, which he didn't deserve, but Udyr and Caitlyn were picking him off whenever he tried to help anyone. I went 2/1/3, trying to make my Singed happen but unable to deal with that much firepower showing up that soon in the game.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Xin Zhao
Jungle: Jax
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Shen (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Xerath
Top: Darius
Jungle: Rengar
Marksman: Draven
Support: Soraka
This one got botched from the start because Jax decided that he had to jungle even though we already had a jungler and needed a support. So Scott switched to support and Xin Zhao switched to top. I performed poorly at first and even gave up a kill to Xerath's ult out of sheer clumsiness, but I corrected for my mistakes and went on to dominate. My teammates, particularly in the bot lane, also did well. With how much we killed them, I was surprised that they held out for as long as they did. I went 15/5/13.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Cho'Gath (IMLRG)
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Corki
Support: Braum
vs.
Mid: Yasuo
Top: Pantheon
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Tristana
Support: Mordekaiser
Just hold your lane and wait for opportunities. That's pretty much how I do it, and sometimes it works out even when things initially go badly. Scott and I both had problems early on with our lane opponents and the enemy jungler, but we were able to hold our own anyway. Corki and Udyr both snowballed, then we were there to help them in skirmishes. It's not that we got carried here, but we had slow starts and weren't the stars of this show, for sure. I went 5/4/6, which isn't great, but it's fine. And hey, a win is a win.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Darius
Jungle: Lee Sin
Marksman: Tristana
Support: Nautilus (Braum)
vs.
Mid: Orianna
Top: Vladimir
Jungle: Shen
Marksman: Kalista
Support: Alistar
This one went really badly. I do still think that Orianna is an easy lane for Malzahar, but the problem here was that my lane opponent was smart enough to keep me in check for long enough that she could capitalize on other opportunities, which worked out in a seemingly miraculous fashion. My teammates couldn't wait to feed Orianna, even though most of her attention was devoted to keeping me occupied. But she wasn't the real problem anyway. I went 5/5/7, and every death I had, and actually every fight I was in that we lost, was caused by Shen. He didn't pick up many kills for himself, but he force-fed his team and was generally unstoppable. He's one of my default bans for a reason.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Talon
Jungle: Nunu
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Leona (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Annie
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Trundle
Support: Thresh
Surprise Double Support Thing: Mordekaiser
Annie isn't even good against Malzahar and the enemy bot lane was bad, but we managed to lose this one anyway. Annoyingly, Talon managed to snag most of the kills in every fight, but then he'd keep going and die, so he was feeding just as much as he was killing and then some. I just couldn't cope, and went 4/7/6. This one was really stupid.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Shen (IMLRG)
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Annie
vs.
Mid: Yasuo
Top: Lulu
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Graves
Support: Nautilus
The mother of all bad games. Fortunately, this one was so bad that it was surreal, so I couldn't even be despondent about things. Everything went wrong, at every turn. I almost never go negative as Karthus, and when it happens, I'm sure that I remark on it here. Well, this time I went 0/6/2. It was actually kind of fascinating how nothing could go right, and I even managed to test my abilities in what I'd normally think of as unrealistically adverse circumstances.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Irelia
Jungle: Sejuani
Marksman: Ezreal
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Ahri
Top: Darius
Jungle: Hecarim
Marksman: Ashe
Support: Bard
Back to reality, I made Ahri my bitch, as I'm wont to do. The other lanes struggled more, but with Scott's babysitting, Ezreal eventually got fed, which led to a decisive win. I went 10/5/20 this time.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Going for the Gold Part XLVI: Right Back Where We Started From Redux
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: Kassadin
Top: Nasus
Jungle: Shaco
Marksman: Kayle (me)
Support: Morgana
vs.
Mid: Heimerdinger
Top: Dr. Mundo
Jungle: Fizz
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Teemo
Taking Kayle and Morgana against Vayne and Teemo should have been an easy, dominant lane for us, but my support was incompetent, so I was killed and massively outfarmed. I persevered and still held my own, but our Kassadin was the only other player to play well. Nasus was one of those stupid players who thinks that farming Siphoning Strike somehow cancels out a total lack of accomplishment and Shaco was even worse. In the end, I went 5/4/6. Now I'm down to 32 LP.
Mid: Malzahar
Top: Lee Sin
Jungle: Vi
Marksman: Ezreal
Support: Alistar (me)
vs.
Mid: Zed
Top: Jax
Jungle: Kayle
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Nocturne
Moo. 1/0/11. You can't milk those.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Trundle
Marksman: Lucian
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Syndra
Top: Tryndamere
Jungle: Jax
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Annie
I was taken aback at the other team's amount of potential late-game damage. As Karthus, I can outscale a lot, but the champion has his limits. And Syndra is a very scary lane opponent. I've found that against some really dangerous lane opponents, I'm better off giving up some CS in order to ensure that I stay healthy, which provides partial protection from being bursted to death. To that end, I gave Trundle hard leashes on his first two camps before entering my own lane. Syndra had the early advantage and outfarmed me, but Trundle came in for an early gank. She dodged my wall and flashed over Trundle's pillar to escape the first attempt, but was caught on the second try. From there, I picked up kills with my ult, while Syndra had to roam to get her own kills. Lucian and Trundle both got fed, which gave us a decisive advantage. We took Baron and pushed for the win at less than 30 minutes in. My final score was 7/1/9. I even outfarmed Syndra eventually (and everyone else). That win takes me up 22 LP, to 77.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Irelia
Jungle: Diana
Marksman: Lucian
Support: Bard
vs.
Mid: Lux
Top: Garen
Jungle: Jax
Marksman: Varus
Support: Leona
Initially, I was worried that they'd outtank us. Garen and Leona did prove to be very annoying. But then I stopped picking up kills after the laning phase, while their whole team would jump on me and kill me at every opportunity. I pride myself on not having "get carried" games in Ranked. This one was starting to look close. I was scoring assists, most of which were kills I was about to get only to see the last hit taken by an ally. And that was slowing me down. I kept farming, kept looking for opportunities, and eventually—I kept dying and only obtained a couple more kills out of it. Assists kept me in this one, and I was a support, despite my attempts to prove otherwise. In the end, I went 7/9/18. But whatever: I just qualified for a series!
Mid: Fizz
Top: Cho'Gath (IMLRG)
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Ashe
Support: Sona (me)
vs.
Mid: Yasuo
Top: Rumble
Jungle: Jarvan IV
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Leona
I'm so good at Sona! I got fed and went 7/2/11. But my team got destroyed and we lost badly.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Nasus (IMLRG)
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Lucian
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Fizz
Top: Riven
Jungle: Jax
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Alistar
I suggested Nasus as a counter to Jax top, and Scott went for it. Then they picked Riven and Jax turned out to be the jungler, but it didn't matter because Scott won lane and dominated the game. I bullied Fizz, but got ganked repeatedly by three or more opponents. In the end, I only went 3/5/3, but held my outer turret through to the end while pushing the crap out of lanes. Not my best game, but I accounted for myself.
Mid: Anivia (me)
Top: Lulu
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Karma (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Zyra
Top: Yorick
Jungle: Shyvana
Marksman: Corki
Support: Blitzcrank
Well, I shouldn't have tried Anivia here, but ultimately it didn't matter. My teammates fed hard from the beginning, especially Vayne. Our Vayne was one of the worst feeders I've encountered. So I went 2/4/4 and lost my series.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Shen (IMLRG)
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Graves
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Zed
Top: Garen
Jungle: Vi
Marksman: Corki
Support: Sona
Due to a requeue, the other team knew I was going for Karthus and banned him. So I took Malzahar instead and made Zed my bitch. In the end, I went 8/5/11. I think I died too much, but a lot of it might have been prevented if my allies had played differently, so maybe it was a stylistic issue. Whatever. We won and now I'm up for another promo series
Mid: Brand
Top: Jax
Jungle: Udyr (me)
Marksman: Varus
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Kassadin
Top: Nasus
Jungle: Volibear
Marksman: Lucian
Support: Leona
All three lanes won and the enemy jungler did poorly, so I spent most of the time farming. The other team did have some strengths and could have tried to mount a comeback, but they surrendered early, giving me a free win. I went 1/1/3. Not the kind of match that gets players into this game, but I'll take any Ranked win I can get, especially in a promo series.
Mid: Diana
Top: Singed (me)
Jungle: Hecarim
Marksman: Sivir
Support: Malphite
vs.
Mid: Lux
Top: Cho'Gath
Jungle: Rengar
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Anivia
I picked Singed into Cho'Gath because even though Singed has a terrible early game and Cho'Gath has an excellent one, most people can't take my turret early on, and then I become strong enough to hold the lane, farm, and become a fast, tanky problem for the other team. Not this game, though. This time, my teammates fed from the start. I don't want to throw blame on other people, and I did only go 1/7/7 in the end, but I think I actually played well. I was 0/0/0 for a long time, then Cho'Gath got help from other lanes while I got Hecarim showing up and instantly diving him and feeding him a kill. If I'd had a team to dish out damage for me when I engaged, we'd have been fine. But for whatever reason, my teammates never came through.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: LeBlanc
Jungle: Olaf
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Sion
vs.
Mid: Annie
Top: Irelia
Jungle: Shaco
Marksman: Lucian
Support: Leona
Initially, our team fell behind as Shaco pulled off some early ganks. But LeBlanc and I both trounced our lane opponents and snowballed. LeBlanc was a rude and toxic player and not particularly cooperative, but Irelia fed her early and she was able to take advantage of that, so whatever. The other three players on our team were behind for most of the game, but they did well enough for me and LeBlanc to carry. The enemy team resisted our attempts to break into their base, so we took Baron and got our Dragon buff to five stacks, then walked into their base and won. I went 16/1/12. And that completes my series! It also brings me back to a neutral win/loss ratio. But most importantly, I'm finally back to Bronze II. Let my rise out of it be as swift as ever and more permanent than in years past.
Mid: Kassadin
Top: Nasus
Jungle: Shaco
Marksman: Kayle (me)
Support: Morgana
vs.
Mid: Heimerdinger
Top: Dr. Mundo
Jungle: Fizz
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Teemo
Taking Kayle and Morgana against Vayne and Teemo should have been an easy, dominant lane for us, but my support was incompetent, so I was killed and massively outfarmed. I persevered and still held my own, but our Kassadin was the only other player to play well. Nasus was one of those stupid players who thinks that farming Siphoning Strike somehow cancels out a total lack of accomplishment and Shaco was even worse. In the end, I went 5/4/6. Now I'm down to 32 LP.
Mid: Malzahar
Top: Lee Sin
Jungle: Vi
Marksman: Ezreal
Support: Alistar (me)
vs.
Mid: Zed
Top: Jax
Jungle: Kayle
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Nocturne
Moo. 1/0/11. You can't milk those.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: Teemo
Jungle: Trundle
Marksman: Lucian
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Syndra
Top: Tryndamere
Jungle: Jax
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Annie
I was taken aback at the other team's amount of potential late-game damage. As Karthus, I can outscale a lot, but the champion has his limits. And Syndra is a very scary lane opponent. I've found that against some really dangerous lane opponents, I'm better off giving up some CS in order to ensure that I stay healthy, which provides partial protection from being bursted to death. To that end, I gave Trundle hard leashes on his first two camps before entering my own lane. Syndra had the early advantage and outfarmed me, but Trundle came in for an early gank. She dodged my wall and flashed over Trundle's pillar to escape the first attempt, but was caught on the second try. From there, I picked up kills with my ult, while Syndra had to roam to get her own kills. Lucian and Trundle both got fed, which gave us a decisive advantage. We took Baron and pushed for the win at less than 30 minutes in. My final score was 7/1/9. I even outfarmed Syndra eventually (and everyone else). That win takes me up 22 LP, to 77.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Irelia
Jungle: Diana
Marksman: Lucian
Support: Bard
vs.
Mid: Lux
Top: Garen
Jungle: Jax
Marksman: Varus
Support: Leona
Initially, I was worried that they'd outtank us. Garen and Leona did prove to be very annoying. But then I stopped picking up kills after the laning phase, while their whole team would jump on me and kill me at every opportunity. I pride myself on not having "get carried" games in Ranked. This one was starting to look close. I was scoring assists, most of which were kills I was about to get only to see the last hit taken by an ally. And that was slowing me down. I kept farming, kept looking for opportunities, and eventually—I kept dying and only obtained a couple more kills out of it. Assists kept me in this one, and I was a support, despite my attempts to prove otherwise. In the end, I went 7/9/18. But whatever: I just qualified for a series!
Mid: Fizz
Top: Cho'Gath (IMLRG)
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Ashe
Support: Sona (me)
vs.
Mid: Yasuo
Top: Rumble
Jungle: Jarvan IV
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Leona
I'm so good at Sona! I got fed and went 7/2/11. But my team got destroyed and we lost badly.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Nasus (IMLRG)
Jungle: Xin Zhao
Marksman: Lucian
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Fizz
Top: Riven
Jungle: Jax
Marksman: Caitlyn
Support: Alistar
I suggested Nasus as a counter to Jax top, and Scott went for it. Then they picked Riven and Jax turned out to be the jungler, but it didn't matter because Scott won lane and dominated the game. I bullied Fizz, but got ganked repeatedly by three or more opponents. In the end, I only went 3/5/3, but held my outer turret through to the end while pushing the crap out of lanes. Not my best game, but I accounted for myself.
Mid: Anivia (me)
Top: Lulu
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Vayne
Support: Karma (IMLRG)
vs.
Mid: Zyra
Top: Yorick
Jungle: Shyvana
Marksman: Corki
Support: Blitzcrank
Well, I shouldn't have tried Anivia here, but ultimately it didn't matter. My teammates fed hard from the beginning, especially Vayne. Our Vayne was one of the worst feeders I've encountered. So I went 2/4/4 and lost my series.
Mid: Malzahar (me)
Top: Shen (IMLRG)
Jungle: Udyr
Marksman: Graves
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Zed
Top: Garen
Jungle: Vi
Marksman: Corki
Support: Sona
Due to a requeue, the other team knew I was going for Karthus and banned him. So I took Malzahar instead and made Zed my bitch. In the end, I went 8/5/11. I think I died too much, but a lot of it might have been prevented if my allies had played differently, so maybe it was a stylistic issue. Whatever. We won and now I'm up for another promo series
Mid: Brand
Top: Jax
Jungle: Udyr (me)
Marksman: Varus
Support: Blitzcrank
vs.
Mid: Kassadin
Top: Nasus
Jungle: Volibear
Marksman: Lucian
Support: Leona
All three lanes won and the enemy jungler did poorly, so I spent most of the time farming. The other team did have some strengths and could have tried to mount a comeback, but they surrendered early, giving me a free win. I went 1/1/3. Not the kind of match that gets players into this game, but I'll take any Ranked win I can get, especially in a promo series.
Mid: Diana
Top: Singed (me)
Jungle: Hecarim
Marksman: Sivir
Support: Malphite
vs.
Mid: Lux
Top: Cho'Gath
Jungle: Rengar
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Anivia
I picked Singed into Cho'Gath because even though Singed has a terrible early game and Cho'Gath has an excellent one, most people can't take my turret early on, and then I become strong enough to hold the lane, farm, and become a fast, tanky problem for the other team. Not this game, though. This time, my teammates fed from the start. I don't want to throw blame on other people, and I did only go 1/7/7 in the end, but I think I actually played well. I was 0/0/0 for a long time, then Cho'Gath got help from other lanes while I got Hecarim showing up and instantly diving him and feeding him a kill. If I'd had a team to dish out damage for me when I engaged, we'd have been fine. But for whatever reason, my teammates never came through.
Mid: Karthus (me)
Top: LeBlanc
Jungle: Olaf
Marksman: Jinx
Support: Sion
vs.
Mid: Annie
Top: Irelia
Jungle: Shaco
Marksman: Lucian
Support: Leona
Initially, our team fell behind as Shaco pulled off some early ganks. But LeBlanc and I both trounced our lane opponents and snowballed. LeBlanc was a rude and toxic player and not particularly cooperative, but Irelia fed her early and she was able to take advantage of that, so whatever. The other three players on our team were behind for most of the game, but they did well enough for me and LeBlanc to carry. The enemy team resisted our attempts to break into their base, so we took Baron and got our Dragon buff to five stacks, then walked into their base and won. I went 16/1/12. And that completes my series! It also brings me back to a neutral win/loss ratio. But most importantly, I'm finally back to Bronze II. Let my rise out of it be as swift as ever and more permanent than in years past.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Going for the Gold Part XLV: Safer Now
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.
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.
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